Newbie Missions

Song Wen stepped out of his cave dwelling and saw Du Qiu standing at the entrance, looking somewhat impatient.

Behind him stood the other five who had joined the sect at the same time.

Wu Sheng stood beside his Iron Corpse, looking smug as he stared provocatively at Song Wen.

A month ago, taking advantage of Song Wen's recent arrival at the Corpse Demon Sect and his ignorance of the sect's rules, he had seized Song Wen's cave dwelling. With the abundant spiritual energy and Corpse-Baleful Qi inside, he had advanced his Corpse Baleful Art from the middle stage of Qi Refining Third Layer to the late stage in just one month. He was immensely pleased with himself.

Now he was eager to see just how frustrated and furious Song Wen would be after learning that the sect forbade private fights.

The result disappointed him. Song Wen merely glanced at him indifferently, then paid him no further attention, as though the matter of the seized cave dwelling had never happened.

Zhang Xiaofan and the other three had also begun cultivating the Corpse Balefal Art, but they had only just reached the initial stage. The corpse qi around them was almost imperceptible.

Du Qiu glanced at Song Wen. Seeing that Song Wen had successfully cultivated the Corpse King Blood Refinement Art, he paid him no further attention.

As long as these six had successfully learned their techniques within a month, his task would be considered complete.

"The month is up. You need to go to the External Affairs Hall to collect your sect missions. Once I've taken you there, my task of instructing the newcomers will be complete. Follow me."

With that, Du Qiu led the way along the rugged mountain path toward the halfway point.

The six followed after him.

Along the way, Wu Sheng kept throwing provocative glances at Song Wen. But Song Wen acted as if he hadn't noticed at all, leaving Wu Sheng's taunts to fall on deaf ears.

Is this guy an idiot or something? No idea where he gets the nerve to act so carefree in a strange place he's just arrived at. Doesn't he worry someone might sneak up and crack him over the head one day?

Zhang Xiaofan, who had briefly interacted with Song Wen before, gave him a friendly look.

Song Wen returned his smile warmly. Even in a demonic sect, one needed to build the right connections, especially with those who had joined at the same time. They naturally felt a certain closeness to one another.

It was always good to have fellow disciples one got along with, even if they were only friends on the surface.

After walking for a little over half an hour, they arrived at the External Affairs Hall on the western slope of the mountain.

"This is the External Affairs Hall. Before we part, let me leave you with one final reminder: be careful when choosing your newcomer missions. They'll directly affect your lives over the next five years, and may even have a major impact on your entire cultivation careers."

"That's all I have to say. Until we meet again."

With that, Du Qiu departed briskly.

After Du Qiu had gone some distance, Wu Sheng looked around at the other five, his eyes brimming with an inexplicable sense of superiority.

He had chosen his sect mission before joining the sect, and felt he was far more capable than these five clueless newbies.

He strode into the External Affairs Hall and addressed an old man inside.

"Greetings, Elder. My name is Wu Sheng. I joined the sect a month ago, and I've come to collect a newcomer mission."

The old man raised his cloudy eyes and glanced at Wu Sheng without the slightest emotion. Then he looked at the five behind him and urged them on.

"You five in the back, hurry up. This old man doesn't want to waste time explaining the newcomer missions twice."

The other five hurried their pace.

Once they had drawn near, the old man continued.

"The places currently in need of newcomers are as follows: the Spirit Plant Hall needs six spirit farmers, the Blood Refining Hall needs two corpse dissection workers, the Soul Refining Hall needs three soul collectors, and the corpse pits need two corpse haulers..."

The old man listed the various halls urgently in need of fresh blood.

"These are all the places currently in need of people. You can choose any one of them, but once your choice is made, you can't change it for five years."

Wu Sheng, who had already made up his mind, spoke first.

"Elder, I'd like to join the Yin Fiend Hall as a corpse hunter."

When cultivating, the Corpse Demon Sect's demonic cultivators needed large quantities of blood essence and corpses from righteous cultivators and ordinary people. Corpse hunters were the demonic cultivators specifically tasked by the sect with capturing and slaughtering righteous cultivators and commoners.

Of course, the commoners whose blood essence and corpses the sect required couldn't be just anyone. They generally had to meet certain conditions, such as being born under an ominous fate on a yin year, yin month, and yin hour, or being a dried corpse that had remained uncorrupted for a hundred years after being buried in a corpse-nourishing ground.

When slaughtering righteous cultivators, the Corpse Demon Sect's disciples generally didn't target those from major righteous sects. Instead, they chose rogue cultivators who practiced righteous techniques or members of small sects. After all, persimmons were best squeezed when they were soft.

The old man's expression turned stern, and he scolded Wu Sheng in an unfriendly tone.

"You're a newcomer who's only just joined the sect. What makes you think you can become a corpse hunter for the Yin Fiend Hall?"

The old man was angry because the list he had just presented hadn't included corpse hunters as an option.

Corpse hunters in the Yin Fiend Hall needed at least the cultivation of Qi Refining Middle Stage to join, and that was only the bare minimum. Since corpse hunters often fought rogue cultivators, the job was extremely dangerous. As a result, most of the elite corpse hunters were cultivators in Late Qi Refinement.

Of course, corpse hunting carried enormous risks, but the rewards were just as great.

The Corpse Demon Sect not only gave its corpse hunters large amounts of cultivation resources every month, but also offered them some of the best treatment in the entire sect. And after killing rogue cultivators, they could often obtain considerable resources from their corpses.

Faced with the old man's scolding, Wu Sheng wasn't intimidated. He clasped his hands and bowed respectfully.

"Please calm your anger, Elder. My late father was a corpse hunter, and he taught me the Corpse Baleful Art from a young age. I'm now at Peak Qi Refining Third Layer, just one step away from Qi Refining Middle Stage. I also have an Iron Corpse as powerful as a cultivator at Qi Refining Sixth Layer. Could you make an exception for me, in consideration of my father's contributions to the sect?"

As he spoke, Wu Sheng pulled a cloth pouch from his robes. Inside were fifty Spirit Stones, which his father had prepared for him before he died.

He placed the pouch directly in the old man's hand.

The old man gave the pouch a squeeze and grinned. The Spirit Stones weren't many, but he was quite satisfied.

"On account of your father, I'll make an exception and allow you to join the Yin Fiend Hall as a corpse hunter."

The old man reached toward the storage pouch at his waist. A black, triangular token appeared in his hand, with the words "Corpse Hunter" carved on it.

He tossed the token to Wu Sheng.

Wu Sheng caught it, looking delighted. He bowed respectfully. "Thank you, Elder."

Wu Sheng wanted to become a corpse hunter despite the extreme danger mainly because he had only a fourth-grade Spiritual Root. Although that still counted as a middle-grade Spiritual Root and gave him a chance to achieve Foundation Establishment, he would need enormous resources to support his cultivation. The inheritance his father had left him—a man who had only reached the eighth layer of Qi Refinement—clearly wouldn't be enough to support him all the way to Foundation Establishment.

He didn't want to end up like his father decades later: failing to achieve Foundation Establishment, leaving the sect in despair, and having no choice but to place his hopes of immortality on his descendants.

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