First Immortal of the Sword

Inside the dimly lit hall.

Su Yi looked at the man and his soul body, which was on the verge of falling apart. He gestured toward the three-inch, green-skinned gourd. “Do you recognize this?”

The man’s eyes instantly widened, and he couldn’t help but blurt, “That treasure… Why do you have it!? Don’t tell me you’re… You’re His Excellency Su?”

Not far away, the wary young man reacted as if he’d been struck by lightning. His Excellency Su?

Su Yi sighed. “You’re so badly injured that it’s no wonder you didn’t recognize me.”

The man before him was the incarnation of the Heavenspan Yao Vine’s remnant soul. His name was Qing Teng, or “Green Vine”!

The man was instantly excited. “Your Excellency Su, it really is you! I just knew you wouldn’t just up and die for no reason! Wonderful! Wonderful!”

He was practically mad with delight, almost as if he were a child. He made no attempt to disguise his joy or excitement.

His apprentice, however, muttered in a daze, “How could His Excellency the Swordmaster of Abstruse Force… have Spiritual Revolution Realm cultivation…?”

“Mu’er, what do you know!?” shouted Qing Teng. “This is nothing but His Excellency Su’s way of disguising himself.”

A disguise? The young man rubbed his eyes, but he still looked completely befuddled.

Su Yi was in no mood to explain all this, so he walked up, flipped his palm, and produced the Seed of the Azure. “For now, go inside and stabilize your soul body.”

Qing Teng nodded without meditation, then leaped inside.

His soul body, which was already on the brink of falling apart, was enveloped in the warm sea of a world’s origin power, which sped up its recovery.

“Your Excellency Su, what are you doing here?” asked Qing Teng.

He was simply too excited and too overcome with delight. Nothing remained of his earlier despondency and despair.

It was as if he’d returned to tens of thousands of years ago. Although he’d already proven his Dao and become an Emperor, he was still as meek and reverent as a junior in front of the Swordmaster of Abstruse Force.

“I’m here to find Ye Yu,” said Su Yi. He took out his wicker chair and sat down before continuing. “But none of that has anything to do with you. Tell me what happened last night.”

Qing Teng took a deep breath, calmed himself down, then launched into the full story.

The situation wasn’t complicated. Last night, a group of Mysterious Netherworld Divine Court elders charged their way into the Little Necropolis under the leadership of their third libationer, the Iron Daoist.

They’d come to ask Qing Teng one simple question: Back then, just who was it who’d helped him occupy Stargazing Tower?

However, Qing Teng refused to answer, resulting in conflict.

In the fierce struggle that followed, the Iron Daoist used one of the Nine Taboos of the Netherworld King, the Burning Silence Ruler, to suppress the Law source power enveloping the Little Necropolis and kill Qing Teng’s nine Imperial Realm subordinates.

Even Qing Teng was grievously injured, and they stripped him of his body and cultivation base.

The countless heretical cultivators that once made the Little Necropolis their home had all sought refuge with the Mysterious Netherworld Divine Court, and they’d all gone to the Great Chaos Ruins on orders.

When Su Yi heard this, he couldn’t help but sigh. “Why not just tell them the answer? What harm would it have done?”

Qing Teng pursed his lips. “No! When it comes to your affairs, Your Excellency Su, I’d rather die than say so much as a single word!”

Su Yi was instantly silent. Inwardly, he was moved.

He already basically understood what had happened.

Qing Teng really had met with disaster because of him. When he conversed with the Nine Serenities Netherworld Crow outside of Ziluo City, he brought up the person who’d helped the Heavenspan Yao Vine take over the Little Necropolis.

There was no doubt about it: the Nine Serenities Netherworld Crow must have learned from Malevolent Release that he was headed to the City of the Wrongfully Dead. That was why the crow had sent the Mysterious Netherworld Divine Court’s forces to the Little Necropolis.

It was trying to figure out who Su Yi was.

But all of this had created a disaster for Qing Teng!

Irrepressible murderous intent welled within Su Yi’s heart.

“Rest assured. I’ll help you retrieve your physical body and cultivation. Let me avenge this grudge for you too,” Su Yi said flatly.

Those who knew the Swordmaster of Abstruse Force knew that when he said something like this, enormous bloodshed was sure to follow!

Qing Teng’s lips quivered, and he was just about to respond when he suddenly realized something.

“Your Excellency Su,” he shouted frantically, “When you entered, did you break the seal of the Laws of Burning Silence on Stargazing Tower?”

Su Yi nodded, his tone casually. “There’s no need for concern. The moment I laid eyes on you, I guessed that the Mysterious Netherworld Divine Court had left your remnant soul behind on purpose. I know they’re waiting for me to arrive.”

He paused, then added, “If I’m not mistaken, they’ve already sensed that the Laws of Burning Silence have been broken. They’re probably on their way here already.”

Qing Teng instantly relaxed.

How could the man whose sword once dominated the heavens fail to see through something like this?

Qing Teng took a deep breath, then said eagerly, “Your Excellency, if possible, I’d like to watch as you exterminate those bastards.”

After a brief daze, Su Yi nodded. “Sure.”

“Your Excellency Su, can… Can I come too?” Qing Teng’s young apprentice asked tentatively, sounding awed.

“Yes.” Su Yi nodded.

After overhearing their conversation earlier, Su Yi already knew that this was Qing Teng’s disciple. Furthermore, he could tell that the young man was originally a blade of Star-Swallowing Grass born of the Little Necropolis’s source. After the grass gave rise to a soul, Qing Teng enlightened him, accepting him as a disciple and naming him Qing Mu. 

……

There was a massive terrace built atop the thousand-foot Stargazing Tower. From it, most of the Little Necropolis was visible.

Su Yi stood there, hands behind his back, leaning against the railing and sipping wine.

The young Qing Mu stood not far away, watching over the Seed of the Azure Qing Teng was recovering in.

Yuan Linning stood on his other side.

No one spoke.

Yuan Linning was inwardly nervous and uneasy.

Earlier, she’d waited outside, so she had no idea what Su Yi and the last remnant of the Heavenspan Yao Vine had talked about. All she knew was that Su Yi wanted to kill someone!

“They’re here,” Su Yi suddenly whispered.

A group had arrived at the distant gates of the Little Necropolis. Just a few breaths of time later, they were hovering just a thousand feet from Stargazing Tower.

There were seven of them in total.

The leader was a pale middle-aged man dressed in Daoist robes and an iron crown. He gripped a fiery-red ruler, and rode on a blood-colored cloud. Wisps of flames formed of the power of Laws hovered around him. It was indistinct, but a mysterious Dao platform flickered in and out of view behind his head.

This was the Iron Daoist, the third libationer of the Mysterious Netherworld Divine Court!

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He’d condensed a Profound Serenity Dao Platform, making him a mid-stage Profound Serenity Emperor of the heretical path!

Someone like that was a rare expert in the modern Netherworld. He could have intimidated the vast majority of its top-rate factions!

Six others accompanied him, four men and two women. All of them looked different, but all of them emanated the distinctive aura of the Profound Illumination Realm!

Even the weakest was in the mid-stage Profound Illumination Realm, while the strongest was in the peak of the Profound Illumination Realm.

A lineup like that could act as they pleased anywhere in the Netherworld River Territory!

As they approached, austere and terrifying murderous intent blanketed heaven and earth, enveloping the entire region.

The young man, Qing Mu, tensed up. However, he nonetheless gnashed his teeth and glared hatefully at the Iron Daoist and his companions.

These were the ones who’d killed their way into the Little Necropolis last night. They were the ones who’d almost killed his master!

Yuan Linning’s delicate figure tensed, her nerves taught as she sensed the blatant threat.

However, when she saw how calm and composed Su Yi was, she felt inexplicably reassured.

When the Iron Daoist saw Su Yi and Yuan Linning, he couldn’t help but smile. “It’s just as the Esteemed Black Crow predicted. Someone really did show up today.”

He said flatly, “Young fellow, are you the Cui clansman the Esteemed Black Crow spoke of?”

Qing Teng, Qing Mu, and Yuan Linning were stunned. The Cui clansman? What?

Su Yi ignored that detail and looked at Qing Teng. “Are these the seven bastards who attacked you last night?”

Qing Teng nodded, his eyes glinting with hatred. “They are indeed!”

The Iron Daoist and his companions frowned.

One of them, a thin man in dark robes, gripped his bronze war spear and said coldly, “Libationer, it seems to me that there’s no need to waste time talking. Let’s just take his head and report to the Esteemed Black Crow.”

Murderous intent billowed around him, and his eyes glinted with cold lightning as he locked onto the distant Su Yi.

“Very well. Go see what the boy is made of, but remember, don’t get complacent. The Esteemed Black Crow said his origins are fishy, and it’s highly likely that he has powerful trump cards in reserve.” The Iron Daoist stroked his jaw, his eyes flashing.

“That’s only natural. As you know, when I, Huo Zheng, attack, I always give it my all. No matter who my opponent is, I fight with everything I’ve got!” The man in black, Huo Zheng, grinned.

Before his voice had even finished echoing through the air, he burst with appalling blood-colored radiance, raised his bronze spear, and leaped through the air, thrusting his weapon at Su Yi.

Boom!

The blood-colored light scattered the winds and clouds, and the fierce and tyrannical Laws of the Profound Dao accompanied the spear as it bore a startling rift through the skies.

Its terrifying momentum made Yuan Linning’s pupils constrict. She could tell at a glance that the man in black, Huo Zheng, was a mid-stage Profound Illumination Emperor of the heretical path!

But in the face of this attack, Su Yi’s eyes merely flashed with disdain.

He shot forward in a flash and met the attack head-on.

When the distant Iron Daoist and his other companions saw this, all of them were stunned, and all of them jeered. A Spiritual Revolution Realm young man has seriously taken the initiative to clash with a mid-stage Profound Illumination Emperor head-on?

How is he any different from an ant trying to shake a tree?

But they’d only just thought this when…

Clang!

The hum of a sword reverberated throughout the nine heavens and the ten earths, like the sound of the Grand Dao.

Huo Zheng instantly stiffened, and a formless, indescribable terror bore down on his heart and soul. His circulation of qi stagnated, and his blood almost seemed to solidify.

It was as if a lofty and unparalleled god were gazing down upon him!

The Iron Daoist as his companions’ hearts shook. They felt as if someone had slammed a divine hammer into their souls, and their expressions shifted dramatically.

But Su Yi had already appeared directly in front of Hou Zheng.

He raised his right hand, then gently swept it through the air.

His long, slender fingers cut like a sword, bringing with them a sharp and unfathomable streak of sword light.

Splurt!

A bloody head flew through the air.

And the sword qi’s terrifying power ripped Huo Zheng’s headless corpse to shreds, popping it like a bloody soap bubble.

He’d been destroyed, body and soul.

Su Yi plucked his severed head from the air.

In the time it took to snap his fingers, he’d taken an Emperor’s head!