Shao Hai furrowed his brows, picked up one of the jade slips and looked at it to see for himself just how they looked from up close. Maybe he could figure something out from that? Looking at it more closely … He couldn’t see anything? Shao Hai turned the thing in his fingers but it stayed the same. There wasn’t anything to see on either side of the slip. Just what was going on?

He picked up a scroll next. Maybe there was something special about them? From the outside, all he could see were white slabs of jade that were connected by some shimmering thread. It was the same with all the scrolls though. Then maybe there were different things inside?

He unfurled it and was greeted by several rows of words that explained what the mission was about and where they had to go to solve it. There was also some additional information added on about what they should take note of.

Well, most likely, there would be a different task in each scroll? But this was strange. The disciples couldn’t go through all the shelves and open every single jade scroll to find a mission they liked, could they? No, there had to be something more about this …

Seeing Shao Hai pick up a jade scroll, Jing Yi inched closer and also looked at it. Unfortunately, he understood it even less than Shao Hai. After all, even though the villagers had talked about it when his family went to the capital, he had never learned how to read in the end. So to him, he only saw a shiny scroll with some strange symbols on it. It seemed very magical!

While Jing Yi admired the characters, Shao Hai furrowed his brows and put the scroll down, picking up the jade slip again. Never mind the scrolls, there weren’t as many of them so maybe the disciples were really supposed to pick them up and look, but what about these slips? There was nothing on them other than a faint carving. How did people know what their mission was with these? Could it be that you just picked one at random and brought it over to the disciple at the counter so he could tell you what it was about? But what if your level wasn’t high enough?

Shao Hai still tried to figure out what this jade slip was about when Jing Yi tilted his head to the side to peer into his face. "Is that a good one?"

"Ah?" Shao Hai flinched and looked up at him. "Why would you think so?" It couldn’t be that his Xiao Yi had figured this out before him, could it? Ah, that would be too embarrassing! Could he still pretend that he had known all along?

Jing Yi blinked his eyes. "You picked it up twice."

"Oh." Shao Hai scratched his head. So it was just that Xiao Yi trusted him very much … Well, he was very happy hearing that. But how was he supposed to answer his question now?

He wasn’t sure if this jade slip really represented a mission. Considering what his senior martial brothers had told him it should but … How? Could it be that they had just made fun of him and pretended for it to be like this? But that didn’t make sense either. If they weren’t missions, why would the sect but jade slips like these into the building and even show them this obviously in the shelves? There had to be more to this.

He didn’t really want to show in front of Jing Yi that he didn’t know about all this though so he couldn’t just explain. Wouldn’t he seem incompetent if he did? He pondered for a moment and finally straightened up. "I … I think this jade slip might be a pretty good mission. But since this is our first time getting one, we should make sure. So let me go and verify."

Jing Yi believed him and nodded, waiting at the same spot well-behaved while Shao Hai rushed off.

Shao Hai heaved a sigh of relief and approached a disciple that seemed quite a few years older than them. He tugged at that senior martial brother’s sleeve and gave a smile, trying to look like a cute, clueless junior. Actually, this might have been easier with Jing Yi around. When he looked at people, they normally couldn’t hold back from answering every question he had regardless of how strange it was. Well, he could hardly ask Jing Yi to come over so he could only thicken his face and go ahead. "Senior martial brother, can you explain to me how I can find out what this mission is about?" He held the jade slip in front of the senior martial brother’s face and curiously looked at him.

The young man looked from the jade slip to Shao Hai’s face and raised his brows. "How? Don’t you just need to imbue your spiritual energy?"

Shao Hai blinked his eyes. "Spiritual energy?" He had nothing of the like. What should he do now?

The older disciple glanced at the jade pendant that Shao Hai was wearing at his belt and understanding lit up his face. "Ah, you’re a practitioner. You should have told me so. Well, actually, it works the same way for practitioners too. It’s just that you need to imbue the energy that you gained from practicing your sword and meditating. Haven’t your senior martial brothers shown you how to do that?"

Shao Hai shook his head. He didn’t mind though. After all, he had already found out something very valuable: If Jing Yi wanted to look at these missions himself, he would need spiritual energy and that was something he could only gain if he cultivated. In that case, he didn’t even need to open this mission himself. He could just tell Jing Yi directly that he would only be able to look at them if he started cultivating. That should do the trick, shouldn’t it?