Chapter 291: Hidden Figures

That night, the task administration pavilion was visited by a person wearing a black cloak and a mask on their face. Not an inch of skin showed, not even the voice was identifiable.

At this moment, there were no senior disciples working in the pavilion. All of them had officially left the sect for their final mission as outer court disciples. The remaining workers were either mortals or disciples from older generations who hadn’t managed to complete their graduation.

To summarize, almost none of them could be called a powerful cultivator, suitable only for desk jobs.

But since this was right in the heartland of the sect’s territory, the workers there weren’t really afraid of the secretive, suspicious stranger.

"Do you want to keep your identity hidden for some reason?" The lead administrator asked.

It wasn’t a particularly rare happenstance for them. They had dealt with many members of the sect trying to get the disciples to do jobs they didn’t want to be associated with, or accept a task that they didn’t want others to know.

"Yes, of course." The cloaked person nodded as expected.

"Will you be taking it or giving it?" The lead administrator asked as one of his assistants got ready to take notes.

"...What?"

"The task; do you wish to accept one or issue one?"

"Issue."

"Great! Give us the details, then. And remember, false information will be just as deadly for you as it is to whoever accepts your task."

The cloaked person seemed to take the warning seriously, making the administrator feel a little relieved inside.

"It is a very simple mission," they said while pulling out a folded piece of paper from their pocket and handing it over. The administrator found himself staring at a very detailed sketch of an unfamiliar man upon unfolding the paper.

"Good drawing! The technique is amateurish, but the features have been captured to perfection!" He couldn’t help but praise.

"Whoever drew this sketch must be a practitioner of Illusion Arts!"

The cloaked person didn’t answer. But the administrator could tell that this half-hearted jab at their identity hadn’t been received well.

"I need information on this man." The cloaked person spoke in a resigned manner after a moment of silence.

"His identity, his cultivation level, his family tree, his affiliations, where he was seen last, if there is any locality he visits frequently, or even a way to contact him... any relevant information is welcome. The more complete the profile, the better the reward."

"Ah, that’s not difficult to set up. But what rewards are you really offering for the mission? Can we get an estimated range?" The administrator asked, rather relieved that it wasn’t anything too shady.

Otherwise, he would have had to turn it down... unless, some extra payments were involved, all lawfully, of course.

A fat pouch full of spirit stones fell on his desk as the anonymous stranger retracted their gloved hands.

"That’s a full one thousand. If they can get me to meet this guy, a thousand more will follow. It is unnecessary to contact me. Just mark the mission status in the register as completed, and my people will inform me."

Leaving several workers slack-jawed behind the desk, the masked stranger retreated and disappeared into the dark night silently.

"...Inform the Elder. We’ll have a new mission topping the chart tomorrow," the lead administrator said after a short bout of silence.

"With a reward that high, I’m pretty sure some Elder in need of cash is going to snatch it up before any outer court disciple even notices it," his assistant muttered in amusement.

That night, the entire Salted Fish Mountain Peak was enveloped by a wave of toxic fog; hardly an unusual scene.

What really added an element of abnormality was a lone figure walking down the mountain, their steps as light as a cat in the oppressive darkness. This person didn’t seem to fear toxins carried by the fog at all!

But suddenly, they paused, stared in shock down the road for a tense moment, and then hurried sideways, sliding behind a bush. Several Mystic Arts were cast in quick succession, completely hiding this person from the senses of anyone who might walk by.

Step by step, someone eventually walked up and stood right where they had paused earlier, looking around suspiciously.

"Strange! I’m sure I sensed abnormal qi fluctuations here..."

The voice that floated over was not familiar to the person hiding behind the bush. The thick cloak and the full-face mask only added to the confusion.

Who is this? Why are they walking around on this mountain road amidst such a dense tide of fog? Could it be one of the disciples?

While they were trying to identify this mysterious intruder, the other party let out a frightened yelp.

"Oh no! If it’s that scary woman..."

That’s all they said before breaking into a furious sprint, almost leaving afterimages in the foggy air. In the blink of an eye, even the sound of their footsteps was long gone.

The person hiding behind the bush slowly came back to the mountain road, staring towards the peak up ahead where the other party had disappeared.

"Fearing a woman, you run up there? Aside from Elder Daheng, who else lives in that direction?"

This voice unmistakably belonged to Mu Ran, the star disciple of Salted Fish Mountain Peak.

For a moment, he felt curious enough to follow the runner. But there was no time to get sidetracked tonight. The schedule was too tight!

Mu Ran descended from the mountain, moving alongside the fog tide to keep himself hidden. Mountain after mountain, they moved together until eventually, the fog went past a deserted mountain peak.

Here, he finally ditched the fog’s protection and slipped inside a caved-in tunnel behind a natural rock formation in the woods. Inside the cramped tunnel space, there was an old teleportation gateway, perhaps abandoned by the past denizens.

Upon placing a high-grade spirit stone at the bottom slot of the gateway, faint array light appeared on its body. It resembled a pillar carved from stone, with a layer of intricate arrays and Mystical mechanisms draped over it.

Mu Ran ’knew’ how to operate this thing. Soon enough, a bright flash of red light illuminated the entire tunnel, and when it vanished, Mu Ran was no longer inside the Crimson Snow Sect’s territory.

About a thousand miles away, and nearly a mile deep under the earth, a large cavern was lit up by the same red light, revealing a gruesome scene.

A group of young men and women lay on the ground, all of them unconscious. A massive pool of fresh blood had formed under them, all from their injuries.

When the red light had first appeared, there was just one person standing among them, holding a blood-soaked saber. But by the time the red light stopped flashing, a second person had appeared.

"Good job. You appeared right on time. A minute earlier and you’d have to fight your own sect members."

Hearing the other party’s hoarse voice, Mu Ran frowned. He couldn’t recognize the fallen men and women around him, but they did seem to have that unique spiritual presence that most disciples of the Crimson Snow Sect did.

They were probably his seniors, a generation or two older perhaps.

"Since you’ve come to this place, I assume I can expect some good news?" the other party asked.

"Yes," Mu Ran answered, feeling a little pressured from the aura emanating from this person. From his bag of holding, he brought out a vial full of red blood.

"That’s not a lot. Certainly not enough for assured experiments."

"The guy I took this from is barely alive. If I drain all of his blood essence, he’ll definitely die. What fool would kill a tiger that lays golden eggs?" Mu Ran responded firmly.

"...." After a brief pause, the other party said, "Tigers don’t lay eggs, by the way."

"Don’t be a pedantic scholar." Mu Ran’s expression became twisted.

Suddenly, the other party let out a chuckle. "My, oh my, you’ve gotten smart! I didn’t expect such cunning from you!"

"What? What are you talking about?" Mu Ran was flabbergasted.

"You hid a bit of the extracted blood essence for yourself, huh? You want to try fusing with the Qiong Qi bloodline too, don’t you? You’ve learned to act stupid to hide your true intentions. Not bad, not bad!"

His heart skipping a beat, Mu Ran quickly tried to deny the allegation, but the other party didn’t seem to care for his explanations.

"It’s okay. Everyone becomes more selfish as they grow older. A little cunningness is good to have in this chaotic world. But you... You dare scheme against me?"

The blood-soaked saber let out a deep hum, as if stimulated by its owner’s rage. The spiritual pressure emanating from that person grew tenfold, nearly pulling Mu Ran to his knees.

His eyes fell on the dim array light under his feet. According to his calculations, the returning teleportation would activate in ten minutes.

Ten more minutes.

The longest he had lasted in a fight against this opponent was seven minutes. Could he last till the teleportation took him back to the Crimson Snow Sect?

He’d find out the answer whether he wanted to or not, he figured.