First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 1141 - Humiliation, Coming to His Senses, a Tribulation

Outside the immortal cave.

Su Yi accepted the message Jin Kui handed him. A few lines of text were emblazoned on it: “Junior Apprentice Sister, should master one day return alive, tell him that I left to explore the stars with Senior Meng of Profound Sky Academy, and that I won’t be returning in this lifetime. If Master asks why, just say....”

Here, the message ended abruptly.

The message didn’t seem like a cry for help. Rather, it seemed like a farewell.

However, the message was hastily scrawled and unfinished. This was clearly unusual.

Su Yi’s brow furrowed.

Before returning to the Wilds, he stopped in the Profound Sky Realm to inquire about Jing Xing’s whereabouts.

It was only later that he learned that Jing Xing had long since left to explore the stars with the old glutton. There’d been no word of him ever since.

Who’d have thought they’d suddenly receive such a strange message? Su Yi instantly realized that something wasn’t right here!

“Second Senior Apprentice Brother has most likely encountered life-threatening danger, and he knows he has little hope of survival. That’s why he wrote this in such a hurry,” Jin Kui said with obvious concern. “He most likely doesn’t want us to risk ourselves by coming to his aid.”

Su Yi subtly inclined his head. “You’re right. Anyone who received a hastily scrawled message like this out of the blue would realize something had happened to your second senior apprentice brother.”

A moment later, he sighed softly. “That muddleheaded bookworm hasn’t changed. He can’t even lie properly.”

“Master, what should we do? If something happens to Second Senior Apprentice Brother....”

Before Jin Kui could finish her sentence, Su Yi gently interrupted her. “Don’t panic. I’ll go personally. Alive or dead, I’ll be sure to bring Jing Xing back.”

With that, he gripped the letter and shot into the sky.

......

Outside the Wilds, a world hovered in the boundless void of outer space.

A fierce battle was underway.

“Senior, hurry up and run!” Jing Xing rasped.

His clothing was stained with blood, and his hair hung loose. His skin was pale and translucent, and his vitality was weak. He sat on the ground, breathing heavily.

His wounds were so severe that his body was on the verge of falling apart. He didn’t even have the strength to stand up.

“Quit jabbering! I brought you here to see the world and human life in all its facets to knock some sense into you! If your master finds out I left you behind to save my own life, he’d kill me!” The old glutton broke into a series of curses.

This living fossil of the Wilds’ Confucianists looked wretched. He was currently pouring his power into an ancient tome.

As the book opened, its text transformed into misty light, forming a circle around them, a barrier between them and their surroundings.

Off in the distance, a group of experts were activating their treasures and attacking the barrier relentlessly.

Fiery radiance interwove, and the light of their treasures pierced the firmament. Heaven-shaking impacts rang out over and over again.

The battle was incomparably fierce.

In the face of this onslaught, the old glutton trembled with exertion, his face alternating white and green, and the back of his robes was drenched in cold sweat. It was obvious he couldn’t hold out much longer.

“But my master... has been gone for a long time...” Jing Xing wiped the blood from his lips and said bitterly.

“I told you, didn’t I? There’s absolutely no way Old Monster Su just up and died. He surely found the secrets of reincarnation. You’re letting your imagination run away with you, you dunderhead!” shouted the old glutton.

As he spoke, blood dripped down his lips, and his face paled. His expression was increasingly grim.

Each of the opponents they’d encountered today was stronger than the one before!

Unless he was mistaken, they were almost certainly from a prominent faction of the stars beyond the Wilds!

“Dammit! Am I really going to die here today?” he grumbled.

They had seven opponents in total.

Of the five currently attacking them, two were in the late-stage Profound Unity Realm, while three were in the early-stage Profound Unity Realm.

But all of them far surpassed other cultivators of the same level!

This was because their power of the Laws was extraordinarily terrifying and full of taboo strength. This made them mighty beyond imagination!

There were two others standing in the distance, a man and a woman.

The man wore a crane cloak, and he looked promising and elegant. Every inch of him emanated lofty pride, and his eyes shone like golden torches, startling the heart and soul.

The woman was dressed in military garb, and her eyebrows were as sharp as sabers. Her skin was the color of wheat, and she carried a bronze short halberd. Her entire body emanated cold, forceful might.

The two of them watched the battle like overseers, their expressions calm. They’d yet to strike.

“The old-timer’s quite something, and his foundations are startlingly solid. Given the opportunity, he’d easily break into the World King Realm and gain power beyond his contemporaries. People like him are rare even in our Thousand Opportunities Star Realm,” the man commented casually.

“You're absolutely right, young master.” To his side, a woman in military attire nodded slightly. “Alas, the Dark and Gold Star Realm has long since fallen to ruin, and its connection to the Path of Heaven’s Ascension has been severed. Its inhabitants can forget about proving their Daos and becoming World Kings."

She paused, her eyes glinting with sharp, cold light. “More importantly, neither the old man nor the scholar are going to escape disaster today.”

The man laughed. “I didn’t trap them to kill them, but rather, to rope in some powerful subordinates to help us seek out the secrets of reincarnation.”

Here, he looked at the battlefield and said plainly, “It’s been long enough. Time to wrap this up.”

“Yes, sir!” The five Emperors voiced their assent, then attacked in full force.

Boom!

Just a few blinks of the eye later, the ancient tome’s barrier of light shattered into pieces, leaving Jing Xing and the old glutton unprotected.

The old glutton coughed up blood, then shot forward to protect Jing Xing. He transmitted, “Bookworm, I’ve lived too many years to count, and I’ve long since grown sick of living. Follow my orders. When I tell you to run, run! Got it?”

Jing Xing shook his head. He swept his gaze across the area, then gnashed his teeth. “I, Jing Xing, am no coward! If I’m going to die, I’m going to go down fighting!

“You...!” The old glutton gnashed his teeth with fury.

Boom!

As the two of them conversed, their enemies outflanked them and attacked viciously. They were terrifying beyond measure. magic

The old glutton was already badly injured. With five Emperors attacking him at once, it wasn’t long before he couldn’t hold out. They forced him back repeatedly, and his flesh was soon a meaty pulp.

Jing Xing was stricken with grief, and his eyes bulged, but there was nothing he could do.

He was badly injured too, and nearing the end of his rope. His vitality was ebbing.

He’d never felt so useless in his life!

All those years he’d spent studying and all the knowledge he’d accumulated were no use at all!

“What joy is there in life? And what is there to fear in death? As scholars, it’s better not to read at all than to blindly believe everything in books. Caring only about the written word dooms us to humiliation. If we cannot set the books aside and take action when necessary, we’ll be nothing but useless pedants.

“And when we do take action? A scholar’s fists are the truths of his scholarship. The bigger your fist, the stronger your truth!”

As the old glutton fought, he rasped a lecture. “When your master was still here, you could safely spend your life reading, and indeed, wasn’t that a blessing? But without your master...”

Bang!

The old glutton was sent flying before he could finish his sentence, and throughout his body, countless bones snapped.

But even as he breathed in ragged gasps, he still tried his utmost to protect Jing Xing. “See? What can you do when you encounter a situation that reason alone cannot solve?”

Jing Xing silently clenched his fists, his nails cutting into the flesh of his palm.

“Study has value, but you have to shatter the molds of previous sages and put your studies into practice,” said the old glutton as he wiped the blood from his lips. “Only then can you establish your own school of thought!”

Jing Xing’s heart churned, and his expression shifted erratically.

But just as the five Emperors were about to attack once more——

The man in the distance said calmly, “Enough. Give them a chance to catch their breath, then ask if they’re willing to submit.”

The five Emperors stopped but maintained their encirclement, blocking off Jing Xing and the old glutton’s escape routes.

“Submit? I’m not afraid to die, so why would I be afraid of you?” sneered the old glutton.

His injuries were far too heavy, and he looked wretched to the extreme, but it seemed he didn’t care in the slightest. He laughed and spoke with perfect composure.

The five Emperors’ expressions instantly darkened.

“Shut his mouth,” a man in a crane cloak said calmly.

“Yes.” The woman in military attire suddenly disappeared into thin air, then appeared before the old glutton. Her left hand seized him by the throat, and her right hand rose into the air and slapped him ruthlessly across the face.

Whap!

The old glutton’s cheek shattered, his face a meaty pulp.

Jing Xing suddenly bellowed, “Enough!”

His voice shook the clouds, and an unbelievable scene followed—

Overflowing, unstoppable power burst from Jing Xing, as if a dried-out riverbed had given rise to a surging current, as if a withered tree were bursting with new vitality.

His aura completely transformed!

Boom!

Jing Xing’s qi rumbled like thunder as his late-stage Profound Serenity Realm cultivation base transformed, soaring to the peak of the realm. It seemed to have broken through a barrier, and it rose rapidly.

Terrifying tribulation clouds silently gathered overhead.

This scene astonished everyone present.

“He’s attempting to break through and enter Profound Unity in the middle of battle?” The young man in the crane cloak said in astonishment.

The others were stunned too. They would never have expected the badly injured, surrounded, helpless scholar to break through a barrier in the face of peril and welcome his Tribulation of Profound Unity!

“Hahaha! You finally came to your senses, you muddleheaded scholar! I can die without regrets!” The old glutton burst into laughter. His face was an indistinct meaty pulp and his entire body was covered in blood, but he looked utterly gratified and delighted.

“You think you can undergo tribulation and break through now? You’re dreaming! If you don’t submit, I’ll have you die mid-tribulation!” the woman in military attire sneered.

As she spoke, she tossed the old glutton away and approached Jing Xing, then swung her palm at his shoulder.

Jing Xing met her attack head-on.

Bang!!!

A moment later, he was sent flying back and coughing up blood.

His originally soaring qi was thrown into disarray.

The disparity in strength was far too great.

Even though Jing Xing had broken through his mental shackles and invited a metamorphosis, he was still weak compared to the woman in military attire.

“Submit, or die. Choose for yourself.” The woman approached, her gaze as cold and sharp as a saber’s edge as her imposing aura locked onto Jing Xing.

“Dammit!!” The Glutton gnashed his teeth and struggled to break free and rush to Jing Xing’s aid.

But it was then that a cold, calm voice rang out.

“Allow me.”