Chapter 203: First Visit to the High Profound Palace
After emerging from his cave abode, Han Li discovered Meng Yungui standing outside, accompanied by none other than Qi Liang.
"Please pardon my intrusion, Fellow Daoist Li," Qi Liang said with a warm smile.
"Please come in, Brother Qi. What brings you here today?" Han Li hurriedly invited Qi Liang into his cave abode, then instructed Meng Yungui to brew them some tea.
Qi Liang was also an itinerant cultivator, and he had been Han Li's first connection in the Blaze Dragon Dao, so the two of them had been quite close during Han Li's time here, but this was the first time that Qi Liang was visiting his cave abode.
Qi Liang made his way into Han Li's cave abode, then took a casual glance at his surroundings as he remarked, "I've known you for quite a few years up to this point, but only now am I discovering that you're quite a frugal cultivator, Elder Li. It's quite impressive that just these 10 servants of yours have been able to keep your cave abode in such good order."
"You're far too kind, Brother Qi. My cave abode is indeed in good order, but only because there's barely anything in it," Han Li chuckled.
His guest hall was extremely bare with no furnishings or ornaments aside from a table and some chairs.
He had visited Qi Liang's cave abode in the past, and it was far more extravagant and lavish than his own.
"As True Immortals, neither of us is truly attached to these materialistic things. I admire you greatly for focusing wholeheartedly on your cultivation and now allowing yourself to be distracted by materialistic indulgence, Brother Li," Qi Liang chuckled.
"So what brings you here today, Brother Qi?" Han Li asked.
"I just came over from the High Profound Palace, and I decided to come and pay you a visit on the way back. By the way, you still haven't heard about the mission released by Deputy Dao Lord Xiong today, right?" Qi Liang asked as a hint of excitement appeared in his eyes.
The High Profound Palace was where missions were released and taken in the Blaze Dragon Dao's inner sect, and Han Li was naturally aware of its existence, but he had been busy cultivating and searching for his Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords this entire time, so he had no intention of taking on any missions, and as a result, he hadn't visited the High Profound Palace even once.
"What mission's gotten you this excited, Brother Qi?" Han Li asked.
"Deputy Dao Lord Xiong is searching for 10 True Immortal cultivators who are proficient in the art of flying sword manipulation to help him refine a treasure. He's offering a huge reward of this number of merit points to each person after the mission is completed," Qi Liang said in a mysterious manner as he held up five fingers.
"50 merit points?" Han Li asked.
"500! I know you're far more proficient in the art of flying sword manipulation than I am, and that's why I invited you to come with me," Qi Liang said as the excitement in his eyes grew even more pronounced.
Han Li was also rather tempted upon hearing this.
Even though he had never been to the High Profound Palace, he knew that 500 merit points was an extremely opulent reward for a single mission.
"It's been a very long time since there's been a mission with such a lavish reward and no danger involved. Many elders who are only slightly familiar with the art of flying sword manipulation have already signed up, I'm sure you're not going to pass up an opportunity like this, right, Brother Li?" Qi Liang asked with a smile.
Han Li contemplated the offer for a moment, then nodded as he replied, "You've already come to invite me in person, so it would be rude of me to refuse."
He wasn't in the mood to be carrying out any missions, but Qi Liang had come to extend an invitation to him in person, and they were on good terms with one another, so it would've been unbecoming of him to refuse. Furthermore, 500 merit points was a very tempting reward.
Thus, the two of them quickly departed from the cave abode, and Han Li instructed Meng Yungui to look after the Crimson Dawn Peak, following which he and Qi Liang quickly flew away into the distance as two streaks of light, leaving Meng Yungui to look on with deep admiration in his eyes.
……
The High Profound Palace was situated on the Cloud Piercing Peak, and just as the name suggested, the mountain was extraordinarily tall, extending all the way up into the clouds.
Furthermore, vegetation was extremely sparse along the entire mountain, and the rock faces of the mountain were extremely smooth. As a result, even monkeys found it extremely difficult to climb.
A sea of rainbow clouds had been conjured up to conceal the mountain summit, and it was giving off rainbow radiance that could be clearly seen even from hundreds of kilometers away.
The High Profound Palace was situated atop the sea of rainbow clouds, and it was over 100 feet tall and entirely of a dark azure color. Its walls, bricks, and tiles were all made from extremely dense and sturdy materials, giving one the feeling they were looking at a heavy mountain, leading one to worry about whether the sea of rainbow clouds down below would be able to support its weight.
In front of the palace was a massive bluestone plaza with around a dozen thick stone pillars standing on its edges.
The pillars had all types of extremely life-like exotic beasts engraved onto them, including the Heavenly Dragon, the Rainbow Phoenix, the White Tiger, and the Xuanwu Turtle.
The view from the plaza was completely uninhibited, and the blue sky was as clear as a mirror, presenting a stunning sight to behold.
The High Profound Palace was one of the liveliest places in the entire Blaze Dragon Dao. There was a teleportation pavilion situated on the plaza, with people occasionally making their way in and out of the building.
There were also streaks of light that were hurtling through the air from all directions before landing on the plaza.
Strictly speaking, there were no restrictions when it came to the status of those coming to accept missions here, so even outer sect disciples could come here for missions if they felt that they were up to the task, but the vast majority of people here were inner sect disciples.
Right at this moment, two streaks of light arrived from the distant sky, then landed on the plaza to reveal Han Li and Qi Liang.
Respectful looks immediately appeared on the faces of the nearby disciples at the sight of their inner sect elder robes, and everyone gave Han Li's duo a wide berth.
Han Li took a glance at his surroundings, and he was forced to reevaluate his impression of the Blaze Dragon Dao's overall power.
The people entering and exiting the High Profound Palace were of a wide array of different cultivation bases, with the vast majority of them above the Nascent Soul Stage, and even some Body Integration and Grand Ascension cultivators could be seen.
It could be said that just the cultivators at the High Profound Palace at this moment would've already been countless times more impressive than the overall collection of cultivators of a major sect in the Spirit Realm.
Qi Liang was clearly already accustomed to this, and he strode directly toward the High Profound Palace.
Han Li trailed along behind him, and they quickly arrived in front of the palace before stepping inside.
As soon as they did so, Han Li instantly felt his field of view widen significantly, as if the space inside the palace had suddenly expanded by tenfold, and it was a rather indescribable feeling.
From the outside, the palace didn't appear to have been all that large, but its interior space wasn't much smaller than the plaza outside.
Could it be that there's some type of spatial law restriction cast upon the palace? Han Li speculated to himself.
After making his way into the palace, Qi Liang only paused for a moment before making his way deeper inside.
The most eye-catching things inside the palace were three massive stone walls situated at its center. Each wall was around 200 to 300 feet tall and over 100 feet wide, and one of them was white, the second one was azure, and the last one was golden in color.
The three walls were standing next to one another in the sequence of white, azure, and golden from left to right.
The white wall was situated closest to the outside of the palace, the azure wall was standing at the center, while the golden wall was situated in the deepest part of the palace.
Each wall had lines of clear text that were glowing with spiritual light displayed on their surface, denoting a series of missions.
Judging from the numbers of the lines of text, the white wall had the most number of missions, with over 1,000 in total, while the azure wall had fewer missions, and the golden wall had the least number of missions.
"The three walls hold missions of different levels of difficulty. The missions on the white wall are the easiest to complete and are generally suitable for those at or below the Deity Transformation Stage, the azure wall holds missions that generally cater to those at or above the Spatial Tempering Stage, while the golden wall is for True Immortal cultivators like us," Qi Liang explained as he made his way straight to the golden wall down the back.
There were even more people in the hall, and it was rather crowded. In particular, there were many people gathered near the white and azure walls.
However, there were only a few True Immortal Stage elders standing in front of the golden wall, and it seemed that none of the inner sect disciples dared to approach the wall.
Han Li had acquainted himself with some inner sect elders during the past few years, but he didn't know who these elders were.
In contrast, Qi Liang clearly had a larger network of acquaintances than Han Li, and he greeted all of the other elders in a friendly fashion, to which the elders responded in kind.
"Everyone, this is Fellow Daoist Li Feiyu. He joined our sect just a few years ago, and he currently resides on the Crimson Dawn Peak. Elder Li, these are..."
Qi Liang gave Han Li an introduction of all of the elders, and Han Li greeted them one by one, then engaged in some small talk before directing his gaze toward the golden stone wall.
Meanwhile, Qi Liang was still chatting with the other elders, and it seemed that he was quite socially outgoing.
There were quite a few missions on the golden wall, and sure enough, all of them were quite difficult to complete. Furthermore, the rewards also weren't very alluring, ranging from only several dozen to under 200 merit points per mission.
Han Li was rather concerned upon seeing this.
It seemed that earning merit points was going to be far more difficult than he anticipated. The second level cultivation art of the Mantra Axis Scripture was going to cost 9,000 merit points, and he didn't know how many missions he would have to complete to get to that number.
There were some missions that offered higher rewards, namely the dozen or so missions at the very top of the stone wall. These missions were denoted in special red text, in contrast with the white text of normal missions, and they were special missions released by the sect.
All of these special missions offered extremely lavish rewards, with even the lowest reward standing at 800 merit points, while the majority of the missions boasted rewards in excess of 1,000 merit points, but all of them were extremely difficult and perilous to complete.
Among these missions, the one that offered the lowest reward required one to slay a Windfire Fox at the pinnacle of the True Immortal Stage and bring back its complete carcass.
Han Li had read about Windfire Foxes in the past. They were a type of social spirit beast that resided in the northernmost region of the Ancient Cloud Continent. These foxes possessed Deity Transformation Stage power from birth, as well as both wind and fire-attribute abilities. Upon reaching full maturity, they would attain Body Integration Stage power, and only a Windfire Fox Monarch would be able to reach the pinnacle of the True Immortal Stage.
Han Li had witnessed the power of that late-True Immortal Stage octopus sea beast, and he knew that at his current level of power, he wouldn't have been able to slay such a creature, much less slay a Windfire Fox Monarch at the pinnacle of the True Immortal Stage among an entire pack of spirit beasts.
As for the other missions, they were even more difficult, such as venturing into extremely perilous places to search for near-extinct materials or hunting down certain notorious evil immortals who were said to have already reached the Golden Immortal Stage.
A wry smile appeared on Han Li's face. At the moment, all he could do was examine these missions to broaden his horizons, but there was no way that he could take on any of them.
However, in the next instant, his gaze fell upon one of the red missions.
This mission was tucked in between a pair of missions with lengthy descriptions, so he had failed to notice it earlier. The mission description was extremely simple and concise: "Cultivate the Mantra Axis Scripture to the second level".
Despite this, it boasted an extremely high reward of 5,000 merit points!
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺