First Immortal of the Sword

The campfire crackled, its flickering light illuminating Ye Xiao’s handsome face.

It was as if the surrounding air had solidified. The stifled, oppressive atmosphere left the Ye Family experts feeling suffocated.

After a while, Ye Xiao suddenly laughed and shook his head. “Relax! Death is an ordinary thing. As mighty as we cultivators are, who among us would dare proclaim that we’ll live forever? I’m furious, but not to the point of losing control.”

As he spoke, it was as if heaven and earth sensed the change in his mood; the tense atmosphere silently dissipated. 

Everyone inwardly sighed in relief.

“Was it that Su Yi person who killed them?” asked Ye Xiao. His voice was calm, and his expression was gentle.

The woman in the feather coat nodded. “That’s right.”

She then explained everything she’d learned. 

Once he’d heard the full story, Ye Xiao raised his jug, took a sip, and pinched his fingers together. “He’s Ye Yufei’s son and Ye Yunlan’s nephew. By seniority, that makes him my cousin.”

The crowd looked at each other. They couldn’t tell what Ye Xiao was getting at.

“It’s understandable that Su Yi would kill the seventh elder and his companions,” Ye Xiao pondered out loud. “After all, they went to Nine Tripod City to get rid of Su Yi. The seventh elder and his companions have no one to blame but their own inadequate abilities.”

Everyone fell silent. What Ye Xiao said was, of course, true, but they nonetheless found his attitude horrifying.

Ye Xiao took a sip of wine and muttered, “I’ll naturally avenge this grudge, but not right now.”

He then looked at the woman in the feather coat. “Tell me about Ye Yunlan.”

The woman took a deep breath and said, “Ye Yunlan arrived on the Azure Continent early to leave with Ye Yufei, but we’ve since learned that she’s already dead. It’s highly likely that Ye Yunlan plans to leave with Su Yi and fight to give him an opportunity to inherit the Ancestral Origin Divine Canon in his mother’s stead.”

Ye Xiao sighed. “He sure is stubborn and intractable. Most of the experts of the Ye Family’s main branch are dead, and of those who remain, only Ye Yunlan is at all capable. The others are old, crippled, or infirm; none amount to much. Despite the circumstances, he still covets the Ancestral Origin Divine Canon? He rather overestimates himself.”

“Who’d say otherwise?” the woman in the feather coat laughed coldly. “If not for our consideration for sentiment and the clan’s rules, how could Ye Yunlan have lived this long?”

A long time ago, a calamity of the Grand Dao similar to the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness befell the Mysterious Blue Realm. Its hegemons, the Kunwu Mountain Ye Family, suffered a devastating blow as a result.

The members of the family’s main branch didn’t hesitate to step forth to resist this crisis and fight for the clan’s survival.

But in the end, although they saved the family from annihilation, the main branch suffered devastating casualties.

In the years that followed, the power of the family's main line of descent fell even further.

Although the Ye Family had recovered some of its vitality, its main branch had still waned.

Conversely, the family’s side branches grew more powerful with each passing day.

If there weren’t still an ancient Emperor of the main lineage to hold down the fort, the main lineage would have long since been stripped of its position and authority.

However, said ancient main lineage Emperor had suffered the corrosive effects of the calamity of the Grand Dao, and he didn’t have much time left.

Ye Xiao rubbed his jug of wine and laughed. “You can’t say that. We cannot forget the main lineage’s efforts; it’s largely thanks to them that the Ye Family survived that calamity of the Grand Dao. Even if Ye Yunlan refuses to see sense, he’s still a member of the main bloodline. We can’t take things too far.”

He paused for a moment, then added, “But… if an accident happens here on the Azure Continent, it’ll have nothing to do with us.”

The other Ye clansmen’s eyes flashed. Ye Xiao’s meaning was perfectly clear!

“Young master, Ye Yunlan isn’t a threat, but what should we do about Su Yi?” asked the woman in the feather coat.

Ye Xiao drained his jug of wine, then muttered, “To the Ye Family, there’s nothing more taboo than killing one’s own clansmen, but fortunately, Su Yi isn’t a member of our clan. Besides, he killed the seventh elder and his companions, so… he of course has to die.”

When he said the word “die,” his eyes noticeably brightened, and a bloodthirsty light surged in the depths of his gaze.

A moment later, he shook his head. “But for now, we’d best wait. The Azure Continent shall soon welcome its Radiant Epoch. We absolutely cannot miss this good fortune!”

The woman in the feather coat nodded. “That great uncle of ours proved his Dao and became an Emperor because he obtained a dense portion of Grand Dao source power during the Mysterious Blue Realm’s equivalent of the Radiant Epoch. In doing so, he formed firm, perfect foundations for becoming an Emperor.

“Young master, with your foundations and aptitude, you can naturally do the same!”

Ye Xiao shook his head. “A method like that only suits Great Uncle; it doesn’t suit me.”

The woman in the feather coat was briefly stunned, but then, she pressed her lips into a smile. “That’s right. Young master, your foundations in the Spiritual Revolution Realm far surpass our great uncle’s. You naturally can’t follow in his footsteps to become an Emperor. It seems to me that merely seizing a portion of the Azure Continent’s Grand Dao source power will be nowhere near sufficient; we must ensure that you can inherit the Ancestral Origin Divine Canon’s power. Perhaps that will give you what you need to become an Emperor.”

Ye Xiao smiled indifferently. “When cultivating and seeking the Dao, blindly relying on good fortune puts you at a disadvantage. Of course, if I’m already strong, good fortune can make me even stronger.”

As he said this, he took out his book and started reading.

When the woman saw this, she instantly fell silent. She dared not utter another word. Everyone in the Ye Family knew that when Ye Xiao was reading, he didn’t tolerate interruptions!

The older members of the family said that, even if the heavens fell, they couldn’t let anything influence Ye Xiao’s reading time. 

……

Two days later.

Su Yi finished repairing the Nine Tripod Suppression Barrier Formation.

Although it wasn’t as strong as it had been at its peak, it was enough to threaten Spiritual Revolution Realm cultivators. This made the Xia Emperor feel a lot more assured.

That very night, as Su Yi and Wen Xinzhao sipped tea and wine in Azurecloud Court, the old blind man returned.

“Are you hurt?” The moment he laid eyes on the old blind man, Su Yi furrowed his brow. He keenly sensed that the old blind man’s qi was disordered.

The old blind man hurriedly shook his head. “Many thanks for your concern, but this is a minor wound. It’s no problem at all.”

Su Yi suddenly shot to his feet, looked the old blind man up and down, then gazed at the scar on the side of his neck. “Did an expert of the Meng Po Palace do that to you?”

The old blind man looked ashamed, and he muttered sheepishly, “I did encounter a rather troublesome opponent, and a moment’s incaution led to this.”

“Were this an ordinary flesh wound, it would have long since healed, but this is no ordinary injury,” said Su Yi. “Hold still.”

The old blind man was stunned, but before he could react, Su Yi stretched out his hand, formed seals, and pressed on his neck.

The scar on the old blind man’s neck suddenly heated up, then split, revealing the pulsating flesh below. A burning, agonizing sensation followed, and the old blind man stiffened.

But he kept Su Yi’s orders firmly in mind, and he dared not move.

It was then that Su Yi released a strange power from his fingertips, slowly pulling an almost transparent gray thread from the pulsating flesh.

It was about a foot long, crystalline and transparent, with an extremely faint, strange presence.

The old blind man cried out in alarm, “What is that?”

“A secret treasure, a legacy of the Meng Po Palace, a Soul-Tethering Thread. It’s extremely insidious; it can silently wrap around a target’s soul without them noticing it at all,” Su Yi said casually. “Given enough time, a mere thought from the caster would have turned your soul into a puppet on a string. You would have been under their complete control.”

The old blind man instantly broke out in cold sweats. He stared at the gray thread in Su Yi’s hands and gnashed his teeth. “No wonder she didn’t chase me when I tried to flee! So, she’d already done something to my body!”

“Wait here,” said Su Yi. As he spoke, he blurred into a streak of flowing light and silently disappeared from Azurecloud Court.

Meanwhile, in a restaurant beside Goldenscale Lake.

“So, that’s Azurecloud Court, the place where Su Yi has taken up residence?” said a fair, beautiful young woman in a black gauze skirt.

Her black hair fell like a waterfall, and her eyebrows were pleasantly curved. She had picturesque features, especially her eyes, which were as clear and tranquil as twin springs. Every movement was full of natural charm.

Yet despite that, her gaze was tranquil and ethereal, and she seemed holy.

“It is indeed.” A young man in ornate robes sat across from her, staring intently at her. He looked utterly infatuated.

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“Many thanks. You can go now,” she said with a faint smile.

The ornately-dressed young man nodded obediently, then got up and left.

After he left the restaurant, he suddenly seemed startled. He examined his surroundings, then muttered in confusion, “How did I get here?”

All memories of the young woman in the black gauze skirt had disappeared without a trace.

Meanwhile, within the restaurant, the young woman pondered, “Why would an inheritor of the Ghost Lantern Sarcophagus Bearer lineage appear beside Su Yi? ….Don’t tell me his origins are somehow connected to the Netherworld?” 

Suddenly, she seemed to sense something, and the look on her exquisite face shifted. “That guy actually discovered my secret treasure, the Soul-Tethering Thread!?”

She rose, transformed into a rain of light, and disappeared.

The restaurant was enormous, but neither the diners nor the waitstaff noticed that they were suddenly missing a customer.

Rather, from beginning to end, none of them knew that a shockingly beautiful young woman had appeared in their midst.

After leaving the restaurant, the young woman shot outside the city.

She passed through the city gates and arrived in the distant mountain wilderness. Only then did her deep, tranquil gaze turn toward Nine Tripod City.

“That old blind man was no good, and you’re definitely no good either, Su Yi. Just wait! I’ll be back to settle the score!” With one last complaint, she turned and was about to leave.

But it was then that her graceful figure suddenly stiffened.

She wasn’t sure when he’d gotten there, but a tall figure stood not far away.

He was dressed in blue, extraordinary and detached, like a banished immortal wandering the human world.

This was none other than Su Yi.