Floating Immortal Order

contemporary romance

Chapter 57: Grand Tournament!

Chapter 57: Grand Tournament!

The peak of the mountain that made up the Outer Region of Mingxin Mountain was extremely tall, standing at an altitude of 2400 meters. Xu Disheng was ascending the mountain on his Spirit Cloud, making his way to his residence halfway up the mountain. After he finished buying medicinal pills at the Spiritual Medicine Pavilion in Spirit Origin Hall, he wanted to directly return to his courtyard. He desperately wanted to try out the effects of the two medicinal pills that he just bought.

Based on his memories, he would find his courtyard after he went somewhere between 1000 and 1200 meters up the mountain. But when he arrived, he suddenly heard a ruckus coming from the edge of the terrace platform.

He landed his Spirit Cloud, and spotted a number of outer disciples standing there. Most of them were at the early Sea of Qi stage, and there were several intermingled amongst them who were at the peak of the Sea of Qi stage. They were all gathered together in a crowd, whispering amongst themselves.

Xu Disheng was puzzled. He pulled aside an early Sea of Qi stage disciple who was standing near the edge and asked, “Senior Martial Brother, what’s with all the commotion here?”

When the black-clothed disciple heard what Xu Disheng asked, he was astonished. “Are you a newly admitted outer disciple or something? You really don’t even know? Today is the day of the Mountain Entry Examination, which only happens once a year! We’re waiting here for the ship to come from Mountain Affairs Peak.”

In the Outer Regions of the Eight Mountains, there would occasionally be outer disciples who broke through to the Sea of Qi stage. Aside from the standard reward that they would receive from Sacred Sect, they still had to attend their first Mountain Entry Examination. Every year, there would be a day dedicated to the examinations of the disciples who broke through to the Sea of Qi stage. The examination itself wasn’t that difficult, and if they passed, they would be considered to have officially joined the mountain, and they could leave the Outer Region. They would move into the Mountain Range and be assigned to a Peak.

If they didn’t pass, then they could only continue cultivating in the Outer Region while waiting for next year’s unified examination, which was just the routine unified examination that occurred every year.

Xu Disheng was still at the Cleansed Meridians stage, and the condensation of his Jianggong Sea of Qi was still only at 10 or 20%. Only Sea of Qi stage disciples could attend the Mountain Entry Examination, so it was still a far off goal for him. But with these two bottles of medicinal pills that he splurged a massive amount of spirit stones on, was the Sea of Qi stage really all that far away?

Xu Disheng didn’t stay for long at that terrace platform. After casually asking a few questions, he walked back to his neighborhood of courtyards and found his own courtyard, number 3763. The surroundings of his courtyard were just as quiet as before. Xu Disheng used the jade slip key to open the light barrier, then went in.

Xu Disheng took the items out of his storage pouch. There were a bit more than 100 spirit stones remaining within. This was a massive sum of money that most ordinary disciples couldn’t even dream of having.

He didn’t spend any time looking at the pile of spirit stones. Instead, he took out those two jade bottles and inspected them closely.

The Spirit Gathering Pill was a pure white pellet with a clean, fresh aroma to it. It was smooth and round like a jade, giving off a full brilliance that made it pleasing to the eye.

On the other hand, the Qi Gathering Pill was surrounded with a pale yellow halo of light. According to what that girl from the Spiritual Medicine Pavilion said, this pill was extremely well suited to those disciples who had just started condensing their Sea of Qi.

Xu Disheng swept his senses over his Jianggong meridian point. The sea of profound qi was already 10-20% condensed, and with every passing moment, the Shangqing Profound Qi in his body was being compressed and purified into profound qi, which would then enter his Jianggong meridian point.

He took out a Spirit Gathering Pill and slowly put it in his mouth. The description of this pill said that it had a “huge volume of spiritual energy contained within, for aiding cultivation”, and that it was 20 spirit stones a piece.

Xu Disheng didn’t have any idea how much “a huge volume” really was. He only felt the pill slowly melting in his mouth, leaving a fragrance on his tongue. An extremely pure strand of spiritual energy passed from his mouth down to his stomach, where it immediately circulated through his entire body’s 36 meridian points.

It was so effective that a bit of spiritual energy was dissipating out from his body. There was apparently so much spiritual energy that his meridians couldn’t contain all of it.

Xu Disheng revolved the Shangqing Profound Laws to the fullest, causing the compression and purification of profound qi in his Sea of Qi to speed up by almost 10 times. The rate at which his body was absorbing Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy and transforming it into profound qi was also sped up by several tens of times.

He picked up a Qi Gathering Pill, and after giving it a look over, he tossed it directly into his mouth as well.

It was as if a ball of fire was suddenly set ablaze in his stomach. When the pill melted down to liquid, it set ablaze an intense burning sensation wherever it flowed. Xu Disheng endured the pain, focusing on constantly condensing the profound qi in his Jianggong Sea of Qi.

Each Qi Gathering Pill cost 50 spirit stones! Most ordinary disciples without any kind of backing might not have even heard of it before!

Xu Disheng could only feel the explosive increase in the speed at which the Sea of Qi in his Jianggong meridian point was condensing. His Jianggong Sea of Qi was steadily forming at a pace visible to the naked eye!

When ordinary disciples cultivated from the Cleansed Meridians stage to the Sea of Qi stage, they could only rely on slow, gradual effort over a long period of time that could amount from several years to several dozens of years.

But of those who were the descendants of clans or other powerhouses, there were countless incidents of them breaking through to the Sea of Qi realm within half a year to one year. After all, with abundant resources and countless spiritual medicines, they could completely forgo this gradual, cumulative process altogether.

However, once one reached the Dao Foundation stage and higher, medicinal pills began to play less of a role, and could only serve as aids. After all, the Sea of Qi stage could be reached through the cumulation of time and effort, but the Dao Foundation stage wasn’t like this. Of aptitude, resources, comprehension, and destiny, none of these key pieces could be lacking.

An example of this was that Lord He that Xu Disheng met in the Spiritual Medicine Pavilion, who was at the peak of the Sea of Qi stage. He could spend 800 spirit stones in one go and eat those Qi Boosting Pills like candy, yet he was still unable to break through to the Dao Foundation stage.

But as that red-clothed girl had said, although he wasn’t at the Dao Foundation stage yet, he was close.

Three months passed!

Xu Disheng looked at the 3 remaining pills before him, somewhat speechless.

Over the span of these few months, Xu Disheng had been here, digesting the medicinal power of the Qi Gathering Pills. Although each pill was small, each of them contained an incomparably abundant amount of energy within, so it could be considered worth its price of 50 spirit stones.

Of the 5 Qi Gathering Pills that he had bought, he used 3, so there were now 2 remaining.

With his Rank 6 Spiritual Root aptitude, it originally would have taken him several years to condense his Sea of Qi. At this moment, by taking both of these pills simultaneously, his Sea of Qi was already 70% condensed after just three months!

However, if this level of expenditure was converted into spirit stones, then he essentially went through 120 spirit stones in just three months! Three Spirit Gathering Pills was 60 spirit stones, and 1 Qi Gathering Pill was 50 spirit stones. Adding on the spirit stones that he was always holding in his palm to cultivate, that was another 10 spirit stones.

It was important to remember that an ordinary Cleansed Meridians stage disciple only earned 1 spirit stone per month! It was easy to imagine that the ordinary cultivation speed of someone who only earned only the number of spirit stones given by the sect would be extremely slow, since they could only continue to cultivate blindly without any resources after they ran out of spirit stones.

This caused Xu Disheng to realize all over again just how important resources were.

The jade slip key had long since begun to flash with light, but he had been submerged in a state of cultivation, so he completely ignored it until now. He picked it up and sank his consciousness into it.

“The Inner Disciple Tournament will commence in 2 years time for all belonging to the 317 Peaks of Mingxin Mountain Range.” It was a unified notice sent out by the sect, followed by an in-depth description of it.

The Inner Disciple Tournament included all 317 Peaks of Mingxin Mountain, and was held once every 50 years. It was split into the Sea of Qi division and the Dao Foundation division.

Aptitude, comprehension, talent, and destiny were all underlying indicators, but the ultimate display was one’s strength in battle. The prizes for the Inner Disciple Tournament were extremely generous. When Xu Disheng saw the list of prizes, much of which were rare treasures that he had never even heard of before, he became excited.

The tournament wasn’t held only in the Mingxin Mountain Range. The other Mountain Ranges also held their own respective tournaments. When the results for each Mountain Range’s tournament came out, the sect would take the top 100 and allow them to participate in the Eight Mountains Grand Tournament! There were fewer Dao Foundation stage disciples in comparison, so only the top 10 from the Dao Foundation division were selected to participate in the Eight Mountains Grand Tournament.

Every Mountain Range had several tens of thousands of Sea of Qi stage disciples. For those in the top 100 to be able to distinguish themselves from the crowd, each and every one of them had to be proud, outstanding geniuses in their own right, standing tall above all the rest!

The Shangqing Sacred Sect had many countless ages of tradition. This selection method via survival of the fittest produced countless outstanding disciples over the years, allowing the sect to continue to pass on its inheritances.

No one would hear a thing about however many dozens of years you spent assiduously cultivating, but with this tournament, you could instantly make your name known to all! These cases weren’t considered rare at all either. There were always geniuses that were originally complete nobodies without any reputation to speak of, but when the tournament came along, their potential would blossom, and they would completely suppress others of the same generation!

From then on, they would have more resources allocated to them, and the road of cultivation for them would become much easier. They might receive the favor of a higher-up in the sect, and their future ahead would open up to immeasurable potential.

The corners of Xu Disheng’s lips curled up into a smile, and he mused to himself, “Two years?”

Xu Disheng slowly closed his eyes, hiding the resplendent glow within. He picked up the last remaining Qi Gathering Pill and tossed it into his mouth, submerging himself back into a state of cultivation once more.

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