Mission Settlement and Technique Advancement

Outpost stone chamber.

After cultivating through the night, Li Yuan rose and walked out of the stone chamber.

Several cultivators were already moving about in the courtyard.

Most were Mingyuan Sect disciples, the dark-gold sect emblems on their gray-blue robes clearly visible in the morning light. But on the stone steps at the eastern side of the courtyard sat two cultivators dressed conspicuously differently.

One man and one woman, both at the Late Golden Core Stage. The male cultivator wore a dark-brown short robe, with rough features and weathered scars on his arms. The female cultivator wore a light-gray long dress, her bearing calm and steady, with a token of unknown material hanging at her waist.

Neither their attire nor their bearing resembled those of Upper Realm cultivators. The purity of their spiritual power was slightly lower than that of Upper Realm cultivators at the same level, but the way it circulated was cruder and more direct, bearing the marks of repeated real combat tempered in a resource-starved environment.

Lower Realm cultivators.

They had come up from the Heavenly Origin Realm.

Li Yuan walked over to the stone steps, and the two looked up at him.

"Fellow Daoist, are you here to carry out the passage maintenance mission as well?" the male cultivator asked first, his voice hoarse.

"I've already completed it," Li Yuan said.

The male cultivator raised his brows.

"You only arrived yesterday, and you've already finished it today?"

"The damage to the wall wasn't too severe."

The male cultivator nodded and did not press further.

"We are disciples of the Mingyuan Branch Sect in the Heavenly Origin Realm. We were formerly disciples of the Heavenly Origin Sect, but later the Heavenly Origin Sect became the Mingyuan Branch Sect."

Li Yuan nodded without asking further.

After a brief