Chapter 31: Nameless Elder

Bapi Choujin was a Registered Disciple, so he already had access to the Qingcheng Alchemy Hall, though there were monthly limits on how much he could purchase.

Ye Rong gave him silver and asked him to buy pills from the Alchemy Hall and trade them to him, which saved Ye Rong from worrying about future supplies.

Besides pills like Blood Restoration Pills and Qi Recovery Powder, the Qingcheng Alchemy Hall offered higher-quality pills with better effects, but those were more expensive. Luckily, Registered Disciples got a 20% discount, and Formal Disciples enjoyed a 50% discount—these were some of the perks of being a Sect disciple.

The Alchemy Hall also stocked many high-level pills that couldn’t be bought even in the Main City. Each Sect would periodically refresh some unique high-level pills based on their specialties, making outsiders quite envious.

Ye Rong had Bapi Choujin buy several Blood Restoration Pills and Qi Recovery Powders, along with two Minor Recovery Pills.

Other higher-tier pills were either more expensive or required higher access levels, so they couldn’t be purchased by Registered Disciples.

The Minor Recovery Pill, once used, restored 500 points each of Qi and Blood Energy within one minute, and the effect could not be interrupted.

As a Registered Disciple, Bapi Choujin now had access to more areas within the Sect. Since there wasn’t much time left in the day, he decided not to go elsewhere to level up and instead ran around the Sect to see if there were any Sect Missions available.

Ye Rong took the pills and carefully organized his Universe Pouch. Its mere 20 slots seemed pitifully inadequate and just wasn’t enough anymore.

He had seen on the Forum how to expand the Universe Pouch’s space: in any Main City, there was a Governor. Players could accept a task from him. Each player could only complete this task once.

Based on task performance, the Governor Mission would reward the player with a Universe Pouch offering 40 to 60 storage slots.

The Universe Pouch wasn’t placed in the equipment slot, and each player could only carry one. It couldn’t be traded or dropped.

Although Ye Rong knew about this mission, he had been in a hurry to join Qingcheng at the time and hadn’t had the spare time to complete it.

Now it seemed he had to find time later to finish this task. As for solving the Universe Pouch space shortage immediately, focusing on accessories like rings or belts with built-in storage space would be faster.

Ye Rong’s current Qi Value only allowed him to maintain full-speed Sword Flight for less than fifteen minutes. After that, he had to hover mid-air to recover Qi, or he would fall from the sky and splatter. He couldn’t afford to eat pills like candy—even with the Registered Disciple discount, Qi Recovery Powder cost forty copper a portion, and Minor Recovery Pills were two taels of silver each.

According to Bapi Choujin, the Alchemy Hall also offered high-level pills like the Chaos Origin Rebirth Pill and Purple Gold Pill. The Purple Gold Pill in particular cost as much as eighty taels of silver per pill, and even Formal Disciples were limited to buying only ten per week.

Halfway through his flight, Ye Rong lowered his Sword Light and landed on a small hill to rest.

It was already evening, with the moon rising above the treetops and tree shadows swaying. The night wind rustled the canopy of the Endless Forest Sea endlessly.

Golden Whip Cliff was just one scenic spot within Mount Qingcheng, covering less than a hundred acres, while the Endless Forest Sea was famous throughout the Far Shore, stretching nearly ten thousand li. Half of the Qingcheng Sect was surrounded by it.

All sorts of monsters roamed the Endless Forest Sea, and legend had it that divine beasts dwelled in its deepest reaches.

Because it bordered Mount Qingcheng, in a way, it served as a backyard for Qingcheng players—a great place to grind monsters and level up.

“Squeak, squeak, squeak!”

Two Spiritual Monkeys scratched their heads and made funny gestures at Ye Rong, full of spirit.

Primate-type monsters were a notable feature of the Endless Forest Sea, ranging from ordinary Spiritual Monkeys and apes to creatures around level 100 like the Mighty Diamond Demonic Ape and the Four-Eyed Metal-Wood Demonic Monkey. There had even been sightings of the legendary Four Great Divine Monkeys.

During the Closed Beta, a powerful figure from the Demon Race crossed the sea, swept through the Seven Great Disciples of Qingcheng, easily entered the Endless Forest Sea, found the Six-Eared Macaque, and completed the Demon Race bloodline inheritance mission.

This incident became one of the top ten events of the Closed Beta and was also the most humiliating moment for Qingcheng players.

Thump!

A pinecone hit Ye Rong’s leg and rolled a couple of times—thrown by one of the Spiritual Monkeys.

“Damn it, do they think I look easy to bully?”

Ye Rong wanted to hurry to Golden Whip Cliff to finish his Trial Mission target. Plus, these Spiritual Monkeys were quite cute, so he didn’t want to cause trouble or turn them into Experience Points.

But since the monkeys had come to provoke him, it was truly unbearable. Ye Rong raised his Taixuan Ice Soul Sword, ready to kill all the Spiritual Monkeys.

“Shh!”

Ye Rong felt his hand grow heavy, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t draw the Taixuan Ice Soul Sword—it was like a heavy mountain was weighing it down.

He looked down and saw a fine, childlike white hand resting on it. Following the line of sight, what appeared in Ye Rong’s eyes was a white-haired, rosy-cheeked elder leaning on a staff.

What the hell!

Ye Rong nearly jumped. He was clearly alone on the hill, with no one around. Where did this old man come from?

And so quietly—he hadn’t noticed him until the old man made a sound.

“The Monkey Wine these Spiritual Monkeys brew is absolutely wonderful, kid. Don’t you scare them off! Follow them quietly and get me a jar of Monkey Wine. I’ll wait here for you.”

The staff-wielding elder lay down on the hill. His loose robe was stained with oil and wine, looking completely disheveled.

System Notification: Nameless Elder entrusted you to retrieve a jar of Monkey Wine. Time limit: one hour. Task reward: unknown. Task failure penalty: Level reduced by five.

Crap! Crap! Crap!

It turned out to be a forced mission!

Ye Rong felt like crying. Couldn’t he at least have a moment to react or the right to choose?

This messy old man was actually a high-level NPC with such high authority that he could issue forced missions directly!

“Go on, go on, lad.”

The staff-wielding elder patted Ye Rong three times, chuckled, and sat on the ground, pulling out a worn-out wine flask from who knows where, taking sips one by one.

Did he have a choice? Failure meant his Level would drop by five. Ye Rong could only shoot a resentful glance at the Nameless Elder before trudging step by step, following the Spiritual Monkeys into the Endless Forest Sea.

“Damn monkeys, this is all your fault!”

Ye Rong gritted his teeth, directing all his anger toward those wretched Spiritual Monkeys.

He couldn’t take his frustration out on them yet—not until he carefully followed them to their nest to retrieve the Monkey Wine.