Initiates generally did not specialize into anything, because there was little one could do in terms of specializing into a path until one was at the Qi Refinement realm. And it was only at the Golden Core realm where a specialty would really begin to matter.
But, Tang Ze had shown no talent whatsoever when it came to healing; as far as the prefect knew. On top of that, a Qi Refinement cultivator likely wouldn't have any healing abilities whatsoever regardless.
With that said, it wasn't as if it was against the rules for Tang Ze to take up this job - it was just that the prefect didn't think the job was suited to Tang Ze.
"Ah, no worries," Tang Ze said. "I know about all of that and I'm willing to take it up anyway."
The prefect shrugged as there was little he could do to oppose this decision, even if he felt that Tang Ze was being foolish, as he approved for his squad to accept it.
"Please remember that there is a penalty for failing the mission," the prefect said. "Even if it is a charitable one. You will be barred from taking missions for some time, and if you fail too many, your ability to pick and choose missions might be revoked entirely."
"I understand, thank you," Tang Ze said, nonplussed.
The prefect didn't know this, but Tang Ze did have a method to heal people with.
And there were a few good reasons he had chosen this particular mission that the prefect probably hadn't realized.
For one, by taking up a mission like this, his squad wouldn't be given other tasks or missions until the allotted time had elapsed, or until they had finished the mission. Their one month long reprieve from sect duties had long since expired, and they were looking for another way to get out of their responsibilities.
Secondly, the location of the village just so happened to be near Chen Yu's house.
In other words, Chen Yu was taking this up as a sort of chance to visit his house on the side, much like how Zhang Long had taken his earlier solo mission as basically a vacation back home.
Although the mission had been given to the squad as a whole, there was nothing saying that they all had to leave to do it.
As such, Zhang Long and Yin Tiang chose to sit this one out.
Tang Ze, of course, had to go as he was the one who was going to be doing the actual work that the mission asked for. Chen Yu tagged along as this had been entirely his idea since he was basically missing home.
The two of them left via pegasi carriage - Tang Ze could use his pass for this and did not need to expend any sect merit points for this.
For missions that people took voluntarily, the sect would not provide any resources to help them with it - they would have to procure them on their own. That was why, given the low reward of this mission, it was highly likely that whoever took it would end up taking a loss.
But, then again, it was a charity case after all. If those villagers wanted the task done faster, they would have to fork up something more than just their blessings and well-wishes to whoever finished the job. The fact that they hadn't made it clear that they likely had little that could move the heart of any cultivator powerful enough to help them.
However, thanks to the pass, Tang Ze didn't need to worry about this.
He did, however, have something else he had to worry about - carrying his luggage.
"How much did you pack for this trip?" Chen Yu asked him as he saw Tang Ze lugging a huge bag with him. Tang Ze didn't lack strength at this point, but the bag was almost bursting at the seams and awkward to wrap his hands around.
"A few costumes," Tang Ze said. They didn't need to stay in uniform for the mission, but he wasn't about to set out wearing his 'work outfit' for this mission for obvious reasons. He also had a few spare costumes that might be needed as well as some other supplies. "I wish I could get a storage ring."
Storage rings were rather rare and expensive - he had learned that earlier during the tournament when he had assumed that the prefects might have one. Golden Core cultivators could rent them from the sect, but not Qi Refinement cultivators. And those would still be considered property of the sect, if you wanted your own one, you would have to buy it yourself.
"There is the annual sect auction coming up," Chen Yu said. "It's in another division near a city, but you have enough sect merit points. you might be able to get one."
Tang Ze had been awarded an enormous amount after his victories in the Novice Tournament. He had heard of the sect auction for a while now, last year he had not had enough points to participate, but this year would be different.
Not just storage rings, he might end up getting something else that could be valuable if he played his cards right.
"Yeah, but that's going to happen in the future," Tang Ze said. "For now, we have to lug this around."
Even if Chen Yu had agreed to teleport to their destination, which he wouldn't, Tang Ze had never seen it before nor had he seen Chen Yu's house, so he couldn't do so anyway.
They took off and reached Chen Yu's house later on in the afternoon.
The pegasi had to be given special care and could not be placed in normal stables - thankfully, Chen Yu's family had a few servants who knew how to do so.
From Chen Yu's house, their plan was to take normal horses (Tang Ze would just fly) to their destination, heal the children, come back to Chen Yu's house where they would stay for a couple more days, and then return back to the sect, their mission complete.
Chen Yu had always downplayed how important his family was - Tang Ze knew that his father's title of being one hundred and ninety-fifth in line was just for name, and that they weren't 'real nobility' in any sense of the word. However, it was clear from looking at where Chen Yu lived that his family wasn't exactly slumming it either.
Chen Yu had the largest house of all of the squad members, it approached near-mansion size, and the moment they landed people began to excitedly surround their carriage.
"Chen Yu! You're back!" a woman said, hugging Chen Yu. Based on how she was dressed, Tang Ze assumed that this was Chen Yu's mother.
"Yes," Chen Yu said, a wide smile on his face. Despite trying to hide it, he clearly was quite happy to be back home. "Ah, this is my friend, Tang Ze."
"Oh! So you're Tang Ze - I wanted to thank you so much for taking care of our Chen Yu."
"Taking care of… I really didn't do anything," Tang Ze replied.
"She's talking about that time you came along with me for the arranged marriage meeting," Chen Yu explained and then frowned. "I wanted to actually talk to you about that, it went so badly I really don't think we need to be rushing this sort of thing…"
Chen Yu had often admitted that he had been somewhat of a spoiled child back home before he had joined the sect, though from the way that everyone seemed to absolutely adore and gush over him, Tang Ze could see why that was.
It was more than just the fact that Chen Yu had returned back home after a long time, the family seemed to treasure him in a way that showed a certain degree of favoritism.
Of Chen Yu's brothers, two of them were currently not home, but Tang Ze met the one who was.
"Ah, thank you for going along with the Little Emperor when we weren't there for him," he said.
"Little Emperor?"
"Nothing," Chen Yu said, seemingly embarrassed. "He's just saying something dumb…"
By the time they were somewhat settled and their pegasi taken care of, it was late in the evening and they made the decision to go to their destination the next day.
As it was, neither of them was in any rush to head out of their warm and comforting home.
Everything for dinner was made as per Chen Yu's tastes, though Tang Ze couldn't say that he was treated any worse than Chen Yu. The food back in their mess could in no way compare to the things served out before them, and Tang Ze's bed in the guest room was so comfortable that he actually found it hard to fall asleep in - it was like he was trying to lie down in a giant spoon of mashed potatoes. Eventually though, he did drift off.
The next day, they headed out once the sun had risen (to Tang Ze's immense relief Chen Yu hadn't felt the need to rush out before the crack of dawn). Tang Ze flew while Chen Yu rode a horse until they happened upon the village sometime before noon.
"So this is it…" Tang Ze said once they had gotten to their destination. He could easily see why the mission was posted as a charity case now - this village was not in good shape. Zhang Long often considered his own village to be a backwater, that was how he himself described it, but at least his village had something resembling a wall around the main settlement and the roads, while not paved, were at least mostly smooth and even.
Come to think of it, Tang Ze considered, after receiving funds from the third prince, maybe the roads of Zhang Long's village would soon be paved.
Coming to this place though, it looked like nothing better than a haphazard collection of mud huts. The road was extremely bad, to the point where any cart would have extreme trouble traversing.
Someone saw them, and noticed Chen Yu's uniform. Chen Yu had chosen to come in the sect uniform, for the simple reason that it gave them an authority that they would otherwise lack.
An old man hobbled to meet them, who turned out to be the village chief.
"Thank you so much for coming," he said, and bowed so low that it embarrassed both Chen Yu and Tang Ze.
"Please, raise your head!" the two of them said.
"We heard that there were some ill children," Tang Ze said. "The two of us are here from the Rising Phoenix sect to see if we can help them."
The village chief looked at what Tang Ze was wearing with a curious expression, but did not comment upon it.
"Can you tell us more about what happened?" Chen Yu asked.
"Of course, Lords, let me lead you to them," the village chief said. Both Tang Ze and Chen Yu cringed when he had addressed them as 'Lords' - they were at the bottom of the sect hierarchy, though they supposed that for someone who lived in a place like this, they might've seemed quite high and mighty indeed.
"It started a week ago," he explained. "One of the children, a young girl, she wouldn't wake up one morning. We feared the worst, but she was still breathing. After that, one by one, the children would fall asleep and they… just wouldn't wake up no matter what we did. They are still breathing, but have been asleep for days now. We didn't dare move them, as it is, we wouldn't have the money to pay for a doctor somewhere better than here."
As per him, the children did not have any symptoms like fever or vomiting. It was rather strange, like they were in an extremely deep sleep, but just would not wake up despite what they did.
"This is where they are," the village chief said.