First Immortal of the Sword

After taking a moment to calm himself, Mo Wuhen wrote, “I cannot confirm that he and that person are one and the same, but this incident is truly far too suspicious and out of the ordinary.

“Senior Apprentice Brother, if you receive this talisman, please hurry back to the sect.”

When he finished writing, Mo Wuhen used a secret art and flicked his fingers.

Kch!

The golden talisman transformed into a streak of radiant light, bore through the skies, and disappeared in a flash.

Mo Wuhen let out a long breath of turbid air, then sat there and sank into silence.

……

The Netherworld had Six Territories and Thirteen Realms.

The River of Forgetfulness Territory was enormously vast, easily comparable to a greater world.

Here, Meng Po Palace was the unmatched top ancient orthodoxy.

However, other, lesser factions were as numerous as the stars scattered throughout the River of Forgetfulness Territory.

Noon, three days later.

“Brother Su, those are Yama's Floating Mountains up ahead. They cover eight thousand miles, and they're one of the greatest danger zones in the entire River of Forgetfulness Territory.” Cui Jingyan pointed into the distance and said in a clear, crisp voice. “But we have no need to go there. If we proceed alongside the River of Forgetfulness for nine thousand miles, we’ll arrive at the greatest city in the south of the River of Forgetfulness Territory…”

The words flowed out of her; she knew the River of Forgetfulness Territory like the back of her hand.

Perhaps because Su Yi had defeated Yuan Linning, Cui Jingyan’s attitude toward him had changed considerably. She was friendlier, but also more respectful.

“We’re going to rest in Nightdemon City tonight,” Su Yi said casually.

“Nightdemon City?” Cui Jingyan’s delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly. “That’s a gathering point for evildoers and fiends, a place where fish swim alongside dragons. It's shrouded in miasma. Even most Spiritual Revolution cultivators are unwilling to go there.”

Nightdemon City bordered Yama's Floating Mountains. Leave the city, and you could enter the mountain directly. 

In recent years, when faced with powerful experts’ and factions’ pursuit, the region’s evildoers would choose to seek refuge in Nightdemon City.

The reason was simple. Nightdemon City had an unwritten rule: anyone who entered the city could receive the city lord’s protection so long as they offered up their most precious treasure!

And the lord of Nightdemon City had always been an expert of the Demonic Wei Family.

The Wei Family was an ancient faction, and they’d lived deep within the valley of Yama's Floating Mountains for a long, long time.

Rumor had it that no faction of the River of Forgetfulness Territory dared provoke the Wei Family lightly. Even Meng Po Palace had never caused trouble for them.

As a result, Nightdemon City had become a haven, a holy ground for evildoers to seek refuge under the Wei Family’s leadership.

Su Yi said casually, “The city might be shrouded in miasma, but without such a city, that same vileness would be dispersed throughout the world.”

Cui Jingyan was stunned.

She’d heard the sect’s elders say similar things before.

Nightdemon City was an infamous city of sin, and it had existed for a long, long time. Why hadn’t some other faction stepped in to eradicate them?

At the time, Meng Po Palace’s grand high elder had sighed and said, “Without such a city, those evildoers would scatter throughout the world. They’d only bring even greater harm to the populace.”

At the time, Cui Jingyan didn’t quite get it. Wasn’t it enough to just kill all those fiends and be done with it?

Later, as her cultivation grew and her horizons broadened, she understood. It was impossible to kill every evildoer in the world.

Where there was light, there was darkness.

Where there was good, there was naturally evil too.

“From the perspective of the masses, the Wei Family’s Nightdemon City has its disadvantages, but its advantages outweigh them.

As they conversed, Su Yi shot ahead. His companions hurried after him.

……

As night fell, Nightdemon City’s lamps lit. It was extraordinarily lively.

The towering, majestic city walls couldn’t block the waves of uproar within.

Throughout its long history, this city had been a famous danger zone, a gathering point for countless fiends, heretics, and outlaws.

But due to the proximity of Yama’s Floating Mountains, it had also drawn all sorts of vendors and rogue cultivators in search of adventure.

Furthermore, Nightdemon City’s black market was extremely famous in the River of Forgetfulness Territory.

Rumor had it that, so long as you had enough money, you could buy anything you wanted there!

When he saw the city in the distance, Su Yi couldn’t help but look a bit nostalgic.

In his past life, he’d once come here with Little Leaf to hunt down and kill a traitor of the Ghost Serpent Race. They’d chased him all the way from Nightdemon City into a forbidden ground deep within the mountain wilderness.

At the time, Su Yi left one of his treasures in that very forbidden ground.

The treasure remained, but he had changed.

“It’s already this late, so why are so many people still headed for Nightdemon City?” Cui Jingyan suddenly asked.

Throughout the surrounding skies, streaks of light flashed by intermittently. They were headed toward Nightdemon City. 

“We’ll know when we get there.” Su Yi set aside his scattered thoughts and proceeded toward the city.

But as soon as he reached the city gates, he suddenly stopped in place and gazed into the distant night sky.

The sound of gongs and horns emanated from the distant night sky. The song was impassioned, yet strange and imposing. Combined with the deep darkness of the landscape, it was extremely unsettling.

There was a disturbance amongst those gathered near the city gates. All of them looked over.

A strange procession had appeared in the distant skies.

There were two rows of men in blood-red robes in front. Each wore a red, high-brimmed hat, and there were sixteen of them in total. Eight beat gongs, while four blew horns.

The music shook the skies, stinging the ears.

The sound of the horns was long and impassioned, and as it shook the skies, it created rippling black sound waves, shaking the landscape below.

It was like the music of ghosts, monsters, or demons. The melody was strange, and it made one’s hair stand on end.

Behind the two rows of men walked four women in blood-red skirts. The four of them carried a blood-colored sedan chair, which carried a monk. As the procession walked through the sky, bloody light flowed around them, illusory and dreamlike.

It was like the wedding procession of a ghost bride. It lent the night sky an additional strange and sinister flavor. 

“It’s the Heaven-Slaughtering Ghost Monk!” someone said in a quavering voice. “So, that old monster is here too….”

There was a commotion throughout the surrounding crowd. Many of them were visibly fearful.

“The Heaven-Slaughtering Ghost Monk? So, it’s that old thing.” Aversion appeared on Cui Jingyan’s beautiful face.

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“Is he strong?” asked Su Yi. 

“He’s an old monster of the heretical path, and he’s crafty and cruel. He’s infamous, and he excels at refining corpses and manipulating ghosts. Over the past thousand years, who knows how many young female cultivators have suffered at his hands?” Cui Jingyan transmitted at top speeds.

“The most detestable part is, he doesn’t just have an impressive cultivation base; he’s backed by the Blood River Netherworld Sect. He typically hides in the Blood River of Sin, which is the only reason he’s still alive. Otherwise, Meng Po Palace would have been the first to bring him to justice!”

According to Cui Jingyan, the Heaven-Slaughtering Ghost Monk had peak Spiritual Revolution Realm cultivation. That made him a peak expert beneath the Imperial level.

“An infamous heretical cultivator who’s yet to prove his Dao and become an Emperor has lived this long despite committing so many heinous misdeeds? He’s actually somewhat capable,” Su Yi said casually.

As they conversed, the strange procession continued through the skies and into Nightdemon City, gradually fading from view.

And outside the gates, discussion broke out.

“There’s been no sign of the Heaven-Slaughtering Ghost Monk for the past hundred years, yet tonight, he’s come straight for Nightdemon City. There’s no doubt about it; he must have received a banquet invitation from the city lord’s manor,” someone whispered.

“A group of mighty heretical cultivators has gathered here over the past few days. There’s the One-Armed Demon, Ol’ Ghost Thousand Eyes, the White-Faced Daoist, and others, too. Rumor has it that they’re here to attend tonight’s banquet at the city lord’s manor, and that they’re going to discuss a grand stroke of fortune hidden deep within the wilderness of Yama's Floating Mountains!”

“I heard about that too. Not long ago, deep within the mountain wilderness, nine-colored immortal light soared into the heavens, manifesting all manner of unbelievable phenomena. They say that a strange bell rang for three days and three nights, only disappearing two days ago.”

“It was on that day that City Lord Wei Yun sent out invitations, inviting a group of mighty heretical cultivators to his estate. His goal is to obtain this as-of-yet unknown, mysterious good fortune.”

“No wonder Nightdemon City has been so lively lately.”

…As the crowd conversed, they started going their separate ways.

Su Yi, however, furrowed his brow slightly.

Nine-colored immortal light?

The sound of a mysterious bell?

Don’t tell me someone’s already unsealed that great forbidden ground?

The old blind man said suddenly, “They’re attempting to seize good fortune, and they even invited those fiends and heretics to join in. For the Demonic Wei Family to announce this with such great fanfare suggests something’s strange about the good fortune in question.”

Cui Jingyan looked stunned. “Why do you say that?”

“Miss Jingyan, were you to discover incredible good fortune within your family’s territory, would you share it with outsiders?” asked the old blind man.

Her eyes lit up with understanding. “Now that you mention it…”

Yama’s Floating Mountains were one of the great forbidden zones of the River of Forgetfulness Domain.

And the Demonic Wei Family had long since taken up residence deep within Yama’s Floating Mountains' Heavencloud Valley.

In terms of their understanding of Yama's Floating Mountains, none in this world could compete with the Wei Family.

Yet now, City Lord Wei Yun had invited a whole group of evildoers to venture into the mountain wilderness with him. That implied that, whatever this good fortune was, it wasn’t simple. 

“Come on, let’s visit the black market first,” said Su Yi, proceeding toward the gates. The old blind man and Cui Jingyan followed.

Although both of them were uncertain as to why Su Yi was so dead set on visiting Nightdemon City, they considerately refrained from asking.

If Su Yi wanted to tell them, he’d have done so already.

Nightdemon City was quite lively, with residences as numerous as trees in a forest. It was thoroughly lamplit and so crowded that the pedestrians jostled each other as they passed.

This lively scene seemed little different from other major cities.

However, were someone to examine the crowd closely, they’d discover that this was indeed a place where fish and dragons intermingled. The crowd included yao cultivators, soul cultivators, demonic cultivators, and experts of various other races.

There was also no shortage of those with extremely wicked and ferocious auras and those emanating the pungent stench of blood. Even if they tried to hide it, it was difficult to elude the gazes of the strong.

Su Yi had long since grown accustomed to such scenes. 

This had been a seedy place for a long time. Its bustling prosperity was superficial; beneath the surface, it was a city of filth, bloodshed, and darkness.

Here, a fledgling cultivator leaving the sect for the first time was doomed to die before they even knew what hit them. 

Not long after they arrived, a Daoist with the air of an immortal took the initiative to approach them, smiling as he struck up a conversation. “Young lord, is this your first day in the city?” 

Su Yi barely glanced at him before saying softly, “Scram.”