Sweep Mission

"...I spoke with Kachishan. Once our mission is complete, we'll give her a five-Point commission. She'll first pick out some suitable missions for us and accept them directly under my name." Kala looked at the others. "Does anyone have any other opinions?"

Korur said indifferently, "Since we need her help to snatch suitable missions, I have no objections."

"I agree as well." Jie Ning did not mind either. His main goal was still to gather information on the surrounding terrain; earning Points was merely incidental.

With Kala around, he could save himself a great deal of time.

The rest had no objections either.

After leaving Blade City, the group headed straight toward their destination.

Kala suddenly called everyone to a halt. "Everyone, stop for a moment."

After looking around, Kala confirmed, "A little farther ahead, we should be entering the activity range of one of our mission targets."

"What about the target this time?" Korur rubbed his fists together excitedly.

Ever since coming to Hell, he had not fought a proper battle. The long-lost feeling made him stir with excitement.

Kaer recalled the intelligence described in the mission. "According to the information, this band of brigands should have four Middle-Gods. The rest are all Low-Gods, with a total of around a dozen people."

"Dinar, you've just broken through to become a Middle-God, so leave those Low-Gods to you." As he spoke, Kaer looked at Dinar.

"If there's a problem on our side, be ready to support us at any time."

"I have no problem with that," Dinar replied directly.

Then Kala looked at the Reserve Army members. "You all follow Dinar and help him hold back the enemy Low-Gods."

"And as we agreed before, since you're joining our mission, we'll pay each of you fifty Ink Stones for every mission."

"Also, anything you gain from personally killing enemies during the mission belongs to you."

"Yes, Lord Kala." The Reserve Army members obediently agreed.

Finally, Kala looked at the remaining three and pointed at herself.

"As for the remaining four Middle-Gods, each of us will take one. Whoever finishes first will go help another."

"If anything unexpected happens, adapt to the situation."

Jie Ning nodded slightly. "We'll go with this arrangement."

Korur and Mosang had no objections either.

Seeing that no one objected, Kala continued, "This mission is worth fifty Points. Five Points will be given to Kachishan."

"The remaining forty-five Points work out to exactly nine Points each."

Since they had already known about this, Jie Ning and the others naturally raised no objections.

"Everyone, take off your badges. We need to disguise ourselves as ordinary people first," Kala reminded them at last.

"Korur, Dinar, leave the group and follow from behind in secret. Otherwise, there are too many Middle-Gods in our party—I'm afraid they won't dare to show themselves."

"As for the rest, we'll wait for them to take the bait."

Kala led everyone through a simple disguise, then took to the air with a cautious expression. From time to time, they would even cast "vigilant" glances in all directions.

Korur and Dinar stayed close to the ground, quietly following behind the group.

"Hmm?" Jie Ning suddenly sensed the auras of many people lingering ahead.

"Kala, be careful." Jie Ning immediately sent a Telepathic Message to Kala and the others. "There may be an ambush ahead."

He then passed the message to Korur and Dinar behind them, warning them to stay alert.

Upon receiving Jie Ning's Telepathic Message, Kala immediately became vigilant.

Her expression did not change, but in secret, the group swiftly discussed how to respond next and reminded the Reserve Army members to prepare themselves.

Sure enough, before they had advanced much farther, a great wave of attacks came hurtling straight at Kala and the others.

"Bang—"

A massive stone wall appeared out of thin air before them. Countless attacks struck the wall, producing a thunderous roar.

Since he had been prepared, Jie Ning naturally blocked the enemy's attack with ease.

Having fulfilled its purpose, the stone wall gradually reverted into Earth Element and dispersed into the air.

"Not bad, kid. You've got some skill, don't you?" Three figures, accompanied by more than a dozen Low-Gods, blocked the path before Jie Ning and the others. The Eagle-Nose Man at their head looked at Jie Ning approvingly.

At a glance, he could tell that Jie Ning had been the one to block their assault. After all, among the opposing group, he was the only Earth Middle-God.

A hint of wariness toward Jie Ning rose in his heart. To directly withstand the combined attack of so many people—such a formidable foe should be left for Second Brother and Third Brother to deal with later.

"What do you want?" Kala looked at the brigands ahead with apparent "wariness," while secretly contacting Jie Ning. It seems one is missing.

None are missing. There's another Middle-God hiding on the mountain below. Looks like he plans to launch a sneak attack. To Jie Ning, hiding on a mountain was hardly any different from not hiding at all.

To Jie Ning, such a large target was simply too obvious.

"Hahaha, what do we want?" The Eagle-Nose Man laughed, and the people behind him burst into laughter as well.

"Of course, robbery."

"If you know what's good for you, surrender voluntarily and hand over your Space Rings. Maybe then we'll spare your lives and let you join us in getting rich."

"Otherwise..." Eagle-Nose Man revealed a vicious smile.

Jie Ning and Kala paid no attention to the other man's grotesque facial performance. Jie Ning was already remotely directing Korur and the other man to quietly circle around to a point not far from the Middle-God below.

Circle around and launch a sneak attack...

This direction. Move.

Seeing that the two did not respond, Eagle-Nose Man was just about to lose his temper.

"Ah—" Two attacks arrived from below alongside a familiar scream, and the bandits' expressions changed drastically.

"Not good, it's a trap! Retreat—" Eagle-Nose Man reacted instantly. He was also the fastest to flee, reaching the rear of the group in the blink of an eye, leaving only his fading voice behind.

But... it was still too late.

"Only realizing it now?" Mosang laughed. "Too late."

A Water Curtain blocked Eagle-Nose Man's path. He tried to split it apart with a strike, only to be forced back by the rebounding force.

"Alright, everyone, get to it." Kala called everyone into action.

He and Jie Ning each went straight for one of the opposing Middle-Gods, while Mosang's Water Flow curled back to surround Eagle-Nose Man.

Dinar also flew up from below and charged at the Low-Gods. The Reserve Army behind them hurriedly joined the fight as well.

Korur was the last to come up. Seeing that the battlefield had already been divided up, he looked somewhat dejected, with disappointment on his face.

"Korur, you bastard, what are you still staring at?" Seeing Korur seemingly intending to stand by and watch, Mosang flared up. "Get over here and help me!"

Only then did Korur seem to notice that, compared to the overwhelmingly one-sided battles on Jie Ning's side, Mosang could only barely keep his opponent trapped.

The two sides could only be said to be locked in a standoff.

"I'm coming." Korur hurriedly flew toward Mosang.

Eagle-Nose Man's expression changed at once...

Working together, the two easily suppressed Eagle-Nose Man. Victory was already within reach.

Yet victory came even more easily than expected.

First, Jie Ning and Kala had already finished their battles and smoothly collected their respective spoils. The two gathered together, seemingly studying the situation across the various battlefields.

Dinar's side required no concern from them. Other than a few Reserve Army members still trading blows back and forth, Dinar was practically mowing grass when dealing with these ordinary Low-Gods.

After watching for a while, the two turned their attention to Mosang's side, looking ready to provide support at any sign of trouble.

Eagle-Nose Man naturally noticed the change in the battle. The instant Jie Ning and Kala looked over, panic rose in him.

Korur naturally would not let such an opportunity slip by. He let out a low roar. "Mosang..."

Mosang had long since understood. He immediately contracted the Water Flow, trapping the man's limbs in that instant and restraining him.

Smack! Korur struck the man's Divine Spark.

This battlefield had already been decided, and the Low-Gods' side naturally fell into panic as well.

The few Reserve Army members also claimed their respective spoils.

After the battle, Jie Ning and the others took stock of their gains.

Other than the spoils claimed by the Reserve Army members themselves, which were left to them, all the other Space Rings were gathered and placed in the middle of the group.

Kala happily picked up a Space Ring and bound it to himself. "It's still easy dealing with these ordinary scattered bandits."

"They're weak, and most of them don't have another Doppelganger elsewhere. Once we finish them off, we can make an extra profit."

"Why is there so little money? Tch. After removing the worthless junk, the rest is probably worth only four hundred Ink Stones." Kala, who had been happy just moments ago, now wore a look of disdain.

"And they call themselves bandits."

"It's already not bad for a Low-God to have this much." Jie Ning opened the Space Ring in his hand as well. "This one has over six hundred Ink Stones..."

"This one is about the same." Mosang opened another one.

Very soon, all the Low-Gods' Space Rings had been opened. Altogether, they had obtained only an inheritance worth a little over six thousand Ink Stones.

"Having something is good enough." Korur was quite happy. He had never had any income at all. If God-level beings did not need food or drink, he would probably have starved to death already.

Jie Ning had previously heard him complain that the Blade Army did not even provide ordinary Soldiers with fixed pay, leaving him unable to spend money even if he wanted to.

The others all pretended not to see Korur's embarrassing appearance.

Only the last four Middle-Gods' Space Rings remained. Excluding Korur, there was exactly one for each of Jie Ning and the others, and they opened them directly.

"Oh, this one's not bad." Kala raised his brows. "There are six hundred thousand Ink Stones inside."

"Seven hundred and eighty thousand."

"Five hundred and seventy thousand."

Only the one in Jie Ning's hand remained.

"1.2 million." Jie Ning opened it and, after roughly counting, was somewhat surprised.

"That'll do. Now we have more than three million Ink Stones altogether." Kala beamed. "Split evenly, each of us gets six hundred thousand Ink Stones."

Korur instantly jumped to his feet. "When we get back to Blade City this time, I'm definitely going to have a proper feast."

"..."

The others exchanged glances and decided to continue ignoring Korur.

Everyone took out all the Ink Stones and divided them up, using divine artifacts and Divine Sparks as extras to even out the differences.

Korur quickly put away his share. Not caring in the slightest that he had just been ignored, he kept grinning foolishly to himself.

After dividing the spoils, Mosang sighed contentedly. "Sure enough, harvest time is the happiest time."

"Alright, let's rest here for a while first." Kala took out a strangely shaped divine artifact and fiddled with it a few times. "I'll report to Blade Castle that the mission here has been completed."

"We still have four missions left on this trip. We'll head to the next destination shortly. Someone will come here afterward to verify this place..."

Everything went smoothly. Jie Ning and the others spent a little over half a year completing all the missions this time, with travel taking up the overwhelming majority of that time.

By the time they finally returned to the city, Jie Ning and the others each had several million Ink Stones stored in their Space Rings.

And so, they kept cycling through the same rhythm: taking missions, returning to the city, taking missions, and setting out again...

Jie Ning and his group spent more than ten consecutive years living such full and rewarding days.

Correspondingly, their purses and Points balances grew rapidly as well.

After returning to the city once again, they first went their separate ways and rested for a few days.

Several days later, at Jie Ning's residence.

At some point, this place had become the unspoken gathering spot for everyone.

As they marveled over what they had gained over the years, they also discussed their plans going forward.

Suddenly, Mosang looked at Kala curiously. "Come to think of it, if wiping out bandits is this profitable, why didn't everyone do these kinds of missions before?"

Kala rolled her eyes at him. "Do you really think this sort of thing is so easy?"

"Is it difficult?" Korur felt that he had not noticed at all.

"Heh." Kala gave a speechless laugh.

"If the news of the Blade Army's expansion hadn't caused many powerful bandit factions to either disband or lie low, do you believe that the moment we found a group of bandits, a High-God would have come to wipe you out?"

"High-Gods become bandits too?" Mosang found that hard to understand.

"What a strange thing to say." Kala looked at Mosang as if he were a curiosity. "Did you forget that Black Dragon Fortress is also a bandit faction?"

"Oh, right..." Mosang looked embarrassed. Because Black Dragon Fortress was too powerful, he had always subconsciously failed to regard them as a bandit faction.

"Let me tell you, in the past, many bandits had High-Gods backing them. Of course, it was usually one High-God serving as the patron of many bandit groups. But no matter which one you wiped out, it would bring that High-God down on you."

"The reason I dared to call you all along this time was because of news Brother Beile gave me earlier. Before these missions were released, the experts among the Hundred Guards and above of the Blade Army had joined forces to drive out and clear away the High-God factions within their territory." Kala dropped another bombshell.

"From now on, within the Blade Army's territory, everyone can come to Blade City to live and enjoy themselves, but no one may establish their own faction."

"I didn't tell you earlier because the news still had to be kept secret then," Kala explained at last.

It was not a big deal, and none of them cared much about it.

Mosang looked at Kala enviously. "Brother Beile treats you so well. He tells you even this kind of news directly."

Kala said smugly, "And who do you think I am?"

"So, Kala, are we going to keep killing bandits next?" Korur looked at Kala with shining eyes.

Korur had now become a devoted customer of every kind of entertainment Blade City had to offer. As for Ink Stones—the pillar supporting such a life—he was more interested in them than ever.

He felt that he could no longer live without Ink Stones.

"That'll be difficult. Over the past few years, the bandit factions nearby have basically been swept clean." Kala shook her head.

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