First Immortal of the Sword

Su Yi’s gaze was calm and tranquil, as still as the waters of an ancient well.

When the man in the feather coat attacked, he combined offense and defense with incomparable experience and ruthlessness. However, his bearing made it obvious that he was on guard. That was why he’d launched such a terrifying attack so quickly. In fact, Su Yi was surprised to see that the man in the feather coat was using Great Unity Stage power!

During his trip to the ruins of the Dragon Palace, an attack like that might well have caught Su Yi off guard, especially if it was sudden, but… alas, this level of power was now beneath Su Yi’s notice.

He raised the foot-long peach branch and thrust it like a sword.

Bang!!!

A hole opened in the barrier of light defending the man in the feather coat. It offered no more resistance than paper window paneling.

Immediately afterward, the man’s defensive power exploded, and his heart-protecting mirror shattered!

The supple branch of peach wood wasn’t some special material. Normally, it would have snapped on impact. However, in Su Yi’s hands, it was like an unbreakable divine sword slashing through rotten wood. It ripped through the enemy’s light barrier, defensive power, and heart-protecting mirror and bore right through his chest!

The man in the feather coat swung his short halberds, only for invisible power to block them just one foot away from Su Yi. They couldn’t advance so much as an inch further. Victory and defeat were determined in an instant!

The terrifying attack that combined offense and defense broke as the man in the feather coat was run through.

Splurt!

Fresh blood spurted from his back.

He instinctively looked down at the peach branch, astonishment written all over his face. It seemed he couldn’t even imagine how such an unassuming, ordinary object could have been used to defeat him!

“You…” He opened his mouth to speak, but he never got to finish his question.

Su Yi shifted his wrist, and tyrannical sword intent burst from the branch. The man in the feather coat split into pieces with a splatter of flesh and blood.

An agonized cry resounded through the air as the man’s soul fled his corpse.

However, before he got far, Su Yi stretched out his palm and forced him to the ground, trapping him completely. He couldn’t even budge.

“Hah~” Su Yi raised the peach branch and blew. The fresh blood staining the branch instantly transformed into a rain of right red flower petals and drifted to the ground.

Deathly silence ensued. Everyone stared, transfixed and completely dazed.

He suppressed a divine emissary in the blink of an eye! Who’d dare believe such a thing?

The most terrifying part was that from beginning to end, Su Yi’s attacks were casual and understated. He even used a tree branch to defeat his opponent!

His opponent’s wretched state was all the more astonishing by comparison.

The onlookers weren’t the only ones overcome with astonishment. The man in the feather coat, now just a soul, couldn't accept this. He was on the verge of breaking down.

As arrogant and aggressive as he’d seemed, he hadn’t looked down on Su Yi. But for all his planning and calculations, he could never have guessed that he’d lose so quickly even after using six divine talismans and his Great Unity cultivation base.

Su Yi gazed down at the man’s soul. “If you want to die quickly, answer my questions.”

The man in the feather coat glared at him. “Nothing but the ravings of a madman! Do you have any idea who I work for? If you kill me, everyone in the Tang Family will…”

Bang!

Su Yi stomped, crushing the man’s soul to bits. Just like that, he was dead. His threats came to an abrupt halt.

Deathly silence fell. Everyone looked at Su Yi as if they were gazing upon a proud, contemptuous god!

How lofty were divine emissaries? Yet Su Yi had just crushed one like an ant! The divine emissary’s threats seemed completely toothless.

This result completely overturned everyone’s imagination.

Su Yi tossed the peach wood branch into the air, and it flew into a hole in the distant mountainside.

Then, he clapped his hands and looked at Tang Yuejin. “You stay behind. Everyone else, get out.”

With that, he returned to his wicker chair and had a drink of wine. There was no getting around it; A Thousand Years of Cascading Clouds had a unique, wondrous flavor.

……

Before long, Tang Yuejin told Su Yi who the man in the feather coat was. His name was Zhan Heng, and he worked under Divine Son Fu Tianyi.

And Divine Son Fu Tianyi worked closely with the Church of the Pure One!

Three days prior, the Church of the Pure One had sent two divine emissaries to the Tang Family: Zhan Heng, and a man called Yue Bai. Both worked under Divine Son Fu Tianyi.

Su Yi wasn’t familiar with the name Fu Tianyi, but according to Tang Yuejin, numerous divine children had cropped up throughout the forty-nine provinces of the Immortal Realm over the past few months.

The Church of the Pure One, the Church of Supreme Oneness, the Church of Divine Flame, and numerous other top factions were all working with divine children now.

Su Yi was surprised, but only mildly so.

Numerous top factions of the Eastern Sea had ushered divine children into the Immortal Realm too. Top immortal factions like the Church of the Pure One had undoubtedly long since established contact with the God Domain!

“I won’t hide it from you, Your Excellency. A few years ago, someone who called himself a divine emissary visited the Tang Family. He hoped that we’d help him usher a divine child into the Immortal Ream, but we refused,” said Tang Yuejin. “It’s not that we don’t want a divine backer; we were just worried that we’d become their puppet.”

Su Yi nodded. “Fortune and disaster go hand in hand. If you serve the gods, you’re inevitably subject to their control. You made the wise choice.”

“Wise?” Tang Yuejin sighed bitterly. “The Immortal Realm has changed. Even top factions like our Tang Family are no more than fish on the chopping block without a divine backer!”

Not long ago, fellow top factions like the Church of the Pure One would never have dared provoke the Tang Family lightly.

But things were completely different now. The crux of the matter was that the Tang Family didn’t have a god backing them up, nor a divine child to oversee things!

“You only say that because you haven’t seen how wretched the outcome is for those who serve the gods,” Su Yi said flatly.

Tang Yuyan couldn’t help but be curious. “Have you seen it, Your Excellency?”

Su Yi nodded. The emissaries of Divine Venerate Tian Huang were, in the end, imprisoned on Spiritual Desolation Mountain. How miserable was that?

He concisely explained the situation. Tang Yuejin, Tang Yuyan, and the others were stunned. After the hunting dog caught the clever rabbit, it was thrown into the stew pot as well!

Once those Great Profound Stage divine emissaries were no longer useful to the gods, they were callously cast away. Who knew what kind of enormous waves would result if word of this spread?

When they finished their conversation, Su Yi met with Tang Lingqi, Tang Jinhong, and the others now released from captivity. He couldn’t help but be rueful.

Suddenly, Tang Yuejin flung himself to his knees and begged, “Your Excellency, three days ago, this junior agreed to submit to the Church of the Pure One. I truly had no other choice! I did it to save the life of everyone in the Tang Family. But now, this junior is overcome with regret. Please, give my clan an opportunity to make amends. I’ll do whatever it takes, even if you send me to my death!”

With that, he lowered his head to the ground.

The crowd was moved. All of them looked conflicted. Had the ancestor made the wrong choice?

He hadn’t!

Had he done otherwise, everyone here would have been reduced to dried-up bones by now, Tang Yuyan and Tang Bao’er aside.

But they couldn’t really say he’d done the right thing, either. After all, his decision led to Tang Duyun being sent like a lamb to the slaughter, and Tang Lingqi, Tang Jinhong, and the others being imprisoned.

It was so tangled up and complicated. How could anyone truly say whether he’d been right or wrong?

After a moment’s silence, he said, “You didn’t do anything wrong, and neither did the others. It’s the world that was wrong, and the Church of the Pure One. Thus, there’s no need for you to make amends.”

He paused, then added, “So long as Family Head Tang Duyun yet lives, I’ll rescue him and bring him back to you!”

“Many thanks, Your Excellency!” Tang Yuejin wept tears of gratitude.

Tang Lingqi, Tang Jinhong, and the others bowed in gratitude too, one after another.

Su Yi waved their gratitude away. “What happened today is sure to influence the Tang Family, but you needn’t worry. Also, if possible, I’d like you to help spread a message for me.”

Tang Yuejin said solemnly, “Go ahead and command us, Your Excellency!”

Su Yi gently tapped the wicker chair’s armrests and said, “When the Church of the Pure One begins the Central Immortal Court’s opening ceremony, I’ll be there!”

This declaration left everyone present stunned.

……

That very day, the Tang Family sent their forces to spread a message.

Sometimes, a single stone could create a thousand waves. The Immortal Realm was instantly in uproar.

“The reincarnation of the Eternal Night Immortal Sovereign, is actually going to attend the opening ceremony? My heavens! How is that any different from offering them his head on a silver platter?”

Countless people were astonished. After all, who didn’t know that the Church of the Pure One and the other top factions saw Su Yi as a thorn in their side? And who didn’t know that all of them had mighty divine children in residence to oversee things?

By now, there were even rumors circulating that the Church of the Pure One was re-establishing the Central Immortal Court for the express purpose of targeting Su Yi. Yet despite all this, Su Yi had decided to attend. The way the masses saw it, this was recklessness bordering on insanity.

Some of the old timers, those who understood the situation, couldn’t help but sigh. “The situation has forced his hand. He has no other choice!”

Re-establishing the Central Immortal Court without the Eternal Night Immortal Sovereign’s approval was blatant provocation.

Furthermore, they were apparently going to massacre those connected to him during the ceremony in a sacrificial rite. How could the Eternal Night Immortal Sovereign remain uninvolved?

“The Immortal Realm’s balance of power shall soon be overturned! The re-founding of the Central Immortal Court is just the beginning!”

“The Immortal Realm really is increasingly chaotic!”

“Argh. I actually hope that the Eternal Night Immortal Sovereign can turn the tides, unify the lands, and quell the Immortal Realm’s unrest. It’d be a return to the glory days prior to the Age of Fallen Immortals!”

The whole Immortal Realm was in uproar. Everyone was discussing this incident.

…

Soon, Sect Leader Qi Nie of the Church of the Pure One learned of this too.

“Wang Ye, in the end… you couldn’t keep your cool!” Qie Nie laughed. Everything was going to plan. His target had come out into the open.

All he had to do next was remove Wang Ye, and the latent threat he represented, at the Central Immortal Court’s re-opening ceremony!