Chapter 210: CH. 210 | The Dao Dimension
Getting An Xiao’s blessing clearly made both of them happy. They responded with a respectful bow, lowering their heads in gratitude.
An Xiao stepped forward and let them straighten back up. She felt genuinely glad about An Yue’s decision to accept Lin Tian as her future husband.
Still, deep down, An Xiao knew she had to start putting away her own feelings for Lin Tian, since the man’s heart had settled on An Yue, her own younger sister.
Her feelings for Lin Tian had taken root the very first time he’d saved her life.
Ever since that day, she’d found herself thinking about him constantly, especially about how she might one day win his heart.
But now Lin Tian had made his own choice, without anyone else’s interference. He’d chosen An Yue to walk beside him going forward.
"When are you two planning to hold the wedding?" An Yue asked.
"As soon as possible, even with everything outside the sect in such turmoil right now. Honestly, I don’t care about any of that."
An Xiao nodded. The timing of the wedding was entirely their decision to make, and she didn’t feel she had much room to weigh in, even though holding the ceremony while the Qin Kingdom was caught up in such massive chaos seemed like less than ideal timing.
"In that case, I’ll help you two out. I’ll make sure the sect disciples get missions that will help your wedding go smoothly," An Xiao said.
An Yue moved quickly toward her sister, wrapping her arms around her tightly and burying her face into her shoulder. She thanked her sister for being willing to help them.
"You’re going to become the wife of the Sect Master of Lingxian. That’s such a simple kind of happiness, but it means so much to me, seeing that happen for you, Yue’er."
"Maybe... someday I’ll have to start calling you the Sect Master’s Wife," An Xiao teased, a playful grin on her face.
An Yue’s face flushed bright red, embarrassed by her sister’s teasing. Lin Tian noticed it happening, glanced forward, and shared a brief look with An Xiao.
"I noticed a lot of disciples gathered at the Sect Mission Hall earlier. Is there a large batch of outside missions sitting in the sect’s mission list right now?"
"That’s right, Master Lin."
"A lot of mortals have been coming to us for help, and so have cultivators from other sects. Given how difficult things are right now, we’ve been offering a fifty percent discount on the administrative fees for their missions."
"In my opinion, this could turn out to be a good start for us. If we take on their missions, trust will naturally build up over time, and that will clearly work in our favor down the road," An Xiao said.
What An Xiao said was completely true. The Sect Mission Hall played a genuinely important role in connecting the sect to the outside world.
Other sects and cultivators typically judged whether a sect was reputable or not based on how carefully it filtered the public missions it accepted.
If a public mission tied directly into the growth of the sect’s disciples, their strength, and their abilities, it would end up shaping how other cultivators perceived the sect as a whole, and shaping it significantly.
Once their business with An Xiao was finished, Lin Tian and An Yue turned and walked away from the Sect Mission Hall.
Looking ahead, Lin Tian could still see the sect’s disciples gathered together in the courtyard out front.
They were holding mission scrolls they’d pulled from the sect’s mission racks. Some scrolls had already been split up among small groups, while others hadn’t been touched yet.
The difficulty level of each mission was determined by the assessments made by the members of the Sect Mission Hall.
Scrolls marked with a green rune were the easiest, followed by blue, then yellow, then orange, then red, and finally, the hardest tier of all, black.
One of the black tier missions from the previous period had been to assassinate the Sect Master of the Yuanmo Sect.
Very few disciples had dared to take that one on, since it was both extremely difficult and, for most of them, essentially impossible.
But now the war against the Yuanmo Sect had come to an end, leaving behind only the ongoing fight against the invasive groups of cultivators pouring in from other kingdoms.
That fight wouldn’t come close to matching the difficulty of taking down the Yuanmo Sect had been.
Among the current missions were things like guard duty, escort assignments, and even land reclamation work.
To take on missions like these, disciples needed to have adequate combat skills with weapons or techniques to back them up.
"I honestly figured that mysterious red wall would never fade away. Looks like you two managed to get rid of that devil sect for good."
The sky above the Lingxian Sect suddenly shifted, changing dramatically. Rumbling black clouds rolled in and slammed down hard against several parts of the sky, striking with tremendous force.
Fortunately, the strength of the sect’s protective array dome managed to absorb and dampen the powerful bolts of lightning crashing down from those thunderous black clouds.
Five cultivators stood suspended in midair, hovering on a platform of sky itself, all of them men.
They wore robes in white and gold, so extravagant that faint sparks of gold seemed to shimmer and flicker off the fabric with every movement.
"That’s not possible," An Yue said.
Lin Tian glanced over at her. She turned her head and looked toward the five figures in the sky.
The white and gold robes they wore carried the exact same color scheme and pattern as the people from the Huangyun Pavilion.
"What’s wrong?" Lin Tian asked, curious.
"They’re... they’re from the Huangyun Pavilion."
Lin Tian looked a little startled at that, then turned his gaze forward and narrowed his eyes sharply. His stare bore down on them, carrying a heavy, unmistakable aura of intimidation.
Wu Yue and Cao Ying were the first to react. They stepped out beyond the sect’s boundaries, arriving just outside the protective wall, and studied the five figures carefully.
"Didn’t our Sect Master already make it clear that we’re turning down your proposal?" Wu Yue asked.
"Relax, there’s no need to worry. The Huangyun Pavilion is here to offer you an even better version of our original proposal," the man said. He was a Perfect Core Formation cultivator, the young master of the Huangyun Pavilion.
"Our Pavilion Master is promising the Lingxian Sect complete authority over the entire territory of the Qin Kingdom. Everyone there will submit and answer to your commands," the man continued.
"So, what do you think?"
Wu Yue swung his arm forward with tremendous force, sending out a violent gust of wind. "How dare you!"
"Whatever proposal you’re bringing us, it’s never going to be enough to make us agree to it!"
The man’s expression soured. He turned to the side and gave the elders who’d accompanied him the order to begin their assault on the Lingxian Sect.
They were only Mid and Perfect Nascent Soul cultivators, but when it came to bringing down the protective dome shielding the Lingxian Sect, they’d clearly already worked out what they believed was their best plan of attack.
A treasure and an artifact materialized in front of them: an umbrella and an emperor’s seal stamp.
They sent the umbrella soaring up toward the very top of the sect’s sky, and it began expanding rapidly, growing larger and larger until it stretched wide enough to blanket the entire sect grounds.
From the front, the emperor’s seal stamp shot forward and slammed directly into the sect’s protective dome wall.
A heavy, ink black rain began pouring down, soaking everything below.
Anyone who came into contact with that black ink rain immediately felt their body weaken, as though their spiritual energy were being drained straight out of them and pulled up into the umbrella artifact above.
Lin Tian reacted immediately, sweeping his hand to the side and activating his Dao Concept. A black orb materialized just above his open palm.
The black orb began absorbing and pulling in the ink black rain at a remarkable rate, and a number of disciples watched in visible shock. They turned their attention upward, staring intently at the sky.
Wu Yue and Cao Ying glanced back over their shoulders, both of them watching clearly as the black orb drifted up into the sky and began drawing the black ink straight out of the massive umbrella artifact.
Shi Yun, the young master of the Huangyun Pavilion, gasped in shock at the sight of the mysterious black orb siphoning the black ink away from his enormous umbrella artifact.
He ordered the elders who’d come with him to destroy the orb immediately. They followed his command exactly, but they were caught off guard yet again, since the black orb simply absorbed their attacks as well.
Their sword strikes and the attacks from their spiritual beasts were all pulled straight into the black orb, making it seem utterly impossible for them to destroy it no matter what they tried.
"What’s going on here?" Shi Yun demanded.
Wu Yue let out a brief smile, glancing forward at Shi Yun. "The man she loves just showed up!"
"If I were you, I wouldn’t want to pick a fight with him."
"Who?!" Shi Yun shouted.
The space surrounding Shi Yun and his four accompanying elders suddenly transformed into a dimension filled with a starlit sky, catching all of them completely off guard and sending them into a state of panic.
"What’s happening?" Shi Yun asked again.
One of the pavilion elders rushed over and spoke to Shi Yun, his face etched with panic. "This is bad, Young Master. This is a Dao Dimension."
"A Dao Dimension?"
"That means... we’re up against a Soul Formation cultivator with the highest tier of Dao Concept there is!"
"Someone far, far more powerful than Cao Ying!"