First Immortal of the Sword

Qin Changshan’s valiant laughter reverberated throughout heaven and earth.

Without exception, the prominent figures of the Imperatorial Province’s six prefectures gathered by the foot of the mountain gasped.

Who couldn’t tell that Qin Changshan, the fifth-level Grandmaster, was about to fight that youth, Su Yi?

The entire venue was instantly thrown into uproar as everyone craned their necks up to look at the mountaintop.

Alas, the Western Mountain was three thousand feet tall. Even Grandmasters couldn’t see the scenery up top clearly with their naked eyes.

Meanwhile, the group gathered on the peak cleared an empty space.

Regardless of whether they sided with Xiang Tianqiu or Zhou Zhili, everyone’s gazes were fixed on Qin Changshan and Su Yi.

The former was a top-level expert of the Great Zhou, the man ranked twenty-seventh on the Great Zhou Grandmaster Leaderboards, a hegemon amongst those of similar cultivations.

The latter was a youth still only in the Qi Accumulation Realm, who nevertheless possessed terrifying combat prowess sufficient to slay second-level Grandmasters.

The duel about to unfold was undoubtedly rare and unusual. No matter the result, it was sure to go down in the annals of history!

Clang!

The sheathed sword on Qin Changshan’s back hummed and flew into the air. He caught it effortlessly with his right hand. It was an ancient sword with a blade as black as ink

“This sword is called ‘Mountain’s Eminence’, and it was given to me by an Earthly Immortal. It weighs three hundred and seventeen catties, and it was forged with thirty-three types of tier-four spiritual materials. It’s accompanied me ever since. I’ve used it to slay over a thousand foes, and it’s never once let me down!”

When he looked at his ink-black ancient sword, Qin Changshan’s gaze was gentle, and his tone was leisurely.

He was tall and stalwart, with graying temples. Now, standing there with sword in hand, his energy boomed and his sword intent transformed into lights and shadows of Astral Force, further offsetting his extraordinariness.

Boom!

A terrifying wave of sword intent swept forth like the tide, spreading with Qin Changshan at its center. It was terrifying and oppressive, so much so that even the onlookers couldn’t help but retreat.

“This is the power of a fifth-level Grandmaster! The gulf between us is as vast as the distance between clouds and dirt. No wonder the Ten Directions Pavilion spoke so highly of the Long River Sword! No wonder they said it could destroy heaven’s gate! The Grandmaster of the sword ranked twenty-seventh on the Grandmaster Leaderboards really does live up to his reputation!”

The other Grandmasters present were all stunned. They felt both shock and longing.

Even Kang Shanjing, Chang Guoke, and the others from the Hidden Dragon Sword Sect. They too were visibly stunned.

Qin Changsan’s sword intent was so pure and so forceful that even they felt suppressed.

“When I slay my enemies, I never attack more than three times. Young man, I’ll give you a chance: so long as you can block even a single strike, I’ll let you die with an intact corpse.” Qin Changshan’s clothes fluttered in the wind, and his eyes seemed to crackle with cold lightning as he stared at Su Yi.

“Hah.” Su Yi smiled. “Fine. Since you call yourself a sword cultivator, I’ll let you witness the true Dao of the Sword. I hope you won’t disappoint me.”

That calm, understated attitude of his seemed utterly contemptuous.

As he spoke, Guiding Mysteries landed in Su Yi’s palm. The pale blue blade shone with ripple-like, nigh-illusory luster.

Su Yi’s presence was muted. No one would describe his bearing as shocking or forceful. However, his detached and transcendent demeanor forced even Xiang Tianqiu and his allies to acknowledge him. Su Yi dares face an existence like Qin Changshan head-on even with his Qi Accumulation Realm cultivation. He really is extraordinary.

“The First Sword, Waves Crashing Against the Shore!”

Qin Changshan’s gaze frosted over, and he stepped forward. Mountain’s Eminence sliced through the air, and a streak of ink-black sword qi howled through the air.

It was like a vast and imposing river sweeping in from all sides and surging madly toward Su Yi.

The Ten Thousand Currents Sword Incantation!

This was the ultimate martial art that had made Qin Changshan famous. It was an upper-level heaven-grade martial art.

When he released it, it was like a divine river bursting through a dam or an arc piercing the heavens. As the sword slashed down, the nearby swathes of cloud shook and dispersed.

Without exception, those present were stunned.

And in the eyes of those gathered at the foot of the mountain, a miraculous spectacle unfolded—

It was like the river of stars had descended to earth, cutting apart the sea of clouds.

They could even hear the splashing of coursing rapids. It was a river formed of countless streaks of sword intent, each individual streak sufficient to cut through metal. They gathered together and swept forth as a vast and imposing current!

This attack alone was a full display of the peerless bearing of a fifth-level Grandmaster!

But even in the face of this attack, Su Yi remained calm. He casually swung Guiding Mysteries.

His attack looked simple and understated, but it expertly avoided the dangers. As it flew through the air, it carried a clear trace of the profound charm of the Dao.

This attack was called “Splitting Mountains and Seas.”

I have a sword to split mountains and seas.

Whoosh!

If you said Qin Changshan’s sword qi was like a grand river, then Su Yi’s was like a wisp of light braving the wind and waves. It looked ethereal, yet it forged bravely ahead with an indestructible charm.

It was as if the sky were made of canvas; the sword sliced through it effortlessly.

Immediately afterward, a rift opened in Qin Changshan’s vast, imposing, surging river of sword intent.

The rift extended, spreading straight on both ends, like a cleaver dividing hot oil or scissors tearing through cloth.

That unmatched sharpness stung the crowd’s eyes. Their hearts palpitated, and their expressions changed. All of them wondered the same thing: How could that boy’s sword qi be so aggressive?

Everyone watching was wondering the same thing. It was simply unbelievable!

He was only a young man in the Qi Accumulation Realm, yet his sword qi was so sharp and despotic, as if nothing could possibly stand in its way. Qin Changshan struck with the force of a vast river breaking through a dam, yet Su Yi’s slash destroyed his attack, just like that. Who would dare believe such a thing?

Boom!

A shocking blast followed, reverberating through the air. The sound was deafening.

When the tide of sword qi diffused, it flattened the nearby rocks and vegetation. The very air itself shook and roared in agitation.

“Excellent!” Qin Changshan took a deep breath, his eyes seemingly bursting into flame and his hair and whiskers fluttering in the wind.

As strong as he was, when he saw the inexorable power of Su Yi’s strike, he was stunned.

He didn’t hesitate. His aura rose and expanded, and he swung Mountain’s Eminence once more.

“The Second Sword, ‘A Thousand Currents Pierce the Sky!’”

The mountaintop boiled over with sword intent.

When that sword swung, Qin Changshan’s spirit, mind, and energy completely fused with his sword qi. His ink-black sword seemed to draw upon countless rivers, covering heaven and earth and forming a vast, majestic expanse.

It really did seem to envelop the entire area!

This was “A Thousand Currents Pierce the Sky”. Rumor had it that Qin Changshan had once destroyed an entire mountain, and furthermore, that he’d done so with this very peerlessly despotic attack.

“This is finally getting a bit interesting….” A hint of long-dormant fighting spirit shone in the depths of Su Yi’s gaze.

This attack made him sense an impending threat, and his skin prickled.

He had to admit it; at his current cultivation, there was still a gap between him and a fifth-level Grandmaster sword cultivator.

But cultivation was just cultivation. It couldn’t represent one’s true power.

This was especially true in the Four Realms of the Martial Dao. Martial Dao cultivators were ultimately still just mortals. They lacked the power of a true cultivator.

Sufficiently powerful attainments in the Dao of the Sword could make up for deficiencies in his cultivation!

This was true for ordinary cultivators, let alone Su Yi. Su Yi was in the Qi Accumulation Realm, but he had achieved full spiritual awakening of the acupoints, and while opening his Hidden Meridian, he triggered unprecedented and strange celestial phenomena. He’d even tempered the unique and unprecedented power of Astral Dao Force. How terrifying were his foundations? Common sense had long since become insufficient to appraise him!

Even in the earliest stages of Qi Accumulation, he could hold his own against the tier-nine Jade-Eyed Crimson Flamebeast, a creature on par with a fifth-level Grandmaster, never mind now!

The onlookers watched as—

Su Yi’s tall, lean figure suddenly burst with a sharp, forceful aura. His energy soared all the way into the clouds, like a sword piercing through the heavens.

His calm, tranquil temperament instantly transformed. It was now unmatched in its sharpness.

Like an immortal of the sword.

“Activate!”

Astral Force wrapped around him like a school of fish as Guiding Mysteries pierced ahead.

In that instant, it was as if countless dazzling fireworks went off. Countless flecks of light scattered and dispersed like stars, forming a seemingly inescapable net.

My sword wanders the ten directions, from the blue dome of heaven to the yellow springs below!

The essence of this strike was that there was “nowhere it couldn’t reach.”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

All the onlookers saw was a vast expanse of white. They couldn’t see anything clearly, but the muffled booms and collisions coming in rapid succession, like the intense beat of a drum, made their hearts clench and their hair stand on end.

As for those watching from the foot of the mountain, they saw a howling current of sword qi flow like a river and blanket heaven and earth, but before it could even reveal its power, countless streaks of sword light struck it.

The sword light was as dazzling as the stars, but it emanated an austere killing intent. Shockingly, it carved the vast current of sword qi into fragments, disrupting its flow and scattering it.

This miraculous sight left who-knows-how-many people wide-eyed and tongue-tied.

Meanwhile, on the mountaintop.

Amidst the turbulence, Su Yi stood in place, like an unmovable boulder.

When he saw that Su Yi had blocked his attack, even Qin Changshan was stunned, and his brows furrowed. He now looked utterly solemn.

Was this level of attainment in the Dao of the Sword possible in the Qi Accumulation Realm?

Despite his bewilderment, Qin Changshan lived up to his reputation as a hegemon among Grandmasters, a man long accustomed to slaughter. He remained calm even in the face of the unexpected, and he put all of his power into his third strike.

Boom!

Sword intent flooded forth, emanating from Qin Changshan. All of it surged into his sword.

Like rivers flowing into the sea, everything he had gathered in one place!

This was the final strike of the Ten Thousand Currents Sword Incantation! Qin Changshan had honed this strike for years before achieving mastery over it.

When this attack appeared, the peak of the Western Mountain seemed to transform into a boundless sea. Fierce waves swept across the peak, surging and spreading in all directions!

Kang Shanjing and the others could no longer remain seated. They had no choice but to flee for fear that the sweeping sword intent would strike them too.

As for the others, they’d long since fled far away. They were even left with no choice but to call upon their cultivations to resist and diffuse the spreading waves sword qi.

Were any other martial artist standing there, they would have fallen long ago, slain on the spot.

This was the terrifying might of a fifth-level Grandmaster.

It was this attack that the Ten Directions Pavilion said could “destroy heaven’s gate”!

At almost the same time—

Su Yi calmly tapped the fingers of his left hand against the body of his sword. Guiding Mysteries hummed, then suddenly struck.

A shining, indistinct full moon seemed to appear within the crowd’s field of view, illuminating the sea of sword intent. It was misty and ethereal, yet beautiful and dazzling to behold.

Immediately afterward, a grand sun burst forth, emitting intense light and illuminating the entire ocean of clouds.

The moon and sun accompanied each other. One was yin, the other yang. Together, they produced an unbelievable spectacle, shaking the onlookers into a stunned silence.

I have a sword to pluck moon and stars. All the heavens’ light is in my grasp!

This strike came from the Rejoicing Sword Sutra. It was called “Plucking Moons and Stars”!

Boom!

Qi Changshan’s sword was like an ocean of surging currents, while Su Yi’s sword was like the rising moon and sun, bursting with light.

The two clashed, resulting in a massive boom that shook both heaven and earth. The surging sea of sword intent either froze and shattered or melted and evaporated. This was a display of the extremes of both yin and yang, a fusion of fire and ice.

Boom!

In the end, beneath the crowd’s stunned gazes, the entire sea of sword intent collapsed, then burst as if it had disintegrated.

Cough! At the same time, Qin Changshan staggered and hacked up a mouthful of blood. Even his face looked pallid.

His pupils dilated, disbelief written all over his face.

In all his years of combat, he’d always managed to slay his foe within three strikes.

Yet today, in just three strikes, he was left injured and coughing up blood!

Worse, his opponent was merely a Qi Accumulation Realm youth…

Seth's Thoughts

“The Ten Thousand Currents Sword Incantation” looks like it took its name from the idiom 万流归宗.

万流剑诀=The Ten Thousand Currents Sword Incantation

万流归宗=an idiom that roughly translates to “All streams return to the same source/all sects and religions follow the same trajectory”. The exact meaning depends on context.

It’s similar to the idiom 海纳百川, which translates literally to “The ocean accepts one hundred rivers”, or less literally, “all rivers flow to the sea.” This idiom is used in-text as well to describe Qin Changshan’s third attack.