Chapter 139: Everyone Wants the 200,000 Spiritual Stone Reward and Xiaoxiao’s Dream

( Big Chapter )

The Mission Hall of both the Outer Sect and Inner Sect were packed just as usual.

Disciples were viewing the massive mission board for high risk, high reward tasks which were posted previously like hunting down blood refining evil cultivators, harvesting spirit herbs from toxic places, or clearing out demonic beast nests.

But on this particular afternoon, a blinding golden light flashed across the mission board, forcibly pushing down a long standing, dangerous missions.

A new mission, bearing the golden and silver seal of a Honorary Disciple, took the absolute center stage.

The entire hall fell into a dead silence for three full seconds before an uproar shattered the peace.

"Look! The main mission board has updated!"

"My goodness! Is it a new high level mission? Did some elder post a task to hunt down Late Stage Core Formation evil cultivators in the border wilderness again?"

"Quick, look at the top position! The golden light is coming from a newly pinned mission!"

Countless disciples rushed towards the Mission Board like a tide, craning their necks to read the glowing words appearing on the giant surface.

[Villa Layout and Interior Design Mission ]

[ Requirements: Draw a complete, detailed architecture and interior decoration blueprint for the Nine Heavens Spirit Mist Palace on the Central Peak. Anyone with skills in architecture, painting, or array mapping can submit ]

[ Rewards are as follow:

Rank 11 to Rank 100: 10,000 Mid Grade Spiritual Stones each

Rank 2 to Rank 10: 50,000 Mid Grade Spiritual Stones each

Rank 1 Grand Prize Winner: 200,000 Mid Grade Spiritual Stones ]

[ Special Note: Materials listed in the blueprint have no upper limit on cost! Do not hold back on luxury or expenses if it’s needed ]

"Ten thousand mid grade stones for lowest ranks for a villa blueprint?! Is the mission hall pulling a prank on us?!"

"Don’t look at the only the lower ranks. Even the top nine gets a fifty thousand mid grade spiritual stones each! That’s a lot just for drawing a villa layout!"

"No material cost limit! The employer explicitly states money is no object! Who is this madman?!"

"Right. 50,000 Mid Grade Spiritual Stones for the top ten?! 200,000 for the first place winner?! The mission creator really is insane."

"Heavens above! Last week, my senior brother risked his life in the dark forest for three full months, fighting evil cultivators to the death, and only earned 8000 Mid Grade Spiritual Stones from the sect! This... this design mission is more than a hundred times more generous than hunting dangerous evil cultivators!"

"Wait! Look at the submission location! This mission is synchronized across the Main Mission Hall, the Outer Sect Mission Branch, and even the Handyman Disciple Area’s Mission Hall! Everyone is allowed to submit!"

"Who cares if I don’t know how to draw professional blueprints?! What if the employer randomly likes my style?! I’m going back to my cave abode right now to paint!"

"Out of my way! I’m going to buy a high grade spiritual paper right now!"

In less than fifteen minutes, the shocking news of this sky high reward mission spread across the entire Cloudwater Sect like a wild forest fire, causing absolute chaos among outer, inner, and handyman disciples alike.

Because Yu Liang had requested the widest possible reach. Every single disciple, whether they were a high and mighty inner sect disciple or a handyman disciple, felt their hearts leap into their throats.

Talent in cultivation was rare, but talent in drawing, mapping layouts, or having a creative mind? Everyone felt that if they just got lucky enough to touch the employer’s eccentric tastes, their lives would change forever.

The entire sect was plunged into a literal frenzy.

Down in the lowest area of the outer sect, far away from the main area, the living conditions were harsh.

Here, a young girl named Lin Xiaoxiao stood before the branch mission board, her small hands clutching a worn out piece of wooden doll made by her mother as a charm against her chest.

Xiaoxiao was twenty one years old, born to a family of mortal farmers in a remote, drought ridden village. Her parents wept tears of pure joy when the sect elders discovered she possessed three elements spiritual roots, a respectable but middle level talent.

They sent her off to the immortal path with their blessings, hoping she could find a way to escape the brutal cycle of poverty and lift their family up even a little from this miserable situation if not atleast she will become an immortal and will not live like them.

However, after entering the sect, reality hit her like a heavy hammer. A three element spiritual root required an immense amount of external energy and high grade pills to properly temper and advance.

In the Outer Sect, where competition was extremely fierce, her cultivation speed was painfully slow. To make matters worse, absorbing spiritual energy consumed resources, and she had no powerful clan backing her up. The meager Spiritual Stones monthly allowance given by the sect was barely enough to sustain her basic daily survival, let alone sending anything back to her elderly parents in the mortal world.

Xiaoxiao had to slave away day and night just to afford basic cultivation resources.

Worse than the resource shortage, however, were the vultures.

In the lawless corners of the outer sect, strength was the only law. Xiaoxiao, gentle by nature and lacking any powerful background, had caught the attention of a small gang of older outer sect bullies led by a cruel, arrogant girl named Sun Ling.

Every single time Xiaoxiao earned a handful of low grade spiritual stones from grueling missions, Sun Ling and her thugs would corner her in the alleys, taking eighty percent of her income under the shameless guise of a "Outer Sect Sisterhood Protection Fees."

If she dared to resist or complain, Sun Ling would beat her up and use her connections with outer sect stewards to assign Xiaoxiao the heaviest and filthiest sect chores.

Because of this constant exploitation, she was always on the verge of starvation and collapse, unable to buy a single decent cultivation pill for herself, let alone helping her poor parents who were still suffering in the mortal village.

Looking up at the glowing words of the new mission, Xiaoxiao’s dull, exhausted eyes suddenly sparked with a desperate, beautiful light.

Ever since she was a little girl playing in the fields, she had a natural, profound fondness for decorating things.

She used to arrange wild flowers, river stones, and carved wood inside her family’s small hut, turning a bleak shelter into a beautiful place.

It’s as if she understood how to make a space feel alive.

’Tens of thousands of spiritual stones... even a thousand spiritual stones from the rewards would pay off my debts, buy proper medicines for my damage and also buy me enough peace to cultivate without worrying about resources,’ she thought, her heart hammering wildly.

With trembling fingers, she reached into her pocket, took out token of contribution points she had saved by skipping meals and doing low level missions nonstop for three days and bought a blank layout jade slip from the branch counter, copying the villa’s layout onto it.

"Oh, look what we have here. The little trash farmer thinks she’s a master."

A harsh, mocking voice cut through behind her. Xiaoxiao’s body stiffened, a wave of deep fear washed over her. She turned around to see Sun Ling, flanked by two burly female disciples, walking toward her with sneering grins.

Sun Ling glanced at the jade slip in Xiaoxiao’s hands and burst into a laugh. "You want to design a for a Honorary Disciple? Look at yourself. You wear patched robes and sleep in a room that smells like wet dog and when will you design when you didn’t even have time for cultivation. Do you even know what luxury looks like? yet you think your pathetic peasant sketches will catch the eye of Honorary Disciple?"

"I... I just want to try, Sister Sun," Xiaoxiao whispered, pulling the jade slip closer to her chest, her knuckles turning white. "The deadline is a month away. I will do it during my night hours..."

"Night hours?" Sun Ling’s eyes narrowed into a cold, wicked slit. She stepped closer, slapping the wooden doll out of Xiaoxiao’s hand, sending it rolling onto the ground. "It seems you have too much free time on your hands, to think you can waste it on daydreaming. As your seniors, we need to give you some proper guidance on how to be a diligent disciple."

Sun Ling pulled out a heavy wooden tablet from her own storage ring and slammed it against Xiaoxiao’s chest.

"The Law Enforcement Hall just put out a mandatory cleaning and maintenance request for the Black Rock Spirit Beast area in the southern valley. It’s a month long task for scraping toxic waste and washing three hundred iron skinned boars every single day. We’ve generously signed your name up for it. If you fail to complete the daily quota, the sect will deduct your remaining points."

Xiaoxiao looked at the tablet, her vision instantly blurring with hot, unshed tears.

This mission’s notorious for being toxic, exhausting, and completely filthy. Working there meant she would have absolutely no energy, no clean space, and barely any time to even look at her design slip. Sun Ling was deliberately trying to crush her spirit, ensuring she could never rise above her status as a bullied servant.

"Don’t look at me with those pathetic eyes of yours," Sun Ling sneered, patting Xiaoxiao’s pale cheek roughly. "Get down to the mission. And remember, your weekly protection fee is due in five days. If you don’t have the spiritual stones, we’ll take your cultivation resources instead."

With mocking laughs, the group of bullies turned and walked away, leaving Xiaoxiao alone in the crowded courtyard.

Xiaoxiao dropped to her knees, her tears finally overflowing and spilling onto the ground. She reached down, picked up her dust stained wooden doll.

Her heart felt incredibly heavy, a suffocating weight squeezing her chest.

’Why was the cultivation path so cruel to people who just wanted to live honestly?’

She looked at the golden mission description high above on the board, then at the dirty doll in her hand. Gripping it tightly until her palm bled, a flickering light of stubborn defiance lit up within her breaking heart.

’I won’t give up,’ she though, wiping her tears with her sleeve as she stood up. ’Even if I have to sacrifice my sleep, even if my hands were to bleed, I will finish this blueprint. I have to.’