A small boat descended steadily onto the wide platform before the Mission Hall.

  Zhao Ping stepped off first, then flicked his wrist the boat instantly shrank into a palm-sized soul banner, which he carefully tucked into his robe.

  Both he and Liu Ba stood there as exposed soul forms, yet neither felt the slightest discomfort.

  Only after a moment did Liu Ba realize why. The Mission Hall was located deep underground, where Yin energy was thick and heavy. With no sunlight or yang winds to erode them, soul bodies could exist here without pain or disintegration.

  Zhao Ping led him inside. The interior was much the same as before: a vast, open hall with wooden plaques densely hung across every wall. Each plaque was inscribed in cinnabar with the name and description of a mission, waiting for disciples of the sect to claim them.

  This time, though, Liu Ba didn’t have to worry about the misleading, low-reward traps set for newcomers Zhao Ping was here to guide him.

  Zhao Ping first brought him to the section reserved for missions issued by other mountain sects. He pointed at a few plaques and explained:

  “See these? They’re posted by other sects, but disciples of Luoshan City can take them as well. For example, this one—issued by the Xuan Sect—requires capturing a male cultivator in mid-stage Qi Refinement with pure yang energy. The reward is three Three Talents Coins. Generous, but dangerous.”

  He gestured to another. “This one’s from Blood Banquet Valley deliver the flesh of one hundred second-tier or higher demonic beasts. The pay’s good, but again—not easy.”

  “These missions might look lucrative,” Zhao Ping cautioned, “but they’re far from simple. Each one carries deadly risks that the description never tells you. Study them carefully, and take only what you’re truly capable of handling.”

  Liu Ba nodded, quietly memorizing the details.

  Next, Zhao Ping guided him toward the section for Luoshan City’s own missions.

  After scanning through the rows of plaques, Zhao Ping sighed helplessly. “Ah, the easier ones have already been taken.”

  He turned to Liu Ba and continued, “The simpler missions are always the hardest to get. They disappear the moment they appear. If you’re confident in your strength, ignore these. But if not, visit the Mission Hall often. When a simple task pops up, take it right away.”

  “I won’t list them for you you’ll know immediately when you see one how easy it is.”

  “Now,” Zhao Ping said, pointing to another section, “these are special missions. Like the one I completed this month—if a cultivator happens to enter Luoshan City by chance, you can introduce the city to him and invite him to join. If he accepts, that counts as completing a sect mission.”

  He chuckled softly. “It sounds easy, but it only works by chance. Hardly any outsiders ever make it into Luoshan City. And when they do, most are already being watched by several others in secret. Honestly, if you hadn’t approached me that day, I probably wouldn’t have had the chance to complete mine.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Liu Ba felt a chill creep down his spine.

  Only now did he realize that from the very moment he had entered Luoshan City, countless unseen eyes had been fixed on him.

  Perhaps his cultivation had been too low back then for him to notice.

  Still, Zhao Ping’s words gave him an idea.

  He might think this task was rare and coincidental but to Liu Ba, it wasn’t.

  After all, he could simply send in a new clone to “enter” Luoshan City, then have another version of himself extend the invitation.

  If he ever failed to complete a monthly mission, he could just do that and easily fulfill the requirement.

  Unaware of these thoughts, Zhao Ping continued, “There are also missions that seem easy but require high cultivation. For example, hunting ghost kings or ghost generals you’ll need at least a Golden Core stage for those. You’re not ready for that yet, so best stay away.”

  “The rest are more tedious, long-term missions.” He pointed to the farthest corner of the hall. “Collecting mortal souls from the outside world, or staying within the city to nurture souls through spiritual arrays, helping them grow stronger. Not difficult but extremely time-consuming. Most disciples hate doing them.”

  He chuckled. “Still, every month there are always a few unlucky ones who can’t grab any other missions and end up taking these. But hey, if they didn’t, who would supply the City Lord’s Mansion with souls?”

  “The City Lord’s Mansion?” Liu Ba frowned. “Aren’t these souls meant to be sold in the shops?”

  “Of course not,” Zhao Ping shook his head. “The ones sold in shops come from other sources. The ones collected through sect missions go directly to the City Lord himself. They’re never sold.”

  That only deepened Liu Ba’s confusion.

  Why would the City Lord need so many souls?

  Was it to strengthen his own soul banner?

  Or perhaps… for something else?

  Then, suddenly, a spark of realization flared in Liu Ba’s mind.

  A seemingly insignificant memory surfaced back when he had broken through to the fourth layer of Qi Refinement.

  He had once theorized that to break through a bottleneck, one required a vast amount of external spiritual power.

  But that power also had to be retained within one’s body long enough to shatter the bottleneck, without leaking away too quickly.

  At the time, he hadn’t known how that could be achieved.

  Yet now, he recalled something why did disciples of the Xuan Sect and Blood Banquet Valley use disciples of the same rank and sect as the foundation for their breakthroughs?

  Could it be… the influence of the Dao Path itself?

  Because they cultivated along the same path, the external energy could linger briefly in the body, helping them break through the barrier?

  If that was the case… then what about the Breakthrough Pill?

  Was it really just an ordinary pill?

  Was the energy within truly just spiritual power?

  He recalled how, after consuming the pill, the energy had erupted three separate times within him each time pure and powerful, yet subtly distinct.

  Where had that energy come from?

  Could those three bursts of energy actually have been… three souls?

  At that realization, Liu Ba froze completely.

  It struck him the so-called Breakthrough Pill might not have been a pill at all.

  It could have been crafted from three souls of cultivators at the third layer of Qi Refinement, refined through some secret art into a condensed form of “spiritual power.”

  Because those souls walked the same unestablished Dao path as he did, he had been able to perfectly absorb their energy and use it to shatter his bottleneck.

  The thought was horrifying yet chillingly logical. It explained everything.

  Were the other sects truly unaware of the pill’s existence?

  Or was it that, to them, the pill was useless and so they had no interest in it?

  Liu Ba stood frozen in thought, frowning deeply.

  “Junior Brother? What’s wrong?” Zhao Ping asked, noticing his strange expression.

  After a long pause, Liu Ba finally blinked, returning to himself.

  He was about to say it was nothing when he suddenly stopped.

  Because, far away, deep within Blood Banquet Valley something else was happening.

  Qin Yi slowly opened his eyes.

  Standing before him was Zhou Hairui, dressed in the black-and-white robes of a sect emissary, tall and imposing as ever.

  A faint smile touched his lips.

  “Let’s go,” Zhou Hairui said calmly.

  “It’s time to depart for the Secret Realm.”

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