A month passed. Qin Meng pulled his hair in frustration; he still wasn't able to take a single step toward the Swallowing Stage. Even with the help of Spirit Liquid. Yan Yunjie and others had already reached the peak of the Motif Stage, almost catching up to him, but he was still stuck in the same spot. It frustrated him.
He tried to make his Martial Spirit swallow the Motif, but it refused. He had no idea what was the problem. His mentor was also baffled by this development—as it was the first time she had come across something like this—unable to think of the solution. She said that she would search for the solution, but it had already been a month since he made any progress; he was on the verge of a breakdown.
Therefore, to distract himself for some time he practiced battle techniques, instead. Although he made no progress in cultivation, his strength indeed increased by a large amount. If Li Yan faced him now, he wouldn't even be able to take a single punch from Qin Meng. However, he was pretty sure that Li Yan must have made progress and might have already reached the Gathering Stage.
Just as Qin Meng was racking his brain to find the solution, a knock sounded on his door.
He looked behind the door and found Leng Yueyan standing in front of him. Without speaking anything, she strolled inside the house and settled on the sofa on which Qin Meng was sitting previously.
Qin Meng closed the door and sat on the couch in front of her. "What's the matter?"
She looked at him and said, "Didn't your mentor tell you?"
"Tell me what?" asked Qin Meng, confused.
Leng Yueyan rubbed his temples and peered at him with her big, dark eyes. "The academy is going to announce a mission. Though it is not compulsory, it is a great opportunity to earn credits. Most of the students will go on this mission."
"Why should I care about the credits?" said Qin Meng proudly. "My mentor is the Vice Principal, I can get anything I want without any credit."
Leng Yueyan rolled her eyes. "Not everything."
"What do you mean," he asked.
"Have you heard about Spirit Lake?"
"No…" he said, gawking at her beautiful face. His attention was on her face more than the conversation. Who would care about the talk when you have a beauty like her in front of you.
Leng Yueyan could feel his gaze, but acted as if she was unaware of it. "It is one of the greatest cultivation places in the entirety of Yorel."
"Really?" he asked.
"Yes," she replied. "And you can't buy the chance with credits or," she paused, looking at him meaningfully, "with the special connections. No backdoor would let you enter Spirit Lake."
"How would someone enter it, then?" he asked—at last, interest started to spark inside his pupils.
Leng Yueyan smiled mysteriously and said, "By slaughtering devils."
"By slaughtering… devils?"
"Yes."
***
On that same day his mentor informed him about the mission that the academy was about to issue, and as he was the student of the Vice Principal he could not avoid this.
Another day passed and the academy announced the mission, revealing its content to all the students of the academy. Whether they were a first year or the fourth year. Anyone could participate in this mission. The content of the mission was simple: defeat the devils. Devil Cultivators.
Devil Cultivators, as the name suggested, were nothing good. They had left their humanity and chose to become abominations—and let the things of the dark devour their Martial Spirits to gain more power, or sold their souls, becoming their slaves instead. However, the things that come from Otherside don't give anything for free, actually, they don't give anything at all. They just take. Everything.
Humans were just the way to leap into this world; they were vessels to the beings of darkness, or the tools to infiltrate human civilization, to create chaos and massacres.
Qin Meng was shocked when he heard about it. It was the first time he learned about them. Not that he didn't hear stories about devils in his childhood, but he never knew that there were people who would seek power through them. Even at the cost of their humanity. Even at the cost of their souls.
Other than that the academy also announced that after this mission they would select ten people and let them cultivate inside Spirit Lake for five days. Though they didn't tell the criterion on which they would select them. The news created a buzz among the students, their eyes glittered with the glint of hungry wolves.
Even Purple Sun Mentors would benefit by cultivating at that place and that is why it was so precious. Though the student won't be able to cultivate that deep inside the lake, it was enough to make them drool in their dreams.
"Students," said a voice from a platform, Qin Meng recognised his mentor's lovely voice. "You need to form a group of ten to fifteen and head towards the Evergreen Forest. We have received the intelligence that devil cultivators have destroyed many villages and killed hundreds of innocent lives to cultivate their dark arts. We can't let them run amok anymore and kill innocents by which they want to gain strength. Go, form your teams. You will set off in two hours!"
Qin Meng felt rather fearful as well as excited by this turn of events. He was eager to slaughter those devils, who killed innocent people like cutting weeds. However, the prospect of dying also terrified him. The word 'death' was quite frightening. Everyone knew that they would die one day, but no one wanted to die.
His hands and feet were sweating in trepidation. He looked at his trembling hand, he shook it, but couldn't stop the trembling. Qin Meng was unable to tell where this terror was coming from.
"Qin Meng."
He turned about and found Leng Yueyan walking towards him. With her there was Qian Jie, and four other people. They must be Leng Yueyan's fellow students, Qin Meng presumed.
"Is this your team?" Qin Meng asked, nodding toward the people behind his girlfriend. There were two boys and two girls, except Qian Jie, of course.