After finishing lunch at the trade plaza, Tai Bàoli and Liu Yanjiang headed to the inner sect's Mission Pavilion, where quiet rows of glowing obsidian tablets replaced the chaotic bustle of the outer sect.
Liu led the way to the joint expedition board and tapped a tablet. "Here: Cloud-Mist Basin Survey. An ancient peripheral formation site needs routine inspection due to shifting Qi veins. They need a formation specialist to recalibrate the nodes and a combat vanguard for any roaming spirit beasts."
"Two hundred martial credits split evenly, plus extra merit for recovered cores," Tai noted, reviewing the details.
"The threat level is manageable—mostly weak beasts in the mist," Liu Yanjiang said with a nod. "It's an ideal task for stretching our legs."
"Sounds like a solid plan to me," Tai agreed, reaching out and pulling the glowing jade mission slip from the bronze receptacle beneath the tablet.
The instant Tai's fingers closed around the smooth, cool surface of the jade slip, a faint, familiar chime sounded in his mind. Before his eyes, invisible to Liu Yanjiang or anyone else in the hall, a semi-translucent blue interface materialized in the air.
---
- Mission - **(Survey the Cloud-Mist Basin Ruins)**
- Mission Outline - **(Travel to the Cloud-Mist Basin, inspect the ancient formation nodes, and safely stabilize or recover the damaged formation cores for the sect.)**
- Mission Difficulty - **(Normal)**
- Experience Payout - **(10 experience)**
---
Tai smiled inwardly. Ten experience points was an exceptionally solid payout for a routine expedition that carried little mortal danger. Combined with his daily duties on Crouching Tiger Peak, every point steadily accumulated toward his next round of attribute refinements.
Maintaining an impassive expression, Tai dismissed the blue screen with a simple thought. He kept his gaze perfectly natural, never letting his eyes linger on empty air or giving the slightest hint that a miraculous system operated within his consciousness.
Beside him, Liu Yanjiang pressed her inner disciple token against the jade slip to register their partnership. As she aligned her spiritual signature, Tai Bàoli glanced at her casually, taking in her updated status through the system.
---
- **Liu Yanjiang**
- **Dual Occupation** - *(Heiress Of the Yanjiang Clan, Hidden Mountain Tiger Sect Inner Disciple)*
- **Cultivation Stage** - *(Palace Creation 9/9)*
- **Strength** - *(22.0)(+15 from Dragon's Talon's Bloody Blade)*
- **Dexterity** - *(23.0)(+15 from Dragon's Talon's Bloody Blade, +7 from Bloody Dragon Steps)*
- **Comprehension** - *(42)*
- **Martial Arts** -
- **Bloody Dragon Steps: Mastery Peak**
- **Dragon's Talon's Bloody Blade: Mastery High**
- **Heavenly Array Foundations: Mastery Low Earth Rank**
- **Iron Leaf Formations: Mastery Peak Mortal Rank**
---
With her staggering Comprehension of 42—more than double that of most inner disciples—Liu Yanjiang's cultivation speed was monstrous. Where others spent months agonizing over the structural blueprints of a Dao Palace, her sharp intellect had grasped the foundational mechanics almost instantly.
She had achieved her breakthrough into Palace Creation nearly three months ahead of him, using the remaining time to thoroughly stabilize her foundation, hone her family's signature sword techniques, and master Low Earth Rank array formations.
While her raw physical density remained lower than his anomalous body, her agility, spatial precision, and runic control were extraordinarily lethal. They walked fundamentally different paths, and Tai Bàoli found it immensely reassuring knowing how seamlessly their abilities complemented one another.
"It will take us about four full days of steady travel on foot to reach the basin," Liu Yanjiang said, slipping her identity token back into the embroidered pouch at her waist. "The Cloud-Mist Basin lies beyond the eastern border of the sect's outer perimeter, nestled in the deep valley between the Iron Ridge and the Silver River. Do you need to return to Crouching Tiger Peak to gather provisions, or are you ready to depart immediately?"
Tai patted the modest leather pouch tied to his belt with a grin. "Master Yi's peak doesn't have much in the way of worldly baggage. Everything I need is right here. I'm ready whenever you are."
"Then let's not waste daylight," Liu Yanjiang replied, her eyes flashing with eager determination.
---
Passing through the grand eastern gateway, the two disciples descended the carved cliff stairs and left the sect's boundary arrays behind. With their Palace Creation cultivation continuously nourishing their bodies, cross-country travel through the rugged wilderness was effortless. Tai moved with broad, ground-eating strides, while Liu glided lightly over the rough terrain using her Bloody Dragon Steps.
As the miles passed, they caught up on their months of secluded training.
"So," Liu Yanjiang asked after effortlessly clearing a deep river gorge in a single leap, "what does Great Elder Yi actually have you do all day? Don't tell me you spent six months just sweeping."
"Mostly sweeping," Tai admitted with a grin. "Sweeping walkways, scrubbing moss, and reading ancient scrolls on cultivation foundations. At first, I thought he was just testing my patience. But if you can't maintain focus during mundane chores, your concentration will shatter the moment your Qi runs wild during a breakthrough."
Liu nodded in agreement as she landed beside him. "Elder Song teaches the exact same principle. In array cultivation, a single wavering stroke ruins the entire formation. He had me draw ten thousand circles in wet sand every morning before I was even allowed to touch real spirit ink."
"Sounds like both our masters share a love for tedious labor," Tai chuckled.
"Old cultivators love making youngsters work in the dirt," she teased.
By the afternoon of the second day, the merchant roads had vanished, replaced by faint tracks through dense hills. In a narrow ravine, they encountered a dense bank of unnatural purple mist reeking of sulfur.
"The Qi flow is blocked," Tai noted, eyeing the fog. "I could clear a path with a physical shockwave."
"Don't, brute," Liu Yanjiang said with an amused smirk. "That's a natural Miasma Loop from cold iron veins. Smashing the shale will only release ten times more toxic gas."
She gauged the wind, pulled two wooden formation pegs from her sleeve, and tossed them into cracks along the rock wall. A ripple of golden light surged outward, and the stagnant purple fog curled back, parting like a curtain to reveal a clear path.
"See?" Liu said, dusting off her hands. "Work with the terrain, and the path opens."
Tai chuckled. "I'll admit, formations have their perks."
On the third day, three carriage-sized Iron-hide Bristle Boars charged from the blackthorn thickets, their steel-like tusks lowered aggressively. The largest beast hurtled directly at Tai Bàoli like an iron battering ram.
Tai calmly stepped forward without drawing a weapon and met the beast's armored snout with his bare left palm.
**BOOM!**
A sharp shockwave kicked up dust, but Tai's boots remained firmly rooted. With a fluid twist of his wrist, he applied a measured burst of his immense physical strength, flipping the massive boar onto its side with a heavy grunt. Terrified by the effortless display, the remaining two boars squealed and fled into the briars, followed quickly by their dazed leader.
Liu Yanjiang let out an admiring whistle. "You didn't even circulate Qi. Your pure physical density is absurd."
"No reason to slaughter beasts just defending their territory," Tai said casually, wiping his palm.
"Soft-hearted as always," Liu murmured, a fond smile gracing her face.
By midday on the fourth day, the rolling hills and thick forests gradually began to slope downward. The temperature dropped noticeably, and a cool, moisture-laden breeze drifted up from the expansive lowlands ahead.
Reaching the high crest of a sweeping limestone ridge, Tai Bàoli and Liu Yanjiang came to a halt.
Spread out beneath them was an enormous, sprawling depression known as the Cloud-Mist Basin. Billowing layers of dense, silvery-white mist rolled across the valley floor like a boundless sea of clouds, pierced here and there by the towering silhouettes of blackened stone pillars and crumbling, ancient stone masonry.
Even from the vantage point of the ridge, Tai's sharp spiritual perception could sense the faint, rhythmic pulse of dormant formations buried deep beneath the fog. Near the northern perimeter of the basin, several massive octagonal stone platforms rose above the mist, their carved surfaces weathered by centuries of rain and draped in thick spirit-vines—the exact peripheral formation site they had been dispatched to inspect.
Liu Yanjiang unclipped a polished brass astrolabe and a bundle of silver formation flags from her belt, her golden eyes sparkling with keen focus as she surveyed the ruins below.
"There it is," she said, her voice filled with quiet excitement. "The ancient surveying array. Let's get down there and see what needs fixing."
Tai looked across the mist-shrouded ruins, feeling the steady, resolute hum of his Dao Palace resonating within his chest.
"Lead the way," Tai said with a nod, ready to begin the task.