Chapter 109 - Crocus City
In the courtyard, Ryland was lying on the ground while panting heavily. He had already returned back to his small size. It looked like he was totally tired and didn\'t have a single ounce of energy left in him.
"Haha, Ryland, you have a long way to go if you want to catch up to me." Davion laughed and gave him some spirit stones so that he could recover.
Ryland didn\'t bother about him and swallowed the spirit stones. The only thought in his mind was why he was still so weak even after breaking through.
"He has improved a lot since the time I found him in the Wild Northern Forest. A cultivator in the late stage of Qi refining should not be his match." Davion was really impressed by him.
Then he put the halberd into his ring and thought, "With my current level, I can only control it in a radius of 10 meters. The most surprising thing was that the middle-grade spiritual artifacts could be refined and had an ability of their own. If I hadn\'t read the information about the spiritual weapons in the library then I would have missed it."
"Speaking about the ability, this halberd not only has one but two abilities. One is the \'Phoenix Arises\' and the other is \'Coiling Dragon\'. However, they require a lot of spiritual energy. Now, I can only use the first one." He sighed as he really wanted to see these abilities.
"I think I should take a mission tomorrow and check these abilities. I don\'t think this defense formation will be able to withstand it if I tried it here. Not only that, I have run out of contribution points. So, I have to make a trip anyway."
***
The next day, early in the morning,
A man wearing a white mask was proceeding towards the mission hall while emitting a dangerous aura. Thus, the nearby disciples would immediately bow towards him and pave the way for him.
"Who is he? Is he a new disciple?"
"I don\'t think so. He has very high cultivation and might be someone living over here in seclusion."
"If so then we should have heard about him."
"Shush…"
"Don\'t speak too loud, he might get offended."
Seeing them act this way, Davion didn\'t know whether to laugh or cry. Indeed, this man was Davion. Since he had no contribution points left, he could only take the most difficult mission and earn them as fast as possible. However, he would need to expose his true abilities to partake in such a mission. Thus, he could only go with this method.
"The previous day, they were casting scornful gazes at me. But now they look so timid and respectful." He shook his head and reached the mission hall.
Inside the hall, many disciples were looking at the large notice board hung on the wall in search of a mission. Suddenly they felt a dangerous aura coming from behind them. They looked behind and saw Davion approaching them.
They bowed and backed away so that Davion could see it properly. However, Davion suddenly put his hand over the shoulder of one of the disciples and requested, "Show me the mission having the biggest reward."
Davion didn\'t want to waste his time over here by looking at all these missions one by one. So, he took the easy way.
"Yes, Senior Brother." The disciple wiped the sweat on his forehead and pointed his index finger towards the corner of the notice board and respectfully said, "In the eastern part of our territory, there is Crocus City where many children are missing every day. A disciple at the early stage of the Golden Core State took this mission to investigate it a month ago. Yet, there is no news from him. Not only that, he still hasn\'t returned and is missing."
"Does this mean he died?" Davion interrupted him.
"No, there is still some response coming from his identity token. However, it seems like someone is interfering with it and thus we can\'t locate him. So, this mission is classified as an S class mission where only someone in the late stage of Golden Core Stage can take it." The disciple explained.
"Oh!" Davion exclaimed and this identity token piqued his interest.
"From the looks of it, this ring should be my identity token. Does this mean that they can locate me from anywhere?" He muttered while looking at this ring.
Then he asked, "So, what about the rewards?"
"500 contribution points." The disciple replied with his voice full of longing as earning contribution points was quite difficult even for an inner disciple like him. Especially 500 points in a single go.
"Ok, you can leave." Davion waved his hands and looked at the mission in the notice board carefully. After making sure what the disciple said was correct, he went towards the nearby desk where a young man was sitting and asked, "Is this where I should apply for the mission?"
"Indeed." The young man replied and looked at him. Seeing someone coming over here in a mask while releasing his aura, he felt that this person was really arrogant. So, he got annoyed and wanted to berate him.
"How can you.." He hadn\'t even finished saying when he suddenly felt a pressure heavy like a mountain all over him.
"You…"
"Humph, don\'t waste my time. I want to take the mission of Crocus City where a disciple went missing." Davion coldly said.
"Of course, Please wait." The attitude of the young man changed in the blink of an eye.
"Good." Davion nodded.
The young man took out a map and a strange token where the symbol of a hut was curved on and said, "You can take this token to the residence of the Beggars Sect in the Crocus City and they will explain more about this mission to you."
"The Beggars Sect?" He was confused as the last time he had heard about this Sect was many months ago in the Sect Selection Ceremony. He thought that they were only responsible for protecting the civilians, but it looks like they have some more responsibilities.
"Eh! Don\'t you know about them?" The young man was speechless as everybody knew about them. Nonetheless, thinking that he might anger him again, he explained, "The Beggars Sect are not only responsible for maintaining the order in the cities but also for reporting information about the strange incidents that they can\'t handle to us. As you can see, almost all the missions here come from them."
"So, it\'s like this." Davion took both the token and the map and left.
Only after he left, did the young man sigh in relief, "My God! Who is he? I was proud after breaking through to the middle stage of Golden Core State. However, infront of him, I looked like an ant that could be trampled at will." He had sweats all over his back.
***
After coming out of the hall, he finally took off his mask while making sure that nobody was around him. Then he entered his courtyard and left with Ryland on his shoulders. Who knows how long it will take for him to complete the mission?
When he reached the gates, he saw the same two disciples who had stopped him previously.
When they saw him, they immediately bowed and asked, "Senior Brother, are you leaving for a mission?" They already knew from Senior Sister Stella that Davion had already become an Inner Court Disciple. They became dumbfounded when they heard it. This was not the most surprising thing but rather he had a good relationship with one of the elders. So, thinking about how they had stopped him here, they were nervous. Who knew he might even punish them here?
"Oh! It\'s you guys. Indeed, I\'m going for a mission." Davion didn\'t bother about them and left.
"It seems like he doesn\'t care about the incident." One of them said while the other nodded.
A Few hours later, in the sky above the Crocus City, a saber-shaped red-colored ship was flying. Indeed, this was the artifact that he had obtained from the Sect Master of the Blood Saber Sect. He finally used it this time as it was much faster than the one Thaddeus gifted him.
"I\'ve finally reached here." He smiled and looked at the map.
"Now, it\'s just a few meters away." He wore the mask again and descended from the artifact.
"I really don\'t want to wear this mask but I\'ve got no choice. Although the elders can easily know about me if they investigate, it\'s still better than nothing." He thought while walking in the direction of the residence.
After a few minutes, he saw a residence looking in a poor condition. The gate was broken and there were no windows. Just by looking at this, nobody would be able to guess that someone would even stay here.. He went inside and saw three people wearing tattered white robes discussing something.