Chapter 3 : Had He Just Run Into the Child of Destiny Like This
Chapter 3: Had He Just Run Into the Child of Destiny Like This?
Nine-Xia Heavenly Sect, as a super sect that dominated one region, had been formed through the merger of three major sects.
Its sheer scale was comparable to that of a small country.
Not only did it govern territory spanning over a thousand li in radius, but nearly all of the lands under its rule were prime feng shui and resource-rich areas.
Hundreds of cities, towns, and villages were scattered across the land like stars, and within the sect’s mountain gate range itself, there were even three mortal cities, their worldly bustle even more vibrant than that of many secular cities.
Long Tao had once roughly estimated that the sect’s governed territory was about the size of a province from his previous life, while the core domain—that is, the sect’s heartland within the traditional mountain gate—was slightly larger than a second-tier city.
Although this scale was insignificant compared to famous imperial dynasties, for a sect, territory and population were not a case of “the more the better.” Having enough was sufficient; what truly mattered were the earth veins and resources.
For ordinary people to move around within a sect the size of a city, relying solely on their legs was clearly impractical.
Fortunately, the sect had a comprehensive transportation system, ranging from cloud vessels of various sizes to teleportation arrays between peaks.
Everything was available.
As for low-tier disciples like Long Tao, the most commonly used was a medium-sized cloud vessel that flew along fixed routes, more or less like a bus from his previous life.
This thing was cheap, and its speed was famously slow.
By the time Long Tao arrived at Windless Cliff, there was no need to even look up at the sun.
“Yo! Finally waited for a Qi Refining disciple to take the cleaning task!” The senior brother stationed at the checkpoint was a round-faced man.
After hearing Long Tao’s purpose, he immediately greeted him enthusiastically.
Long Tao was somewhat surprised.
He had originally thought his status would earn him perfunctory treatment, but he had not expected the other party to be so warm.
“Senior Brother, aren’t there Foundation Establishment disciples doing trials here who are responsible for cleaning?”
“Ah! Don’t even mention it!” The round-faced senior brother waved his hand, revealing a look of disdain.
“Most of those guys come back from their trials covered in injuries. Even those who aren’t injured are completely exhausted. They just swing the broom a couple of times and call it done. We can’t really say anything about it.”
As he spoke, he took out a jade slip from his sleeve and lightly tapped it against Long Tao’s waist token, recording the task information.
“Once you cross the floating bridge behind me, you’ll officially enter Windless Cliff. Just clean along the mountain path upward. The area at the foot of the mountain is all wasteland and loose stones, so no need to bother with that. Just clear away the dead branches and rotten leaves along the road. You can throw them straight down the mountain too.”
As he spoke, the round-faced senior brother handed him a shovel and a fairly new firewood chopper.
“Got it. But I won’t accidentally wander into the trial area, right?”
Although the purpose of this trip was precisely to sneak into the trial area, he still asked instinctively.
“No need to worry about that. There are boundary markers around the trial area as reminders. Unless you’re illiterate, you definitely won’t accidentally trespass. And those demon beasts on Windless Cliff all like that windless environment. Under normal circumstances, they won’t randomly run down the mountain.”
After asking a few more minor details, Long Tao bid farewell to the gatekeeper senior brother and carried the shovel and firewood chopper across the floating bridge.
Although this place was called Windless Cliff, it was really only windless at the top of the mountain.
Around the mid-mountain area, there was still quite a strong mountain wind.
Coupled with its proximity to the checkpoint, the first stretch of road was quite clean and did not require him to do anything.
However, after walking upward for about two quarters of an hour, the situation changed.
The originally strong mountain wind gradually weakened, and dead branches and fallen leaves began to accumulate on the road, no longer able to be blown away.
Although he had been forced to come by that System, the work that needed to be done still had to be done.
Long Tao picked up the shovel and began shoveling the various branches and debris on the road to the roadside, or simply throwing them off the cliff.
Along the way, he also saw several piles of feces, most likely left behind by the demon beasts at the mountain top.
This stuff was actually good for Qi Refining disciples like them, because the feces might contain fruit pits from spiritual fruits or partially undigested spiritual herbs—absolute windfalls.
His luck this time was indeed good.
After rummaging through them with the firewood chopper, he really did find several fruit pits still carrying spiritual energy among a few piles of feces, some of which were quite rich in spiritual energy.
After carefully storing those fruit pits in the cloth pouch at his waist, he glanced toward the west.
The sun was about to set.
“The cleaning task isn’t urgent anyway...” he muttered softly while casually pushing aside the fallen leaves on the road with his shovel.
According to sect rules, this kind of menial task did not necessarily have to be completed on the same day.
As long as the final inspection passed, dragging it out for a day or two was fine.
Thinking of the easygoing demeanor of the round-faced senior brother at the checkpoint, Long Tao was certain the other party would not mind him slacking off a bit.
Just as he was figuring out how to deal with tonight’s deadly System Task, a seated figure suddenly appeared at the bend in the mountain path ahead.
Long Tao’s heart tightened, and almost by conditioned reflex, he completed a full set of salutations—lowering his head, bending his body, and clasping his fists—his movements so smooth they looked as if he had practiced them thousands of times.
There was no helping it.
He was the only one who had taken this cleaning task.
Anyone appearing at Windless Cliff at this moment would at the very least be a Foundation Establishment disciple here for trials, or possibly even a Golden Core big shot here to dissect demon cores.
Whoever it was, playing the submissive first could never be wrong.
“This Senior Brother need not be so polite.”
A youthful voice rang out above his head, carrying a hint of apology.
Long Tao quietly raised his eyes, only to see a pair of cloud-stepping boots embroidered with golden thread patterns.
This was not something an ordinary Foundation Establishment disciple could afford to wear!
“I am Nan Yuchen, a disciple of Moon-Washing Peak. I am heading to the summit of Windless Cliff and stopped here to rest for a moment. May I ask how Senior Brother is addressed?”
What? Long Tao suspected that he had just heard a certain name.
He froze for a moment, then looked up.
Before him stood a youth of about fifteen or sixteen. His brows and eyes were gentle, like a painting, a faint smile hanging on his face. There was none of the arrogance he had imagined—he looked more like a neighbor’s little brother.
But the exquisite jade token at his waist representing a Personally Transmitted Disciple, along with the name he had just reported, clearly indicated his identity.
Nan Yuchen—one of the most frequently heard names in the sect over the past two years.
Genius, prodigy, once-in-a-century, once-in-a-millennium—any good words one could think of were piled onto him.
At the same time, he was also one of the culprits who had caused Long Tao to come here to die.
Someone like this would normally have no intersection with Long Tao at all.
At most, Long Tao would see him from afar during various ceremonies or competitions, feel a bit of envy and jealousy, or, like now, exchange a greeting upon a chance encounter.
“So it’s Junior Brother Nan! I’ve long heard of your great name. I didn’t expect to meet you here!”
Nine-Xia Heavenly Sect was different from most sects.
Below Golden Core, unless there was a direct lineage relationship, seniority was determined solely by the order of entry.
Other sects, however, followed the rule that as long as one’s cultivation was higher by one major realm, regardless of age or order of entry, lower-tier disciples had to address higher-tier disciples as Martial Uncle, embodying the cultivation-supremacy law of the cultivation world.
If the two of them were in another sect, Long Tao would have to call this child who had entered the sect just over two years ago “Martial Uncle” right now.
Just thinking about it felt awkward.
Awkward as it was, the surface attitude still had to be maintained.
Moreover, at present, this kid himself seemed quite innocent... no, wait.
There was no such thing as an innocent Child of Destiny, unless it was himself.
“Senior Brother is too polite. Judging by your appearance, Senior Brother is cleaning the mountain path? One really rarely sees Qi Refining disciples come to Windless Cliff.”
If it were someone else, being asked this way by a junior who had entered later, was younger, yet was a whole major realm higher in cultivation would probably feel embarrassing.
But Long Tao had long since given up on maintaining his pride and did not care at all.
Instead, he began thinking about how to use this chance encounter to slightly increase his survival rate for tonight’s deadly task.
“System, if I find a way to let Nan Yuchen go to the sign-in location himself, can I avoid going?”
This question in Long Tao’s mind was his final struggle.
But given the System’s nature, he did not think he would get the answer he wanted.
“Impossible. The Host must personally arrive at the location to sign in. However, if the Child of Destiny Nan Yuchen is also present, the Host can obtain a Destiny Luck reward.”
Before he even had time to feel disappointed, Long Tao was drawn in by the last sentence about the Destiny Luck reward and quickly asked what it was.
“The initial task difficulty is not high, therefore the reward is 3 Soul Lamp points.”
As expected... placing any hope in this System would only lead to greater disappointment.
Forget cultivation techniques—he would not even give a shred of material reward, only willing to hand out some vague Soul Lamp points.
This thing was completely just an excuse the System used to get him killed.
And it was only 3 points.
If the next task failed, he would still die.
Of course...
that was assuming he could even live long enough to take the next task.
Ending his conversation with the System, he looked once more at the genius youth before him and said, a foolish grin on his face,
“Yeah. After all, with cultivation like mine, I don’t know how many years it will take before I can attempt Foundation Establishment, so I specifically took this task to come over and see this legendary Windless Cliff.”
When Nan Yuchen heard this, his eyes suddenly lit up a bit.
He proactively walked down the steps and said,
“Really?! When I had just entered the sect, I did the same thing. It’s just that I didn’t understand anything back then and didn’t take any tasks. I secretly ran over by myself, and afterward I got scolded badly by my Master and Senior Sister.”
Hearing this, Long Tao could not help but feel envy, jealousy, and hatred.
This kid was his master’s—and even the entire sect’s—treasure.
Of course they were afraid he might get even a scratch.
Although his looks could not be described as devastating to nations, he was absolutely the type that could stir maternal instincts in most women.
Long Tao did not even dare imagine what kind of heavenly life the other party lived in Moon-Washing Peak’s female-dominated environment.
“Then are you here for trials again this time? It’s already almost night.”
The youth’s eyes lit up, as if he had been waiting all along for someone to ask that question.
“I’m here to meditate! At night on the summit of Windless Cliff, there is no wind and no light, yet there is the killing intent of the wild. It can push one’s senses and awareness into a complete state. In that state, it’s very easy to comprehend some things.”
“Really?”
“It’s true. I’ve tried it several times already. Senior Brother, you’re around Qi Refining Fifth Layer right now, right? When you break through to the Ninth Layer in the future, you can try it as I said. There are some areas with hardly any demon beasts. It’s quite safe.”
Long Tao looked at the Child of Destiny before him with a somewhat suspicious gaze.
It wasn’t that he doubted what he said; rather, he couldn’t quite figure out his true identity.
He had always thought that so-called Children of Destiny were probably transmigrators like himself, or else some arrogant dandy who had been lucky since childhood and never suffered any losses.
But looking at this child who was just the right age to be his younger brother, he did not fit either of those categories.
No matter how he looked at him, he just seemed like a simple, foolish kid obsessed with cultivation.
He even considered testing him with code phrases like “Odd changes stay constant” or “Palace jade liquor,” but he quickly dismissed the idea.
The other party’s true background and character were completely unclear.
It was better not to expose himself.