First Immortal of the Sword

Whoosh~

Blue Ice Soul Yin Qi flowed out like a churning current, while Su Yi cruised along like a fish in water as he proceeded deeper into the tunnel.

Ripple-like wisps of the Dao Charm of Water rose upon his skin, and as he shuttled through the Ice Soul Yin Qi, it didn’t influence him in the slightest.

The further down he went, the more shockingly dense it was, and it severely limited the power of cultivators’ divine sense. It was limited to detecting things within a hundred-foot range. 

Given the circumstances, Su Yi circulated the Fiery Golden Pupils of Discernment. His eyes shone with faint golden light, and abstruse markings flashed and interwove within his pupils.

This enabled him to see everything within a thousand feet. Even if something unexpected happened, it wouldn’t catch him off guard. 

Thirty thousand feet.

Fifty thousand feet.

When he’d descended eighty thousand feet, Su Yi furrowed his brow.

The Ice Soul Yin Qi was even denser, like an incomparably heavy icy current. The further he descended, the greater the pressure he had to bear.

An ordinary cultivator would struggle every step of the way!

If they forced their way through, the Ice Soul Yin Qi would invade their bodies and freeze them to death. 

It would be difficult for even a first-rate underground spirit vein of heaven and earth to possess such dense Ice Soul Yin Qi. Could it be that the Ice Soul Yin Qi gathered here is connected to the Xiantian Divine Lifeform hidden here? 

Su Yi’s eyes flashed.

Xiantian Divine Lifeforms were supreme treasures born of the world’s source, something that could be found but not sought; they could be happened upon only by chance. They were so precious that even Imperial Realm cultivators would drool over them!

Furthermore, Su Yi suspected that the Xiantian Divine Lifeform hidden within Sumeru Mountain was somehow connected to the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness.

If that’s really the case, the dangers lurking here are surely extraordinary.

As he pondered, Su Yi continued downward. At the ninety-thousand-foot mark, his eyes lit up, and he silently accelerated. 

In practically just a few breaths of time, Su Yi shot out of the frigid current of Ice Soul Yin Qi and drifted onto the ground.

The scenery immediately changed before him.

This was an underground world, so vast that there was no end in sight.

Startlingly, dense rows of graves lined this underground world, each with a tombstone.

Wisps of bloody mist permeated the air, enveloping the graves and giving the underground world an imposing, sinister presence.

Someone who saw this place might well assume they’d entered an enormous underground graveyard.

Why are there so many tombstones beneath Sumeru Mountain? Su Yi’s eyebrows shifted upward. When he looked further into the densely-packed graveyard, he saw a black portal connecting heaven and earth, like the entrance to another world. It was incomparably grand.

At the same time, it seemed like an eternal curtain of night hovering between heaven and earth; it was a terrifying sight.

Su Yi was so far away that not even he could see the details clearly, nor could he discern the massive black portal’s origins.

He thought for a moment, then raised his fingertip. The drop of golden blood rose, then trembled, as if it had sensed something.

“It seems the Xiantian Divine Lifeform is hidden extremely far away.” Su Yi put the golden blood away as he reached this conclusion.

He was in no rush to take action. He walked confidently up to the nearest of the tombs, then examined its tombstone.

It was inscribed with primordial yao glyphs. The handwriting was sloppy and coarse; it had obviously been written in a hurry.

Su Yi read the text out loud, “Here lies Wang Xumei, a ninth-generation inner-sect legacy disciple of the Sumeru Shrine.”

There was nothing else worthy of notice.

He retracted his gaze and continued ahead.

“Here lies Jian Mingchong, a ninth-generation inner-sect legacy disciple of the Sumeru Shrine.” 

The next gravemarker he examined was similarly rushed, and its text was obviously written by the same person.

It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

As Su Yi continued ahead, practically every gravemarker he saw was much the same. The only differences were the names and statuses.

However, clouds of confusion rose within Su Yi’s heart.

There had to be thousands of graves here, but practically all of them were seventh to ninth-generation disciples. 

Furthermore, all were marked in the same person’s handwriting.

It gave him the impression that everyone buried here had encountered a calamity and died simultaneously, and that the only survivor had buried them and marked all their graves himself.

Could it be that when the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness descended thirty thousand years ago, calamity befell this place too suddenly for the inheritors of the Sumeru Shrine to escape? Did all of them die here? 

As Su Yi pondered, the faint sound of combat emanated from the distance.

His gaze focused, and his eyes shone with a hint of strange light. Did someone beat me here?

He promptly set all other thoughts aside, circulated the Controlling Currents Evasion Art, and shot into the distance.

As he passed through the dense graves, he saw a gray, overcast world in the distance. The fragmented corpses of countless stars hung suspended over the underground world's dome of "heaven."

Dense bloody mist descended from far above, like an eerie crimson waterfall.

It was an extremely unsettling scene.

Seeing it, Su Yi couldn’t help but recall the blood-colored mists enshrouding the peak of Sumeru Mountain, and the countless corpses of stars hovering there.

However, Su Yi could sense the difference.

Both in terms of quantity and scale, the fragmented star corpses hovering here were far greater than those outside!

Furthermore, these blood-colored mists contained corrosive death energy. It wasn’t dangerous from a distance, but if it invaded your body, it would corrode your life force and taint your soul…

A little less than ten minutes later.

Su Yi finally saw it clearly. The distant portal linking heaven and earth was formed of heavy and obscure spatial power!

At the base of the portal was a ninety-foot bronze door.

The bronze door was tightly shut and embedded in the spatial portal. Its surface was covered with countless profound and mysterious totems and Dao markings.

They’re using a spatial barrier to sever all connection with the outside world, and they’ve sealed the door. With a set-up like this, even an Emperor wouldn’t be able to proceed any further unless they understood the mechanism for unsealing the door, thought Su Yi. 

His gaze then shifted, landing on a spot not far from the bronze door.

A massive ritual ground stood there, fully ten thousand feet across.

A vicious battle currently raged there.

A white-robed elder with a wide belt and high-brimmed hat fought alongside a middle-aged man in clothing the color of blood. They are locked in bitter combat with a spiritual sword.

This was a rare and perilous battle.

Su Yi could tell at a glance that both the white-robed elder and the middle-aged man in red were peak Spiritual Integration Realm primordial spirits, but their spirit avatars were so condensed that they were almost like the real thing. They were extremely mighty and terrifying, and they were far beyond ordinary cultivators.

The white-robed elder manipulated a snow-white spiritual sword. His attainments in the Dao of the Sword were lofty and profound; he’d have an advantage even against a typical Spiritual Integration Realm cultivator!

The middle-aged man in red gripped a short black halberd, and he was majestic and fierce. He wasn’t the least bit inferior to the elder in white.

Su Yi deduced that both primordial spirits were strong enough to thoroughly suppress a freshly broken-through Spiritual Manifestation Realm monster of the ancient era like Huan Shaoyou!

There was no doubt that both primordial spirits had extraordinary backgrounds.

However, what really piqued Su Yi’s interest was their opponent.

It was a spiritual sword mottled with rust. It was three feet, two inches long, and the entire weapon was an ethereal sky blue. 

It was as quick and graceful as lightning, but it struck with extreme force. Even a light sweep created dazzlingly radiant icy sword light. It was clear, cold, and bright, and its radiance illuminated the entire underground world. 

Despite facing two peak Spiritual Integration Realm primordial spirits at once, it wasn’t at all at a disadvantage!

But Su Yi noticed that there were numerous marks on the blade, and that it was flecked with rust and stubborn bloodstains. This gave the sword a faint, reddish tinge.

Even from a distance, it looked ancient, with the accumulated aura of ages gone by. 

The sky-blue blade was tinged red with rust and covered in nicks and scratches, but it was nonetheless mighty enough to make onlookers’ hearts tremble.

“That sword… It’s not bad at all!” Su Yi couldn’t help but exclaim.

As a sword cultivator, how could he miss how extraordinary and divine that sword was?

Between now and when he’d first entered the Great Xia, it was the greatest ancient sword he’d seen.

From its materials to the methods used to forge it to the unique spirituality emanating from the blade, everything about it was remarkable.

Unfortunately, it had one major blemish. The blade was severely damaged; were it still in pristine condition, its power would have been far greater.

Clang!

Suddenly, the hum of a saber rang out.

Practically simultaneously, silver saber qi burst forth, smooth as a bolt of cloth as it descended upon Su Yi.

Su Yi stood there, unmoving. His eyes didn’t so much as ripple with emotion.

Bang!

The silver sword qi landed three feet in front of him, cutting a perfectly straight line in the ground. Faint, scattered saber qi dispersed, and Su Yi’s blue robes fluttered in the resulting wind.

As the dust dispersed, an icy voice as imposing as a knife’s edge rang out. “If you dare cross this line, I’ll take your head.”

Su Yi looked over and saw a man in black robes standing outside the ten-thousand-foot ritual grounds.

He was tall and gaunt, with thick, messy long hair. His complexion was pallid, and he had a sickly air about him.

Jing Lingzhen!

He hailed from the Burning Sun Sect, and he was a monster of the ancient era. He was aloof and unsociable.

Few in the Great Xia’s world of cultivation had heard his name, but other monsters of the ancient era knew he was utterly ruthless.

Before departing for Sumeru Immortal Island, Su Yi met him. Weng Jiu had also told him about Jing Linzheng, Yan Jingyun, and Mo Xingzhe. Although none of them had participated in the Orchid Terrace Dharma Assembly, each was stronger and more talented than the one before.

When Su Yi looked over, he saw Jing Lingzhen’s icy, indifferent, and imposing glare. The monster of the ancient era raised his finger and slowly drew it across his throat.

This was a blatant threat.

Su Yi didn’t get angry. His expression remained as calm as before.

He could tell that Jing Lingzhen, this peak-level figure even among monsters of the ancient era, had already stepped into the Spiritual Manifestation Realm. Perhaps that was why he dared be so forceful, domineering, and overbearing.

Suddenly, a burst of hearty laughter rang out. “I wouldn’t have thought that you’d be the first to reach this place after me and Brother Jing, Fellow Daoist Su.”

A figure emerged from the other side of the enormous ritual grounds in the distance.

He was a young man with coppery skin and thick eyebrows. His long hair hung loose.

He was dressed in black, with a sword case on his back. His eyes shone like stars, and his every movement and gesture had a forceful, unrestrained air.

Yan Jingyun!

He was a monster of the ancient era from the world’s leading Daoist sect, Tianji Dao Mountain.

His accumulations, background, and strength were no inferior to Huan Shaoyou and Zeng Pu, other peak-level monsters of the ancient era. Furthermore, he was known as the “Sword Fanatic”!