Floating Immortal Order

Chapter 68: Clever People

contemporary romance

Chapter 68: Clever People

In his attempts to avoid the cyan droplet of water, Ge Song plunged straight into the lake, which allowed him to dodge it. The droplet followed after him, bursting against the boundary of the waterless zone. It exploded, creating a vacuum in the blast zone that was nearly 10 meters wide before exhausting its power completely.

Wang Jun wasn’t as smart. When the water droplet appeared above his head, it was already quite close. He reacted a bit too late to take out a Spirit Tool to block it, so he could only summon several barriers of profound qi and meet it head on.

The water droplet fell down, penetrating straight through Wang Jun’s cranium without a sound.

Wang Jun was still stuck in the movement of putting up his profound qi barriers when blood came flowing out of his seven apertures. His eyes became lifeless and his limp body collapsed to the ground. Within a few breaths of time, his body began to corrode and rot from the inside out, and very soon, all that remained was a few wisps of white smoke rising up from the space where he once stood. The big melon girl let out a shriek, as if her mind was on the brink of collapsing.

(TL: I thought about referring to this girl as just ‘big-breasted girl’ or something, but the author just insists on calling her what is literally ‘big papaya girl’. It became hilarious to the Chinese readers since he just kept on spamming the phrase, and by the millionth time he used it, one of the CN readers commented, ‘okay, okay, we get it, she has big papayas. I’ll never be able to eat papayas the same way again.’ So anyway, I thought it was funny and decided to keep it as ‘big melon girl’ to give you all the same meme experience LOL)

Chen Xingzhou’s expression was heavy. The cyan water droplet above his head was a bit farther away. He immediately took out a bell-shaped Spirit Tool and held it above his head in a strenuous attempt to ward it off.

Unexpectedly, the Spirit Tool’s defenses weren’t enough to fully block the water droplet! That was because aside from the Summon Rain technique, there was also the Corrosion Incantation supporting it!

Although the power of the water droplet was being slowly consumed, the barrier of the bell-shaped Spirit Tool was also being gradually corroded. If it continued like this, the water droplet would sooner or later drip onto Chen Xingzhou’s head.

Chen Xingzhou felt sullen. He had many formidable cultivation methods that he hadn’t used, and had several extremely powerful attack-type Spirit Tools. However, he only had one defense-type Spirit Tool. He had originally thought that one was plenty, but who would have thought that this kid had cultivated a technique as sinister as the Corrosion Incantation? What a rascal!

Faced with a surprise attack without having a chance to make any preparations whatsoever,

Chen Xingzhou was so frustrated that he wanted to vomit blood. He could only squeeze out a smile and say, “Junior Martial Brother Xu, if this goes on, it’ll be a lose-lose situation for us. How about you retract this water droplet, and we both go extract the spirit vein? After we complete the mission, I’m even willing to split you 100 spirit stones!”

Xu Disheng revealed a smile again, but this time there was a hint of derision in it. “Oh? Now you’ll let me complete the mission with you guys? Who was the one that had Wang Jun treat me like serpent food again?”

Li Dan, Xi Jingshan and the others were dumbstruck. Faced with the repeated series of unexpected events, they felt like their brains were about to explode.

Chen Xingzhou looked up at the barrier of the bell-shaped Spirit Tool above his head and heard a ‘zizi‘ sound. The final layer of the barrier was still corroding away, and the water droplet had a little less than half of its power remaining, making him feel even more depressed.

Chen Xingzhou looked over at the pretty black-clothed girl next to him, a plan forming in his mind. “Junior Martial Brother Xu, look at this junior martial sister! If you insist on continuing with this, I’ll kill her! Do you have the heart to let such a beautiful woman die?”

He grabbed the black-clothed girl and held a finger to her fair neck, white profound qi brimming from the tip. The beautiful black-clothed girl directed a lovely yet pitiful gaze at Xu Disheng.

Xu Disheng looked at the exquisite features of the black-clothed girl and seemed pensive for a moment. “Indeed, this junior martial sister has pretty features,” he commented.

When Chen Xingzhou heard what he said, he didn’t even have time to rejoice before hearing the ‘zizi‘ sound above him suddenly become even louder. He looked up and discovered belatedly that there was suddenly another water droplet above him!

The newly appeared water droplet fused with the half-depleted water droplet, sharply increasing its might. It instantly shattered the barrier of the bell-shaped Spirit Tool and surrounded Chen Xingzhou and the black-clothed girl.

Chen Xingzhou’s eyes widened as he exclaimed angrily, “You heartless bastard!”

As soon as those words escaped his lips, the two of them were completely enveloped by the water droplet. With a hiss, they were corroded into a pile of bubbles, not even leaving bones behind. All that remained was smoke that drifted off among the aquatic plants embedded in the silt of the lakebed.

There were several storage pouches left behind, faintly glimmering as they resisted the leftover corrosive power.

Xu Disheng casually used the Sealing Soul Mantra, taking the souls of Chen Xingzhou and that black-clothed girl into his Soul Suppressing Vestment. He also picked up those storage pouches before turning around to look at Xi Jingshan and the others.

Wang Jun’s soul had dissipated not long ago, and was already bound for the Human Path in the Nine Serenities Realm to be reincarnated.

Li Dan came forward and stammered, “J-Junior… Martial Brother Xu.”

Xi Jingshan stared at him with a light in his eyes that wasn’t there before.

Including Xu Disheng, Li Dan, and Xi Jingshan, there were 4 other male disciples and the big melon girl, making for a total of 8 people remaining.

Then there was Ge Song, who was chased by that deadly cyan droplet of water and jumped into the water, disappearing without a trace.

Out of the four male disciples, there was one fairly clever guy who was also only pretending to be naive until now. Seeing that the dust had settled, he came forward and praised, “What godly might, Senior Martial Brother Xu! Chen Xingzhou and those guys had such malicious intentions! From now on, I’ll follow you wherever you go and listen to your commands, Senior Martial Brother Xu!”

Xu Disheng looked at him and smiled only on the surface. He asked, “What is your name?”

The quick-witted disciple still had a respectful expression on his face in his attempt to try and curry favor with Xu Disheng. “My name is Yuan Qi!”

Xu Disheng nodded. Out of Chen Xingzhou’s storage pouch, he took out a pile of jade slips. Among them were this mission’s record jade slip and mission jade slip.

The record jade slip wasn’t turned on yet. Presumably, Chen Xingzhou was planning to wait until after they found the miniature spirit vein to turn it on and start recording.

Storage pouches were different from storage rings. Storage rings could have numerous seals protecting it, so they were extremely valuable. Even Chen Xingzhou didn’t have a storage ring on him. Storage pouches were usually around a dozen or so spirit stones. Even the better ones were only several dozen spirit stones in value, and they didn’t have any arrays or seals on them so anyone could take them and open them.

Xu Disheng looked over the mission jade slip and said, “We’ll continue with the mission.”

The other disciples agreed, nodding like a bunch of followers. Still stuttering, Li Dan said, “S-Senior… Martial Brother Xu, how about we just go b-back? We can’t deal with those monsters.”

Yuan Qi was doing his utmost to make a favorable impression. With contempt for Li Dan’s cowardice in his tone, he sneered, “Senior Martial Brother Xu already said that we will continue with the mission, so he must be certain about the outcome! If you aren’t willing, you can just go back by yourself!”

Li Dan looked behind him at the lakewater that had become murky at some unknown point. He muttered something nondescript to himself, not daring to go back by himself.

Regardless, Xu Disheng hadn’t really been paying attention to their opinions. He picked up the Parting Water Pearl and continued onward without hesitation.

Each of them had their own thoughts, but they could only silently follow. Even the big melon girl now had a renewed look of hope in her eyes. She struggled to her feet and followed after them.

A sound could be heard from the muddy waters in front of them. The serpent monster’s sinister-looking maw reached into the space of the Parting Water Pearl once more. It moved its mouth, speaking broken, choppy human words. “Brat, give me another 3 pieces of food. If you do, I’ll let you all go and tell the other monsters not to give you any more trouble.”

Every spiritual being who became a monster had extremely high spiritual awareness. However, it was just too ravenous earlier, and had only been blindly focused on filling its stomach.

From the water, the serpent monster had seen Xu Disheng use some technique to crush 3 peak Sea of Qi stage disciples, so it also harbored some restrained fear towards him. But it was only slightly intimidated. That didn’t stop it from extending an excessively overbearing demand to them in a sinister fashion!

Xu Disheng examined the serpent monster. It was slightly weaker than the wolf monster in Floating Moon Valley, and it was a little bit away from reaching its half-transformed form.

However, everything had to be looked at in context. This place was where the serpent monster grew up, and it was also in the waters of the lake. Here, the serpent monster could brandish its might in its entirety. It could attack, retreat, and defend freely in this place, so it was extremely difficult to deal with here.

Chen Xingzhou and his attendants hadn’t wanted to face the serpent monster head on, and that was with good reason.

After using the Summon Rain technique just now, Xu Disheng already consumed 60-70% of his profound qi. If he wanted to deal with this serpent monster, he would be forced to use the Swallowing Soul Mantra to try and swallow its soul.

However, Xu Disheng looked at the expressions of the people behind him, an indescribable hint of a smile appearing in his eyes.

If he really used the Swallowing Soul Mantra, he would be left in an extremely feeble state for some time afterwards. Even though it wouldn’t be as bad as last time where he fainted straight away, he still wouldn’t be in any shape to fight.

With such options on the table, there was no point in even thinking about it.

He turned to Yuan Qi and said, “Yuan Qi, pick out three people to feed to it.”

Li Dan exclaimed with an incredulous expression, “Senior Martial Brother Xu…! How would this make you any different from Chen Xingzhou and Wang Jun?”

At first, Yuan Qi was stunned. After a while, the cogs in his brain seemed to finally finish turning and he came back to his senses. His eyes gradually took on a savage light, and he turned towards the other disciples. His sinister gaze even occasionally turned towards Li Dan.

Xi Jingshan suddenly spoke up. “I stand by Senior Martial Brother Xu!”

Xi Jingshan then turned a cold gaze towards the other three disciples and the big melon girl. Xi Jingshan’s family background was filled with hardship, as his clan was completely slaughtered, so he was extremely shrewd.

This one sentence was brilliant. With just this one line, Xi Jingshan managed to exclude him from being selected and place himself in a safe position.

Following Li Dan’s example with changing his honorific for Xu Disheng to Senior Martial Brother, Xi Jingshan went the extra step to voice his support, indicating that he had always had the intent to follow Xu Disheng in advance and retreat.

Xu Disheng had always liked clever people. He nodded in approval at Xi Jingshan. He turned to Li Dan with a smile and said, “Senior Martial Brother Li, it looks like you aren’t a clever person.”

Hearing these words, it was as if Yuan Qi had received an imperial edict. His gaze exploded with savage ruthlessness, and he immediately moved to dispose of Li Dan.

However, Xi Jingshan stepped forward and blocked him. He condensed profound laws in his hand and directed them at the other three male disciples, who were lost and unsure of what to do, sending them flying.

Next to the serpent monster, there were several massive water serpents, which had not yet transformed, and were clearly the descendents of the powerful serpent monster. At this time, those serpents snapped up the male disciples that were blown away and swam off into the depths, disappearing without a trace.

The murky surrounding water gradually became clear, and the serpent monster’s deep, low voice drifted over. “Go ahead, brat. Back in those days, the Jade Water Demon Palace was at the heart of the lake.”

Li Dan cast a grateful glance at Xi Jingshan, then turned back to look at Xu Disheng and studied his side profile. As he examined his fair skin, handsome features, and long black hair, he felt that the person before him suddenly felt extremely unfamiliar to him.

Was this really the indifferent, composed Junior Martial Brother Xu that he knew? Or was this the real him? If he hadn’t been indirectly saved by Xi Jingshan just now, he might have already found himself in the mouths of those massive water serpents! He seriously could have died!

A wave of lingering fear washed over Li Dan, causing his scalp to tingle. When he finally came back to his senses, he felt cold sweat dripping down from the back of his head. He no longer dared to say anything more.

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