Floating Immortal Order

Chapter 111: Circle, Rules

Chapter 111: Circle, Rules

“Awooooo!”

A vicious wolf charged straight at Xu Disheng. Although its movements appeared just as rigid as before, Xu Disheng could perceive a slight difference in the aura of the mirage demon.

He threw out the Severing Spirit Seal, which stamped down ruthlessly.

Boom!

However, this wolf didn’t dissipate like the other mirage demons before it who suffered identical treatment. The Severing Spirit Seal collided with its head, but only made it totter dizzily on its feet. It shook its head from side to side to clear its head before howling and resuming its charge once more.

“Sealing Soul.”

The Imperial Demon Brushed appeared in his hand and black Soul Force streamed out of it, forming into a large hand. The phantom image of the hand swiped at the vicious wolf, snatching it up and stuffing it into the Soul Suppressing Vestment.

Xu Disheng’s eyes lit up slightly. “This wolf must have been at the Dao Foundation stage. It had a hint of a soul, so my Soul Force increased a bit.”

These Dao Foundation stage mirage demons weren’t actually that strong, and their strengths had also been intentionally tuned down by the realm. As long as someone had a high-grade offensive-type Spirit Tool, it was possible to destroy them with relative ease.

Xu Disheng suddenly heard an explosion to his side. He hadn’t completely entered the stone passage that led to the next room yet. When he turned to look, he saw a disciple riding on a white spirit crane, rapidly taking flight. Large sonic booms rippled out, and in the blink of an eye, they were gone without a trace.

Xu Disheng suddenly had a thought, opting not to go into the next passage. The Yin Yang Diagram appeared beneath his feet, which slowly lifted him up into the air.

Much to his surprise, Magic Treasures weren’t subject to the flight restriction!

That white spirit crane just now was a transformed version of a Magic Treasure, but Xu Disheng wasn’t in the mood for such stylistic choices.

As long as he willed it, the Yin Yang Diagram could also transform into a winged zebra or a yin yang immortal bird. These kinds of superficial transformations were a simple matter for a Magic Treasure.

The phantom image of the Yin Yang Diagram below his feet continued to ascend slowly. Seeing the dense complex of stone rooms, Xu Disheng gazed on pensively.

.

In front of him, there were vague, bright lights streaking off in the distance. They most likely belonged to the strongest radiances emitted by Magic Treasures on their flight paths. Clearly, there were many disciples with Magic Treasures over there, which was also presumably the reason why that disciple on that white spirit crane was hurrying in that direction.

Xu Disheng paused momentarily for thought, then urged the Yin Yang Diagram forward. He flew forward quickly, maintaining an altitude of around 30 meters over the top of the stone rooms.

In the very center of the complex of stone rooms, there was a massive empty plaza. Above that space, there were ten enormous stone rooms, a Divine Core stage aura blasting out from each.

There were several dozen somewhat smaller stone rooms surrounding them, each of them emitting a peak Dao Foundation stage aura.

There were more than twenty people already gathered, floating above the area, and other disciples were constantly hurrying over from all directions.

At the very heart of this gathering of people, there were four people who were eyeing the ten stone rooms at the center.

Yu Yangyao was among them, an extremely handsome youth garbed in a white Daoist robe. Gazing at the three half-step Dao Foundation stage geniuses around him, he spoke. “I’ll take the east side of the stone island. Older Brother Jian will take the west side, and the south…” He looked at Ke Yue and Bai Zhaoyun. “You two. Ke Yue, take the south. Bai Zhaoyun, take the north.”

Jian Liangbi’s expression was indifferent as he remained silent.

Ke Yue nodded slightly, turning to look at the disciples who were rushing over from all sides. After doing a rough count, he found that there were about 40 people. He declared in a loud voice so the people in the surroundings could hear, “You all go and gather points on your own for now. We won’t act against you for the time being. When there are only six people remaining, you can come to us, and we will split the ten Divine Core stage mirage demons with you.”

“Yes, Senior Martial Brother,” the several dozen disciples parroted in succession. They all scattered, multi-colored streaks of light flashing out as they went in their separate directions to go gather points.

Although there were some disciples who held veiled criticisms toward Ke Yue, he was still a half-step Dao Foundation stage genius with terrifying combat prowess. In this Secret Realm, he was an overwhelming presence that could crush them all underfoot, so these disciples all acted like dogs with their tails between their legs when in his presence.

“Junior Martial Brother Xu?” He Junyu muttered. He was also among the handful of people standing at the very center. He had only flown several meters out before noticing Xu Disheng flying over on his Yin Yang Diagram as the rest of the group flew away.

Xu Disheng had a lot of hidden trump cards on his body at the moment, so his fighting strength was quite impressive at the moment. Aside from the top 10 or so disciples, he pretty much didn’t need to worry, which was why he flew straight over.

Xu Disheng’s eyebrows raised slightly in suspicion.

He didn’t think that all of the top ranking disciples would be gathered here in one spot, and to top things off, there wasn’t any kind of fighting going on between them. They seemed to simply gather for a moment before dispersing once more, which certainly did seem quite suspicious.

He Junyu came over and patted Xu Disheng on the shoulder. “It hasn’t been long since you entered a Peak, Junior Martial Brother Xu. You don’t have your own social circle yet, so it can be considered fairly normal for you to not know anything.”

As it turned out, these genius disciples had already gotten in contact with each other in advance. Yu Yangyao and the others were even more cognizant of the detailed circumstances in Lightning Cloud Stone Island, so they had all agreed to convene at the center of the island.

The four half-step Dao Foundation stage geniuses had all gone in their respective cardinal directions to collect points. They wouldn’t fight with the disciples who had one or two Magic Treasures for the time being, instead moving to clear out the ordinary disciples. Only after they had all been eliminated from the realm would they start to fight amongst each other.

The last six remaining disciples among them would be permitted by the four genius disciples to take on one of the Divine Core stage mirage demons at the very center of the island, making them one of the top 10 in the Sea of Qi division of the tournament!

These 10 mirage demons were a hidden reward given by the Sacred Sect, given they had no spiritual awareness whatsoever.

To be exact, they were no different from 10 clusters of pure qi of the realm waiting to be absorbed. However, this qi had a Divine Core stage quality to it, and could provide countless wondrous benefits.

Of course, it was the four half-step Dao Foundation stage disciples who made the rules for allocating the other six, not the sect.

The sect’s rules were as simple as ever. Only those who had the top 10 most points could extract the qi from those Divine Core stage mirage demons.

However, as far as the ordinary disciples were concerned, these geniuses already had the basic power to make the rules.

After He Junyu finished explaining this to Xu Disheng, he asked, “Junior Martial Brother Xu, are you going to compete for a place in the top 10 spots?”

Xu Disheng nodded and replied, “I plan to try my best.”

He Junyu lightly furrowed his brow and said, “It’s not as easy as you think to make it into the top 10. Those four take up the top 4 spots, and I also take up one spot. There are several dozen people who are qualified to fight for those remaining 5 spots. The competition over these remaining 5 spots is going to be a lot tougher than you think.”

Xu Disheng knew that even though he had a lot of hidden trump cards and was stronger than before, he still couldn’t be counted as a true genius among the Sea of Qi stage disciples of the Mingxin Mountain Range.

To say nothing of the top 4 half-step Dao Foundation stage disciples, there were seven or eight geniuses just like He Junyu who were only inferior to them by one step. Even still, none of them were opponents that Xu Disheng could match up to.

His only remaining hope was that the rules of the Lightning Cloud Stone Island calculated the top 10 based on the number of points at the end, not the outcome of face-to-face battles. If this wasn’t the case, Xu Disheng wouldn’t have any shot at the top 10 spots whatsoever.

He Junyu didn’t speak with him much further, simply leaving him with a few encouraging words telling him to do what he could, before leaving to gather points himself.

Xu Disheng watched the numerous streaks of light as people on Magic Treasures dispersed from the spot one after the other. All of them belonged to the top 40-50 at the very apex of the 2,500 participants in this realm. At this moment, he could be considered a part of them. However, his clash with them might only take place several days later.

On the sides of the clearing at the center of Lightning Cloud Stone Island, there were several dozen stone rooms containing peak Dao Foundation stage mirage demons. However, all of these mirage demons had extremely high spiritual awareness, and there were even some that could use Demonic Spells. They were difficult to slay, posing a considerable level of danger. As a result, there were no disciples bothering to go for them right now.

Most of the genius disciples were heading off in the directions they originally came from, slaying normal Dao Foundation stage mirage demons while starting to slowly clear out the ordinary disciples in their respective areas.

Xu Disheng was flying high up in the sky, surveying the situation below. He lowered his flight speed, looking at several passages below him.

These kinds of passages snaked between the stone rooms, but it wasn’t possible to see out of them from the inside. But from his position on high, he could examine the farthest reaches of each path.

Suddenly, at a distance not far below him, he spotted a disciple flying on at a nimble speed, several Spirit Tools apparent on his body. Seeing the path he came from, Xu Disheng could guess that he had already killed quite a few Dao Foundation stage mirage demons.

Xu Disheng slowly landed next to him and said callously, “Hand me your point token. If you do, I won’t eliminate you from the realm, and I’ll let you find an empty stone room to hide yourself.”

That disciple, who had a square face, had just finished slaying a mirage demon and was now sitting cross-legged on the ground to recover his profound qi. Seeing Xu Disheng step off of the Yin Yang Diagram, appearing from the sky out of nowhere, he stared at him wide-eyed.

But he did hear what he said, and his expression turned ugly as he seemed to hesitate momentarily.

With how easily recognizable the Yin Yang Diagram was, the square-faced disciple had already recognized him as Xu Disheng from Morning Dew Peak.

If it was any other genius disciple, the square-faced disciple would have given up immediately and surrendered his point token. But he heard that Xu Disheng was only at the early Sea of Qi stage, so maybe…

“So it’s you, Senior Martial Brother Xu. Sure, I’ll hand over my point token,” he said.

Xu Disheng reached out his hand, and was just about to grasp the token in his hand when the square-faced disciple suddenly broke out into a nasty smirk. “Hah, you’re only at the early Sea of Qi stage! Your reputation must have gotten blown way out of proportion. Today, let me teach you a lesson!”

A gray cloud of insects flew out from the square-faced disciple’s sleeve with a cacophony of angry buzzing and charged at Xu Disheng.

Xu Disheng had long since seen through his ever-changing expressions and anticipated that he wouldn’t be willing to hand over his point token, so he had been prepared to deal with his attack.

“God-Binding Spell.”

The Imperial Demon Brush danced lightly, causing a black rope made of Soul Force to appear. It wrapped around the square-faced disciple and rooted him to the spot, rendering him unable to move an inch.

The gray cloud of insects was already right in front of Xu Disheng by this point. The sleeve of the Soul Suppressing Vestment suddenly transformed into a large maw, which opened wide and swallowed the insect cloud before reverting back to normal.

“Just now, Senior Martial Brother He told me not to casually slaughter the ordinary disciples for the sake of the sect,” Xu Disheng said coldly, a droplet of black water spinning ominously at the tip of his finger. “I didn’t even force you to crush your survival token. I allowed you to hide so you could raise your own ranking, and you actually dared to try and launch a sneak attack on me?”

The square-faced disciple had a terrible premonition. Face warped with terror, he lowered his head and locked his gaze on the survival token at his waist. But both of hands were bound tight by black rope conjured by the God-Binding Spell, and he couldn’t move at all.

A moment later, he stopped struggling, and a gleam appeared in his gaze as an idea formed in his mind. Obviously, he was thinking of using some cultivation method to crush his survival token so he could return to the Green Lotus Domain.

But just as the square-faced disciple started to channel profound qi into his eyes to shoot a beam, that droplet of black water fell on his head. His body distorted, and in the next moment, his entire being was annihilated into a mere cloud of mist, drifting away slowly on the wind.

A few moments later, his survival token was broken by a profound light and dissipated into motes of light.

However, that square-faced disciple didn’t go along with the survival token, made to rest for eternity in the Mirage Sea Realm.

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