The Falling Moon Sect had a uniform dress code across all its main peaks. Outer disciples wore green, outer stewards yellow, outer elders gray-white, inner disciples red, inner stewards orange, inner elders white, and peak masters purple. The sect master wore purple and gold, while the supreme elders wore sky blue.
The outer disciple leading Chen Ming and Shen Gongbao toward the outer disciples' quarters was named Chen Jiu.
As Chen Jiu led them along, he introduced them to various aspects of the sect!
Things here were different from what Chen Ming had experienced at Spirit Beast Mountain. Every outer disciple here had to complete at least one sect mission a month.
That night, Chen Ming had a dream. Everything in it was dark, then light appeared. After the darkness, the light swiftly returned, driving the darkness away and revealing everything.
Then the light vanished, appeared, vanished again, and appeared again.
The cycle repeated endlessly, as though each disappearance and appearance marked another turn of reincarnation. With every cycle, the light grew stronger, until it finally defeated the night and blazed forth, enveloping everything.
His consciousness seemed to awaken at that moment, too. Like a bystander, he stared blankly at this strange transformation. Still young, he had no understanding of what these changes represented. The only thing he could be certain of was that he seemed to have encountered something extraordinary.
Once the light seemed to shine forever, the darkness appeared to realize that it could no longer extinguish it. Yet it did not leave. Instead, it entwined tightly with the light, until the two utterly opposing forces formed a strange object.
It seemed to have become a Eight Trigrams diagram with Yin-Yang Poles. At the center of the two poles in particular, it spun ceaselessly, as though trying to draw everything inside.
A thunderous boom seemed to erupt inside his mind, and his consciousness was sucked in without the slightest resistance.
Countless unbelievable images faintly emerged from the constantly spinning center of the two poles, flashing through his mind without end.
At that moment, he seemed to soar into the sky, standing tens of thousands of meters above the ground, feeling the sun's scorching fury and the immense, razor-sharp gales. He seemed to descend into the deep sea, witnessing the unbelievable beauty of the seabed and feeling the terror of surging waves a hundred meters high.
Just as he stood dumbstruck, he seemed to arrive deep within the earth, where he saw countless bizarre ores and knew every one of them like the back of his hand. The next instant, he plunged straight into the underground magma. Those rippling red splashes could melt anything, nearly frightening his soul out of his body.
Chen Ming finally jolted awake. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, only to discover that his clothes were soaked through. That dream had been terrifying!
He stepped outside and gazed at the stars scattered across the sky, calming himself. Then he drew two buckets of water from the water vat, took a bath, and returned to his room to cultivate.
Early the next morning!
Chen Ming went to the mission hall. Now that he had reached the twelfth level of Qi Refining, he no longer needed to cultivate like the other outer disciples. All he lacked was a Foundation Establishment Pill.
Yesterday, he had learned that obtaining a Foundation Establishment Pill required exchanging three thousand contribution points.
There were so many missions, including fetching water, guarding gates, washing clothes, and cooking. However, these were long-term assignments that required at least a full month of continuous work to count as completed, and they only awarded thirty contribution points.
He browsed for a long while. Plenty of missions suited him, but most offered far too few contribution points! In the end, Chen Ming accepted a mission to obtain the inner core of a first-tier fire-attribute monster. It was decent enough-at least it offered a hundred contribution points.
At the edge of the Ten Thousand Monster Mountain Range, Chen Ming chased a Fire Lizard with a large saber. Once he caught up, he swung the saber down at it.
With a bang, dust billowed everywhere, but the saber struck the ground. Just before Chen Ming's blade landed, at the moment when its life hung by a thread, an arrow shot through and pinned the Fire Lizard to a large tree.
Just then, a figure leaped down from a large tree to Chen Ming's left and rushed toward the Fire Lizard killed by the arrow.
"Damn it! You dare steal my business!"
At the sight, Chen Ming's anger flared. He charged straight over and threw a punch at the young man, who also wore the uniform of a Falling Moon Sect outer disciple.
Hearing the rush of air, the young man turned and leaped, then swung his palm back toward Chen Ming's face.
In the blink of an eye, Chen Ming twisted at the waist, opened his right fist into a claw, and grabbed for his opponent's right hand.
The young man lowered his right hand and pulled it back, smoothly redirecting the palm that had been aimed at Chen Ming's face toward the back of Chen Ming's right hand.
Seeing this, Chen Ming hurriedly withdrew his right hand and activated the Fireball Technique. Seven fireballs appeared above his palm. He thrust his palm forward, sending all seven shooting toward his opponent, then leaped back, grabbed the Fire Lizard, and turned to run!
The young man's expression changed at the sight of the seven fireballs. They were too close, and the Fireball Technique's attack was too fast for him to dodge. He could only muster all his spiritual power and form a protective barrier in front of himself.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The seven impacts shattered the young man's spiritual barrier, and a trickle of blood escaped his mouth. Seeing Chen Ming seize the opening to grab the Fire Lizard and flee, he burned with fury and hurried after him!
Chen Ming used the Skywalking Art to race toward the town. Once inside, he switched to Shrouding Smoke Steps, weaving through the crowds and forcing the young man to trail far behind!
"I'll remember you! You'd better not let me see you again!"
In the end, Chen Ming made it back to Iron Bamboo Peak. The young man could only watch him enter the peak's gates. Since he was not from Iron Bamboo Peak, all he could do was spit out those words resentfully.
"Junior brother, what's the name of that senior brother who just went inside?"
The young man composed himself, approached one of the gate guards, and handed over a low-grade spirit stone as he asked.
"Chen Ming!"
The gate guard answered after accepting the spirit stone.
"Chen Ming, is it? I'll remember you! You'd better not let me see you again!"
Ye Zhenying was an outer disciple of Wild Blade Peak. After learning the answer, he headed down the mountain, letting down the sleeves he had deliberately rolled up.
Wild Blade Peak and Iron Bamboo Peak already had a long-standing grudge. They had looked at each other with mutual dislike for hundreds of years.
Carrying the Fire Lizard, Chen Ming went to the mission hall and turned in his mission, then continued checking what other missions were available!
After looking for a long while, he found no more missions to obtain first-tier monster inner cores, while second-tier ones were beyond him.
In the end, he chose an investigation mission.
Chen Ming arrived at the location indicated by the mission and followed a narrow crevice into the mountain. He felt as though he had walked for a very, very long time.
The passage ahead gradually widened considerably. Strange carvings also covered the surrounding walls, but he could not understand them. Some depicted medicinal herbs, while others showed naked people with disheveled hair working those herbs in an even stranger enormous pot.
The mountain peak was not far away. Seemingly before long, Chen Ming stood at its foot. He looked up and sucked in a breath.
It was indeed a mountain peak, but no vegetation grew on it. Instead, it was bare and seemed to have been ground smooth. Numerous totems were carved across its surface: mountains and rivers, strange beasts, the heavens... There were even inscriptions he had never seen before, brimming with a primordial air, like something from a myth of the savage wilderness.