First Immortal of the Sword

Before long, Feng Yuzhi, Yun Songzi, and the others left.

Before their departure, Su Yi mentioned that he hoped they wouldn’t spread what happened tonight.

After all, this incident was so enormous that it would easily stir up enormous waves.  And he, Su Yi, would likely become the center of attention.

Although Su Yi wasn’t afraid of others realizing who he was, he didn’t like that feeling.

Everyone swore to keep it under wraps.

Before she left, Yuan Linning felt quite conflicted. On numerous occasions, she felt the urge to seek out Su Yi for a private conversation.

But in the end, she didn’t.

She was grateful to Su Yi, and more than that, she was impressed by his incomparable bearing.

But she was well aware that even though she was an Empress, and even though she occupied an illustrious, prominent position in the River of Forgetfulness Territory, she and Su Yi belonged to two different worlds.

There was no way they’d interact with any degree of frequency in the future.

Thus, she chose to silently hide her gratitude deep within her heart.

……

Atop Yin-Yang Divine Mountain.

Once the others had dispersed, Su Yi took out a black jade box and passed it to Qing Teng. “Little Vine, your body is sealed within this jade box. Take it.”       

“Many thanks, Your Excellency Su!” Qing Teng excitedly accepted the box with both hands.

“Alright, you and your apprentice can return to the Little Necropolis,” Su Yi said with a smile.

Qing Teng hesitated, then said in a low voice, “Your Excellency Su, I have an unreasonable request. I’d be grateful if you could do something for me.”

Su Yi seemed to have expected this. “You want me to bring your disciple to the outside world to cultivate?”

“How did you know?” Qing Teng exclaimed.

“When I saved you tonight, I overheard your conversation,” Su Yi said casually.

Qing Teng instantly understood, but a moment later, he seemed uncertain. “Then… will you take him?”

“I can do this for you,” said Su Yi. “After I leave the City of the Wrongfully Dead, I’ll arrange a place for Qing Mu to cultivate.”

Qing Teng instantly sighed in relief. “You have my utmost gratitude, Your Excellency!”

Then, he turned to look at Qing Mu, who still stood there in a daze. “Don’t just stand there! Hurry up and thank His Excellency!”

Qing Mu pursed his lips, then whispered, “Master, I don’t want to leave you.”

His voice was soft, but determined.

Qing Teng was instantly frantic with anger. “Do you have any idea how many of the City of the Wrongfully Dead’s old-timers long to cultivate in the outside world? But you…”

He launched into a series of rebukes, one after another.

But against all expectations, no matter how he scolded his disciple, Qing Mu stubbornly refused to leave.

To read the uncut version, go to [pawread.com].

This left Qing Teng vexed and exasperated, but Su Yi couldn’t help but find it funny. “Enough; don’t push him. The outside world isn’t peaceful nowadays. Letting the kid stay here and cultivate alongside you isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”

Qing Teng laughed bitterly, but he could only let it go.

They said, “When parents love their children, they plan for their future.”

Qing Teng was Qing Mu’s master. Didn’t that apply to him too?

But he knew full well that he couldn’t force this. All he could say was that although this was a rare and precious opportunity, Qing Mu wasn’t destined to enjoy it.

“You should head back. Don’t drag this out,” Su Yi said softly.

Qing Teng nodded. He understood Su Yi’s temperament, and he knew that Su Yi loathed long, drawn-out goodbyes and pleasantries.

He and his disciple immediately began the journey back to the Little Necropolis.

Now, only Su Yi, You Xue, and Old Yao White Eyebrows remained atop Yin-Yang Divine Mountain.

Su Yi stretched lazily, and his whole body relaxed. “All of this trivial matters have finally been resolved.

You Xue couldn’t help but smile, and her typically icy face filled with warmth and gentleness.

This was perfectly in line with her impression of Su Xuanjun; he’d always detested trouble.

He much prepared acting as he pleased, free and at leisure.

“Old White Eyebrows, it’s time for you to show me what you’ve got.” Su Yi looked at the Radiant Void Beast.

His most important goal for the night was proceeding to the Nine Great Purgatories of the Dark Capital to retrieve Ye Yu!

“I shall assidiously carry out your orders, Your Excellency!” Old Yao White Eyebrows solemnly assented.

….

The Dark Capital, the first layer of purgatory.

The sounds of slaughter filled the overcast landscape, shaking the heavens.

A flood of demons and vicious spirits swept across the earth. Wherever they went, they left devastation and bloodshed in their wake

Cultivators clustered in groups of three to five, shouting with unwillingness and despair as they died where they stood.
Thier corpses were ripped apart and devoured, leaving the landscape scattered with fragments of bone.

Fresh blood flowed, gathering into rivers and staining the ground a startling shade of red.

Most of the cultivators within the first layer of purgatory were beneath the Imperial Realm.

Their seniors had brought them here to temper themselves.

But ever since the Yin-Yang Road was destroyed, the Nine Great Purgatories of the Dark Capital changed.

The most dramatic change was that the demons and evil spirits spread throughout their territories were far more numerous than before. They were like a long-dormant plague of locusts, breaking free of the earth and sweeping throughout the world in a vast swarm.

Beneath the Imperial Realm, no matter how strong a cultivator was, they could at best take a hundred-or-so of these demons on by themselves.

But now, they were outnumbered many thousands of times over!

How could they possibly be a match for such a vast army?

Boom!

The vast swarm of demons swept toward them like a black windstorm. Before long, they charged further into the distance.

Similarly brutal scenes had already played out several days in a row.

Most of the cultivators spread throughout the first layer of purgatory were already dead.

The few lucky enough to have survived were hidden in an ancient ritual groud.

The ritual ground was about ten thousand feet across, and it was made of piled, massive black stones. The stones’ surfaces were carved with elaborate talisman and formation markings.

This ritual ground was originally the first layer of purgatory’s exit to the outside world.

Rumor had it that in ancient times, mighty experts of the Infernal Palace had carved a formation on the exit. It was designed to exterminate demons and their ilk.

Historically, no demons dared draw near this place.

However, now that the Yin-Yang Road had been so severely damaged, the formation covering the ritual grounds had weakened dramatically.

Its power could at most keep the demons out; it could no longer exterminate them.

Boom!

Heaven and earth were in turmoil, and baleful mists filled the air.

More and more demons swept toward them from all sides in a dense swarm. They sealed the periphery of the ritual grounds off completely.

Their ranks stretched as far as the eye could see; they seemed endless!

About three hundred cultivators had gathered in the ritual grounds, men and women of all ages. Without exception, all of them were in the Spirit Dao.

Their expressions were bleak, terrified, and uneasy. Despair was written all over their faces.

All of them knew that the formation’s power was weakening. The swarm was sure to break into the ritual grounds and destroy them sooner or later.

When that happened, all of them would die without so much as an intact corpse!

“If things go on like this, we’ll really be finished…” Someone said despondently.

“Is there really nothing we can do?” someone said fearfully.

“What can we do except wait to die?” Someone said bitterly.

But most just sat there in silence, their face ashen. It seemed they’d already given in to despair, and they were simply waiting to meet their ends.

They’d come here alongside seniors of their respective factions to explore the first layer of purgatory. All of them naturally had extraordinary statuses.

But now, they were like lambs just waiting to be slaughtered. The helpless and despair were utter torment.

“What happened to this place?”

Suddenly, a calm voice rang out.

“It seems the destruction of the Yin-Yang Road has affected the worlds beneath the Dark Capital,” an icy female voice responded shortly after.

The cultivators weren’t sure when they’d arrived, but three new arrivals had suddenly appeared in the ritual grounds.

A young man in blue, a young woman in white, and a dwarf-like old man.

This scene left the cultivators stunned, but a moment later, they went mad with delight.

“Someone’s here! Someone’s come for us!”

“My heavens, how did you get in here? Has the Yin-Yang Road recovered?” 

A clamor of voices rang out.

The cultivators’ eyes shone with fervor and mad delight. All of them seemed to come to their senses, sloughing off their despair as they gazed at the three newly-arrived strangers.

The ritual grounds seemed to boil over.

If someone had made it inside, that meant they had hope of salvation!

These new arrivals were, of course, Su Yi, You Xue, and Old Yao White Eyebrows.

“Senior, might I ask if the Yin-Yang Road has been restored?”

An obviously illustrious middle-aged man in purple approached and bowed in greeting.

However, his gaze was focused on Old Yao White Eyebrows; he could sense that the elderly dwarf had the most terrifying cultivation base of the group!

“Little baby, you’ve let your imagination run away with you. It’s no longer possible to restore the Yin-Yang Road,” Old Yao White Eyebrows said with the airs of an elder.

The middle-aged man in purple was stunned, and the joyful atmosphere died down as the cultivators’ mad delight gave way to uncertainty.

Not far away, a beautiful young woman’s eyes shone with hope. “Then… have you come here to save us, Senior?”

All eyes were instantly upon Old Yao White Eyebrows.

You Xue couldn’t help but sigh to herself.

Old Yao White Eyebrows was the sovereign of the Chaotic Void Blood Lake, a perilous forbidden ground. He was a terrifying lifeform comparable to the White Bone Emperor and Divine Monarch Falling Star.

Even mighty Profound Serenity Emperors feared nothing more than failing to avoid him in time.

Yet these mere Spirit Dao cultivators seemed to view him as their savior…

They were obviously so desperate that they were grasping at straws.

From this, she could infer how much despair and unease the cultivators trapped in here had endured. They were desperate and eager to seize even the barest thread of hope.

“Why would I save you?” Old Yao White Eyebrows looked at them strangely, and he couldn’t help but grin. These paltry little cultivators think I’m their savior? I’ve never seen anything so absurd in my entire life.

The delight instantly disappeared from the cultivators’ faces. They looked at each other, not sure of what to do next.

Many of their expressions were just as bleak as they’d been before.

They’d seen hope, only to have it extinguished. Such a blow was unquestionably too cruel to bear.

But then, You Xue couldn’t help but sigh. “We came here to save a friend of ours. Once we’ve done that, and should the opportunity arise, we’ll naturally take you with us when we leave.”

All eyes instantly turned toward You Xue. However, they contained undisguised confusion.