Floating Immortal Order

Chapter 31: “I see there are tracks in the mountains, yet I fear I may never be able to return to the home in my heart.”

Favor

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TL: The title is a line directly taken from a poem called 永遇乐, written during the Song dynasty by the famous poet . You can find a translation that someone else did here: .

Su was in over his head. Unlike his normal clever self, he was stunned silly.

Xu Disheng slightly frowned. “Don’t be rude.”

Su immediately came to his senses and prostrated himself on the ground. “Utmost greetings to these mighty gods.”

Daoist Lord Qingxin said, “Sheng’er, did you feel that this beggar has Profound Meridians, so you brought him here to verify?”

“It is exactly as you say, Master,” Xu Disheng said. “This beggar’s thoughts are very quick-witted, and he is overflowing with spiritual energy. He always gave me this particular feeling, and it seemed like spiritual energy was spilling out from him.”

Daoist Lord Qingyu suddenly spoke up. “Not bad. This child was actually born from the spiritual energy of this world.This kind of person indigenous to this world will appear in the Secret Realm once every few decades. The size of the Chu Territory is limited, and the rules governing this world are badly damaged. There are only 11 Provinces across the land, and periodically there will be a person who is born receiving the directive of the damaged rules governing this world. Their purpose upon birth is to inherit the will of the Secret Realm and fix the damaged rules governing the Secret Realm.

TL: The word the author is using here is simply “rules”, but I think the author is referring to a metaphysical, intangible concept of the natural rules/laws governing the stability of the world. For example, if the rules were to become too damaged and end up breaking, then the assumed result would be that the world would collapse into ruin and cease to exist…? That’s my understanding of it at least, feel free to correct me.

“The Secret Realm has a will?” Xu Disheng asked, astounded.

Daoist Lord Qingxin glanced at him and said, “You don’t know just how unimaginably vast and boundless the Sacred Sect truly is. Many countless years in the past, the almighty, supreme figures of the Sacred Sect brought together 36 badly damaged small worlds and refined them into what is known as the Secret Realms. Among them, there are 27 Mortal Secret Realms, which offer many uses, like supplying fresh blood to the sect or punishing disciples.”

He continued, “These small Secret Realms will continually improve themselves, which is why every so often a spiritual energy child will appear. However, most of them end up mediocre, without a single accomplishment. Since the Shangqing Sacred Sect has power over all 27 Mortal Secret Realms, they treat these indigenous people of the Secret Realms like livestock.”

Having said all this, Daoist Lord Qingxin seemed to have forgotten that Xu Disheng was also an indigenous person of the Secret Realms, but nonetheless, he didn’t sugarcoat his words.

Daoist Lord Qingyu said, “However, there have been some spiritual energy children who had outstanding aptitudes and were taken into the Shangqing Path, breaking out from their world. This occurrence could be considered fairly common.”

The several people present nodded their heads.

While they were talking, the ancient mirror-shaped Dao Channel Measuring Martial Treasure belonging to the Eastern Qin Province’s Dao Palace had already been brought to them.

“Bite the tip of your tongue and extract a drop of blood, then smear it on the mirror,” Xu Disheng instructed.

Su had already been frightened out of his wits by the conversation these people were having. For the moment, he still hadn’t completely gotten a hold of himself, but when he heard what Xu Disheng said, he silently bit his tongue and wiped a smear of blood on the ancient mirror.

The ancient mirror gradually began to glow with a crimson light as bloody qi wafted through the air, coalescing into 2 words.

Profound.

One.

The look on the Daoist Lords faces showed that it came to them as no surprise. Grade 1 Profound Meridians were certainly exceedingly rare in these parts, but in the entire Shangqing Sacred Sect, he could only be considered to have a slight level of talent. Plus, he was the spiritual energy child of this Secret Realm, so him having Grade 1 Profound Meridians was still normal.

Daoist Lord Shangyuan opened his mouth to speak. “Sheng’er, could we discuss this for a moment?”

“Discuss, I wouldn’t dare call it that. Martial Uncle is exaggerating too much. You can just tell me your command,” Xu Disheng replied.

Daoist Lord Shangyuan looked at Su for a while before glancing at Daoist Lord Qingxin. “Recently, my Eastern Qin Province Dao Palace has not found a disciple for several decades. Could this person be considered a part of my Eastern Qin Province’s quota? I, Shangyuan, will owe you a favor for this.”

Xu Disheng looked towards Daoist Lord Qingxin, but he saw that his expression was unchanged, just as cold as before. He wasn’t looking in Xu Disheng’s direction.

“I will go with Martial Uncle’s wishes. I don’t dare to count this as a favor, just think of it as a trifling matter.” Xu Disheng didn’t dwell too much about it. If it wasn’t for the sake of giving Daoist Lord Qingxin face, Daoist Lord Shangyuan probably wouldn’t have even spoken to him in this manner, going so far as to call it a discussion.

Daoist Lord Shangyuan said, “Delivering a disciple with Grade 1 Profound Meridians to the sect is by no means a small favor. Even though it’s just a drop in the ocean to them, just as the Sacred Sect inflicts punishment, they also bestow rewards. You can exchange this favor for medicinal pills that can extend longevity or nourish qi.” He didn’t hide anything, explaining the insider way of doing things in a straightforward manner. After all, Qingxin and Qingyu were both present so he had nothing to hide. When he finished speaking, he turned to Su and said, “You can step forward.”

Su stepped forward, and when Daoist Lord Shangyuan saw his dirty, worn-out clothes, his brows wrinkled. “Cleaning Incantation.”

A stream of Shangqing Profound Qi covered the entirety of Su’s body, and after a short while, there was not a single trace of filth left upon his body. His looks were exposed in their original appearance, unexpectedly revealing a rather delicate and attractive youth.

Su looked down at his white hands, then felt his own face. It had been ages since he had been this clean. Now that he had returned to his original appearance, he was left in momentary disbelief.

Daoist Lord Shangyuan commanded the servants standing outside the palace hall. “Change this beggar into a set of new clothes. From now on, he will be my disciple.”

“Yes, Daoist Lord.” The two servants standing outside entered the hall, not daring to raise their heads. They brought Su away, keeping their heads bowed the entire time.

Daoist Lord Qingxin sighed emotionally and said, “When I first entered the Sea of Qi stage, I was in such high spirits. But I never would have imagined that after I didn’t make it in time for the Peak Entry Examination, I would be punished and sent to this realm, squandering away 200 years of my life with the Sea of Qi stage being the highest cultivation I would ever reach. Of my fellow outer disciples of Zhuri Eighth Mountain Range at the time, I wonder how many of them have already cultivated to the Dao Foundation stage.”

Daoist Lord Qingyu was also feeling somewhat sorrowful. At this moment, it was as if they had been stripped of their title as Daoist Lords, as they reminisced about the time when they first entered the Shangqing Sacred Sect among the ranks of the hundreds of thousands of other disciples.

These Daoist Lords were all once people of the Human Realm, living in one of the territories under the jurisdiction of the Shangqing Sacred Sect. Once they entered the Sacred Sect, their outlooks were frivolous and na?ve. At that time, they were still completely unaware of how cruel and unfeeling the relationships were between profound cultivators, with their endless scheming and mutual deception. On top of that, the missions for the sect were extremely dangerous. Monsters running amuck, deities shaking the world, demons wreaking havoc; if you weren’t careful, you wouldn’t even be fortunate enough to leave behind a corpse.

Daoist Lord Qingyu said to Daoist Lord Shangyuan, “Junior Martial Brother, I’ll have to inconvenience you with this time’s visit to the Imperial Province to see the Lord of the Realm and the Secret Realm Envoy.”

“Senior Martial Brother, how could you say that? It’s my duty,” Daoist Lord Shangyuan said with a smile.

Daoist Lord Shangyuan originally belonged to a large, wealthy family under the jurisdiction of the Shangqing Sacred Sect, with a considerable amount of property and assets. After he joined the Sacred Sect, he sold off his family property in exchange for several spirit stones. Although it was only 10 spirit stones, it was an amount of assets that other ordinary disciples could only hope for.

He later made use of bribes to bring his relatives along with him to live in the Secret Realms and spent all of his money on protection items, Spirit Tools, and Spirit Treasures.

Among them was a travel-type treasure called the “Spirit Cloud”, which was about 15 meters in radius in total. The top of the cloud was comfortable, and when powered by spirit stones, it could float in the air and act as a means of transport. It was worth about 12 spirit stones.

Although it was the lowest rank flying-type Spirit Tool in the Shangqing Sacred Sect, every disciple with a bit of wealth would buy one, since the Shangqing Sacred Sect had eight massive Mountain Ranges. Each mountain range was incomparably vast with hundreds of mountain peaks, the tallest ones reaching over 3000 meters in height. The lower peaks were still around 300 meters in height, so if you didn’t buy a flying-type Spirit Tool, even going up and down the mountains would be a problem. The only thing you could do at that point was to ride someone else’s Spirit Cloud, but you would have to pay them a fee of at least half a spirit stone.

This practice gave rise to a bunch of disciples who did this for a living. Once they bought a Spirit Cloud, they would wait around in various places every day, transporting those new disciples who couldn’t yet afford a Spirit Cloud. No matter how far, as long as it was inside the sect, they would charge them half a spirit stone.

This would give rise to a vicious cycle, since those outer disciples only earned about 1 or 2 spirit stones per month, and they had to pay half a spirit stone in fare each time, so they would never be able to save enough to buy a Spirit Cloud themselves.

That was why there were quite a few people who, for the sake of saving their spirit stones, would climb the precipitous mountain roads to the peak of the mountain every day. Not only did this waste a lot of time, but it also presented the danger of falling.

However, ordinary disciples like Daoist Lord Qingxin and Daoist Lord Qingyu hadn’t been able to afford something like a Spirit Cloud. After Daoist Lord Shangyuan came to this realm, he hardly used it since it cost too many spirit stones to operate. Every 2500 kilometers, it would cost 1 spirit stone, which was quite the extravagant expenditure.

Daoist Lord Shangyuan had previously talked it out with the other two Daoist Lords, demanding one spirit stone from each of them for this trip, but now he had no need to mention this matter anymore. After all, Daoist Lord Shangyuan wasn’t just going to take them, since he was now responsible for taking Su to the Central Imperial Province as well. Plus, the favor he owed to Daoist Lord Qingxin had something to do with it.