Chapter 2 : Preparing the Task
Chapter 2: Preparing the Task
Long Tao felt like he was about to cry.
Just moments ago, after obtaining the System, he had still been fantasizing about a blissful cultivation life with beauties on both arms.
In no more than a few breaths, he had already been tricked into fighting for survival.
In his previous life, when he read novels, he always skipped over those beginner dungeons like “hunting demon beasts and gathering spirit herbs.” After all, the protagonist would definitely clear them with ease; the only difference was whether the demon beast ended up as a pet or was killed on the spot for its demon core.
But now that it was his own turn to step onto the stage, he finally realized just how deadly those small dungeons he had skipped could be.
First of all, he did not even have the qualifications to go and sign in.
The minimum requirement to go to Windless Cliff was Qi-Refining Ninth Layer.
This was not the sect deliberately making things difficult; the System had just said so as well—there was at least one demon beast at Foundation Establishment Third Layer there.
An ordinary Qi-Refining disciple going there would simply be delivering food.
In fact...
that place was one no Qi-Refining disciple would go to at all.
Usually, Foundation Establishment disciples went there to complete trials, and he had heard they even went in teams.
......
In a daze, he arrived at the stone steps outside the sect’s task hall.
Watching disciples come and go, Long Tao suddenly felt an urge to cry.
What kind of mess was this? It would have been fine if transmigrating without a cheat, since he had planned to live a peaceful life anyway.
After finally waiting for a System, it turned out to be here to screw him over.
“Long Tao!”
A familiar call jolted him awake.
He raised his head and saw a face filled with concern.
“Senior Brother Jiayuan?” Long Tao forced out a smile.
“What’s wrong? Something on your mind today?”
“How could you tell?”
“You usually call me Brother Dong or Old Dong when we meet. Today you suddenly called me Senior Brother Jiayuan. And you only just got promoted to an outer sect disciple yesterday, yet today you look like you lost money. If nothing’s wrong, that’d be strange.”
This senior brother named Dong Jiayuan was from the same hometown as him and had entered the sect three years earlier.
Now he was already at Qi-Refining Ninth Layer.
Although he had no prominent background, his diligence and reliability had caught the eye of Elder Liu, who specialized in mechanism arts.
On ordinary days, he took good care of Long Tao, often leaving him the easier, more profitable tasks.
Long Tao opened his mouth.
Naturally, he could not mention the System, so in the end he could only make something up.
“When I went down the mountain earlier, I ran into a fortune-teller who said my fortuitous opportunity was somewhere inside the sect. I calculated it, and it turned out to be Windless Cliff.”
Hearing this, Dong Jiayuan could not help but laugh out loud.
“That’s it? There are so many senior brothers and sisters in the sect who are proficient in divination arts, yet you don’t go to them and instead believe some wandering con artist.”
“Sigh... I’m a bit superstitious, you know.”
“Is that so? I never noticed before. But if it’s really weighing on you, why don’t you just make a trip there?”
Seeing Long Tao suddenly lift his head, he continued,
“Sigh... that’s why I tell you to pay more attention to the sect’s miscellaneous affairs. If you just want to go to Windless Cliff once, you don’t necessarily have to participate in the trial. You can take the cleaning task at the mountainside. As long as you’re above Qi-Refining Third Layer, it’s fine.”
As if grabbing onto a lifesaving straw, Long Tao immediately stood up and grabbed the other’s sleeve.
“Old Dong! You’re truly my own brother!”
“Is it really that serious? Just some con artist’s words. You’re already an outer sect disciple of the Nine-Xia Heavenly Sect, after all.”
“It is, it is. But how come I’d never heard of such a cleaning task before?”
“What Qi-Refining disciple would go to a place like Windless Cliff? And that task doesn’t give extra spirit stones, so it’s usually assigned to Foundation Establishment disciples going for trials to do it along the way.”
......
After bidding farewell to Dong Jiayuan, Long Tao rushed in big strides to the front of the Yunxia Affairs Pavilion, craning his neck to look up at the gilt plaque.
Those five golden characters now looked like a lifesaving straw in his eyes; he only hoped it had not yet been picked up by someone else.
Strictly speaking, this place was originally called “Yunxia Affairs Pavilion.” “Task Hall” was merely the disciples’ private nickname for it.
Although it also handled other functions, to ninety-nine percent of the disciples, it was simply a place to receive assignments.
“Senior Sister, may I ask if there are still slots for the Windless Cliff mountainside cleaning task?”
The female disciple behind the counter, who also served as a deacon, was stunned upon hearing this.
She raised her head and glanced at Long Tao.
His looks were fairly decent, but he seemed a bit foolish; his eyes, however, were extremely eager, not like someone here to make trouble.
But she truly did not know of any mountainside cleaning task at Windless Cliff.
Moreover, that place had never been associated with Qi-Refining disciples in the first place.
“Senior Brother Wu, do you know if there’s any cleaning task for Qi-Refining disciples at Windless Cliff?”
At the female disciple’s call, an inner sect disciple with an eight-shaped mustache quickly arrived.
After glancing at Long Tao, he immediately gave an answer.
“There is indeed one, but...” He stroked his mustache and said, “This job has always been done incidentally by Foundation Establishment disciples going for trials, and the reward is no different from other cleaning tasks. Junior Brother, are you sure you want to take it?”
“Of course!” Long Tao bowed repeatedly.
“My cultivation is low. I thought I’d go see the world and motivate myself to cultivate diligently.”
The two behind the counter exchanged a knowing look.
Outer sect disciples always had some strange cultivation theories; they were long used to it.
The female deacon picked up her brush, wrote several lines in the register, then handed Long Tao a peachwood waist token.
“Alright. You can go directly to the mountainside entrance of Windless Cliff to report in. But a reminder—don’t run around. Judging by your clothes, they’re still new. You just got promoted to outer sect disciple, right? Don’t let joy turn into sorrow.”
“Thank you for the reminder, Senior Sister. I’ll be sure to pay attention!”
Long Tao bowed and withdrew.
The moment he turned around, his smile collapsed.
Joy turning into sorrow? I haven’t even been joyful yet and I’m already miserable, alright!
Returning to his residence, Long Tao hurriedly began sorting through his belongings to see if there was anything useful.
Previously, as a menial disciple, he had lived in a large communal bunk.
No one would buy him any valuable items or equipment, and Long Tao himself was no exception.
Apart from a few low-grade healing pills, he only had a fine steel sword he had brought from home—a mundane object with no spiritual power whatsoever.
However, this time the System was only forcing him to go and sign in.
That meant as long as he arrived at the designated location at the designated time, it would be enough; there was no need to hunt demon beasts.
Compared to weapons, all kinds of life-saving items were far more important.
But he was not some Child of Destiny blessed with destiny luck, completely unable to obtain the teleportation, invisibility, and similar treasures commonly found in novels.
He could only find a way to get the strongest tools he could currently afford.
......
Half an hour later, Long Tao stood at the counter of the Treasure Pavilion, clutching all the wealth he had accumulated over five years—two mid-grade spirit stones and ten low-grade spirit stones—looking exactly like a gambler about to wager his entire fortune.
“Senior Brother, I want to buy some life-saving items.”
The deacon disciple behind the counter glanced at him, then immediately lowered his head again and dismissed him casually.
“Back right corner behind me. The cheap stuff is all there.”
This attitude did not arouse even the slightest dissatisfaction in Long Tao.
Rather, he was here precisely for cheap goods—and not just any ordinary kind.
“Senior Brother, one more question. Are the defective practice pieces used by inner sect disciples also here?”
The deacon disciple finally raised his head and took another look at him.
“The stalls in the southwest corner.” He paused, then added, “I haven’t seen you before. New here? Then let me make the rules clear first—items over there are final sale. No returns.”
“Got it, got it. Thanks, Senior Brother.”
That the Treasure Pavilion sold failed and defective products from inner sect disciples’ pill refining and artifact refining was something Dong Jiayuan had told him.
He had simply never tried before.
After all, pills going wrong could cost lives.
But it was said that many outer sect and menial disciples liked to come here to “treasure hunt.” If their luck was good and they found something barely usable, they could take it to the independent cultivators’ markets outside and make quite a bit of money flipping it.
Arriving at the corner stall, an inner sect disciple sat listlessly in the middle.
Around the stall were all kinds of items, from pills to talismans to blades and swords.
“Oh! A new face!” The inner sect disciple looked up at Long Tao.
“Judging by your outfit... just promoted to outer sect? Budget’s not much, right?”
“Yeah. I won’t waste words with you, Senior Brother. This is all my wealth. Help me see if you can get some life-saving items, preferably ones that work well against demon beasts.”
“Good! I like how straightforward you are. Let me look for you.”
The stall owner immediately began picking things out.
Soon, he placed quite a few items in front of Long Tao.
“First, this Demon-Suppressing Talisman. It should have immobilized a Foundation Establishment demon beast for three breaths, but unfortunately my senior brother’s hand shook when drawing it, so the effect shrank to less than one breath. Still, it’s more than enough to deal with Qi-Refining demon beasts. How about forty low-grade spirit stones?”
Hearing the effect and the price, Long Tao felt somewhat conflicted.
But a Demon-Suppressing Talisman really could save a life at a critical moment, so being expensive was understandable.
Then he noticed a packet of Beast-Repelling Powder beside it and asked about it.
“Oh, this packet of Beast-Repelling Powder has too much cinnabar mixed in. It’s still effective against small demon beasts, but slightly larger ones—especially wolf- and hound-type—might get stimulated instead. As for the exact effect...” He hesitated.
“I can’t guarantee it, but at the very least it can be used as a smoke bomb. I’ve got to recoup the cost somehow.”
Long Tao hesitated for a short while, then made up his mind.
“These two together—thirty-five low-grade spirit stones.”
“You really bargain hard.” He waved his hand.
“Fine, fine. We’re from the same sect after all. That price it is.”
Naturally, Long Tao knew the other party still made a good profit on this deal, but he had no mood to haggle further.
He continued rummaging through the goods, and soon...
he saw a small porcelain bottle.
“Oh... this is Turtle-Breath Pill refined by Elder Xu last month. That batch didn’t turn out very well due to a disciple’s mistake in controlling the fire.”
“How bad is it?”
“I heard the effect is still there. It can fool most low-tier demon beasts, but instead of entering a typical feigned death, it puts you in a half-awake state, like sleep paralysis. In short, it’s very uncomfortable.
There are five pills in this small bottle. Twenty low-grade spirit stones. This thing is really hard to sell.”
“Alright. Uncomfortable is uncomfortable. If it comes to that, it’s better than dying.”
The price was not too outrageous.
Everyone knew the material cost of Turtle-Breath Pills.
If it were normal quality, he would never have been willing to buy such a small bottle.
After that, he also bought three low-quality Light-Body Talismans, one bottle of impurity-mixed Qi-Recovering Pills totaling six pills—said to have half the effect of normal Qi-Recovering Pills—and a second-hand cloak with no special effects but also no strange odor.
Leaving only a little money for emergencies, he hurriedly left the Treasure Pavilion, carrying a resolve to die as he prepared to head toward Windless Cliff, which might very well become his final resting place.