Humanity's Great Sage

Chapter 967, Looking for the Target

Translator: Jon

Translation Checker: Silavin

After leaving the Hunting Pavilion, Lu Ye returned to his residence. Upon landing in the courtyard, he saw Yi Yi and Lin Yinxiu building snowmen. Following the snowball war, all the snowmen were destroyed, but new ones had been erected.

When they registered Lu Ye’s presence, they exchanged glances and tacitly rolled the snow into balls.

“Stop playing. We have a task,” Lu Ye ordered.

Yi Yi and Lin Yinxiu immediately straightened up. Xiao Xinghe stepped out of his room as well.

Lu Ye showed them the jade slip. “Strictly speaking, it’s the first task for our team, so we must complete it.”

“Yes,” Yi Yi and Lin Yinxiu replied loudly. Xiao Xinghe also cupped his fists. In private, he was the Third Senior Brother, but in this team, Lu Ye was the leader. He understood that fully well.

“Let’s set off, then,” Lu Ye said and summoned his Spirit Boat.

Several rays of light shot into the sky and soon left Grand Sky City.

On their way, Lu Ye explained to them about the task. Lin Yinxiu and Xiao Xinghe listened carefully.

When Lu Ye was done with the explanation, Xiao Xinghe said, “It seems that the most difficult part is looking for the target. However, with the help of a local Nightingale, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Lu Ye shared the same sentiment, but to get a different opinion, he still asked Lin Yinxiu about it. “What do you think?”

“What kind of answer do you expect from me?” Lin Yinxiu asked with an innocent expression. Ever since she joined Lu Ye’s team, she had stuck to the principle that she would do whatever Lu Ye told her to. She had to be the most obedient one.

“I’m asking you a question.”

After giving it some thought, Lin Yinxiu replied, “It might not be easy to look for the target.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve heard from the Commander that these seemingly simple tasks are the ones that the law enforcement teams are unwilling to take on. That’s because they’ll have to spend a lot of time looking for the targets. Since the targets have broken the rules, they naturally have to go into hiding. After the law enforcement teams take on the tasks, if they can’t find the targets after a long time, they’ll have no choice but to give up. That’s why most of the time such tasks are forcefully assigned to the teams.”

[I didn’t even know that! It’s no wonder these seemingly simple tasks are stuck in the Hunting Pavilion.] Initially, Lu Ye thought it was because the rewards were insubstantial. Now, it seemed to be only one of the reasons. The main reason was that it was difficult to look for the targets.

After some deliberation, Lu Ye realised it wasn’t surprising. Bing Zhou was expansive. If the criminals were determined to go into hiding, it was difficult to capture them.

It would be a good option if Divine Ocean Realm Masters were willing to search around for the targets using their Divine Egos. However, they wouldn’t do such simple tasks. They were usually swamped with work, after all.

“When we arrive at our destination, how do we contact a local Nightingale?” Lu Ye asked.

“You can make use of your military token. You’re a team leader of the Law Enforcement Hall. After you send a message using the military token, a Nightingale will come to see you if there’s one within a radius of 100 kilometres.”

Lu Ye nodded, for it was easy.

As they flew forward, Lu Ye thought that he should purchase a larger Flight-Type Artifact from the Vault of Providence. At the very least, the vehicle should be large enough to accommodate six people. It was just like Geng Wuwang’s team. When they were on an errand, only one person needed to drive the vehicle while the others could get some rest. They could save some time and energy by doing so.

Two days later, somewhere in Bing Zhou, Lu Ye and the others stopped in their tracks and looked around. The wilderness was full of greenery, and birds could be heard chirping.

According to the ten-point map, this area was called Passionless Mountain. There were no powerful Sects nearby. Only some small families had been established here.

Lu Ye picked up his military token and infused his Spiritual Power into it. After sending a message, he waited patiently.

Soon, he received a reply. It showed that there was a Nightingale within a radius of 100 kilometres. It seemed that he was lucky.

The Nightingales were a mysterious organisation. Only Qian Wudang had the complete list of members. In the entire Ministry of Laws, no one else had the list. That was to ensure the Nightingales’ safety and to hide their whereabouts.

After all, what the law enforcement teams did was offensive. Many people were also resentful of the Nightingales, who were responsible for collecting information in secret.

Around an hour later, Lu Ye suddenly turned to look in a different direction and waved his military token. “I’m Lu Ye of the Law Enforcement Hall.”

In that direction, a figure who was 300 metres away revealed herself.

Xiao Xinghe and Lin Yinxiu were shocked, for none of them had detected the person’s presence. However, Lu Ye could instantly sense it. Both of them weren’t comparable to him when it came to their perception.

The person was a woman, and she was a Ghost Cultivator, which was why Lu Ye only discovered her presence when she was 300 metres away. She had a petite figure, and they couldn’t see her face as she was wearing a face mask.

Upon confirming Lu Ye’s identity, she quickly approached him and cupped her fists. “Greetings, Sir!”

Lu Ye arched his brow. Ever since he joined Bing Zhou Watch, he had been the one who called others Sir or Madam. It was the first time anyone called him that.

The woman’s fluctuations of Spiritual Power when she approached him showed that she was only a Sixth-Order Cloud River Realm Master.

She had decided to become a Nightingale instead of getting some training on the Cloud River Battlefield, which showed that she was doing it for her future. That was because a Nightingale would receive a monthly salary as well. Furthermore, if Lu Ye managed to complete his task this time, the woman would be rewarded as well.

Everyone in Jiu Zhou loved battle points. Within the Cloud River Realm, some were busy for nothing, whereas some were working hard for their future.

Lu Ye lifted his hand and tossed the jade slip at her. “This is our target. Have you seen him as of late?”

The Nightingale took the jade slip and looked into it before replying, “He was last seen ten days ago on the Passionless Mountain. I haven’t seen him again since then.”

“Bring me to the place where he was last seen,” Lu Ye ordered.

“Yes,” replied the Nightingale before she flew in a particular direction.

The three of them followed her.

Two hours later, somewhere in the depths of the Passionless Mountain, the Nightingale stopped in her tracks and said, “It’s here. At that time, he came across a Mutant and contended with it. I only had a look from afar.”

The target was a Third-Order Real Lake Realm Master, whereas the Nightingale was only a Sixth-Order Cloud River Realm Master. That was why she wouldn’t dare to go near.

Since ten days had passed, all the traces must have disappeared. After looking around for a while, Lu Ye still couldn’t discover anything. He then said to the Nightingale, “You can leave now. Stay safe.”

“Yes,” the Nightingale replied and respectfully left. She was soon out of sight. Her help was no longer needed.

“Why don’t we part ways and look for him?” Xiao Xinghe asked.

Lu Ye nodded. “If you discover anything, contact me right away.” The target wasn’t powerful, so it would be fine even if Xiao Xinghe bumped into the target alone. It would be efficient if they parted ways and looked for the target. They then split into three different directions.

Although there wasn’t a Sect on the Passionless Mountain, many independent cultivators resided there. As Lu Ye searched around, he came across some independent cultivators who were busy collecting herbs to earn some meagre cultivation resources.

Independent cultivators who had chosen to stay here were people who didn’t like to be restrained. Some of them were not willing to put their lives at risk. Otherwise, they could’ve joined Bing Zhou Watch instead of living frugally.

Naturally, Lu Ye wouldn’t criticise them. They had their aspirations, so no one could force them to do anything. As there were a large number of cultivators in Jiu Zhou, there were all sorts of people.

Certainly, the criminals were fully aware of the consequences of breaking the rules, but they still committed crimes anyway. Human nature was complicated, and no rules, regardless of how strict they were, could restrain them.

Although Lu Ye was only a Real Lake Realm Master, he already had a Divine Ego. As he activated his Divine Ego, he could detect anything within a radius of one kilometre around him.

Therefore, he could look for a target more efficiently than an average Real Lake Realm Master. As long as the target was within a radius of one kilometre around him, he could find the person.

Unfortunately, he still hadn’t discovered anything after a day of searching. As darkness descended, the three of them came together.

Lu Ye finally understood the difficulty of the task. Just like what Xiao Xinghe had said, the task itself was simple. Any one of them could easily capture the target, who was only a Third-Order Real Lake Realm Master. What was hard was that they had to look for the target. If they couldn’t do so, they naturally couldn’t complete the task.

That was why the law enforcement teams weren’t willing to take on such tasks, which usually had to be assigned to them by force.

However, the chubby old man from the Hunting Pavilion was right to say that if Lu Ye couldn’t even complete such tasks, how was he supposed to achieve anything great? That was probably Qian Wudang’s test for him as well.

Since it was their first task, it would be embarrassing if they returned without completing the task.

“It’s nighttime now. Why don’t we resume the search tomorrow?” Xiao Xinghe suggested.

An average law enforcement team consisted of six people, whereas they only had three people. That was why they were less efficient at looking for a target.

“There’s no need for that.” Lu Ye shook his head and fished out something from his Storage Sphere.

Xiao Xinghe took a look and was surprised. “This is…”

“A Tracking Disc?” As Qian Wudang’s woman, Lin Yinxiu was indeed more knowledgeable. She instantly recognised the item in Lu Ye’s hand, so she was elated. “With this thing in possession, we can easily find the target.”

Then, she asked puzzledly, “Team Leader, since you have this item, why didn’t you take it out earlier?”

[What do you know? This thing is worth 30,000 battle points!]

Lu Ye had no idea how many battle points they would get by completing the task, so he wasn’t willing to use the Tracking Disc. Now, it seemed that if he wanted to save 30,000 battle points, he would have to spend a lot of time searching for the target, which wasn’t worth it.

He would rather spend the time doing something else than looking for the target. Therefore, even though the Tracking Disc was costly, he had no choice but to use it.

“It’s pretty wasteful,” Xiao Xinghe said.

A treasure like the Tracking Disc was rare. He had only heard of it but never seen it.

It was indeed wasteful if the treasure was used to track down a Third-Order Real Lake Realm Master. If the treasure was sold to anyone, the seller would get a lot of benefits.

“It’s fine.”

The Tracking Disc was precious to others, but to Lu Ye, it was only worth 30,000 battle points. As long as he had sufficient battle points, he could purchase as many Tracking Discs from the Hall of Battle Points as he pleased.