First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 240 - Su Yi Enters the Fray

Mu Xi reacted as if a terrifying enemy had descended upon them. Hua Liuye’s appearance made him realize how serious this situation really was.

“Mountain-Subduing King, I’ve always loved talent. Throughout the Great Zhou, young men so blessed by fortune are rare indeed. If you’re willing to lower your head and pledge yourself to the Deathbringer’s Gate, I can look the other way about what happened today.”

Not far away, the white-robed, gray-haired Hua Liuye smiled faintly. “I’d even go so far as to offer you my position as vice sect leader on a silver platter.”

Mu Xi laughed coldly. “You sure know how to dream, you damn geezer!”

Clang!

He raised his golden spear and pointed its tip at the distant Hua Liuye. “Years ago, State Preceptor Hong Shenshang failed to kill you, but that doesn’t mean I can’t take your head!”

Before his cold voice even finished echoing through the air, Mu Xi charged bravely into the fray. 

He arced through the air like a dazzling rainbow, carrying surging murderous intent as he charged Hua Liuye.

Hua Liuye couldn’t help but shake his head and sigh. “Mountain-Subduing King, both the time and location are in my favor. I have the complete advantage. How could I possibly risk my life going toe-to-toe with you?”

A wooden sword silently appeared in his hand. It was pitch-black and reminiscent of jade, but it wasn’t jade. It looked like iron, yet it clearly wasn’t.

Hua Liuye gently stabbed it into the air. 

A completely pitch black, jade but not jade, iron yet not iron, wooden sword silently appeared in his hand, and he stabbed its top into the air. 

“Suppress!” 

Just one word, yet it went off like lightning. 

The one hundred and eight mysterious altars rumbled, and strange and obscure marks flooded out, covering heaven and earth, forming the outline of a towering divine mountain in the sky and emanating limitless divine radiance. 

In the face of this vast and imposing divine mountain, Mu Xi felt like a single drop of water in a vast ocean: utterly insignificant. 

Rumble!

As the divine mountain came crashing down, it threw the skies into chaos. 

Mu Xi went rigid, and he froze in mid-air as a terrifying suppressive force bore down on him. His muscles and bones creaked and rubbed together, unable to bear the pressure. 

His expression changed dramatically.

“Activate!” Mu Xi gnashed his teeth and activated the blood-red jade pendant in his hand in a mad frenzy. His aura surged and expanded with earth-shaking momentum.

Above his head, the faint, nigh-indiscernible figure of a blood Qilin appeared, standing on the surrounding landscape. It held the moon and sun in its mouth, and its eyes were like abysses of blood: divine and endlessly imposing.

Amidst a deafening, thunderous boom, Mu Xi actually managed to resist the suppression of that divine mountain!

One man and one mountain, trapped in a stalemate!

When he saw this, even Hua Liuye was visibly stunned. He couldn’t help but stare intently at the blood-red jade pendant in Mu Xi’s left hand. 

“Mountain-Subduing King, is that the treasure that allowed you to sweep across the nation unchecked? It’s indeed impressive!” exclaimed Hua Liuye, his gaze filling with irrepressible heat.

How could a Xiantian Martial Ancestor of his level fail to realize how divine and mysterious that jade pendant was?

Then, Hua Liuye lowered his head to look at his black wooden sword. His gaze suddenly softened, and he muttered, “Of course, you’re not bad either….” 

“Damn you!” Mu Xi’s expression was dark. The pressure on him was increasing, and he was deeply worried. 

Not even he would have guessed that Hua Liuye, the old devil, was so treacherous. He refused to fight him head-on, instead using the power of the formation to suppress him. 

Even more terrifyingly, even with the Qilin Blood Jade Pendant’s support, Mu Xi could only just barely contend with the formation; he couldn’t really break through the divine mountain it had manifested. 

This is all because I was so stubbornly insistent on achieving perfection in the Grandmaster Realm. With my current cultivation, I cannot realize the true power of the Qilin Blood Pendant. Otherwise, how could I possibly let him suppress me so badly…?

What should I do?

Mu Xi was inwardly frantic. 

The Nine Palaces Yin-Locking Formation was still circulating under Daoist Corpse Controller’s control, and the tide of unearthly whispering spread without pause. 

Pu Yi, Shen Jiusong, Jiang Tanyun, and Lu Zhangfeng were all racked with agony and covered in sweat. Their energy was on the verge of descending into chaos. For all intents and purposes, they’d already lost all will to fight.

Ning Sihua was comparatively better off, but judging by her pained expression, her soul was under attack too.

“Hm?” But when Mu Xi noticed Su Yi’s current situation, he was stunned despite himself. 

Su Yi had his hands behind his back, and he just stood there, looking perfectly leisurely and at ease. He was examining the one hundred and eight altars with great interest, as if all of this were perfectly normal. The unearthly whispers weren’t affecting him in the slightest.

What’s that guy doing? Mu Xi was baffled, and for some reason, he suddenly felt as if he were on the verge of madness. Even now, he isn’t reacting to anything at all? What’s up with that?

No, wait.

He’s only in the Qi Accumulation Realm. I shouldn’t place my hopes on him…. 

But the way he’s watching like this is some kind of spectacle, as if none of this has anything to do with him, is simply infuriating!!!

Su Yi seemed to sense his gaze. He looked up and asked, “Can you still hold on?”

“Of course!” said Mu Xi without even pausing to think.

“Oh,” said Su Yi. Then, he looked away and fixed his gaze on one of the nearby altars. It was as if there were some grand and incredible mystery about it, and he was fully transfixed. 

But his heartless attitude made Mu Xi so angry that the veins bulged on his forehead, and he almost coughed up blood.

Su Yi might be young, but he’s traveling side-by-side with Ning Sihua and Shen Jiusong, and they seem to respect him to the extreme, so I figured he had to be some kind of hidden expert.

Who’d have thought that, even in the face of such grave peril, he wouldn’t even react at all?

“Ee?” It was then that Hua Liuye noticed their exchange.

When he saw that the Nine Palaces Yin-Locking Formation wasn’t affecting Su Yi at all, he couldn’t help but feel rather stunned. 

Hua Liuye glanced at the woman in black and Tu Hong, then casually issued his orders. “You two, go bring that youngster over here. I suspect he has some kind of secret treasure on him, something that’s helping him resist the power of the formation.”

When he saw this, Mu Xi was inwardly exultant. This guy’s finally going to get what’s coming to him!

But when he saw the woman in black and Tu Hong charge Su Yi for real, he couldn’t help but worry on Su Yi’s behalf. He shouted, “Su Yi, don’t just stand there! Hurry up and run!”

Only then did Su Yi reluctantly look away from the altars and glance at Mu Xi. “Hold on tight. I’ll be there to save you soon.”

His tone was casual, but Mu Xi was stunned. You’ll have a hard enough time protecting yourself, yet now you’re saying you’re going to save me?

“Come on, little guy. Be good and follow your Grandpa Tu!” Uproarious laughter rang out like thunder, and the red-headed, massive, imposing Tu Hong charged over.

He was a peak fourth-level Grandmaster. Even though he’d been injured in his earlier clash against Mu Xi, his aura was intimidating to the extreme. 

However, he seemed afraid he’d hurt Su Yi, so he only struck with one hand, like a hawk trying to capture a rabbit. 

Su Yi watched as he drew near, a hint of a cold smirk tugging at his lips.

It was only when Tu Hong’s cattail leaf fan-sized hands drew near that he casually extended his right hand, then grabbed, swung, and slammed.

The others watched as—

Su Yi exerted strength through his wrists, and Tu Hong slammed into the dirt like a wooden peg.

Bam!

The earth shook, scattering fragments of stone. A human-sized crater formed in the ground. 

When they next looked at Tu Hong, they saw that his head was broken and bleeding, his cheeks had caved in, and his face was covered in dirt. Throughout his body, the impact had shattered too many bones to count.

He lay there, sprawled out and seemingly paralyzed, his qi on the verge of collapsing into disarray, twitching like an epileptic and coughing up blood. 

Mu Xi, Hua Liuye, Daoist Corpse Controller, and the woman in black all reacted the exact same way: “......????”

The atmosphere fell deathly silent; what they’d just witnessed left them all dumbstruck. 

“It’s true that I’m only seventeen, but I hate nothing more than others calling me ‘little guy.’ Got it?” Su Yi said seriously, then kicked gently with the tips of his toes. 

Bang! 

Tu Hong’s skull split open like a watermelon. Red liquid and white chunks sprayed out. 

“You’re courting death!” The woman in black let out a high-pitched whistle, pressed her fingers together, and slashed. 

Rumble!

Countless blades of blood-colored wind swept toward Su Yi. They were swift, fierce, and violent. 

Su Yi waved his sleeves, and the wind blades filling the sky burst into nothingness.

The woman in black’s pupils constricted, but before she could react, Su Yi appeared directly in front of her. 

“No one who accuses me of courting death lives to tell the tale. You naturally won’t be an exception.” As his calm, indifferent voice rang out, he raised his right hand and tapped his index finger against her fair, unblemished forehead.

Tapping someone on the forehead was, ordinarily speaking, an affectionate gesture.

Men did it to women, and elders did it to children. People liked tapping each other on the forehead as a show of either affection or as a gentle rebuke.

But when Su Yi’s finger made contact, the woman in black, a fourth-level Grandmaster, felt her skull split open. Her awareness instantly collapsed, and everything went dark. 

Then, her delicate frame fell silently into the dirt.

Mu Xi gasped and watched in a daze. This guy….

Meanwhile, Daoist Corpse Controller, the one wielding the Nine Palaces Yin-Locking Formation, went rigid. A chill coursed through his body, and his expression changed dramatically. 

“Bastard!” Hua Liuye was furious, and his eyes flashed. When he looked at Su Yi, his gaze was now cold and terrifying.

His sleeves flew through the air, and he raised his inky-black wooden sword and stabbed Su Yi through the air.

Boom!

The one hundred and eight altars rumbled once more. A tide of cloud patterns and mysterious symbols surged forth, condensing a towering divine mountain in the air. It appeared directly above Su Yi’s head, then came crashing down.

It lit up with blazing, rosy light. Its suppressive force crushed and burst the air itself, producing a series of low, rumbling booms. 

Mu Xi’s heart tensed. “Hurry up and dodge!”

He’d been contending with a divine mountain manifested from the power of the formation all this time. It was only thanks to his jade pendant that he’d held on this long. 

Without it, he feared he’d have kicked the bucket a long time ago. 

Now, seeing Hua Liuye use the same skill again, using the formation to counter Su Yi, it was only natural that he’d be tense! 

Su Yi smiled but said nothing.

It was only after that blazing, radiant divine mountain came crashing down that he stretched out and flicked his finger. 

Kssh! 

His finger struck like a sword, flying through the air to strike a nearby ancient altar. Its surface was covered in elaborate inscriptions and cloud patterns. Together, they were shaped like a dense vortex.

And Su Yi’s strike landed perfectly in the vortex’s center. 

Boom!

The vast mountain crashing towards him instantly burst, like a firework going off above Su Yi’s head. It was a magnificent spectacle. 

This scene caught the tense, nervous Mu Xi off guard. He was so startled, his jaw practically fell off.

Hua Liuye was dumbstruck too. His entire mind went blank.

“????”