Floating Immortal Order

Chapter 107: All Living Beings Across the Three Heavens, Nine Realms

Chapter 107: All Living Beings Across the Three Heavens, Nine Realms?

Through the ranking of the accumulated points each contestant earned, 2,400 people would be eliminated. However, the top 10 people would have a separate competition.

Every disciple that went in would receive two tokens. One of them allowed surrender, and thus survival.

Crushing this token would immediately send you out of the realm, but it would also erase all of your points.

Since the disciples who crushed the token would have their points reset to zero, their ranking would be decided based on the order in which each person crushed their token.

Whoever crushed their token first would have the lower ranking!

The other token was for keeping track of one’s accumulated points. It could be checked at any time to see how many points one had.

To make matters more interesting, this point token couldn’t afford to see harm. If it was obtained by another disciple, they could take the points within and add it to their own point token!

Clearly, the tournament in the Mirage Sea Realm wasn’t as simple as killing as many mirage demons as possible. It was just as much about pillaging point tokens from others!

Since those disciples who had their point token taken would have no points, the only option left to them would be to last as long as they can. The longer they could stay in there without crushing their surrender token, the better.

The sect had countless tournament modes and locations, and this Mirage Sea Realm was just one of them.

Even though the modes would be different every time, after so many years had gone by, countless disciples had been to the Mirage Sea Realm before. As a result, there was already an existing set of compiled strategies for it.

The jade slip that Senior Martial Brother Chu had Zhang Haobo give Xu Disheng had the detailed notes of other disciples who had been there in the past.

The time limit was 7 days, but the disciples in the Mirage Sea Realm would typically see a split into two rough categories after just 2 days.

One category belonged to those disciples who had lost their points, but in that category, there were two types.

One were the disciples who had encountered danger or had their point tokens plundered by others, and were forced to crush their surrender token and be sent out. They would not only have their points wiped, but they would also be eliminated from the Mirage Sea Realm first, meaning their ranking would be the lowest.

The other type in this category were those who had their point tokens taken from them, but managed to either escape or hide. Although they wouldn’t have any points, they could still hide. If they weren’t discovered, they could receive a higher ranking the longer they didn’t crush their surrender token.

The other category was made up of geniuses and elite disciples. They were the pillagers. They all had a tacit agreement to avoid one another for the first few days and go all-out on pillaging the points of the other disciples.

Only in the last two days, after most of the other disciples had been eliminated, would they finally begin to wrest over the top 10 places.

Although there weren’t many words within, Xu Disheng examined it for a long time.

The rules were extremely simple, and they could frankly be boiled down to a few words: kill mirage demons, steal points.

However, the intense, brutal competition that would result was blatantly obvious just from the information in the jade slip.

Xu Disheng put away the jade slip, then calmed himself, perceiving the strand of consciousness in the Soul Suppressing Vestment.

In the end, Xu Disheng decided to erase Tan Lu’s consciousness and transform it into an extremely pure source of Soul Force, which he sent into the Soul Suppressing Vestment.

Although, the secrets and cultivation methods Tan Lu had spoken of really had piqued Xu Disheng’s interest.

However, it was an Evil Spirit stage ghost, which was equivalent to a human Dao Foundation stage cultivator. If he didn’t exercise utmost caution, he could end up meeting life-threatening danger.

If he really tried cooperating with that ghost, it would be no different from playing with fire. It was better to just extinguish its soul and convert it into Soul Force, which could offer him a visible increase to his own strength.

While he was at Miaohua Mountain, the consciousness in the Soul Suppressing Vestment had already absorbed over a hundred Malicious Spirit souls. Today, after it had finished fully absorbing the pure Soul Force from the Evil Spirit, it had undergone a mysterious fundamental change.

“……”

Xu Disheng’s eyes suddenly shot open, and he attentively turned his focus towards the calling.

“……?”

A consciousness had finally been born inside the Soul Suppressing Vestment!

However… this consciousness didn’t seem to be capable of speech?

Xu Disheng activated the vestment, speaking to it. “Soul Suppressing Vestment?”

An answer came back, “…Soul… Suppressing Vestment…”

Xu Disheng pondered momentarily, suddenly seeming to come to an understanding. He poured the entirety of his knowledge of the human language into it.

“Master? My name isn’t Soul Suppressing Vestment, but you are indeed my Master,” the deep voice of a male youth said, resounding in Xu Disheng’s mind.

Xu Disheng nodded in response, then said in a somewhat doubtful tone, “How do you have such a high level of spiritual awareness despite just being born?”

The Soul Suppressing Vestment was quiet for a while before speaking again directly into his mind. “That’s not necessarily the case. What little memories I have tell me that I was once the artifact spirit of a certain pagoda that had existed for countless years.”

It paused momentarily, as if it was searching its memories, and continued. “That pagoda eventually turned into a cyan jade flute, and I had been slumbering inside of it all this time. You were able to awaken me after refining a Soul Vessel and cultivating the third of the seven mantras of Soul Song, the Sealing Soul Mantra, to a certain degree.”

An uncharacteristically urgent tone appeared in Xu Disheng’s voice as he asked, “A pagoda? What kind of pagoda? Where exactly did the Soul Song cultivation method come from?”

Only after Xu Disheng finished speaking did the male youth’s low voice ring out. “I don’t know. There are only a few memories remaining in my mind. I’m completely unable to glimpse into the matters that Master speaks of, which have been sealed away by the unknown power inside Master.”

“But I know that you are my Master, and have always been since time immemorial,” the youth said with a hint of respect and unjaded reverence in his voice. “As an artifact spirit, Master is everything to me. My name isn’t Soul Suppressing Vestment, but in ancient times, I was the —— Pagoda. Master always called me Little Sky.”

(TL: In Chinese, nicknames are often 小 + the first Chinese character in the person’s first name, ‘小’ meaning little or small. To make the name speculation that goes on here make sense, I translated the name literally as Little Sky instead of 小天, or ‘Xiao Tian’.)

“What Pagoda?” Xu Disheng asked, his brows furrowing.

“—— Pagoda. What, Master can’t hear it?” Little Sky responded, a shadow of doubt appearing in his tone.

Xu Disheng’s brows furrowed even deeper.

“What’s wrong, Junior Martial Brother Xu?”

Bai Zhehua’s handsome face suddenly made an appearance before his eyes, interrupting the conversation between Xu Disheng and Little Sky.

Before this, Xu Disheng was examining the jade slip while sitting cross-legged on a mat at a very remote edge of Morning Dew Peak’s circle of light. There were only a few disciples scattered about here and there, making for a rather quiet environment.

He looked up and said, “Huh? It’s nothing.”

“Your brows were creased so tightly, and your face was all scrunched up like you were having the fight of your life. How could that be nothing?” Bai Zhehua said, deliberately making an exaggerated expression to imitate him. However, the concern in his eyes was real.

Xu Disheng lifted his gaze, his long eyelashes moving along with it. Something suddenly seemed to come to his mind and he asked, “Let me ask you a question, Senior Martial Brother Bai.”

“Go ahead,” Bai Zhehua replied, all ears.

“Say you had a spiritual pet that was a white wolf and another one that was a black dog. If you were to subconsciously name them, what would you call them?” Xu Disheng inquired, the brightness in his eyes gleaming even deeper, as if he had an idea in mind.

“Whitey and Blackie, I guess?” Bai Zhehua responded, reaching out a hand to pretend to check Xu Disheng’s forehead. “Are you sure you’re feeling alright, Junior Martial Brother Xu?”

“Little Sky, Sky — Pagoda?” Xu Disheng muttered to himself.

He suddenly had an idea, speaking into the Soul Suppressing Vestment. “Little Sky, you said you were called Sky — Pagoda?”

“Yes, I definitely already told you my full name. Why can Master not hear it?” he responded.

“Alright. If I were to call you Little ‘something’ using the next word in your name, what word would this Little ‘something’ be?” Xu Disheng asked.

“Little —.”

“It’s still not working,” Xu Disheng lamented.

Xu Disheng knitted his brows. For the first time, a certain premonition appeared in his mind.

He had a strong hunch that if he could figure out Little Sky’s full name, he would be able to uncover even more of that important frame in his memories!

Bai Zhehua watched with a strange look as Xu Disheng continued to ponder to himself, occasionally creasing his brows in the process.

After a while, he couldn’t bear it any longer and took a step forward. “Junior Martial Brother Xu?”

Xu Disheng still didn’t react.

A lightbulb seemed to go off in Bai Zhehua’s head, and he reached into his interspatial ring and pulled out a Cinematic Treasure Mirror. He smiled and said, “Junior Martial Brother Xu, this Cinematic Treasure Mirror is really interesting. There are some interesting stories about the realities of mortals in it. Every day, Record Hall will distribute some new releases. Any time I’m not in the best of moods, I’ll look at it.”

He activated the Cinematic Treasure Mirror, and a thin light screen projected out from it. There were battle scenes abound, the sound of clashing spells and Spirit Tools ringing out, as if the scenes were happening right before them.

There were even interesting, comedic scenes of mortals joking around, people playing with crickets, so on and so forth.

Seeing Xu Disheng still not saying anything, Bai Zhehua’s expression turned a bit stiff. He continued to show him the Cinematic Treasure Mirror, switching through the different scenes quicker. “What the hell is this?! These recordings are getting crappier by the day, and it even costs 1 spirit stone a day. This is a joke!”

Suddenly, a scene showing a school classroom appeared, where there were 10 children standing and reciting a book passage in unison. “The sky was black and earth yellow; space and time vast, limitless…”

(TL: This is the first line of the , an ancient poem by Qianzi Wen. English translated version of the work , if you’re interested.)

Xu Disheng’s eyes shot open, his heart pounding violently.

However, his voice sounded extremely level when he spoke. “Senior Martial Bai, go back and play the section where they were reciting that book,” he said.

Bai Zhehua was just about to change the scene. Seeing Xu Disheng finally react, he smiled and said, “Sure, as long as you stop making that face.”

“The sky was black and earth yellow; space and time vast, limitless…”

Xu Disheng felt as if his own soul had managed to break free from some kind of restraint. A massive, irresistible force pressed down on his entire mind. Countless Sanskrit sounds resounded in his ears, and the shackles on his soul shattered. Five words were imprinted into his heart, unable to be erased forevermore.

Black! Sky! Yellow! Earth! Pagoda!

(TL: The order of the words? in Chinese is actually sky, earth, black, yellow, pagoda. So the first character is actually ‘sky’, but in order to make the name translate properly to English, I had to move the order of the words around. This is also why the artifact spirit’s name is still Little Sky.)

In the boundless, vast palace hall, white jade brick lined the floor as far as the eye could see. The black waters of the Oblivion Sky River crashed and surged as it flowed on far overhead.

An unclear voice resounded in his ears. “That path is destined to be antithetical to all living beings of the three heavens and nine realms. If you insist on this, even I will have no choice but to be your enemy.”

A man wearing a lavish golden and purple emperor’s robe with intricate embroidered designs had his back towards him. The man was also wearing a tall gold and purple imperial crown, and was staring off at the distant Oblivion Sky River, which stretched on unendingly.

… …

“Black Sky Yellow Earth Pagoda.”

“Master, you can hear it now?” Little Sky said. He nodded and said, “Another blocked portion of my memories was opened up to me just now.”

There was a rare look of bewilderment in Xu Disheng’s eyes. “Then tell me.”

“Immortal.”

“Immortal?” Xu Disheng asked, savoring the taste of the unfamiliar word in his mouth. “What is an Immortal?”

“I’m not entirely sure. I only know that they have abandoned the living beings of the three heavens and nine realms. The endless myriad of living beings are all opposed to the existence of these Immortals,” Little Sky said.

“But an Immortal is also a living being, no?”

“They can be considered so, but they are aloof and paramount, depriving all living beings of any hopes of achieving immortality.”

Xu Disheng was silent. As far as he knew, immortality seemed extremely common.

At the Spirit Avatar stage, as long as even one Primordial Spirit clone still remained, it was possible to exist for eternity.

This was even more so at the Divine Sea stage, where one possessed countless Primordial Spirit clones, proliferating widely amongst the world and becoming inextinguishable for all time.

No matter whether it was several hundred thousand years or several million years, those years were merely a number. Nearly every person in the illustrious and aloof Heavenly Court could achieve immortality, after all.

Xu Disheng was still unable to fully grasp the meaning. “Immortality? I’ve heard that the Three Approaching Divinity stages were no different from immortality. But as far as I can see, very, very few people can reach the Divine Core stage, much less the far-off three Approaching Divinity stages. It’s simply too far off for ordinary disciples to reach.”

“That’s not true, Master,” Little Sky said, his low voice reaching Xu Disheng’s mind. “The living beings in the Nine Realms are as numerous as grains of sand in the desert. Just the Three Realms of the Golden Crow in the Great Buddhist Sun World has several billions Buddhist domains. Not to mention the Three Realms of the Yin Wheel, the Human Realm, and the other Lower Realms, which are even more immeasurably vast. Through the passing of untold years, the number of immortal beings are as countless as the fish in the sea, or the drops of water in the ocean.”

… …

A line in a certain poem once went like this:

“An Immortal considers all living beings as nothing more than dogs, exchanging emotion for ruthlessness!”

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