Chapter 67 – The Tragedy of a Fallen Institute
The sun was already below the horizon, the beautiful sunset illuminated the entire Windy Mountains in a shade of pink.
Walking out of the horse stables at the bottom of the mountain, Ye Chen organized his clothes and started walking up the mountain, along with some of the other inner disciples who had also just returned after finishing their missions.
On the way up, everyone was chatting.
“Brother Miu, I heard that you had taken on a four-star white rank mission? That is so impressive.”
“Brother Fang, you are flattering me too much. I only took the most easiest one, I was too scared to take on a harder one, unlike that Zhang Haoran.”
“Zhang Haoran is just a lunatic. He chose a three-star white rank mission as his first mission, the second one was a four-star white rank mission, the third time he actually chose a five-star white rank mission! I wonder if he could even make it out alive.”
“It would be quite hard. Although he is a genius who can fight evenly against warriors with cultivation level higher than his own, he would not be able to do so if he met another genius with a higher cultivation. Even a Mid Condensing Reality Realm warrior would have to be very cautious when it comes to a five-star white rank mission. If he is not careful, he might even lose his life. Last year, brother Yuan had lost his life on a five-star white rank mission.”
“Right, Zhang Haoran is probably in a dangerous position. But, if he could make it out, he would become unstoppable. The moments where you put your life on the line and fight for it, are very hard to come by. But, once you make it through such situations, your mental strength would grow rapidly.”
On the other side, Ye Chen was deep in his own thoughts.
He could not believe that after becoming an inner disciple, Zhang Haoran was willing to risk his own life, to get even stronger. It was almost as if he was treating his own life as a joke. Such people were actually the most terrifying, as they were not afraid of losing their lives, and would continue to chase after strength, regardless of anything else.
In a way, Zhang Haoran was very much similar to Ye Chen. He was risking his life to become stronger. He chose a three-star white rank mission as his first mission, in order to gain enough experience and get used to the process of completing a mission. Then he took a four-star white rank mission, which was harder than his first mission, to find his own limits. Once he reached his limit, he decided to take on a five-star white rank mission, so that he could break through his limits and get stronger.
Subconsciously, Ye Chen already saw Zhang Haoran as someone that could be named along with the top four young masters. This was not only because of his cultivation level, but also due to his potential and talent, his passion and determination to get stroger. Ye Chen actually appreciated and admired Zhang Haoran’s determination. As for Ye Chen himself, he felt that he would also get stronger with time.
As soon as he arrived at the Floating Cloud Palace, Ye Chen went in and walked towards a side room.
“Sir, I am here to hand in my mission.” There were a lot of attendants present in the Floating Cloud Palace. These attendants did not have high cultivation levels, and they mainly helped the missions department in the Sky Cloud Martial School.
Sitting by the table, a middle aged attendant nodded, “Show me the mission sheet and the proof.”
“Here.”
Ye Chen placed the mission sheet and the head of the Bloody Butcher on the table.
The middle aged attendant looked at the mission sheet, and then opened the black cloth that had been wrapped around the head. He said after examining it: “Well done, it is indeed the Bloody Butcher, congratulation for finishing the job, your name?”
“Ye Chen.”
“Wait, let me have a look.” As soon as someone became an inner disciple, all their personal information would be sent to the Floating Cloud Palace to be stored for future reference.
Soon after, the middle aged attendant had found Ye Chen’s information.
He then took out a black booklet from the drawer, and registered Ye Chen’s information and mission score.
Name: Ye Chen
Age: 15
Background: member of the Ye family, inner disciple
Inner disciple test result: Excellent
Mission score: Three-star white rank mission x1
“Take a look, see if there are any mistakes.” The middle aged attendant placed the black booklet in front of Ye Chen.
Ye Chen only took a glance before he nodded, “Yes, that is correct.”
“Alright, let’s talk about the reward. You might not know about this, since you had just become an inner disciple. According to the rules of the Sky Cloud Martial School, the school would take thirty percent of the reward from any white rank missions; twenty-five percent from grey rank missions, and twenty percent from the black rank missions. The reward for killing the Bloody Butcher is four thousand gold, after taking away thirty percent of it, you will get two thousand eight hundred gold.”
As he put the black booklet back in the drawer, the middle aged attendant explained.
‘Thirty percent of the reward, is indeed a lot. But it does make sense though, since the martial institution plays a major part in training you to be who you are now. It is now our turn to pay back to the school. Also, every mission seems to have a bonus income, which could sometimes be even higher than the reward itself. ‘
After receiving the two thousand eight hundred gold notes from the middle aged attendant, Ye Chen left the side room.
The next day, Ye Chen did not take on another mission.
Not the day after either.
On the third day after his return, the Floating Cloud Palace became crowded once again.
Zhang Haoran, who was presumed to be dead by everyone, came back completely covered in blood. His murderous aura could be sensed from faraway itself. This attracted a great deal of attention from the other inner disciples, and they came to check it out.
Wu Zongming who had just returned earlier saw this and gave a peculiar look. ‘At this rate, I will never be able to catch up to him. His determination is indeed shocking.
Cleaning the blood off his face, Zhang Haoran looked around the room, until he saw Ye Chen standing in the crowd. He laughed and said: “Ye Chen, I will be waiting for you at the ranking competition.”
“Who is this Ye Chen?”
“Why would Zhang Haoran wait for this Ye Chen? Is he even worthy of Zhang Haoran’s attention?”
Hearing Zhang Haoran’s words, a lot of the inner disciples were a little confused, as most of them had missed the battle between Zhang Haoran and Ye Chen. Everyone had been busy with their missions and training. So, they haven’t heard the rumors either. But, now that this happened, they would probably go ask around and learn of the whole story.
Ye Chen replied seriously: “Certainly.”
Time traveled fast, another half month went by just like that.
During the past two weeks, Ye Chen had only taken one four-star white rank mission, he had been training for the rest of the time. As for the reason why he didn’t take on a five-star white rank mission, it was because there were no suitable missions available. Some were too easy and thus ranked as a four-star white rank mission, or they were too difficult and required a longer time to complete. And most importantly, he felt that his Pure Jun Zhen Qi art was about to reach the seventh stage. This was very important to him because if he could soon reach the seventh stage, there would be an enormous increase in his training speed.
On the same day, there was a shocking news that travelled back to the Sky Cloud Martial School.
After enquiring a little, Ye Chen finally learned the whole story.
The Evil Earth Martial School present in the north-west of the Windy Nation had been exterminated. Eighty Clasping Yuan Realm warriors were all killed, and thousands of disciples had either been killed or terribly wounded. Only a small number of people managed to escape this tragedy.
When he heard of this news, Ye Chen thought about the night when he witnessed the five ghosts carrying a coffin.
The Evil Earth Martial School was also a rank 9 martial institution like the Sky Cloud Martial School. However, the latter was the most powerful one among all the rank 9 schools, it could even compete with some of the rank 8 martial institutions. It was still listed as a rank 9 school, only because it needed a long time before its rank could be improved.
Otherwise, the Windy Nation would not list the Sky Cloud Martial School as one of the top five institutions present, when there were dozens of other martial institutions in the Windy Nation.
But still, the news of a rank 9 martial institution like the Evil Earth Martial School being exterminated, still shocked everyone.
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Translated by : Sheryl Edited by : Jaggerjakk