DDT - Chapter 161

Chapter 161: Immortal Venerable × Meow Meow Cat (16)

A long time had passed since Chi Junluo's mission team had departed. After Immortal Venerable Qingyun had searched all the places on Qingyun Peak where her little disciple usually spent her time and found no trace of her, the intuition of a cultivator who had practiced for a millennium told her that something was amiss about her disciple's sudden disappearance. A faint sense of unease even lingered in her heart. The Immortal Venerable thought that perhaps her little disciple had gone to the grotto where the black-and-white spirit beast of unknown origin, which Yun Qian had mentioned, was located. Wanting to respect her disciple's privacy, she hadn't asked for details about the beast's hiding place before. Standing where she was, Immortal Venerable Qingyun released the divine sense of a Nascent Soul expert. A surging wave of spiritual power swept through every corner of Qingyun Peak's domain. She didn't miss a single grotto, large or small, yet she still found no sign of her little disciple. Silently retracting her divine sense, Immortal Venerable Qingyun frowned.

Since arriving at Qingyun Peak, her little disciple had barely stepped out, spending her days cultivating at the summit. She figured her disciple wasn't familiar with the Xianyuan Sect and hadn't had a chance to explore it properly. Based on her understanding of her disciple, Chi Junluo would not wander around the sect without a reason.

She recalled that before she left this morning, her two disciples had been cultivating together on the summit. Perhaps Yun Qian knew where his junior sister had gone?

Without a moment's delay, Immortal Venerable Qingyun formed a hand seal and instantly crossed the space of Qingyun Peak, appearing directly in her eldest disciple Yun Qian's abode.

Yun Qian was, after all, the eldest disciple of Qingyun Peak, the direct disciple of its Peak Master. His master was also a generous elder of the Xianyuan Sect, so for years, his cultivation resources had been top-tier, a treatment that disciples from other peaks couldn't compare to. The sun had already set, and the sky had grown dim. No candles were lit in Yun Qian's abode, but the spacious grotto was brightly illuminated by several night-luminescent pearls. When Immortal Venerable Qingyun arrived, Yun Qian was sitting quietly and properly at a stone table, reading an ancient text.

Immortal Venerable Qingyun did not conceal her aura, so the moment she arrived, Yun Qian sensed another person in his abode. However, he had lived on Qingyun Peak in peace for many years and knew that the peak's protective array was difficult for ordinary people to breach. His own abode was also well-hidden. Without even thinking, he realized the person who had arrived was his master.

Yun Qian set down the ancient text, rose unhurriedly, and bowed to Immortal Venerable Qingyun. He then looked up at his master, puzzled, as if he didn't understand why she, who rarely set foot in his abode, had suddenly come to see him.

Seeing the confusion in Yun Qian's eyes, as if he didn't understand what had happened, Immortal Venerable Qingyun wasted no time and asked directly, "Qian'er, have you seen your junior sister?"

Yun Qian maintained his respectful posture, a hint of confusion flashing through his eyes. He answered in a measured tone, "Disciple has not seen Junior Sister since we parted at the midday break."

Noticing the slight gravity on his master's face, Yun Qian took the initiative to tell her what his junior sister had said before the break.

"Before the midday break today, Junior Sister said she would not be cultivating with me in the afternoon. She said she was going back to complete the homework Master assigned."

Immortal Venerable Qingyun pondered her eldest disciple's words. Yun Qian kept his head slightly bowed as he spoke, certain that his master was lost in thought. For a long moment, there was no movement in the abode. Yun Qian glanced up slightly and saw Immortal Venerable Qingyun pressing her lips together, her gaze slightly unfocused—a common habit of hers when deep in thought.

Yun Qian's eyes lingered on her lips for a moment before he lowered his gaze again. As if suddenly remembering something, he broke the silence in the grotto.

"Disciple just recalled something," Yun Qian said, raising his hands in a salute. Feeling his master's gaze focus on him again, he spoke a little more quickly. "After Master left today, Junior Sister asked me if there was a place in the Xianyuan Sect to take on missions. Although I didn't understand why she would ask, I told her about the existence of Heiyun Hall."

Sensing the oppressive aura in the grotto intensify, Yun Qian quickly added, "Junior Sister is only at the eighth layer of Qi Refining, not yet at a suitable cultivation level for missions. I did not tell her the location of Heiyun Hall and warned her that now is not the time to consider taking missions. She must first cultivate diligently and break through to the Foundation Establishment stage."

After hearing what had happened at noon from Yun Qian, Immortal Venerable Qingyun felt a slight headache. She had been negligent these past few days. She was busy running around outside, but she had neglected her little disciple's psychological development and hadn't even taken the time to understand her personality. She was now almost certain that her little disciple had taken advantage of a moment when she was occupied to sneak off and accept a mission. Cultivators valued fortuitous encounters, so adventuring was an indispensable and crucial part of the cultivation world. Could it be that her little disciple thought she was already capable of leaving the sect for training?

Having learned of her little disciple's whereabouts, Immortal Venerable Qingyun did not linger in Yun Qian's abode. She nodded at her eldest disciple, gesturing for him to continue his reading, then formed a hand seal and vanished on the spot.

After his master teleported away, the disturbance in the spiritual energy was nothing more than a faint breeze stirring across the floor of the spacious abode.

Yun Qian looked at the spot where his master had disappeared and let out a low chuckle. He sat back down at the stone table. Spread open on the table was not some ancient text, but a book filled with the name of Immortal Venerable Qingyun, written over and over.

Yun Qian carefully closed the book, which was already somewhat worn from being flipped through, and set it aside. He then took out a blank book and a pen made from a spirit stone from his storage bag. Opening the book, he put the pen to the page, and in a fluid, graceful script, he wrote Immortal Venerable Qingyun's name again and again. He hummed an unknown tune, clearly in a very cheerful mood.

---

Heiyun Hall operated around the clock. The disciples who issued missions worked in six-hour shifts. The day shift had not yet changed, which would make it easier to check the daytime mission records.

Immortal Venerable Qingyun, who knew the Xianyuan Sect like the back of her hand, quickly flew to the airspace above Heiyun Hall on her sword. Anxious, she didn't land gracefully before the hall as she usually would before strolling inside. Instead, she recalled her life-bound sword and instantly formed a hand seal, appearing in the center of Heiyun Hall. The entire sequence was so fast that no one could react. The disciples chatting sporadically outside the hall only saw a streak of black light flash past and disappear above the main hall.

Immortal Venerable Qingyun stood in the middle of the hall and briefly scanned the nearby mission walls. More than half of the missions were still unassigned. For the missions that had been taken, if a direct disciple of a peak master accepted it, a silver character for "disciple" would be displayed. For inner-sect disciples, it was a dark gray character. However, on the mission walls where disciples usually took tasks, there wasn't a single silver "disciple" mark.

Immortal Venerable Qingyun simply swept the area with her divine sense and spotted a silver mark on the yin-yang mission board. She walked over quickly.

It was an assigned silver-patterned mission. Only inner-sect disciples and true-inheritance disciples were qualified to accept silver-patterned missions. These types of missions offered rich rewards but also carried the highest risk. Furthermore, this silver-patterned mission was on the yin-yang mission board, meaning it was a covert mission. The public information only provided the location and a general background. Only the person who accepted the mission could receive the mission's hidden scroll after identity verification. The hidden scroll contained the true objective and requirements.

To put it bluntly, it was a mission whose contents ordinary people had neither the right nor the strength to know.

Immortal Venerable Qingyun felt that there was something inexplicably strange about this. If her little disciple simply wanted to leave the sect for training, even if she was exceptionally talented and courageous, with the pride of a genius, she wouldn't be so blinded by her rapid progress in recent days. Immortal Venerable Qingyun believed her little disciple had a clear understanding of her own abilities. Going out for training was indeed a bit risky, but when accepting a mission, she certainly wouldn't be arrogant enough to choose one that was dangerously beyond her capabilities.

Moreover, most of the ordinary missions on the board were still unassigned, so her little disciple should have had plenty of choices. Why did she pick a mission that was clearly impossible for someone at her level to complete?

Immortal Venerable Qingyun checked the mission assignment records on the yin-yang mission board. On the list for the mission to suppress bandits in the Southern Xuan Kingdom, the words "Qingyun Peak, Chi Jun" were clearly written.

Immortal Venerable Qingyun: …

The disciple before her was the one who had been handling the day shift. Immortal Venerable Qingyun had this unremarkable-looking disciple describe what happened when her little disciple came to accept the mission.

"Replying to the Immortal Venerable, during the day, a junior sister holding the token of a Qingyun Peak direct disciple came to accept a mission. This disciple informed her of the requirements for each type of mission, but she insisted on taking this covert mission to the Southern Xuan Kingdom. Since a disciple of my low status cannot refuse the request of a direct disciple, I assigned the last spot for the mission to her."

The mission-issuing disciple was plain-looking and did not lack etiquette. He spoke of the earlier events with a calm and composed demeanor, seemingly unfazed by the somewhat unreasonable direct disciple he described. Immortal Venerable Qingyun stared into the disciple's eyes but saw no ripples. Logically, he shouldn't be lying.

Immortal Venerable Qingyun gave a curt nod and asked for the hidden scroll for this covert mission. She opened it to read.

On the surface, this covert mission to the Southern Xuan Kingdom was about suppressing bandits, but the hidden scroll recorded something else entirely.

The Southern Xuan Kingdom was located in the southeastern part of the Nine Nether Profound Sky continent, right at the border between the continent and the Demon Realm. Ostensibly, there were several forbidden lands within the Southern Xuan Kingdom filled with miasma and rumored to be ominous. In reality, these were all passages between the Nine Nether Profound Sky and the Demon Realm, heavily guarded by Southern Xuan soldiers and Xianyuan Sect disciples.

During the day, the Sect Master had summoned all available elders for a meeting to discuss the instability of the Demon Realm passage seals on the Nine Nether Profound Sky.

There were multiple passages from the Demon Realm to the continent, scattered across various kingdoms, but the highest concentration was in the Southern Xuan Kingdom. The current seal instability was most severe there. The Sect Master had assigned several missions to some elders. As one of the strongest combatants in the Xianyuan Sect, Immortal Venerable Qingyun was temporarily ordered to guard the sect and await further developments before making a decision.

The background noted on the hidden scroll for this covert mission was that the monthly letters from the disciples stationed in the central city of the Southern Xuan Kingdom were suspicious. Unlike other sects, the Xianyuan Sect did not have strict formatting requirements for disciples' letters. However, for the past few months, the letters from this group of stationed disciples reporting on the situation had been identical in format. Yet, all the hidden marks within the letters were correct. After several checks, the Xianyuan Sect determined that the situation in the central city of the Southern Xuan Kingdom had changed. That was why they issued a mission for capable inner-sect disciples to form a team and investigate. The mission required a cultivation level of Foundation Establishment or higher. The team leader was an inner-sect disciple at the seventh or eighth layer of Foundation Establishment, considered quite powerful among the current generation of disciples in various sects. The team consisted of 30 people, with an average cultivation level around the fourth to fifth layer of Foundation Establishment.

"The mission requires a cultivation level of Foundation Establishment or higher. Did you check my disciple's strength at the time?" Immortal Venerable Qingyun's tone was indifferent, but an invisible pressure emanated from her.

The mission-issuing disciple remained composed, describing without a pause the process of testing the Qingyun Peak true-inheritance disciple's strength at noon.

Immortal Venerable Qingyun carefully studied the young disciple's eyes but saw no sign of guilt.

She gave an emotionless "en." According to this disciple, who didn't seem to be lying, her little disciple's cultivation had tested at exactly the first layer of Foundation Establishment at noon. Therefore, she had successfully accepted the mission and had already departed with the team.

From what she had learned from the Sect Master today, the situation in the Southern Xuan Kingdom was not good. Immortal Venerable Qingyun did not want her little disciple to have any connection with the Demon Realm when her strength was so low. Not even a tangential one.

But now, her little disciple had taken a mission that sent her straight into the heart of a region connected to the Demon Realm.

In the end, Immortal Venerable Qingyun left Heiyun Hall with a dark expression, clutching the mission's hidden scroll and frowning.

Immortal Venerable Qingyun did not immediately chase after them in the direction of the Southern Xuan Kingdom. With a thousand years of cultivation, she had a firm grasp of the general layout of the various kingdoms and the continent of Nine Nether Profound Sky. She was also familiar with the route from the Xianyuan Sect to the central city of the Southern Xuan Kingdom. The kingdom was not very far from the sect. Based on the speed of a fifth-layer Foundation Establishment cultivator, the mission team should have already entered the borders of the Southern Xuan Kingdom by now. With the night being so dark, it would be difficult to find them even if she pursued them now. Immortal Venerable Qingyun decided to wait a few hours for the sky to brighten before giving chase.

For now, she sat in her small wooden cabin, carefully sorting through the day's events and everything she had just seen and heard.

Every aspect of this situation reeked of strangeness. These events might have been enough to deceive those cultivators who rarely ventured out and focused solely on improving their cultivation. But she, Immortal Venerable Qingyun, was an old veteran who had traveled outside the sect for hundreds of years. She was not so easily fooled.

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