Chapter 712: After-War Zone
Passing through the gate, the group looked around them with curiosity in their eyes. The city was unscathed from the fight that had taken place just outside, but although it was untouched, everyone was filled with discomfort.
Cultivators were running back and forth in haste as they held vials full of healing pills in their hands along with bandages and gauzes. Some cultivators who were not treating the wounded were seated on the ground absorbing Ancestral Worldpower to heal their bodies.
Everywhere they looked they saw people rushing around with their own agenda, and it was clear that the massive battle had just ended.
Fortunately, it seemed that none of them were dying. As long as they had managed to win this battle with their skin intact they could always restore their bodies; it was many time more arduous to restore their health if their souls had been wounded.
Many of the Gods had lost limbs, and some of them had their bodies ripped in half, and eventually, their entire body slowly mended itself as they absorbed Ancestral Worldpower from the surroundings.
“If you are looking for the Gate of Retribution then head down the street, it’s on the left. Follow the road to the end and turn right once and then left three times. Then you will reach a square where the Gate of Retribution sect is located.”
The guard who let them in explained patiently and Hui Yue bowed fractionally to him, “Thank you.” He said with a brilliant smile on his face, “We are grateful for your guidance.”
After this, they left the front gate and headed deeper into the city. The further in they went, the fewer experts they met on the streets. Many experts deeper in the city had their own mansions and were recuperating at home instead of out on the streets. They had long since sent servants to gather the items they needed, or they had the items at home already.
Zhong Fai led the way, and he followed the directions given by the guard. Although he had been there before, he was not so familiar with the streets that he knew which exact direction to go. After following the directions, they did indeed reach a square.
The square was massive; a big water fountain was situated in the middle with marble statues of various kinds of fish inside it. Water sprayed from their mouths and around this fountain was a whole group of experts seated healing their wounds.
While they were walking past, Zhong Fai looked at everyone to see if he recognized the Western Tiger, but he did not see her.
“Perhaps she is inside the sect,” Hui Yue said optimistically, but he knew that this was not very likely. Finding her almost instantly was not something he had expected.
“The winner of this battle were the cultivators from the Gate of Retribution,” Rong Xing said with a low voice as she furrowed her brows. “The Blood Demons obvious want to take over this sect and gain their resources, so I am sure that another army will arrive very soon.”
“We will most likely be drawn into the next battle,” she continued. Hearing her words, the others nodded their head. What she said made perfect sense, “And since that is what we are here for, we should not go out and search the tiger right away.”
“I agree,” Pei Ziqi said with a serious voice, but her smile betrayed her excitement at the thought of massive battle. Although she understood that they needed to find the Western Tiger as soon as possible, she was here to fight reckless, bloody battles. She was here to bring carnage and chaos with her!
Hui Yue nodded his head, “We will still enter the Gate of Retribution.” He said as he took a step forward.
“There is a chance that the Western Tiger is inside, and if she is, then we will be able to do something about her and the tiger soon.”
“If she is not, then we will just sign up as mercenaries and start taking missions around the city to get into their good graces and obtain information.”
The others nodded their heads as they all headed towards the Gate of Retribution. The Gate of Retribution was a giant mansion. It had two towers on each side of the mansion and a massive open gate over which the name of the place was written in gold.
The gates were open, and people were shuffling in and out some rushing while others were taking it slow.
On the square, many people looked down upon Hui Yue and his friends considering their group weak. As they moved forward, and Hui Yue could not help but frown.
“Did we make a mistake with our outfits?” he asked Lan Feng who just shrugged his shoulders. “Does it really matter?” he asked with a carefree attitude.
“Even if they stare at us, they don’t know anything about us. I would much rather be underestimated like we are now than seen as a young master who has loads of treasures and begs to be robbed.”
“We do not want to gather attention to ourselves, and being a poor group of mercenaries is one of the best disguises I can think of.”
Hui Yue pondered over Lan Feng’s words and nodded his head. What his friend said was right. It was a good idea to be underestimated, even if it meant that others looked down upon them. If this happened then, it was all for the better.
As they reached the Gate of Retribution, Hui Yue led everyone inside. The gate was large enough to fit all of them, and it led them into a large hall where they saw various posters covering the walls.
These posters had different missions on all of them; some were for treasures, some were for herbs; some were for killing people; others for saving them.
Hui Yue was curious about what exactly the many different missions concerned, but he was not going to go and read them just yet.
Instead, he went towards a large desk where four women were seated behind counters. These women represented the Gate of Retribution and dealt with the many experts that were lined up and had business to discuss with the sect. Therefore, Hui Yue took his place in line.
His friends did not want to take up space in the line, so they started to look at the many missions that were up for grabs.
Hui Yue waited in line and observed that most of the other cultivators in front of him had taken on various missions to earn Worldpower Stones in the wake of the massive battle that had just taken place.
The missions varied from cleaning up the battlefield to finding specific herbs and ingredients for the wounded upper-class of the city.
Some of the missions were as simple as to do chores or looking for a loved one that had gone missing.
Hui Yue waited patiently for it to be his turn, and after an hour slowly ticked by, he finally managed to be the next in line.
When he reached the counter, she looked at him and furrowed her brows.
“You are new here?” she asked, and Hui Yue nodded his head as he pointed to all his friends. “We are a group of mercenaries that have just reached this western region. We have been looking for a place where we can settle down, and when we saw the chaos that this world had experienced, we decided that this would be a good place to earn Worldpower Stones,” he said with a genuine, warm smile on his lips.
“We want to help out, and earn some Worldpower Stones as we are sure that there will be many missions during such a chaotic time.”
The woman gave Hui Yue a long glance before she found some papers and gestured for Hui Yue’s friends to come over.
“Write your names,” she said, and Hui Yue quickly wrote Pei Yue after which the others wrote their own names. They understood that it was not a good idea to lie about their identity. There was obviously some sort of formation on the paper that could determine lies from the truth, and he was not going to test whether or not he was stronger than this formation.
Seeing that all of them had been accepted by the formation, the woman nodded her head and took the paper. Afterwards, she wrote a number next to every name.
She then found some empty emblems and pressed them against the table after which a light shone. The number that had been written next to the name was now engraved on the emblems.
These emblems were then handed over to each respective person. She looked at all of them and gave them all a long glance as if she felt that something was odd about them, but since they had been let into the city, she did have any right to question them.
Having finished the registration, Hui Yue paid the woman for the emblems and started searching the walls for various missions that would be easy to complete. While he did this, he felt the eyes of the woman on his back. He could not help but wonder what made her so worried about him and his reasons for being there.
But he said nothing and kept his head down. He was not willing to draw attention to his group, and the only reason he could sense her eyes on him was because of his soulforce. If he did not have this, then he would not have known and if he showed signs of knowing then the woman would notice that they were obviously hiding their strength.
Sighing, Hui Yue picked a mission. It was a mission that he had selected after carefully looking over more than a few of them. This was a very simple mission. Provide the person with a few medicinal herbs that were rare in this area.
The rewards were rather generous and not only was there a full two thousand Worldpower Stones offered for its completion, but also contribution points from the Gate of Retribution.
The more contribution points one had, the better missions one could take. Hui Yue had picked his mission, and the others picked their own. They decided to split up now that they were in the city. This would make it easier to complete more missions and also gain more information from others at the same time.
Hui Yue went to the counter again and waited in line for another hour to sign up for the mission he had found.
“This is a mission to deliver herbs,” the woman said full of doubt as she looked at Hui Yue who flashed her a brilliant smile again pretending that he had not sensed her enmity.
“We came from other parts of the galaxy,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders. “We have traveled through many worlds and come across many bandit groups we’ve defeated.”
“We’ve hunted beasts and obtained many medicinal herbs in those worlds as well, and the ones that this expert is looking for happen to be some that we gained on these sort of adventures. To exchange them for contribution points and Worldpower Stones is without a doubt a great idea.”
The woman frowned but said nothing as she marked down that Pei Yue had taken the mission.
“You have a week to finish it,” she said, refusing to speak more with Hui Yue, and he accepted the paper he had handed her earlier to have it recorded.
The paper included the information about the mission, the location for where he was supposed to deliver the herbs, and a detailed description of the herbs themselves.
Hui Yue said his goodbyes to everyone and headed out. He was not worried about finding them again as he had his soulforce he could rely on and they were all in possession of communication orbs.
Smiling, Hui Yue felt excited about what the information he would be able to learn from the family who had issued the mission, and he started moving.