First Immortal of the Sword

Su Yi walked alone through the mountains.

Dawn had arrived, and the skies were bright. The mountains and rivers along the way were clearly visible, and the trees and grasses shone. All of heaven and earth was luminous, splendid, and brimming with life.

The mountains had no sign of human habitation. The only sounds were the rustling of insects, bird song, and the occasional roars of wild beasts.

As Su Yi continued along his path, he admired the rosy sunrise and flowing clouds, his heart clear and tranquil.

Everything he heard and saw along the way became a type of enlightenment, which accumulated in dribs and drabs.

When you gazed upon the grand beauty of creation and relished the glory of nature, it was easier for your mind and spirit to meld with the world around you.

This was what martial artists called “unity of man and heaven.”

To cultivators, meditating in seclusion was cultivation, slaying your foes in combat was cultivation, tempering the heart amidst the mortal dust was cultivation… Comprehending and experiencing nature in all its forms was a process of accumulation that brought one closer to the Grand Dao.

Throughout his journey, Su Yi’s mind was clear, and his aura was relaxed and leisurely. He quietly took in everything he passed along the road, and unwittingly, his mind, spirit, and qi underwent a form of sublimation.

When he arrived at a stretch of verdant mountain forest, his field of view went dark. The dense leaves and branches blotted out the sun, and the woods were dark and gloomy.

Su Yi suddenly stopped in his tracks.

He suddenly felt something rippling and trembling in his soul.

Then, it was like a seed burst through the ground and sprouted, producing a subtle and mysterious power in his soul.

Instantly, the dark, overcast forest underwent a dramatic transformation; it was suddenly colorful and clear.

The lines of bark spreading up the trees, the slender veins on every leaf, and even the minute specks of dust hovering in the air… All of this appeared in Su Yi’s sea of consciousness in full detail.

There was an ant hole one hundred feet away, and ants streamed in and out.

Not far away, atop a towering tree, a green snake hid on a branch, eyeing a nearby bird busily preening its feathers.

A bit further off, a bead of dew dripped from a plump green leaf. When it hit the ground, it split into six droplets….

The faint sound of every rustle of grass surged into his awareness. The songs of birds and insects, the wind blowing through the leaves, the gentle swaying of spiderwebs….

Even the sound of the air currents was clearly audible.

In an instant, Su Yi’s perception of heaven and earth changed completely.

After silently taking all of this in, a hint of a smile rose on Su Yi’s lips, and delight shone in the depths of his gaze.

Divine sense!

He had begun cultivating his soul with the Universal Self-Embodiment Sutra back in Guangling City. Now, his soul power had finally made a qualitative breakthrough: he’d tempered it to the point of producing divine sense!

“In my past life, it was only when I became a Xiantian Martial Ancestor that I produced divine sense, yet now, I’ve realized this power as a Grandmaster!” Su Yi’s eyes lit up.

Ordinarily speaking, only Origin Dao cultivators could obtain divine sense.

Having divine sense meant that you could keenly perceive the traces of the Grand Dao scattered throughout heaven and earth, and you could discern the Dao’s subtle and profound charm in the world around you.

During cultivation, divine sense enabled you to sense the subtle changes in your own body on a far deeper level. You could discover and fix deficiencies, down to the subtlest detail.

In battle, you could use your divine sense to pick up on details imperceptible to the naked eye, like changes in an enemy’s flow of power, the presence of a treasure, or the shifting airflow of heaven and earth….

All of these things could instantly appear within one’s mental sea!

Why were Origin Dao cultivators so mighty?

It wasn’t just that they dined on wind and drank the morning dew. It wasn’t just that they could ride on air, or that they could control wind and thunder to slay enemies from afar.

Their strength was also due to the fact that, with one sweep of their divine sense, they could instantly discover exploitable opportunities and kill their foes before they could even react!

Of course, in combat against other cultivators with divine senses, other factors came into play. Differences in cultivation, treasures, Daoist magics, and other combat skills mattered too.

In simple terms, above the Origin Dao, every cultivator possessed divine sense. It was ubiquitous and not at all exceptional.

However, obtaining divine sense in the Four Realms of the Martial Dao was no different from acquiring a limitlessly terrifying weapon!

This took even Su Yi by surprise. Despite the breadth of knowledge of his past life, he’d never even heard of an Internal Furnace Realm warrior obtaining divine sense.

After all, the Martial Dao was still well within the confines of mortality; such warriors weren’t yet true cultivators.

This was like wielding the power of a true cultivator with the body of a mortal man; it was shocking and unheard of!

Just because I’ve never heard of something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. If I hadn’t chosen to reincarnate and cultivate anew, how could I have learned that it’s possible to obtain divine sense in the Inner Furnace Realm?

That I’ve managed to take this step now is partially due to my extraordinary foundations in the Grand Dao, but the true crux of the matter is most likely the Universal Self-Embodiment Sutra, Su Yi thought to himself.

The cultivation base, the soul, and the physique. The three formed, supported, and nourished each other.

Refining qi tempered the flesh, and a strong body could nourish the soul.

In the Nine Provinces of the Wilds, any cultivator with the ambition to strive for the Imperial Realm would, in the early stages of their journey, begin cultivating and tempering their soul as well.

However, soul cultivation was extremely exacting; any injury to the soul was a severe Dao wound.

In the peak-level factions of the Wilds, only disciples who’d cultivated to the Inner Furnace Realm and passed an extremely stringent selection process would receive a soul cultivation technique, and seniors of their sect or clan would transmit it to them one-on-one.

Why had Su Yi’s progress stagnated at the peak of the Profound Unity Realm in his past life? Why was it that, despite his painstaking efforts, he couldn’t reach a higher path? Part of it was that he lacked the right opportunity, but more than that, the foundations of his soul power were inadequate.

Thus, upon reincarnating to cultivate afresh, Su Yi pondered long and hard about how to avoid the mistakes of his past life. In the end, he chose the Universal Self-Embodiment Sutra to temper his soul.

This soul cultivation technique was the result of a burst of enlightenment he’d obtained from the ninth of the divine chains sealing the Sword of the Nine Hells in his past life!

Afterward, he relied upon this power of enlightenment as well as his own intelligence to create this soul cultivation technique.

Strictly speaking, this technique was the culmination of his past life’s 108,000 thousand years of accumulated cultivation experience and knowledge and that burst of enlightenment originating from the Sword of the Nine Hells.

And now, with his humble second-level Grandmaster Realm cultivation, he’d already obtained the power of divine sense. This was clear proof of how miraculous the Universal Self-Embodiment Sutra was.

It was far more subtle and profound than the Little Western Paradise’s Amitabha’s Heaven Reflecting Sutra or the Grotto of Profound Light Mental Courtyard Sutra, one of the Four Great Daoist Canons.

Otherwise, why was it that despite countless years, neither Buddhism nor Daoism had ever produced a Grandmaster capable of achieving divine sense?

After a while, Su Yi set those thoughts aside.

Time to test out my divine sense! Su Yi focused, and a wisp of divine sense swept from his mind.

Ten feet, fifty feet, one hundred feet, two hundred feet….

It only just barely reached three hundred feet. After that, no matter how hard Su Yi pushed, it couldn’t advance even an inch further.

This was undoubtedly the current limit of his divine sense; it could only perceive things within three hundred feet of him.

Even so, Su Yi was pleased. After all, this was only the beginning!

After condensing divine sense, repeated tempering would make this mysterious power of the soul stronger and stronger, and its range would continuously expand.

Not bad! Not bad at all! My divine sense is still a bit weak, but it’s incomparably pure. There’s no doubt about it; this means I’ve established incomparably firm foundations in my soul cultivation!

Su Yi withdrew his divine sense, and he inwardly rejoiced.

Before this, he might well have feared the Earthly Immortals of the mundane world. After all, they already had divine sense. For a mere Grandmaster such as himself, they would make for difficult foes.

But now, even if an Earthly Immortal came after him, he was confident that he could at least put up a fight!

Whoosh!

Suddenly, something streaked through the skies. Even before it drew near, Su Yi sensed the approaching Swiftlight Sparrow.

It dove as fast as lightning, but with his divine sense locked onto it, it seemed rather sluggish.

Su Yi laughed to himself. It wasn’t that the bird had slowed down; with support from his divine sense, his reaction time was far faster than before.

This alone is enough to give me a far greater advantage in combat than before!

As Su Yi pondered, the Swiftlight Sparrow drew near and tossed him a sealed letter.

Su Yi opened it. The message was just one sentence long: “As you wish, Young Lord Su.”

When Su Yi saw this, he nodded, and much of his dissatisfaction with the Ten Directions Pavilion disappeared. It was clear from their note that they knew what was good for them.

Su Yi then continued without any further delays.

He’d chosen to proceed to the Jade Capital on foot, in part to experience the scenery along the way, but more importantly—

He wanted to give his enemies the opportunity to target him!

As a result, he was in no hurry. On the contrary, he was rather eager to see just how many people came looking for him along the way.

Time slipped by.

From dawn till dusk, Su Yi traversed mountains and rivers. Aside from a few foolhardy spirit beasts, he didn’t encounter any enemies.

Although Su Yi found it a bit strange, he couldn’t be bothered to worry about it.

When night drew near, he arrived at a stream surrounded by towering peaks. The skies were dark, and the mountains were shrouded in mist.

Once I pass through the mountains, it’ll be less than two days. That’s much sooner than I anticipated… Su Yi looked up into the distant mountains, but just as he was about to forge ahead—

The roar of a spirit beast shook the heavens and rattled the trees, startling countless birds.

“Hurry up and run!”

“Dammit! Why didn’t anyone tell me that a terrifying tier-eight spirit beast like a Fire-Maned Golden-Horned Panther was hiding on Oxhorn Mountain?”

“Quit wasting words. Hurry up and run!”

A group scurried over from the distance, every last one of them panicked and terrified.

The leader was an elder in ornate robes. He was followed by four young people, three men and one woman.

Su Yi scanned them, then looked away.

There was no way these people were targeting him; their leader was merely a fourth-level Grandmaster.

Within most parts of the Great Zhou, the old man’s cultivation made him a peak-level expert, but to Su Yi, someone like him had long since ceased to be a threat.

Even if his enemies were stupid, it seemed unlikely that they’d send this group here to throw their lives away.

In other words, the scene unfolding before him was most likely a coincidence, and not some scheme designed to target him.

When he realized this, Su Yi felt inexplicably disappointed. He couldn’t even be bothered to watch any further.