A Legend Begins with Taking Missions

"The assessment is over. This person will likely reach the Fourth Stage of Qi and Blood. His talent is truly terrifying."

Amid the clouds overhead, a young cultivator murmured to himself.

In his line of sight, before a thatched cottage below, a handsome young man sat cross-legged.

The youth's aura surged like a rainbow, as though holy light surrounded him. He was extraordinarily remarkable.

Then he sighed inwardly. Unfortunately, this genius had not been recruited by him, and in the future, he certainly would not join his branch.

"Hmm?" At that moment, he spotted a familiar figure where the Immortal Boat was docked.

"This kid is finally setting off." Lin Changsheng watched Bai Jing board the boat, his expression somewhat complicated.

This boy had initially left an extremely poor impression on him, but the fact that he had broken through to the Second Stage of Qi and Blood several days ago had somewhat changed Lin Changsheng's attitude.

With his cultivation talent, he might barely rank among the top five thousand and have a chance of being recruited into Shangqing Mountain.

But the key was that he was already responsible for five disciples like this!

They belonged to the mediocre-but-not-bad category.

"Senior Brother Lin, I heard from the steward that this disciple under your charge accepted five missions in one go, each worth three Ascension Coins."

At that moment, a cultivator flew over and landed upon the cloud, hurriedly speaking.

"Five missions worth three Ascension Coins each? What is this kid trying to do?" Lin Changsheng's brow tightened.

Below.

On the Immortal Boat's deck, Bai Jing found a spot out of the sun and sat down cross-legged. After looking around briefly, he found that quite a few disciples were taking on missions.

Looks like I'm not the only one with this idea. Others are also doing missions to earn Ascension Coins, Bai Jing thought.

Everyone said the missions in the later assessments were extremely difficult. Since that was the case, why not complete more missions while they were still easy? The more Ascension Coins they earned, the more ultimate arts or treasures they could exchange for, giving them another means to rely on.

Of course, where there was gain, there was loss. If one chose to do missions, cultivation would fall behind. It depended on each person's choice.

Clearly, the vast majority of disciples chose to raise their cultivation!

Boom!

With a tremendous roar, the Immortal Boat shot into the clouds.

Once the Immortal Boat had stabilized somewhat, Bai Jing took five Bounty Notices from his robe.

Generally speaking, how could assessment disciples travel fast enough to accept so many missions at once? Distance was one issue; another was the time limit. Every mission allowed only three days.

If they could not be completed within three days, they would be deemed failures.

Fortunately, his luck was good. The five letters seeking aid had all been sent from within the same county, so he accepted them all at once. In any case, Shangqing Mountain placed no restrictions on accepting missions.

"About two hours." Bai Jing calculated the time, then closed his eyes and cultivated.

To assessment disciples like them, time was real gold. Not a shred of it could be wasted.

Or rather, every disciple had a taut string in their heart. Until the final results came out, no one dared slacken.

Qinghong lived at the foot of the mountain.

The green fields were lush, and a narrow path wound and twisted toward a village at its end.

The sun was setting, and cooking smoke curled through the village. Children's laughter rang clear and sweet. Men returned home from every direction with hoes over their shoulders or woodcutting knives in hand, while women had prepared the meal and waited for their husbands and children to return.

At the village's southwest corner stood a pearwood gate. The surroundings were deathly quiet. This was Qinghong's home.

By the time Qinghong pushed open the gate and returned home, the sky had already grown late.

"Husband, why are you reading without lighting a candle? Can you even see clearly?"

Qinghong entered the room and could not help speaking when she saw that no candle had been lit inside.

Within the room, a man in white held a book in his hands and read with rapt attention, offering no reply.

Qinghong did not pay it much mind and turned toward the kitchen. "Husband, you must be hungry too. Wait a moment. I caught some game behind the mountain, and I'll cook it for you right away."

"Hm? Wait."

Her departing steps abruptly froze. Her face stiffened as she muttered to herself,

"I remember my husband died of illness several days ago. How is he alive again?"

Very quickly, she came to her senses. Her face filled with terror as she stared at the man hiding his face behind the book, her voice trembling.

"Who are you?"

At last, the man reacted. He lowered the book, revealing an exceptionally youthful face.

"Bai Jing, disciple of Shangqing Mountain!"

Qinghong's expression changed drastically. She turned to flee, only to see dazzling blue beams rise around the entire house.

Minor Star Array!

The instant the formation rose, the entire village changed.

The candles that should have been lit in every household went out at once. There was not the slightest breath of life in any courtyard, while rotting corpses lay scattered across the ground.

Clearly, every person in this village was dead!

"A lone wandering ghost dared to wreak havoc among the living, slaughtering fifty-two people in this village just to refine an evil pill and bring your husband back from the dead."

Bai Jing spoke in a deep voice, anger already burning in his eyes.

"This is your husband, isn't it?" He grabbed an unrotted corpse from the bed and gave a soft laugh.

Qinghong's face changed again, becoming somewhat twisted as she shouted, "Put down my husband!"

"The dead are dead. With you alone, you think you can snatch someone back from the King of Hell?" Bai Jing shook his head.

Bang!

Qinghong was answered by an explosive blast. Bai Jing ground the corpse to dust, crushing it completely.

"Ah—!" Qinghong clawed at her face. A shrill, furious cry burst from her mouth, and boundless hatred filled her eyes.

"You deserve to hate?" Bai Jing said.

She had killed so many innocent villagers for the sake of a man who had been dead for days, and she deserved to hate?

Boom!

It was as though a starry curtain had truly descended. Glittering stars shot toward the female ghost, each carrying deadly menace.

Qinghong resisted desperately, but her strength was only at the Second Stage of Qi and Blood, while every glittering star carried an aura beyond hers.

Bang!

Without any surprise, the female ghost who had slaughtered dozens of people was annihilated in body and soul.

"Third Stage of Qi and Blood!" A startled cry rang out.

Yet it did not come from the ground, but from the sky.

Lin Changsheng stared at the Minor Star Array in surprise. The aura emanating from this formation did not resemble that of someone who had merely begun learning it.

It had clearly been cultivated to perfection, producing fluctuations comparable to those of a powerhouse at the peak of the Third Stage of Qi and Blood.

"In such a short time, this boy has cultivated this formation to perfection. Could he be a formation genius?" he murmured softly, somewhat dazed.

Had he truly misjudged him? Was Bai Jing not as mediocre as he had thought?

But if he possessed talent in formations, why had he written Spiritual Cultivator in the preference column back then?

"Still, since this boy has talent in formations, he has a great chance of fighting his way into the top three thousand!" Lin Changsheng rarely revealed a smile.

At that moment, the more he looked at Bai Jing, the more pleasing he found him.

Even his jealousy toward his archrival diminished by several degrees.

"Right!" As though recalling something, Lin Changsheng hurriedly flipped open the earlier pages of the record book.

He found Bai Jing's information, crossed out the rating for his first mission, and wrote an "A" after it.

Within the ruined village, Bai Jing carried out corpse after corpse.

"Not only do I have to eliminate evil ghosts, I also have to collect the bodies. This mission is truly hard to do." Enduring the stench, he buried every corpse and erected a monument, giving these innocent people at least some measure of closure.

After finishing all this, he did not pause for even a moment before rushing toward his next destination.