Floating Immortal Order

TL: Clam demon → Mirage demon, Clam Sea Realm → Mirage Sea Realm. I originally thought the Chinese character the author used could only mean clam, but I learned today there was a definition not originally listed that could also mean ‘mirage’. I figured this made a lot more sense, so I decided to go back and change it. Apologies for any inconvenience this might bring to the reading experience.

The sixth day.

The clouds of thunder and lightning above Lightning Cloud Stone Island became even more violent. Deafening peals of thunder were interrupted by occasional flashes of lightning that briefly illuminated the sky.

In the last few days, Xu Disheng had been moving along very slowly. On his way to the central plaza of the island, he killed over a hundred ordinary Dao Foundation stage mirage demons. By now, almost all of the mirage demons in the stone rooms had been wiped out.

At this point, he had over 700,000 points in his point token, putting him at 17th place.

Although Xu Disheng didn’t know what his rank was, his rough assessment of the situation made him aware that even if he spent the last two days killing mirage demons, he wouldn’t be able to accumulate enough points to make it to the top 10.

If he went to the central plaza of the island and defeated a disciple that was ranked somewhere between 11th and 20th, he would be able to obtain at least enough points to go up a few places in the ranking.

However, pretty much all of those disciples had some form of top-grade defensive-type Magic Treasure in their possession, with various other moves up their sleeves.

If he went to face them directly, not only was there the possibility of being unable to secure a win against them, but he might even suffer defeat, feeding them all of the points he had worked so hard to obtain.

Black vortexes revolved in Xu Disheng’s eyes, and he pointed out a finger, an extremely small Evil Spirit skull slowly forming from the tip. It was the fourth scripture of Soul Song, the Swallowing Soul Mantra.

The eyes on the sinister-looking Evil Spirit skull were open a slit, exposing a limitless bloodlust and killing intent deeper within.

He was thinking that maybe he could move the Evil Spirit skull conjured from the Swallowing Soul Mantra out from his sea of consciousness, and have it stay by his side. That way, he could mask the move as some sort of technique to control ghosts.

At this moment, he reduced its size by a hundred times until it was the size of a fingernail, and had it hover on his shoulder. Even though it would constantly consume Soul Force, it was an acceptable level of consumption that could be quickly recovered by the newly-advanced black Soul Force flute, which had undergone a transformation from illusory to reality.

Up ahead, Xu Disheng could faintly see the silhouettes of the 10 massive stone rooms in the distance. Although he was still a considerable distance away, he could perceive the consistent pressure exerted by the Divine Core stage qi coming from within.

“Wait a moment.”

Xu Disheng stopped in his tracks and turned to look.

In the somewhat larger stone room on the other side of the passage, a woman in white robes materialized, clad in mirage qi. She was looking right at Xu Disheng.

“There’s actually still a mirage demon here?” Xu Disheng muttered, creasing his brows. He had already combed back and forth through these passages several times. All of the mirage demons that could possibly still be here should have already been completely wiped clean by now. But at this moment, he encountered another mirage demon, which above all else, seemed to have somehow generated a soul.

After disposing of mirage demons in the last several days, Xu Disheng knew that the mirage demons on the island could be categorized into roughly three types.

The first type were the ordinary mirage demons who were born from mirage qi, without any spiritual awareness whatsoever.

Another type were the mirage demons that had an instinctual level of spiritual awareness and managed to generate a fragment of a soul, allowing them to use some simple Demonic Spells.

The final type was just like this white-robed woman before him, with a level of spiritual awareness not very different from that of a regular human. They had varying levels of strength, but the one before him was just an ordinary Dao Foundation stage mirage demon that he could suppress using the Yin Yang Diagram with a mere flip of his palm.

“Don’t attack,” the white-robed woman said, her expression anxious. “I’ll tell you a secret regarding the Lightning Cloud Stone Island, and we can make a deal, alright?”

The phantom image of the Yin Yang Diagram hovered ominously in the sky. Xu Disheng shot her a glance and said, “Speak.”

This white-robed woman clearly had no qualifications to be making a deal with Xu Disheng.

She let out a light sigh, then lifted a finger to twirl the long, silky hair curled behind her ear. “I used to be a disciple of the Shangqing Sacred Sect, belonging to the Fourth Mountain, the Mountain of Law. It’s already been around 3,000 years since I was trapped on this island,” she narrated.

Xu Disheng knit his brow slightly, waiting for her to continue.

“Back then, I didn’t crush my survival token in time, so I died here on the Lightning Cloud Stone Island,” the white-robed woman said, her expression revealing a hint of alarm. “But the souls belonging to those who die here can’t be reborn! The souls of all the disciples who died here become trapped inside Lightning Cloud Stone Island to be absorbed by the mirage qi in the Mirage Sea Realm and be made into mirage demons!”

“The spiritual awarenesses of the souls belonging to the dead disciples are erased, then crushed together to form mirage demons. But I’ve been lucky enough to preserve my fully intact spiritual awareness and survive on this island for 3,000 years,” the white-robed woman explained with buried resentment apparent in her voice. “This island was opened quite a few times in recent years, and I begged a disciple to return me to the sect and help me restore my body, but I almost got killed. I barely managed to escape, but since then, I had always been stuck with the mirage demons in here, neither fully human nor fully demon! I’ve had more than enough of this!”

Xu Disheng didn’t reply, not fully believing this woman’s words.

He already knew from using the Sealing Soul Spell that there certainly were traces of damaged souls in these mirage demons.

If these souls really belonged to the disciples who had perished, then they had been robbed of their qualification to be reincarnated. They could only remain as a damaged soul all this time, wandering around aimlessly on Lightning Cloud Stone Island as a mirage demon.

“What kind of deal were you aiming for?” Xu Disheng asked.

The white-robed woman came a bit closer and said, “Take me into your Magic Treasure for now. When you leave the Mirage Sea Realm, let me leave with you.”

Xu Disheng raised an eyebrow, simply leveling a gaze at her.

A hint of a smile appeared on the white-robed woman’s face. “Back when I died, I had a top-grade Magic Treasure in my possession. All these years, I’ve been hiding it. If you agree to take me out of here, then I’ll give it to you.”

Xu Disheng nodded and said, “Then first show me that Magic Treasure you speak of.”

The white-robed woman floated along ahead, her back to Xu Disheng as she led the way. Suddenly, her originally quite attractive face warped into a sinister ghostly visage that resembled a goat. Her blood-red pupils were filled with an inexhaustible resentment.

There had been numerous flaws in the woman’s words. A Magic Treasure had an astonishing level of spirituality that simply couldn’t be concealed, except for in the sea of consciousness. This woman’s words and speech indicated a hint of urgency, as if she was itching to bring Xu Disheng to a certain location.

After Xu Disheng’s Soul Force flute underwent a transformation from illusory to reality, his senses became extremely acute. He had long since perceived a hint of ghostly qi on this woman’s body.

Moreover, the Evil Spirit skull hovering on his shoulder had been transmitting an instinctual thirst to him, as if it couldn’t wait to swallow the white-robed woman.

But if you wanted to fish, it was necessary to first cast the bait.

If the bait was precious enough, a bit of acting the part of the fish was nothing to Xu Disheng.

Coincidentally enough, the direction the white-robed woman was leading him was the same direction as the center of the island.

When they were five passages away from the plaza at the center of the island, the white-robed woman stopped. Then, she floated into one of the stone rooms alone before turning around with a charming, flowery smile. “We’re here. This is the place I hid the Magic Treasure,” she said.

Taking note of the location of this stone room, Xu Disheng knew exactly where this was. It was none other than one of the stone rooms that contained the strongest mirage demons, which were at the peak Dao Foundation stage. These peak Dao Foundation stage mirage demons were different from ordinary mirage demons in that they wouldn’t emerge and leave their stone rooms unless you first entered yourself.

Xu Disheng’s voice was laden with suspicion as he spoke in a straightforward manner. “I must say, this trap is a bit too obvious. Were you perhaps planning to lure me into this stone room and launch a sneak attack on me?”

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