First Immortal of the Sword

Su Yi said nothing.

As the former Swordmaster of Abstruse Force and sole sovereign of the Wilds, he could face the ups and downs of worldly affairs with calm equanimity. Even if heaven and earth crumbled around him, it wouldn’t influence his mental state. 

But he couldn’t remain aloof when his mother, Ye Yufei, was involved.

Otherwise, how could he have risked bearing the title of patricide and killed his way into the Jade Capital Su Family's estate?

All of it was to avenge Ye Yufei!

Su Yi wouldn’t have guessed that Ye Yufei had faced such setbacks and misfortunes.

“Conflicts within the family? And they went so far just to stop my mother from inheriting a stroke of so-called fortune? Your Ye Family sure is impressive!” Su Yi sighed.

The mockery in his voice made Ye Yunlan’s expression shift erratically.

He said gravely, “The larger a clan, the fiercer its internal strife. Conflicts and disagreements frequently crop up over resources and opportunities.

“However… even I would never have guessed that those old fogies would take this so far! When I returned to the family estate, everything had already happened. It was too late to fix it…”

Ye Yunlan’s face filled with grief and indignation.

A moment later, he took a deep breath, and his eyes shone with determination. “But one of these days, I’ll kill every last one of those old bastards!”

He spoke decisively and with conviction.

Su Yi said calmly, “It seems that your power is still insufficient to contend with those ‘old bastards’ you speak of. Otherwise, you’d have no need to talk tough in front of me.”

Ye Yunlan instantly fell silent; Su Yi’s words had hit him right where it hurt.

It was true! Were he capable of contending with those old bastards, why would he have endured all this time?

After a while, Ye Yunlan said, “One day, I’ll definitely be able to do it!” 

He spoke slowly, enunciating every word. It sounded as if he were forcing the words through the gaps in his teeth.

A moment later, he shook his head self-deprecatingly. “I forgot myself. I apologize for making you see that.”

How could Su Yi concern himself with that? He just said, “Tell me a bit more about your Ye Family.”

Ye Yunlan nodded. “I ought to tell you about them anyway.”

As soon as he said this, he realized something. 

From the moment he first laid eyes on Su Yi, his nephew had seemed calm and composed. Furthermore, the rhythm of their conversation was entirely under his control.

And what about him? Here he was, getting overly emotional and letting his conduct slip.

Ultimately, I see him as a relative, but I’m afraid he sees me as a stranger… Ye Yunlan’s heart sank.

However, he knew Su Yi’s reaction was perfectly ordinary. Indeed, he and the Ye Family were entirely unfamiliar to Su Yi.

Only time could change that.

Ye Yunlan got his emotions under control, then said, “Your mother and I are from the Mysterious Blue Realm’s Kunwu Mountain Ye Family….”

He’d only just said this when Su Yi interrupted him. “Wait, wait. Where is the Mysterious Blue Realm?”

It was his first time hearing the name.

Ye Yunlan said without so much as pausing to think, “The Eighth Star Ruin.”

Su Yi’s heart shook as Ye Yunlan continued, “The Azure Continent is the major world within the Ninth Star Ruin. You could also call it the ‘Azure Realm.’”

“The Mysterious Blue Realm is much like the Azure Realm. It’s the major world of the Eighth Star Ruin.

“The Kunwu Mountain Ye Family is the Mysterious Blue Realm’s top faction. Kunwu Divine Mountain is our ancestral ground, and our surname, ‘Ye’, means leaf. Thus, the people of the Mysterious Blue Realm honor us by saying ‘the leaf encompasses all one hundred thousand feet of Kunwu Mountain.’”

“Our clan has given rise to numerous Imperial Realm cultivators. The strongest are in the Profound Serenity Realm. They allow us to intimidate the entire Mysterious Blue Realm. Thus, the world’s cultivators call us the hegemons of the Mysterious Blue Realm. Throughout our long history, no other faction has been able to shake our position.”

Ye Yunlang’s expression revealed his pride and conceit.

Despite himself, Su Yi was impressed.

A single clan had given rise to numerous Imperial Realm experts? Their accumulated foundations had to be shocking. Even in the Nine Provinces of the Wilds, they’d be a first-rate faction!

He was surprised, but he wasn’t exactly astonished.

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After all, no matter how impressive the Ye Family was, they’d never once given rise to a Profound Unity expert.

The experts of the Imperial Realm, the Profound Dao, were divided into three major realms: Profound Illumination, Profound Serenity, and Profound Unity.

The Profound Unity Realm was also called the Imperial Apex Realm.

In his past life, Su Yi reached the pinnacle of the Imperial Apex Realm. How could the Ye Family’s foundations shake him?

What really interested him was that they came from the Eighth Star Ruin!

“Did the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness ever invade the Eighth Star Ruin?” asked Su Yi.

“The ‘Prohibition of Ancient Darkness’ you speak of was most likely a calamity of the Grand Dao from the depths of the starry sky,” said Ye Yunlan. “Is that right?”

Su Yi nodded.

Ye Yunlan thought for a moment, then said, “In the Mysterious Blue Realm, we faced a similar calamity. It lasted for tens of thousands of years. The Ye Family was in its heyday, but it declined as a result….”

He said somberly, “Only two Imperial Realm ancestors of the Ye Family were fortunate enough to survive.

“Fortunately, a long time ago, the Mysterious Blue Realm’s spiritual energy suddenly recovered, and we welcomed a new golden age! The Ye Family has already recovered much of its vitality, and we’ve given rise to new Emperors! We’re still the uncontested hegemons of the Mysterious Blue Realm!”

Su Yi was finally starting to understand.

The Eighth Star Ruin’s Mysterious Blue Realm had suffered something similar to the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness well before the Ninth Star Ruin’s Azure Continent.

Similarly, it welcomed a golden age long ago, one similar to the Azure Continent’s impending Radiant Epoch!

Although the Ye Family had suffered a major blow to its vitality under the effects of the Prohibition, it had recovered significantly during the Mysterious Blue Realm’s equivalent of the Radiant Epoch. 

At the same time, Su Yi recalled what the Divine Monarch of Tragedy had told him. The world attached to the Sixth Star Ruin had long since turned into a barren, lifeless waste!

Su Yi instantly understood quite a bit.

“If there are nine great star ruins, then the power of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness presumably started from the first, then befell the second, and the third… as well as the worlds attached to them.

“The world of the Sixth Star Ruin has long since been reduced to a barren wasteland. That perhaps implies that the first five star ruins long since met a similar fate.

“As for the seventh, eight, and ninth Star Ruins? They must have peaked as the power of the Prohibition receded, only to decline step by step. Ultimately, they’re doomed to become ruined worlds just like the Sixth Star Ruin…

“The Divine Monarch of Tragedy said that when he left the Azure Continent, it was to proceed into the starry sky in search of a new place to cultivate. However, he inadvertently found himself in the Sixth Star Ruin. All of this implies that the Nine Star Ruins are dispersed throughout outer space!

“However, the Nine Provinces of the Wilds have never faced anything similar. In fact, in my past life, I never once heard of anything similar to the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness. Could the Nine Star Ruins be dispersed throughout the starry skies beyond the Wilds?”

When this occurred to him, a scene rose unbidden to Su Yi’s sea of consciousness. He pictured the massive Wilds, as well as its thirty-three subsidiary worlds.

Then, deep in the starry skies beyond the Nine Provinces of the Wilds, there were nine Star Ruins.

The Nine Star Ruins were spread throughout the galaxy, deep in the Wilds’ night sky. Each had its own attached world.

Similarly, each of the Star Ruins’ worlds was connected to other planes big and small, which adorned the area around it.

It makes sense if I picture it that way, thought Su Yi.

Despite ruling the Wilds for many years in his past life, he’d never once ventured into the depths of the starry sky. He was naturally unaware of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness.

But now, everything was different.

He’d already realized that the Azure Continent, the world he’d been reborn into, was most likely located in the starry skies beyond the Nine Provinces of the Wilds!

Although the Azure Continent wasn’t all that impressive, or at least, it was far inferior to the Nine Provinces of the Wilds, it was still a large world amidst the stars.

If he saw the Nine Provinces of the Wilds as the sun, then the Ninth Star Ruin was like a cluster of stars.

And beyond the Ninth Star Ruin, there was naturally an even vaster, more boundless starry sky. That was, perhaps, the true depths of outer space!

It took quite some time before Su Yi cast aside his scattered thoughts, looked at Ye Yunlan, and said thoughtfully, “The Ye Family’s Mysterious Blue Realm experienced the Prohibition of Darkness, as well as a sharp recovery of its spiritual energy similar to our Radiant Epoch. You must know better than anyone that the Azure Continent is experiencing exactly what you went through.”

Ye Yunlan nodded. “That’s right. When the clan sent your mother to the Azure Continent, they’d already prepared to get involved with the Azure Continent’s Radiant Epoch and seize the power of the Origins of the Azure to strengthen the Ye Family.

“I just wouldn’t have thought those old-timers would use this as an excuse to send your mother here all on her own, all to prevent her from inheriting a stroke of good fortune!”

When he said this, his expression was full of unconcealable hatred.

“So when the Radiant Epoch arrives, the Ye Family’s forces will appear in this world too?”

Ye Yunlan nodded. “ When your mother came here, the spatial tunnel between the Azure Continent and the Mysterious Blue Realm was extremely tumultuous and dangerous.”

He paused, then said, “But it’s different now. As more and more cracks form between the spatial barrier around the Azure Continent, our clan has already located a safe spatial tunnel. Otherwise, I couldn’t have made it here right away.”

Here, he stopped to look at Su Yi, and he said solemnly, “I’m here to see you, and also to protect you. When the Ye Family’s forces arrive, and when they learn that you’re Ye Yufei’s son, they’ll do everything in their power to ruin you.”

Su Yi’s eyebrows shot up. “Why?”

“Because your mother’s blood flows through your veins. As her son, you too are qualified to inherit that stroke of good fortune,” Ye Yunfei said gravely. “Those old bastards were even willing to send your mother to her death, all to ensure she didn’t get her hands on it. If they learn you exist… how could they possibly let you go?”

“Just what kind of fortune are we talking about here?” asked Su Yi. 

Ye Yunfei took a deep breath, but he didn’t hide it any longer. “We call it the Ancestral Origin Divine Canon. Any Spirit Dao cultivator who inherits it can prove their Dao and become an Emperor!”

Su Yi couldn’t help but laugh drily. “Just about anyone would go mad over something like that, but to me, it’s no more useful than chicken ribs.”

Ye Yunlan was stunned, and he almost dared not believe his ears.

Who could possibly see an opportunity to become an Emperor… as chicken ribs!?