John and Elder Praxx continued walking down the Bloodfiend Citadel stairs.

"You know that boy?

" Elder Praxx suddenly asked, breaking the silence between them.

John looked at Elder Praxx and nodded his head.

"Yep. I met him a few weeks ago at the monthly life and death battles, and we seem to be running into each other quite a bit since,

" John replied.

Elder Praxx's expression remained neutral, but John could tell he was thinking about something regarding Chase. However, it didn't really concern him, and so John did not ask for elaboration.

"Where are we going now?

" John asked, as Elder Praxx seemed to have a new destination in mind.

"The Mission Hall,

" Elder Praxx explained.

"Mission Hall? Even as an Emperor, I still have to do missions?

" John asked with a grumpy voice. Missions would take him away from the sect, which he did not want at the moment.

"Of course, you're the face of the sect's disciples now. All Emperors take part in missions, which are publicly revealed afterwards, to elevate the status of the Emperors and the sect itself. Now that you are an Emperor, you will need to participate in some of these missions,

" Elder Praxx explained

"Oh,

" John replied with a short acknowledgement, but still internally grumbled.

'Damn, this is going to throw a wrench into how fast I can explore this sect for further clues, but I guess it can't be avoided. I'll just do my best to complete any missions quickly, and return as soon as possible.'

The two of them eventually left the Bloodfiend Citadel, and John once again found himself the center of attention anywhere he walked. Other Elder's would look at John with curiosity, while the other disciples would look at him with awe or fear, or a mix of both.

John ignored these looks as he followed behind Elder Praxx, and they arrived at the Mission Hall a short moment later. The Mission Hall was quite a large building, and contained many floors and large rooms, each containing missions for different sect members.

John followed Elder Praxx as they strode past all the normal mission rooms dedicated for normal disciples, and they quickly arrived in a secluded area that contained only a few other people.

The room was quite large, as well as incredibly luxurious. There were many boards located throughout the room, each with missions pinned to them. When John entered the room, there were only two other people in there, an Elder and a disciple.

"Hmm?

"

John quickly spotted someone familiar, who noticed his presence as well. She quickly turned around and stared straight at John with curious eyes.

"Azalea,

" John greeted as he nodded his head towards her.

It was his first time talking to Azalea directly since the battle in the ancient city. Since then, Azalea seemed to have matured quite a bit, in both physical appearance, as well as demeanor.

She seemed much more focused now, and her bloodthirsty aura that naturally radiated from her was much stronger.

"John,

" Azalea replied quickly with a face of disdain, as if the name itself insulted her tongue for saying it.

John noticed this look, and furrowed his brows.

"Does my addition alongside you truly disgust you that much? If you have a problem with me as an Emperor, I don't mind taking you out right now and replacing you with someone else,

" John replied arrogantly.

Azalea's brows furrowed, but they quickly relaxed as she returned to normal.

"It's not that. It's just that after running into a certain someone, I despise the name John. It has nothing to do against you. Although, for some reason, you also remind me of that asshole,

" Azalea replied, her voice slightly amiable, although still mostly cold.

John raised one eyebrow in slight surprise at her response. She was far more arrogant in the ancient city, but something seemed to have calmed her down, or at least made her less arrogant than before.

Otherwise, there was no way she was brushing those words aside that he had just said.

"Oh, well I can't do anything about that resemblance for you unfortunately. As for what I said, I'll take it back for now,

" John replied before walking past her.

Azalea closely inspected John as he walked past, but quickly ignored him as she returned to inspecting some of the missions.

John let out a slight sigh of relief as he arrived in front of a mission board.

'Good. It seems as though I remind her of my true self, but she cant put two and two together. As long as thats the case, my secret identity should be safe.'

"These are the missions you can choose from,

" Elder Praxx explained as he stood besides John.

"You have to complete two missions every month.

"

"Two?

" John grumbled out loud.

"Isn't that too much? How am I supposed to cultivate when I'm always out completing missions?

"

Azalea scoffed as she heard this, and snagged a mission off the board before leaving the room, seemingly having found the mission she wanted to complete.

"Most of the missions only take a few days time, even with travel to and from the mission site. If you truly want short term missions, I suggest taking some assassination missions,

" Elder Praxx replied.

"Assassination missions? That seems quite fun,

" John replied as he looked towards the board before him.

He had always wanted to carry out some assassination missions to hone his stealth arts, but never had the opportunity to do so.

"Normally Azalea carries out the Emperor assassination missions, while Damon and Alix did the more straightforward ones, but you can choose whatever you want,

" Elder Praxx explained.

John glanced over the mission board, which contained dozens of missions.

'Slay three late Core Formation Griffons and collect their corpses? Sounds useful to me, but too time consuming… Travel to a nearby sect and participate in a tournament? No, too time consuming….Ah here we go.'

John snatched a mission paper from the board.

"Assassinate a Half-Step Meridian Forging merchant who is siphoning funds that should be going to our Bloodfiend Sect? And he resides only half a days travel away? Perfect. I'll take this one,

" John said to Elder Praxx.

Elder Praxx nodded his head in agreement, and pointed to the Elder sitting at a table in the corner of the room.

"Register the mission with Elder Grollo, and then head out immediately to complete it. Afterwards, when you return, you can focus on cultivation for a few weeks before your next mission,

" Elder Praxx replied.

John nodded his head and quickly registered the mission, before leaving the building with Elder Praxx.

He said some parting words to his new master before he sped off in the direction of the merchant's city. His first assassination mission had officially begun.