Awakening the Divine Spark

The mission Xiao Lian got was actually something Lee had in mind. Their task was to go to a smaller sect in a remote region and pick up a delivery for the Mission Hall.

Lee’s guess was that no one wanted to spend two months on the road, away from the sect’s cultivation resources and, maybe, social life. He, on the other hand, was thrilled to have a personal teacher who dedicated his time to teach Lee how to read and write.

In a few days he became capable of freely understanding what exactly was written in the techniques they bought, and after a month he was pretty confident he could write down almost anything that came to mind.

Of course, the boys didn’t neglect the training. Xiao Lian was slightly upset he could practice his fancy cultivation technique only during the morning and evening cultivation sessions, but until they were back in the sect, there was no way around it.

The combat techniques were another cup of tee, though. While on the road, they mostly practiced staff combat since it was much more complicated if compared to one-attack sword technique. They rushed along the road, waving their staffs around, while a rare traveler who saw them laughed at the boys fooling around.

Lee’s idea was that first they could spend the time they had to get used to wielding the weapon in the first place. Later, after returning to the sect, they could start to learn to fight other people.

When camping for the night, if no one was around, they practiced the sword technique. Obviously they attacked bushes or smaller trees and not each other, since the whole principle of the technique revolved around a sudden and quick thrust of a sword, amplified by the burst of elemental energy.

If the opponent was caught by it, even slightly, their chances to survive were almost non-existent. At least in theory.

In practice, neither could use reasonable amount of elemental energy yet, but it was a deadly move nevertheless. Lee even tried to use it by learning how to unsheathe the sword if the staff was on his back, but the motion of doing it over his shoulder was clearly too wide. It openly telegraphed his intention, but he really liked the idea and continued to work on it.

To pass time, on the way, they began to perform genocide on wolves, sometimes actively looking for packs of them to practice on in the wilderness. The further away from the sect they went, the more wildlife, including wolves, they met.

At some point Lee was worried they might run into a dangerous beast that had ignited its spark, but Xiao Lian assured him that such beasts lived in extremely remote regions if at all, and that was the reason why the hunt for sparks usually happened with the sect arranging missions to the other worlds.

Lee’s guess was that because of the amount of cultivators this world had, the beasts capable of igniting sparks were almost extinct. It was logical and sad at the same time, but he wasn’t one to judge. He was killing wolves for practice and considered it to be kind of immoral as well.

***

"What is your business in Blackwater?" One of the guards at the gate asked, and demonstratively stepped in Lee’s and Xiao Lian’s way.

While Lee was trying to remember where he heard the name, Xiao Lian said, "We’re from the Nethermoon sect. We’ve been tasked to pick up a delivery."

Apart from an incident when four bandits tried to rob them and they killed the guys in the process, the whole trip was rather uneventful. It was a mix of fun and leisure, and both viewed it as a solid experience as well, at least for where they stood regarding to their strength.

They weren’t pressed for time, but the past four days they began to spend mostly on the road, trying to get to their goal sooner. The reason was simple.

The green fields and forests were replaced by desolate swamps, with occasional cliffs sticking out right from the murky waters.

The depressive surroundings were already bad, but to make things worse, there were mosquitoes. Clouds of them.

After the night at the roadside next to the first marsh they came across to, both boys agreed to never take a step in this direction ever again. Of course, after the mission was finished.

The place they arrived to had tall stone wall, almost as tall as the scourge fortress Lee trained in, but the territory inside was incomparably larger. It was baffling where they got all the stone from to build it since it was surrounded by vast wetlands.

The wall was tall enough to hide anything that happened inside from the curious eyes of onlookers, not that there were many around, and the guarded gate was the only place anyone could enter through.

"Nethermoon?" The guard said, not hiding his displeasure, "Alright! But only one of you is allowed inside."

Xiao Lian went in and Lee had to wait, under the piercing stares of the guards. Obviously this wasn’t the friendliest sect and for the first time since they started this trip he regretted to not have a horse – only to be able to leave the place faster.

While he waited, a few covered wagons arrived, escorted by primitively dressed and dirty man who resembled bandits more than regular people. They were immediately let in, though.

Lee didn’t pay much attention to them until the last wagon passed by.

The cloth covering it was torn and through the gap Lee saw a bunch of dirty and tired people sitting inside. The problem was – all of them were tied up!

’Fuck!’ Lee remembered, ’Blackwater! That’s the place the bandits intended to bring me!’

In an instant a bad premonition overtook him.

Besides the fact that he immediately decided to never allow Xiao Lian pick a mission by himself, Lee was worried that both of them will end up in one of those wagons. Maybe Xiao Lian already did!

But he couldn’t make any excessive moves. Also, he couldn’t really run away. This was not a bandit camp – surely there were cultivators around here and he would be caught in a heartbeat. But there was no way to get in to save Xiao Lian if something happened.

A storm of chaotic thoughts raged through Lee’s mind, but fortunately his clueless friend came back with a wide smile on his face.

"We’re good!" He said, and patted his bag.

Lee swallowed a bunch of curses, nodded and walked away in so fast, Xiao Lian barely could keep up.

"Where did you get the mission?" Lee asked when they were a mile away from the Blackwater sect.

"The Mission Hall." Xiao Lian said, but seeing Lee expected more, added, "I did it by the book – took it from the wall and registered as well. We surely got lucky – if we ignore the mosquitoes – it’s a perfect trip!"

"Ye, almost as if a guardian angel is looking after us ..." Lee said, not hiding the sarcasm in his voice, but Xiao Lian didn’t pick up on it.

"Indeed! And this time we got five hundred points each! Isn’t it amazing!"

It was so great Lee felt shivers run down his spine. He was so busy with his own thoughts, making future plans on how to increase his strength so that he could deal with Victoria in one hit, it never occurred to him he should’ve asked few basic things about the mission. And Xiao Lian was so confident, he never noticed they were walking straight inside the wolf’s den.

The worrying part was that nothing happened to them on the way, nor here. Obviously there were so many things wrong about the situation, Lee didn’t know where to start, but on the other had, they kind of were safe, right?

What he couldn’t understand was – why in the world the Nethermoon sect had dealings with slave-traders and bandit-supporters. Moreover – why would they need to send a couple of kids after a small package?

The last part Lee tried to find answer to later at night, when Xiao Lian fell asleep. He stealthily opened his friend’s bag, pulled out the package that was in a size of a bottle, but clearly lighter.

Then he opened a tiny corner of it, but was surprised by the herbal aroma that hit his nose. The sweet and earthy smell was certainly something characteristic to common cannabis, but it seemed ridiculous to think someone would use them as mules to contraband a pack of weed.

Confused, Lee tore the package open a bit more only to realize it held a stack of incense sticks. Someone had payed them five hundred contribution points each to bring incense from the other side of the world.

Something was definitely wrong.