First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 610: Qing Luo

Earlier, the crowd’s attention was focused on Su Yi.

Only when Su Yi mentioned him did they glance at Yuan Heng.

“Master Su, there are thousands of spirit beasts. Won’t letting Brother Yuan Heng fight them on his own be too dangerous? Our cultivation bases might be lacking, but we’re willing to fight alongside him and suppress this calamity!” Nie Beihu said solemnly.

The others nodded.

However, as cautious as he typically was, Ge Qian couldn’t take it anymore. “Everyone, rest assured. Even if there were tens of thousands, they wouldn’t be able to take a single roar from Yuan Heng.”

The group was instantly confused.?What does that mean?

Yuan Heng, however, broke into a grin. He turned and leaped off the city wall.

Beneath the sunlight, his tall, stalwart body suddenly rose to its full height. His sleeves billowed around him as he suddenly exploded with yao qi.

Boom!

It soared into the heavens. The clouds burst apart, and the skies were thrown into turmoil.

The crowd’s eyes widened. They saw an endlessly enormous illusory Xuanwu floating above Yuan Heng. Its boundless aura blotted out the sun.

“That’s…”

All of them held their breath, and their bodies stiffened.

That terrifying presence left every martial artist present trembling as if they were witnessing the descent of a yao god!

After all, they were merely mortal martial artists. Even the strongest of them, Nie Teng, was only a Grandmaster. There was no way Yuan Heng’s aura wouldn’t influence them!

Bai Wenqing raised her fair hand, and a faint, misty silver light flowed around them. The martial artists instantly relaxed, and they felt warm and comfortable.

Fu Shan, Nie Beihu, and the others couldn’t help but look at Bai Wenqing in surprise. They realized that this beautiful, dignified woman was an extremely terrifying existence as well.

“Quick, look!”

“My heavens…”

Startled cries rang out near the city gates.

They watched as, off in the distance, the vast army of spirit beasts fell limply to the ground, wailing mournfully and trembling uncontrollably.

Not one remained standing!

“So strong!” Nie Teng looked dazed.

Without so much as attacking, he’d relied on nothing more than terrifying, monstrous yao qi to suppress the entire beast tide.

These were the methods of an Earthly Immortal!

The others present looked at each other, too astonished for words.

“Master, should I kill them or spare them?” Yuan Heng stood in the distant skies, his expression solemn as he clasped his fist.

“Just chase them off,” said Su Yi.

Yuan Heng nodded his assent. His eyes flashed, and his voice boomed like spring thunder. “Why the hell are you still here?!”

Every word was like the low rumbling of storm clouds, the sound filling the landscape.

The distant spirit beasts reacted as if they’d received an imperial pardon. All of them dispersed.

They arrived quickly, and fled even more quickly!

It’s over… just like that?

A long time passed before the citizens of Guangling City recovered from their daze.

Yuan Heng, meanwhile, withdrew his aura, then returned to the city walls and stood beside Su Yi, looking just as simple and earnest as before.

However, the way the others looked at him had changed completely. Their gazes now carried deep respect.

With his aura alone, he’d chased off an entire swarm of beasts. To the best of their knowledge, not even Earthly Immortals had such unbelievable power!

Yet such a terrifying existence was subservient to Su Yi, like an attendant. This realization left the martial artists’ hearts churning with emotion.

They couldn’t help but wonder,?Just… just how strong has Su Yi become?

“Wait here for a bit. I’m going to take a quick trip to Mother Ghost Ridge,” said Su Yi. With that, he shot into the air, blurring into an arc of light and disappearing over the horizon.

Yuan Heng, Ge Qian, and Bai Wenqing instantly realized that he’d most likely discovered something!

Fu Shan walked up to them and respectfully tried to start a conversation. “Dare I request your names, Your Excellencies?”

……

Up in the sky.

Su Yi’s robes fluttered, and his sleeves billowed.

He could see the boundless, turbulent, ever-flowing waters of the Great Azure. Before long, he saw the mulberry grove growing along the riverbank.

He still remembered it. Shortly after recovering his memory in Guangling City, he’d taken to venturing into the mulberry grove every morning to practice the Pine and Crane Body Refining Technique.

It was there that he happened upon Xiao Tianque and Xiao Zijin.

Just as I thought. The grove has changed. The spiritual energy is far denser than in other places,?thought Su Yi.

In truth, the mulberry grove had been blessed by feng shui for a long time. The force of the mountain and river gathered here, giving it a faint spirituality.

That was why Su Yi chose to cultivate there in the first place.

Now, as the spiritual energy of heaven and earth gradually recovered, the mulberry grove growing alongside the Great Azure seemed more like treasured ground than ever before.

Of course, Mother Ghost Ridge had changed most of all!

As Su Yi flew in, controlling the winds, he saw Mother Ghost Ridge in the distance. Baleful mist filled its skies, and the spiritual energy was abundant. It looked extremely strange.

Whoosh!

Su Yi drifted down to earth, landing halfway up the mountain.

A run-down temple stood here. Its main statue was a mottled stone bodhisattva facing away from the world. It was inspired by the phrase, “When asked why they face away from the world, the bodhisattva sighed, ‘the people are unwilling to turn their heads.’”

It was here that Su Yi cut down a?Six-Severings?Yin?Corpse.

When Su Yi arrived, he saw the temple shrouded in baleful mists, like leaden clouds. The entire landscape was dark and overcast.

Countless apparitions were scattered throughout the temple grounds, while red lanterns hung from the branches of the surrounding trees. Their fires were an unearthly shade of green, and they swayed endlessly within the baleful mists.

Su Yi glanced at them, then proceeded ahead.

Everywhere he passed, the mists receded as if terrifying, clearing a path for him.

When Su Yi was just about to reach the main gates, the lantern-laden trees shook violently.

The sound of whispering emanated from within each and every lantern.

“Someone’s coming!”

“Heehee, so, it’s a handsome little man.”

“Is he here in search of good fortune too? That’s no good! That’s no different from suicide!”

….The voices were furtive, ghostly, and sinister.

Su Yi furrowed his brow and waved his sleeves.

Clear flames surrounded the lanterns, instantly burning them to ash. They disappeared, and the voices disappeared with them.

Heaven and earth instantly quieted down.

Su Yi continued ahead. When he entered the temple, he saw that a young man sat upright in its overgrown courtyard, next to an ancient stone well.

He was dressed in white, and he held a bamboo fishing rod. He’d cast his line into the well, and he looked like he was concentrating.

When Su Yi walked in, the white-robed young man didn’t so much as raise his head. “Friend, whether you’re here in search of fortune or to hunt yao and exterminate ghosts, please wait a moment.”

His voice was soft, low, and a bit feminine.

Su Yi placed his hands behind his back, walked over to the well, and peered intently into its depths.

A little while later, he retracted his gaze and said, “With methods like that, you won’t be able to catch a Moon Spirit Fish.”

The white-robed youth was stunned, and he looked at Su Yi for the first time.

His features were handsome, his skin was fair, and his eyes were as tranquil as an ancient well. As his eyes moved, whirlpools seemed to revolve slowly within his pupils, an imposing sight.

“Interesting. Friend, you’re only in the Gathering Stars Realm, yet you actually know about Moon Spirit Fish? Don’t tell me… Are you the disciple of an ancient orthodoxy?” the white-robed young man asked with great interest.

“I’m not,” said Su Yi. He scanned the surrounding area, then said, “What about you? Are you a freshly awakened monster of the ancient era? Or a cultivator from another world?”

The depths of the white-robed young man’s gaze shone with confusion. After a while, he shook his head. “I can’t remember.”

Su Yi’s eyebrows shot up. “Amnesia?”

“It’s probably not as simple as that,” said the white-robed youth, giving it serious thought. “I can still remember a lot about cultivation, and I know my name: Qing Luo. ‘Qing’ as in blue, and ‘Luo’ as in Tianluo Profound Bird.”

“Oh?” Su Yi’s eyebrows shot up. “So you’re saying a portion of your memories have been erased? Or perhaps sealed?”

Qing Luo sighed. “That would be my guess too, but I’ve yet to come up with a way to undo the seal.”

Su Yi looked the white-robed young man up and down. “Then do you remember when and where you awakened the consciousness you have now?”

Qing Luo thought it over, then said, “Half a month ago, I woke up within a grave. I broke through the coffin and climbed out, only to realize that I didn’t remember my origins.”

Here, he paused and sighed. “I examined the gravesite I’d been buried in countless times, and I searched every nook and cranny of this mountain, but I didn’t uncover any leads.”

“There were no problems with the coffin you were in?” Despite himself, Su Yi was intrigued. He could tell that Qing Luo wasn’t lying.

“There weren’t,” said Qing Luo. “It was a perfectly ordinary coffin, with a decayed straw mat for padding. I used a secret method to determine that the grave was buried three hundred years ago. There was no gravemarker; it seemed like a random, unmarked, solitary grave, the kind you might find anywhere.

“I once ventured into the nearby Guangling City and read up on the mountain, only to discover that nothing I learned seemed at all connected to my origins.”

Qing Luo paused here and rubbed his forehead in disappointment. “This feeling isn’t at all pleasant.”

Su Yi thought for a moment. “Then what kind of legacy do you cultivate?”

“It’s a secret yao cultivator legacy,” said Qing Luo. He was obviously quite open. “It tempers the soul. You could say it’s a joint technique, a mixture of yao and soul cultivation. However, I've confirmed that I’m a pure-blooded human, not a yao. There’s nothing strange about my body, and there’s no chance that I’ve been possessed. Naturally, I wasn’t formed from a wandering ghost, either.”

Su Yi was increasingly curious.

Although the white-robed young man before him had lost his memories, he understood cultivation like the back of his hand. His knowledge far exceeded the world’s mundane cultivators.

“Might you show me your abilities?” Su Yi asked.

The white-robed young man paused, then laughed. “Let’s skip it. I’ve already understood enough. This is quite good already. At the very least, I have no worries. I’ll just consider it… a second shot at life. That’s not bad at all.”

He stretched, then gazed into the dome of heaven. “The world known as the ‘Azure Continent’ is about to undergo a dramatic transformation. The spiritual energy of heaven and earth is recovering, day by day. Before long, the continent might well welcome a golden age!”

He looked away, his gaze eager as he said softly, “There’s no better opportunity for me. Even proving my Dao and becoming an Emperor is well within the realm of possibility.”

When he heard this, Su Yi’s eyebrows arched.

This was the first time since his reincarnation that anyone had discussed “proving their Dao” and “becoming an Emperor” so casually!

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