First Immortal of the Sword

Su Yi laughed. “You’d best hurry up and leave.”

Zhou Zhizhen couldn’t help but say, “Young Lord Su, might I ask who in the Great Zhou can ensure your safety if not my imperial father?”

The red-robed elder chimed in too. “Young Lord Su, you’re strong enough to kill even an Earthly Immortal, and it’s true that ordinary dangers cannot threaten you. However, are you truly unaware of just how many perils lurk in the current Jade Capital? I encourage you to reconsider.”

The woman in the ornate dress said, “Young Lord Su, you’re young and promising, with limitless prospects. Why insist on putting yourself in such grave peril? Furthermore, pledging your loyalty to His Majesty and His Third Highness has only many advantages and no disadvantages. If you’re clever, surely you’ll see which choice is best.”

When he saw that the middle-aged man with the saber was about to speak too, Su Yi waved to cut him off. “Farewell. Forgive me for not seeing you out.”

With that, he walked right into the Pinewind Villa.

“You….” Zhou Zhizhen’s expression darkened.

The red-robed elder snorted, “Young Lord Su, His Third Highness came here to help you. He has only the best of intentions. How can you treat him like this?”

Su Yi paused, turned around, and said coldly, “You just want to take advantage of the situation to force me to lower my head in submission. You call that ‘helping’? I’ll say it one last time: hurry up and leave. Or else, don’t blame me for my poor manners.”

Zhou Zhizhen’s expression was increasingly dark.

He would never have guessed that even after taking the initiative to visit in person, Su Yi wouldn’t show him any respect at all. That arrogant bearing made it seem he didn’t take the third prince the least bit seriously.

The red-robed elder furrowed his brow in confusion. To the best of his knowledge, Su Yi had once pledged himself to the sixth prince’s cause. He thought that the third prince showing up and promising to resolve his imminent peril ought to be enough to convince Su Yi to pledge his loyalty.

Who’d have thought Su Yi would react like this?

“Poor manners? Su Yi, this is the Jade Capital, the territory beneath the foot of the emperor, and you’re going to have a hard enough time just trying to stay alive. Surely you wouldn’t dare attack us?” said the woman in the ornate dress with a cold laugh. She seemed completely confident in her backing.

She was naturally well aware of Su Yi’s terrifying combat prowess, but she nonetheless didn’t believe that Su Yi would dare offend them here, in the Jade Capital.

After all, any ordinary person was well aware of the consequences of doing so!

Su Yi glanced at her. “If you dare say even one more word, I’ll kill you. Don’t believe me? Go ahead and try it.”

The woman laughed. “You…”

Splurt!

A wisp of sword qi streaked through the air, piercing directly through the woman’s throat.

Her eyes bulged, disbelief written all over her face as a gasp escaped her lips. In the end, she clutched her throat and fell over backward, staring into the sky.

Thud!

The low, muffled sound of an impact followed, like a hammer slamming into her companions’ hearts.

Zhou Zhizhen and his two surviving companions’ expressions changed dramatically. They would never have guessed that Su Yi would attack, much less that he’d attack so crisply and efficiently!

They couldn’t even tell how he’d done it! It had been simply too fast; they didn’t even have time to react, never mind stop him.

“Su Yi, do you have any idea who she was?” The middle-aged man with the saber roared in fury. He was so angry, his eyes seemed like they might well pop out of his skull.

He hadn’t said anything throughout this entire exchange, but the woman’s death seemed to have put him over the edge, and his anger flared without limit.

“Say even just one more word, and I’ll kill you too,” said Su Yi calmly.

The middle-aged saber wielder’s entire body went rigid, and he felt so stifled that his face turned ashen, yet he dared not speak.

Zhou Zhizhen took a deep breath and was just about to open his mouth when Su Yi glanced at him. “That goes for you too.”

Zhou Zhizhen was stunned. He could never have imagined that Su Yi dared threaten him in the exact same way. He was an imperial prince!

Even so, in the face of Su Yi’s utterly emotionless gaze, he shuddered and forced his retort back down.

When the red-robed elder saw this, how could he possibly dare say anything?

“Take the body and scram.” Su Yi pointed to the woman in the ornate dress’s corpse.

It was obvious that Zhou Zhizhen was on the verge of exploding. He was an imperial prince! In the Jade Capital, even Earthly Immortals were polite to him!

When had he ever endured such humiliation?

But he dared not say anything. He dared not gamble with his life, not even if his bellyful of suppressed rage and shame was hard to bear.

In the end, he gnashed his teeth, glared hatefully, then turned and left.

When his surviving companions saw this, they hurriedly gathered the woman’s corpse and followed him away.

From beginning to end, not one of them dared say so much as a single word.

It was only after they’d left Peach Glyph Alley that Zhou Zhizhen’s infuriated bellow rang out from afar. “Su Yi, once you’re dead, I’ll personally dispose of your corpse!”

Su Yi laughed but paid him no heed. He just turned and entered the Pinewind Villa.

Those who resorted to flinging insults when angry were always the most incompetent.

Upon returning to his chambers, Su Yi sat cross-legged and took out a jade bottle. He tipped it over, removing a single crystalline, transparent pill. Flowing light glittered around it.

The Nine Apertures Dragon Tiger Pill!

The Pill Clear Sect was the top holy land for medicine refiners in the Nine Provinces of the Wilds, and this was one of their Four Great Spirit Pills of the Origin Dao!

When martial artists stepped into the Origin Dao, they could use such spirit pills to establish first-rate foundations. It was famous throughout the Wilds.

Yet now, as rare and precious as this pill was, Su Yi was using it to temper his Grandmaster Realm cultivation.

Furthermore, ever since the seventh day of the fourth month, when he left Treasure Temple Yao Mountain, he’d refined one such pill every three days.

This was already his third.

In the hands of a Grain Avoidance Realm cultivator, one Nine Apertures Dragon Tiger Pill was enough to establish solid foundations in the Grand Dao.

But to Su Yi, refining three such pills was only enough to get him to the pinnacle of the fourth-level Grandmaster Realm.

The crux of the matter lay with his overly firm and comprehensive foundations; you could say they were unprecedented.

If I can refine Five-Colored Spiritual Radiance, I’ll be able to ride my sword into battle and unleash the ‘Great Five Elements Suppression Domain Sword.’ When the time comes, one slash will be enough to take down even people like Shi Fengliu, who’ve comprehended sword intents. It’ll be no harder than taking something out of my pocket…

That aside, once my Five-Colored Spiritual Radiance is complete, my organs will act as furnaces, and the power of my physique will be comparable to a glazed golden Buddha. My fingers will be able to shatter an Origin Dao talisman sword with ease.

As for the power of my divine sense, I’ll be able to cultivate the ‘One-Strike Divine Slaughter Incantation.’ It’s a level higher than the Great Void Soul Sword Incantation, especially against the divine sense of Origin Dao cultivators. With it, I can sweep through them as easily as an ax through rotten wood.

It’s just that the One-Strike Divine Slaughter Incantation is too despotic, and it drains far too much soul power. Better not to use it except at a critical juncture.

Su Yi took the Nine Apertures Dragon Tiger Pill, then pondered as he cultivated.

A Grandmaster’s true metamorphosis occurred at the fifth level. The first four levels were merely the build-up. It was when they reached the fifth level that a qualitative transformation occurred.

When that time came, the five major organs acted as furnaces. If this happened alongside Five-Colored Spiritual Radiance, the cultivator’s soul, body, and cultivation would all undergo an earth-shaking transformation.

And it was only upon reaching that level that he’d have the foundations necessary to use certain secret arts.

Such as the Great Five Elements Suppression Domain Sword. This was a peerless sword incantation Su Yi had created in his past life, and it was counted amongst the Wilds’ Thirty-Three Sutras of the Dao of the Sword.

Its subtleties involved unsurpassed applications of the Grand Dao of the Five Elements.

Those beneath the Origin Dao weren’t in any way qualified to cultivate it.

Similarly, if Su Yi failed to achieve Five-Colored Spiritual Radiance in the Grandmaster Realm, he naturally wouldn’t be able to unleash this peerless incantation’s true power.

The One-Strike Divine Slaughter Incantation, on the other hand, was a peerless technique of soul cultivation. It wasn’t all that deep or profound, but it targeted the divine sense, making it unstoppably despotic.

With the current limits of Su Yi’s soul power, he could unleash it, but even one attack would send his soul into a weakened state.

But if his soul power broke through once more, he could use the incantation with room to spare.

In summary, Su Yi had the knowledge and experience of his past life, so he had countless secret arts and miraculous methods at his disposal to begin with. He had no lack of combat skills whatsoever.

Of course, this was on the precondition that his cultivation was enough to use said skills.

At my current cultivation speed, I should be able to enter the fifth level of the Grandmaster Realm within seven days…

He wasn’t rushing.

The Jade Capital might be full of danger, but he wasn’t overly concerned. His current power was enough to handle all threats. Now that he’d reincarnated to cultivate afresh, advancing step by step and hammering out foundations in the Grand Dao that far surpassed his past self mattered most.

……

The imperial palace.

A vast, austere hall.

The dark-robed emperor sat on the imperial throne, rubbing the space between his eyes. He let out a long sigh. “How could we possibly have fathered a son like you?”

As he spoke, he sat upright, his gaze heavy and terrifying. “This is a young man capable of cutting down Earthly Immortals, yet you tried to get him to pledge himself to your cause? Did you really think a true cultivator would fear mundane imperial authority?”

Third Prince Zhou Zhichen knelt there, quivering. “Imperial Father, your son wanted to use this opportunity to recruit a young expert on your behalf…”

Before he could finish, the emperor laughed coldly. “Nonsense! We’ll only ask you this: did you decide to do this on your own, or did someone put you up to it?”

Zhou Zhizhen opened his mouth and was just about to speak when the emperor coldly cut him off. “We want to hear the truth! If you utter even a single falsehood, we shall strip you of your position!”

Zhou Zhizhen quivered from head to toe, then kowtowed. “Imperial Father, last night, I was drinking with Second Brother. He happened to mention that, should we convince Su Yi to work for us, it would strengthen the entire Great Zhou, and he’d be another useful person working at Imperial Father’s side…”

The Zhou Emperor's eyes flashed, and he sighed. “As expected. A fool like you is only good for being exploited.”

He waved. “Leave us. From this day forth, seclude yourself in your residence and ponder your failings. Without my permission, you are not to take so much as help a step outside!”

His voice was rife with dense disappointment and loathing.

Zhou Zhizhen instantly felt the energy drain from his body, as if he’d lost his soul.

He realized that, in this lifetime, he’d most likely never get any closer to the imperial throne ever again…

Once Zhou Zhizhen left, the emperor suddenly said, “State Preceptor, do you think I could convince Su Yi to work for me if I made a personal appearance?”

Hong Shenshang had been standing on one side of the hall this entire time. He pondered for a moment, then said, “Your Majesty, that depends on whether or not Su Yi survives his encounter with his father unscathed.”

“Oh,” said the Zhou Emperor. “Su Yi has already arrived in the Jade Capital. Have the diplomatic missions from the Great Wei and Great Qin made any movements?”

The depths of Hong Shenshang’s golden eyes flashed with intimidating luster. “Your Majesty, you needn’t concern yourself with that. Su Yi has arrived in the capital. Sooner or later, someone won’t be able to resist jumping in first!”

The emperor of the Great Zhou laughed. “Then for now, let’s just sit back and wait until the show begins!”

Seth's Thoughts

Let’s talk pronouns!

The emperor uses two different pronouns to refer to himself. One is the standard first-person pronoun, “我”, which I have been translating simply as “I.”

The other, 朕, also means “I”, but it’s reserved for the emperor. You’ll see it in some of our other novels; Emperor Cang Wanhe uses it in ATG, for instance. I’m translating this one as the imperial “we.”

I’m pointing this out because the emperor goes back and forth, but it isn’t random. When he uses the more formal “朕”, or “we” he’s putting on the airs of an emperor. When he uses the more standard “我”, or “I”, he isn't, ie he's speaking to someone he considers an equal or (or superior).