Chapter 16 The Mountain God's Decision

The sound of footsteps grew closer, and the teammates stopped beside the charred, carbonized human-shaped corpse. Red Rooster Brother kicked the corpse, scattering a foot of black ash.

"It's really dead, finally dead," Red Rooster Brother laughed three times. "I can go home and drink soup now."

Apart from Yin Ji, who was relatively calm, joy floated on everyone else's faces. Looking at the completely dead Little Emperor, they all felt like they were in a dream.

S-class mission, completed just like that!

"From now on, we will also have the S-class completion medal." Xia Shu Zhi Lian's cold and beautiful face couldn't hide her smile as she said, "This is a hidden rating; I'm referring to the official internal rating. Sometimes, even if the merit points aren't enough, members who have completed S-class missions will receive more attention and importance from the leaders than others."

Xia Hou Aotian's face was full of joy as he raised his chin. "This is the glory and medal that the protagonist must have."

He was very happy, no, ecstatic. Experience points and rewards were secondary; the S-class completion medal was the main point.

In the past, Xia Hou Aotian had only completed two A-class missions, and he had always deeply regretted not having the glory of completing an S-class mission.

Now that the protagonist had obtained the glory that matched his status, he couldn't be happier.

"S-class..." Zi You Zhi Ying muttered to herself. She took a deep breath, and the joy on her face couldn't be suppressed.

The "hidden rating" that Xia Shu Zhi Lian mentioned also applied within the Heavenly Punishment organization. This dungeon experience would become the stepping stone for her promotion to a second-level Gold Executive Officer.

"Yuanshi Tianzun, you're really amazing. I hope I can be matched with you in the future," Yun Meng said happily.

Due to its internal structure and ethnic attributes, the Qinghe branch did not value positions and benefits, so her joy was the purest: surviving a great disaster!

As soon as these words came out, everyone couldn't help but look at Yuanshi Tianzun and the Vajra Pestle in his hand.

Initially, their impression of Yuanshi Tianzun was--he does have a few tricks up his sleeve.

But there was absolutely no admiration or reliance. It wasn't until the battle in the seabed that he stood out from the crowd of Xia Hou Aotian, who had deciphered the formation, Zi You Zhi Ying, the plague god, and Yin Ji, who restrained the Yin corpse army, and played an important role.

After landing on the shore, the position of captain had, in fact, been transferred to him invisibly.

Therefore, after the plan was formulated, almost no one objected, and they entrusted their lives to him.

Now that they thought about it, it was extremely unbelievable.

He was clearly only level 4, but he suppressed level 5 Xia Hou Aotian and level 6 Yin Ji in the dungeon. This was the real genius, far from being comparable to the elites of the same level.

Those could only be considered elites.

Xia Hou Aotian was silent for a moment, then praised, "Yuanshi Tianzun, you, um... the item in your hand is very good."

Is it going to kill you to praise me a few words...? Zhang Yuanqing was speechless and could only "Heh" once.

Without the Vajra Pestle, even with the Yin-Yang Disk's restraint, half the team would have died.

No, in fact, in the seabed, if it hadn't been for him and the Yin-Yang Disk getting along well, half the people would have died then. And even so, Xia Shu and Yun Meng still died once.

Zhang Yuanqing said:

"Speaking of items, the Xie family's Rule item belongs to me, no objections, right?"

Everyone looked at each other, frowning or hesitating.

Zhang Yuanqing added, "I will distribute the rewards from the two items to you according to their contributions. Everyone can exchange contact information."

Hearing this, everyone felt much better and nodded.

In fact, even if Yuanshi Tianzun swallowed it privately, they couldn't do anything, because the items had been collected into the inventory, and even the most extreme act of killing and stealing treasures couldn't be done.

Now that he was willing to share a portion of the reward, what else could they say?

Immediately, everyone exchanged contact information.

"This protagonist's contribution is the greatest. It's not too much for him to give me eighty million, right?" Xia Hou Aotian said with a look of anticipation.

Eighty million? You want me to pay for your energy pack...? Zhang Yuanqing saw through Xia Hou Aotian's superficial intentions at a glance and asked amiably:

"Your main quest is completed, why hasn't it been settled yet?"

"It's already being settled," Xia Hou Aotian said.

"Hurry up and scram, I'm not seeing you off."

"..." Xia Hou Aotian was about to retort when his whole body stiffened, and a miniature pill furnace surrounded by clouds and mist appeared on his forehead, and his brown pupils turned purple.

On the other side, a hazy and mysterious nebula lit up on Yin Ji's forehead, and the power of the stars overflowed from her body.

The process lasted for more than ten seconds. When the surging aura in the two people's bodies calmed down, Zhang Yuanqing found that their aura had become much stronger.

"As expected of an S-class dungeon, it actually added 18% of experience points at once. If I clear another dungeon next month, I'll be able to level up to level 6," Xia Hou Aotian said excitedly.

Zhang Yuanqing looked at the envious and expectant expressions of his teammates, and thought to himself - Ah, only 18%? Every time I clear an S-class dungeon, I get a reward of 30% to 40% experience points.

At this time, Yin Ji looked sideways and said, "I'll go back first. I'll contact you when I find a suitable item."

Zhang Yuanqing nodded. "Don't leak the information about the item I got."

He needed to discuss with Fu Qingyang how to use the item to gamble with the official. Don't let the headquarters and the Jianghuai branch be waiting at Fu Jia Wan before he even returned to the dungeon. That would be very passive.

The encounter in Jinghai City made him realize that although merit points were good, they had a fatal flaw.

It could not offset demerits, and it was very likely that an accident would happen before the merit points could be exchanged, such as not being able to be promoted within a year.

Of course, that was mainly because he was leveling up too fast and earning merit points too fast.

For ordinary official Nightwalkers, the benefits of merit points outweighed money and other benefits.

"Okay," Yin Ji nodded heavily.

The next second, she and Long Aotian disappeared from the dungeon and returned to reality.

Before the two left, Red Rooster Brother's face changed. "Crap, our main quest is to survive for 36 hours. The time isn't up, and we can't get out. My chicken soup..."

Did you only realize that now? Zhang Yuanqing glanced at him.

"We entered the dungeon at about 16 hours. There's still plenty of time. Let's search for materials together. There should be many valuable materials in this dungeon," Xia Shu Zhi Lian said.

The materials sold outside were all collected from dungeons by Nightwalkers.

"It's a pity it's been burned to ashes." Zi You Zhi Ying looked at the Little Emperor's remains, her face full of regret.

At this time, she noticed that Yuanshi Tianzun was walking towards the palace, so she shut her mouth and quickly followed.

Xia Shu Zhi Lian took a few quick steps, walked side by side with Zhang Yuanqing, and speculated, "The monsters in the dungeon are concentrated in the seabed. The palace may not be without gains."

"I'm not here for the materials." Zhang Yuanqing crossed the threshold and entered the palace.

"Then it's..." Xia Shu Zhi Lian frowned.

Zhang Yuanqing didn't answer, crossed the weed-filled courtyard, and arrived outside the gate of the main palace, Ci Yuan Palace.

The palace was small, rectangular, about 100 meters long and 30 meters wide. There were three halls in total. The central one was Ci Yuan Palace, which was the residence of the Little Emperor's mother.

The layout of the hall was simple. On the left was the bedroom, and on the right was the outer room, furnished with simple furniture and bookshelves, exceptionally poor.

Zhang Yuanqing turned around in the bedroom and outer room and asked,

"Xia Shu, can you see anything?"

Xia Shu Zhi Lian looked at a stack of official documents on the bookshelf and said, "The most valuable things are those."

Zhang Yuanqing "Hmm" once and walked straight to the bookshelf.

The furnishings in Ci Yuan Palace were simple and clear at a glance. He could naturally see that the most valuable things were the official documents, but that was all he could see. If there were secret compartments or inconspicuous clues, he wouldn't be able to see them. He still needed a scout.

"Help me take a look together." He took out an official document and brushed off the dust below.

"What are we looking at?" Xia Shu Zhi Lian asked.

"I don't know, let's take a look first." Zhang Yuanqing shook his head.

There was a lot of content in the official documents, and the matters were very complicated, but they could be divided into three categories: war intelligence, temporary imperial court market, and Yuan-Song correspondence.

In the war intelligence, Zhang Yuanqing saw information about many ancient cultivator organizations. At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, the orthodox path was weakening, and the Yuan army incorporated many evil and heterodox sects and famous orthodox sects active in the north, and marched south to conquer.

While negotiating with the Yuan army, the Southern Song court secretly sent letters to those sects, hoping that the talented people and strange scholars could return to the court and resist the Yuan together.

However, the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty was a general trend, and no one responded.

"Eh!" Xia Shu Zhi Lian suddenly handed over a document and said, "Take a look at this."

Zhang Yuanqing took the official document and read it carefully. This was a military intelligence report, but it was not about the movements of the Yuan army, but about cultivators.

It said that the cultivators of the Nine Poison Sect in the north and the Dark Shadow Building in the Western Regions suggested to the Yuan army commander: Refine the remaining Dragon Qi to suppress the mountains and rivers.

That was all, with no details.

"This is what I'm looking for." Zhang Yuanqing smiled.

"Is that thing very precious?"

Red Rooster Brother, who was behind him, approached excitedly.

Xia Shu Zhi Lian and others cast inquiring glances. Yuanshi Tianzun didn't go to collect materials and came to the palace just to find this document?

What secrets did it contain?

"It's not precious, just satisfying curiosity." Zhang Yuanqing looked around at his teammates. "Do you remember the dungeon introduction?"

Yun Meng answered quickly: "To prevent the remnants of the Southern Song Dynasty from reviving, the Yuan army sent talented people and strange scholars to set up a Dragon Locking Formation, so that the soldiers in the seabed would never be able to be reincarnated for eternity."

"But the real purpose is to refine a Dominator-level Yin corpse. Refining the remaining Dragon Qi to suppress the mountains and rivers means this." Zhang Yuanqing talked eloquently:

"At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was exhausted. Well, you should all know this secret, after all, you are all Saints. If you don't know, then consider it my free gift to you."

"Getting back to the main topic, at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Dominators of the cultivation world should have all died almost completely. The talented people and strange scholars in the Yuan army wanted to take advantage of the change of dynasty and use the remnants of the Great Song to refine a Dominator-level Yin corpse."

"It's a pity they failed. It was too troublesome to deal with tens of thousands of Yin corpses, so they simply abandoned them. That's why the Little Emperor was left in the seabed."

Red Rooster Brother suddenly understood, "I see, this is the complete plot of the dungeon."

"Yes." Zhang Yuanqing said with emotion, "It's a pity that this hidden quest has already been triggered. The reward has nothing to do with us."

"Hidden quest?" Red Rooster Brother was stunned.

Zhang Yuanqing said, "Otherwise, why do you think the previous team was wiped out here?"

Xia Shu Zhi Lian suddenly realized:

"You mean, the previous team triggered the hidden quest, and as a result, the entire team was wiped out. This led to the change in the difficulty of 'Yashan Sea', rather than their failure to clear the dungeon and the items being lost in the dungeon, so the difficulty of the dungeon changed."

The meaning was similar, but the cause and effect were different.

In fact, the Demon Monarch survived, but he didn't seem to have told Yin Ji about this. Looking at it this way, did that guy secretly plot against his teammates back then? Otherwise, why would he sigh in the Cat King's sound box, "The performance is overfulfilled" ... Zhang Yuanqing's mind was turning, but his expression was calm:

"That's how it is."

With a feeling of enlightenment, Red Rooster Brother borrowed a transcendent-level Water Ghost item from Yun Meng and went to the seaside with his teammates.

Putting aside everything else, the materials in those Yin corpses alone, tens of thousands of Yin corpses, were enough for them to make a fortune.

Unexpectedly, as soon as they walked out of the palace, they saw the blue sky, which was covered with golden light at some point.

A vast and majestic, upright and domineering aura enveloped the entire Yashan Sea.

"What's going on?" Red Rooster Brother was shocked, looked up at the sky, and said with a terrified expression, "Is the dungeon starting again? Did we trigger a hidden quest?"

Under such oppressive pressure, even the Fire Master could not muster the will to fight.

Xia Shu Zhi Lian's face was solemn, and she silently summoned her short sword.

Zi You Zhi Ying and Yun Meng were facing a great enemy, and their faces could not hide their panic.

"Don't be afraid, this is the supreme existence I summoned, the great and holy, dignified and beautiful, noble and elegant Mountain God Goddess, and I am her favorite junior," Zhang Yuanqing said with an unparalleled pious tone.

Zhang Yuanqing's words, heard in the ears of everyone, were simply the most wonderful sound in the world.

He summoned such a great existence at that time!

While breathing a sigh of relief, a wave of unspeakable envy and jealousy rose in everyone's hearts. Being able to summon such a level of existence in the dungeon, it was difficult for Yuanshi Tianzun to die even if he wanted to.

Compared to the envy of others, Zi You Zhi Ying was thinking more. Could this be the reason why Yuanshi Tianzun leveled up so quickly?

Where did he get the lucky encounter from?

This was extremely important information that could allow the organization to better understand the reason for the rise of a genius.

I like the look in your eyes... Zhang Yuanqing was calm on the surface and said, "You guys go to the seaside first."

When everyone left, the golden light in the air quickly contracted, condensed into a stream of light, and descended to the entrance of the palace.

In the golden light, a pure and dignified goddess stood gracefully, wearing a gorgeous neon dress, with blue silk like a waterfall, and that elegant and dignified face carried a hint of a smile.

Like a flower growing in the immortal world, simple and noble, she descended to the human world.

Zhang Yuanqing bowed his head and said loudly:

"Goddess, please forgive me."

San Dao Shan Niangniang was slightly surprised and asked:

"What is the sin?"

Zhang Yuanqing said, "This junior should not evaluate the Goddess in front of outsiders. The Goddess is unparalleled in beauty and has no equal in ancient times. How can this junior describe her at will."

On Ba Dao Shan Niangniang's beautiful face, the smile seemed to be deeper, and she said lightly:

"Bring the Vajra Pestle."

Zhang Yuanqing offered it with both hands, holding it above his head.

The Vajra Pestle turned into a golden light and disappeared into the Goddess's body.

Alas, our fate is over. You have to walk your own path in the future... Zhang Yuanqing felt a strong reluctance in his heart. The Vajra Pestle and the Red Dance Shoes were his first items and the important reliance on his fame and killing enemies.

Is emotionless.

The old woman flicked her finger, and a sheepskin scroll flew lightly towards Zhang Yuanqing.

"This is the simplified offering ceremony. Whether it is in reality or in the dungeon, you can communicate with me, and it can be used repeatedly," San Dao Shan Niangniang's voice was clear and pleasant.

"Goddess, this junior has one more thing to ask for." Zhang Yuanqing solemnly put away the sheepskin scroll and said, "This junior has recently had inner demons growing and acting in a paranoid way, which is difficult to control. I would like to ask the Goddess for a magic weapon."

"Inner demons growing?" You frowned slightly and said, "What is it?"

"The Ghost Mirror of Princess Yin Yao," Vajra Pestle said.

San Dao Shan Niangniang said: "Yes, within ten days, I will give you the mirror."

She didn't even hesitate, she gave away her disciple's important magic weapon as soon as she said so.

After all, she would even give away her disciple as soon as she said so.

Great! Zhang Yuanqing smiled on his face and tentatively said:

"Is the Goddess delayed by something?"

San Dao Shan Niangniang shook her head, "I am already in Sumeru Mustard Seed."

Without waiting for Zhang Yuanqing to speak, she warned in a deep voice, "The way of cultivation is to compete with the heaven and compete with people. You can borrow momentum, but you cannot rely on external forces blindly. In the future, I will not help you with anything in the dungeon."

"Thank you for your guidance, Goddess. This junior will keep it in mind." Zhang Yuanqing's attitude was very good.

Alas, I can't cheat in the future.

He immediately asked, "Goddess, if you merge with the Yang soul in the Vajra Pestle, will you be able to leave the Lingjing? Have you ever thought about rebuilding the Pure Yang Sect in reality?"

San Dao Shan Niangniang said, "I will not leave the Lingjing in the short term."

"Why?"

"If I leave the Lingjing, I don't have a character card, and it will be difficult to come back. And the Lingjing hides the hope of being promoted to a human immortal." She didn't hide anything. "

"I wish the Goddess to be promoted to a human immortal as soon as possible, to live as long as the heaven, and to be immortal." Zhang Yuanqing bowed his head.

Sure enough, this junior never let her down.

San Dao Shan Niangniang smiled slightly, "Is there anything else?"

"Respectfully send off the Goddess." Zhang Yuanqing did not get up.

San Dao Shan Niangniang nodded lightly and turned into a golden light to escape into the sky.

……

After nearly twenty hours of collecting materials, the people on the shore who were sorting out the spoils heard the familiar dungeon prompt.

[Ding, congratulations on completing the Shaoren Lingjing mission - Yashan Sea, number: 012, difficulty level s, the reward is being settled...]

……

ps: Fix typos first and then change.