Loyal Heart Roaming the Skies

After officially entering the Circulating Realm, Jiang Wang adjusted the frequency of his daily meridian cultivation to twice a day.

In the following cultivation, he no longer pursued the speed of condensing the Dao rotation. On the contrary, he actively slowed down to stabilize his foundation.

He had already built the Three Talents and completed the small circulating realm effortlessly. However, the accumulation for the large circulating realm was still insufficient.

Nevertheless, with the addition of the Entangling Star Spirit Snake and three star river Dao rotations, Jiang Wang's daily production of Dao Yuan in the Tongtian Palace had reached thirty-three, which meant that he could construct a new Dao rotation in almost ten days.

Jiang Wang was using a large amount of Dao Yuan to practice Dao techniques and sharpen his foundation in the Circulating Realm.

Among the brothers, both Jiang Wang and Du Yehu were cultivators in the Circulating Realm.

Du Yehu's cultivation speed in the military was impressive. Besides mastering the ancient martial arts method of circulating qi and blood, he must have also achieved great success in the Four Spirit Body Refining Technique. In this aspect, he had surpassed Jiang Wang.

Zhao Rucheng quietly completed the foundation establishment and caught up with Linghe's cultivation level.

With two cultivators in the Meridian Realm and one in the Circulating Realm, they could form an independent team to complete some slightly more difficult tasks.

For example, Linghe and Zhao Rucheng needed to be equipped with at least one magical tool, and even the lowest-grade magical tools required one thousand points of Dao Merit. In addition, powerful Dao techniques beyond the conventional ones could greatly enhance combat power, but they also required a certain amount of Dao Merit to exchange for. Furthermore, Jiang Wang wanted to buy a better Open Meridian Pill for Jiang An'an, but he didn't even know the price and could only accumulate as much as possible.

Therefore, they had to actively take on tasks and challenges.

Not only could they temper their understanding of the world, but they could also verify what they had learned and help build the country. It had to be said that the person who established the Dao Merit system was truly a great talent who understood the world.

Although Huang Azhan always stuck with them, as the senior brother of the previous generation, he had his own fixed team.

In general, the maximum number of members in a team that worked together on missions was five.

Although Jiang Wang's team only had three members, they couldn't be considered weak.

No one had expected that Jiang Wang, who had been unable to establish a foundation for a long time, would progress so quickly after stepping into the Circulating Realm.

Others were even less aware of how strong Jiang Wang had become after the crazy battles in the Illusory Void Realm, using "merit" to pave the way and sharpen himself.

Although he had recently entered the Circulating Realm, if the Three Cities Dao Competition were to be held again, he had the confidence to compete for the top spot among the third-year students.

In terms of cultivation level and combat power, Jiang Wang was already ahead. However, Linghe was still the team leader.

This had been the case since their time in the Outer Sect. Linghe considered things comprehensively and acted steadily. Although he seemed to have a low presence, he was the least likely to make mistakes. Moreover, he had the best relationships within the Dao Academy.

The remaining two vacancies in the team would be filled by the junior disciples next year. If there were no suitable candidates, they would rather leave the positions empty.

In the same team, they would face many tests, and it was important to have a good rapport. Adding one more person didn't necessarily mean an increase in combat power. Sometimes, an unsuitable person could harm the entire team.

After the formation of the team, they received their first mission, which was an eighth-grade mission.

Moreover, it was a designated mission directly assigned to them by the Dao Academy, which they couldn't refuse. Of course, the Dao Merit reward would also be increased by thirty percent as usual.

The background of the mission was not complicated:

A team of fully staffed disciples from the Dao Academy was completely wiped out while carrying out a mission to hunt down two demonic cultivators. Only one cultivator in the Meridian Realm survived.

According to the intelligence, the cultivation levels of these two demonic cultivators were only at the ninth-grade. With two cultivators in the Circulating Realm and three in the Meridian Realm, it should have been an almost certain victory.

The task of Linghe's team was to investigate the truth behind this mission.

And the only survivor of this mission was Fang Heling.

...

With a heavy heart, Jiang Wang arrived at the Fang family's territory. His mood was undoubtedly complicated.

He had enjoyed himself here and also narrowly escaped death here.

However, what surprised him was that the entire Fang family's territory was bustling with hurried activity, and hardly anyone paid attention to them. There was no sign of the expected hostility.

Zhao Rucheng and Jiang Wang exchanged a glance and stopped a passing woman.

"Excuse me, where is Fang Heling?" Zhao Rucheng asked.

The woman was initially very impatient, but when she saw Zhao Rucheng's handsome face, she softened a bit and played with her hair. "You're looking for the Young Clan Leader..."

Young Clan Leader?

Zhao Rucheng became interested and smiled, "We are disciples of the Dao Academy and we have something to discuss with Junior Brother Fang. Can you please tell us where he is?"

Hearing that Zhao Rucheng admitted to being a disciple of the Dao Academy and also Fang Heling's senior brother, the woman completely let go of her annoyance at being stopped halfway and her smile became even brighter. "The Young Clan Leader is at home! It's chaotic here, let me guide you there."

As she spoke, she led Zhao Rucheng forward, completely ignoring Linghe and Jiang Wang who were beside them.

"In that case, we'll trouble you, miss." Zhao Rucheng smiled gently, like a warm spring breeze.

The two of them chatted happily along the way, while Linghe and Jiang Wang silently followed behind. By the time they reached Fang Heling's doorstep, the two of them were already exchanging their birthdates.

After bravely announcing their intentions and explaining themselves to the gatekeeper, the woman reluctantly left.Zhao Rucheng smiled as he bid her farewell, turning back and chuckling, "Interesting."

What was interesting, of course, was not the young lady.

During their previous conversation, they had already understood the changes in the Fang family.

The old patriarch of the Fang family, who had been bedridden for many years, had just passed away a few days ago, and Fang Zehou, who was effectively the patriarch of the Fang family, naturally took over.

But now, the one who was actually in charge of the Fang family was the "young patriarch" Fang Heling.

Because after Fang Zehou took over as patriarch, he had handed over all the power in the family to his son.

Admittedly, this was inevitable, and it was only natural to pave the way for his son. But it gave people the impression that he was a bit too hasty. Moreover, Fang Zehou was in his prime, and he shouldn't have retired so early.

As they were pondering this, the gatekeeper had already reported back.

Fang Heling didn't put on airs, he directly followed the gatekeeper out of the main gate. His face didn't look very good, but he wasn't too rude.

This was a kind of progress. Given his past temperament, Jiang Wang thought he would have made a fuss.

"What's the matter?" He asked Linghe.

"Well, Brother Fang," Linghe explained, "About the mission you experienced before..."

"I've already explained that mission very clearly. The Dao Institute and the Punishment Department both have records." Fang Heling interrupted him, "You can go and check, instead of asking me again. You don't have the right, and I don't have the obligation."

"We have the right," Linghe said calmly, "We have taken over the investigation from the Dao Institute. Anyone or any organization involved needs to cooperate with us. Not just you, but also the Punishment Department."

"Investigation?" Fang Heling seemed a bit surprised, but he quickly suppressed it, not revealing any more emotions.

He just said, "Fine, I'll say it again. That day we were chasing two heretical demons to a mountain outside Du Town. Because it was connected to the Qichang Mountain Range, and my leg was injured, we discussed whether to ambush outside the mountain and wait for the demons to come down.

But the team leader, Brother Zhang Xizhi, insisted on going in. He asked me to stay behind to heal, and he took the others into the mountain.

I waited until the next day, but they didn't come down. I knew something had happened, so I contacted the local government. Both the Punishment Department and the Dao Institute sent people over, and they found their remains in a cave. That's what happened."

His right leg was indeed wrapped in several layers of gauze, with traces of blood.

"Only remains?" Jiang Wang asked. He couldn't help but think of what had happened in Tangshe Town.

Fang Heling glanced at him, his eyes no longer showing any hatred. "Yes."

He turned to Linghe and said, "That's all I know. I'm not clear about the rest. My grandfather is dead, and my father is too heartbroken to make decisions. Right now, I'm the only one holding up the Fang family. I'm very busy, please don't disturb me unless it's important. Okay?"

After saying this, he looked at Linghe, who hadn't moved, and asked, "Is there anything else?"

"I want to go in and light some incense."

"What?" Fang Heling thought he had heard wrong.

But Linghe simply said seriously, "I want to light some incense for Pengju's grandfather. He was very fond of Pengju when he was alive."

He really just wanted to pay his respects, pure and simple.

Fang Heling was silent for a while, then stepped aside to let them in.