First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 426: In the Struggle for Fortune, There Is No Right and Wrong

Lai Changxiao shot ahead in an attempt to flee. Even Yan Junshan and the others set aside all other concerns and fled, arcing through the sky like rainbows, preternaturally quick.

Daoist Master Thousand Absolutes shattered a secret talisman. A bloody mist enveloped him, and he disappeared into thin air.

Both Gathering Stars Realm cultivators gave up on fighting and fled. Ordinarily speaking, even others of the same realm would have found it difficult to stop them.

However, Su Yi had long since prepared for this.

The instant the two of them fled, Su Yi raised his finger and tapped the air twice in rapid succession.

Kcchh! Kcch!

Two streaks of sword qi shot forth, arriving at Lai Changxiao and?Daoist?Master Thousand Absolutes in a flash.

Lai Changxiao was already several thousand feet away when he sensed the danger. He suddenly bellowed, and a barrier of dark light condensed around him.

The barrier was covered in strange and contorted light patterns. It was like a spiritual shield.

Bang!

When the sword qi descended, the light barrier shook violently, then burst into fragments.

The sword qi continued ahead, its power not dropping in the slightest as it cleaved into Lai Changxiao’s body.

Earlier, this Gathering Stars Realm expert of the Yuanyang Spirit Sect had clashed with Su Yi. In the process, all of his defensive treasures shattered. What remained to block this lethal strike?

Splurt!

There was a flash of sword light.

Lai Changxiao’s head flew through the air. He was destroyed, body and spirit.

As soon as a cultivator’s will to fight crumbled, they became little more than a lamb to the slaughter in their opponent’s eyes.

Of course, reality was even crueler than that; even if Lai Changxiao had gone all out, fighting Su Yi tooth and nail, he would have been little different from an ant trying to shake a tree. He was doomed to meet much the same fate as Qi Chongzi either way.

“Hm?” Su Yi suddenly furrowed his brow.

He’d attacked?Daoist?Master Thousand Absolutes too, but?that?slash had been blocked.

There was a bronze hairpin floating over?Daoist?Master Thousand Absolute’s head. It was dull and flecked with rust, and its surface was stained with dried blood.

However, it was this very bronze hairpin that had effortlessly blocked Su Yi’s otherwise lethal slash. It silently, inconspicuously, neutralized his sword qi.

It seems…. That’s a damaged, incomplete Spirit Dao treasure??Su Yi was somewhat surprised.

.

Meanwhile, Daoist Master Thousand Absolutes seized the opportunity to flee in panic. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared over the horizon.

“Su Yi! I’ll be back another day to claim your head! I’ll cleanse this humiliation in blood!” His infuriated, vicious shout emanated from afar, echoing throughout heaven and earth.

“Impotent rage, that’s all.” Su Yi couldn’t be bothered to pay the man any attention, much less take his threats to heart.

As of now, he’d killed Qiu Mochi, Lai Changxiao, and Qi Chongzi, three Gathering Star Realm experts. He was finally starting to feel as if he’d vented enough.

When he thought about it, he couldn’t help but mock himself.?This pack of jumping clowns actually influenced my mental state? That really… Shouldn’t have happened.

“Isn’t he a bit?too?strong….?” The Profound Snowfiend Python looked bewildered, and her mind buzzed.

This battle ended almost as soon as it began. Su Yi used his Grain Avoidance Realm cultivation to slay three first-rate Gathering Stars Realm cultivators in rapid succession!

Witnessing these bloody spectacles shook even the python. She inwardly rejoiced that she hadn’t chosen to fight Su Yi.

If she had...

The Profound Snowfiend Python dared not continue that train of thought.

This is monstrous power! He’s mysterious and mighty, and he cannot be measured through common sense. Compared to monsters like him, the rest of us might as well live in another world…?Ling Yunhe sighed to himself.

If he really compared them to the young man in front of him, the world’s cultivators would surely pale in comparison.

“Fellow Daoist Su, what do we do with these people?” Ling Yunhe?calmed?himself down, then glanced at Yan Junshan and the other Origin Palace cultivators.

In the Great?Xia’s Southern Skies Province, these people were prominent experts who could shake their respective territories.

Yet now, they were long since pale with fright. Their faces were ashen, and they were too scared to even attempt to flee.

After all, they’d watched as Lai Changxiao tried to flee, only for Su Yi to cut him down on the spot!

“Fellow Daoist Su, we’re willing to admit fault and offer up all of our treasures to make up for our mistakes. Furthermore, I can swear on the Yuanyang Spirit Sect’s reputation that we’ll never stand against you ever again!” Yan Junshan took a deep breath, lowered his head, and bowed to Su Yi.

Sometimes, circumstances?forced?your hand. He had no choice but to lower his head!

When the others saw this, how could they dare to hesitate? All of them lowered their heads in defeat too.

“If I just kill you all, won’t your treasures become mine anyway?” Su Yi smiled faintly.

It was just one sentence, but their hearts shook, and their expressions shifted dramatically.

However, when Su Yi saw that they couldn’t even work up the will to resist, Su Yi lost interest. He waved and said, “You can leave.”

Yan Junshan and the others were briefly dazed; it seemed they found it hard to believe.

“Fellow Daoist, many thanks for showing mercy!” Yan Junshan took a deep breath, then took off his storage treasure, a jade pendant. He respectfully placed it on the ground, then turned and left.

The others imitated him, one by one. Each left their storage treasures behind.

It was only after they were far away and certain that Su Yi wasn’t going to stop them that their tensed hearts relaxed. They couldn’t help but wipe the cold sweat from their brows and quicken their past.

“And here I thought you’d kill them all,” laughed Ling Yunhe. “I’m surprised you spared them.”

“In a struggle for good fortune, there is no right and wrong. Besides, I’m not the bloodthirsty type. I disdain exterminating people like them,” said Su Yi. His hands were already behind his back, and he was already headed back into the cave. “Yuan Heng, gather up the spoils. I’m going to contemplate the Grand Dao a while longer. Everyone, please wait here.”

Yuan Heng immediately got to work.

“Fellow Daoist, is Su-...is Fellow Daoist Su really an immortal from the heavens?” The Profound Snowfiend Python couldn’t help but ask Ling Yunhe.

Ling Yunhe thought for a moment, then said, “If there really are immortals up there, Fellow Daoist Su is definitely one of them.”

The Profound Snowfiend Python sank into silence.

Yuan Heng was still gathering up the spoils when he laughed, “Miss Bai, rest assured. You fought on my master’s behalf. When he’s done contemplating the Dao, there’s no way he’ll be stingy with you.”

As he spoke, he took out a bottle of pills and tossed them over. “Here’s some recovery medicine. You should hurry and treat your wounds.”

The Profound Snowfiend Python was stunned, then grateful. “Many thanks, Fellow Daoist.”

Yuan Heng chuckled and waved her gratitude away. “Don’t be so polite. We’re fellow yao cultivators; it’s only right that we help each other.”

Qing Ya blinked her big clear eyes and asked curiously, “Big Brother Yuan Heng, have you fallen for Big Sister Bai?”

“.....”

“....”

Neither yao cultivator knew what to say to that.

Children spoke without a filter. It was obvious that Qing Ya had no reservations either. This left both turtle and serpent rather awkward and uncomfortable.

Ling Yunhe hurriedly dragged Qing Ya off.?If I leave her here, she’s sure to keep badgering them about this.

…..

Half a day later.

Su Yi had been hovering above the underground lake all this time, but now, he silently opened his eyes.

He raised a finger, and a wisp of dim, cold light condensed around his fingertip.

The nearby air instantly filled with an extreme Yin chill.

Yin is turbid, the power of the moon, as formless as water and cold as ice. Wielding it can temper the spirit and refine the soul…

Alas, neither Yin nor Yang can exist on its own. Mastering the Dao Charm of Yin is far inferior to the combination of Yin and Yang….

Su Yi calmed his heart and focused on his senses for a moment before getting up.

He had already crossed the threshold of comprehension of the Dao Charm of Yin.

With the knowledge and experience of his past life, it wouldn’t be long before his mastery grew from basic understanding to “understanding subtitles”, then to “major success” and finally, to the level of “perfection.”

“Big Brother Su Yi, have you already comprehended the Dao Charm of Yin?” asked Qing Ya curiously.

Su Yi nodded.

Qing Ya instantly exclaimed, “That’s amazing! Back in the sect, they all say I’m a genius at comprehending the Dao, but when I pondered my Dao Charm of the Firmament, I had to sleep for a full week just to comprehend the barest hint of its true meaning.”

“You attained enlightenment by sleeping for seven days?” The corners of Yuan Heng’s lips twitched.?This girl’s method of comprehending the Dao is enough to make any cultivator red-eyed with jealousy.

“The Dao Charm of the Firmament?” Su Yi couldn’t help but exclaim.

The Dao Charm of the Origin Dao level was divided into three grades, each subdivided into three classes.

However, that system only applied to relatively ordinary Grand Daos.

The Dao Charm of the Firmament was a peerless Dao Charm; it far surpassed the conventional ranking system, and it was extremely rare!

Su Yi would never have guessed that the Dao Charm Qing Ya had mastered would be?this?extraordinary.

This girl really isn’t simple,?thought Su Yi.

When he first saw Qing Ya, all he noticed was that her appearance, temperament, and even her mannerisms were similar to his youngest disciple, Qing Tang, when she was little.

It was only later, after traveling together, that he realized that Qing Ya’s talent and spirit root were both extraordinary.

Her spirit root was pure and unsurpassed. She had the rare Profound Flesh Spirit Bone, which was considered a high-grade spirit root even in the Wilds. This alone made her one in ten thousand.

Furthermore, her talent wasn’t simple either; she had transcendent powers of comprehension and an innate affinity for natural energies. She could sense traces of the Grand Dao that were invisible to most ordinary cultivators.

Such powers of comprehension were monstrous even by the standards of the Nine Provinces of the Wilds. Even peak ancient orthodoxies would have fought to take her on as an apprentice.

For example, if an ordinary person saw a landscape, they would at most find it pleasing to the eye.

A cultivator, however, could see the “force of the mountains” and the “charm of the water”. The truly impressive could even see through the natural trend of the mountains and flow of the water.

As for someone like Qing Ya? She could discern the divine charm of the Grand Dao hidden without the scenery, and she could understand it too!

This was the advantage of transcendent powers of comprehension.

Photographic memories and keen intellects paled in comparison to this innate affinity for and comprehension of nature.

Qing Ya didn’t just have an extraordinary Profound Flesh Spirit Bone; she had transcendent powers of comprehension. Of all the cultivators Su Yi had met in his current lifetime, only the Featherflow King, Yue Shichan, could compete with her in this regard.

“Big Brother Su Yi, don’t tell me you understand the profundities of the Dao Charm of the Firmament?” asked Qing Ya.

Although she didn’t know it, Su Yi had long since discerned the nature of her talent and her spirit root.

“Of course. If I have the spare time, I wouldn’t mind giving you a bit of guidance on how best to temper this Dao Charm,” said Su Yi offhandedly.

He didn’t just know about the Dao Charm of the Firmament; he even knew which cultivation method was best suited to bring out its maximum power!

However, perhaps because Qing Ya and Qing Tang were somewhat similar, Su Yi had no plans of taking her as his apprentice despite admiring her talent.

Qing Ya smiled sweetly, “Then I’ll just have to thank you in advance, Big Brother Su Yi! Later, I’ll be sure to treat you to lots of Fire Peaches!”

Ling Yunhe had said nothing all this time, but he couldn’t bear to watch this any longer. He coughed dryly. “Ahem, Fellow Daoist Su, what shall we do with the Absolute Yin Spirit Vein buried here?”

He couldn’t help but change the subject for fear that Su Yi would give in to temptation and abduct Qing Ya, the treasure of the One Sky Sword Pavilion!

When he brought up the Absolute Yin Spirit Vein, the nearby Profound Snowfiend Python couldn’t help but glance at Su Yi too.

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