Another few days went by until Shao Hai finally took Jing Yi to a building that stood at the junction of the inner and outer sect. He had never come here before but one of his senior martial brothers had told him about it. This was the place where the sect gave out the missions the disciples could do.

The building itself was nothing special. It had three floors and there were missions with different levels of difficulty on each one. Because of that, the top floor could only be entered by the inner sect disciples. It wouldn’t have made sense for the outer sect disciples to enter anyway since none of them would be able to reach the level that would be needed to accomplish these missions. If any of them actually did, their talent was obviously much higher than that of an outer sect disciple should be or their luck was heaven-defying and they would’ve been taken into the inner sect long ago.

No, the outer sect disciples could only go to the other two floors. In fact, both of them were open for both the disciples of the inner and outer sect but most inner sect disciples wouldn’t bother about the first one at all. If they had only recently been taken into the inner sect and hadn’t yet cultivated for a long time, then they might go to the second floor but most of them felt that it was a disgrace.

No, these two floors were much more frequented by the outer sect disciples. Those that had been staying there for a long time and slowly climbed up the ranks would go to the second floor. Meanwhile, younger disciples like Shao Hai and Jing Yi who had only learned the basics or, well, nothing at all other than the most common theory would instead go to the lowest floor.

Shao Hai had found out as much when he talked to his senior martial brothers so that was where he brought Jing Yi. As usual, Xiao Dong was trudging along with them, not at all happy that Shao Hai had once again dragged out his king’s beloved. Would this never stop? Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do other than following along and making sure that Shao Hai didn’t go overboard.

Neither Shao Hai nor Jing Yi noticed though. Shao Hai was occupied with paying attention to Jing Yi while Jing Yi was curiously looking around. He had never been here and Shao Hai hadn’t told him where they would go today so he was curious what his friend might need help with. After all, it had already been quite a long time since Shao Hai asked for his help the last time. He wasn’t really sure after looking at the room they entered though.

This place looked a bit like one of the shops in the capital city. On the left was a counter and a disciple in a white robe stood behind it. Upon looking closer, Jing Yi could see small blue clouds embroidered on the disciple’s sleeve and lapel, showing that this person was a disciple of the inner sect.

Jing Yi curiously tilted his head. Even though they had already been in the Yun Zou Sect for over two years now, he had seldom seen inner sect disciples after his first encounters with Wu Min Huan. Seeing one now made him even more curious what Shao Hai wanted to do here and he turned around to him.

Shao Hai straightened up, hoping that Jing Yi would ask him about it. He had already asked his senior martial brothers and the reason was quite simple: This counter was the place where the disciples would register the missions they had chosen. The disciple that checked whether they met the requirements and gave them more information on the mission if necessary had to be someone who knew their way around the cultivation world. So the sect had strict requirements for who could take this task. Just having high talent wasn’t enough. No, having experience was much more important in this case! So this person had to be somebody who had been in the sect for a long time.

Very often, it was also somebody who had originally been in the outer sect and barely managed to squeeze into the inner sect after some time. After all, this wasn’t a prestigious job but it was still a necessary one. The talented inner sect disciples wouldn’t want to do it so it could only be given to somebody who didn’t have such a high aptitude. Well, the disciple doing this job could earn merits that way and gather cultivation resources so they normally wouldn’t mind even if the inner sect disciples looked down on them. It was still much better than whiling their time away in the outer sect.

Shao Hai really wanted to say all this but … Jing Yi just looked at him for a moment before turning back and didn’t ask. Ah, this was such a pity! Well, it seemed Jing Yi wasn’t too interested. He couldn’t help but feel disappointed. He had been sure that his Xiao Yi would care! After all, this person looked pretty much like what Jing Yi imagined a hero to look like, didn’t he? Well, it couldn’t be helped. Jing Yi wasn’t interested so he’d have to make him interested in something else.

Shao Hai grabbed Jing Yi’s hand and pulled him to one of the shelves lining the room. Seeing the many little compartments that each held a few jade slips or scrolls, Jing Yi immediately forgot about the heroic-looking disciples and focused all of his attention on the things in front of him.

These jade things … He had no idea what they were for. Once again, he turned to Shao Hai but stayed silent.

Shao Hai puffed up his chest and cleared his throat. Never mind that Jing Yi hadn’t asked. He certainly didn’t know so it couldn’t hurt to explain anyway. "These are missions that our sect is issued. Every disciple can come here and pick one up that he likes to earn merits in the sect."

Jing Yi nodded even though he didn’t really understand. He had heard about the missions before and also about the merits and it had seemed as if they were important. He should take note of this. He looked back at the jade slips and tilted his head to the side. "Then how do we know which one we like? They all look the same!"

Shao Hai turned to look and couldn’t help but blink. Indeed. Why did the jade slips all look the same?