Floating Immortal Order

Chapter 5: You Really Can't Speak to a Summer Insect About Ice?

Chapter 5: You Really Can’t Speak to a Summer Insect About Ice??

Servant Girl and Measuring Dao Channels

TL Note: There are two sources that have the raws, one on Zongheng, the publisher, and one on Ranwen, and they have completely different titles for each chapter even though the content of each chapter is the exact same. From here on, I’ll use the title from Zongheng (the publisher) as the main title, and then the title on Ranwen as the subtitle. Sometimes, the title on Zongheng is a bit long or difficult to translate since it’s an idiom (like in this chapter), but the reader shouldn’t have any problem understanding the meaning of it by the end of the chapter.

Accompanied by two maids, Xu Disheng walked along the path between two pavilions, which had been cleared of snow by the servants.

When he was one year old, he could already talk, and when he was two years old, he requested to be moved to the Green Bamboo Pavilion so he could live independently. In the eyes of the Xu Clan’s Patriarch, this young master was both unusually opinionated and truly peculiar.

When he entered the Rain Listening Pavilion, some snowflakes had been blown along the wind, settling upon his shoulders. Within the room, Jin Yu was playing with a little girl in her arms. When Jin Yu saw him enter, her mouth widened into a smile. “Sheng’er, come and take a look at your sister! She can already talk!”

Xu Disheng stepped forward and reached out, taking the little girl into his arms. The girl was only 2 years old, and she stared up at Xu Disheng with her jet-black, glossy eyes, babbling. “Br…other… Wuuuu… Moth..er…”

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As he looked at his sister, a trace of amusement flashed in his eyes. He could see that her face happened to resemble his quite a bit. After he played with her for a while, he gently handed Xu Yan back to Jin Yu before bowing to her to offer his respects.

With Xu Yan back in her arms, she suddenly caught sight of the snow gathered on Xu Disheng’s shoulders. Her face turned cold as she turned her gaze towards the maid, Lan’er.

Lan’er also saw the snow, and she stood in the back, not daring to make a single sound. When she saw Jin Yu’s cold, severe expression, she immediately knelt down on the ground, head lowered as she quivered in fear.

“Is this how you serve Young Master Sheng?” Jin Yu didn’t speak loudly, but to Lan’er, those words were like a thunderbolt in her ears. She began to kowtow endlessly without a word. Mei’er also joined her in kneeling down, her head deeply lowered.

“Come in,” Jin Yu said.

Two black-armored soldiers from the Zhenhai Army quickly walked in and cupped their fists in greeting. “Madame Yu.”

“These two maid servants will…” Jin Yu started, her clear and elegant face contorted in anger. She was about to deal with them according to the clan’s disciplinary rules before Xu Disheng spoke up.

“Wait a minute,” Xu Disheng said, turning back to look at Lan’er and Mei’er.

“Sheng’er, our clan has its own rules. These are just some lowly servant girls and nothing more. If one lives off the king’s salary, one has to be loyal to him. These two are earning such a high salary, yet this is how they take care of the clan? If they do something wrong, they must be punished!” Jin Yu was also born in a big clan. Although she was very tolerant towards her family, she was exceedingly strict towards the servants.

In the last few years, by relying on the backing influence of the Jin Clan, she had been exerting significant pressure on all the other wives. Within the whole community of pavilions, there was not a single person who dared to oppose her.

“Sheng’er understands what Mother means. But it’s just that I got used to wearing this, so I didn’t feel like changing clothes again,” Xu Disheng said, turning around again to look at the two black-armored Zhenhai Army soldiers. “You two may leave.”

The two black-armored soldiers looked over at Jin Yu, looking somewhat hesitant.

“Young Master Sheng told you to leave, can’t you hear?” Jin Yu raised her voice slightly, already feeling somewhat angered. The two black-armored soldiers slowly withdrew.

“Tomorrow is our Xu Clan’s Dao Channel Measurement Ceremony, which we hold once every five years. Within the 400-li of the fiefdom, any children above 5 years of age and under 10 years of age will come to Zhenhai City to attend. Those with Dao Channels that manage to catch the eye of the Xu Clan will be taken under our care for cultivation. After they grow up, they can join the Imperial Guard, the Zhenhai Army, or other departments. These are the people who will become your troops and subordinates! Your brothers have all been eagerly trying to attract talents, and yet you aren’t interested at all!” Jin Yu said a bit reproachfully.

Even if the parents did not have Dao Channels, their children could still have Dao Channels since they were considered natural dispositions. But if both parents had Dao Channels, the probability of their children having Dao Channels was over 90 percent! Moreover, the Grade of the parents’ Dao Channels had an enormous impact as well. The higher each of their Grades were, when the two qualities combined in their offspring, their Grade would usually become even higher.

How could the Xu Clan be perched upon this lofty position as the local tyrant ruling over 400-li of land? Could it be the Grand Chu’s conferral of their fiefdom had simply made things this way? No, even if they did confer them land, if the clan didn’t have the power to protect it, there was no point!

As a result, these martial artists who were gifted with Dao Channels were considered the roots upon which these clans built their power. The main branch of the clan would possess formidable strength, and the branch families would spread out throughout the land, assimilating these future martial artists into their ranks within their fiefdoms. This enabled the clans to continue to exist, maintain their rule over their fiefdom, and flourish endlessly.

Because the Xu Clan had over 100 years of history, they had several body tempering techniques that could be practiced from childhood, among which was one called the Changquan Martial Art. This technique was entirely geared towards providing the fundamentals for children, and had to be practiced alongside nourishing baths in spirit medicine. Before the Xu Clan’s children even measured their Dao Channels, they had already begun to strengthen their bodies.

Xu Disheng began to practice the Changquan Martial Art when he was 3 years old, and he received medicinal baths every day. As a result, even though he was only 5 years old, he already had strength comparable to an ordinary commoner adult. On top of that, the cyan jade flute was always spilling forth light within his sea of consciousness, as if prompting Xu Disheng to continue cultivating Soul Force at all times. Because of this, his cultivation of the Nourishing Soul Mantra was extremely fast.

It was the next day in the central plaza of Zhenhai City. The plaza was extremely spacious, spanning over 200 zhang in radius. In the very center of the plaza was a massive 16-sided Dao platform, above which was a statue depicting a cross-legged youth.

This statue bore the resemblance of Xu Kunyu, the ancestor of the Xu Clan who was enfeoffed 300 years ago at this location. The plaza was packed to the brim with people. The shops surrounding the plaza had already stopped doing business, and had instead started putting out wooden chairs and tables. They began to sell seats for half a tael of silver per wooden stool, and even still people came rushing over like ducks to bread.

The Dao Channel Measurement Ceremony was a grand occasion that occurred only once every five years in the Xu Clan’s fiefdom. This day alone decided many common households’ futures. It determined whether they would have to do manual labor for the rest of their life and be confined to mediocrity, or whether they would soar to the heavens with a single step and transcend their status as mere commoners.

The last time the Dao Channel Measurement Ceremony took place in this 400-li radius fiefdom was exactly five years ago on this day. Over the last five years, there had been about 1500 children who were now aged between five and ten years, not to mention their parents and the other bustling onlookers adding onto that figure. These people were crowded into every free spot in the plaza and the area surrounding it.

In the middle of the plaza, there was a considerably large empty area, but every now and then there were Imperial Guards laying out seats, which were reserved for aristocratic families and other precious guests.

“Our family’s Er Niu had always been a strong ‘un since he was a lil’ kid. I think our boy Er Niu’s gotta have at least Grade 8 Dao Channels!” A robust man bragged to the others beside him, pulling along a little chubby boy.

“Stop dreaming, Old Niu. If he actually ends up having Grade 8 Dao Channels, he’ll be taken under the Xu Family’s wing, conferred five fields of cropland, and earn a salary of ten taels of silver each month! There’s no way your family has that kind of good fortune!” A man next to him from the same village sneered, unable to stomach his rambunctious, arrogant attitude.

“If you don’t believe me, just you wait and see!” Old Niu said with a snort. He pulled along the chubby youngster by the hand as they forced their way through the crowd.

This was only the happenings in one corner of the plaza.

Within the center of the plaza, 10 Zhenhai Army troops who were in charge of doing the measurements were gathered. From the surroundings, another 10 Zhenhai Army troops stood by to maintain order.

“Make way! Step aside!” Several Imperial Guards roared loudly.

From the south side of the plaza, a path was opened up through the crowd of people. Several Imperial Guards were cooperating to lift and transport a stone platform together. The stone platform was clearly extremely heavy, but these guards were all martial artists. Even still, they had to exert themselves heavily, their faces turning red in the process.

“That’s the Dao Channel Measuring Platform?”

“That’s right. I heard that each region received one Dao Channel Measuring Platform from the Grand Chu. This one is ordinarily under the care of the Ruyang Region’s Guo Clan. When a clan needed to use it, it would then be transported in advance.

“It really doesn’t look like much.”

“What the hell do you know? This stone platform is a Martial Treasure! Not only that, it was refined by the Grand Chu Dynasty! You only need to go up and take a seat to find out if you have Dao Channels!”

“What’s a Martial Treasure?”

“…There’s seriously no point speaking to a summer insect about what happens in the winter!”

In the vast crowd, the people were talking excitedly amongst themselves, but when this blithely ignorant guy blurted out things without thinking, he attracted many disdainful gazes.

Footnotes

The has foundations in real life martial arts.夏虫不可语冰: this is a Chinese idiom that literally means, you can’t speak to a summer insect about ice, since an organism that only lives in the summer would obviously never know what ice is. It essentially means that you can’t bother to speak reason with or try to change the truly ignorant.