Floating Immortal Order

Chapter 24: Water Gives Life, But Just As Easily Takes It

Jiangdu City

Evil winds howled and screeched as the massive evil spirit skull burrowed itself all the way into Bai Xiuyu’s body. Bai Xiuyu’s face was still blank. After a short while, the black wind began to slowly dissipate out from his body as tranquility was restored to the palace hall. At the top of Bai Xiuyu’s head, all that was left was a strand of black gas vaporizing into the atmosphere.

“!!!”

“He… killed Lord Bai?”

“A Xiantian transcendent… died?”

“Sheng’er! Is that you?”

“Xiuyu!!”

Everything happened too quickly. Eventually, everyone in the hall started to come back to their senses. Xu Chaoyang walked over to Xu Disheng, his emotions stirred up. He almost didn’t dare to believe his eyes.

Bai Fanyu crazily shook Bai Xiuyu’s responseless body, watching the blank expression on his face in a hysterical panic. But no matter how much he shook him, Bai Xiuyu had no reaction whatsoever. All that remained of him was that blank expression on his face as his body slowly turned as cold as ice.

This Passing Soul Mantra was incomparably malicious. It could directly pass a person’s soul into nothingness! Just this one move cost Xu Disheng a little less than half of his Soul Force reserves.

“Old Xiu pays respects to Regional Lord Xu,” the elderly envoy from Youyang City slowly lowered his body and offered his courtesies to Xu Disheng. “The Bai Clan disrespected the Prince and slandered the Dao Palace. According to the law, they deserve punishment by death! I was about to write a letter to His Excellency, but I did not expect Regional Lord Xu to come back. In this case, it would be apt for Regional Lord Xu to directly determine everything.”

Xu Disheng nodded and said, “Okay.” When he looked over at the other Xiantian martial artists, he saw Guo Nansu squinting his eyes as he smiled at him.

Zhao Huichun and Gao Sishui were on guard against him, their seas of consciousness revolving at full power as they stared warily at him.

“Elder Guo, about the matter of exterminating the Bai Clan. It’s a bit out of my reach to accomplish alone, so I’d like to invite you to help me,” Xu Disheng said.

Guo Nansu laughed out loud before glancing at Bai Fanyu. “Sheng’er, your Xu Clan and my Guo Clan are friends, so naturally I will offer my aid.”

“According to law? Just whose law? Xu Disheng! You just came back and immediately pull this shit without any notice whatsoever? You son of a bitch!” Bai Fanyu roared madly, his eyes bloodshot as he glowered at Xu Disheng and the elderly envoy.

“The Dao Palace is law,” Xu Disheng said quietly. He formed a hand seal and activated a Shangqing Incantation. “Shangqing, Fierce Incantation.”

From the Shangqing Profound Qi surrounding his body, a strand was separated out and immediately transformed into an orb which exploded on Bai Fanyu’s body. With a flash, he was blasted away into the depths of the palace hall, spitting out blood the entire way. When he landed, it wasn’t clear if he was dead or alive.

Xu Disheng had not yet reached the Cleansed Meridians Stage. At this point, only about two-thirds of his meridian points were filled with Shangqing Profound Qi. If he were to go head to head with a Martial Technique Xiantian, he wasn’t 100% certain about being able to secure victory. Just now, it was only because his Shangqing Profound Qi was the direct ancestor of Shangqing Qi that Bai Xiuyu wasn’t able to revolve his qi and couldn’t make any moves. He also picked the strongest move in his arsenal at the moment, which was the second mantra of the Soul Song in his sea of consciousness, the Passing Soul Mantra. Its power allowed him to directly slaughter Bai Xiuyu and intimidate everyone present.

“Grandpa Chaoyang,” Xu Disheng muttered.

Xu Chaoyang’s emotions were evident in his eyes as he moved forward to try and reach out and touch Xu Disheng, but he saw that his body was surrounded with profound qi. The intricate Daoist robe that he was wearing was so noble and grand, and his black hair was long and elegantly secured by a jade hairpin. His expression was also cold.

In the end, he wasn’t able to reach out with his hands to touch him. He could only manage to utter, “Sheng’er, you’re finally back.”

The other people from the Xu Clan had been completely stunned this whole time. The Young Patriarch, Xu Xiao, was also among them, his expression complicated as he gazed upon Xu Disheng.

Xu Disheng exchanged a sentence with Guo Nansu. “Elder Guo, I’ll be leaving the upper echelons of the Bai Clan to you.”

Guo Nansu smiled and replied, “You can leave it to me. Go on ahead, Sheng’er.’

Xu Disheng exited the palace hall. The outside of the palace hall was still bustling with activity, clearly unaware of the fact that Bai Xiuyu had already died. The people had only seen a youth with a Daoist robe walk into the hall, then after a while, some wisps of black gas drifting out. Then after another short moment, the youth left the hall.

He took a look at the surrounding people. Most of them belonged to the Bai Clan’s Jiangdu City guard forces, and there were also several small aristocratic clans. None of these people were from the Xu Clan.

He closed his eyes that glittered like starlight and muttered, “Amassing Water.”

He revolved his profound qi, and water began to condense rapidly in front of him. The water transformed into 10 exquisitely sparkling, translucent water arrows, which trembled ever so slightly as they floated in midair.

Xu Disheng didn’t bother to look at the people around him anymore. With a flick of his sleeves, he turned on his heel and went back into the palace hall.

“What are these water arrows? They look so mystical!”

“Is this some kind of magic trick?”

The guards belonging to the Bai Clan found it rather novel, and they stared at the 10 water arrows in amazement. They never would have thought that in the next moment, each arrow would point towards a different direction and shoot out, indiscriminately attacking everyone in a circular radius within the great hall.

Although the water arrows didn’t look spectacular, their power far exceeded their appearance. Every single water arrow brought about an explosion that affected a radius of 5 to 6 meters. Regardless of whether it was a person or an object, all were violently ripped apart by profound qi as they exploded into countless bits that flew in every which direction, never to be whole again.

In about half the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the water arrows dissipated, leaving a perfect stillness in their wake.

TL: “The time it takes for an incense stick to burn”: a commonly used frame of reference for time in Chinese cultivation novels. Equates to around 5 to 30 minutes.

Xu Disheng walked into the palace hall. Guo Nansu had bloodstains on his hands, and he welcomed him over with a smile. “Sheng’er, the upper ranks of the Bai Clan have all been executed according to the law.”

Guo Nansu was a Martial Technique Xiantian, which meant that he could expand his sea of consciousness to attack others in its field of range, but that method was very wasteful in terms of power. It would be much easier for him to just take them out one by one with his fists.

The other slightly larger clans in the great hall had all become docile and obedient. They were frightened out of their wits, and didn’t even dare to make a sound. The Xu Clan faced him, their expressions filled with emotion. Among the crowd were also the people from the Jin Clan who were close to the Xu Clan, and their expressions were similarly complicated as they looked at Xu Disheng.

“I had long since heard of Regional Lord Xu’s entry into the Dao Palace, and how profound your ways of the Dao were. Now that I have finally met you in person, I can see that your reputation is truly well-deserved,” Zhao Huichun said with a bright laugh. Even he himself wasn’t sure if the words of goodwill he was spouting were genuine or fake. From his complexion, he seemed to be trying to hold back his fear of the consequences of offending him, and it was obvious that he was also rather afraid of Xu Disheng’s Passing Soul Mantra.

Xu Disheng had just wordlessly extinguished the life of a Xiantian transcendent, one who had successfully cultivated the Shangqing Qi nonetheless. Bai Xiuyu didn’t even have the time to raise a finger or make a move, which was in part one of the reasons they couldn’t help but feel the need to tread carefully. 𝘣𝘦𝑑𝘯𝘰𝘷𝑒𝘭．𝑛𝘦𝘵

“What a heroic youth,” Gao Sishui, the Regional Lord of the Gaoyang Region, praised while wearing a smile on his face.

These few people were the Regional Lords of the Regions surrounding the Ruyang Region, and every single one of them were, in the eyes of regular people, extremely aloof and untouchable Xiantian martial artists. And at this moment, they were all layering on the praise, acting in a nearly reverent manner towards Xu Disheng.

Xu Disheng returned their greeting, then turned to the side to look at Xu Chaoyang. “Patriarch, you can write back to Zhenhai City. Have them immediately dispatch the Zhenhai Army to purge the borders of Jiangdu City of the remnants of the Bai Clan through execution at the gallows. Then, have people take control of Jiangdu City and take it under the jurisdiction of the Xu Clan.”

“Alright, I’ll pass the order on!” Xu Chaoyang was still feeling rather moved. Just now, he didn’t even notice that Xu Disheng had called him ‘Patriarch’, and not ‘Grandpa Chaoyang’.

Within one day, the state of affairs in the Ruyang Region underwent massive changes!

Rumors spread like wildfire among the citizens as they began to talk about the return of the real Regional Lord. The gossip described the lord as a handsome youth, who also happened to be profound in the Daoist ways. They spoke of how he slaughtered the Xiantian martial artist of the Bai Clan, Bai Xiuyu, by simply raising his hand, and how he had dispatched troops to purge the borders of Jiangdu City and confiscated the entirety of the wealth that the Bai Clan had been accumulating for centuries.

From henceforth, there would be no Bai Clan. Now, the only two clans left in the Ruyang Region were the Xu Clan and the Jin Clan.

After two days, the Bai Clan’s wealth that was accumulated over centuries was finally plundered dry, but there were still some people from the Bai Clan who took advantage of the chaos to escape.

In the Juying Hall in Zhenhai City, the upper echelons of the Xu Clan had gotten together. Everyone of them had unconcealable delight upon their faces. The five elders in the Council of Elders were seated above on the seats of honor, while below them were Xu Chaoyang, Xu Xiao, Xu Chen, and Xu Yan, along with around 10 others from the upper echelons of the Xu Clan.

The face of the Grand Elder, Xu Qinying, looked normal, but the excitement in his eyes couldn’t be hidden so easily. In his hand was a list, and the further he read down the list, the more excited the look in his eyes became. “The Bai Clan’s property sure is impressive! This elder didn’t go to attend the Transcendence Ceremony, but I really didn’t expect Sheng’er would bring me such a great surprise!”

As he spoke, his honorifics started to loosen as he began to refer to himself as ‘I’ instead of ‘this elder’, and by this it was evident that even though Xu Disheng hadn’t arrived yet, he didn’t try to exaggerate his own position.

TL: Chinese honorifics are incredibly complicated, and there are many different pronouns that can be used to refer to oneself in a lowering or superior manner, depending on that person’s status being higher or lower than the other party (although these aren’t generally used in daily speech nowadays). Most of the time, I simply translate all of those pronouns to ‘I’ or ‘me’ since English doesn’t have an equivalent concept of honorific pronouns, then I try to imply their honorific tone through their speech. If you’re interested in reading more in detail about this topic, see this wiki link:

“The Regional Lord arrives,” a voice announced from outside of the palace hall. Shortly after, a Daoist youth wearing an intricate black Daoist robe walked into the palace hall.