[Beep, your esteemed self has triggered a title task!]
The reason why Wei Xun identified that the rock painting on the wall of the caved-in secret room was a dual cultivation mural from a glance was that when he had just seen the caved-in secret room for the first time, a prompt from the Travel Services had sounded in his mind!
[Task Name: Treasure Hunter Series]
[Task introduction: As a newcomer, your esteemed self has discovered three ancient ruins within ten minutes, and you have found two treasures in the ruins. It seems that you really have the talent and luck to become a treasure hunter!]
[Task reward:
Archaeologist (Green Title) [Acquired]
Adventurer (Blue Title) [Not Acquired]
Treasure Hunter (Purple Title) [Not Acquired]]
[Task progress: 20%]
[Task Tip: Please explore more ruins. Time has hidden countless treasures all over the world, and finding those treasures is what a treasure hunter should do!]
After this prompt, Wei Xun had automatically obtained the title of âArchaeologist.â When he looked at the rock mural again, it seemed as if words were automatically captioned on the mural in his field of vision. He learned that this rock painting was the âBon Religion Dual Cultivation Dharma Mural (Wisdom King & Female Wisdom King)â
âThe conditions to earn titles are a bit difficult to achieve.â
Wei Xun suspended the process of exploring the underground ruins and picked up a few flat and thin pieces of slate to cover up the cracks before studying his new task.
Looking at it carefully, the conditions for activating the title task of this Treasure Hunter series were really harsh! First of all, one must be a newcomer, and secondly, one must find three ancient ruins within ten minutes, and also find two treasures in the ruins. Only by accomplishing this would one be considered to have the talent and luck to become a treasure hunter!
Even Wei Xun felt that the odds were even lower than one in ten thousand. Heâd also had the help of the young fox and snow leopard to âdiscover three ancient ruins in ten minutes.â Wei Xun thought that unless the ruins were extremely crowded together, such as in tombs or the like, it was basically impossible to activate this series of title tasks!
But if he wanted to obtain the title âArchaeologist,â the conditions were comparatively simpler.
[Archaeologist (Green Title): You are an experienced archaeological expert, and you can always obtain unexpected convenience in matters related to the relics you have excavated.]
Even if this title had the limitation of only seeing the information of the cultural relics that he had unearthed, it was very useful. Just like now, Wei Xun could look at the map of the human skin thangka and know at a glance that it was an âAncient Gusinâs Thangka,â and he could also understand a few of the strange Xiangxiong characters on the map.
âThe intense difficulty should be because it is a series title task.â
Wei Xun guessed that the conditions for obtaining the titles of [Archaeologist] or [Adventurer] would definitely not be so harsh. However, Wei Xun had directly triggered a task from Archaeologist to Treasure Hunter, and the task rewards included green, blue, and purple titles!
It can be said that as long as he excavated historical sites and found treasures step by step, the progress of the task would continue to rise. Wei Xun would be awarded the title of Archaeologist when the progress of the task was 20%, and when the progress reached 50%, he would obtain the blue title, Adventurer.
By the same logic, it was only a matter of time before he got the purple title of [Treasure Hunter], which was very convenient. The most important thing was that Wei Xun found a way to advance his titles using the title tasks.
Wei Xun had witnessed before that titles with the same series could be advanced. One was the title of [Xiangxi, Return Tourist] owned by Miao Fangfei and Wang Pengpai. This title would be advanced as long as you visited a certain scenic spot more than once. If Wei Xun completed this tour, he could also get the green title of [Northern Tibet, New Tourist].
The other was Miao Fangfeiâs [Novice Gu Witch] Deep Blue title. As long as she used more Gu techniques and participated more in the tours relating to Miao witchcraft in Xiangxi, this title would eventually advance. It could be said that the titles of the same series had a clear way to rise to a higher level.
Wei Xun thought of the title he started out with, [Analgesic]. When he had been browsing the forum, he had seen Bai Xiaoshengâs post, which roughly said, âIII-9 is the second person with a Cold-blooded title in the worldâ.
Although it was not clear how accurate Bai Xiaoshengâs statement is, no one in the post had refuted this point. Just like when Lin Xi and Wang Pengpai had been on the bus, they had even tacitly assumed that he was âIII-9â because of [Analgesic], which showed that this statement was indeed reasonable.
The title of Cold-blooded was extremely rare. Generally speaking, rare meant extreme, either extremely powerful or extremely weak, and what Bai Xiaosheng implied should be the former.
This made Wei Xun even more curious about how [Analgesic] could upgrade to [Cold-blooded]. After all, it stood to reason that in his real state, in addition to not being afraid of cold, it was basically equivalent to him having the Cold-blooded title. He was not afraid of pain and was not affected by negative emotions, which was exactly the same as the description of the title of [Cold-blooded].
This time, he hadnât worn the title [Analgesic] when he had entered the tour, mainly to test two points. One of them had been confirmed, which was that even if he didnât wear this title, he still wouldnât feel pain except the time he had touched the Tour Guideâs Flag. This was likely a characteristic of Wei Xunâs body.
If he was more ill, would this title advance? If he earned enough points and bought âpermanently repairing and optimizing your genes,â would the title disappear?
Wei Xun was really curious.
âIâll see what itâs like to upgrade a title,â Wei Xun stated.
When he had received the title task series for Treasure Hunter, he had made a decision to take advantage of the resources in this tour to at least upgrade [Archaeologist] to [Adventurer]. He would see what would happen when a title was upgraded, what kind of prompt he would receive and how he would feel.
Besides, this series of titles was really suitable for him. Wei Xun saw the note at the bottom of the title task:
[Remarks: Your esteemed self has participated in the development of a 30th Parallel North tour. When your esteemed self obtains the title of Treasure Hunter, this title will be upgraded to the orange title âExplorerâ!]
It would take Wei Xun absolutely zero effort to obtain this title!
âXiaoxue, are you going to hunt?â
After making a decision in his heart, Wei Xun was not in a hurry. He glanced at the time. And he roughly concealed the part of the ground where the snow leopard had stepped on that caved in to reveal the underground secret room.
It was almost nine oâclock now, and the other tourists would arrive in an hour and a half at most. Even if they went to explore the ruins, they wouldnât be able to finish exploring. It would be too rushed.
Anyway, Wei Xun could already read the contents of the human skin thangka and he had memorized the contents. It was better to complete the tasks of the branch scenic spot during the rest of the time so that he could complete the title task and branch scenic spot task together. And maybe through this, he could obtain some more clues related to the ruins.
The snow leopard didnât leave. Wei Xun didnât say anything else and took it to the foot of Qianzong Mountain. They walked until they reached halfway up the mountain, and gradually some sparse human figures became visible.
Qianzong Mountain was the sacred mountain of the Bon religion. The devout believers of the Bon religion would come to circle around the mountain every day. It was obvious that Wei Xun was jumping and walking in the mountains with unusual agility, with a snow leopard at his feet, but it did not attract anyoneâs attention.
This was the first time Wei Xun had seen ordinary people at a scenic spot on a tour. This feeling of walking among the crowd, but not being discovered, felt more profound than during the Intoxicating Xiangxi tour, which had been completely inaccessible and did not have even one ordinary person.
Just like in Wenbunan Village, except for the village chief who had invited them to the banquet, the other villagers had basically ignored them. You would get their attention only if you took the initiative to talk to them. And if you talked about the Tangra Yumco site or the Ruins of Xiangxiong Kingdom, they wouldnât be able to hear it.
Since it was already like this for a Difficult-level tour, the people in the Safe-level scenic spots around the city might have a stronger sense of ânegligenceâ towards tourists and tour guides.
Newcomers tourists and newcomer tour guides would clearly feel that although the tour was being held in the mortal realm, they were actually completely different from ordinary people after they were selected into the Travel Services. This way, they could recognize their current situation as quickly as possible and adapt to it.
The snow leopard was highly vigilant. It had been hiding since other humans had begun to appear, and Wei Xun didnât know where it had gone. Wei Xun didnât worry about it either, and his eyes fell on two monks walking side by side.
The two men dressed as monks took drinking water and walked to a filthy yak felt tent in a remote part of the mountain. That was precisely the tent the descendant of the eagle flutist was talking about, Amalaâs lodging at Qianzong Mountain. Taking advantage of the fact that normal people wouldnât notice him, Wei Xun straightforwardly followed behind the two monks, eavesdropping on their words.
It turned out that the two were monks from Yuben Monastery behind the Qiangzong Mountain and Amala, who lived in the yak felt tent, was the only female nun in the Qianzong Mountain. She was 93 years old this year. A Tibetan poet-like figure, she could sing about various eminent monks and great virtues who had practiced the Bon religion in the Qianzong, and could also sing a segment of the history of the ancient Xiangxiong Kingdom and the Bon religion.
Yuben Monastery was a famous temple that believed in the Bon religion. Ever since she had grown old, Amala had wanted someone to bring her to the temple so that she could live there. The staff from the government had tried to persuade her several times, but Amala was very stubborn and insisted on having someone bring her to the temple, wanting to guard Qianzong Mountain. It was then that the government gave in.
Since last year, this Amala seemed to have grown seriously ill and had never left the tent again, not even to circle around the mountain.
The mountain road on Qianzong Mountain was steep, and it was difficult for the medical team to come up. Amala was old, and her condition would worsen if she was moved around. There was a Lama in Yuben Monastery who worked with Tibetan medicine and had taken a look at her condition. However, he had kept her condition a secret and refused to comment more about it.
The two monks were young and curious, and this was the first time they had been entrusted to deliver meals to the legendary Amala. They talked about this matter the entire way as they made their way to Amalaâs lodging. Wei Xun also listened to their conversation all the way and pondered to himself. Listening to these two monks, Amala didnât seem to have an ordinary illnessââIt was more like she had been hit by a ghostly force while circling around the mountain and was possessed by a devil?
The monks fell silent before entering the tent. They did not despise the dirtiness of the tent and carefully cleaned it. This was because they were not only there to deliver food to Amala, but also to do some clean-up work. Wei Xun followed them into the tent and watched them with a cold expression in his eyes, only to see that the tent was full of turbid air, accompanied by a faint stench of decay.
There was only a dim butter lamp lit in the tent, illuminating the messy piles of things in the tent. There were all kinds of stones, sundries, and even tattered and moldy cowhides and sheepskins, windhorse prayer paper flags, etc. It was completely unlike a place a human would live in. The place was more like a garbage collection station.
The only clean corner of the tent was covered with a few blackened blankets, and under the blankets lay an extremely thin figure.
Her hair was gray and disheveled, and she wore a felt hat of an undecipherable color. Her eyes were covered with a layer of gray mist, her thin face was deformed, and her eye sockets were deeply sunken, like a skeleton covered with human skin.
The two monks were busy cleaning the tent, talking to her, and bringing her butter tsampa and milk tea. The old woman was numb and had a cold expression, as she completely ignored the duo. Her eyes stared straight outside of the tent, as if she spotted someone standing outside.
The two monks were young and couldnât hide the thoughts in their mind. They turned their heads several times and saw no one else at the door of the tent. They couldnât help but wonder in their hearts. In an instant, they didnât dare to speak, but they sped up their movements and made their breathing lighter.
Wei Xun raised his eyebrows with interestââbecause the person Amala was staring at was him.
From the moment he had entered the tent, the eyes of the old woman had been locked on him. When Wei Xun had been observing the tent, the eyes of the old woman had followed wherever he had gone. This kind of silent and focused gaze would actually give the recipient a huge amount of stress.
Especially from this skinny old woman who seemed to be blind.
However, Wei Xun was not in a hurry. He waited until the two monks had packed up and left before slowly pacing to the old womanâs side. He picked up the milk tea that the monk poured into the bowl, handed it to the old woman, and said in Tibetan with a smile, âAmala, would you like a drink?
âIt was Dgahldan Palcho who asked me to come to you.â
Dgahldan Palcho was the name of the descendant of the eagle flutist. Hearing Wei Xunâs words, the old womanâs eyes which had not steered away from Wei Xun for a long time finally moved. She silently stretched out her hand from the blanket to pick up the bowl of milk tea. Wei Xun keenly noticed that the old womanâs hand only had three fingers left, and the bases of the ring and little fingers were charred black as if they had been burned.
T/N: Sorry for the late update â was really busy this week.