“Pavilion Lord, Jiang Yi has accepted a mission, and he is teleporting towards Primordial Demon City.”
In the backyard of the Demon-Killing Pavilion, a wisp of a figure floated over. Xuanyuan Lingyan had been cultivating but was rudely yanked back to reality by a voice. Her expression changed, and she immediately said, “He has accepted a mission? What kind of mission?”
“It’s a sixth-grade mission. Secret envoys from the Netherworld Realm been discovered in an abyss in the east of Primordial Demon City recently. The Branch Halls have released a mission for three Demon-Killing Battle Gods to lead a team there and annihilate these spies from the Netherworld Realm!”
An elder dressed in completely black robes immediately ran in, ready to give updates. A weird expression appeared on Xuanyuan Lingyan’s face. Sixth-grade missions were extremely dangerous. They were talking about a secret branch of the Netherworld Realm, and they were even sending three Demon-Killing Battle Gods. This must mean that the secret branch contained high-level Netherworld Generals!
Netherworld Generals had terrifying Netherworld auras. If one was not careful, they might even become a lackey of the Netherworld Generals. Then, even deities would not be able to save Jiang Yi. Mo Lingqiu might even kill Jiang Yi himself.
Xiao Leng!
Xuanyuan Lingyan very quickly figured out what was going on. It looked like Jiang Yi was quite an intelligent man. He knew how to use Xiao Leng to fight for him for free.
Actually, young masters and young mistresses of great family clans often did things like that. They would ask formidable martial artists from their own clans to complete missions for them and accumulate battle merits on their behalf. Once their own cultivation levels improved, they would return to their great family clans. The clans would then use their power to push these people up to take important roles. Step by step, they would then get promoted.
This was also how Xuanyuan Lingyan became the Pavilion Lord as well. When she got back, she got posted to become a commander in the Earth Emanations City’s Demon-Killing General Pavilion. Then, she got promoted to become a Pavilion Branch Lord in the Prefecture.
“This mission concerns the Netherworld Realm. We cannot touch him this time. Once he gets back, report to me at once!”
Xuanyuan Lingyan pondered for a long while, not daring to harbor any weird thoughts. After all, the formidable martial artists of Blue Eagle Prefecture were leading the teams. They were on a mission to defeat the Netherworld Generals. If anyone found out she was trying to sabotage the mission, even the Xuanyuan Clan would not be able to save her.
Their Xuanyuan Clan might be considered very powerful within the Earth Emanations Domain’s Demon-Killing Pavilion; the Xuanyuan Clan was—in fact—the strongest family clan in Demon-Killing Pavilion. However, the General Pavilion’s Pavilion Lord was not their Clan Head. Her grandfather was only Assistant Pavilion Lord. He could not take matters into his own hands.
…
Buzz!
On the city plaza of Primordial Demon City, a light beam emerged from a teleportation array and shot into the sky. People kept teleporting in. Every last one of them was a formidable martial artist from Demon-Killing Battle General. There were at least three hundred people there already, and most of them were Demon-Killing Battle Kings. A few of them were peak-stage Demon-Killing Battle Generals.
This mission’s code name was ‘Execute Demons’. It was a sixth-grade mission. Demon-Killing Pavilion’s missions were split into nine grades. The higher the grade number, the more dangerous the missions were. In the past, Jiang Yi would not be worthy to take on such a mission at all. However, he was now the Hunting Envoy. He had some special privileges such as being able to accept seventh-grade missions and below.
The mission this time was pretty simple. They had to kill twenty Netherworld Envoys. However, the mission brief was very clear. They could meet high-level Netherworld Generals this time. If they did meet such Netherworld Generals, the Demon-Killing Battle Kings would definitely perish.
Where there was danger, the remuneration would often match. The mission this time was worth a hundred thousand battle merits. Thus, a few peak-stage Demon-Killing Battle Generals fought their hardest in order to sign up for a mission like that. All of them knew full well that if these three Demon-Killing Battle Gods could not tackle the high-level Netherworld Generals alone, they would perish for sure.
Buzz!
The teleportation array lit up once again, and Jiang Yi and Xiao Leng appeared. Jiang Yi was dressed in Demon-Killing Pavilion’s battle armor and carrying a medal that belonged to him. A fly on top of a wolf head—this was the symbol on the Hunting Envoy’s special medal.
“Greetings, Hunting Envoy!”
The three hundred or so Demon-Killing Battle Generals and Demon-Killing Battle Kings bowed down one by one. Many people mocked him secretly, but nobody dared to show him any disrespect to his face. The Hunting Envoy was quite a high rank. That was one rank higher than the Prefecture Lords of little cities, second only to the various Pavilion Branch Lords in the Prefecture region.
They mocked him inside, not just because of his skills alone, but also because of his status. In the eyes of the disciples of Demon-Killing Pavilion, this role would only be taken by disciples of great family clans. The Earth Emanations Pavilion had instituted twenty Hunting Envoys, and every single one of them was a disciple of a great family clan.
What’s more, Jiang Yi had a guard with him. Although Xiao Leng was not dressed in Earth Emanations Pavilion’s battle armor and looked nonchalant all the time, it was obvious that Jiang Yi had brought him here to complete the mission for him. Otherwise, why would a Demon-Killing-Battle-God-ranked martial artist stand behind Jiang Yi, a mere Battle General?
“En!”
Jiang Yi nodded slightly and then waved his hand. He led Xiao Leng to a side. Once the diplopia he was experiencing dissipated, he turned to Xiao Leng curiously and whispered, “Brother, is this mission very dangerous?”
“It’s not that dangerous. The Demon-Killing Battle Gods should have sent out at least one upper-tier Battle God. Even if there really are upper-tier Netherworld Generals present, there should not be too big of a problem… unless our luck is bad.” Xiao Leng continued in a low voice, “Don’t run around, and you will be fine. Listen to my instructions always, or I will not bother to save you.”
“Alright, alright!”
Jiang Yi nodded. It was good to have a free fighter on his behalf. He would be able to obtain a hundred thousand battle merits easily. If he could obtain the remaining four hundred and ninety-nine thousand battle merits in this manner as well, he could look forward to entering the Primitive Mystic Realm again.
“What are Netherworld Generals like? Can Netherworld Generals enter the Earth Emanations Domain as they please? Wouldn’t their Netherworld aura allow them to take control of many formidable martial artists here then?”
Speaking of Netherworld Generals, Jiang Yi recalled the terrifying skeletal giants that Xing Mengwan summoned. Something was confusing Jiang Yi. If living things in the Netherworld Realm could enter the Earth Emanations Domain whenever they pleased, they should be able to use their Netherworld aura to control entire cities. They could then cause the people in these cities to infect other humans. Wouldn’t that allow them to easily take control of this entire domain?
“It’s very hard for them to enter!”
Xiao Leng explained in a low voice. “The bigger the domain, the firmer the space is and the harder it would be for them to enter. These Netherworld Generals could make their way in secretly because random spatial flows would occur in the domain’s space from time to time. This would cause the space to become unusually weak in a certain area. These generals would then grasp the opportunity to invade the domain at that time.
“However, even then, only a few of them would be able to invade the domain because there are Hunting Envoys stationed just outside the domain. Soldiers of the Netherworld Realm Army would find it very difficult to get close. The moment they come in, many of Earth Emanations City’s altars would detect their presence. The Earth Emanations Pavilion, Battle God Pavilion, and Demon-Killing Pavilion would then immediately issue missions for them to be dealt with. Otherwise… the Earth Emanations City would have become a part of the Netherworld Realm a long time ago.”
“So that’s how it is!”
It suddenly dawned on Jiang Yi. His expression turned serious as he said, “Have the Netherworld Realm taken control of many domains in the Heaven Domain, Earth Domain, and Mortal Domain?”
“Yes!”
Xiao Leng’s expression darkened as he sighed. “Out of the five domains in Heaven Domain, the Netherworld Realm has already taken over four. There is only one left that the humans still have control over, and they’re trying their hardest to hang on. The Earth Domain is doing slightly better. Only hundreds of domains have been taken over by the Netherworld Realm. Of course… this is because the Heaven Domain is helping us to deal with most of the pressure. Out of the trillions of domains in the Mortal Domain, I guess that at least ten million have been taken over by the Netherworld Realm.
“If all the domains in the Mortal Domain and Earth Domain are taken over and no human formidable martial artists are left to ascend to the Heaven Domain anymore, then the entire world will be finished!”
“Is the situation so dire?”
Jiang Yi’s mouth twitched. He never understood much about the situation outside. However, seeing as how the Netherworld Realm had almost the entire Heaven Domain under control, one could clearly see how serious the situation was.
For some reason, he felt amused. Sighing, he said, “The situation outside is already so messy, and yet we still keep fighting amongst ourselves. Are we not keeping count of the number of human formidable martial artists who perish as a result of Earth Emanations Domain’s own civil wars?”
“That’s right, to have civil wars is human nature.”
Xiao Leng sighed sorrowfully before his expression turned sober again. “City Lord Jiang, remember this one thing: no matter what feud we have, none of it matters when we fight the Netherworld Realm. You also must not have any relations with the Netherworld Realm, or nobody above heaven or under the earth would be able to save you. The Netherworld Realm is the common enemy of all humans. Anyone with relations to the Netherworld Realm hass sold their souls to the devil. Everyone would have the right to kill someone like that!”
