Chen Xuan left the Task Hall without pausing and went straight to the board to select two more tasks.
The first was to travel to the Northern Wasteland and wipe out a nest of Ironfeather Vultures.
There were more than ten Ironfeather Vultures in the flock, led by two Vulture Kings at the peak of the Celestial Immortal Realm. They had long occupied an abandoned mine pit, plundering passing merchant caravans and causing trouble for years. The task offered a reward of 2,500 points.
The second was to escort a Heavenly River Sect cargo immortal vessel three million li downstream along the river, passing through a dangerous stretch of rapids often frequented by water demons.
Though the journey was long, most sections of the river were relatively safe. The truly dangerous stretch was only a thousand li long, and the task was worth 2,000 points.
The two tasks together were worth 4,500 points. Added to the 3,000 points he had earned from hunting the giant python of Blackwind Ridge, he had a total of 7,500 points—already surpassing the 5,000-point threshold needed to exchange for the Profound Immortal Volume.
The Northern Wasteland was somewhat farther from the Heavenly River Sect, roughly 1.2 million li away.
Chen Xuan arrived in less than a day. The wasteland was covered in gray-white alkaline soil and low thorn thickets, while exposed rocks littered the ground, their surfaces carved by wind and sand into bizarre shapes.
The abandoned mine pit lay at the edge of a low-lying area. Its entrance spanned several hundred zhang, and its depths were unfathomable. Mottled traces of immortal power remained on the pit walls, showing that the scale of immortal stone mining here had once been considerable.
The Ironfeather Vultures' nest had been built on a protruding rock shelf at the