Alex walked slowly in the beautifully lit streets of the sect valley. Hundreds of other disciples were walking around doing their own things.
They had also taken missions from the contribution hall and were on their way to do different tasks. He realized, however, that there were a lot fewer inner sect disciples and core disciples around at night times.
"Is it because they only work during the day, and need to sleep at night?" he wondered. He felt bad for the outer sect disciples who weren't free enough to do what they wanted, whenever they wanted.
After remembering he was also an outer sect disciple, he just laughed and shook his head.
After a while, he had come to the entrance to the inner sect mountain.
"Do I just go in?" he wondered. The rulebook clearly mentioned that going to the inner sect mountain for the outer sect disciples was forbidden.
"How am I going to complete my mission then?" he got confused. He looked at the information about the nameplate, and it clearly mentioned going to the inner sect disciple's mountain and looking for Kong Yuhan.
"Whatever. If I get in trouble, I will just tell them I did what the mission told me to." He started walking inside.
"Hey you, stop." A voice came from the side. Hidden in the darkness near the entrance was a small cottage-like open building. A man walked out of the building and stood in front of him.
The man looked at his clothing and asked, "Aren't you an outer sect disciple? What are you doing here?"
Alex looked at the man carefully and realized he was wearing a green robe with silver linings along the side. 'An Elder!' he was surprised.
"Good evening, Elder. I came here to complete my mission." He told the elder honestly.
"Hmm… Mission? Let me check your nameplate." He asked for the nameplate. Alex swiftly handed the nameplate to the elder.
The elder brought the nameplate to his forehead and closed his eyes for a few seconds. Once he had verified that Alex had indeed come here with a mission, he took out a medallion from his inner robes.
Alex looked at the medallion curiously. It looked similar to the one the disciple in the disciple hall had, but yet somehow different. This medallion seemed to be made up of expensive material.
The elder brought the medallion to his forehead and closed his eyes once more.
After a few seconds, he opened his eyes and spoke, " Wait here, I have called Kong Yuhan. He will be here soon."
This surprised Alex. 'He called the disciple from here? Does that medallion function like a phone?' he wondered. A few minutes later Alex saw someone coming down.
The disciple who just came down was a man in his early 20s and was wearing the inner sect disciple's robes. He was at least a head taller than Alex and had better muscles as well.
His hair somehow seemed blue, even in the darkness. 'This must be Kong Yuhan' Alex thought.
"Disciple Yuhan greets elder Zhang. Why has elder Zhang summoned me?" he spoke in a very formal manner. Alex focused on the newcomer a bit more to see if his hair was really blue or not.
'Woah' he got surprised. Something unexpected popped up. Above Kong Yuhan's head, a set of words popped up.
[Organ Tempering 9th Realm]
'Wow, that's 2 entire realms ahead of me.' Alex was surprised. He then tried to see if it worked on the elder too. Something did pop up, but it just said [Mortal]
'Mortal?' that was impossible. He didn't believe anyone who was still a mortal could be part of the sect, let alone be an elder. 'Does that mean that he is so strong that I can't even tell what realm he is in?' that was the only logical answer for Alex.
"This outer sect disciple is here to complete the mission you had given to the contribution hall." The elder pointed towards Alex as he spoke to Kong Yuhan.
Kong Yuhan's eyes popped up a bit when he heard that. He looked at Alex with a sudden turn of his head. Inside his eyes, Alex could see a mixture of shock, excitement, and hope.
He practically ran as he came to stand in front of Alex, and asked with a shaky voice, "Ju-Junior Brother, Is- is it true that you found a dwarf berry?" he asked.
Alex didn't expect that an inner sect disciple would be this excited for something that grew in the forest nearby. He brought out the berry from his inventory and handed it to Kong Yuhan.
"Brother Kong, I hope this is what you were searching for. "
Kong Yuhan looked at the berry in his hand absentmindedly. Only after a while did he realize what he was holding.
"Oh, OH!, yes. This is exactly what I had been searching for." He said happily. " A 10-year-old Dwarf Berry." Kong Yuhan seemed to have not expected such an old berry.
He slowly started walking back towards his home.
"Disciple Kong." A stern voice came from the side that jolted Kong Yuhan out of his trance.
"Yes Elder?" he asked the elder.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" the elder said as he gestured towards the standing Alex.
Kong Yuhan looked back and immediately started apologizing. " I'm so sorry, junior disciple. I was so happy to get the berry, that I forgot my manner. Here, give me your nameplate, let me pay you for the berry."
Alex handed him his nameplate. Kong Yuhan took out his own nameplate and put them together, and pressed them to his head. After a while, he returned Alex's nameplate back to him.
Alex checked the nameplate.
[Hong Wu Sect, Outer Sect Disciple, Yu-Ming. Contribution Points: 10]
"Hmm… Brother Kong, there seem to be 2 more points than the reward in the mission." He said.
"That's intentional. I had put up that mission almost a month ago. I was stuck in a bottleneck forever and needed a 2-year-old berry. They were very hard to come by. However, you brought me one, that too a 10-year-old berry. Of course, I am going to give you a little extra."
"Take it, junior brother. You deserve it. Good night." He said and went back up the mountain with a giddy set of footsteps.