Inspection Mission

Not long afterward.

[Your Dao Technique, "Purple Imperial Dragon Flame," has created a clone technique.]

The next second, Purple Imperial Dragon Flame flew out of Chen Xuan's body, then immediately split into two flames.

Although it had divided in two, neither flame had weakened much. The main flame's power had not diminished, while the offshoot flame had seventy percent of its strength.

"Awesome."

Chen Xuan looked at the two Purple Imperial Dragon Flames before him and exclaimed.

You little rascal. You actually learned to make a clone just so you could go out and run wild?

[Woohoo! I can go out and keep getting stronger now!]

"Don't rush. We're still inside the sect. If you fly out like this, you'll attract too much attention. Wait until I find a chance to leave the sect, then you can go out."

Chen Xuan hurriedly explained.

[Fine.]

Purple Imperial Dragon Flame stopped fretting. Now that it could make a clone, it wasn't worried Chen Xuan would keep it cooped up.

After all, this was a great chance to get stronger and practice alchemy at the same time.

In the blink of an eye, three months passed.

During that time, Chen Xuan had sent out Purple Imperial Dragon Flame's offshoot.

The main flame and its offshoot were both controlled by Purple Imperial Dragon Flame, and when the offshoot devoured flames, the whole Purple Imperial Dragon Flame grew stronger.

So it made no difference which flame went out. He had sent out the weaker offshoot.

He kept the main flame inside his body so that it would be ready to fight if he encountered an enemy.

Besides that, Chen Xuan had made considerable progress in the Azure Heaven Dragon Transformation Art over those three months. By now, he had condensed three hundred Dragon Marks, and his body-tempering cultivation had just entered the late stage of the third realm.

As for Purple Qi Comes from the East, after three months of being transformed by purple qi, he was only one step away from condensing a Spirit Body.

Chen Xuan grew more and more eager.

The Spirit Body that Purple Qi Comes from the East could condense was called the Purple Origin Spirit Body. Its defining trait was that it made a cultivator's spiritual power far more abundant and powerful. It also had a strong ability to suppress evil beings and the like.

Among the countless Spirit Bodies, it was undoubtedly one of the best.

Cloud Sea Peak, Mission Hall.

Chen Xuan arrived at the Mission Hall that day. The inspection mission was about to begin.

When he arrived, an elder from the Mission Hall was waiting.

Soon, everyone who had accepted the inspection mission had gathered.

Seven Dao Foundation Realm disciples had accepted the mission. They would need to visit three Heavenly Dao Secret Realms in succession and inspect them.

As it happened, each of the three Heavenly Dao Secret Realms had a branch sect stationed there. Yet the Cloud Sea Sect still hadn't entrusted the inspections to those branch sects. Instead, it had chosen disciples from the main sect to carry out the mission.

The main reason was to prevent the branch sects from stealing from under their noses.

If the Heavenly Dao Secret Realms were left entirely in the hands of the branch sects, there was no guarantee they wouldn't get other ideas.

So the sect took steps to ensure that no branch sect could control a Heavenly Dao Secret Realm outright.

The branch sects could enjoy certain conveniences, but they couldn't have complete control over the Heavenly Dao Secret Realms.

The Cloud Sea Sect had placed restrictions at the entrances to the Heavenly Dao Secret Realms. Without a specially made token, cultivators above the Spirit Sea Realm couldn't enter at all.

This prevented cultivators above the Spirit Sea Realm from the branch sects from going in and sweeping the realms clean. It also stopped cultivators above the Spirit Sea Realm from sneaking inside.

When an elder from the Mission Hall saw that everyone had arrived, he took out seven tokens. They flew into the hands of the group.

"Wu Xun, you'll lead the inspection mission."

The Mission Hall elder finished speaking.

A young man among the seven cupped his hands and replied, "Yes, Elder."

The elder then took out a flying boat treasure and handed it to Wu Xun.

"All right. You may go."

The elder nodded slightly, said no more, and left.

Missions like this usually didn't require an elder to show up.

They weren't difficult, and there wasn't much danger.

But the inspection mission required tokens, and those tokens were kept by the Mission Hall elders. That was why he had come in person.

After the elder left,

Wu Xun smiled at the others and introduced himself. "I'm Wu Xun, a disciple of Divine Firmament Peak."

"I'm Lu Yu, a disciple of Jade Firmament Peak."

"Purple Firmament, Bai Su."

"Grand Firmament..."

One by one, they gave their names.

Chen Xuan did the same, introducing himself as Chen Xuan of Cinnabar Firmament Peak.

"Everyone, I hope you'll cooperate with me over the coming days."

Wu Xun cupped his hands again as he spoke.

"Of course, Senior Brother Wu."

The others answered in turn.

It was only one mission. None of them had any messy ideas about seizing power or anything like that.

They just wanted to finish it as soon as possible.

Without wasting any more time, Wu Xun brought out the flying boat treasure the Mission Hall elder had given him.

It was only a low-grade treasure, but it was much faster than a magical artifact.

This inspection mission was pretty good. The sect had even provided them with a flying boat for the trip.

The group boarded at once.

Then Wu Xun piloted the flying boat toward Green Spirit Sect.

The three Heavenly Dao Secret Realms were naturally visited in order of proximity.

So their first destination was the Green Spirit Secret Realm.

Chen Xuan stood at the edge of the flying boat, gazing toward the Green Spirit Secret Realm as he pondered. He had just obtained a portion of Heavenly Dao Qi from the Green Spirit Secret Realm. He wondered whether this time he could "see" information about the next portion of Heavenly Dao Qi there.

His cultivation had advanced since then, so if he tried to "see" the Heavenly Dao Qi again, it would surely be easier than before.

And after finding Heavenly Dao Qi once, the Cloud Sea Heaven-Observing Technique had gained some experience. That would help him search for more.

It would take some time to reach the secret realm.

As they rode the flying boat, the group started chatting.

The others more or less knew one another, or at least had heard of or seen each other before.

They were fairly unfamiliar with Chen Xuan.

Either Chen Xuan had always kept a low profile, or he had joined the sect recently and only established his foundation not long ago.

That was why none of them had heard of or seen him before.

"Brother Chen, when did you establish your foundation?"

Lu Yu turned to Chen Xuan and asked.

The other six were curious too.

"Not long ago. Less than a year."

Chen Xuan replied.

The others wore expressions that said they'd expected as much.

No wonder they hadn't seen him before.

"Junior Brother, you accepted the mission yourself, right? It's a pretty good one for you. The rewards aren't much, but it's true that the mission isn't difficult."

Wu Xun said with a smile.

Accepted it himself?

Chen Xuan was a little surprised. "Does that mean some people don't accept this mission voluntarily?"

"Not many people are willing to take it. Often, the inspection date is almost here and there still aren't enough disciples to accept the mission. When that happens, the Mission Hall assigns it directly to each peak and has them send disciples over."

Wu Xun nodded and explained.

Wu Xun and four others then said that they had been assigned to the mission.

So, aside from Chen Xuan and Lu Yu, the senior sister from Jade Firmament Peak, the other five had all been sent here rather than accepting the mission themselves.

After all, the rewards were meager. Even some newly established Foundation Establishment disciples didn't think much of the mission.

"Senior Sister Lu, then why did you accept this mission?"

Chen Xuan turned to Lu Yu and asked curiously.