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Chapter 119 – Return the Magic Treasures?
Xu Disheng took a step forward and said, “What business do you have with me, Lord Deacon?”
A cold light flashed through the Dao Foundation stage elder’s eyes. He glanced at Xu Disheng and said in a glacial tone, “Return our Ghost Controlling Peak Zhao Clan’s Magic Treasures right this moment. Otherwise…”
“Otherwise what?” Xu Disheng raised his brow and fired back, not convinced.
The elder choked a bit, his expression changing slightly.
He initially thought that Xu Disheng would immediately hand over the Magic Treasures under the pressure of his Dao Foundation stage cultivation. Hearing him fire back a question like that left him momentarily speechless.
“Otherwise…”
He absolutely didn’t dare to attack here, so he turned toward the direction of the chariots atop the giant turtle, cupped his hands in salute, and said, “Severing Meridian Spirit Master passed down an order to have you return our Magic Treasures.”
For someone at the Dao Foundation stage like him to have to pull out the name of the Severing Meridian Spirit Master to get this Sea of Qi stage junior to do what he wanted left him feeling somewhat ashamed, even if he was ordinarily pretty thick-skinned.
“Where is this order? I just saw Severing Meridian Spirit Master, and he didn’t mention this matter at all,” Xu Disheng said indifferently, his expression unchanged as he stared directly into the eyes of the elder.
This Dao Foundation stage elder’s name was Zhao Bin. He was a Deacon from Ghost Controlling Peak, and was dispatched by the Vice Peak Master to request Xu Disheng to return their Magic Treasures. As soon as he heard that Xu Disheng returned, he hurried over.
Inwardly, he was resentful. How could there be a disciple like this? He was stubborn to the extreme, acting up in front of everyone. What an absolute bastard!
Zhao Bin secretly cursed him a thousand times over in his heart. Why the hell would someone of Severing Meridian Spirit Master’s status bother bringing up something like that to an early Sea of Qi stage disciple like him?
To top things off, Xu Disheng was being difficult and playing word games with him.
He had no way to prove that Severing Meridian Spirit Master had given him such an order. But there was no way he could just fly up to the chariots and directly ask Severing Meridian Spirit Master for a warrant.
If he did that, Ghost Controlling Peak’s Zhao Clan would lose all of their face.
“Severing Meridian Spirit Master really did issue such an order,” Zhao Bin said, his expression unsightly. “Is this really something that I would try to deceive you over?”
Lu Zimo, who had been standing at the side for a while now as this was happening, stepped forward and cupped his hands lightly. “Lord Deacon Zhao, if Severing Meridian Spirit Master really did pass down this order, then please show proof of the order, and I will have Junior Martial Brother Xu hand over the Magic Treasures to you. If you cannot produce proof, then I can only take this to mean…” he lifted his gaze as his voice gradually grew louder, a cold look flashing through his eyes, “That you think you can use your Dao Foundation stage cultivation to take advantage of the moment when our Morning Dew Peak’s elders aren’t here to bully us juniors?”
Zhao Bin’s expression became even more ugly as he gave Lu Zimo and Xu Disheng a long, hard look. Without saying another word, he turned around and flew away on his flying sword Magic Treasure, disappearing in a beam of light.
“Thanks for your help, Senior Martial Brother Lu,” Xu Disheng said. He didn’t expect Lu Zimo to speak up for him, so he was a bit surprised.
“Don’t worry about it. It wasn’t like I was speaking up for you. That guy was being way too savage. Wasn’t he looking down on us a bit too much, trying to take advantage of the fact that our Peak Master and Deacons weren’t here to fly directly above our circle of light on his flying sword?” Lu Zimo said, a hint of anger apparent in his voice.
Xu Disheng nodded, but inwardly he was thinking about the 7 Magic Treasures that he acquired from Zhao Yueban and Zuo Yanran, which were currently stored in his Yin Yang Diagram.
He definitely wouldn’t have been willing to return all of the Magic Treasures. But after seeing Zhao Bin speak with such certainty, it seemed that Severing Meridian Spirit Master really did say something like that.
“Junior Martial Brother Xu, are you worried about that order from Severing Meridian Spirit Master?” Zhang Haobo said, attracting the gazes of many disciples. He had been standing among the other disciples earlier, but hadn’t come forward.
Xu Disheng turned to look at Zhang Haobo, waiting for his next words.
A smile crossed Zhang Haobo’s face. “When we saw the points change earlier, we could roughly guess some things. After killing Zhao Yueban, you were able to obtain his Magic Treasures, right Junior Martial Brother Xu?”
Xu Disheng nodded and said, “That person schemed to set up a sneak attack on me in the Mirage Sea Realm, but I ended up killing him instead. It’s far too tyrannical of the Zhao Clan to come and demand their Magic Treasures be returned to them after something like that.”
“Zhao Yueban definitely wouldn’t only have only one Magic Treasure on him, right? Couldn’t you just give them the worst Magic Treasure out of them?” Zhang Haobo said, the smile on his face taking on a devious nuance. “This way, you wouldn’t be going against the Spirit Master’s order, since you technically did return their Magic Treasure.”
“A brilliant scheme, Senior Martial Brother Zhang,” a disciple at his side agreed. He and many others looked pleased, since Lu Zimo had just sent that Ghost Controlling Peak elder packing, bolstering the spirits of everyone who witnessed it. Having the opportunity to mess around with a person of the rank 9 Ghost Controlling Peak really let them blow off some steam.
“I think this plan could work, Senior Martial Brother Xu,” Yuan Qi said, pushing his way between two disciples to stand next to Xu Disheng.
Xu Disheng looked around at all the disciples surrounding him, forming a circle with him as its core. However, there was one person standing alone behind the crowd. It was Li Dan.
“Li Dan, what do you think of this matter?” Xu Disheng asked.
The disciples all turned their heads to look. Seeing that the person Xu Disheng asked was an ordinary Sea of Qi stage disciple, they couldn’t help being a bit surprised.
A peak Sea of Qi stage disciple spoke up, his expression scornful. “Senior Martial Brother Xu, I know this person. When he just entered Morning Dew Peak, he would often come to my courtyard to try to force his way into being friends. His strength is extremely lacking, too. He’s a pest, through and through.”
Li Dan gave this disciple a glance, but didn’t try to retort. He cupped his hands and said, “Senior Martial Brother Xu, in my opinion, you shouldn’t return any of Zhao Yueban’s Magic Treasures to Ghost Controlling Peak.”
“Are you trying to harm Senior Martial Brother Xu? If Zhao Bin really brings over an order from the Spirit Master, how will Senior Martial Brother Xu be able to bear the responsibility?” a disciple immediately shouted reprovingly.
“This guy doesn’t have any good intentions, Senior Martial Brother Xu. I’ll teach him a lesson for you,” the peak Sea of Qi stage disciple who spoke poorly of Li Dan earlier said, his expression full of displeasure as he readied an attack.
Zhang Haobo’s expression became even more unsightly upon hearing what Li Dan said. Just now, his suggestion to Xu Disheng to return one ordinary Magic Treasure was a method that made a compromise between both sides of the matter, and given he had earned the praise and support of the other disciples for it, he couldn’t help feeling rather smug.
But now, Li Dan told Xu Disheng to not return a single Magic Treasure. How could that not be a slap in the face to him? Seeing the other disciples wanting to teach him a lesson, Zhang Haobo was of the mind to join in and give him a few hits himself while he was down.
“Hold your hands,” Xu Disheng said, waving his hand to stop the disciples who wanted to attack. “Li Dan, continue.”
Li Dan spoke, word for word. “You killed a genius of Ghost Controlling Peak, so they definitely won’t take it lying down. Even if they can’t do anything inside of the sect, what about when you leave the territory of the sect? It’s hard to say, they might lie in wait and ambush you, Senior Martial Brother Xu.”
He pointed to the chariots atop the giant turtle on high and continued. “Even if you actually gave them back one ordinary Magic Treasure, they wouldn’t just stop there. Instead, they would only continue to press harder and harder for the other more precious Magic Treasures. As for the matter of the Spirit Master’s order,” Li Dan sneered, “Even if Severing Meridian Spirit Master really did give such an order, he probably doesn’t care about this matter that much. I don’t believe even for a moment that Ghost Controlling Peak would dare to approach Severing Meridian Spirit Master again to bother him about this matter.”
Li Dan’s words were spot on. Even Ghost Dominion Spirit Master could only furtively send a jade slip to Killing Heart Spirit Master.
It was indeed true that Ghost Dominion Spirit Master wouldn’t dare to bother Severing Meridian Spirit Master over a small matter like this.
These Spirit Masters who wielded so much authority wouldn’t care too much no matter how many geniuses died. What were a few Magic Treasures in comparison?
Xu Disheng nodded in agreement. Even though he had only met those Spirit Masters once, he got a deep impression that they viewed the disciples in a rather indifferent or even unsympathetic light.
With how many disciples there were in the Shangqing Sacred Sect, what were the deaths of a few so-called ‘geniuses’?
It was even to the point that when Xu Disheng killed Zhao Yueban, Killing Heart Spirit Master’s only remark was, ‘Severing Meridian Spirit Master, with this ghost Dao technique, do you think he’ll be able to stand his ground in the Eight Mountain Grand Tournament?’.
It was clear that the lives of these ‘geniuses’ were not nearly as important as the Eight Mountains Grand Tournament was to them.
Of course, Yu Yangyao and Jian Liangbi, who had Rank 4 Spiritual Roots, would receive more special consideration. After all, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that a Rank 4 Spiritual Root and a Rank 5 Spiritual Root were poles apart in terms of talent.
The Spiritual Root Sequence was split into three classes, and the middle class, the Lower Third Spiritual Root, consisted of Rank 6, Rank 5, and Rank 4 Spiritual Roots.
Rank 5 Spiritual Roots were already considered the top talents of a Mountain Range, but Rank 4 Spiritual Roots had promising prospects to reach the Primordial Spirit stage in the future.
Rank 3 Spiritual Roots, which belonged to the Upper Third Spiritual Roots, were extremely rare in the Dong Territory of the Human Realm. Every one of them was an existence that appeared only once every several tens of thousands of years. In the countless years that the Shangqing Sacred Sect existed, all of the Rank 3 Spiritual Roots that had appeared within had reached the Clone Avatar stage at the very minimum, able to unleash incantationless spells, burn the heavens, and boil the seas. Many of them had become Saint Lords.
A few Rank 2 and Rank 1 Spiritual Roots had appeared in the Shangqing Sacred Sect before, but with the passing of time, neither Divine Core stage Spirit Masters nor Primordial Lords could specifically remember their names anymore.
The most recent appearance of such a figure was over 40,000 years ago. He had been the Divine Sea stage patriarch of the Shangqing Sacred Sect, and had a Rank 2 Spiritual Root. With his might, he suppressed the entire vast region Shan Mountains, and had once attained enough fame and prestige to be known throughout the entire Dong Territory of the Human Realm.
However, even this inextinguishable, undying Divine Sea stage genius couldn’t break free of that existence at the very peak, and was ordained to take up a divine post. In the over 40,000 years that followed, he never returned from the Heavenly Court.
Li Dan knew that he made the right bet. He walked over and silently stood behind Xu Disheng, not speaking any further.
That peak Sea of Qi stage disciple who said that he would teach Li Dan a lesson swallowed his rage and shamefully withdrew.
“Martial brothers and sisters, I will be heading back to Morning Dew Peak now to prepare for the final round of the tournament three days from now,” Xu Disheng said, cupping his hands in salute to Lu Zimo as he bade farewell to everyone else. The phantom image of the Yin Yang Diagram appeared beneath his feet, and he rose up into the sky.
The disciples all said their farewells in succession.
“Wait for me, Senior Martial Brother Xu,” Yuan Qi said, hastily taking out his own flying-type Spirit Tool and following after him.
Zhang Haobo stroked the storage pouch at his waist, sharing a smile with the several disciples beside him.
He had heard from Bai Zhehua about the number of Magic Treasures Xu Disheng had on him, and also heard about that ghost Dao cultivation method he had. He told several other disciples about it and they cast an all-in bet that Xu Disheng would reach the top 10.
Sure enough, they wagered correctly, and Zhang Haobo and the others earned over 200 spirit stones each. It was truly a huge fortune of easy money. If anyone were to speak poorly about Xu Disheng in their presence, they would surely be the first to fight that person.
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