Floating Immortal Order

Chapter 35: Rotten Wood Cannot Be Carved

Sealing Soul

The manager of the Rising Fragrance House made his way forward, his expression cold and serious. With Astral Qi roiling about his body, he walked into the hall. “You come in and start slaughtering without saying anything and then spout mad ravings… If you want to fight, I’m afraid you’ve come to the wrong place!”

Among the audience in the hall, some were frightened while others were curious about what was happening. But there were even more who were sneering, all too aware of the fact that the Regional Lord of Jiujiang Region was backing the Rising Fragrance House. Everyone here knew this, so there were never any people who dared to cause a disturbance at this place.

At this moment, even in the private rooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors, there were people who cast puzzled looks over.

Xu Disheng just laughed at them and turned to speak to Su, whose expression had changed greatly. “These fools can’t even recognize reality. Well, they’ll just have to pay a higher price, that’s all.” He looked back at the hall, and counted in an icy tone that spread easily throughout the audience in the Rising Fragrance House, “One breath.”

With the Autumn Water Sword in his hand, he slashed once more towards the hall below. This time, it was infused with even more profound qi. In the time that it took for the Autumn Water Sword to complete the swing, the sword light grew into a 10 meter long sword energy, which ripped downwards through the air.

Boom!

That manager hadn’t even reached the half-step Xiantian realm. Although his body was covered with Astral Qi, the manager, along with some other extremely unfortunate folk who were caught in the path of the sword energy, were immediately ripped to shreds like wet paper.

Even the fortunate people in the corners of the room suffered slightly from the aftermath of the sword energy, forcing them to conjure Astral Qi in an effort to withstand it.

Xu Disheng suddenly perceived a trace of danger. He immediately concentrated Soul Force in his eyes and searched the area around him in a wide radius.

In a private room on the 3rd floor, hiding behind a hanging curtain, there was a middle-aged man who was channeling power in an attempt to attack him using his sea of consciousness. It was a Xiantian realm transcendent. 𝒷ℯ𝒹𝓃𝓸𝓿ℯ𝓁.𝒸ℴ𝓶

Xu Disheng laughed coldly. If a Martial Technique Xiantian used Astral Qi to fight him, he would have to be a little cautious. But if they were going for an attack using their sea of consciousness, it was as useless against him as throwing an egg at a rock. After all, he had been cultivating Soul Force for over ten years.

He completely ignored the Xiantian and continued, “Two breaths.”

He sheathed the Autumn Water Sword and began to amass Shangqing Profound Qi in his hand, which gradually formed into a whirlpool. It was a Shangqing Fierce Incantation.

The middle-aged man on the 3rd floor was one of the Xiantian transcendents of the Jiujiang Region, but he had another identity. He was the clan junior of the Regional Lord, and was an intimidating presence as the behind-the-scenes supporter of the Rising Fragrance House. He was the one in charge of raising the girls and auctioning them.

When he saw the Shangqing Profound Qi converging around Xu Disheng’s body, he immediately stopped channeling power for his sea of consciousness attack. His expression changed wildly as he exclaimed, “Please wait a moment! Young sir, are you someone from the Dao Palace? This is a misunderstanding! My Rising Fragrance House is willing to return the ring. Please, accept my apologies!”

The Dao Palace of the Liu Province wasn’t in the Jiujiang Region, but he was still able to recognize the Shangqing Profound Qi. At first, Xu Disheng was just putting profound qi into the Autumn Water Sword and the top quality Martial Treasure was automatically converting it into sword energy as he swung it around. That was why he didn’t notice at first that Xu Disheng was using Shangqing Profound Qi.

Only after he saw Xu Disheng casting a Fierce Incantation with the Shangqing Profound Qi around him obviously congregating into a vortex did he realize that this person belonged to the Dao Palace. He hurriedly stopped his actions and made his position clear. As a Xiantian transcendent, he knew all too well that the people of the Dao Palace were the real rulers of this land.

Xu Disheng laughed, “Sure. Three breaths of time haven’t passed yet.”

Be that as it may, the Fierce Incantation whirlpool formed in the fair, lanky youth’s hand just a moment ago was still there. He pointed it towards the outside, in the direction of the tall gates of the Rising Fragrance House.

With a loud explosion, the luxurious gates of the Rising Fragrance House, which had stood tall for decades, were reduced to rubble in an instant, killing or injuring several passerby in the process.

The middle-aged man jumped down from the 3rd floor and surveyed the area around him. In the hall, the small number of people who remained were all half-step Xiantians or people who had special life-saving methods from their Martial Techniques.

The corners of his mouth turned into a bitter smile. “If young sir had revealed your identity earlier, how could my Rising Fragrance House have dared to take your Junior Martial Brother’s Martial Treasure? You could have just taken away whichever Lantern you fancied! Even if you wanted to take away all 7 of the Lanterns being auctioned at the Lantern Festival today, I could have still done that much for you.” He hesitated a moment before continuing in a respectful tone, “Could I venture to inquire which Dao Palace it is that young sir belongs to? That way, if the Regional Lord asks about this, I will be able to explain.”

Xu Disheng flicked his sleeves and said, “We are from the You Province’s Dao Palace. It would be normal for you to not recognize us.”

Su’s heart had long been filled to the brim with excitement, thinking that Xu Disheng had finally stepped in to save these poor girls. He hurriedly said, “Then we will take away these girls and let them go home!”

The middle-aged man paused and clenched his teeth. “That’s no problem. However, just now ‘Lantern 2’ was hit by young sir’s sword light and died. At the moment, there are only 5 Lanterns backstage. If young sir would like to take them away, I can call them here right now.”

Xu Disheng waved his hands and said, “It wasn’t my intention to heroically wrest these girls away from you. You still need to do business after all. This was just meant to be a lesson for my Junior Martial Brother, but I didn’t think that this child was so tough to teach. Seems like I went through this trouble for nothing.” He shot Su a cold look, then walked out of the private room and went directly down the stairs, making his way out of the Rising Fragrance House.

The middle-aged man let out a sigh of admiration before saying respectfully, “Young sir really deserves to be called a member of the Dao Palace. Such free-spirited actions, an unfathomably profound mind… truly commanding respect.” He turned his head and called out to the servants outside the pavilion, instructing them to begin cleaning up this mess.

A lot of influential officials and gentry were killed, along with some of the people in charge of some smaller aristocratic families. But clearly, with this middle-aged man’s Xiantian realm cultivation, no one would dare to find trouble with his clan because of this matter.

In the private rooms of the 2nd floor, there were very few who had been affected. There were a lot of onlookers who saw what happened from beginning to end and were now silently leaving the pavilion without a trace.

All that was left were the attendant and the red-clothed girl in Xu Disheng’s private room, kneeling on the floor trembling, as well as Su, whose expression was fluctuating wildly.

The next day, the entire city was shaken.

The news about the incident at the Rising Fragrance House spread like wildfire overnight. There ended up being all kinds of versions on the story, including one that even told of a chivalrous hero from the Dao Palace rescuing a damsel in distress, leaving people unsure whether to laugh or cry.

However, the several Xiantian transcendents of this land were the masters of this place after all. Under an order from the Regional Lord, no one dared to rashly comment further on this disturbance, and it was gradually suppressed.

At an altitude of about 300 meters in the sky, the winds howled as they rushed past the Spirit Cloud. Xu Disheng was sitting near the edge, right next to the transparent spiritual energy barrier. His windswept hair was hanging down in front of his forehead, covering his eyes. Just judging by the sound of the wind, the gales outside seemed to be blowing fiercely. But strangely enough, after the wind blew through the Spirit Cloud’s transparent barrier, only a breeze could be felt on the other side, which was continuously ruffling his hair.

“Senior Martial Brother Sheng,” Su inched over, his expression a little timid.

Xu Disheng glanced at him before turning away. His jet black bangs danced in the wind, but he didn’t respond.

The two of them sat by the edge of the cloud, watching as the scenery below them flew past. The Daoist Lords were sitting in the center of the Spirit Cloud, unaware of what happened last night. Even if they did know, they would just laugh.

In the first place, the Daoist Lords weren’t people from this realm. They were extremely contemptuous towards the ordinary, indigenous people of this realm, viewing them as if they were nothing more than air.

With the Shangqing Profound Qi filling Xu Disheng’s meridians, he was close to the Cleansed Meridians stage, and in his sea of consciousness, he was gradually starting to make some headway on the Sealing Soul Mantra. Although his eyes were watching the scenery below, his thoughts were submerged in his sea of consciousness.

As he guessed earlier, the Sealing Soul Mantra was an auxiliary technique. As its name somewhat suggested, it was a type of method for refining tools and weapons.

After choosing a weapon, he could nourish and bathe it day and night with Soul Force, turning it into a Soul Vessel. The meaning behind the words ‘Sealing Soul’ were universally shocking. After slaughtering someone, he could take their soul and seal it within the Soul Vessel, which would increase its might. The soul that was used would be unable to return to the cycle of reincarnation, eternally trapped within.