Floating Immortal Order

Chapter 209: Suspicion of Embezzling Tribute

Chapter 209: Suspicion of Embezzling Tribute

In the open, vast azure sky, the clouds and mist stretched onward boundlessly like an ocean.

Above the thickly layered clouds, a massive spiritual beast was moving along, traversing the clouds. It was wrapped in a gentle, watery blue profound light, which left behind a dazzling streak of light as it soared through the skies.

Ma Chen was sitting cross-legged on a solid part of the suanni spiritual beast’s armored hide, using a piece that was jutting out as a handhold. He let out an emotional sigh of admiration and said, “Soul Suppressor Sacred Son’s mount is truly incredible. It can even transform into a massive beast over 60 meters tall. Not to mention only a dozen or so people like us, even if there were twice as many people, it wouldn’t feel crowded.”

“This beast is called a suanni, a type of mount raised with utmost care in Spiritual Beast Pavilion. Aside from people at the rank of Sacred Son, only Divine Core stage Spirit Masters can have a suanni spiritual beast.”

Much to everyone’s surprise, the one who spoke was Ming Ruoyun from Falling Moon Peak. Her hair was blowing lightly in the wind, and she turned to him with a light smile, continuing, “This suanni spiritual beast is already at the peak Dao Foundation stage. It’s only one step away from advancing to a Monster Core stage spiritual beast, which is the equivalent of a human race Divine Core stage cultivator.”

As Chu Luo looked at the picturesquely beautiful woman, a strong sense of interest and curiosity towards her sprang up in his chest. “Senior Martial Sister Ming, you…”

Before he could finish his sentence, he heard Xu Disheng’s voice over the loudly gusting winds.

“All of you, come to the head region of the suanni.”

Chu Luo hurriedly shut his mouth, then stood up. He ate a Qi Boosting Pill, surrounded himself with as strong a profound qi barrier as he could muster, then began to traverse the 30-40 meter distance towards the head region of the suanni with the others.

Unlike normal flying-type Spirit Tools, this suanni spiritual beast didn’t have a massive barrier surrounding it to protect from the blasting winds. The passengers could only wrap themselves in a barrier of profound qi or use a barrier from a Spirit Tool to resist the wind.

As everyone arrived on the massive, majestically horned head of the suanni spiritual beast, they saw Xu Disheng, seated next to one of the horns. Everyone cupped their hands in salute and greeted, “Soul Suppressor Sacred Son.”

Xu Disheng turned to look at them. His black hair, tied up by a white jade band, flowed unperturbed down his back, nearly undisturbed by the strong, sweeping gales.

There was a dark green jade slip in his hands. “He Ziming, inform everyone of the contents of this jade slip.”

He Ziming was on standby at Xu Disheng’s side. He turned around and looked at the people with a hint of disdain hidden deep in his gaze. “In the last 100 years, the tribute paid by the Anxi Province has changed greatly.”

“The provincial governments under the jurisdiction of the Sacred Sect pay tribute once every 10 years. But there has been a rather large discrepancy in the tribute paid by the Anxi Province over the last 10 occasions.”

“100 years ago, the tribute they paid consisted of 26,500 spirit stones, 35,330 Golden Feather Flowers, 600 Scarlet Star Flowers, 382 pieces of Icy Silkworm Illusion Essence, and 41 stalks of Heaven Origin Herb…”

“But 10 years ago, the tribute they paid consisted of only 8,532 spirit stones, 4,280 Golden Feather Flowers, 75 Scarlet Star Flowers, 59 pieces of Icy Silkworm Illusion Essence, and not even a single Heaven Origin Herb!”

After waiting for He Ziming’s words to sink in, Xu Disheng flicked his sleeves and picked up where he left off. “The two envoys currently stationed in this Province, Gou Lezhan and Qin Huamao, are clearly under suspicion of embezzling tribute. What do you all think of this matter? You all can speak freely.”

While being suspicious of these two for embezzling the tribute was obvious, Xu Disheng didn’t think this matter was that simple.

The Shangqing Sacred Sect used the mortal provinces under their jurisdiction to plant low-grade spiritual medicines and plants, so they didn’t place much importance on them. Even the spirit stones and cultivation resources they received from tribute were just icing on the cake. After all, Affairs Hall’s Spiritual Medicine Pavilion had an enormous Secret Realm with countless fertile farms for growing herbs and medicine of high grade and quality in nearly every possible shape and variety.

But while these provincial governments under the Sacred Sect’s jurisdiction had a lot of spiritual medicines and fruits planted based on their differing terrain and geography, it was just to make the most of the land. There were usually only one or two Dao Foundation stage Deacon stationed in each Province as envoy.

Heaven Origin Herb was somewhat different. It was a rare high-grade herb that only grew on the border of the Anxi Province in the Luo River. Although the people of Spiritual Medicine Pavilion had already plucked some and brought it back to their Secret Realm to be grown, the effect was still inferior to the Heaven Origin Herb grown naturally at the source. As a result, Affairs Hall regarded the Anxi Province with a degree of importance, which is why they dispatched two peak Dao Foundation stage disciples as envoys. These two had already been stationed at the Anxi Province for around 100 years by this point.

Yuan Qi’s eyes lit up. Unwilling to let go of this opportunity to show off, he blurted out, “Soul Suppressor Sacred Son, in my opinion, it’s clear that these two are insatiably greedy! They’re definitely embezzling the tribute!”

Xu Disheng was silent, his gaze calm, not giving anything away.

The other people all realized that this matter wasn’t this simple, otherwise Xu Disheng wouldn’t have gathered them all at the head of the suanni spiritual beast. They all kept their heads lowered, contemplating deeply on the matter.

A hint of disappointment flashed through Xu Disheng’s eyes. He turned around, resting a hand on the suanni’s massive horn. “You all can leave.”

Although he didn’t have any intention to train these people, he wanted to try and see if there was any talent he could make use of. But in the end, it was just as he expected.

At his side, He Ziming hesitated for a moment before speaking up. “Soul Suppressor Sacred Son, in my opinion, we won’t be able to figure out the whole story right now no matter how we analyze it. We can only slowly get to the bottom of this once we arrive in the Anxi Province.”

Xu Disheng nodded appreciatively. “That’s right,” he replied.

Just now, he asked, ‘what do you all think about this matter?’. It was an extremely crafty way of phrasing the question. They hadn’t arrived in the Anxi Province yet, and with how little information they had, it simply wasn’t possible to analyze anything out of it.

Any smart person’s answer would have been like He Ziming’s, along the lines of ‘insufficient information, unable to analyze’.

But everyone was eager to impress him and tried to rack their brains for an answer, but ended up thinking about the matter in an overly complex way, forgetting that there wasn’t enough information in their possession to make any heads or tails of the situation.

The suanni was raised in Spiritual Beast Pavilion, and was specially trained as a flying mount. Its flight speed was shocking, to say the least.

He Ziming was holding the map jade slip. He examined the contents, comparing it closely with the surroundings. Then, he walked over to Xu Disheng and said, “Soul Suppressor Sacred Son, once we proceed another few dozen li, we will enter the borders of the Anxi Province.”

The suanni gradually reduced its speed, breaking through the thick layer of clouds and hiding itself within. Xu Disheng channeled Soul Force to his eyes, allowing his vision to penetrate through the clouds to the scenery below.

Countless fertile fields were arrayed across the land. Mortals were toiling away industriously in the fields, working with deliberate care. These fields held the most common low-grade spiritual crop in Anxi Province, Golden Feather Flower.

However… just looking at the scale of these fields, there was no way that 80% of the total production of Golden Feather Flower over the course of 10 years was only 4,200 flowers!

Xu Disheng’s gaze was as calm as a still pond. With a movement of his profound qi, the suanni let out a low roar and used an invisibility technique, then flew out from the layer of clouds, landing in a lush and flourishing wooded mountain.

Once everyone got off the suanni, its figure gradually shrunk down to its normal size of only about 10 meters tall. Xu Disheng then stored it away in the Beast Handling Ring, a top-grade Magic Treasure.

The Beast Handling Ring was a special item crafted by Spiritual Beast Pavilion. Every Beast Handling Ring was eternally linked to one spiritual beast. The enormous dimensional space inside the ring could be considered the suanni’s true home.

Xu Disheng’s Dao Foundation stage aura gradually faded away to nothing, until he seemed no different from a mortal. He walked out from the mountain forest and started heading towards the vast, fertile fields of the Anxi Province.

The other people followed suit. After using techniques to restrain their auras, they followed closely after Xu Disheng.

Aura restraining techniques weren’t rare, being something that was part of the Shangqing Sacred Sect’s most basic incantation, which every Sea of Qi stage disciple knew how to use. That being said, there was ordinarily no use for it.