Humanity's Great Sage

Chapter 869, I’m Second Only to Her

Translator: Jon

Translation Checker: Silavin

The previous tasks were fine as Lu Ye could just get the ingredients locally. The most troublesome task was when he was told to purchase some wine from a nearby Pass. It was outrageous this time, though. Since Nian Yuexian wanted to drink some fish soup, he had to return to the Crimson Blood Sect in a hurry.

As orders must always be obeyed in Bing Zhou Watch, Lu Ye couldn’t resist her. That was why he was frustrated.

“Do you think she’s been abusing you?” Shui Yuan asked.

“Don’t you agree?” Lu Ye donned a dark expression. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I think she’s trying to force me to leave Blue Flame Mountain Pass.”

“Is that what you think?” Shui Yuan muttered. “Well, just like what you’ve said, she’s indeed been abusing you. As for the reason… she’s just trying to get her revenge.”

“But I’ve never offended her before!” Lu Ye furrowed his brows. “Moreover, you’ve just said that she holds no grudges against our Sect. Who is she retaliating against?”

“Well, how should I put it?” Shui Yuan seemed to be in a dilemma. After a moment of hesitation, she continued, “There used to be a person who had abused her like this, and he was from our Sect. So, she’s doing the same to you now.”

“A person?” Lu Ye realised something. “Second Senior Sister, you mean…”

Shui Yuan nodded, confirming his speculation.

“I see…” Lu Ye was surprised. “In that case, she doesn’t hold any grudges against our Sect. Instead, she’s related to our Sect in a way.”

“Why do you think you could stay in Blue Flame Mountain Pass? Over the years, Bing Zhou Watch had sent some people to her, but she had turned them down. She’s famous for being able to protect an entire Pass on her own. She wasn’t like this in the past, but her temperament changed due to some matter. There’s one thing you have to keep in mind, though. She has no malicious intentions and won’t harm you.”

“I got it.” Lu Ye dipped his head.

Finally, he understood why Nian Yuexian knew about the existence of Blood Sturgeons. Since she had something to do with the Crimson Blood Sect, she must’ve eaten a lot of local fish before.

“Since I don’t have much time left, I’ll go back right away. Please take care of yourself, Senior Sister,” Lu Ye said, and then he turned to look at Pang Huanyin. “Farewell, Palace Master Pang.”

Pang Huanyin nodded with a smile and watched him leave. Lu Ye left as hurriedly as he had come.

Two days later, he finally returned to Blue Flame Mountain Pass. From afar, he could see Yi Yi waiting for him in front of the bamboo house.

After a talk with Shui Yuan, Lu Ye understood that he had misunderstood Nian Yuexian, but he was still worried about Yi Yi and Amber. Now that he saw Yi Yi, he finally set his mind at ease.

“Did anything happen?” Lu Ye asked.

Yi Yi shook her head and joyfully fished out a military token before showing it to the man. “Look, I also have this now.”

She was taken on as a disciple of the Crimson Blood Sect by the Sect Master, so she had her own Battlefield Imprint. Supposedly, she had the right to be a member of Bing Zhou Watch as well.

However, she had never shown up in front of outsiders, so the idea of joining Bing Zhou Watch never crossed her mind. But now, she had her own military token as well.

“Where did you get it?” Lu Ye was stunned.

“The Pass Leader gave it to me.” Yi Yi appeared elated. After giving it some thought, she whispered, “Lu Ye, you might’ve misunderstood the Pass Leader. She’s a nice person. While you were absent, she had been taking good care of us. Also, she’s fond of Amber. She would take it with her wherever she went.”

Lu Ye was frustrated at the fact that she was easily bribed just because she was given a useless military token.

“What’s the position she’s given you?”

Yi Yi replied in elation, “The Chief Walker of Blue Flame Mountain Pass!”

Lu Ye frowned. “What kind of position is that?”

Although he wasn’t familiar with the job titles in Bing Zhou Watch, Chief Walker didn’t sound like a serious position.

“The Pass Leader said that as the Chief Walker, I’m second only to her in Blue Flame Mountain Pass.”

Lu Ye was amused. “Only you, Amber, the Pass Leader, and I are here. What does it mean that you’re second only to her…” Suddenly, he realised something wasn’t right. “Does it mean your status is higher than mine?”

Yi Yi stifled a laugh and nodded seriously. “Yes.”

At that moment, Lu Ye felt that he had been targeted. He was irritated for some reason. Initially, after the talk with Shui Yuan, he felt that he had misunderstood Nian Yuexian. But now, it seemed that he was too naive.

“Let’s prepare the fish soup first.” Lu Ye ended this disheartening conversation.

There were two Humans, one Ghost Spirit, and one tiger in the entire Blue Flame Mountain Pass. In the end, he was at the bottom of the hierarchy.

After the fire was started, the heat helped spread the aroma of fish soup.

Like a noble lady, Nian Yuexian stepped down from the third floor with Amber in her arms before taking a seat in front of the table.

Amber looked at Lu Ye with teary eyes as though trying to ask the man to save it.

For the past few days, Amber had been held in a Divine Ocean Realm Master’s arms. The tiger felt immensely pressured and thought that its future was bleak.

After Lu Ye was done with the preparation, he presented a bowl of soup to Nian Yuexian and said reluctantly, “The soup is ready, Madam.”

Nian Yuexian nodded and took the bowl from him. Initially, she only took a sip, but she soon chugged it down and held out the empty bowl to Lu Ye.

Knowing what she wanted, Lu Ye filled the bowl for her.

After drinking three bowls of soup, Nian Yuexian finally slowed down. She even fed Amber some fish bones.

[I’m a tiger, not a cat!] Amber tried to struggle, but its attempt was futile. Left with no choice, the tiger could only crack the fish bones with its teeth with a bitter expression.

Seeing that Nian Yuexian was in a good mood as there was a smile on her face, Lu Ye said, “Madam, there’s something I need to discuss with you.”

“Go on,” Nian Yuexian replied gently.

Lu Ye went on to say, “Can you stop assigning tasks like the previous ones to me?”

“Are you unhappy with it?”

Lu Ye shook his head. “I’m a member of Bing Zhou Watch, so I’ll never disobey your orders. However, if you need my help with your daily affairs, you can just tell me, and I won’t turn you down. There isn’t a need for you to give me the tasks through the military tokens.”

He had no idea where the battle points given to him after he completed the tasks came from, but it was apparently not a sustainable way, nor was it honest. The Heavens were omnipresent. If everyone did the same thing, the battle points would become useless.

He had a feeling that acquiring battle points like this wasn’t a good thing.

Nian Yuexian was surprised by his words, but she soon realised his intention. “You want to do something big, don’t you?”

“Not really. I just hope that you’ll give it more consideration when assigning tasks to me. It’d be best if you could give me tasks related to Bing Zhou Watch.”

Much to Lu Ye’s surprise, the woman readily agreed to it this time. She revealed a military token on her palm and said, “There are three tasks here. Just choose one.”

Lu Ye realised something and quickly fished out his military token, in which he saw three new tasks.

When he saw the first task, he frowned in puzzlement. “Madam, who is this Wan Zhanggang?”

It was a simple task which required him to kill Wan Zhanggang.

Nian Yuexian fed some food to Amber while explaining gently, “He’s my archnemesis. A thousand kilometres away from here, there’s the Lone Cloud City Pass that is on the Thousand Demon Ridge’s side. He’s the Pass Leader as well as the City Lord of Lone Cloud City.”

The moment Lu Ye heard the man was Nian Yuexian’s archnemesis, he knew he couldn’t take on the task.

Nian Yuexian was a Divine Ocean Realm Master, so her archnemesis must be in the same Realm as well.

That was indeed the case. It was impossible for a Real Lake River Realm Master like Lu Ye to kill a Divine Ocean Realm Master, not to mention that the man was a Pass Leader.

Although Lu Ye knew that he could get a massive amount of battle points if he could complete this task, he could only ignore it.

Then, he took a look at the second task, which required him to repair the defences around Blue Flame Mountain Pass. It wasn’t a dangerous task, and Blue Flame Mountain Pass was their territory, after all.

However, only he and Nian Yuexian were in the Pass now. Even if Yi Yi and Amber were included, there were only the four of them. The defences had been left unused for years, so they were unusable now. It would probably be difficult to repair them, and even if Lu Ye could do that, they wouldn’t be of any use. It was a waste of time.

As such, he shifted his attention to the third task, which required him to patrol the Pass to prevent any intruders.

After a moment of silence, Lu Ye said, “Madam, I’ll choose the third task.”

The moment he finished speaking, the first two tasks disappeared from his military token. Only the third one was left.

“I’m glad that you want to do something important, but it’ll be useless if you’re incapable of doing that. You can only take on bigger tasks when you can do the small ones well.” Nian Yuexian seemed to be giving him some guidance.

“You have a point, Madam.” Lu Ye nodded, but he still felt that something was off.

“Starting from tomorrow, you’ll be responsible for patrolling the Pass.” Nian Yuexian rose to her feet and shuffled towards her bamboo house. Then, she suddenly said, “Since you have a new role now, I’ll give you another title.”

She waved her military token, after which Lu Ye felt that there was a change to his Battlefield Imprint. He sank his soul into it and realised the information about his identity had changed.

Now, he wasn’t only the disciple of the Crimson Blood Sect, but he was also a first lieutenant who was in charge of protecting and patrolling Blue Flame Mountain Pass.

Lu Ye was torn between tears and laughter. After his arrival in Blue Flame Mountain Pass, he obtained two titles. Including Yi Yi’s position as the Chief Walker, they had three now.

Nevertheless, were the job titles useful at all? It wasn’t like the many job titles they had could scare off the enemies when they were in danger.

Finally, Amber got rid of Nian Yuexian and leapt into Lu Ye’s arms. The tiger raised its paws and whimpered as though trying to complain about the woman.

Other than ruffling the tiger’s fur, Nian Yuexian loved grabbing its paws in the past few days.

As their eyes met, Lu Ye let out a sigh. “Well, she’s our higher-up.”

Instantly, Amber appeared dejected. Anyway, having been in a hurry in the past few days, Lu Ye acquired 10,000 battle points, which was a lot.

Now, he had accumulated 59,870 battle points. In other words, ever since his arrival in Blue Flame Mountain Pass, he had amassed around 20,000 battle points.

However, deep within, he felt it wasn’t right to acquire battle points like this.

Fortunately, all of this was over, and he finally had a proper task. Nian Yuexian was right to say that he had to do the small things well before he could take on bigger tasks.