26: Fishing Enforcement

After putting away the Flying Sword and the Dao Soldiers, Lu Chen went straight to the Internal Affairs Hall.

He was going to accept a mission to leave the Sect, primarily to hunt more Monster Beasts to nurture his Silver Armor Dao Soldiers and also to help the fifteen Copper Armor Dao Soldiers advance.

The number of Monster Beasts required for this might be very large, so buying them with Merit Points was definitely not feasible, as there wouldn't be enough Merit Points. He could only rely on Lu Chen to hunt them himself... or rather, the Dao Soldiers would hunt them themselves!

As mature Dao Soldiers, they should be self-sufficient.

After spending a little over half an hour with Deacon Hu Tai at the Internal Affairs Hall, Lu Chen finally left the Sect.

This time, the mission he accepted was to go to 'Lingya Mountain, retrieve ten pairs of White-scaled Elephant tusks, for a reward of eight Merit Points'. Moreover, there were Tong Qiao Realm Monster Beasts in Lingya Mountain.

It's also worth mentioning that previously, on his way back to the Sect, Lu Chen had encountered a Peak Spirit Transformation Realm Monster Earthworm in Qing Shi Town. He had originally wanted to find this mission and take it to earn some Merit Points, but it had already been taken by an Outer Sect Disciple named Liang Ping. Lu Chen had no choice but to give up.

He wondered if Liang Ping had gotten a freebie, or if Liang Ping would simply be unable to complete this mission?

Because the mission objective had already been conveniently killed by Lu Chen, and the Monster Corpse had been completely absorbed as nourishment by his Copper Armor Dao Soldiers.

Forget it, this mission had nothing to do with him anymore. It was more interesting to take the Dao Soldiers out to 'support themselves'.

As usual, he burrowed underground, sitting on his newly nurtured Silver Armor Dao Soldier and moving stealthily with astonishing speed.

From Dongming Sect to Lingya Mountain was a thousand li away, but with the Silver Armor Dao Soldier's burrowing speed, they arrived in less than an hour.

Lu Chen summoned all fifteen Copper Armor Dao Soldiers and one Silver Armor Dao Soldier and swaggered straight up Lingya Mountain.

Just as they entered Lingya Mountain, one of the Copper Armor Dao Soldiers had already quietly burrowed underground. When it reappeared, it was under an Iron-toothed Sheep, grabbing its head and dragging it underground. It killed it with two punches, moving with astonishing speed.

After that, it was almost a complete sweep. Whenever a Monster Beast was encountered, a Dao Soldier would step forward and easily hunt it down. Even when they encountered gregarious Monster Beasts, they still swept through them, not needing Lu Chen to lift a finger.

During this time, Lu Chen also encountered several Dongming Sect Disciples who were also doing missions in Lingya Mountain. All of them looked at Lu Chen with the most shocked expressions.

Good heavens, when Outer Sect Disciples came to Lingya Mountain to do missions, they were all cautious, fearing they might accidentally alert a Tong Qiao Realm Monster Beast. But this Lu Chen was just swaggering around!

Hunting Monster Beasts was as simple as slaughtering chickens and dogs, and Lu Chen didn't even need to do it himself. Those stone figures took care of it in no time.

This wasn't doing a mission, it was probably just sightseeing!

In response, Lu Chen didn't engage in any conversation, just nodded as a greeting, and then continued his sweep.

Subsequently, the roars and screams of Monster Beasts continuously echoed through the mountain, only to quickly disappear.

After about half an hour of this, Lu Chen's footsteps suddenly stopped, and his eyes lit up: "Finally, I've encountered a Tong Qiao Realm Monster Beast."

It was a 'Crimson Flame Fierce Tiger', naturally gifted with control over blazing flames. Its tail was like a steel whip, capable of injuring upon brushing and killing upon contact. It was an extremely fierce type of Monster Beast.

Even Spirit Transformation Realm Disciples dared not provoke it.

But Lu Chen dared. Well, to be precise, his Dao Soldiers dared.

"Don't damage it, keep the body intact."

With Lu Chen's command, fifteen Copper Armor Dao Soldiers, plus one Silver Armor Dao Soldier, swarmed forward, engulfing the Crimson Flame Fierce Tiger amidst earth-shattering tiger roars.

Flames surged, but they had no effect on the Dao Soldiers because both the Copper Armor Dao Soldiers and the Silver Armor Dao Soldiers controlled the Fire Element. These flames were simply not enough.

Led by the Silver Armor Dao Soldier, it rumbled as it leveraged the Earth Element beneath the ground, forming a thick, heavy hand that immediately pressed down on the Crimson Flame Fierce Tiger.

No matter how the Crimson Flame Fierce Tiger roared repeatedly and released rolling flames, it couldn't break free from this Earth Element hand. What made the fierce tiger even more despairing was that the Silver Armor Dao Soldier had silently merged into the Earth Element hand and reappeared riding on the fierce tiger's back. With two 'bang bang' sounds from its iron fists the size of millstones, the fierce tiger was already disoriented.

When the fifteen Copper Armor Dao Soldiers surrounded and attacked together, raining down punches one after another, the Tong Qiao Realm Demon Tiger had no room to resist at all and was beaten to death on the spot by the group of Dao Soldiers' chaotic punches.

"Tong Qiao Realm, they aren't very durable either!" Lu Chen walked forward, put the intact Monster Corpse of the Crimson Flame Fierce Tiger into the Nurturing Soldier Immortal Coffin, and then continued up the mountain.

At this point, his Nurturing Soldier Immortal Coffin was already piled high with various Monster Beast corpses, the lowest being Spirit Transformation Realm. He no longer cared for Qi Condensation Realm Monster Beasts.

"Still need eight more Tong Qiao Realm."

He had already killed several White-scaled Elephants required for the mission and had collected six pairs of tusks.

An hour later, near the summit, Lu Chen stepped forward with light steps and put the corpse of a giant dog-like Monster Beast, over a zhang long, into the Nurturing Soldier Immortal Coffin: "That's the seventh Tong Qiao Realm Monster Beast."

Keep up the good work, the more the merrier.

The more Monster Beasts of this level, the better. They are excellent 'nutrients' for nurturing Dao Soldiers.

Next, Lu Chen led the sixteen Dao Soldiers, like a swarm of locusts, killing from the foot of the mountain to the summit, then changing direction and sweeping from the summit all the way down to the foot, achieving great results.

He killed a total of eighteen Tong Qiao Realm Monster Beasts and nearly one hundred and fifty Spirit Transformation Realm Monster Beasts.

Lu Chen even suspected that the already scarce Tong Qiao Realm Monster Beasts on Lingya Mountain might have all been killed by his Dao Soldiers. Anyway, he searched several times but didn't find any more, which left Lu Chen feeling a bit unsatisfied.

"Time to knock off." With enough Monster Beasts, it was time to return to the Sect to nurture the Silver Armor Dao Soldiers.

Just as Lu Chen was about to burrow underground, he suddenly looked up at the mountainside. There, a bloody sword light soared into the sky, filled with malevolent energy, accompanied by what sounded like ghostly wails.

"Wait, those aren't Dongming Sect Disciples!" Lu Chen's heart stirred, and he suddenly remembered Ma Qi and Yu Xiaoxuan, the three people he had encountered while doing a mission in Twilight Mountain previously.

Those three fellow Senior apprentice-brothers, whom he had only met once, had already died under the sword of unknown rogue cultivators.

Later, Zhong Yi and Zhang Bingsong from the Law Enforcement Hall of Mingjing Peak had specifically sought him out and informed Lu Chen that there were rogue cultivators who didn't fear death hunting Dongming Sect Disciples.

Lu Chen had also encountered two old rogue cultivators in Wuguan County, but they were lured out and killed by Lu Chen using himself as bait.

Now, he saw a similar scene again.

Hesitating for a moment, he waved his hand, and immediately ten Copper Armor Dao Soldiers burrowed underground. They quickly reached the mountainside, beneath the sword light.

Lu Chen looked through the eyes of the Copper Armor Dao Soldiers and indeed saw powerful rogue cultivators exuding astonishing auras. One wielded a bloody malevolent sword. One waved a ghost banner, summoning a hundred ghosts. One released two Black-haired Zombies, their corpse energy rolling.

But to Lu Chen's surprise, no Dongming Sect Disciples were being killed.

These three rogue cultivators who followed evil paths were also being entangled by three Tong Qiao Realm Inner Sect Disciples of Dongming Sect.

"So Dongming Sect was prepared after all." He had almost forgotten that Zhong Yi and Zhang Bingsong had told Lu Chen to take on more missions in areas within the Sect that had Monster Beast resources, the purpose being to lure out those reckless rogue cultivators.

It seemed that the Sect had never relaxed its vigilance and had always been conducting 'fishing' law enforcement in these areas.