Lou Mu Yan sold out all the things she wanted to sell, went to buy a batch of Spiritual Herbs and materials for refining talismans, then went back to her courtyard for closed-door cultivation.
She refined all the Spiritual Herbs she bought into Grade 3 and 4 pills, and she was just finishing up refining all the Grade 3 pills that she was going to send to the Lou Clan before leaving closed-door cultivation.
“Bing Ji, send these pills to the Lou Clan and give it to my father.” Lou Mu Yan packed the pills into an interspatial ring and handed it to Bing Ji.
Bing Ji knew the responsibility was heavy, so he swallowed the interspatial ring into a small space in his abdomen, “Don’t worry Owner, I’ll definitely deliver the pills.”
“Come back soon. I’ll send you a Thousand-Li Communication Talisman if anything happens.” Lou Mu Yan put some things for Bing Ji into an interspatial ring, “If you have any urgent matters, use the Communication Talisman inside to send a message.”
Bing Ji rubbed his head against Lou Mu Yan’s shoulder, spread his wings, then looked at Miao Miao and the others and flew out of the Sect reluctantly.
The Eight Extremes Sect pupils couldn’t go out often, but Lou Mu Yan had applied for permission to let her Spirit Pets exit freely with Ao Rong’s help. Otherwise they wouldn’t be able to replenish the pills for the Lou Clan’s pill shop.
After she finished refining the pills, she took out the purchased materials and started refining Grade 3 and 4 Talismans.
One day, just after she finished refining a Grade 3 Invisibility Talisman, she heard Elder Ao Rong’s voice transmission. After cleaning up, she stepped on a sword and flew to the Council Hall.
As soon as she stepped into the Council Hall, several gazes of surprise fell on her.
Lou Mu Yan’s eyes also revealed slight surprise, because she didn’t only see Gu Xiu here, but also Jin Se and the wild man who bought her Middle-Quality Saint Treasure.
“Pupil pays respects to Sect Leader!” Lou Mu Yan walked up to the Sect Leader with a smile and greeted with a pupil greeting, neither humble nor arrogant.
The Sect Leader smiled gently and said, “No need. I have an important thing to tell you today.”
“Sect Leader, please tell.” Lou Mu Yan’s expression didn’t change, calm and composed.
“The specific situation is like this.” The Sect Leader’s gentle expression revealed a somewhat cautious look, “Our Six Major Sects recently discovered some suspicious signs in an area and the pupils who guarded nearby disappeared inexplicably after going to investigate. However, it’s strange as their Soul Tablets haven’t broken, so each force decided to send a few pupils to investigate.
“And you are all candidates for this mission.”
Lou Mu Yan was silent, then asked: “May I ask why Sect Leader chose me to participate in this mission?”
Aside from her and another pupil who was wearing the Outer Sect uniform, the rest were all Inner Sect pupils. She was more curious about what the superiors of the Sect were planning.
“Are you afraid?” The Sect Leader asked instead.
Lou Mu Yan chuckled: “I’m not afraid, I just want to know the reason.”
“You and Ruan1 Jia are the two new Outer Core Pupils we are very optimistic about, so we decided to let you both go out to train and sharpen your skills.” The Sect Elder didn’t hide too much either, “Although the mission this time is very dangerous, but the Inner Core Pupils will lead you both to complete the mission, and your safety is still guaranteed.”
“Are there any new pupils from other Sects participating?” Lou Mu Yan thought about it and asked.
“Naturally yes. Excellent pupils from various Major Sects will not be hidden or concealed. Without being tempered, you won’t be able to achieve great things in the future.”
The Sect Leader constantly observed the changes in Lou Mu Yan’s mood and expressions, but he found that it never changed since she entered the door to when he finished speaking about the mission. She was still indifferent and calm, and he couldn’t help but feel an appreciation for her.
“Of course, you can also choose to give up and it won’t affect your current status in the Sect.”
“I’ll go. Since the Sect Leader and the Elders gave me this opportunity, I will naturally cherish it.” Lou Mu Yan replied firmly with a smile.
After she finished speaking, the two Elders and the Sect Leader present were quite satisfied. If she chose to retreat, they wouldn’t force it, but she would no longer be worth their efforts to raise.
The path of cultivation for a Sword Master was filled with ups and downs to begin with. To go against the Heavens required the courage to dare to challenge danger.
“This time, your Leader is Gu Xiu. You can discuss anything with him.” The Sect Leader stroked his beard and instructed.
“Sect Leader, this pupil still has one thing to ask.” Lou Mu Yan said with a smile.
Gu Xiu and the others looked at her curiously, guessing whether she wanted to ask for protection or to want some powerful Magic Tools to protect her.
“I would like to ask if there are any rewards if we complete this mission? For example, contribution points or Spiritual Stones.” She blinked and asked with a smile.
As soon as this question came up, everyone present couldn’t resist twitching the corners of their lips.
Was she obsessed with money now? She received so many contribution points from doing missions before, and sold things to get so many Spiritual Stones, but it still wasn’t enough for her to spend?
“Are you short of contribution points and Spiritual Stones?” Ao Rong could barely suppress a smile as he asked.
Lou Mu Yan’s appearance like a little miser when blinking made her look innocent and pure, so when she asked about rewards, no one felt dislike for her, but instead, felt she was very straightforward and lovable.
Moreover, it was normal to get rewards after completing missions in the Sect.
Lou Mu Yan nodded fiercely: “Of course I lack them!” Then she looked at Ao Rong with sparkling eyes and said: “Does Elder Ao want to support me a bit?”
Ao Rong rolled his eyes at her in amusement, “This old man is poorer than you.”
Lou Mu Yan pouted in disbelief, but she also no longer bothered about this topic. She still understood when to stop.
“This mission is considered a Rank 7 mission. As long as you can complete the mission and return, each of you will be rewarded with three thousand contribution points, and the outstanding pupils will be rewarded four thousand contribution points.” The Sect Leader wasn’t planning to let them go for nothing.
“Yes!” The several people answered in unison.
“Alright, you may all leave to prepare to depart tomorrow.” The Sect Leader waved to the several people and signalled that they could leave.
“Pupil will retire!”
After the several people left the door to the hall, Jin Se walked beside Lou Mu Yan and said with a smile: “Junior Sister, I didn’t expect for us to meet so soon.”
“Yeah! Senior Sister, we’re really fated.” Lou Mu Yan nodded with a smile.
“Senior Sister is optimistic about you! Go back and prepare well. If you have Buddhist Tools, you’d better bring it with you. See you tomorrow!” Jin Se said.
“Thank you for the reminder, Senior Sister. See you tomorrow!” Lou Mu Yan felt that Jin Se’s reminder was still very useful.
Jin Se and Lou Mu Yan left after greeting the others casually. The others also greeted each other lightly, then left separately.
Lou Mu Yan actually felt that apart from Jin Se and Gu Xiu, although the other people were a little curious about her, but they all felt a sense of distance and rejection, and they might even feel that she was likely to be a hindrance.
She didn’t care about their attitude, but was a little more interested in this mission.
“Mo Yan, do you think that the devilish energy was created by some sort of Devil Race?” Lou Mu Yan asked Mo Yan, who was on her shoulder as she poked him.
In the Immortal Cultivation World, in addition to the Spiritual Realm where she was located, there was also the Devil Realm, and there was a Devil Race in that realm. They didn’t cultivate by absorbing Spiritual Force, but instead cultivated by absorbing True Evil Force, so the two races often battled between realms.
Mo Yan’s eyes revealed some gravity, “There’s indeed a Devil Realm here, but they’re not a rare race. They’re composed of Ghost Cultivators and Devil Cultivators. Because the realm they’re in are all composed of Dark Evil and True Evil Force2, so they’re called the Devil Race.”
“So the one in my pendant belongs to the Devil Race?” A playful arc rose on Lou Mu Yan’s lips.
1the same ‘Ruan’ as ‘Ruan Li’ (阮), the principal of Empire Academy. You can find information about characters, items etc here (not quite up to date but will update it soon. Warning, there will be some spoilers). HOWEVER, I don’t think they’re related. I’m uncertain but I thought to point it out since Chinese readers would’ve most likely noticed this. But this surname isn’t too uncommon, I don’t think. Also, randomly, I was just searching up how common the Ruan surname is and, fun fact: The three surnames, Ruan (阮), Chen (陈), and Li (黎) apparently make up almost 60% of the Vietnamese population. Ruan is actually the origins for Nguyen, Chen for Tran, and Le for Li.
2I have a slightly hard time translating ‘Dark Evil’ (阴煞) and ‘True Evil Force’ (真煞之气). They’re the best translations I can think of for now, though I’m sure there are better ways to translate this. So I may potentially change it if I find better translations. 阴 and 煞 could have very different meanings depending on the context its written in, which makes it difficult to translate. But you get the gist in this context—evil related stuff.