Awakening the Divine Spark-Chapter 124: An urgent message.

Turns out Xie Wuking wasn’t bedridden. At least he really didn’t want to be.

He already stood next to the usual arena, supporting himself with a walking stick. His face was swollen, though, and Lee almost didn’t recognize the boy.

"Borther Xie! Don’t you think it’s a bit too much?" Lee honestly asked.

The guy was a bully and had abused him for more than two months, but that didn’t mean it was his turn to return the favor. He beat Xie Wuking up, earned a bunch of contribution points and in his eyes the case was closed.

"Wfe hadf a dfeel." Xie Wuking said. Clearly making any sound caused him a lot of pain, but either it was his pride or actually the agreement they signed that forced him to come today.

Lee watched him for a moment, then sighed, and said, "Alright. Let’s do it this way. You get better first and then we’ll resume our spars. You are stronger and you will become an elemental master much sooner than I. And it means you should focus on actual priorities, not fooling around with other children."

Xie Wuking stared at him in shock. The last part were exactly the words Junior Elder Yuan Xianwei said to him before Lee arrived. It couldn’t be that they spoke to each other earlier, right?

It took a while for the emotions to subside, but when they did, Xie Wuking nodded, and limped away.

"I look forward to us actually exchanging pointers and not beating each other up!" Lee said to him with a smile.

The guy stopped for a moment, nodded without turning back and continued on his way.

"Alright!" Lee happily turned to Xiao Lian, "One problem solved. Now. How can we get away from the sect for a while?"

"And why would you do that?" Both Lee and Xiao Lian were startled when Yuan Xianwei all of the sudden appeared behind them. He listened Lee’s educational speech earlier and was already coming over to give a praise, when he overheard his last sentence.

"Junior Elder! Hello! My little stunt brought some trouble to Brother Xiao." Lee said, "We need a little time for a few hotheads to calm down."

Yuan Xianwei looked at him closely, as if trying to inspect whether those were the real reasons, but then said "You can pick up a mission involving travel. Just make sure you’re back for the tournament. With your tendency to get in fights you actually should learn how to defend yourself. Of course, the highlight of the competition will be duels between elemental masters, but you could learn a thing or two. Some people even get inspiration

allowing them to ignite their own sparks."

"Thank you, Junior Elder Yuan!" Both boys cupped their fists and bowed.

While Lee didn’t care about the last part, to see elemental masters spar was something he didn’t want to miss. He was curious how exactly was that supposed to work, considering the destructive force they possessed. It couldn’t be that there were occasional casualties within the audience, right?

***

It was already too late to go to the Mission Hall, thus the two went back to their rooms and met again at sunrise. The first thing they did was to go to Han Li’s place where they picked up their new gear.

Xiao Lian immediately changed to his new black clothing, and now they resembled siblings, with Lee being the youngest one, of course. He didn’t care, though.

He was thrilled to receive his new walking stick – a five foot long and two and a half inch thick staff. Technically it was a short staff, but Lee didn’t care about the details.

It almost looked like a crudely cut branch and there was nothing special about it. But Lee couldn’t hide his excitement when he pulled the top part that turned out to be handle to a thin, four feet long sword.

He had no clue about swordsmanship and how to handle the thing he just got, but it looked damn cool, and, more importantly, he had something he could protect himself against common enemies.

Seeing the awkward way the boy held the sword, Han Li shook her head, and said, "Don’t cut yourself! It might look delicate, but it’s actually a decent weapon."

What she didn’t say was that she worked on both weapons the whole night, and was certain that they were only second to elemental weapons which were basically artifacts.

"Thank you!" Lee said, not being able to take his eyes off the shiny blade, "It’s incredible."

"Hmph! By your standards it probably is. Now off with you! I’ve got work to do!" Han Li said, and shooed them away. She was tired and wanted to finally go to bed.

"This is so great!" On the way to Mission Hall, Xiao Lian said, "Now I’m not that worried about facing the challenges from those guys!"

"You’re kidding, right?" Lee looked at him in surprise, "Neither of us have a clue how to fight with a sword! If you agree to a spar using weapons, you’ll get permanently crippled!"

Xiao Lian paled at his words, but Lee ignored it, and continued, "More importantly – our swords are supposed to be hidden weapons. Hidden, understand? That means we use them only in case of emergencies. The other times we use the things as common sticks. I know a bit about spear fighting, so I’ll teach you the basics."

"We should probably pick up a couple of combat techniques." Xiao Lian said.

"Mhm. The next time." Lee said, "Let’s see where can run off to for now."

The Mission Hall was bustling with activity.

Neither Lee nor Xiao Lian were allowed into the main building of the Mission Hall located in the inner sect. But the outer sect’s administrative building, where one could pick up jobs and missions of all sorts, was busy. Outer disciples from all halls were here, looking for ways to earn contribution points.

Gathering missions, escorting missions, odd jobs around the sect – there was basically something anyone could do. The problem was – not all missions were lucrative.

"We’re late!" Xiao Lian stated the obvious, "We won’t find anything good at this time."

Since he once again was poor, Xiao Lian probably forgot the main reason for them being here. Unfortunately, given how illiterate Lee currently was, he couldn’t do much.

Ignoring Xiao Lian’s worries, he said, "We have twelve days time. Go, pick up something we could do meanwhile. Nothing dangerous, but nothing tedious either. I don’t want to work in fields or cut wood."

Xiao Lian nodded, and went to the mission board. He stood there a while, lost reading all the listings, like many other outer disciples. Then he finally found something, picked it up and went to register their task.

Afterwards, Xiao Lian rushed back to Lee and, excited, shouted from a distance, "I got one! It’s a dispatch mission. We need to deliver this box to the Azuremist sect."

"How far is it?" Lee asked.

"Five days, if you’re quick." Instead of Xiao Lian, a pleasant, even musical voice answered.

The two turned their heads to see the one who spoke was a young woman, a girl, clearly inner disciple, dressed in a gorgeous red robe. Her long hair was braided neatly, and because of her unnaturally pale face, she looked elegant and unapproachable.

’Now that’s someone who can wear robes and have long hair!’ Lee thought to himself, admiring the beauty purely from the artistic point of view.

Seeing her entrance had the necessary impact, the girl said, "I’m sorry, I overheard your conversation. Coincidentally I need to deliver an urgent message to the Azuremist sect. Since you’re already going there, could you do it for me? Please?"

"Of course, Senior Sister! It’ll be our honor!" Xiao Lian immediately agreed with starry eyes.

On the other hand, Lee was not so easy to hoodwink. He asked his friend, "How much do we get payed for the dispatch mission?"

"Uhmm ... ten points." Xiao Lian said, and blushed. It was a laughable amount for all the running they had to do, and even then they had to split it in halves.

"Great! Elder Sister, in that case it’ll be ten contribution points from you too! I mean, ten for each." Lee said, and smiled. He didn’t give a fuck she was pretty or well dressed. She clearly wanted to use them, thus she had to pay.

Xiao Lian blushed in even deeper red color, now resembling a beetroot. It was clearly because of Lee’s embarrassing behavior, but surprisingly, the pretty girl agreed.

She said, "Sure. Here’s the letter. Please pass it to Elder Mu of the Azuremist sect. His full name is Mu Qingyun and you’ll find him in the sect’s Spirit Rise. It’s something like our Hall of Ascension."

After transferring ten contribution to both Lee and Xiao Lian, she graciously left. Xiao Lian was speechless by how Lee was capable of resisting her charms and wondered whether there were limits to his new friend’s special skills.

Lee was baffled by something else, though. He couldn’t wrap his head around why the girl didn’t mention her name. Her hasty departure also seemed rushed and out of place.