Chapter 23: Mission

A short while later.

Cheng Buzheng stepped into the main hall of the Command Talisman Pavilion and scanned the room.

He noticed that many senior brothers and sisters were still there, their gazes fixed upon the jade wall on the northern side, which displayed rows of scrolling text.

No matter the hour, there were always senior brothers and sisters waiting here, much like a waiting lounge from his previous life; whether it was one in the morning or twelve noon, there would always be people waiting.

With a calm expression, Cheng Buzheng glanced toward the west and saw that of the two senior sisters behind the counter, one was processing a mission acceptance for a burly senior brother.

Seeing this, he did not waste any time and walked directly to the counter of the slightly bored senior sister. This sister had a petite frame and a pure countenance, appearing as kind and lovely as a girl next door from his past life.

Despite her approachable appearance, a powerful spiritual pressure radiated from her small body. Cheng Buzheng knew clearly that this woman was definitely a high-level expert in the late stages of Qi Refinement, though he could not judge exactly which level she was at.

However, she could strike him as easily and brutally as a father hitting a son, leaving him no room for resistance.

In the face of the strong, Cheng Buzheng was always respectful, unless it involved his interests, the severing of his immortal path, or the destruction of his pursuit of longevity.

Of course, if he couldn't win, he wouldn't seek death or deliberately present himself to give an enemy the chance to pull up the weeds and destroy the roots. Instead, he would continue to lie low until he had absolute certainty to strike with thunderous force and annihilate them!

With a calm face, Cheng Buzheng cupped his hands and said, "Greetings, Senior Sister. I wish to accept a mining mission. Do you know which vein currently has a vacancy?"

Upon hearing this, the fair-faced senior sister looked up at him, surprised to find that this youth, who looked like a little junior brother, actually wanted to take on a mining mission.

With her cultivation, she naturally understood the level of the young junior brother before her and guessed that he was likely part of the batch that had joined the sect over half a year ago.

"My name is Wang Mei. You can call me Senior Sister Wang!" she said, fearing he might not realize how arduous mining missions were.

"Let me explain the difficulty of mining missions in detail so that you don't regret it later! Not only must you stay underground all day, deprived of sunlight for years on end, but the minimum term for a mining mission is at least one year."

Through her explanation, he learned the differences between various spiritual ore mines.

The overall difference wasn't massive; they were all several hundred or even several thousand feet underground, away from sunlight. They would only return to the surface for a day or two of rest every so often to replenish supplies.

The difficulty of extracting different spiritual ores also varied. The most difficult were the spirit stone mines, as not only was the surrounding ore layer extremely hard, but the surrounding rocks were equally tough.

Next were the raw ores for various weapon-refining materials. While slightly better than spirit stone mines, they weren't much easier. Given a choice, most cultivators would opt for something simpler.

"Senior Sister Wang, regarding the missions currently on the jade wall, none of the ones I can accept with my current cultivation can satisfy my normal cultivation needs. Is this my only option?" Cheng Buzheng said with a look of helplessness.

Although he spoke this way, he knew in his heart that his primary goal was to replenish the spiritual energy of his Small Dish, followed by silent development, and finally, using it as an opportunity to temper his mental state.

In his previous life, having a poor temperament wasn't a big deal; almost no one cared.

But this was a world of cultivation. One's mental state certainly needed tempering; otherwise, how could one face enemy cultivators? How could one remain calm and unaffected by external factors during a life-and-death struggle?

Once one's emotions were grasped by an enemy, death would likely be imminent.

Therefore, he wanted to cultivate a mental state where even if Mount Tai collapsed before him, his expression would remain unchanged.

Hearing this, Senior Sister Wang stopped trying to dissuade him. She simply saw a youth who had just joined the sect and didn't know the hardships of the task; had he been a fellow disciple who had been in the sect for a long time, she wouldn't have said another word.

"Junior Brother, all spiritual mines currently need people. The spirit stone mines offer the most bountiful rewards, while the green iron mines are the easiest but offer the lowest rewards!" Senior Sister Wang added.

"Junior Brother... you must consider this carefully. The minimum term for a mining mission is one year... This is the summary of all mining missions!"

As soon as she finished speaking, Senior Sister Wang took a jade slip from behind the counter and handed it to Cheng Buzheng.

"Thank you for the reminder, Senior Sister Wang. I understand!" Cheng Buzheng said as he took the jade slip.

Holding the slip, Cheng Buzheng examined it closely.

Before long, he had finished reading through all the mining missions within the jade slip and handed it back to Senior Sister Wang.

"Thank you for your assistance, Senior Sister Wang. I'll take it: the spirit stone vein, for a term of two years!" He spoke with a look of determination.

Senior Sister Wang glanced at him and spoke slowly, "Are you sure, Junior Brother? Once accepted... you cannot abandon it midway!"

Cheng Buzheng nodded. "Yes... Senior Sister, I am sure!"

Seeing this, Senior Sister Wang said no more and produced a command talisman, handing it to him.

"This talisman is your mission voucher. In two years, go to the Salary Pavilion to hand over your mission!"

Cheng Buzheng took the talisman and inspected it. The appearance of this talisman was not much different from the tokens used by secular officials to supervise prisoners or issue orders; however, while those were wooden, this mission talisman was crafted from spiritual jade.

It was engraved with complex patterns. The front featured the three large characters "White Cloud Sect" in relief, while the center of the back was engraved with "Spirit Stone Mine," with "Outer Disciple, Cheng Buzheng" inscribed below.

Cheng Buzheng put the talisman away, having roughly guessed the origin of the name "Command Talisman Pavilion"—it was likely named after the talismans used as vouchers for mission handovers.

Having achieved his goal, he thanked Senior Sister Wang and took his leave.

Leaving the pavilion, Cheng Buzheng walked along the roadside.

Unsurprisingly, he did not collide with any senior brothers or sisters and arrived at the mountain-circling stairs.

*Bang!* A sound of air exploding rang out.

In the blink of an eye, Cheng Buzheng had vanished. Looking down from Xianquan Peak, a white wave of air spread rapidly along the mountain stairs, soon exiting the staircase.

Returning to the house in the canyon basin, Cheng Buzheng prepared to say goodbye to his four teammates before heading off to his mining mission.

Otherwise, if he left without a word, they would likely have excluded him from the team two years later, which would not align with his purpose for joining.

He had joined the team originally for resource exchange and information sharing.

Moreover, the captain, Nan Ye, was a social butterfly with connections to many former team captains, making him extremely well-informed. As for resource exchange, Cheng Buzheng could not deny its value.

As early-stage Qi Refinement cultivators, what spiritual treasures could they have now? It was hard to say about the future when their cultivation rose, but at the very least, he wanted to maintain his status as a team member.

For him, this was merely a small effort that required little thought; who knew if there might be a harvest in the future? One could never predict the nature of fortuitous encounters.

As Cheng Buzheng weighed the pros and cons, he also pondered if he had overlooked anything, after all, he would be leaving the sect for two years.

(End of Chapter)