Floating Immortal Order

Chapter 44: Cangming

Chapter 44: Cangming

TL: ‘Eighth Mountain of Zhuri Mountain’ was a mistranslation, it’s actually that Zhuri Mountain IS the Eighth Mountain of the sect. My apologies, I’ve gone back and fixed it. From here on, it will be ‘Zhuri Eighth Mountain or Zhuri Eighth Mountain Range’.

Cangming Peak belonged to Wenyuan Mountain, the Third Mountain of the Shangqing Sacred Sect. Standing at a height of more than 1000 meters, it was tall enough to reach the clouds, and it was located on the outskirts of the Wenyuan Mountain Range. The peak of the mountain looked as if the top had been cleaved off with a sword, creating an extremely flat terrace that was around 150 meters in radius. There was a palace in the middle of it, and there were several wooden boats parked in the plaza in front of the palace.

The winds in the palace plaza swept about wildly as a stormy vortex gradually took shape above it. A wooden boat identical to the rest already parked there slowly emerged from the vortex, where it floated in the airspace before slowly descending to the ground.

In the main hall of the palace, there were more than a dozen disciples wearing cyan Daoist robes, but they weren’t fazed in the slightest by the sight of the boat appearing. Among one of them was an extremely young-looking disciple, who opened his eyes at the sight of the wooden boat descending into the plaza. He then stood up and brought along the people around him as he walked out of the palace.

“Hm, I was wondering who it was. Looks like it was just Envoy Liu returning. Go ahead and enter the hall to make your records,” the young disciple said casually upon seeing that it was Liu Xiangji stepping out from the wooden boat. With that, he turned around and went back into the palace hall.

Liu Xiangji didn’t bother to reply and just signaled to the people on the wooden boat to get off.

Next to him, Zhou Xin was livid. “Milord, how could this Liu Daoming actually dare to be this disrespectful to you?”

Liu Xiangji was a Dao Foundation powerhouse after all, so he didn’t bother to mention this matter. But now that Zhou Xin said it so shamelessly out loud in front of everyone, it made him feel embarrassed. Liu Xiangji gave a cold snort and shot him an icy glare out of the corner of his eye before walking into the palace hall.

He couldn’t help feeling inwardly stifled and grumpy about this because Li Daoming was the nephew of Elder Li, who was an Elder of the Affairs Hall. Despite only being at the Sea of Qi stage, Li Daoming had taken advantage of this familial relationship to gain authority over Cangming Peak, which was in charge of assigning every single disciple from the 27 Mortal Secret Realms into their respective Mountain Ranges and Peaks. Even though Li Daoming was both young and had no qualifications to speak of, he wielded a tremendous amount of authority.

Because he had the backing of Elder Li, who was one of the three Grand Elders of Wenyuan Mountain’s Affairs Hall, Li Daoming had always acted disrespectfully towards Liu Xiangji even though he was a Secret Realm Envoy and had a Dao Foundation stage cultivation. It was also for this reason that Liu Xiangji didn’t dare to lose his temper over this matter.

However, this damned Zhou Xin had already lost face for him in front of Emperor Chu earlier, and now he misspoke yet again! Liu Xiangji suppressed the unhappiness in his heart and stepped into the hall.

Xu Disheng stepped off the wooden boat, feeling shocked beyond words. He breathed in deeply, savoring the rich Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy on the summit of the peak as he gazed off into the distance. Before him, there was an endless stretch of mountain peaks jutting out from the clouds, and there was even one in the far off distance that seemed to pierce into the very heavens. He couldn’t even see the top of it.

Above the continuous link of mountain peaks, he could see the misty, ethereal silhouettes of many rows of pavilions. He could also faintly see several massive palaces suspended in the air, luxurious and grand beyond description. They each floated up in the lofty heights of the sky on their respective clouds.

Beside him, every blade of grass and tree trunk seemed to possess spiritual energy. In his eyes, every single grain of sand and drop of water suddenly seemed exceedingly real. Upon arriving here from the Chu Territory, he felt as if he had just walked out of a painting into the real world. The sensation was extremely mysterious and hard to describe. Up in the sky up above, the three golden suns were there, shining unabated as they always had since times immemorial.

After stabilizing his composure, he followed everyone else to enter the main hall atop the summit of the mountain peak. The people beside Xu Disheng were even worse. They were completely flabbergasted by the surroundings, their mouths hanging open, slack-jawed as if they had completely forgotten themselves altogether.

That young Daoist, Li Daoming, walked into the palace hall and sat down in the very center. “Liu Xiangji, you can hand over the list of names from the Seventh Mortal Secret Realm.”

Liu Xiangji handed over the list to a disciple in a green robe, who received it and walked forward to give it to Li Daoming. He looked at the gawking appearances of the people in the hall, but didn’t say anything. He was clearly used to this sight. When the people indigenous to the Secret Realms came to the Human Realm for the first time, a grand majority of them were like this.

He took the list into his hands. It was an extremely comprehensive list which included on it every person’s name, age, length of cultivation, and extremely detailed data on the happenings in the sect admission test.

Li Daoming first gave an order to the disciple beside him. “Send a copy to the Directory Hall and have them verify it with the preexisting records.” After that, he looked over the list, but he didn’t examine the records all that carefully. He mainly focused on the aptitude column, giving it a few looks over before commenting, “There’s only one middle class Spiritual Root this time? That’s no better than yesterday’s Zhao Realm and Fan Realm.”

He put down the list, then casually addressed the disciple beside him who was responsible for keeping records. “Assign this Rank 6 Spiritual Root to the Outer Region of Mingxin Mountain. As for the rest, assign them all to the Outer Region of Zhuri Mountain.”

Mingxin Mountain was the Sixth Mountain, while Zhuri Mountain was the Eighth Mountain, so there was a clear disparity between the two. When disciples first entered the sects, they would be admitted to the outer region of the mountain. Once they broke through to the Sea of Qi stage, they could attend the official Mountain Entry Examination. If they passed, they could join one of the several hundred peaks within and be taken under the wing of one of the Peak Masters.

In the past, Daoist Lord Qingxin and Qingyu were both outer disciples of Zhuri Eighth Mountain. Even though they reached the Sea of Qi stage at that time, they didn’t manage to pass the Mountain Entry Examination so they weren’t even considered to have officially become inner disciples. They both had to stay as mere outer disciples of Zhuri Eighth Mountain.

“Understood, Senior Martial Brother Li.” The disciple took out a jade slip and was about to use it when he was interrupted by someone in the hall below.

“Lord Li, my grandfather is Chu Mu of the Seventh Mortal Secret Realm. Please accept my meager offering.”

It was Chu Qing’er, who stepped forward respectfully, proffering a wooden box.

Li Daoming made a furtive signal, and the disciple received the wooden box and passed it over to him. When he opened it, there were 30 spirit stones arranged neatly within, which were basically spiritual energy condensed into a solid form.

He closed the box, but didn’t regard it that importantly. He put it aside and said offhandedly, “Chu Mu? The Realm Lord of the Seventh Mortal Secret Realm, was it? Fine, noted.” He turned to the disciple in charge of the records and said, “Assign this woman to the Outer Region of Mingxin Mountain.”

“As you command, milord.”

Chu Qing’er’s complexion was somewhat awkward. The Chu Clan had 3 people, and these 30 spirit stones were originally prepared as a fee for all 3 of them to be promoted, so she wasn’t sure whether or not to speak up further. She saw that beside her, Liu Xiangji had a cautionary look in his eyes, so she had no choice but to close her mouth, feeling inwardly resentful.

Chu Tianhe was unsatisfied, seeing firsthand that he was about to be assigned to the Zhuri Eighth Mountain Range. He stepped forward and said, “Milord, I am also from the Chu Clan.”

At that moment, Li Daoming was fiddling with a jade pendant in his hands. When he heard what he said, he was slightly amused. “And?”

Everyone turned to look at Chu Tianhe, who had now hopped onto the tiger’s back with no way to get off. He gritted his teeth and continued, “Milord, those spirit stones that were presented to you just now… they weren’t only for her. My portion was also included within.”

The other person from the Chu Clan, Chu Yuanlin, knew that his aptitude and powers of comprehension were lacking, and he was only able to make it here because Liu Xiangji made an exception for him. Thus, he didn’t speak up, and just continued to watch on from amongst the crowd.

Li Daoming was trying to hold in his laughter, and he hadn’t even said anything before a white-robed disciple on his left laughed uproariously and said, “Senior Martial Brother Li, just where did this primitive caveman crawl out of? They actually dare to make fun of Senior Martial Brother?”

That disciple stood up and unleashed his peak Sea of Qi stage aura, separating a small fraction of it to weigh down on Chu Tianhe.

In an instant, Chu Tianhe was forced into a half-kneel, painfully struggling to keep himself upright.

The white-robed disciple complexion became icy. In a cold tone, he said, “The Chu Clan of the Seventh Mortal Secret Realm? You don’t count for anything! Remember, this place is the Cangming Peak of Wenyuan Mountain. Here, Senior Martial Brother Li is the biggest. You understand?”

When he finished, he turned to the center of the hall and cupped his fists in salute to Li Daoming. As a henchman, he was clearly extremely qualified, completely deserving of full points on his act.

Chu Tianhe had been pampered since childhood. Once his surname had been changed from Zhang back to Chu, he had always been in Grand Chu Imperial City, and he was the proud, arrogant son of heaven type. Being disgraced like this filled his heart with a bitter hatred that could topple the heavens! Why did the spirit stones have to be kept on Chu Qing’er’s person? This slut! It was clearly 10 spirit stones per person! She went and counted it all for herself!

He didn’t dare to question the formidable white-robed disciple or the lofty, overbearing Li Daoming, so he dumped all of his resentment and loathing onto Chu Qing’er. He didn’t know that she also had a hard time speaking up just now.

He felt the weight of the aura pressing down on him continuously increasing, so he slowly slackened his tightened jaw and squeezed out his words bit by bit. “Milord, I understand now. In this place, I will always listen to Lord Li. I am willing to comply with Lord Li’s arrangements,” he said, his eyes completely bloodshot.

The white-robed disciple scoffed lightly and sneered. “Powerless like a dog.”

He retracted his aura and returned to his seat by Li Daoming’s side, not sparing him another glance.