Floating Immortal Order

Cleansed Meridians

The Imperial Court in the outer palace consisted of an endless stretch of palace halls. They had already swept and cleaned the residence pavilions for each of the 10 Provinces’ Dao Palaces.

A guard led Daoist Lord Qingxin and the others to the front of a palace and said, “Respected Daoist Lords, this place is the temporary residence for the 10 Provinces’ Dao Palaces. You may pick a palace hall as you please and check in. If you need anything, you can just summon a guard outside your palace hall.”

Daoist Lord Qingyu nodded. “Sure.”

The guard withdrew and went to one side to silently stand guard.

Xu Disheng quietly spread out his senses and found that the Chu Clan had set up a Spirit Gathering Formation inside of the palace hall. Although it wasn’t nearly as big as the one in the Heavenly Heart Palace, the Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy here was still 10 times richer than any other ordinary place.

He inwardly nodded his head in approval. After waiting for the Daoist Lords to finish choosing their palace, he randomly chose a quiet, remote pavilion within the palace they chose. He saluted to the Daoist Lords in farewell before disappearing into the pavilion.

He sat down cross-legged on the bed and immediately began to cultivate, feeling the beneficial effects of the Spirit Gathering Formation straight away.

Even though the congregating Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy was only about 10 times more concentrated than normal, the speed at which his Qi Nourishing Technique was transforming it to Shangqing Profound Qi was far more than several tens of times faster.

Xu Disheng didn’t know how much the cyan jade flute had ended up raising his aptitude by, but when he revolved his Qi Nourishing Technique, the Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy outside his body formed into a small vortex, which caused it to pour endlessly into his meridians. He surmised that he had already surpassed Grade 1 Profound Meridians and wasn’t far from reaching 6th Rank Spiritual Root.

He didn’t waste any more time. He ate a Fasting Pill that he brought from the You Province’s Dao Palace before settling into a comfortable cross-legged position and closing his eyes, immersing himself in cultivation.

Half a year passed by in an unhurried manner.

The people from the 10 Dao Palaces had long arrived, and the Sea of Qi stage Daoist Lords from each Dao Palace were all gathered in the Imperial Court. In total, the disciples that they brought numbered a little over 10. Along with 3 people that consisted of Emperor Chu’s heir and descendents, there were a total of 17 people attending the Seventh Mortal Secret Area’s Disciple Admissions.

By the door of Xu Disheng’s pavilion, there were 2 guards on standby, yawning as they tried to stave off their boredom.

As guards of the Imperial Court, these two by all means weren’t supposed to be negligent. But for these two, the last half a year was truly boring to the extreme.

Among them, one of them who was carrying a halberd said, “Come to think of it, it’s strange. After these Daoist Lords arrived at the Imperial Court, they have pretty much all been coming and going, engaging amongst themselves. They would celebrate with wine and song every night, indulging in feminine charms. Yet only this young sir stood out from the rest, holding his patience. In this last half a year, he didn’t even leave his pavilion nor give us any instructions for anything. He didn’t enjoy any of the delicacies, fine foods, and beautiful maids that we went out of our way to prepare beforehand.”

The other guard replied with a laugh, “But didn’t this make it easier for us two? Our last half a year was a breeze since all we had to do was change guard shifts. Look at how dog-tired all our other colleagues who had to serve the Daoist Lords are. Their job was far from ideal, having to wait upon them and sit through their scoldings.”

Xu Disheng’s long eyelashes trembled and he slowly opened his eyes, revealing a deep, serene look in his eyes. He overheard the idle talk going on between the two outside the pavilion, but he didn’t pay it any mind.

The black Daoist robe on his body was still luxurious as if it was new, which was a result of his Purifying Attire Incantation. Shangqing Profound Qi was also continuously washing over him, making it so there wasn’t a single speck of dust on him.

He slightly frowned and cast a Cleaning Incantation. The profound qi around his body was urged forth from his arm, spreading outwards to sweep away the dust that had settled upon the surfaces of the bed, table, and other furniture.

Such refined control over Shangqing Profound Qi was a distinct characteristic of the Cleansed Meridians stage!

After half a year of ceaseless, painstaking cultivation in this place that was rich with Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy due to the Spirit Gathering Formation, he had finally managed to fill all 36 of his meridian points with Shangqing Profound Qi. At last, he successfully reached the first stage of profound cultivation, the Cleansed Meridians stage.

Next, he would have to condense the Shangqing Profound Qi in his body into the Jianggong meridian point to form the Jianggong Sea of Qi. It would then form into its own endless cycle of replenishment, which was known as the Sea of Qi stage.

To be exact, there wasn’t any sort of bottleneck between the Cleansed Meridians stage and the Sea of Qi stage. It was only possible to bridge the gap through the efforts of many years, similar to flowing water eroding away at rock.

Before the Dao Foundation stage, a person’s cultivation speed was dependent on their own talent and cultivation environment.

Even considering that Prince Xing, Zhang Keyu, had Grade 3 Profound Meridians, it took him over 20 years to reach the Cleansed Meridians stage. Although he never went out of his way to cultivate arduously, the most important factor was that someone who only had Grade 3 Profound Meridians just barely met the minimum level of talent to cultivate profound laws. While Zhang Keyu was someone who had the imperial bloodline of the Chu Clan, he wasn’t a direct descendent of Emperor Chu. He didn’t have the necessary talent to be able to change his surname to Chu, and he was only able to rule over a whole Province by relying on the influence of the Dao Palace.

Xu Disheng extended his senses to the Sealing Soul Mantra, the third scripture of Soul Song. Since the Soul Force in his sea of consciousness had gone through half a year’s worth of growth, he had already reached the bare minimum amount required to initially start nourishing a Soul Vessel. But with his current Soul Force, he still couldn’t put the Sealing Soul Technique to full use.

Xu Disheng just realized that his ever-increasing aptitude was not only increasing the speed of his profound law cultivation, but also the rate at which he was absorbing Soul Force. According to his original estimates, he would’ve needed another 1 or 2 years of arduous cultivation before he could reach the point where he could start nourishing a Soul Vessel. But as of now, he ended up reaching that goal in just half a year, which was a pleasant surprise to him.

He muttered to himself shortly then picked up the Autumn Water Sword by his side and held his palm over it. According to the method described in the Sealing Soul Mantra, he started to slowly pass Soul Force through it.

After a short while, Xu Disheng retracted his palm and furrowed his brows.

The Autumn Water Sword had no reaction to Soul Force. It was completely unlike its normal mode of operation, where it would automatically convert his Shangqing Profound Qi into sword energy.

As he was deep in his thoughts, a guard’s voice was heard from outside the hall. “Respectful greetings to the Commander.”

When he lifted his gaze, he saw that commanding officer in golden armor walk in. He was a Xiantian realm martial artist.

When the golden-armored commander entered the hall, he slightly lowered his head and cupped his fists in salute. “Young Sir. According to His Imperial Majesty’s orders, every Dao Palaces’ Daoist Lords and their disciples must be present in the Heavenly Heart Palace tomorrow morning.”

Xu Disheng nodded and replied, “I understand.”

The golden-armored commander lifted his head and gazed at the handsome youth in front of him before cupping his hands once more and leaving the hall.

Xu Disheng lowered his head to look at the Autumn Water Sword. He was guessing that the Autumn Water Sword’s quality simply wasn’t good enough. It probably lacked the qualifications to become a Soul Vessel, so when he bathed in Soul Force just now, it had no reaction whatsoever.

However, the Autumn Water Sword was a top-quality Martial Treasure, and it was already the best weapon in his possession. If he wanted something even better, it would have to be one of those extremely precious Spirit Tools.

He learned from Daoist Lord Qingxin that offensive-type Spirit Tools were incomparably more expensive than something like the Spirit Cloud, which was only worth around 12 spirit stones.

In the Sacred Sect, even an ordinary Spirit Tool sword was several dozen spirit stones at the minimum. If he wanted one with some magical seals on it, then it would easily be over 100 spirit stones.

In addition, a disciple at the Sea of Qi stage received only 2 spirit stones a month to support their cultivation. If he wanted to rely on that amount alone to gather the amount required for a Spirit Tool sword, it would take him many years.

In reality, for most ordinary Sea of Qi disciples like Daoist Lord Qingxin and Qingyu, they hardly had enough spirit stones to support their own cultivation. After all these years, they didn’t have any Spirit Tools, and could only scrape by using a few top-quality Martial Treasures.

Daoist Lord Qingxin and Qingyu were originally outer disciples of Zhuri Mountain, and since they were sent away to the Secret Realms, they couldn’t afford to use their few spirit stones for cultivation.

Earlier, when they were all traveling on Daoist Lord Shangyuan’s Spirit Cloud, the Daoist Lords had both agreed to give Daoist Lord Shangyuan 1 spirit stone as fare. But because Xu Disheng brought Su along, causing Daoist Lord Shangyuan to owe him a favor, he allowed the two Daoist Lords to save their spirit stones.

If you appreciate my work or want to sponsor a chapter, please consider supporting me on Ko-Fi!