Monarch Of Time

Chapter 1056 Taking on a mission

Shun Long glanced at the Lunar jade in his hands and pondered for a moment before he eventually sent his soul sense into it. The small green jade he’d received from Wolf Hunter had basically been collecting dust inside the ’Stone of Time’, to the point where he’d almost forgotten he still had the thing.

He skipped the ’Rogue’ and ’Wraith class missions’ altogether, and went straight for the ’Phantom-class’ ones. The easiest among ’Phantom-class missions’ required assassins to eliminate late-stage Dao Kings, while the higher-level ones targeted early and even middle-stage Dao Emperors.

Shun Long ignored those low-level ones and went straight for those that involved dealing with early-stage Dao Emperors.

Luckily, there were more than a dozen of those available, allowing him to scan through them one by one.

[Phantom-class mission: Eliminate the patriarch of the Ma family located in Iron Dawn city.

Cultivation base: Early rank 3 Dao Emperor.

Reward: 120.000 high-grade spirit stones.

Mission time limit: No limit.]

...

[Phantom-class mission: Subdue the young master of the Yan family located in Bright stone city and bring him back alive.

Cultivation base: Peak rank 1 Dao Emperor.

Reward: 180.000 high-grade spirit stones.

Special instructions: The client has stated they need the target alive. Should he die during the retrieval process, you will only receive a third of the original reward.

Mission time limit: No limit.]

...

[Phantom-class mission: Exterminate Yi Tingfeng, the roaming swordsman. Whereabouts are unknown, but he’s rumored to have a connection with the city lord of Iron Dawn.

Cultivation base: Peak rank 3 Dao Emperor.

Reward: 250.000 high-grade spirit stones.

Mission time limit: No limit.]

...

Shun Long scanned through the majority of the missions that involved dealing with early-stage Dao Emperors and eventually settled on the last three.

The first mission seemed simple enough, but it was also the most attractive one to the current him. The target was an early rank 3 Dao Emperor, which Shun Long guessed would be perfect to test his current strength.

After all, in the past year, after breaking through to the peak of the Dao King realm, he hadn’t really had a chance to test how strong he’d grown, but he was definitely stronger than any newly-advanced Dao Emperor. Most likely, even early rank 2 Dao Emperors weren’t his match right now.

After stepping on that golden staircase, his ’Monarch’s Eternal body’ had also gone past the limits of what should have been possible for any sixth-stage body refiner, and it was only a matter of time before it broke through to the seventh stage, and officially pushed Shun Long into the territory of Dao Emperors. The moment his comprehension of his ’Dao of Space’ increased a step further, he would be able to invoke his Heavenly Tribulation and take that final step. But until then, only by facing an established Dao Emperor would he be able to truly test his current self.

The second mission was a bit easier at first glance. Well, at least for Shun Long.

It involved kidnapping a peak rank 1 Dao Emperor from one of the cities adjacent to Amber Dawn and bringing him back alive. Normally, such a mission would be borderline impossible to complete unless one had comprehended some sort of unique Dao or was strong enough to completely overpower the Yan family from Bright Stone city by themselves. Hence the reward offered that was that much higher compared to the first mission.

Although Shun Long wasn’t overly interested in politics, even he had heard of the notable families he should pay attention to from the nearby cities, and one of them was precisely this Yan family. According to Xingyi, their patriarch was a late-stage Dao Emperor, and there was even a chance for him to have stepped into the 9th rank of the Dao Emperor realm.

Still, Shun Long didn’t really care about this mission. Facing off against a late-stage Dao Emperor wouldn’t really let him test his strength, it would just force him to bring out most of his trump cards.

As for the reward offered, 180.000 high-grade spirit stones weren’t that much to the current him. They were probably enough to entice most middle and late-stage Dao Emperors, but to someone like him already had wealth equivalent to a few cities inside the ’Stone of Time’, the contents of the mission were much more important instead.

In the end, it was the third mission that Shun Long found the most interesting.

It involved fighting a renowned swordsman who had ties to the city lord of Iron Dawn. That person was even a peak rank 3 Dao Emperor according to the mission. Unfortunately, the whereabouts of that person were unknown, which made Shun Long shake his head reluctantly.

If even the Lunar Grave guild couldn’t locate this person, it was unlikely for Shun Long to find him on his own.

”There’s no other choice. I guess I’ll have to find that patriarch of the Ma family, then.” Shun Long thought to himself, and after a moment of silence, his lips curved up into a faint smile. He was somewhat excited to face off against an early-stage Dao Emperor.

...

Luckily, the city of Iron Dawn was relatively close to Amber Dawn. It was only a few tens of thousands of kilometers to the west.

After verifying its location on the map, Shun Long tore open a space rift and stepped inside, disappearing from his room without a trace.

...

Normally, using teleportation skills and opening space tears was prohibited in Amber Dawn. It wasn’t against the law per se, but the city had numerous protective formations all around it to prevent anyone from coming and going as they pleased. In reality, it was mainly done to limit the movement of the two assassin guilds and make their life a bit more difficult.

About a year ago, the city guard had been alerted when a certain ’someone’ opened an unauthorized space tear in the area around the shop, and they sent people to investigate. Luckily, once they found out that person was ’alchemist Han’, the captain of the city guard personally paid the shop a visit, and offered him a token that allowed him to bypass those restrictions.

Shun Long knew that this was a token of goodwill from the higher-ups of Amber Dawn. They were basically telling him that as long as he remained in the city and helped them improve their public image, they didn’t mind bending the rules for him a bit. After all, a star-rank alchemist was bound to attract more people in the city, the same way a star-rank formation master would.

Naturally, Shun Long didn’t decline the captain’s offer. Putting aside how he wasn’t planning on leaving Amber Dawn anytime soon—not until he took over the two assassin guilds and spread the name of his shop—that token made things a bit easier for him, too. And this time, after opening a single space rift, he had already vanished from the back of the shop and arrived at the outskirts of Iron Dawn!