Floating Immortal Order

Chapter 70: Spirit Vein

Chapter 70: Spirit Vein

With a vacant expression on his face, the white-haired youth slowly walked into the Divine Palace. Countless monsters gradually gathered by his side, acting in an extremely deferential manner.

At his side, the turtle monster had a jubilant expression on his face. His wizened voice was tinged with nostalgia as he said respectfully, “Congratulations on ascending to divinity, Bai Tong. From now on, you will be forever inextinguishable, possessing an unlimited lifespan.”

Behind him, countless monsters bowed their heads in reverence.

It wasn’t only his long hair that was white as snow. Even the color of his pupils were snow white, which was why the monsters all called him Bai Tong.

(TL: In his name, ‘Bai’ means white, and the ‘Tong’ character used here refers to the pupils of the eyes. I didn’t feel like the name translated very well in English (White Eyes and White Pupil both sounded weird), so I kept his name as Bai Tong. In fact, a lot of these monsters’ names are very literal, such as later on, the turtle monster is named as Gui Yao, and Gui=turtle, Yao=monster.)

Among the monsters was a particularly strong fish monster. He glared at the turtle monster and said, “From now on, His Divine Excellency Bai Tong is the deity of this lake, so we ought to call him that in the future.”

The turtle monster narrowed his eyes but didn’t speak. Seeing this, some of the more quick-witted lesser monsters came forward and began to layer on the flattery, calling him His Divine Excellency Bai Tong at every chance they got.

Sitting down on the seat of honor in the Divine Palace, the look in Bai Tong’s eyes became resolute. He looked at all of the monsters below him and loudly proclaimed, “Since the laws of heaven and earth have appointed me as the deity of this place, I will definitely do everything in my power to bless and protect all beings of these waters!”

… …

Xu Disheng was standing below the broken divine throne, silently using the profound qi from his Sea of Qi to perceive his surroundings.

Xi Jingshan had long since taken the Parting Water Pearl into his own hands. The other three were standing behind Xu Disheng, each with their own expressions.

After a while, Xu Disheng opened his eyes and said, “The tail end of the spirit vein is below that divine throne. Yuan Qi, get rid of the divine throne and make an open area.”

Yuan Qi came forward and blasted the broken divine throne into smithereens. It had been made of exquisite materials, but by this point, it had already decayed to a state of disrepair and could be broken with the slightest touch.

After an official divinity died, the spiritual energy of the Divine Palace that was constructed out of divine materials would dissipate and return back to heaven and earth, reverting to ordinary matter.

Xu Disheng looked at the small cavity beneath it, his brows creasing.

Yuan Qi still looked pleased with himself, as if he had just put on an impressive display.

Xi Jingshan walked forward and stuffed the Parting Water Pearl into Yuan Qi’s hands with a cold snort. Profound qi revolved in his palm, creating a hidden vortex, which was clearly an extremely powerful technique. He violently exploded the cavity beneath the divine throne as he said provokingly, “Did you not have enough to eat or something?”

An angry look appeared on Yuan Qi’s face. But just as he was about to flare up, he heard the explosion. Before his eyes, a cavity about 10 to 15 meters deep appeared, brimming with rich spiritual energy. He cast a resentful glare at Xi Jingshan and shut his mouth.

Before, Xi Jingshan had always been a fairly quiet person. Seeing him take on a completely different personality, many people were taken aback.

Xu Disheng walked to the edge of the cavity and examined the spiritual energy, which was so concentrated that it was on the verge of condensing. Slight undulations appeared in his resplendent eyes.

After turning on the sect’s record jade slip, Xu Disheng and the others completely plowed an open space behind the divine throne. In the end, what appeared before everyone’s eyes was a miniature spirit vein that was about 30 meters long, most of which had already been depleted of spiritual energy and turned into spirit stone powder. There was only an area about 3 meters long that was still full of spirit stone ore. Although the spiritual energy here was extremely rich, it gave off an unpleasant, decaying aura.

It was possible to see that many ages ago, this spirit vein was actually a completely intact small spirit vein that was several li long, with spiritual energy rich enough to cover the entire body of water.

As time slipped on by, the originally massive Jade Water Lake had become very small. The heavenly paradise that was rife with spiritual energy had gradually become like a dying man on the verge of passing away.

Now, this small lake could hardly even sustain the three weak monsters that still remained here, which were practically starving to death. How could it return to the grand days of old where it used to be able to sustain countless monsters?

Yuan Qi said excitedly, “Senior Martial Brother Xu, the remaining portion of this spirit vein can be purified into over a thousand spirit stones!”

In reality, there was no way for him to calculate it exactly, and just now he was spouting nonsense without thinking it through. However, no one bothered to refute him. Looking at the few meters of spirit vein remaining, even if it was less than 1,000 spirit stones, it wouldn’t be off by much.

The eyes of the other disciples also gleamed. Even the big melon girl, who was dressed in white, became somewhat entranced by the sight of the spirit vein.

These disciples had never really seen many spirit stones before. Normally, what few spirit stones they had were spent only after careful, meticulous planning. Seeing this spirit vein made them all somewhat unable to restrain their emotions.

Xu Disheng put away the record jade slip that was floating in the air. It could be turned on and off at any time. With its long inheritance behind it, the Sacred Sect wasn’t an unreasonable existence that would lead its horses to the water and not allow them to drink.

The jade slip was used more like a record for the mission. From their harvests on the mission, disciples were expected to make a compilation out of some of them. It was a tacit rule in the Sacred Sect that disciples were allowed to exclude certain harvests at their discretion, as long as they weren’t too excessive with it.

From Chen Xingzhou’s storage pouch, Xu Disheng took out a green paper parasol. This was the Spirit Tool that Chen Xingzhou and his attendants had prepared in advance to extract the spirit stones from the spirit vein. But now, it was all in vain, and only made things more convenient for Xu Disheng instead.

Upon activation, the paper parasol spilled forth green light as it slowly began to spin above the spirit vein. It was unknown just how many arrays and seals there were carved upon it, but this parasol cost well over 200 spirit stones! There were many other things in the storage pouches of Chen Xingzhou and the other attendants. Xu Disheng had only roughly rifled through their contents once, and hadn’t had the chance to go through them in detail yet.

Everyone watched as the chunks of spirit stone flew out from the spirit vein and landed beneath the paper parasol. The more it accumulated, the brighter the gleam in everyone’s gazes became.

Yuan Qi could bear it even less. The avaricious look was obvious in his eyes. If Xu Disheng wasn’t right there, he might have already thrown himself at the pile of spirit stones.

400 spirit stones!

Xu Disheng stopped the paper parasol and put it away. He lifted his gaze, looking at the small fraction of the remaining spirit vein and said, “How do I extract this spirit vein? I looked through their storage pouches a bunch, but I never found any item that could allow us to break the root of the spirit vein and take it away as Chen Xingzhou said.”

Xi Jingshan smiled and said, “You might be unaware, but breaking the root of the spirit vein is actually extremely simple, Senior Martial Brother Xu.”

When he finished speaking, he walked over to the area underneath the divine throne, at the tail end of the miniature spirit vein. He grasped downwards and pulled up an extremely small jade green strand of spiritual energy. It was full of spirituality as it struggled in his hand.

He tightly clenched his hand into a fist, and everyone seemed to hear a scream before everything fell silent.

The remaining sliver of the spirit vein quickly dried up into powder. Whatever spiritual energy that remained was already gathered into a 1-meter long tail portion. It glittered with resplendent jade green light in a very eye-catching manner.

Xu Disheng glanced pensively at Xi Jingshan but didn’t say anything. He nodded and walked forward, putting away the 1-meter long spirit vein essence.

Yuan Qi gazed at Xi Jingshan and said, “How do you just know everything? Earlier, you could recognize divine language, and now you even know a secret like the location of the core of the spirit vein?”

Xi Jingshan’s face turned a bit stiff. “The core spirit of the spirit vein was already almost on the brink of death. It didn’t have an independent consciousness of its own, and it had at best a few thousand more years left to live. I only helped to set it free.”

Seeing that his answer was dodging the question, Yuan Qi scoffed, not asking further. Rather, together with the other disciples, he looked at the 400 spirit stones sitting there on the ground, a twinkle in his eyes.

Xu Disheng pondered for a moment. “Yuan Qi, Xi Jingshan, Li Dan, you will each get 30 spirit stones. And as for you,” he paused, glancing at the big melon girl before continuing. “Hadn’t you already agreed with Chen Xingzhou that you would receive 10 spirit stones? Then I will also give you 10 spirit stones.”

When he finished speaking, he put away 300 spirit stones, leaving 100 spirit stones there on the ground.

Yuan Qi was the first to take his 30 spirit stones, a look of delight on his face. He was quick-witted and self-aware. He knew his position and didn’t dare to make any unreasonable requests.

The big melon girl seemed to be a bit afraid of Xu Disheng, so she silently nodded. She reached out her slender, white hands to take 10 spirit stones, then went to stand at the side in a lovely, well-behaved manner.

Li Dan’s emotions were also stirred. Just as he was about to go forward, he heard Xi Jingshan’s voice.

“Senior Martial Brother Xu, doing it this way wouldn’t be proper,” Xi Jingshan said, an indescribable light flashing in his eyes as he stepped forward.

Xu Disheng’s brows furrowed as he turned his gaze to Xi Jingshan, waiting for him to continue.

A hint of ferocity appeared in Xi Jingshan’s eyes. “Senior Martial Brother Xu! We’ve murdered Chen Xingzhou and his attendants, and although there’s no record of it in the record jade slip, we have already broken the sect rules.” He looked at the white-clothed big melon girl and the other three disciples and continued, “The human heart is treacherous. You have no choice but to take measures to guard against it, Senior Martial Brother Xu.”

Chen Xingzhou and his attendants had been killed by Xu Disheng alone, but by saying ‘we’, Xi Jingshan managed to firmly secure his position behind Xu Disheng in a clever display of propriety.

Seeing Xi Jingshan’s cold, dark gaze sweep over them, Yuan Qi’s heart froze. He immediately came forward and protested, “Senior Martial Brother Xu! I definitely won’t ever be disloyal! As long as you give me the word, I will do whatever you say!”

Li Dan’s expression was ugly as he stared wordlessly at Xi Jingshan. Not long ago, Xi Jingshan had just saved him, and now he suddenly was accusing him of having ulterior motives! If Xu Disheng really was going to silence them by slaughter, the most likely targets would be him and that white-clothed girl!

Xi Jingshan watched as Xu Disheng pondered. A bizarre look appeared on Xi Jingshan’s face, then he suddenly raised his palm toward the white-clothed girl. “Senior Martial Brother Xu, you can’t afford to be softhearted!”

The white-clothed big melon girl was still tightly clutching the 10 spirit stones in her hands. Seeing a palm raised to strike her, she slowly closed her eyes.

She imagined that she would experience a sharp pain or lose consciousness in the next moment, but neither of those things happened. Her long eyelashes, which were moistened by tears, shook as she cautiously opened her eyes. Standing right before her was a youth in a black silk Daoist robe embroidered with gold edges. Tied up in a jade band, his long black hair danced past her.

Xu Disheng’s resplendent eyes were focused on Xi Jingshan as he exclaimed, “You aren’t Xi Jingshan!”

Li Dan and Yuan Qi’s faces changed dramatically!

The bizarre look on Xi Jingshan’s face became even more intense. Without a word, he showed a strange smile that gradually split across the length of his face, warping into a large mouth packed with razor sharp teeth.

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