CH 106

Chapter 106 – Clam Sea Realm

As soon as Xu Disheng landed his Spirit Cloud at Lotus Lake in the Green Lotus Domain, a disciple’s eyes lit up, and he approached respectfully. “Please come this way, Senior Martial Brother Xu,” he said.

Xu Disheng raised an eyebrow and replied, “You don’t need to check my jade identity tablet?”

The disciple laughed and said, “Your appearance is proof enough, Senior Martial Brother Xu. No need, no need.”

He gave a slight bow and stepped aside to make way for him.

In the area around the giant arch, there were many Sea of Qi stage disciples, many of which were directing envious gazes at Xu Disheng as they gossiped among themselves.

“Is that Xu Disheng, the disciple who defeated Jie Zizhuo?”

“Not bad, he really is only at the early Sea of Qi stage…”

“I wonder what Spirit Master is backing him so much for him to have as many as two Magic Treasures at the early Sea of Qi stage. How envious.”

“You know, they say it’s Celestial Tide Spirit Master He who’s supporting him.”

… …

Xu Disheng heard all of these voices, but he didn’t react to any of them. He passed through the giant archway and made his way over to the brilliant white circle of light belonging to Morning Dew Peak.

As he passed by the circles of various Peaks, there were quite a few people coming over to express their goodwill and chat with him.

Among them, many were geniuses ranked in the top 100 of the Sea of Qi division.

Xu Disheng responded to all of them in turn, ending up with an extra dozen or so message jade slips in his interspatial ring by the time he reached Morning Dew Peak’s circle of light.

In the seats of honor on high, the only person at the Dao Foundation stage that was present was Bai Honghua. Seeing Xu Disheng return, he smiled and said, “The next round of the tournament is tomorrow, and Zhehua said that you still didn’t reply to the message jade slip he sent you. I was a bit worried, even. If you didn’t show up soon I was going to send some people to search for you.”

Xu Disheng bowed and said, “Lord Deacon, I was in Heart Refining Mountain’s Cultivation Hall, so I didn’t receive any message jade slips.”

Bai Honghua nodded, then looked around at the surroundings. Seeing that there weren’t any other Dao Foundation stage disciples around him, he used a sound transmission technique and said quietly, “There are a lot of powers paying attention to you right now. After you finish the Internal Disciple Tournament, you’ll definitely receive a lot of invitations. What are your plans at the moment?”

Xu Disheng pondered for a moment before responding, “I still don’t understand much about the influences in the Eight Mountains. Could you please tell me about them, Martial Uncle?”

Bai Honghua’s reason for asking this was quite clear. He surely had some influences behind him who had revealed their intentions in wanting to support Xu Disheng.

Xu Disheng still didn’t have a good understanding of the powers in the sect, so he decided to take advantage of the situation and see what he had to say for now.

“You must have heard of Affairs Hall, right? The main branch is located in the Third Mountain Range, Wenyuan Mountain. They possess an incredible level of authority, controlling the distribution of resources to the disciples of the Eight Mountains, performing rank examinations, and evaluating the share of resources that go to each Mountain Peak,” Bai Honghua said.

“I’ve heard a thing or two about them,” Xu Disheng replied.

Affairs Hall was a colossal entity, and it could be considered an integral part of the sect’s daily operations.

Bai Honghua nodded and continued, “The main branch of Secret Realms Hall has three external elders, each of which are pinnacle Spirit Masters at the half-step Primordial Spirit stage. One of them, Elder Li, has full control over the 36 Secret Realms, consisting of the 27 Mortal Realms and the 9 Large Sect Realms. He possesses a truly overwhelming degree of power and authority in the sect.”

Xu Disheng thought back to the time when he left the Chu Territory, recalling Li Daoming from Cangming Peak.

He had so many lackeys at his side, and despite only being at the Sea of Qi stage, he could rule over an entire Peak simply because he was the nephew of this Elder Li.

As it turned out, Li Daoming’s uncle was actually this almighty existence at the half-step Primordial Spirit stage? It was no wonder that even that Secret Realm Envoy, who was at the Dao Foundation stage, could only tolerate him and restrain himself in front of him.

Seeing Xu Disheng not saying anything, Bai Honghua continued, “Due to his lofty position, Elder Li doesn’t pay attention to these small, miscellaneous chores. He has several Deacons under him, one of which is a Divine Core stage Grand Deacon, who is good friends with my master. My master’s friend is specifically responsible for matters regarding the 27 Mortal Secret Realms. He sent me a jade slip the other day saying that after the tournament, he wanted to offer you a post under him at the main branch of Affairs Hall, where you could assist him with handling affairs regarding the 27 Mortal Secret Realms.”

Xu Disheng said gratefully, “For one only at the early Sea of Qi stage, receiving the favoring eye of a Grand Deacon of Affairs Hall is quite a terrifying prospect.”

However, he didn’t explicitly state whether he would actually answer to this or not.

The title of Grand Deacon didn’t say anything about the rank of the Deacon. It was only a way of distinguishing between Divine Core stage Deacons and Dao Foundation stage Deacons.

In other words, every Divine Core stage Deacon was called a Grand Deacon.

Bai Honghua didn’t go on to explain any further, tying things up. “You might not understand much about the complex factions in the Eight Mountains, but as a disciple from Morning Dew Peak who cultivates under our banner, you will always bear the mark of me and Peak Master Lu. The various powers and influences in Affairs Hall are even more numerous and convoluted. I heard that the reason this Grand Deacon was willing to support you was because he admired your temperament. This is an opportunity that you shouldn’t easily pass up.”

Xu Disheng nodded and expressed his gratitude before retreating deep into the crowd of disciples in the circle of light.

“Best of luck in securing a good ranking in tomorrow’s tournament, Senior Martial Brother Xu!”

“Senior Martial Brother Xu, we’re all watching you.”

Several early Sea of Qi stage disciples came forward to cheer him on excitedly.

Morning Dew Peak ranking wasn’t all that high, and they were constantly being suppressed by the adjacent Falling Snow Peak.

But in the last few days, the disciples of Morning Dew Peak felt empowered, as if a weight had been taken off their shoulders, all because Xu Disheng had defeated the rank 32 genius, Jie Zizhuo.

After all, a genius had emerged from their midst, sweeping his opposition and forcefully entering the eyes of all. Even if they could only cheer on excitedly from their position as spectators, they could still savor a vicarious glory as they felt the envious and respectful gazes of disciples from other Peaks upon them.

“I just knew you went to cultivate again, Junior Martial Brother Xu! If it wasn’t sect missions, it would be some other form of practice or method of strengthening yourself. I figured that would be the case and was afraid you would miss the next round of the tournament tomorrow, so I went out of my way to send you a jade slip!” Bai Zhehua said, coming forward and reaching out a hand to pat Xu Disheng on the shoulder.

But at that moment, his expression turned a bit stiff as if he suddenly thought of something. His hand hovered in the air briefly, and he eventually retracted it without thinking.

Zhang Haobo came over with a smile and said, “You’re back, Junior Martial Brother Xu. This is the detailed information about tomorrow’s tournament that just came out. From Morning Dew Peak, there’s only you and Senior Martial Brother Chu who entered the top 2,500. He was the one who told me to give you this jade slip.” He handed over a polished dark green jade slip.

Xu Disheng took the jade slip. “Thank you, Senior Martial Brother Zhang. And please extend my gratitude to the other Senior Martial Brothers of the Peak.”

Xu Disheng didn’t bother to look at the jade slip, first turning to look at Bai Zhehua. “What’s wrong? Our grand Lord Bai is suddenly acting like a stranger? I was at Heart Refining Mountain’s Cultivation Hall the past few days, so I wasn’t paying attention to any jade slips. But thank you, Senior Martial Brother Bai.”

This was Bai Zhehua’s first time hearing a hint of lighthearted teasing in Xu Disheng’s voice. He looked at him with shock and said, “After your stay at Cultivation Hall, did you somehow emerge as a different person?”

Xu Disheng laughed lightly, not saying more as he lowered his head to carefully examine the polished jade slip.

In the third round of the Sea of Qi division of the tournament tomorrow, the 2,500 remaining disciples would enter one of the sect’s 9 Large Secret Realms, the Clam Sea Realm.

An untold number of years ago, a Divine Sea stage disciple of the Shangqing Sacred Sect slayed a Nine Rainbows Heavenly Clam in the Guixue Area, and spent countless rare treasures and resources to refine his own body into a complete, intact realm. This realm became known as the Clam Sea Realm, and was meant to be used by disciples under the Primordial Spirit stage.

The day before yesterday, the two Mountain Masters of Mingxin Mountain Range issued an order to open an extremely small portion of the Clam Sea Realm for the Sea of Qi division of the tournament.

The other seven Mountains were also holding their own internal disciple tournaments, but each differed in form and time. It was fine as long as they selected the top 100 Sea of Qi disciples and top 10 Dao Foundation stage disciples from their respective Mountain Ranges within one year.

This small portion of the Giant Clam Realm that was set aside was a world in and of itself. There were giant clam demons of various ranks within. Slaying these demons would earn each competitor points in the tournament!

There was a time limit of 7 days. Afterwards, based on the number of points accumulated, 2,400 people would be eliminated, leaving only the top 100!