Chapter 444: Seeking Life in the Face of Death

“Red Coat Army’s leader ‘Peacekeeping Heavenly King’ Du Huaishang has successfully escaped from Daning and ‘Jade Eye Flying Dragon’ Zuo Hanfeng has been beheaded. The main task is complete and you will immediately return. Each member is rewarded with 1,000 Karma points.”

It was at times like these that Meng Qi felt that the Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms’s cold and indifferent voice was particularly kind. The appearance of his voice meant that he and his team were finally saved and did not have to painfully hold out for any longer.

Silvery white thunder light flashed and the dizzying sensation of time travel overcame them. Meng Qi subconsciously turned to glance at the side of the city gates, but all he saw was a dim and dark emptiness.

He was not worried about Du Huaishang’s safety. Even if Zuo Yiqian’s mother chased him all the way there, she was no threat to him, because a few of the Red Coat army’s leaders with their men had been stationed nearby as reinforcements. After all the commotion involving changes in the wind and clouds and rumbling thunder and lightning, there was simply no way that they would not hurry over to investigate. They even stood a chance of taking down Daning as well.

Meng Qi’s final words of “Red Coat Army’s fate lies with the heavens” was not just to make him appear holy. It was also a premonition of his own that he and his companions would return to that world of the Divine Devil in the future, increasing their prestige and influence in passing. Since there were no consequences to it, why not?

His premonition was not purely by instinct either. It had arisen mainly due to the Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms’ detailed description of the world’s general trend of events that made it seem like there were many tasks to be completed there. In addition, there was also the mysterious Ancestor who was trying to “reincarnate” himself. He seemed to be connected to the remote South in Meng Qi’s own world, plus the terrifying Dharmakaya master “Blood Sea Rakshasa”; moreover, Du Huaishang was his “Reincarnated Soul Boy”…

All these various reasons made Meng Qi feel that they would definitely return to that world sooner or later, and possibly more than once!

The darkness faded, and they were bathed in light once again. Meng Qi realized that he was already in the recovery light pillar.

His injuries were not that severe this time around– neither Eight Nine Mysteries nor Golden Bell Shield had been broken; instead, the main damage was from the Sacrifice Formula’s countercharge. It made him a little emotional on the inside. If not for the Dominator’s complete recovery treatment, at the rate at which he and his team burnt their Blood Essence and activated secret techniques, their bodies would probably be left with incurable side effects even once they had already gotten rid of their common bodies.

Upon completion of the treatment, Meng Qi checked his body once before stepping out of the light pillar to wait for his friends.

Jiang Zhiwei and the others completed their recovery process at around the same time. The commanding, level voice of the Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms immediately rang out,

“For the task evaluations, everyone is ‘moderate’. Each person will be rewarded with 200 Karma points.”

Meng Qi was not surprised in the least about the evaluation result. He and the others had only completed the main task, without exceeding the task’s boundaries to search for more clues and secrets. They had encountered the two Samsara travelers Zhou Yong and Lan Die, as well as their mysterious organization, and were aware of Ancestor’s existence, but they had not investigated the matter in depth. As such, they lacked a clearly defined result from the task.

At the same time, the rewards for the newcomer guiding task were distributed as well. Meng Qi, Ruan Yushu and Jiang Zhiwei obtained 200 Karma points each, Qi Zhengyan obtained 150 points, and Zhao Heng got nothing.

“Let’s quickly exchange our spoils of war for Karma points and then get the information for our next task.” Jiang Zhiwei was her usual self, hurrying the team.

“Sure.” Meng Qi knew that she had something to announce, and thus immediately agreed to it.

The others were indifferent. Hence, they all gathered in front of the Central Light Pillar and watched Meng Qi open Zhou Yong’s Space Ring and retrieve the items inside.

There were brightly-colored insect eggs, and a script with a dark yellow cover and the words “Bloody Divine Palm” written on the front in a large, creepy font. There was also a small, grey flag covered in all kinds of strange patterns. Simply looking at it gave one vertigo and made one feel like their soul was leaving their body.

Apart from those, there was a pile of odd-looking Voodoo objects and recovery elixirs, including a Recover Pill.

Upon seeing the Recover Pill, Meng Qi suddenly thought of something. He spoke without hesitation, “Why don’t I use 400 Karma points to buy it?”

He planned to head North to kill the Wolf King after completing that task, and thus needed to prepare Recover Pills and the like in advance. He would have to fork out 500 Karma points for a Recover Pill from the Dominator and exchanging it would only earn him 350 points. It was better if he just took it instead so they could avoid being exploited by the Dominator.

The others had no objections to it, so Meng Qi paid 400 Karma points and took the Recover Pill.

As for the other items, they either concerned Voodoo arts which none of them could use, or were only strong enough to fend off the average man who had enlightened the apertures. Therefore, they dumped all of them to the Dominator.

“Wraith-summoning Pennant, a Voodoo treasure of the enlightened apertures level. It is formed by 81 souls and a Voodoo ritual, and can cause the Vital Spirit to faint… It can be exchanged for 700 Karma points.”

“Bloody Divine Palm, an Exterior-level supreme art derived from ‘Bloody Divine Saber’. If one’s strength does not surpass that of the user by a level, or he has a Divine Skill that restrains such a supreme art, any part of his body struck by the palm attack will develop pus. Practicing this skill will result in an excruciating countercharge from time to time… It can be exchanged for 1,500 Karma points.”

The various insect eggs were exchanged for 800 Karma points, and the other miscellaneous items and elixirs came to a total figure of 500.

The Space Ring had been damaged and its repair fees were rather costly. Since Ruan Yushu, Meng Qi and Zhao Heng all had one and Jiang Zhiwei and Qi Zhengyan indicated that they did not require it at the moment, they exchanged it for 600 Karma points as well.

Adding Meng Qi’s 400 Karma points used to purchase the Recover Pill, they had a total of 4,500 Karma points.

At this time, Zhao Heng produced Zuo Hanfeng’s Precious Weapon and placed it into the Central Light Pillar.

“Hornless Dragon’s Claw, a Precious Weapon created from the scales and blood of the Chi Dragon. It is cold to the touch… It can be exchanged for 1,200 Karma points.”

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The Precious Weapon had originally been worth 2,400 points, but the Dominator was accepting it at half its value. However, none of them was skilled at that particular type of weapon, and Jiang Zhiwei seemed to urgently require something and could not wait for Meng Qi to go all the way to “The Immortals” to sell it. Hence, they had no choice but to let the Dominator take advantage of them.

As such, they had a total of 5,700 Karma points, giving each of them 1,140 points. Taking into account their previously leftover points and the rewards from their task, Jiang Zhiwei had 2,560 Karma points, Ruan Yushu had 2,540, Qi Zhengyan had 2,590 and Meng Qi had 2,140.

After each of them had used 80 Karma points, the indifferent voice of Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms returned.

“The next mission will occur in the main world. There is no other information apart from the time left until then: One year.”

Meng Qi and the others blankly stared at one another, the shock evident in their eyes. They did not even think about scolding the Dominator for giving them such skimpy information at the price of 400 Karma points, because they were dumbfounded by the words “occur in the main world”.

“So, there are these kinds of missions too…” Zhao Heng muttered quietly to himself. Their previous missions had all taken place in other worlds, causing them to subconsciously form the notion that there were no tasks happening in reality. Now that they had suddenly encountered one, they were naturally shaken up.

It was not that Meng Qi did not dare to believe there was such a task. After all, the third step of his serial task, “Carefree Valley”, could be in his own world. He was just slightly apprehensive because things were better in the other worlds. The enemies there were either weaker or had close to no understanding about them. They had completely no idea about what kind of powerful masters were around, just like in the world of the Divine Devil. However, their own world was brimming with powerful masters. There were numerous Exterior-level experts and even more on the Half-Step level, and strong individuals were everywhere. Any small slip-up could result in making enemies with masters way beyond their league.

“No wonder he’s not giving us any other information…” Meng Qi understood the Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms’ intention all of a sudden. He and his team were all supported by major powers. If they knew in advance what kind of task it would be, they could easily ask their sect leaders or family elders for assistance, such as Su Wuming. Unless they were fighting a Dharmakaya, any kind of task would be near effortless.

“Our own world…” Ruan Yushu gently nodded, still maintaining her cool aura. To her, a task in the main world meant that she could borrow all sorts of external powers.

“If it’s occurring in our world, given how the strength we can borrow is enough to stir up something big, I’m afraid that it won’t be easy.” Meng Qi took a deep breath and reminded his comrades.

Qi Zhengyan still had his poker face on as he said, “Anyway, we’ll still focus on improving ourselves. We might get transported to some historical remains out of the blue, where we won’t be able to borrow any strength even if we wanted.”

Just then, Jiang Zhiwei, who had been staying silent the whole time, gently exhaled. Her expression changed to one of determination. “I have something to say.”

“What’s that?” Meng Qi instantly asked.

Jiang Zhiwei’s gaze wavered a little. Then she closed her eyes for a moment, and when they fluttered open, they were full of unfaltering resolve.

“I intend to undergo Life-risking Hermetic Training and fight with myself.”

“If I fail, I will silently die in a secret location.”

Meng Qi had previously had a faint premonition, but actually hearing her say it brought forth an uneasy feeling within. “Life-risking Hermetic Training”, as its name suggested, referred to living in the face of death. It was definitely not a stable option. In all of Sword Washing Pavilion’s history, there had been a decent number of disciples who had attempted it, but only a few who actually succeeded.

For something so dangerous, they could not simply look at the impressiveness of Su Wuming and those who had succeeded, but also the majority who had quietly perished in secret. A rough estimate of the death rate indicated that it was infinitely more challenging than Death Tasks in the Six Realms!

The young girl before them had beautiful features and a bright countenance. She was dressed in blue robes and had an air of detached nobility, although it was not the cold and haughty kind. There often seemed to be a smile painted across her lips, and she was cheery and generous.

In Jianghu, few girls in her generation could rival her beauty.

Such a peerless talent, an amazing master, wanted to seal herself away at the age of 21, the prime of her life, and let time pass her by as she sought life in the face of death?

Meng Qi thought about how he could possibly never see her again, about how she could silently leave them while in some secret location, about how she had always been taking care of the team, and about the countless experiences they had gone through together. Panic suddenly gripped him, and he wanted to stop her, but no words came out even as his mouth stupidly open and closed.

Having announced her decision, Jiang Zhiwei appeared much more relaxed. She smiled and spoke with resolve.

“I’ve already made my choice.”

The rest of the team could not stop her even if they wanted to. Zhao Heng might not be familiar with Jiang Zhiwei’s temperament, but the other three knew her well. No matter what they said, they would not be able to sway her.

“Can you undergo Life-risking Hermetic Training in Samsara?” Ruan Yushu asked in doubt. She was the first to return to normal.

Those who had successfully completed “Life-risking Hermetic Training” spent about a year and a half on average. Thus, back then, many people had believed that Su Wuming had already perished in his secret location. However, to everyone’s surprise, he emerged successfully after three years with brilliant sword light flashing through the sky, shocking everyone.

“Yeah, the next mission is a year later. Are you sure you can succeed in a year?” Meng Qi was speaking at a faster speed than usual.

Jiang Zhiwei nodded. “I’ve already asked the Dominator about it. I can use Karma points to delay entering Samsara at 200 points a month. If I miss a few missions, I’ll have to make up for them with solo tasks afterward.”

“And the difficulty of your missions will, due to my absence, be reduced.”

“As of now, I have sufficient Karma points and I’m prepared to exchange them for a year’s worth of time. If I don’t succeed at the end of two years, you guys can just assume that I’ve died.”

Entering Samsara before completing “Life-risking Hermetic Training” was tantamount to courting death.