CH 84

Chapter 84 – First Match!

“Junior Martial Brother Xu, did you have some history with Spirit Master Wenshu?” Bai Zhehua turned around and asked after gazing far off towards Tongyin Mountain and seeing that the Evil Spirit wasn’t chasing after them.

“Not that I know of,” Xu Disheng replied.

“His title is the Celestial Tide Spirit Master, and he’s one of the top ranking Peak Masters in the Mingxin Mountain Range. His exclusive technique is the Azure Ocean cultivation method. The move you just used was one of its forms, ‘Summon Rain’. I’ve once seen someone use it before, so I could recognize it,” Bai Zhehua said.

Xu Disheng nodded but didn’t reply.

Bai Zhehua felt that he could see through Xu Disheng even less. In the fight against that ghost just now, that massive Soul Force palm that Xu Disheng was using to absorb the resentful souls already left him astonished. And then right after that, he saw him take out that Severing Spirit Seal, which was a top-grade Spirit Tool. Now, he even discovered that he had some kind of connection with a Divine Core stage Spirit Master.

Xu Disheng seemed to recall something. Was the person that Bai Zhehua speaking of that person who he saw at the Spiritual Medicine Pavilion? After all, he did feel that there was the faint aura of a water cultivation method on his body.

It was that guy who called out and bought 10 Qi Boosting Pills, casually throwing down 800 spirit stones like it was nothing. Aside from a descendent of a Divine Core stage Spirit Master, who could be that rich?

However, the two of them didn’t go into this topic any further.

As a result, Bai Zhehua, who was originally intending to find out a bit about the depths of Xu Disheng’s secrets, only felt that the hazy fog surrounding the youth’s body became even more thick.

Xu Disheng’s mind was focused on the Soul Suppressing Vestment as he silently refined those resentful souls.

The souls that were trapped into the Soul Vessel by the Sealing Soul Mantra could be washed of their ghostly qi and have their consciousness restored, just like that hunter ghost he met in the Floating Moon Valley.

But Xu Disheng didn’t do that this time. Instead, he wiped the consciousnesses of all of the souls, turning them into pure Soul Force, which went straight to raising the power of the Soul Suppressing Vestment.

Gradually, the messy mix of Soul Force in the Soul Suppressing Vestment became more concentrated, and there were even signs of a vague consciousness about to be born from within. That hungering thirst for resentful souls that it emitted while they were hovering above the villages earlier was also the work of the vague consciousness that was starting to be born from the Soul Suppressing Vestment.

With the messy mix of Soul Force from the pure resentful souls, this consciousness was one step closer to being fully born.

Xu Disheng wasn’t surprised by this. He already knew since it was recorded in the Sealing Soul Mantra of the Soul Song cultivation method. If he didn’t keep the consciousnesses from the souls sealed within, the Soul Vessel would slowly give rise to an artifact spirit. Once the artifact spirit was born, the might of the Soul Vessel would grow by several times!

Bai Zhehua brought Xu Disheng to the Affairs Hall on Mountain Affairs Peak to turn in the mission. Then, they went straight back to Morning Dew Peak.

“If the ghost recorded in the mission ends up breaking through to a higher stage, the mission will still be considered completed. In this aspect, the sect is fairly accommodating of the disciples,” Bai Zhehua explained with a smile, seated on the main seat in his courtyard. He continued, “The mission reward this time was only around a dozen spirit stones, but my father did say that if your performance this time was excellent, then he would be willing to give this to you, Junior Martial Brother Xu.”

With that, he lightly waved his hand. On the table, an icy blue longsword appeared. It was shimmering with a bone-chillingly cold light. It was a Spirit Tool with a complete set of seals!

Xu Disheng raised his eyebrow. Even though he had a Magic Treasure and the top-grade Spirit Tool, the Severing Spirit Seal, he only had around 200 spirit stones left, so he hadn’t had enough remaining to purchase a top-grade Spirit Tool of his own.

Although this longsword was an ordinary Spirit Tool, it had a complete set of seals engraved on it. Due to the might of these seals, this longsword was stronger than that Three Suns Sword that Chen Xingzhou had by a certain amount.

Bai Zhehua picked up his teacup and lightly pursed his lips to take a sip as he watched Xu Disheng.

Xu Disheng thought for a little bit, then picked up the longsword. A stream of chilliness was transmitted to his hand, hinting that the seals engraved on it were imbued with a freezing effect.

“If you insist, then I will oblige. Many thanks to Senior Martial Brother Bai and Deacon Bai,” Xu Disheng spoke with gratitude.

Seeing him accept the Spirit Tool, Bai Zhehua put down his teacup. A smile spread across his face as he said, “No need to be too courteous, Junior Martial Brother Bai. If you are ever short on cultivation resources in the future, feel free to let me know. I’ll make sure you definitely won’t be lacking in such things.”

This was a form of investment. It was fairly common for people to invest in people who were talented, but still rather weak. Bai Zhehua had Deacon Bai behind him, so they definitely weren’t investing only in Xu Disheng.

Even though the Frozen Spirit Sword was an ordinary Spirit Tool, it could go for over 100 spirit stones due to the seals engraved on it. For Sea of Qi stage disciples, it could already be considered as a very precious item.

Mingxin Peak, the top ranked Peak in the Mingxin Mountain Range, was over 3,300 meters tall, and was protected by the Severing Meridian Spirit Master, Feng Simiao.

(TL: The title of Feng Simiao was previously translated in Chapter 61 as ‘Spirit Master of Asphyxiation’. I decided to change his title to Severing Meridian Spirit Master instead.)

“Which Spirit Masters still haven’t arrived?”

“Celestial Tide Spirit Master, Profound Star Spirit Master, and Killing Heart Spirit Master.”

“We won’t wait anymore then.”

“The first match of the Internal Disciple Tournament will be the same as those in previous years past. There are three options, Zhenling, Mirror Ocean, and Ghost Road. Spirit Masters, please make your pick.”

“The one fifty years ago was Ghost Road, so this time, let’s open the Mirror Ocean.”

… …

“Since there were nine Spirit Masters who chose Mirror Ocean, then we’ll go with the Mirror Ocean for the first match of the Internal Disciple Tournament! Send out the news via jade slip. Tell all the disciples who are participating in the Internal Disciple Tournament tomorrow to come to Mingxin Peak tomorrow early in the morning. Those that participate in the first match will enter the Mirror Ocean!”

… …

Xu Disheng looked at the jade slip in his hands, his brows furrowing slightly.

Mirror Ocean! The location of the first match of the Internal Disciple Tournament.

It was a badly damaged Secret Realm. It was called an ocean because there was a massive mirror, about 6,600 meters wide and ten thousand li long.

On top of the mirror, there were several tens of thousands of small wooden boats floating on the mirror surface. By willing profound qi into the boats, it was possible to move forward quickly.

The first match of the tournament was extremely crude and simple. Every person would be given a small wooden boat, which they had to use to traverse the length of the mirror and reach the other side.

The first 10,000 Sea of Qi stage disciples to reach the other shore would pass the first match!

For the Dao Foundation stage disciples, it was the first 100. However, in the entire Mingxin Mountain Range, there were only several hundred Dao Foundation stage disciples anyway, and they mostly all knew each other. For this reason, the spots for the top 10 who could go on to the Eight Mountains Grand Tournament were practically fixed to some extent.

As for the rules for this first match… There were no rules. As long as you were in the top 10,000 to reach the other side of the shore, you would be considered to have passed the first match.

During the tournament, the strict sect rules were temporarily ineffective, so there were sometimes bloodthirsty people who would take advantage of this opportunity to slaughter many fellow sect disciples.

But in fact, this was the stupidest method, since there would always be people who would aim to settle these scores and get even after the tournament was over. Therefore, most people would choose to act within their own limits. If they felt that they were at the limits of their own capabilities, they could forfeit at any time.

To Xu Disheng, who was just an early Sea of Qi stage disciple, these rules were actually rather unfair to him. After all, the profound qi cultivation of peak Sea of Qi stage disciples exceeded that of the early Sea of Qi stage by a lot. Between the two cultivation realms, there was a noticeable gap in the total amount of profound qi and spiritual power. In a competition like this that was primarily testing the endurance of one’s spiritual power, early Sea of Qi stage disciples really had it bad.

However, was there anything in this world that was truly fair?

In this first match in the Mirror Ocean, storage pouches were sealed upon entry, so flying-type Spirit Tools couldn’t be used.

But what about those people with Magic Treasures capable of flight? They could directly summon them from their sea of consciousness and rapidly cross to the other side of the shore without even having to use the wooden boat.

And the sect? They didn’t care what method people used to arrive at the goal. They only maintained the requirement that people couldn’t open their storage pouches and storage rings.

Even if you didn’t use the wooden boat and crawled your way across the Mirror Ocean on all fours, they wouldn’t care. At best they might coldly say, ‘so on and so forth, you are the nth person to reach the other side.’, and nothing more.