Main Text, Chapter Ninety-Three: The Plot Advances

At the outset, the Elders’ Council will jointly witness your admission review, Fellow Daoist Jiang. The procedure is very simple. You need only answer a few questions from Fellow Daoist Han and demonstrate your strength.

Lu Qiu gave Jiang An a brief explanation.

The Fellow Daoist Han he mentioned was the only woman present. She looked to be in middle age, though in truth she was already over sixty; she had merely preserved her youth with remarkable skill.

“Very well. Jiang will comply with the arrangements.” Jiang An had long since passed through such minor rites of entry many times.

“Fellow Daoist Jiang, let me make this clear in advance: I am a practitioner of arcane arts and possess a small divine ability. One of my abilities is called Heart Inquiry, and it can distinguish truth from falsehood in another’s words. So please answer carefully. Of course, my questions are very simple and will not touch on anything private,” the female adept said calmly.

“Jiang understands. Please go ahead, Fellow Daoist.”

“Good. First question: what is your real name?”

“Jiang An!”

“Can you remain loyal to the nation of China?”

“Yes!”

It was an exchange of utter brevity.

“Very well. My questions are complete. There is nothing unusual,” the female cultivator said after closing and reopening her eyes.

Do not be fooled by how absurdly simple those two questions were; they were enough. If he were a spy from hostile foreign forces, either question would be enough to expose him. Of course, it could not be denied that a proper Chinese citizen might have been bought over by foreign powers, or possess some miraculous secret art that could block perception. But such a possibility was exceedingly small, because every person who joined the mountain estate had already been investigated countless times. Anyone with even the slightest suspicion would never reach this place to undergo Heart Inquiry in the first place, and no secret art capable of blocking the perception of Heart Inquiry had ever appeared.

And because the dignity of a grandmaster had to be taken into account, no overly blunt questions would be asked.

“Good. Heart Inquiry passed. Next, please demonstrate your grandmaster-level cultivation,” Lu Qiu said again.

No sooner had he spoken than everyone saw Jiang An, who had been seated cross-legged, slowly rise into the air. Then he extended his right hand, and a fireball appeared out of thin air, radiating fierce heat.

The female adept’s gaze tightened. Just as Wang Bixuan had said, he cultivated both martial and mystical arts, and his spells came as naturally as breathing. He followed the lineage of the ancient Qi refiners.

“Good, that will do. Everything has been confirmed without doubt.”

Lu Qiu smiled faintly, then lightly patted a distinctive gray pouch at his waist. With a flash of white light, a palm-sized jade disc of green hue appeared in his hand, engraved with profound, intricate runes.

“This is a storage pouch. I imagine Fellow Daoist Jiang has heard of such things, but its methods of manufacture were long ago lost to the world of men, and the mountain estate has only a limited stock, so not everyone may have one. The artifact in my hand is called a Green Jade Disc. As long as Fellow Daoist Jiang drips a single drop of your blood onto it, you will truly be admitted to the mountain estate, and may choose a mountain peak here as your place of cultivation.” Lu Qiu explained patiently.

Jiang An had long since ceased using a storage pouch. That was a tool for low-level cultivators. At the level of true experts, one simply opened a storage space of one’s own. But if blood was required...

“May I refrain from dripping blood?” Jiang An asked with some difficulty, though his expression remained firm.

Lu Qiu looked at him for a moment, then after a brief pause said, “The blood each fellow Daoist offers is preserved by us and nothing unexpected will happen. Of course, if you truly do not wish to provide blood, you may instead infuse a strand of your own spiritual power. However, in that case, the Elders’ Council’s trust in you will decrease, your promotion will be slower, and you should think this through carefully.”

“I have thought it through very clearly. Then I will simply infuse a strand of spiritual power,” Jiang An said. Naturally, he had a reason why he could not shed blood, but he could not explain it to them.

With that, Jiang An sent a thread of spiritual power into the jade disc in Lu Qiu’s hand. The disc hummed, then burst with white light, rising more than ten feet into the air and forming a three-dimensional map like a sand table. At a glance, it was clearly the terrain of the mountain estate. Most of the mountain peaks on the map were white, while a smaller number were somewhat dim.

“The white peaks are already occupied, while the dimmer ones are available for selection. Fellow Daoist, whichever peak you favor, simply infuse another strand of spiritual power there.”

Jiang An took a look and casually chose a rather secluded mountain peak. Then, with a flick of his sword finger, a stream of spiritual power shot out, and that peak immediately lit up as well.

“Good. The peak you have chosen is Emerald Peak. It already has ready-made quarters for cultivation. However, I must state this in advance: the spiritual energy of the mountain estate is several times denser than that of the outside world. Whether you are a martial grandmaster or an arcane practitioner, it will aid your cultivation. But one cannot live here for nothing. As the chief steward, you may reside here for at most half the year. Only after achieving great merit in exchange, or rising to the rank of honored guest, may you live as you please, though you will still have to accept assignments.”

Jiang An did not object. After all, everyone wants to use good public resources. If there were no rules at all, who would be willing to go out and handle matters? It would be far better to cultivate every day. Not only is the spiritual energy within the estate dense, it also houses countless secret manuals and treasures, holds regular exchange gatherings, and is guarded by so many great experts. It was practically a sacred land of cultivation in the mortal world. As for assignments, naturally some are hard and some are easy, and the rewards vary accordingly.

Seeing that Jiang An had no objection, Lu Qiu’s expression suddenly turned solemn.

“Next, we must speak of your first assignment.”

As he spoke, Lu Qiu subconsciously glanced at Song Han. Seeing that he made no move to avoid suspicion, he let it be.

At these words, several elders who had been half-lidded a moment ago suddenly opened their eyes wide, and the atmosphere seemed to grow strangely tense.

“Elder in Charge of Merit, please continue,” Lu Qiu said, with something almost like helplessness in his tone.

Elder Yuan Yong, who oversaw merit, gave Jiang An a slight smile.

“The estate’s assignments vary in difficulty. Lower-difficulty tasks are easier to complete, but the rewards are naturally smaller. Higher-difficulty tasks carry greater risk, and the rewards are greater as well. Moreover, completing one high-difficulty assignment can free you from taking tasks for quite some time. Fellow Daoist Jiang, would you prefer a high-difficulty assignment or a low-difficulty one? You may choose for yourself rather than being assigned by the estate.”

Hearing that one could avoid assignments for a period after completing a high-difficulty task, Jiang An was somewhat tempted. But recalling what Ouyang Shi had said, he sensed something unusual and felt as though Yuan Yong was deliberately steering him toward a high-difficulty mission.

He remained composed and asked, “May the elder name a few tasks so that Jiang may make his choice?”

“That is no problem. Low-difficulty tasks are generally things like guarding a certain location, gathering intelligence, or protecting important figures from the central government. They tend to take a long time. High-difficulty tasks, on the other hand, usually require crossing national borders and may involve combat. I can mention a few at random for you, such as accompanying the navy on a visit to the United States under an assumed identity to gather intelligence; or going to some South American country to eliminate the grandmaster Fang Yizhi, who betrayed the nation sixteen years ago; or going to Southeast Asia to support two divine-level special forces squads and another steward of the mountain estate...

Wait!”

Jiang An’s expression shifted slightly. “Please elaborate on the last support mission.”

The amusement in Yuan Yong’s eyes deepened, but his face remained stern as he said, “About a month ago, the state sent the Divine Direction special operations squad from the central theater into the Golden Triangle region of Southeast Asia for a covert mission. A few days later, information came back that they had fallen into an ambush and were trapped by forces dozens of times their number. The military then dispatched the Divine Dragon special operations squad from the eastern theater. They had trained in the body-refining art you provided, and their strength had greatly increased. The higher-ups believed that would be enough, but who would have thought that as soon as the Divine Dragon squad arrived, contact was lost? Only a few days ago did they intermittently send a distress cipher, reporting that they had been attacked by an unknown grandmaster-level expert and suffered heavy casualties. In response, the Mountain Estate of the Protector of the Nation urgently sent a grandmaster to provide support. The result was that even this grandmaster also lost contact. Considering the complex situation in Southeast Asia, the higher-ups judged that they were likely in grave danger and still needed reinforcement, so this assignment was added to the list. The Elders’ Council is currently considering who should be sent to carry it out.”

Jiang An listened in silence, yet his heart was already surging.

He could be certain that this support mission had been prepared entirely for him! Who did not know that he was the instructor of the Divine Dragon squad in the Eastern Theater? But why was Yuan Yong so certain that he would take this mission?