The mission hall's interior opened into a space considerably larger than its entrance had suggested, rows of notice boards stretching along walls lined with waiting cultivators, clerks processing paperwork behind long counters carved from the same green-tiled stone as the exterior. A quieter section near the back displayed something that caught Lin Tianren's attention immediately — a ledger tracking contribution points beside individual names, the kind of record that clearly mattered for more than simple resource collection.
*Missions aren't just about rewards,* he realized, scanning the board. *They're currency here in a way that goes past spirit stones.*
The categories stretched across the main board in careful columns: Herb Gathering. Beast Hunting. Escort. Village Protection. Artifact Recovery. Investigation. Ruin Exploration.
He worked through the listings methodically, and the problem became clear almost immediately. Most of what was posted sat well beneath anything worth his current effort — herb collection runs a child could complete, escort work for merchants moving between settlements that hadn't seen real danger in years.
Then his eyes caught on something further down the board.
**[Mission: Investigation — Moonfall Village]**
**[Difficulty: C-Rank]**
**[Objective: Investigate the disappearance of spiritual herb gatherers]**
**[Duration: Maximum 3 Days]**
**[Reward: Contribution Points + Spirit Stones + Mission Reward]**
Three people missing, and the sect had classified it as ordinary. Something about the mismatch pulled at the same instinct that had once let him spot a ley-line convergence pattern in a war council he'd barely earned a seat at.
"You're actually taking a mission already?"
Gu Chen's voice carried genuine surprise as he and Xia Qing caught up to him at the board.
"I need resources," Lin Tianren said. "And sweeping courtyards isn't going to make me stronger."
Gu Chen leaned in to read the posting over his shoulder, and his expression shifted the moment he registered the location. "That one? Don't take it."
"Why not?"
"Herb gatherers have been disappearing near Moonfall Village for weeks now," Gu Chen said. "The sect already sent disciples out to investigate once. They came back with nothing unusual to report, and people kept vanishing regardless."
Xia Qing's attention sharpened at the name. "Actually," she said slowly, "I might need to go there anyway. There's a spiritual herb my family specifically needs — it only grows in the mountains around that village. I've been looking for an excuse to make the trip."
Gu Chen sighed, clearly recognizing he'd already lost the argument before it properly started. "Fine. But we're doing this carefully."
The team settled into shape without much further discussion — Lin Tianren, Gu Chen, Xia Qing, and the fox, which had followed him quietly from the courtyard the way it always did now, its true nature concealed beneath the disguise Lin had become accustomed to maintaining. To Gu Chen and Xia Qing, it read as nothing more than an ordinary contracted beast, small and unremarkable enough that neither of them had asked a second question about it since the day they'd met.
"The mission hall caps party registration at five disciples per mission," Gu Chen explained, filling in the registration form at the counter. "We're well under that."
"And if we find something valuable out there?" Lin Tianren asked, curious more than calculating.
"Anything that belongs to the sect stays the sect's property," Gu Chen said. "But personal discoveries work differently — mission rules guarantee the finder a portion of whatever turns up, beyond what the sect claims. Not everything, but enough to matter."
Lin Tianren filed that away carefully, understanding a little better now how a system built on scarce resources actually incentivized people to keep taking missions like this one in the first place.
The registration finalized with a quiet chime, and the system pulsed almost immediately after.
**[Mission Accepted]**
**[Location: Moonfall Village]**
**[Estimated Completion: 2–3 Days]**
Then, a beat later, something else settled into place beneath it.
**[Warning: Mission Difficulty Assessment Inconsistent]**
He stopped walking. "Inconsistent how?"
**[Recorded casualty rate exceeds standard C-Rank parameters.]**
Nothing further followed the statement. He waited a moment, half-expecting elaboration that never came.
*If three groups disappeared,* he thought, falling into step behind Gu Chen and Xia Qing as they left the hall, *why is the sect still calling this ordinary?*
He didn't voice the question aloud. Some things were worth carrying quietly until there was actually a real answer waiting for them.
The journey out of the sect's territory gave him his first real look at the Immortal Realm beyond the walls he'd spent the last week confined to, and the scale of it settled into him slowly, piece by piece, over the course of the day.
Floating mountains drifted past below the path they walked, spirit beasts grazing along terraces that shouldn't have supported solid ground at all. Flying boats crossed the sky in loose formation, their hulls carved with the same kind of dense inscriptions he'd seen on the sect's outer walls. Cultivators passed overhead standing atop swords that carried them faster than any horse, robes marking a dozen different disciplines he was only beginning to recognize by sight. Spirit rivers ran alongside the path in places, their water carrying a faint luminescence that had nothing to do with reflected light. Distant cities rose from valleys too large to fully take in from a single vantage point.
Gu Chen narrated most of it without being asked, clearly enjoying the chance to explain something to someone who genuinely didn't already know it. Xia Qing added details wherever her family's trade gave her a sharper eye for what they were passing.
Lin Tianren absorbed all of it quietly, a thought settling into place that felt considerably heavier than the scenery around it.
*The world I thought I understood was barely a corner of the mortal realm. And the mortal realm itself was apparently only the beginning of something this large.*
They reached the outskirts of Moonfall Village as evening settled over the surrounding mountains, and the wrongness of the place announced itself before any of them said a word about it.
No children's voices carried from the village square. No merchant stalls stood open despite the hour. No cultivators moved between the modest houses lining the main path. The whole settlement sat in a silence that had nothing peaceful about it.
"Something's wrong," Gu Chen said quietly, already scanning the treeline.
"Where is everyone?" Xia Qing asked, her voice dropping without quite meaning to.
The fox stopped moving beside Lin Tianren without warning, still wearing the unremarkable shape it always did around company, its true nine-tailed form staying carefully hidden even now. Only its stillness gave anything away — a small, deliberate tension he'd learned to read as alertness rather than simple calm.
He straightened immediately, the system flaring at the edge of his vision.
**[Spiritual Fluctuation Detected]**
**[Source: Unknown]**
He turned toward the forest at the village's edge, waiting through several long seconds where nothing happened at all.
Then a scream tore out from deep inside the trees, sharp enough to end whatever remained of the evening's false calm.
Gu Chen's sword cleared its sheath in the same instant. Xia Qing's hand closed around something at her belt, an artifact flaring faintly to life in her grip. Lin Tianren rose slowly, weight settling into a stance that had nothing hesitant left in it.
"Looks like our mission just became something else," he said.