First Immortal of the Sword

The peak of Sumeru Mountain.

From here, the bloody mist hovering in the sky was clearly visible, as well as the countless corpses of stars floating silently within it.

This was once the most important location of the Sumeru Shrine. A vast palace once stood here, as well as numerous pavilions, ritual grounds, and other such buildings.

Yet now, all of them had been reduced to rubble!

It was nothing but broken walls and fragmented tiles as far as the eye could see, an utterly desolate sight.

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Su Yi sensed the golden blood’s aura as he looked deeper into the ruins.

He then forged ahead.

Deep within the ruins, there was an altar collapsed on the group.

There was an entrance to a tunnel at its base. A winding stone staircase led deeper underground. At a glance, there was no end in sight.

As Su Yi drew near the entrance, an icy presence assailed him, and he subconsciously tensed up.

What shocking Ice Soul Yin Qi!

Could there be an Ice Soul Spirit Vein deep within the cave?

As he pondered, Su Yi stretched his divine sense down the staircase.

One hundred feet.

One thousand feet.

Ten thousand feet.

….When his divine sense stretched thirty thousand feet into the tunnel, Su Yi reached the limits of his soul power, but he still couldn’t sense the end of the cave.

However, he did sense that the further in his divine sense went, the denser the Ice Soul Yin Qi; it was like a dense blue mist filling the cave’s depths. 

Whoosh!

Su Yi withdrew his divine sense and furrowed his brow.

This place was extremely out of the ordinary!

He then turned his attention toward the fallen altar by the side of the entrance.

It was originally ninety feet tall, but it had now broken into chunks, which had collapsed into the ruins. 

Upon closer inspection, the surface of the altar was carved with lifelike totems: Denglong devouring moons and stars as they walked through the void of space, vermillion birds bathed in flames, beating their wings and soaring through the sky, a bronze ant carrying a mountain…

Every totem had a wild, primitive coarseness to it. They seemed to immortalize these terrifying yao at the peak of their glory.

At the top of the altar, there was a lone carving of a figure in Daoist robes.

He had an ancient sword strapped to his back, and he wore a golden belt as he sat cross-legged on a magic cloud.

When he saw it, Su Yi immediately recalled the appearance of the guardians he’d encountered on the Staircase of Trials. They were almost identical to the man in Daoist robes depicted here.

However, the guardians’ features were blurry and indistinct.

Whereas here, his features were perfectly clear. However, they weren’t at all what Su Yi expected.

The man in Daoist robes had the face of an ape!

In other words, the man was a yao cultivator, and his true body was a spirit ape!

Su Yi suddenly recalled something.

Before departing for Sumeru Immortal Island, Weng Jiu had told him about the founder of the Sumeru Shrine. His name was Yuan Motian, and his title was the Sumeru Yao Emperor. He was an Imperial Realm yao legendary for his elegant bearing.

He was born of a piece of golden rock as a Nine-Apertures Spirit Ape. He was born intelligent, with innate power of the Grand Dao. He took the name Yuan Motian, then he cultivated first with Buddhists, and then with demonic cultivators, followed by the Confucianists

After just eight hundred years, he blended the mysterious truths of all three schools of thought, fusing them with his own cultivation, and proved his Dao, entering the Imperial Realm. In doing so, his name shook the world.

Afterward, Yuan Motian gathered yao from all over the world, occupied Sumeru Immortal Island, and established a new orthodoxy atop Sumeru Mountain. It went on to become one of the Azure Continent’s three great yao sects, the Sumeru Shrine. 

Rumor had it that the monk Yuan Motian once obtained an enormous stroke of fortune and refined a sword called “Celestial Blue”. He carried it with him year-round, and it was said that the blade struck like a flash of blue light, and that it was capable of cleaving the skies themselves!

Thus, he called it “Celestial Blue”

It shared its name with a legendary Daoist wonderland, an imagined palace in the sky. 

As a first-generation Yao Emperor, Yuan Motian and his sword, Celestial Blue, became supreme figures of the Dao of the Sword. He was an Imperial Realm monarch of the sword famous throughout the world.

The “Nine Revolutions Sumeru Sword Sutra” he invented was known as a classic of the Dao of the Sword.

“This ought to be him,” said Su Yi as he stared at the swordsman in Daoist robes depicted at the top of the altar. He dared say with certainty that this was a depiction of the Sumeru Yao Emperor, the founder of the Sumeru Shrine, one of the Three Great Yao Sects!

He was an innately talented yao cultivator, and he didn’t just acquire Buddhist, Demonist, and Confucian legacies; he ultimately pursued the Dao of the Sword. He’s actually a bit interesting, thought Su Yi.

Every orthodoxy and school of thought had its own ultimate legacy.

The top schools of thought and styles of cultivation—Buddhists, Demonists, Confucians, yao, and ghosts—each had ancient, long-established legacies and systematic paths of cultivation. They had the deepest and most extensive influence on the world of cultivators. 

Yuan Motian had fused three schools of thought into his own yao cultivation, ultimately fusing them into the Dao of the Sword. It was easy to imagine how extraordinary his intelligence and breadth of spirit were.

In the Nine Provinces of the Wilds, he would have been a notable figure even among Imperial Realm cultivators. 

At the same time, Su Yi could tell from the totems carved on the altar how ambitious Yuan Motian was.

He placed his own image at the top, suppressing vermillion birds, denglong, bronze ants, and other matchless ferocious beasts. He was proclaiming superiority over yao cultivators, as if he intended to rule above all others.

Alas, even if your ambitions were far greater, what would it have mattered? The Prohibition of Ancient Darkness befall the continent, and your Sumeru Shrine disappeared into the river of history. Even its ancestral ground has been reduced to rubble, and few in this world remember the name Yuan Motian…

Su Yi shook his head.

The passage of time was heartless.

The Prohibition of Ancient Darkness had lasted for thirty thousand years, enough time for everything to vanish like smoke into thin air.

Su Yi’s gaze shifted away, and he examined the entrance once more. After a moment’s silence, he ultimately decided to wait a while longer before entering. 

Time slipped by.

A battle ended on the one hundred and eighth step of the Staircase of Trials, and Zeng Pu suddenly shot out.

He looked around, then put his hands on his waist, threw back his head, and laughed. “I finally beat back the competition! What a grand feeling! What a wondrous sensation!”

Having said this, he plopped down in the dirt and panted heavily, his face a bit pallid.

Although, in the end, he emerged victorious against the one-hundred-and-eighth guardian, his expenditures were enormous. Now that he'd finally relaxed, his entire body ached.

“Does it really feel that grand? Is it really that wondrousl?” A calm voice suddenly rang out from afar.

Zeng Pu’s entire body stiffened, and he suddenly whipped his head around.

He then saw someone with a detached, extraordinary bearing. He was dressed in blue, and he’d stand out of any crowd.

“Su Yi!!?” Zeng Pu shot to his feet, his eyes wide with astonishment. “You… When did you get here?”

“A little less than ten minutes ago,” Su Yi said casually. 

Zeng Pu felt a bit bewildered. Doesn’t that mean Su Yi was the first to overcome the hundred and eight steps of the Staircase of Trials? And that he was ahead of me by almost a full ten minutes?

When this occurred to him, his pride, excitement, and delight disappeared completely. He practically wilted.

Crap! I got excited for nothing! Zeng Pu awkwardly rubbed his nose. “I made a fool out of myself just now.”

“I have no time to waste making fun of you,” said Su Yi. “There’s something I need your help with.”

“Me?” Zeng Pu was stunned. He wanted to ask, “Do we… know each other that well?”

Never mind having any sort of bond; they’d never even spoken to each other before!

However, on the outside, he smiled. “Brother Su, your words fill me with trepidation. Of course, if there’s something I can help you with, I’d be absolutely delighted to assist you.”

As he said this, he was inwardly exultant. 

See? Su Yi actually needs my help!

“It’s a simple matter,” said Su Yi. “In a bit, I plan to venture into an extremely dangerous place. I’d like to ask you to look out for the friends I’m traveling with.”

Zeng Pu was briefly stunned, and a strange light appeared in his eyes. “You mean Miss Xinzhao and the others?”

Su Yi nodded.

Zeng Pu was a bit confused. “I’d be happy to do that, but… Brother Su, aren’t you at all worried?”

This felt just too strange.

The two of them had no connection whatsoever, yet Su Yi was asking him to look out for his friends. Of course Zeng Pu was confused.

“Will you mistreat them?” asked Su Yi. 

Zeng Pu shook his head. “Of course not. There’s no grudge between us.”

“That’s why I’m asking you to help,” said Su Yi. “Of course, I won’t make you help for nothing. When I come back, I’ll be sure to express my gratitude.”

Zeng Pu hurriedly refused. “It’s a trivial matter; you needn’t be so polite.”

Su Yi gazed deeply at him. “When the time comes, take your time to think it over before refusing again.”

With that, he turned and proceeded further into the ruins. “Also, I urge you and the others not to approach that cave. The dangers within aren’t something you can handle. If you don’t believe me, you’ll only hurt yourselves.”

Before his voice finished ringing through the air, Su Yi had already started moving deeper into the ruins, toward the cave’s entrance.

Zeng Pu was dazed, and he had numerous doubts. He couldn’t help but follow Su Yi over.

When they arrived near the entrance to the cave, a bone-piercing chill assailed him in the face. Zeng Pu stiffened, and despite himself, he shuddered.

“What kind of place is this?” Zeng Pu’s expression filled with uncertainty as he recalled Su Yi’s earlier warning. In the end, he resisted the urge to venture inside.

He trusted Su Yi’s warning. There was surely unpredictable peril waiting deep within the cave!

Otherwise, Su Yi wouldn’t have waited for him and asked him to look after Wen Xinzhao, Yue Shichan, and Ge Qian before proceeding ahead.

First, I’ve got to recover my strength. When the others come, it doesn’t matter whether or not they heed my warning. All I have to do is ensure Su Yi’s companions’ safety. Zeng Pu took a deep breath, cast aside his scattered thoughts, and left the area.

He found a well-hidden spot, then silently sat in meditation.

Suddenly, someone muttered from off in the distance. “There’s no one else here? Does that mean that Zeng Pu messed up on the last step of the Staircase of Trials? If so, doesn’t that mean that I, Chi Jiansu, took first place in this competition? Aha! To borrow Zeng Pu’s catchphrase, ‘What a grand feeling! What a wondrous sensation!’”

A wild, beautiful young woman with close-cropped hair and a military uniform stood above the one-hundred-and-eighth step. She stretched, revealing her curves, and she had a smug, delighted smile on her face.

Zeng Pu watched this from afar, a strange look in his eyes. The corners of his lips twitched, and he almost couldn’t help but laugh. Isn’t she taking pride in herself a bit prematurely?

Wait, just now, when Su Yi discovered me, did he feel the same way I felt when I watched Chi Jiansu? Did he… find me that ridiculous too?

As soon as this occurred to him, Zeng Pu found himself unable to laugh. 

There was nothing for it. With Su Yi there, both his earlier behavior and Chi Jiansu’s behavior were indeed ridiculous…