Seduce The Villainess (GL)

"Did you hear the news? The saintess is going to be coming down from the fifth peak for the first time in twenty years?"

"Really?! I heard that she is strong enough to tear apart mountains with a single slash!"

"Brother… I don\'t even care about how powerful she is… did you not hear the rumors?"

"What? Tell me senior!"

"Apparently she is so beautiful that her master was forced to put a mask on her face to prevent people who looked at her from falling into the devil\'s way!"

"I heard that as well! Her face is apparently the most perfect in the entire continent."

There was a tangible sense of excitement in the air as rumors and gossip were spreading like wildfire.

The saintess was going to leave her mountain!

This was an event that had everyone intrigued.

From the lowly outer disciples to even the clan elders who found excuses to walk past the central plaza.

Of course, not everyone was happy.

Some of the true disciples were not pleased that their popularity was being threatened by a saintess that no one had ever seen before.

Still… since her master was Lei Ying, and she had the backing of the Sect Leader… no one dared to say even a word of complaint.

Suddenly the sounds of light footsteps echoed through the central plaza and a cold gust of wind swept through the crowd.

A feminine figure strode forward accompanied by a beautiful female cultivator with narrow eyes and sharp angular facial features.

The figure wore a set of plain white robes that draped down to her ankles and swayed lightly in the wind.

Her shoulder length hair was tied into a single ponytail and a golden pendant could be seen hanging from her neck.

Her body physique was lean and athletic… yet there was a feminine charm and beauty to her gait that forced all eyes to stare at her.

And her face was covered by a silvery mask.

The mask only revealed two dark brown pupils and concealed the rest of her facial features.

Still judging by the charm radiating off her body… everyone was convinced that she was a heaven destroying beauty.

Xu Lu slowly but confidently walked side by side with her master and forced down the uncomfortable feelings rising up in her chest.

Those eyes of admiration… would turn into leers of disgust.

She wasn\'t sure how she knew that, but emotions of hatred mixed with self- loathing filled her thoughts.

The original Xu Lu had a complicated relationship with her fellow sect disciples. No… it was more accurate to say that she hated them.

"Remember my dear apprentice," Lei Ying gently smiled and the warmth in her gaze could fool anyone looking at the concerned master.

"Be careful."

She lightly touched Xu Lu\'s palm and her fingernails scrapped the underside of her skin with enough force that small droplets of blood appeared.

It was a grim reminder that despite her warm attitude in front of others, Lei Ying wanted her student to know her place.

Xu Lu nodded respectfully and walked towards the mission hall located at the back of the plaza.

She could feel the stares of the crowd on her body and the cultivators in her way parted aside to provide her with an unbroken path.

She had thought long and hard about what attitude to take.

She did not have clear memories of what happened after she was rescued by her master so it was a mystery to Xu Lu how the original Xu Lu reacted when she first left the mountain.

Still… one could not go wrong with a cold and distant demeanor.

The saintess was supposed to be an untouchable flower. A being out of reach for the ordinary members of the sect.

Even the elders and the true disciples were required to pay her respect. A silent attitude would deter most incidents from occurring.

Or at least that is what Xu Lu assumed.

She could feel the coldness of the metal mask pressed against her face as she headed towards the large wooden building in front of her.

The mission hall was a massive space where hundreds of disciples could be seen running to and from inside the building.

This was where the sect would assign missions and tasks for the disciples to complete that would earn them points.

Points were required to buy cultivation techniques, food and even upgrading their dorm accommodations.

This system was put in place to encourage disciples to venture forth into the world and get practical experience.

A cultivator who spent their entire life in isolated closed door training could have a high cultivation level but would have poor combat skills.

In other words… they would be useless.

Xu Lu took in a deep breath and then walked inside the mission hall. The conversations inside the large space instantly stopped.

"Saintess…"

"She really came."

"Wow! I can feel her strength from here…"

That last line had to be bullshit. Xu Lu was pretty sure that her cultivation aura was not strong enough to affect someone over one hundred feet away from her body.

The hall had several stalls lined up along the walls and each stall had a board next to it filled with pieces of paper.

Xu Lu wandered over to the nearest board and took a closer look.

Each piece of paper had a request written down on it along with one or several stars at the bottom.

Her master had explained earlier that the star system was how each mission was classified in terms of difficulty.

One-star missions were for qi body cultivators. Two-star missions were usually assigned to qi spirit cultivators.

On the other hand, three star and four star missions could be taken up by qi tide cultivators who had proven themselves to the clan.

Finally there were five or six star missions but those were incredible rare and could only be selected by the elders.

Xu Lu browsed the board and saw a variety of tasks.

\'Defeat a demonic sect in the northern island of Qiren\', \'Rescue a missing village chief\'s daughter from a hoard of beasts\', \'Assassinate a mortal emperor\'…

Xu Lu carefully looked at each request and searched for one that had a difficulty of four stars.

Her master had ordered her to chose one with that degree of difficulty in order to prove herself to the other disciples.

But Xu Lu suspected that she wanted her to fail.

Even though she could technically take a four star request based on her cultivation level… this was her first mission.

Wouldn\'t it make more sense for her to take a three star?

Xu Lu let out another sigh as she could feel a headache coming on. The four star requests just sounded dangerous based on the description of the missions.

Slaying dragons? Fighting off beast waves? Tracking down serial killers?

Was there anything easy?

Oh wait!

Xu Lu\'s eyes lit up as she saw a request tucked away in the corner of the board. The request was hidden by two sheets of paper pasted over it.

The request was written down on a well- worn sheet of paper and had clearly been pinned for a long time.

The description was fairly simple enough.

This mission required a team of five cultivators to investigate a set of ruins in the Gobrean Jungle.

Nothing on the mission description required them to actually enter the ruins themselves. They just needed to confirm its location and return.

A rather straightforward scouting mission. Somehow this easy mission had four stars written down on the bottom of the page.

Why had no one picked up this mission before? Maybe it was because it was in a hard to see location?

Xu Lu grabbed the piece of paper and pulled it off the board.

She did not feel any emotions from the original Xu Lu which meant that she had not picked up this mission in her previous life.