The afternoon is Mouse Monk time without fail, and the peace and quiet of Yan Qing’s entire family relies entirely on Mouse Monk’s efforts.

But now that Yan Qing has taken in two additional female thieves, he plans to add more to Mouse Monk’s burden. The Second-Turn Secret Realm ’Stone Sinking Creek’ is no longer keeping up with Yan Qing’s ever-growing consumption needs; it’s time for Mouse Monk to step into the Third-Turn Secret Realm ’Lake Heart Island’.

If it were anyone else, with a Second-Turn cultivation, they could easily join a Third-Turn Secret Realm team. Unfortunately, Mouse Monk’s connections have become a hindrance. After all, he is Shang Xuanwen’s lifesaver and only has a Second-Turn cultivation. If he were placed in a Third-Turn Secret Realm team, what if something went wrong? No one wants to offend the most prestigious Chancellor in the last fifty years.

Unless Mouse Monk can turn Third-Turn.

Yan Qing does have a way to make him Third-Turn, but anyone can imagine, this would certainly arouse suspicion. First-Turn and Second-Turn, well, the Shang Family can casually feed them, but Third-Turn could only be expedited by feeding Secret Technique Books and Research Books. Never mind that Mouse Monk saved Shang Xuanwen; even if Mouse Monk possessed Shang Xuanwen, he couldn’t extract such resources.

If it’s not from consuming books but from innate talent, it would be even more outrageous. Mouse Monk only became a messenger less than a month ago, in just a month managed to comprehend two Secret Techniques proficiently. Is this even human? I would say you’re an Exiled Immortal World Venerable descended to earth, playing around like a Seventh-Turned Immortal Monarch.

But then again, what does it matter if it’s suspected?

Yan Qing fell into thought. There’s a pair of consequences to being suspected: Mouse Monk as a prodigy being beheaded at a feast and taken in as a dog, or Mouse Monk as a prodigy being flattered by the Liang Kingdom. However, due to the ’bond’ with Shang Xuanwen, the chances of the former happening are slim.

Or, if indeed the former happens, Yan Qing could still enjoy a wave of it, as the newly ascended Third-Turn Legendary Bingzi Pepper Forest can indulge in fresh blood, ha ha ha.

After considering it, Yan Qing decided to suppress this thought. After all, ’Stone Sinking Creek’ is currently his biggest source of income and cannot be risked lightly. Conversely, the Night Four Jiang Ten Rabbit Heroine team can afford some risks now. A small Third-Turn Secret Realm is no longer worth any hesitation.

They are only 6 steps away from the milestone of ’Famed Three Mountain’. With a push tonight and another in the morning, it can be completed. If Gai Louxian still doesn’t let them move to a new Secret Realm, Yan Qing will lose his temper...Never mind, Gai Louxian is quite a nice person, and there’s some sentiment for this military camp, so perhaps they should leave on a random night.

Once Jiang Shi and others find a Second-Turn Secret Realm as a fallback, Yan Qing will dare to push Mouse Monk to test the Liang Kingdom. If successful, it’s a great gain. If it fails, he’ll vent his anger. Either way, Yan Qing wins.

Yan Qing remembered something and logged into Jiang Shi’s account, clicking on the [Team - Team Tasks] interface.

Task one of recruiting three team members was completed, but no new task appeared, meaning they cannot advance the team level without completing task two.

Yan Qing tapped on the [Team Skills] interface and noticed the experience bars for [Immortal Travel] and [Unity Lock] had progressed. However, [Immortal Travel] is at 20% while [Unity Lock] is at 10%, requiring activation four more times for Immortal Travel or nine more times for Unity Lock for a level-up. Alternatively, Yan Qing can directly allocate the 1 team skill point from the announcement reward.

If I wait to level up the skills before using the skill points, will it be more profitable?

Yan Qing noticed a [ ? ] next to the experience bars, and upon clicking it, he found an explanation. When upgrading team skills with skill points, it’s equivalent to an imaginary level-up, so the original experience stacks up. However, the skill points needed for each level continuously increase. To raise from level 1 to 2 requires 1 skill point, from level 2 to 3 requires 2 skill points, and so on, so the benefit from each skill point remains the same.

Just by reading the introduction, Yan Qing felt the intense grind: either slowly increase skill experience or spend a lot of skill points to speed up. Either way, it’s a long journey.

Since the added point benefits are the same, Yan Qing didn’t bother overthinking; after pondering for a while, he assigned the skill point to [Immortal Travel].

"Immortal Travel Lv2: Teleports a team member to your side, or you to a team member’s side, requiring consent from both parties; the teleportation duration is twenty-five seconds, and no other actions can be taken during activation, which can be interrupted. After using this skill, there is a 20-hour cooldown for the entire team."

Oh, this isn’t bad at all.

The teleportation duration has decreased by 5 seconds, and the cooldown by 4 hours; this skill point is well spent. However, Yan Qing also understands this is because [Immortal Travel] still has room for improvement. The benefits are evident in the earlier levels, but after passing a certain threshold, the returns drastically decrease.

Especially for the teleportation duration, ten seconds, twenty seconds, and thirty seconds have no significant difference; they all require a safe spot to activate. Once discovered by the enemy, one can only resign to fate. But when the duration falls below ten seconds, players can use various Divine Communication Tokens to endure this dangerous period. Yan Qing estimates the maximum level of Immortal Travel would have a teleportation duration of about 5~10 seconds, making it viable as a tactical skill.

The team experience has maxed out to level 2, and since [Vice President] Jiang Shi couldn’t operate, Yan Qing took out the Disaster Order, resulting in the information pop-up:

"Disaster Organization has been promoted to level 2"

"You can choose one of the following three rewards:"

"① Team Members +3"

"② Gain 1 Team Skill Point"

"③ Gain 10 Team Experience Points"

Interesting.

The first two options are self-explanatory, but the third reward of gaining experience is intriguing.

If Yan Qing chose the reward experience all the way, wouldn’t he just level up in solitude?

Experience is used for leveling up, and leveling up rewards experience, it’s like a snake chasing its tail in a nested doll.

According to Yan Qing’s guess, either the high-level teams have other rights, or there are special rewards when reaching a key level, otherwise, it’s hard to explain how team experience can become rewards. But Yan Qing didn’t think much about it, he decisively chose ① team members +3, expanding the team size to 8.

The larger the team, the more targets [Immortals Travel] has to choose from, Yan Qing can use smaller accounts as teleportation arrays, traveling between various places in the Central Plains.

The ’Team Missions’ interface refreshed with three new tasks:

[Have five team members above level 30, reward: Team experience +10]

[Boost any two team skills by 1 level, reward: Team experience +10]

[Assemble a team of more than three members to conquer any secret realm (cannot include non-team members), reward: Team experience +10]

The difficulty is gradually increasing, but still at a charity level, any task can be completed with a bit of time. The simplest is the third task, Yan Qing just needs to gather the smaller accounts together to conquer the Three Mountain Secret Realm, although it feels odd, like dining alone at a hotpot while having the staff place a doll across the table, pretending to eat with friends despite being alone.

Just like how desolate Ba Mountain and Chu Waters are!

The time was about right, Yan Qing switched back to Mouse Monk’s account, and as soon as he stepped out, Sun Chaozong and others were anxiously pacing at the door.

Because Yan Qing might have overslept, Mouse Monk had already informed the others that he might meditate late today, hoping they’d wait for him. As the top-ranking leader who escalated ’Stone Sinking Creek’ from bi-daily updates to daily updates, the entire team counted on Mouse Monk to hold the line, so this request was naturally acceptable.

"Master, you’re finally back." Sun Chaozong breathed a sigh of relief seeing Mouse Monk come out, dragging him along as he said, "The Grand Commander wants to see you! You can still make it if you go now! An important figure has arrived!"

He lowered his voice, "Haven’t you always wanted to go to ’Lake Heart Island’? There’s an opportunity this time!"

The Third-Turn Secret Realm of Xuanwu Lake Military Town, ’Lake Heart Island’?!

Mouse Monk was instantly filled with curiosity, "What big figure, who could allow a poor monk to enter Lake Heart Island? Is it Chancellor Shang?"

"Hehe, you’ll know once you get there. Old Sun I can also ride on this wave, bask in the aura of the big figures."

Sun Chaozong, this uncouth military man, respects none other than the renowned powers within Xuanwu Lake Military Town, someone who commands such reverence must be someone at the level of the Grand Commander, a peak Third Transition?

Holding three secret realms, Xuanwu Lake Military Town is extremely large. It took them fifteen minutes of full-speed running to reach the lakeside. The entrance to the Lake Heart Island Secret Realm is located on a small path in the lake’s center. The military town constructed a half-mile-long corridor atop the water, daily maintained, monthly repaired, and sturdy as a flat ground when stepped upon.

Upon reaching Lake Heart Island, the first thing Yan Qing saw was the Grand Commander Realm Giant Deer, dressed in a Qihuang Daoist Robe and carrying a Medicine Pouch Gourd, looking like an ordinary doctor, yet he is a peak Third Transition of Liang Kingdom, the current Patriarch of the Jie Family, unbeaten across the world twenty years ago, once called ’North Ying Le, South Giant Deer’ alongside Ying Le as a Foundation Establishment seed — of course, nobody calls him that now.

However, Realm Giant Deer was not the center of attention on Lake Heart Island; everyone, including him, focused their gaze on another elderly man, his beard and hair white like a lion. The old man wore a simple dark cyan practice outfit, his physique extremely robust, his bare feet grounding him, evoking the phrase ’standing tall between heaven and earth’ in anyone who saw him.

His existence seemed to be a pillar connecting heaven and earth!

As Yan Qing looked, the old man turned his gaze towards Mouse Monk, and the game interface promptly displayed countless tear-like marks, with the blood bar in the lower-left corner showing a new negative status ’Fear’, any operation had a 50% chance of failing — just his gaze could plunge mortals into a negative status!

At that moment, the old man transformed into a black shadow, swooping through the crowd to punch at Mouse Monk! Yan Qing wasn’t flustered, precisely and consecutively pressing the dodge key twice, allowing Mouse Monk to successfully evade the old man’s strike. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"Good." The old man nodded slightly, pointing towards Mouse Monk, "Monk, not bad."

Suddenly, a golden chrysanthemum bloomed on Mouse Monk’s shoulder, the ’Fear’ status vanished, and a new buff named ’Golden Armor’ appeared, granting a 50% damage reduction to the defense barrier, with 10% of the damage received converting into healing, lasting for 7 days!

"Salutations to Heaven-Soaring General!"

Mouse Monk was still in a daze, Sun Chaozong hurriedly pulled him to kneel with one knee to show respect. The old man said nothing, raising his head and strode toward the secret realm entrance, with Grand Commander Realm Giant Deer finally coming over to help Mouse Monk and Sun Chaozong up, smiling: "Startled, right? Our ancestral elder loves to scare people this way, most can’t pass his test... Mouse Monk, you’re one of the few exceptions."

"This time the ancestor has nothing else to do and agreed to help us with the Sea Heart Island Secret Realm. I remembered you applied many times to join the Third Turn team, so I invited you and Old Sun over to witness it."

"Oh, before I forget to introduce, the one you saw just now is our Jie Family’s ancestor, once fought alongside Liang Taizu, and earned the title Heaven-Soaring General as Foundation Establishment Zhenren —"

"Jie Huang Chao."