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Arthur and Mark were the last of the ten to arrive.
Shortly after they did, an elder came to meet them along with an outer disciple who handed them the rewards from the Outer Court Ranking Battles.
Arthur was now tens of thousands richer with his contribution points. And as for the herbs and pills. Even though they were precious, Arthur did not need them as he had something better.
'I will give it out as a reward to any outstanding member of my faction,' Arthur choose to keep them for this reason instead.
The peak-grade Gold Pills were not useful as his gold cores were made up of elemental essence energy rather than the usual spirit essence energy.
As for the Spirit Origin Fruits, Arthur had something better.
Arthur was told that he could go to the Weapon Hall to choose any profound grade weapon for his last reward.
After the ten disciples received their rewards, the elder began to tell them about the mission.
"As you have probably heard, the sect has a very important mission for you all."
"The sect will be requiring you all to enter a secret realm with members of the Alchemy Association and the Fire Spirit Sect."
"Only those who are of the Gold Core Realm can enter the secret realm that is why you all were chosen. But we have also discovered that you can break through while inside the secret realm, that is why we rewarded you all with the Spirit Origin Fruits."
Hearing the Elder's explanation it became clear to those who had not guessed it already before, the real reason why the rewards for this year's Outer Court Rankings were so great.
"Now for this mission, the sect will be rewarding you handsomely as long as it is completed successfully."
"This secret realm is one that belongs to an Alchemist so there are expected to be a lot of rare high-grade herbs. Your mission is to gather as many as you can while also protecting the members of the Alchemy Association."
"The secret realm will have spirit beasts within so you will have to be on guard while inside."
"As for your rewards, as long as you break through, you will be admitted into the Inner Court without having to go through the inner court examinations. At the same time, you will be rewarded with thousands of contribution points and also pills that will speed up your cultivation in the Martial Origin Realm."
The elder did not give a specific number as to how many contribution points will be given, but everyone could tell it would be no less than what they had received for the Outer Court Rankings.
But more important than that were the pills that would help increase their cultivation in the Martial Origin Realm.
There is an intense competition among the disciples in the Inner Court and the competition between the Outer Court disciples is only child's play compared to that.
The sect specifically made it so, to allow the weaker ones to grow.
But in the inner court, things are not as simple. And being able to increase their cultivation quickly will help them avoid being bullied so easily by some Inner Court disciples.
"We will be leaving in the morning tomorrow. All of you should gather by sunrise at the square in the Elder's Peak."
"Lastly, you should tell no one about the details of this mission as it is a sensitive one and is considered a secret mission."
"That is all, you can leave and make preparations," the Elder dismissed them.
After that, the ten of them left the building to make preparations. They can't be too sure of what they might face in the secret realm so they had to be prepared.
Arthur did the same and met with Luke. After giving him some resources he told Luke to not accept anyone into the faction until his return.
Arthur gathered the other members of his faction and transferred some contribution points to them and asked them to train hard.
He instructed them to go to the mountains as a group to train.
They were very grateful for what they received and promised Arthur that they will do their best.
Meanwhile, after that meeting, Arthur was wondering if there was any among them that was a spy. But he could only guess and decided to look more into them when he returns.
'If only she was here with me. Handling such matters will be an easy thing for her.'
Arthur thought of the only force he had under him.
'Jade Maiden...she must be mad I haven't contacted her for a long time huh?'
Arthur stopped his drifting thoughts and focused on his cultivation for that night.
He trained all night and sharpened his martial arts techniques till morning. After that, he freshened up and left for the gathering point.
When Arthur arrived at the mountain which was the residential area of the Outer Court elders he found out that the others had arrived there before him.
'I am the last to arrive?'
The other nine disciples were there already and Arthur wondered if he was a bit unserious or if it was the they that was taking this mission too seriously.
Well, it was understandable as unlike Arthur who had an abundance of resources due to his identity and fortuitous encounters, they needed the benefits from completing this mission.
As for Mark, this mission was a godsent opportunity for him as he might be able to find a very rare spirit medicine that could subside the effects of his little sister's physique.
Although the sect will probably want them to hand over their storage rings, he has a way to hide what he needed to.
"Hey Mark, why so serious?" Arthur walked up to Mark first.
"I think you should know why."
"I should know why?" Arthur thought for a moment before coming to an understanding.
'Right, his little sister, Bell!'
"I understand. I will see how I can be of help then," Arthur assured him as he felt pity for the little girl.
He wasn't a hero and did not have illusions of helping all who are in need of help. But for those, he decided to befriend if it won't cost him anything he will give his assistance.
And Mark was someone who Arthur saw was worthy to befriend.
As Arthur conversed with Mark, the other eight disciples looked at them with surprise.
'Since when did these two become friends?' They all had the same thoughts.
Mark was literally the last person in the outer court who would befriend anyone, so they were surprised.
After a while, Arthur turned his attention to someone else. He was about to say something when the cry of a bird was heard.
*Swoosh!*
Three flying spirit beasts appeared before them and soon descended.
*Thud!*
The ten of them looked at the new arrivals and saw three groups.
On one spirit beast were an old man and three people who were wearing the robes of an Alchemist.
They were two girls and one boy. One of the girls stood in front of the others who stood behind her obediently.
'It's her!'
Arthur was surprised to find that girl in lead was someone that he knew.
'This mission must be super important to the association if she is being sent then,' Arthur had met the girl before.
'I wonder if she still remembers me. It has been ten whole years after all.'
Ten years ago the President of the Alchemy Association came to meet the Emperor and little Arthur was with him at that time.
That was where he met the girl who turned out to be the daughter of the President of the Alchemy Association.
'Looking back then, she was always trying to act mature and cold as a kid. Hahaha! It was just too cute that I couldn't help but tease her mature pretense away.'
Arthur felt a bit of nostalgia as he recalled the meeting back then.
'Should I find an opportunity to talk to her?'
Arthur shook his head as he can't risk revealing his identity now due to nostalgic feelings.
Arthur looked at the other group and saw them wearing red robes which was the uniform of a sect that he knew.
'Those fiery bastards eh?'
Arthur had a bad impression of the members of the Fire Spirit Sect, due to an experience in the past.
There was a time when he disguised himself as a commoner and happened to run into a group of inner court disciples of the Fire Spirit Sect.
Simply because he was running out of an alley and ran into one of them, they wanted to humiliate and beat him up without caring if he was a just a kid with no cultivation.
If it wasn't for the fact that he had a protector in the shadows he may have been crippled by that encounter.
'Maybe these ones are different,' Arthur will give them the benefit of doubt.
'For now though...'
"You all come up here." A voice called out to them from the last spirit beast which had only one person on it.
It was an old man that had the sigil of a Great Elder of the Heavenly Sword Sect on his garment.
Arthur and the rest complied and climbed the Spirit Beast which was big enough to contain all of them with comfortable space between them.
Just like that, without saying anything more the group took off to the skies in a certain direction.
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------------End of Chapter------------
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