Regardless of the means, he had obtained the permit and mercenary upgrade certificate—following the regular procedure of accepting missions, grinding reputation, and working his way up to a fourth-level mercenary team would have taken at least a month or two. After all, for an unknown small team, even accepting enough missions to qualify wouldn't be easy; the competition was fierce.

Honestly, Hao Ren was reminded of Taobao back on Earth. If he'd handed this over to the professional reviewers on Taobao, they probably could have done it even more efficiently. The mercenary ranking in this world only went up to level five; on Earth, any website with a ranking system would be embarrassed to not have at least a nine-star eighteen-diamond rating…

However, another major reason Hao Ren's little trick worked today was that the Mercenary Association was too lazy to bother with him, and this world still operated primarily on a system of human governance: the boundary between a fifth-level and a fourth-level mercenary team wasn't that important. Even a bunch of useless rookies (in fact, many mercenaries weren't good at fighting; they helped solve residents' problems and were more like contract cops running errands) could rack up enough points by finding twenty lost cats and dogs. It was just an artificial boundary used to determine if a team was newly formed, and the association was too lazy to investigate if someone cheated. Plus, the lady in charge of mission registration was rushing to get off work and eat, so she couldn't be bothered to argue with Hao Ren and just glossed it over.

Now, Hao Ren and his group were strolling down the town's main street, clutching their badges (small rectangular metal pieces, similar to work permits, with a thin crystal plate embedded in the middle for storing information). Hao Ren held the complete set of documents about the Lake Beinntz Blood incident in his hand, and after asking Becky for more information, he finally had a comprehensive understanding of the whole situation and the mysterious blood lake.

Lake Beinntz Blood was located in the center of a wilderness on the western side of the Kingdom of Holletta. The territory of the Kingdom of Holletta resembled a horizontal irregular trapezoid on the map, and Lake Beinntz Blood was located on the short side to the west, making it part of the kingdom's border. Beyond the blood lake to the west lay the lands of scattered tribal nations established by mountain people and some western werewolves. Because the Kingdom of Holletta had a long history and had passed the early stage of expansion and impetuosity, and because the current kingdom's rulers were dedicated to internal development and attracting neighboring powers, its relations with the western tribal nations were good. The area around the blood lake had become a stable border—a good thing for the countries on both sides, because a vast area around the lake was a dangerous zone filled with violent mutated monsters. If war broke out, the warring countries would use various secret arts to drive these monsters into enemy territory, which would be a disaster for everyone.

The wilderness near Lake Beinntz Blood was both a defensive barrier and a ticking time bomb, something no one could deal with.

The lake's length was about one hundred and twenty kilometers, and its width at the widest point was more than forty kilometers. But the north and south ends of the lake also had a series of small depressions, like fragments broken off from the red gemstone that was the blood lake, spreading out for dozens of kilometers. Therefore, the entire area of the blood lake was unusually vast. Its most distinctive feature was the crimson, blood-red water: including the main body of the blood lake and the surrounding satellite lakes, all the water bodies were a bright red color all year round. However, the Little Chaldan River, which was separated from the Lake Beinntz Blood system by only a line on the south side, was crystal clear. The two bodies of water were very close but distinctly different, making it a spectacular sight, hence the name of the blood lake.

As Becky had told Hao Ren about the legend of the goddess destroying the world, many people in this world regarded the blood lake as a sacred place related to the goddess. The mainstream legend was that the blood lake was transformed from a wine glass that the goddess had thrown down to earth (Hao Ren thought this just meant she smashed a hole), and the red water in the lake was dyed red by the red wine in the wine glass. Because this wine glass represented the goddess's anger at the sins of mortals, the "blood water" in the lake represented the sins of mortals. As long as evil things were not eliminated from the world, the blood lake would always be red.

Of course, there were other legends about this lake, such as the goddess dropping a drop of blood on earth, or the goddess shedding a tear of blood when she saw the rampant evil on the earth, but because these two theories could not "explain" why ancient civilizations were destroyed, they did not become popular. The largest sect in this world, the Radiant Church, reveres the Creator Goddess as the supreme god. In order to remind the world not to forget the disasters caused by the arrogance of the ancients, they adopted the most popular first legend when explaining the blood lake phenomenon.

Regardless of the legend, the wild and dangerous area around the blood lake was definitely related to the red water. Ordinary crops and most common plants could not grow in the soil nourished by the blood lake's water. Instead, there were all kinds of bizarrely shaped and wonderfully functional mutated plants. These plants had larger sizes, darker leaf colors, and usually had high medicinal or magical material value. The church claimed that these characteristics were the result of being blessed by the goddess. But with great profits came great risks. The unique plant system around the blood lake also nurtured a large number of strange creatures that could not be seen outside. Most of these creatures were ferocious and powerful, had a strong sense of territory, and almost all of them possessed innate magic—even the grass-eating rabbits were like this. Many people would risk exploring around the blood lake to collect materials, but few dared to venture into the hinterland alone, because they couldn't beat the rabbits… uh, they couldn't beat the magical beasts.

However, these legends were just for Hao Ren to listen to for fun. He didn't care if the goddess's destruction of the world had anything to do with him, because he knew the real goddess, and knew that she was a scatterbrained big sister who wouldn't even bother to descend to earth even if humans established themselves as gods. What he cared about was the recent disappearance of the Sacred Pearl.

The Radiant Church was rooted in the oldest great power in this world, the Kingdom of Holletta. It was established at almost the same time as the kingdom. Before its doctrine was promoted to the world, it was the state religion of Holletta. The Sacred Pearl was obtained by the first pope of the church and the first king of Holletta from a "sacred place". It was said to represent the goddess's last trust in this world, and was naturally the treasure of the kingdom and the church. According to the church, the goddess used the Sacred Pearl to understand the development trajectory of this world after the destruction of the world, and to detect whether the sins of this world had sprouted again. Therefore, every year the church and the royal family had to perform a ritualistic "goddess patrol". The pearl, under strict guard, departed from the royal city of Stuwin in the east of the kingdom, passed through four shrines and four ruins within the kingdom, and finally arrived at Lake Beinntz Blood, the place where the flames of destruction were said to have first burned. The people of this world believed that this method could show the gods their determination to repent.

The pearl would stay at Lake Beinntz Blood for four days, and finally return to the royal city along the same route. After that, the pope would announce that the goddess had understood the situation on the earth in the past year, and recognized the repentance of mankind, and then a grand celebration ceremony would be held.

This was the most grand celebration event in the Kingdom of Holletta, an unprecedented annual event, even grander than the king's birthday celebration and the founding celebration. It even attracted tributes from all countries in the world, including those with poor relations with the kingdom—because the Radiant Church was a world-recognized holy church, and the pearl pilgrimage, although held within the territory of Holletta, was a world-class event.

But this time, the pearl was lost.

According to the rules, it was placed in an ancient church on a small island in the center of Lake Beinntz Blood during the four days of its stay. It was heavily guarded by church knights and kingdom knights, with layers of defensive magic arrays. Baron Brock, who was responsible for the final stage of the escort mission, was a famous brave knight in the kingdom and also a devout holy warrior conferred by the church. Both his strength and character were impeccable, but on the first night, the pearl disappeared without a trace.

It was said that all the knights that night heard a muffled thunderous roar coming from the depths of the blood lake. The roar lasted for a full ten minutes, causing a sensation in the camp. Then, strange lights appeared under the surface of the water near the island in the center of the lake. The flickering light was like something burning fiercely underwater. The knights stationed on the island reported that they felt a strong earthquake, but the camp on the shore did not feel the vibration. When Baron Brock was investigated, he said that he saw a large number of bubbles floating up from the bottom of the lake, and at the same time smelled a burnt smell similar to sulfur—these disturbances finally calmed down in a strong flash of light that ran through the sky. The uneasy knights, with the authorization of the accompanying bishop, risked violating the rules and opened the door of the small church, only to find that everything inside had disappeared.

Including all the tables, chairs, furniture, a layer of wall skin and part of the ceiling, four ascetic monks who needed to pray in the church without eating or drinking for four days, and the Sacred Pearl, all were gone.

Hao Ren thought it really looked like a large-scale space gate opening event—especially that light.