<h4>Chapter 24: Water Gives Life, But Just As Easily Takes It</h4>
<strong>Chapter 24: Water Gives Life, But Just As Easily Takes It</strong>
<i>Jiangdu City</i>
Evil winds howled and screeched as the massive evil spirit skull burrowed itself all the way into Bai Xiuyu’s body. Bai Xiuyu’s face was still nk. After a short while, the ck wind began to slowly dissipate out from his body as tranquility was restored to the pce hall. At the top of Bai Xiuyu’s head, all that was left was a strand of ck gas vaporizing into the atmosphere.
“!!!”
“He… killed Lord Bai?”
“A Xiantian transcendent… died?”
“Sheng’er! Is that you?”
“Xiuyu!!”
Everything happened too quickly. Eventually, everyone in the hall started toe back to their senses. Xu Chaoyang walked over to Xu Disheng, his emotions stirred up. He almost didn’t dare to believe his eyes.
Bai Fanyu crazily shook Bai Xiuyu’s responseless body, watching the nk expression on his face in a hysterical panic. But no matter how much he shook him, Bai Xiuyu had no reaction whatsoever. All that remained of him was that nk expression on his face as his body slowly turned as cold as ice.
This Passing Soul Mantra was iparably malicious. It could directly pass a person’s soul into nothingness! Just this one move cost Xu Disheng a little less than half of his Soul Force reserves.
“Old Xiu pays respects to Regional Lord Xu,” the elderly envoy from Youyang City slowly lowered his body and offered his courtesies to Xu Disheng. “The Bai n disrespected the Prince and ndered the Dao Pce. ording to thew, they deserve punishment by death! I was about to write a letter to His Excellency, but I did not expect Regional Lord Xu toe back. In this case, it would be apt for Regional Lord Xu to directly determine everything.”
Xu Disheng nodded and said, “Okay.” When he looked over at the other Xiantian martial artists, he saw Guo Nansu squinting his eyes as he smiled at him.
Zhao Huichun and Gao Sishui were on guard against him, their seas of consciousness revolving at full power as they stared warily at him.
“Elder Guo, about the matter of exterminating the Bai n. It’s a bit out of my reach to aplish alone, so I’d like to invite you to help me,” Xu Disheng said.
Guo Nansuughed out loud before ncing at Bai Fanyu. “Sheng’er, your Xu n and my Guo n are friends, so naturally I will offer my aid.”
“ording tow? Just whosew? Xu Disheng! You just came back and immediately pull this shit without any notice whatsoever? You son of a bitch!” Bai Fanyu roared madly, his eyes bloodshot as he glowered at Xu Disheng and the elderly envoy.
“The Dao Pce isw,” Xu Disheng said quietly. He formed a hand seal and activated a Shangqing Incantation. “Shangqing, Fierce Incantation.”
From the Shangqing Profound Qi surrounding his body, a strand was separated out and immediately transformed into an orb which exploded on Bai Fanyu’s body. With a sh, he was sted away into the depths of the pce hall, spitting out blood the entire way. When hended, it wasn’t clear if he was dead or alive.
Xu Disheng had not yet reached the Cleansed Meridians Stage. At this point, only about two-thirds of his meridian points were filled with Shangqing Profound Qi. If he were to go head to head with a Martial Technique Xiantian, he wasn’t 100% certain about being able to secure victory. Just now, it was only because his <i>Shangqing Profound Qi</i> was the direct ancestor of <i>Shangqing Qi</i> that Bai Xiuyu wasn’t able to revolve his qi and couldn’t make any moves. He also picked the strongest move in his arsenal at the moment, which was the second mantra of the <i>Soul Song</i> in his sea of consciousness, the Passing Soul Mantra. Its power allowed him to directly ughter Bai Xiuyu and intimidate everyone present.
“Grandpa Chaoyang,” Xu Disheng muttered.
Xu Chaoyang’s emotions were evident in his eyes as he moved forward to try and reach out and touch Xu Disheng, but he saw that his body was surrounded with profound qi. The intricate Daoist robe that he was wearing was so noble and grand, and his ck hair was long and elegantly secured by a jade hairpin. His expression was also cold.
In the end, he wasn’t able to reach out with his hands to touch him. He could only manage to utter, “Sheng’er, you’re finally back.”
The other people from the Xu n had beenpletely stunned this whole time. The Young Patriarch, Xu Xiao, was also among them, his expressionplicated as he gazed upon Xu Disheng.
Xu Disheng exchanged a sentence with Guo Nansu. “Elder Guo, I’ll be leaving the upper echelons of the Bai n to you.”
Guo Nansu smiled and replied, “You can leave it to me. Go on ahead, Sheng’er.’
Xu Disheng exited the pce hall. The outside of the pce hall was still bustling with activity, clearly unaware of the fact that Bai Xiuyu had already died. The people had only seen a youth with a Daoist robe walk into the hall, then after a while, some wisps of ck gas drifting out. Then after another short moment, the youth left the hall.
He took a look at the surrounding people. Most of them belonged to the Bai n’s Jiangdu City guard forces, and there were also several small aristocratic ns. None of these people were from the Xu n.
He closed his eyes that glittered like starlight and muttered, “Amassing Water.”
He revolved his profound qi, and water began to condense rapidly in front of him. The water transformed into 10 exquisitely sparkling, translucent water arrows, which trembled ever so slightly as they floated in midair.
Xu Disheng didn’t bother to look at the people around him anymore. With a flick of his sleeves, he turned on his heel and went back into the pce hall.
“What are these water arrows? They look so mystical!”
“Is this some kind of magic trick?”
The guards belonging to the Bai n found it rather novel, and they stared at the 10 water arrows in amazement. They never would have thought that in the next moment, each arrow would point towards a different direction and shoot out, indiscriminately attacking everyone in a circr radius within the great hall.
Although the water arrows didn’t look spectacr, their power far exceeded their appearance. Every single water arrow brought about an explosion that affected a radius of 5 to 6 meters. Regardless of whether it was a person or an object, all were violently ripped apart by profound qi as they exploded into countless bits that flew in every which direction, never to be whole again.
In about half the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the water arrows dissipated, leaving a perfect stillness in their wake.
TL: “The time it takes for an incense stick to burn”: amonly used frame of reference for time in Chinese cultivation novels. Equates to around 5 to 30 minutes.
Xu Disheng walked into the pce hall. Guo Nansu had bloodstains on his hands, and he weed him over with a smile. “Sheng’er, the upper ranks of the Bai n have all been executed ording to thew.”
Guo Nansu was a Martial Technique Xiantian, which meant that he could expand his sea of consciousness to attack others in its field of range, but that method was very wasteful in terms of power. It would be much easier for him to just take them out one by one with his fists.
The other slightlyrger ns in the great hall had all be docile and obedient. They were frightened out of their wits, and didn’t even dare to make a sound. The Xu n faced him, their expressions filled with emotion. Among the crowd were also the people from the Jin n who were close to the Xu n, and their expressions were simrlyplicated as they looked at Xu Disheng.
“I had long since heard of Regional Lord Xu’s entry into the Dao Pce, and how profound your ways of the Dao were. Now that I have finally met you in person, I can see that your reputation is truly well-deserved,” Zhao Huichun said with a brightugh. Even he himself wasn’t sure if the words of goodwill he was spouting were genuine or fake. From hisplexion, he seemed to be trying to hold back his fear of the consequences of offending him, and it was obvious that he was also rather afraid of Xu Disheng’s Passing Soul Mantra.
Xu Disheng had just wordlessly extinguished the life of a Xiantian transcendent, one who had sessfully cultivated the <i>Shangqing Qi</i> nheless. Bai Xiuyu didn’t even have the time to raise a finger or make a move, which was in part one of the reasons they couldn’t help but feel the need to tread carefully.
“What a heroic youth,” Gao Sishui, the Regional Lord of the Gaoyang Region, praised while wearing a smile on his face.
These few people were the Regional Lords of the Regions surrounding the Ruyang Region, and every single one of them were, in the eyes of regr people, extremely aloof and untouchable Xiantian martial artists. And at this moment, they were allyering on the praise, acting in a nearly reverent manner towards Xu Disheng.
Xu Disheng returned their greeting, then turned to the side to look at Xu Chaoyang. “Patriarch, you can write back to Zhenhai City. Have them immediately dispatch the Zhenhai Army to purge the borders of Jiangdu City of the remnants of the Bai n through execution at the gallows. Then, have people take control of Jiangdu City and take it under the jurisdiction of the Xu n.”
“Alright, I’ll pass the order on!” Xu Chaoyang was still feeling rather moved. Just now, he didn’t even notice that Xu Disheng had called him ‘Patriarch’, and not ‘Grandpa Chaoyang’.
Within one day, the state of affairs in the Ruyang Region underwent massive changes!
Rumors spread like wildfire among the citizens as they began to talk about the return of the real Regional Lord. The gossip described the lord as a handsome youth, who also happened to be profound in the Daoist ways. They spoke of how he ughtered the Xiantian martial artist of the Bai n, Bai Xiuyu, by simply raising his hand, and how he had dispatched troops to purge the borders of Jiangdu City and confiscated the entirety of the wealth that the Bai n had been umting for centuries.
From henceforth, there would be no Bai n. Now, the only two ns left in the Ruyang Region were the Xu n and the Jin n.
After two days, the Bai n’s wealth that was umted over centuries was finally plundered dry, but there were still some people from the Bai n who took advantage of the chaos to escape.
In the Juying Hall in Zhenhai City, the upper echelons of the Xu n had gotten together. Everyone of them had unconceble delight upon their faces. The five elders in the Council of Elders were seated above on the seats of honor, while below them were Xu Chaoyang, Xu Xiao, Xu Chen, and Xu Yan, along with around 10 others from the upper echelons of the Xu n.
The face of the Grand Elder, Xu Qinying, looked normal, but the excitement in his eyes couldn’t be hidden so easily. In his hand was a list, and the further he read down the list, the more excited the look in his eyes became. “The Bai n’s property sure is impressive! This elder didn’t go to attend the Transcendence Ceremony, but I really didn’t expect Sheng’er would bring me such a great surprise!”
As he spoke, his honorifics started to loosen as he began to refer to himself as ‘I’ instead of ‘this elder’, and by this it was evident that even though Xu Disheng hadn’t arrived yet, he didn’t try to exaggerate his own position.
TL: Chinese honorifics are incrediblyplicated, and there are many different pronouns that can be used to refer to oneself in a lowering or superior manner, depending on that person’s status being higher or lower than the other party (although these aren’t generally used in daily speech nowadays). Most of the time, I simply trante all of those pronouns to ‘I’ or ‘me’ since English doesn’t have an equivalent concept of honorific pronouns, then I try to imply their honorific tone through their speech. If you’re interested in reading more in detail about this topic, see this wiki link:
“The Regional Lord arrives,” a voice announced from outside of the pce hall. Shortly after, a Daoist youth wearing an intricate ck Daoist robe walked into the pce hall.