First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 1035 - Homeward Bound

Heaven and earth suddenly lit up.

Countless streaks of sword qi poured down like exploding, flowing light.

Each streak was three feet long, clear, and ethereal. They contained unmatched, forceful energy fluctuations of the Laws of the Grand Dao.

Kcch kccch kcch!

The skies split like canvas. Countless, intercrossing rifts tore open, the dense scars the sword qi left behind.

Gazing upon the skies above Kunwu Mountain from afar, it was like a rain of sword qi, dense, flashing, and unpredictable. The sword light glowed like the setting sun, illuminating the mountains and rivers. It was a dazzling sight.

And when the sword rain fell…

Splurt! Splurt! Splurt!

One figure after another fell like wheat beneath a scythe, toppling to the ground.

Some had their throats pierced, while others were decapitated. Others still had holes ripped through their chests, or their souls shattered…

“No——!” someone roared in grief and unwillingness.

“The heavens have cast the Ye Family aside! They’ve cast us aside!” someone cried out hysterically.

“Save me, save me——!” someone screamed in terror.

…Blood splattered like cinnabar paint from an artist’s brush. It was soon smeared throughout every part of Kunwu Divine Mountain, depicting a striking, vivid vision of purgatory in crimson.

“The hostages! Quick, order the liger to kill them all! If we die, they can forget about living!!” An indignant roar rang out.

“Your Excellency, the hostages disappeared before the battle even began…” someone sobbed, choked with despair. A moment later, a sword pierced their throats, and they died where they stood.

Gradually, the shrieks and wails died down and disappeared without a trace.

A bloody mist permeated Kunwu Mountain, and its surface was riddled with scars.

“Su Yi, the blood of our Ye Family flows through your veins. Aren’t you afraid of heaven’s wrath?” Ye Tiandu’s soul looked at Su Yi with incomparable grief and rage.

Su Yi glanced at him calmly, his gaze distant, but he didn’t say so much as a single word.

He couldn’t be bothered to explain.

Even devils of the heretical path, monsters whose hands were stained with blood and who’d spent years terrorizing the populace, would cry out hysterically in much the same way when they met their ends.

Determining right and wrong wasn’t about who seemed the most pathetic.

Besides, it hadn’t been long at all since the Ye Family had flattened Nine Tripod City and Mount Heavenbristle. Countless innocents had lost their lives as a result.

Had those innocents done anything wrong?

Who here had spoken up on their behalf?

Every debt had its debtor. The Ye Family absolutely should not have crossed Su Yi’s bottom line by dragging uninvolved innocents into this.

And they’d even captured the people Su Yi cared about. Wen Xinzhao had even almost been reduced to a mindless dual cultivation vessel!

Yet now, Ye Tiandu was roaring hysterically about divine punishment. This was no more than the venting of one who’d lost his rationality, and it was utterly ludicrous.

Thus, Su Yi couldn’t even be bothered to argue with him. He simply stood there and watched in silence.

When Ye Tiandu’s soul got no response, he seemed incomparably bitter, but in the end, he turned to look at Kunwu Mountain with great difficulty.

He let out a long sigh, and his soul suddenly crumbled into ash.

Su Yi’s third strike had cleaved through his soul's vitality, leaving Ye Tiandu with no possibility of survival whatsoever!

After Ye Tiandu’s soul dissipated, silence descended upon heaven and earth.

Bloody mist roiled throughout Kunwu Divine Mountain, and murderous, destructive energy currents still swept outward.

It was a vision of desolation.

The Xia Emperor gazed at Su Yi’s solitary figure in a daze.

With his first strike, he’d taken a Profound Serenity Realm powerhouse’s head.

With his second strike, he had destroyed Kunwu Mountain’s formations.

With his third strike, he had executed the Ye Family!

In just three strikes, the Ye Family, the clan that had ruled over the Mysterious Blue Realm for countless years, had crumbled completely.

No, that wasn’t true!

The Xia Emperor suddenly saw Su Yi stretch out his right hand and pull.action

About a dozen men and women rose into the air, like fish caught in a net.

Their ranks included Ye Yunlan, Su Yi’s maternal uncle!

“So, he didn’t really cut the grass and rip out the roots." For some reason, the Xia Emperor felt a bit moved.

The ten or so surviving Ye clansmen hailed from the main lineage, just like Ye Yunlan.

When Su Yi attacked earlier, his divine sense detected them and confirmed their identities. Thus, his third slash didn’t target them.

“Why don’t I see Ye Cangtu?” Su Yi asked Ye Yunlan.

Ye Cangtu was one of the only two Ye Family Profound Serenity Emperors to have survived the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness. He’d suffered severe injuries, and he spent most of his time in seclusion.

Notably, he was from the Ye Family’s main lineage.

Ye Yunlan looked conflicted, and his heart still shook, unable to calm down. Some time passed before he said in a low voice, “Actually… Ancestor Cangtu passed away a long time ago.”

Su Yi found this quite surprising.

Even the ten-or-so surviving members of the main lineage felt dazed, and they looked lost. Ancestor Cangtu passed a long time ago?

Ye Yunlan continued gravely, “Years ago, Ancestor Cangtu’s Dao wounds acted up. He realized that he didn’t have long to live, but he was worried that after he passed, members of the branch lineage would hurt and oppress members of the main lineage. Thus, he announced that he was entering seclusion in an attempt to break through. In truth, he used a peerless secret art to seal his immortal cave and body completely, and he passed away in meditation…

“Ancestor Cangtu revealed this truth only to me. Prior to this, no one else knew that Ancestor Cangtu had long since passed on.

“It’s because of this deception that, despite the main lineage’s worsening predicament, the branch lineage still didn’t dare just kill us.” Here, Ye Yunlan let out a long sigh, looking utterly forlorn.

Su Yi finally understood. No wonder Ye Cangtu never intervened even when the main lineage became so unbearably weak. He died a long time ago!

Su Yi thought for a moment, then asked suddenly, “Do you hate me?”

Ye Yunlan shook his head.

“What are your future plans?”

Ye Yunland had a complicated look on his face, and he said softly, “I imagine we’ll change our names and go somewhere far, far away. So long as we’re still alive, the Ye Family has hope of rising to prominence once more.”

Su Yi took out a talisman and passed it to him. “If you run into difficulties you cannot resolve on your own, you can use this talisman to come looking for me in the Wilds.”

Ye Yunlan was stunned, but he accepted the talisman without a word.

Su Yi then took out the Netherworld Thunder Punishment Bell and flicked his finger.

Clang!

The boundless ringing of a bell filled the air, and the badly damaged bronze bell transformed into a radiant rain of light and spread throughout Kunwu Mountain.

Suddenly, for some inexplicable reason, Su Yi recalled a scene from his early childhood, before he’d recovered his memories——

His mother, Ye Yufei, sat beneath the candlelight in a cramped, dimly lit room. She hummed a tune as she tried to lull the three-year-old Su Yi to sleep.

Her expression was utterly tender.

Su Yi smiled silently, and he felt as if an invisible knot had come undone in his heart.

“Xia Emperor, we can leave.” Su Yi then turned and walked off. The Xia Emperor followed shortly after.

Yu Yunlan and the other Ye clansmen watched in a daze. All of them were keenly aware that the Kunwu Mountain Ye Family, which had dominated the Mysterious Blue Realm for countless years, was history!

……

A month later.

The Azure Continent, Meteor Abyss.

A total of eighteen formations covered the periphery of Meteor Abyss. A grand, towering structure stood at the bottom of the chasm.

All of this was Su Yi’s work.

“Ying Que, I have granted you a Daoist canon. So long as you cultivate diligently, the day will come that you metamorphose into a true dragon and become an Emperor. This is a secret tome of the yao path. It contains descriptions of what numerous yao experts experienced as they proved their Daos and became Emperors.” Su Yi sat in his wicker chair and passed a jade slip to Ying Que.

“Many thanks, Master Su!” Ying Que bowed, his excitement too great to express in words.

“Yuan Heng, your talent is limited, and your foundations are only ordinary, but when cultivating the Grand Dao, diligence can make up for poor aptitude. Flowing waters shouldn’t strive to reach the ocean first. Rather, they should strive for an endless flow. Here is a method for polishing the heart and tempering the soul. Hold onto it.”

“Miss Ning, your talent is extraordinary, and you have no lack of cultivation methods, but the Laws of the Azure Continent are holding you back. Your comprehension of the Grand Dao is inadequate. Here are some fragments of the Grand Dao I stripped from a bunch of old-timers in the Netherworld. Use them to contemplate.”

“Ge Qian…”

In the time that followed, Su Yi took out a series of treasures and distributed them amongst the group.

Of course, A’Cang, Wen Xinzhao, Cha Jin, Qing Wan, Wen Lingxue, and the other women received their share too. Furthermore, during that month, they received Su Yi’s guidance on multiple occasions.

Especially Qing Wan and Cha Jin. They benefited the most of all…

Finally, Su Yi took out a storage ring and gave it to Ning Sihua. It contained the cultivation resources Su Yi had gathered throughout his journey. Now that he’d broken into the Imperial Realm, the vast majority were no longer useful to him. Better to entrust them to Ning Sihua and let her distribute them.

After finishing all of this, Su Yi relaxed completely.

In the month since his return to the Azure Continent, he’d practically never stopped to rest. He’d spent this time placing a full eighteen formations around Meteor Abyss, each strong enough to slay Profound Illumination Emperors.

Furthermore, he’d gone to great lengths to guide the others’ cultivation, smoothing out kinks, resolving their doubts, and answering their questions.

He didn’t even rest at night, as he was busy dual cultivating with Qing Wan and Cha Jin. They were seriously contemplating the profundities of collisions of the flesh and of the spirit.

This was what they meant when they said “Fighting against the heavens was an endless joy.”

In short, this was a fulfilling month for Su Yi, but a busy one too.

All of this was in preparation for his return to the Wilds. He wanted to get his friends settled first.

Now, everything was in order, so he’d decided to set off!

“Big Brother Su Yi, when will you come back?” asked Wen Lingxue.

Su Yi’s friends had come to Meteor Abyss to see him off.

“If everything goes as I expect, I’ll be back within three years to take you to the Wilds.” Su Yi laughed and tousled Wen Lingxue’s hair.

Then, he faced the others and waved. “I’m leaving.”

He put his hands behind his back, stepped into the air, and soared away.

With his blue robes floating around him, he was like an immortal ascending into the heavens.

After watching him disappear over the horizon, Cha Jin muttered, “The young lord is as unrestrained as ever…”

No grief, and no reluctance.

He just upped and left at the drop of a hat, as unrestrained as could be.

But the others couldn’t help but look at each other and laugh.

The way they saw it, this was perfectly in character. Su Yi had always been this way!