“Like this, the second mission was finally complete. The third mission has yet to arrive, and I don’t know when it will come, but I think that by the time you get this letter, the struggle over the True Inheritor position will have been settled. Thus, Miss Xu, don’t spend every day grumbling about what your master is making you learn. Look at us unfortunate souls, giving up our lives just so someone can force us to cultivate. As for you, oh fortunate one, you should know what sort of fortune you enjoy.
“Alright, that’s it for today. I wish you early success in cultivation and your name to be known throughout the world and across the myriad domains. I know that you don’t care about such things, but it is truly the dream of countless students. Only when you have it can you disregard it.”
Once he was done writing, Tang Jie carefully looked it over. He recalled the amusing expressions he had used in internet chatting in the other world, so he drew a little smiling face at the end before putting down his brush.
He went over to the post station, where the supervising student was already familiar with him. He smiled and said, “What? Sending a letter to Miss Xu again today?”
“Indeed,” Tang Jie said, handing over the letter.
As the student took the letter, he said, “Someone who has earned the ardent affection of Fierce Tiger Tang Jie must be a beauty, but alas, while the falling flower has a desire, the flowing waters are callous. This girl seems to not care about you, as I have yet to see a reply.”
“Maybe it hasn’t gotten here yet,” Tang Jie chuckled.
As the days had gone by, his first letter had finally reached Horizon Ocean Pavilion, but Xu Miaoran’s reply had been sent through the jade amulet. This student would never see the reply.
“Then I’m afraid I’ll have to give you some more bad news,” the student said. “A caravan from Horizon Ocean Pavilion arrived just a few days ago. This is a caravan directly under Horizon Ocean Pavilion, so it travels much faster than mortal caravans. If she really had a letter for you, it would have been sent through this caravan.”
“Oh? Is that caravan still here?” Tang Jie asked.
“It is, but it’s basically finished with its goods and might be heading back tomorrow.”
“Then can I have them carry the letter for me?”
The student hesitated, and after thinking it over, he said, “It’s doable, but the price will be a little more expensive—an extra five spirit coins.”
Five spirit coins to send a letter was truly an expensive price, and it didn’t seem worth it for the letter to get there a little earlier.
“I’ll pay it,” Tang Jie said, taking out five spirit coins and then adding in an extra. “The same rules.”
By “the same rules”, he meant that he was asking this student to keep the matter of sending a letter a secret.
“Still not giving up,” the student chuckled as he took the money.
In his view, since Xu Miaoran hadn’t sent a reply, Tang Jie was suffering from a hopeless unrequited love.
But since Tang Jie was willing to pay him, he was happy to help.
After sending off the letter, Tang Jie returned to the Carefree House. When he pushed open the gate, he saw a vast garden of flowers, all of them exuding an alluring aroma. Tang Jie strolled through the sea of flowers, his hands behind his back.
As he passed by a small flower bush, a petal slowly drifted up behind him. Just as it was about to land on his shoulder, Tang Jie suddenly strode forward, causing the petal to just miss his shoulder.
In a flash, countless petals erupted and swept over Tang Jie.
Tang Jie laughed, abruptly turning around and thrusting his finger gently at one of the flowers.
There was a gasp of surprise as Yiyi appeared beneath Tang Jie’s finger, falling into his arms and receiving a hearty hug.
The sea of flowers disappeared.
“Ugh!” Yiyi shouted. “Why were you able to find me so quickly again? You haven’t even been cultivating the Eye of Heaven for that long!”
Ever since Yiyi had become able to hide herself among the flowers and Tang Jie had started cultivating the Eye of Heaven, this hide-and-seek had become their favorite game, though it was on a much higher level than the hide-and-seek they used to play with illusion formations.
“You forgot again,” Tang Jie said, giving Yiyi a light spank. “You can’t call it the Eye of Heaven. It’s Trace!”
Yiyi stuck out her tongue. “Oh, understood.”
And then she realized something and jumped to her feet, yelling, “Ah! You’re not allowed to spank me! Not allowed!”
Tang Jie couldn’t help but laugh at how adorable Yiyi was.
It had to be said that cultivating the Eye of Heaven was going extremely smoothly. It felt like he had been traveling a thousand kilometers every day in these last few days.
This wasn’t to say that the Eye of Heaven was simple. In reality, the Eye of Heaven was one of the highest-class spell arts of the Divine Firmament Sword Classic, incredibly complex and difficult to cultivate.
But after comprehending the Dao on Tiger Roar Peak, Tang Jie had become rather enlightened to the Dao of Insight. Even without learning any sort of observation spell art, he had been able to find the Frost Fairy with only a few pointers from Liu Hongyan. It could now be said that he possessed some talent in this aspect.
Only at the end of the road could one find the Way. What did it mean when one comprehended the Way first and then walked the road?
It could only mean that one was outrageously talented, a genius when it came to insight, the equivalent of a nine-cycle Jade Gate!
Thus, after only a few days, Tang Jie had gotten a basic grasp of the Eye of Heaven, and ordinary concealment spells were now ineffective against him. Yiyi’s methods would have worked on the Trace spell, but they would never work on him.
Yiyi was still jumping around, so Tang Jie picked her up and said, “Alright, the game’s over. It’s your turn now.”
“Again!” Yiyi angrily shouted, but she still obediently put her hands in front of her chest and began to softly chant.
A moment later, a shower of petals appeared, slowly circling around Yiyi and layering themselves around her body, protecting her in a giant flower cocoon.
Once the cocoon had formed, Tang Jie punched, unleashing a powerful gale that instantly sent Yiyi flying.
“Aaaah!” Yiyi screamed, her petals scattering as she tumbled through the air. Fortunately, the tiger promptly appeared and caught the falling Yiyi.
“Seventy percent,” Tang Jie coolly said. “You’re able to take an attack at 70% of my power, but this still isn’t enough. Yiyi, have you been slacking off again?”
The flower cocoon was a new spell art that Tang Jie had made Yiyi learn, the Blossom Shell. It turned falling flowers into a protective barrier. What was so special about it was that it could be used at the same time as Petal Rain, allowing for both attack and defense.
As a sprite, Yiyi was extremely capable when it came to spell arts, but her body was too fragile. Tang Jie had had Yiyi learn this spell so that she could protect herself.
The Blossom Shell was not a weak spell, but this girl clearly hadn’t cultivated the spell enough, allowing Tang Jie to dispel it with one strike.
Hearing Tang Jie’s scolding, Yiyi pursed her lips and said, “Not at all! I just don’t like it!”
Yiyi had a rather carefree and playful personality, and though she had gradually matured through all the dangers she had been through, she was still young, and natures were hard to change. Passive defensive spells were simply too boring, so she wasn’t diligent when cultivating them. In contrast, she was growing increasingly proficient with Heart Consonance, which allowed her to mentally communicate with Tang Jie.
Alas, this support ability didn’t require proficiency, and Tang Jie felt very helpless about this situation.
Seeing that she was angry, he soothed, “Alright, be a good girl. This is all for your sake. We might encounter many dangers in the future, and your big brother needs your protection.”
Yiyi had a habit of mostly ignoring Tang Jie whenever he said that such-and-such was for her own good or her sake. But when Tang Jie said that it would benefit him, she would start putting in more effort.
In her eyes, there was no one more important than her big brother. She didn’t need to work hard for herself, but she was willing to give her life for Tang Jie.
Tang Jie’s words immediately motivated Yiyi, and she looked at Tang Jie and said, “Big Brother, are we going to run into more trouble in the future?”
“Mm.” Tang Jie firmly nodded. “The young master now has two spots, so these people are definitely getting restless. They already tried once with the Valley of No Return, and since that failed, they’re going to go all-out this time. Methods that they were too afraid to use last time will probably be used this time. Whether it’s you or me, we have to work hard so that we can deal with any potential problems. Yiyi, your Blossom Shell is extremely effective, and what’s really good about it is that if you have enough petals, you can use it on many people. When the time comes, your big brother will depend entirely on you to protect me.”
“Oh, I understand!” Yiyi seriously nodded.
Tang Jie smiled in comfort when he saw that cute and serious look on her face.
But in the following days, there was no news whatsoever about the third mission, as if it didn’t even exist. Several months went by, but the third mission was still not issued. No matter how the students investigated, they received no clues. Many people even began to wonder if True Person Changfeng had given up on taking a disciple.
Only Tang Jie understood that the mission had not been abandoned. This long wait more probably meant that this mission had many more things to get ready.
And all of these arrangements were probably intended to deal with Wei Tianchong and Tang Jie.
Time swiftly went by, and as the days of cultivation built up, the majority of the students in his class began to reach Spirit Lake.
In the third month after returning from the Valley of No Return, Shi Meng successfully broke through into the Spirit Lake Tier.
In the same month, Wei Tianchong had a string of good luck, avoiding the strong opponents on the battleground and expressing his prodigious might. He managed to defeat numerous opponents in a row and finally rank, getting fourth.
This was Wei Tianchong’s first time on the ranking, and what had aided him in this struggle wasn’t the now-rather-famous puppet, but that Fireball spell that he had yet to completely master before the first mission.
While the puppet held down his opponent and the Mistnet Step let him evade his opponent, he was able to repeatedly cast Fireball, allowing him to defeat several decently-strong opponents.
Not even Tang Jie understood what was going on there.
The upperclassmen were also continuing to advance.
He had received some news not too long ago.
Peng Yaolong had shed his mortality!
He was the first and only person in the struggle for True Inheritor to have entered the Mortal Shedding Realm.
The first thing he did after entering Mortal Shedding was to announce that he was going to savagely beat Tang Jie in the next mission. But his attention was quickly drawn to another matter.
In the waiting period, Meng Shixue had left the academy on a contribution point mission and had been ambushed and heavily injured by Ye Tianshang.
Furious, Peng Yaolong immediately went off in pursuit of Ye Tianshang, and Ye Tianshang fled, knowing that he was no match. After running all over the place, he finally managed to escape back to the academy.
Now, whenever these two met in the academy, they would glare at each other. But the academy’s rules prevented Peng Yaolong from doing anything to Ye Tianshang.
Lastly, Cai Junyang had finally emerged from seclusion.
The first thing he did was to go and find Tang Jie for a match.
The battle didn’t end up being recorded, so nobody knew the outcome.
Everyone only knew that Tang Jie had come out covered in wounds while Cai Junyang had immediately headed back to his home to enter seclusion again.
Early summer approached, almost an entire year having passed.
On this day, the mission that everyone had been anticipating was finally announced.
The words “Wind Devil Island” hanging above the Bounty Platform left all the students stunned.