Floating Immortal Order

Chapter 82 – Tongyin Mountain

“Junior Martial Brother Xu, the Ning’an Province is considered a major province under the jurisdiction of the Sacred Sect.
I know that you originally came from the Mortal Secret Realms, so I could bring you to let loose for a few days.
There are quite a few wonderful places there,” Bai Zhehua said.
He was standing at the pointed end of the massive purple flying sword, his sleeves flapping in the wind.

Xu Disheng was seated cross-legged, silently cultivating.
When he heard what Bai Zhehua said, he slightly raised his gaze and replied, “What could be interesting about the land of mortals?”

Bai Zhehua shook his head, smiling.
“You might not know, but each of the major provinces in the Sacred Sect’s territory have an Envoy from the Sacred Sect placed at the top.
The Envoy of the Ning’an Province is just like us, someone from the Mingxin Mountain Range.
He is also a Martial Uncle of mine,” Bai Zhehua said, not directly answering Xu Disheng’s question.

He turned around and looked at Xu Disheng, who was seated cross-legged on the blade of the flying sword.
He shook his head and said, “You’re too hardworking when it comes to cultivation, Junior Martial Brother Xu.
It’s only natural that when you pull a bow taut, it must also be released at some point.
You should let loose a bit when you can.”

Xu Disheng declined to comment and got to his feet.
He walked over to Bai Zhehua and stood behind him, gazing down at the clouds flitting past below them.

Bai Zhehua seemed to be pondering on something.
He then continued, “In the several years after Martial Uncle Xu was appointed as the Envoy of Ning’an Province, he independently raised a lot of female Cleansed Meridians stage cultivators.
There are also quite a few at the Sea of Qi stage, even.
With that old man’s unique Yin Plucking Secret Method, not only did his cultivation advance by leaps and bounds, but also that feeling… must have been wonderful beyond description.”

Xu Disheng slightly raised his eyebrows in surprise.
The matter that Bai Zhehua was speaking of was almost exactly the same scenario as that Lantern Festival that he happened across in the Seventh Mortal Secret Realm, in the Liu Province.

These places would raise girls to pluck their yin, using them as human cauldrons to boost their cultivation.
However, this time, it was with girls at the Cleansed Meridians stage and even the Sea of Qi stage.

Flicking his sleeves, Xu Disheng said, “When you were with us in the Outer Region of Mingxin Mountain, when did you have time to go to the Ning’an Province?”

Bai Zhehua increased the speed of the massive purple flying sword and responded, “Before I entered the Outer Region, I went with my father once.
But at that time, I had just started cultivating profound qi and was only at the half-step Cleansed Meridians stage.” He pointed at Xu Disheng and continued, “Junior Martial Brother, you should know that if other disciples wanted to pluck to nurture, they would have to pay Martial Uncle Xiao 50 spirit stones.
But because my father is on close terms with Martial Uncle Xiao, if the two of us were to go, we would be able to save a great deal of spirit stones.”

After these girls had their yin plucked, they could use spirit stones to quickly restore their lost cultivation and have their yin ready to be plucked again.
With just one time costing 50 spirit stones, the enormous profit from such a business could be imagined!

However, despite being at the Dao Foundation stage, Xiao Weiyan, the Envoy stationed at Ning’an Province, couldn’t monopolize such massive profits all by himself.
There were the sect’s internal powers supporting him from behind.

Bai Zhehua hadn’t noticed that he had been referring to his father as ‘father’ in front of Xu Disheng, and not ‘Deacon Bai’ as he had before.
Even Bai Zhehua hadn’t perceived this small, minute change.
However, he was subconsciously feeling closer to Xu Disheng a bit.

Clearly, Bai Zhehua’s attitude towards cultivation wasn’t nearly as assiduous and unrelenting as Xu Disheng’s.
But for this very reason, Xu Disheng’s position in his heart increased even more.

Checking the map in the jade slip, Xu Disheng said, “Let’s just go straight to the mission location, Senior Martial Brother Bai.
It’s located in a very remote location in the outskirts of the Ning’an Province, at the foot of Tongyin Mountain.
It’ll take us one or two days.”

Before they had left the Mingxin Mountain Range, Bai Zhehua had already shared the details of the mission to Xu Disheng via jade slip.
The mission jade slips were extremely convenient.
After turning in the mission, their contents would be wiped clean.
Then, when the next mission was accepted, it could continue to be used.
The recorded information about the mission was much more detailed on the mission jade slip than the jade identity tablet.

Bai Zhehua nodded his head and replied, “Okay.
But are you sure you don’t want to go to Martial Uncle Xiao’s place? You’ll really be saving me a lot of spirit stones, you know?”

Xu Disheng laughed lightly and said, “Even if we went, I couldn’t dare to let you pay for all of it, Senior Martial Brother Bai.”

Bai Zhehua didn’t say anything, but as he stood there at the pointed tip of the flying sword, watching the clouds and mist passing by below, a hint of a smiling expression appeared in his eyes.

Tongyin Mountain.

It was rumored that a very long time ago, the meaning of the ‘yin’ in the name Tongyin Mountain represented the moon and yin energy.
But after a series of extremely frightening incidents happened on the mountain, the ‘yin’ in its name now referred to shadowy darkness.

The massive flying sword was hovering in midair at the foot of the mountain.
Bai Zhehua looked down at the deathly stillness in the area below him and frowned.
“When the incident at this place was discovered, the disciple in charge of recording the mission only recorded that the Mountain God of Tongyin Mountain had destroyed his own divinity and transformed into a Malicious Spirit, massacring several villages.
As far as I can see, the dozen or so villages around the foot of the mountains have all been wiped out by now.”

The massive flying sword slowly moved forward, stopping over a village where the ghostly energy was the most concentrated.

Inside Xu Disheng’s sea of consciousness, the black Soul Force Flute was already condensed into a nearly concrete form.
By now, the serpent demon’s soul was almost completely absorbed.
It was now only a faint, pale orb of black light, and it was on the brink of being exhausted and consumed at any moment.

Also, the Soul Suppressing Vestment that he was wearing was always being nourished by the black Soul Force flute, constantly becoming stronger.

He faintly detected a hint of greedy thirst rising from within the Soul Suppressing Vestment, as if there was something it desired in that village below.

Xu Disheng willed Soul Force into his eyes and looked down.

There was a massive array enveloping those dozen or so villages, and there were countless howls of bitter resentment trapped within, unable to escape.

This village below them that was the most concentrated in ghostly energy turned out to be directly in the center of the connections in the massive array.
There was a gigantic ghostly face fluctuating into being from the ghostly energy below, shrieking malevolently at Xu Disheng.

“Senior Martial Brother Bai, there’s a strange array surrounding the area.
Judging by the scale of the ghostly energy, this definitely can’t be a newborn Malicious Spirit,” Xu Disheng stated.

“Not bad,” Bai Zhehua responded, nodding his head as the bright, glowing light in his eyes gradually returned to normal.
Just now, he was clearly also using some kind of special observation technique.
“After all, it was a mountain god that was transformed into a ghostly being.
Even if it was newly born, its strength would have been nearly at the Evil Spirit stage anyway.
It wouldn’t be strange for it to have innate proficiency in arrays.”

Bai Zhehua took out an exquisite lotus platform and unhurriedly activated it.
The lotus platform gradually grew larger, spilling forth a white halo of light which enveloped the array below.

(TL: I think the author is referring to something like this: lotus platform)

“Junior Martial Brother Xu, let’s act together and quickly dispel the array.
We can’t let him use these several hundred resentful souls to break through to the Evil Spirit stage.
Otherwise, it might become dangerous for the two of us,” Bai Zhehua said.

The Evil Spirit stage for ghosts was equivalent to the human Dao Foundation stage.
If they really let it break through to the Evil Spirit stage, the two of them definitely wouldn’t stand a chance!

Xu Disheng nodded in agreement, activating the Sealing Soul Mantra to support him.
The black Soul Force formed the shape of a massive hand, grabbing those resentful souls from the array below and stuffing them into the Soul Suppressing Vestment.

In just that short span of time, he grabbed over a dozen resentful souls, decreasing the power of the aura surrounding the entire array by a bit.

Wherever the luminous white light emitted from Bai Zhehua’s lotus platform Spirit Tool passed through, the ghostly energy was being visibly dissolved, causing shrill ear-piercing shrieks and howls to ring out.

A gigantic ghostly face rose out of the array and spoke in a ponderous voice.
“Daoists from the Sacred Sect, please stay your hand.
This insignificant deity is willing to submit.”