Chapter 869: One Person Below, Tens of Thousands Above

The previous tasks were acceptable, mostly involving local resources. The most troublesome had been buying wine from the nearby pass. But this time was excessive; she wanted fish soup, which meant he had to rush all the way back to the Jadeblood Sect.

What made it worse was that the Bing Province Guard's regulations were as rigid as mountains, leaving him no room to resist. This left Lu Ye feeling very stifled.

"Do you think she's just messing with you?" Shui Yuan asked.

"Isn't she?" Lu Ye replied, his face grim. "Although I don't know why, I always feel she's using this method to force me to leave Cyanflame Mountain Pass."

"So that's what you think..." Shui Yuan murmured to herself. "Alright, just as you said, she really is messing with you. As for the reason... you could say she's getting revenge!"

"But I've never provoked her!" Lu Ye frowned. "And Second Senior Sister, you just said that she has no grudge with my Jadeblood Sect. So, who is she getting revenge on with this behavior?"

"Oh, how should I put it?" Shui Yuan looked troubled and hesitated for a moment before saying, "Someone once messed with her in this way, and that person was from our Jadeblood Sect. So now she's treating you the same way."

"Someone?" Lu Ye's heart stirred. "Second Senior Sister..."

Shui Yuan nodded, confirming Lu Ye's suspicion.

"So that's the reason..." Lu Ye was slightly surprised. "Does that mean she not only has no grudge with my Jadeblood Sect but even has some connection to it?"

"Otherwise, how could you have stayed at Cyanflame Mountain Pass for so many years? The Bing Province Guard has assigned people to her before, but she sent them all back. Her reputation for guarding the pass alone isn't for nothing. As for her, she wasn't like this before; her temperament changed due to certain events. But one thing you must remember: she doesn't bear you ill will and won't harm you."

"I understand." Lu Ye nodded.

He finally understood why Nian Yuexian knew about such things. It turned out she indeed had some connection with the Jadeblood Sect; she must have eaten plenty of fish from there in the past.

"Time is short. I'm heading back now. Take care, Senior Sister," Lu Ye said, then looked at Pang Huanyin. "Palace Master Pang, take care!"

Pang Huanyin smiled and nodded, watching Lu Ye fly off into the sky.

He came and went in a hurry.

Two days later, Lu Ye finally rushed back to Cyanflame Mountain Pass.

From a distance, he saw Yiyi's figure waiting in front of the bamboo building.

Although Second Senior Sister's words made Lu Ye realize he had probably misunderstood Nian Yuexian, he was still worried about Yiyi and Amber in his heart.

Only upon seeing Yiyi at this moment did he finally feel relieved.

"Nothing happened, right?" Lu Ye asked. Yiyi shook her head, then proudly pulled out a guard's token and waved it in her hand. "Look, I have one too now!"

As a Jadeblood Sect disciple personally recruited by the Sect Master, she had her own battlefield mark and was, logically speaking, qualified to become a Bing Province Guard.

However, she had always refrained from appearing in front of outsiders, so she had never thought about joining the Bing Province Guard.

But now, she had her own guard's token. "Where did you get it?" Lu Ye asked, astonished.

"The Pass Master gave it to me," Yiyi said proudly. After thinking for a moment, she whispered to Lu Ye, "Lu Ye, you might have misunderstood the Pass Master. She's actually quite nice. She took good care of us these past few days you were gone. Also, she really likes Amber; she's been taking it everywhere with her recently."

*So, a seemingly useless guard's token bought you over?*

Lu Ye felt a pang in his heart!

"What position did she give you?"

"Attendant to the Pass Master of Cyanflame Mountain Pass!" Yiyi said proudly.

Lu Ye frowned deeply. "What kind of position is that?" Although he wasn't particularly familiar with the various military ranks of the Bing Province Guard, the title "Attendant" didn't sound very official or reliable.

"The Pass Master said that here at Cyanflame Mountain Pass, the Attendant position is below one person and above ten thousand!"

Lu Ye was amused. "Here, besides you and Amber, there are only two of us, and it's 'below one person and above ten thousand'..." He laughed, then suddenly realized something was off. "Above me?"

Yiyi stifled a laugh and nodded solemnly. "That's right!"

Lu Ye immediately felt like he was being targeted.

He felt inexplicably annoyed. Originally, Second Senior Sister's explanation made him think he had misunderstood Nian Yuexian, but now it seemed he was just too naive!

"First, let's make the fish soup," Lu Ye said, ending the depressing topic.

In the entire Cyanflame Mountain Pass, with two people, one spirit, and one tiger, he had ended up at the bottom of the hierarchy.

A bonfire was lit, steam rose, and the aroma of fish soup drifted outwards.

Nian Yuexian, like a noblewoman, gracefully walked down from the third floor of the bamboo building, carrying Amber in her arms, and settled down at the table.

Amber, with bright tiger eyes, looked at Lu Ye with teary eyes, a clear "Master, save me!" expression on its face.

Being held by a Divine Sea Realm cultivator like this, and spending several days in constant proximity, Amber felt immense pressure, sensing a bleak future ahead.

Lu Ye busied himself, served a bowl of fish soup, and placed it in front of Nian Yuexian, saying somewhat unwillingly, "Please, madam!"

Nian Yuexian nodded, picked up the fish soup, and initially just took a small sip, but soon began to drink it in large gulps. After finishing, she pushed the bowl towards Lu Ye.

Lu Ye understood implicitly and served her another bowl. After drinking three bowls in a row, Nian Yuexian finally slowed down and even picked up fish bones to feed Amber in her arms.

*I'm a tiger, not a cat!*

Amber tried to struggle but to no avail. It could only resign itself to fate, gnawing on the fish bones with a crunching sound, wearing an expression of deep resentment.

Seeing that Nian Yuexian seemed to be in a good mood, with even a faint smile on her face, Lu Ye then spoke, "Madam, I have something to discuss."

"Mhm," Nian Yuexian hummed softly.

Lu Ye said, "Next time, could we perhaps not issue tasks like the previous ones?"

"You don't want to?"

Lu Ye shook his head. "I am, after all, a Bing Province Guard. As such, I naturally follow all requests from superiors. It's just... if you have any trivial needs in your daily life, please just ask. I won't refuse. But please don't use the guard's token to issue tasks anymore."

Lu Ye wasn't entirely clear how he got the battle merits from completing those various tasks, but obtaining them this way was clearly not a long-term or reliable solution. Heavenly secrets are everywhere; if everyone played this way, battle merits wouldn't be as valuable.

He could vaguely sense that continuing to acquire battle merits this way was not a good thing.

Nian Yuexian was a little surprised he would say such a thing, but she also understood his meaning.

"You want to do important things."

"Not exactly," Lu Ye replied. "I just hope that when you issue tasks in the future, you can give them a little more consideration, and ideally issue tasks related to the Bing Province Guard."

To Lu Ye's surprise, Nian Yuexian actually complied readily this time. With a flick of her hand, the guard's token appeared in her palm, and she said, "Here are three tasks. Choose one yourself."

Lu Ye's heart stirred, and he quickly took out his own guard's token to check.

Indeed, three new tasks appeared in the information it contained.

Checking the first task, Lu Ye frowned, perplexed. "Madam, who is this Wan Zhanggang?"

The task content was simple: assassinate Wan Zhanggang! Nian Yuexian, while feeding Amber, explained nonchalantly, "My old rival. A thousand miles away, in the Myriad Demon Ridge, there's Lonely Cloud Pass. He's the Pass Master there, and also the City Lord of Lonely Cloud City."

When Lu Ye heard Nian Yuexian say this was her old rival, he didn't want to listen anymore.

Nian Yuexian was a grand cultivator of the Divine Sea Realm, so anyone who could be her old rival would undoubtedly also be of the Divine Sea Realm.

As expected.

Asking a True Lake Realm cultivator like him to assassinate a Divine Sea Realm cultivator, and a Pass Master at that, was simply delusional.

Even if Lu Ye knew that completing this task would yield an enormous amount of battle merits, he could only pretend not to see it.

He then looked at the second task.

The second task was to repair the various defensive fortifications of Cyanflame Mountain Pass. This one wasn't dangerous, as Cyanflame Mountain Pass was their own territory.

But...

Currently, there were only him and Nian Yuexian in the entire pass; even counting Yiyi and Amber, there were only four of them. Those fortifications hadn't been used for many years and were already dilapidated. Not to mention the difficulty of repairing them, even if they were truly repaired, they wouldn't serve any purpose.

It would be a complete waste of time.

He then looked at the third task: patrol the four directions around the pass, and guard against minor infiltrators.

Lu Ye paused and could only say, "Madam, I'll choose the third one."

As he spoke, the contents of the first two tasks had already disappeared from the guard's token, leaving only the third.

"Having the ambition to do great things is good, but it's not enough if you lack the ability. Many great deeds are gradually accumulated from small ones," Nian Yuexian said, as if instructing Lu Ye.

"What you say is true, Madam," Lu Ye said, nodding, though he still felt something was off.

"Starting tomorrow, the patrolling around the pass will be your responsibility," Nian Yuexian said. As she spoke, she stood up and walked towards her bamboo building. After a few steps, she added, "Oh, and since you're taking on patrol duties, I'll give you another position."

The guard's token in his hand flickered, and Lu Ye immediately felt a change in his battlefield mark.

Concentrating, he checked and saw that the information regarding his identity had changed again.

His identity now read: Jadeblood Sect Disciple, Cyanflame Mountain Pass Seated Guard, Cyanflame Mountain Pass Patrol Guard.

Lu Ye was exasperated. Since coming to Cyanflame Mountain Pass, he hadn't gained much else, but he had certainly acquired two positions. Counting Yiyi's "Attendant" position, that made three.

But... what was the use of it?

It's not like having more positions makes one's name more resounding, nor could one scare away enemies simply by relying on these positions.

Amber finally escaped Nian Yuexian's clutches and leaped into Lu Ye's arms, holding up its chubby paws and whimpering incessantly. Its appearance clearly indicated it was complaining.

These past few days, besides stroking its fur, Nian Yuexian had been squeezing its little paws.

The man and the tiger met each other's gaze, and Lu Ye sighed, "When under someone else's roof!"

Amber immediately looked dejected.

But then again, although he had been rushing back and forth for several days, the battle merits he gained this time were substantial: a full ten thousand points!

Currently, Lu Ye's accumulated battle merits had reached fifty-nine thousand eight hundred seventy points.

In other words, since arriving at Cyanflame Mountain Pass, he had gained nearly twenty thousand battle merits.

But obtaining battle merits in this way still made Lu Ye feel uneasy.

Fortunately, all of this had finally ended, and he had also received a proper task. Nian Yuexian was right; those who achieve great things must ultimately accumulate them from small tasks.