2 Snail Bee Honey, Mud Sludge, and Earthen Cactus

Xue Mingyu had spent the past three or four days in seclusion cultivating. Obviously, he didn't get very much sleep. Therefore, when he laid down in bed, not even the frustration of having five primeval stones extorted from him was enough to prevent his descent into the dreamworld.

The next day, Xue Mingyu woke up to the sound of knocking on his front door. The layout of Xue Mingyu's home was very much like that of a 21st century American hotel room, with a door, a hallway with a bathroom, and a bedroom. It was simple but effective, and it came with the added positive that anyone could wake him up at any time by simply knocking on his door.

"Coming!" Xue Mingyu said loudly enough for the person on the other side of the door to hear before getting out of his bed and walking over to the door. He was in a sleeping robe, and had yet to wash, but he was sure that the other party wouldn't mind, as they were waking him up at… wait, did that clock say 10:30!?

He was in deep shit. The other party might take trouble with him, and anyone willing to knock on a Gu Master's door should be a Gu Master themselves. But what was he supposed to do? He had to answer the door. Therefore, Xue Mingyu sighed through his anxiety and opened the door.

The person on the other side of the door was quite familiar to Xue Mingyu. It was a tall man with a handsome face and blonde hair in the shape of a ponytail.

"I see you just woke up. Did the seclusion exhaust you so thoroughly?"

Xue Mingyu sighed with relief. Of the members of his squad, Xue Sun Teng was by far the most familiar to him. He was the one who was least likely to take fault with him for sleeping in or being dirty.

"Yeah… it was an interesting experience, but it wasn't as great for my concentration as I expected. I probably won't do it again." Xue Mingyu said.

"Interesting, I would have thought someone like you would need quiet to concentrate, but I guess you're more outgoing than I thought. Whatever, just get ready. We have a mission in an hour. Meet us at the south gate then."

Xue Mingyu was slightly surprised. They had a mission already? Usually they would give squad members a little bit of time after a breakthrough. Judging by the circumstances, it seemed likely that this mission was assigned by the clan and not chosen by Xue Xiao Pan.

Xue Sun Teng was gone by the time Xue Mingyu came to his senses, so he closed the door and washed. He brushed his teeth with a willow twig and started out the door. The south gate was the closest gate to where Xue Mingyu lived, so he didn't have to go too far to find his squad.

The south gate of the Xue clan village was connected to the path up Cao Da Mountain. Since the Xue clan had already looted many of the resources from the lower half of the mountain over the years, most modern missions involved going up the mountain into more dangerous territory instead.

Most of the squad was here, in fact it was everyone except Xue Xiao Pan. Xue Mingyu decided it wouldn't be taboo to breach the topic of where their leader was.

"He said he'd be back soon; I don't know where he went." Xue Nianzu said.

"Huh." Xue Mingyu exhaled. It wasn't like the squad leader to disappear like this before a mission, but what did he know?

"Anyway, Mingyu, I see you've finally advanced to Rank 2. Congratulations." Xue Guo Feng said with a smile. Xue Mingyu always thought she was the most cheerful member of the squad.

"Thanks. I think it took longer than I thought it would, but that's in the past now."

"You shouldn't compare yourself to others, they have elders practically giving them primeval stones for free. You had no such luxury." Xue Sun Teng, the most spoiled member of the Xiao Pan squad said.

"Right." Xue Mingyu said, but his thoughts were towards the others who didn't have any support. He wasn't even the fourth fastest to reach Rank 2 from his batch, and it kind of struck a nerve considering how he was one of only three B Grade talents.

"By the way, I think you should thank Xiao Pan. He specially took a mission this early because he knew you needed the funds, right?" Xue Nianzu whispered loud enough for the whole squad to hear.

"What? No! He said that things should progress gradually, and now he's going out and accepting missions for my sake?" Xue Mingyu blew off the idea quickly, but the rest of the squad was slightly put off by his immaturity.

"Right."

"Oh, I think I see Xiao Pan." Xue Guo Feng said, making the rest of the squad look back in the clan village's direction. Sure enough, Xue Xiao Pan was waving at them and walking in their direction.

"Sorry I'm late, I had some… business to take care of." He said. The squad members were slightly irked by his secretive tone, but didn't think anything of it. Xue Mingyu decided not to mention anything about the squad leader's decision to take on a mission so quickly after telling him they would take it slow because he followed the squad's founding principle of not finding faults with each other despite having differences and found it too miniscule a topic to breach that basic understanding for.

The squad didn't wait too long, leaving the village immediately after double-checking their supplies and getting permission from the guards. Xue Mingyu had always wondered why the village needed so many guards; there were more than ten that he knew of and they were all Rank 2 Gu Masters. The Xue clan didn't have any enemies or competition on Cao Da Mountain, but the nearby mountains contained clans which were much stronger than the Xue clan. Being stuck in the middle of that had its problems, but it certainly had its benefits as well. Any attack on Cao Da Mountain would be seen as an invasion of territory and be retaliated against.

"By the way, you guys never told me what the mission actually is." Xue Mingyu asked just loud enough for the others to hear while they walked.

"Oh yeah, it's a mission to gather some refinement materials for an elder. It was just put on the board when I accepted it, but the pay was really high and the mission didn't seem too hard." Xue Xiao Pan replied, cautiously analyzing the surroundings while he talked. As a veteran Rank 2 Gu Master, Xue Xiao Pan was skilled as a multitasker. He was said to be able to use a couple killer moves, but Xue Mingyu had never seen them before.

"Right now, we are going to the Snail Bee hive. We have to collect a good amount of their honey, but don't kill any of the bees. They cost a lot and we'd have to pay for the clan's losses."

Xue Mingyu nodded. He had collected Snail Bee Honey before. If he remembered correctly, his job was to…

He was the distraction.

"Damn it!" Xue Mingyu muttered while running from the hundreds of Snail Bees chasing him. He was given a route to run in so that the bees wouldn't go too far away from their hive and be forced back, but running in a circle for half an hour took a toll on his body. In the academy, Xue Mingyu had been a decent fighter. He worked hard and had the talent to pair with it, but he wasn't a genius fighter by any means. When his offensive methods became stronger, he neglected physical training, and was currently quite out of shape.

Suddenly, Xue Mingyu's foot slid on the ground and he fell on his glutes. Before he had time to stand up, he was pierced by multiple stingers at once all over his body.

"Ahh!" He writhed in pain. Instinctually, he activated his Small Spark Gu, which lit a few Snail Bees on fire and killed them instantly. He tried to stand up, but upon feeling stuck to the ground, realized that he hadn't tripped in mud, but Mud Sludge, a special kind of mud that was very sticky. From the reports of Gu Masters who had been sludged, just one or two baths wouldn't take the slimy feeling away.

The bees who had followed him all the way here noticed that their hive-mates had died and were scared off, leaving Xue Mingyu struggling to stand up. His legs hurt enough from running for so long, but now he was sticky all over as well.

"What a pain... Luckily it looks like I bought enough time."

Sure enough, the rest of the squad soon found him. Whether or not that was good or bad, Xue Mingyu was conflicted. He was being laughed at and made the joke of the squad, but at least the Mud Sludge he had found saved the squad a lot of time. After all, of the three materials that the elder asked for, Mud Sludge was one of them.

With two of the three materials found and collected, all that was left was Earthen Cactus. Earthen Cactus was known to be hard to find, as it could only grow at least ten meters underground and in complete darkness. There were a couple of places near the clan where it was often found, but most of them had been dug up and Xiao Pan said that they should try and find some in the wild.

Xue Nianzu specialized in Earth Path, so once they found a spot, he used his Rank 2 Dig Gu to travel through the dirt and stone in search of any Earthen Cactus.

He did find Earthen Cactus, but even after a few days it wasn't enough to fulfill the mission, and they only had an hour left to complete the mission to receive the full rewards.

Xue Xiao Pan didn't want to make an enemy with any elders, so he suggested that instead of trying to find natural Earthen Cactus, they should just buy the rest of it from people around town. While the idea might have worked, Xue Sun Teng said that if an elder wanted Earthen Cactus and was willing to pay a high price for a mission to collect it, they might have already bought out the market. They argued a bit, but the end result was that only Xue Guo Feng was sent to the market instead of the whole group.

"I found some!" In the last half hour, Xue Mingyu, who was digging with a shovel, yelled aloud. He had spent the last three days being the butt of the jokes within the squad, and had only recently managed to get rid of the sticky feeling from the Mud Sludge, but he had found the last of the Earthen Cactus from digging in the holes that Xue Nianzu dug with his Dig Gu.

"For real?"

"Yes. Unless it's the wrong kind of cactus, but how many kinds of cactus are found this far underground?"

As it turned out, only one. The squad was too exhausted to go to the market area and find Xue Guo Feng, and instead went directly to the mission center.

"Xiao Pan, you seem to be tired, was the mission really that difficult?" The receptionist at the mission center asked. She was a cute Rank 1 Upper Stage Gu Master with a petite figure.

"Tell me about it. Who knew it was so hard to find Earthen Cactus?"

"It's pretty rare isn't it. I tried to gather some for a couple hours one time and didn't find any."

"Yeah, we spent days and only a few of us actually found any. Luckily we have just enough."

The mission was completed, and the Xiao Pan squad could finally rest. That is, until five minutes later when an elder entered the mission center.