First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 1291 - The Main Culprit and Her Accomplices

Halfway up a mountain in the barren wilderness.

Su Yi sat cross-legged beneath a vigorous, ancient palm, calming his heart and meditating.

Upon reaching the Oneness Realm, his cultivation underwent an earth-shaking transformation.

Within his body, his Grand Dao Black Hole became a tripod cauldron, a Grand Dao Furnace. His chaos ground transformed into its three legs.

The Root of Heaven Earth was no longer rooted in his chaos ground. Instead, it was nourished within his Grand Dao Furnace.

The various Laws of the Grand Dao Su Yi had mastered had all fused into the furnace’s surface, like strange and unfathomable totems.

Furthermore, the power of his fleshly body’s blood and qi was like the furnace’s charcoal, and his soul and will were like its spirit. All of them fused into this furnace.

This was the meaning of Oneness. All Daos returned to their common source. The power of the cultivation base, soul, and flesh fused into this furnace that represented one’s foundations in the Dao.

The Grand Dao Furnace was also called the Furnace of the Spirit.

His life force was like the furnace’s flames. As long as the fires burned, his Grand Dao would live on in perpetuity.

Within the Oneness Realm, Oneness World Kings’ foundations and strengths were categorized based on the quality of their Grand Dao Furnaces. The better the quality, the greater their strength and potential.

Su Yi’s Grand Dao Furnace was extraordinary. It had three feet and two handles, and chaotic energy burbled around its opening. Dark and Gold Essence spurted out of it, vast and dense as if encompassing all facets of chaos.

Most eye-catching of all was that the cycle of reincarnation, beams of flying light, and other strange phenomena of the Grand Dao manifested around it, clustered around a sword-shaped totem.

Although this sword-shaped totem was illusory and indistinct, upon closer inspection, it resembled the Sword of the Nine Hells!

It was just that it didn’t have the divine chains the real thing suppressed.

This sword-shaped totem was like the Grand Dao Furnace’s soul. When it entered, the furnace’s aura suddenly seemed even more vast and momentous!

This was a momentum capable of suppressing all worlds, unshakable throughout the ages. When lifted, there was nothing above it, and when lowered, there was nothing beneath it!

The standards of the present day are far from sufficient to appraise my Grand Dao Furnace. Even the rare exquisite-grade furnaces that might not appear even once in thousands of years are inferior to it.

Su Yi silently sensed the furnace’s mysteries. He couldn’t help but look impressed.

As he sat and cultivated quietly, he repeatedly refined medicine.

To his astonishment, he soon discovered that supreme medicines on the level of the Fortune Spirit Aperture Pill could no longer satisfy the demands of his cultivation.

In the Heavenly Longevity Realm, taking ten such pills was enough to satisfy his daily expenditures. But after entering Oneness, their effects were noticeably inferior. Even a hundred pills wouldn’t result in any significant progress.

Su Yi naturally understood the source of the problem. The Grand Dao Furnace he’d created was far too wondrous; it was like a bottomless hole. The power of treasure medicines like the Fortune Spirit Aperture Pills was no longer sufficient to satisfy the needs of his cultivation base.

As Su Yi pondered, he took out that stalk of Transcendent divine medicine, plucked one of its leaves, and started refining it.

Boom!

His Grand Dao furnace abruptly boiled over, rumbling and booming as his qi came to life, reaching every last nook and cranny of his limbs, bones, and organs.

Overflowing medicinal power opened his pores. His entire body felt light and airy, and his essence, qi, and spirit all received nourishment.

A long time passed. By the time he finished refining this leaf of Transcendent divine medicine, his Oneness Realm had fully stabilized!

“Don’t tell me that going forward, only Transcendent divine medicines will be enough to satisfy my needs?” Su Yi wondered in a daze.

He wasn’t sure whether he should be happy or have a headache.

This was the disadvantage of overly firm foundations in the Grand Dao. Treasures like the Force Spirit Aperture Pills could satisfy the cultivation requirements of even most Cosmic Enlightenment World Kings. Yet he’d only just stepped into Oneness, and they were already no more useful than chicken ribs.

All of this meant that the overwhelming majority of the cultivation resources Su Yi had gathered thus far were no longer of any use...

It also implied that his future cultivation efforts would require him to find similar Transcendent-level medicines. Only then could he advance rapidly.

“It seems I’ll have to keep an eye out for divine materials capable of satisfying the needs of my cultivation going forward,” thought Su Yi.

He rose, then called out to the nearby Wei Shan, Meng Changyun, and Netherworld King. “We should get going.”

That day, the three of them boarded their ship and left the Heavenly Prayer Star Realm.

“Where are we going, Young Master?” asked Wei Shan.

Su Yi said casually, “The Impermeable Demon Ocean.”

In his past life, he’d used the Sword of the Human Realm to suppress the leader of the Church of the River of Stars, the Fisherman, deep within the Impermeable Demon Ocean.

Now that he’d returned, he naturally had to reclaim the Sword of the Human Realm.

The Impermeable Demon Ocean!

Wei Shan and Meng Changyun were both solemn.

The Eastern Profound Star Domain was home to seven great forbidden zones, including the Starjade Forbidden Ground, Myriad Demons Ridge, and the Divine Kingdom of Illusions.

The Impermeable Demon Ocean was one of the seven.

Furthermore, it bordered the Divine Origin Star Realm, the Church of the River of Stars’ home turf!

The stars were boundlessly vast, cold, and empty.

A flat boat flew through it all.

Su Yi sat on board, reading the jade slip Yan Daolin had left him.

Meng Changyun steered the boat, while Wei Shan and his daughter conversed.

As the Netherworld King sat there, her gaze occasionally landed on the nearby Su Yi, and she felt quite strange.

By now, she fully understood. The Temple Master was her father’s closest childhood playmate. Going by seniority, she ought to call him “uncle....”

If Father knew how I used to tease Su Xuanjun, I’m afraid he’d die of awkwardness...

Despite herself, when she thought back to her time with Su Yi in the Netherworld, her fair, delicate face heated up. Her heart felt strange.

“What’s wrong, A’Jiu?” asked Wei Shan. He could sense that his daughter had something on her mind.

“It’s nothing.” The Netherworld King hurriedly shook her head, then transmitted, “Father... Can you tell me more about the Temple Master’s past accomplishments?”

“What Temple Master? That’s your Uncle Su!” corrected Wei Shan. He was serious, too.

“...” The Netherworld King fell silent.

Meanwhile, Su Yi was gazing intently at the jade slip in his hands, lost in thought.

The answers Yan Daolin left in the jade slip had resolved some of his doubts. There were numerous matters he only now understood.

All of these enmities began with Shen Mu!

Lady Snowjade of the Six Desires Daoist Sect sought Shen Mu’s love in pursuit of the Dao, and had him shatter his heart and die to further her Dao.

But Shen Mu hadn’t really died. Rather, he’d reincarnated and become the Temple Master. In a sense, Shen Mu yet lived. And his survival affected Lady Snowjade’s mentality and pursuit of the Dao!

According to Yan Daolin, she wasn’t from this era. Rather, she was from the Epoch of Demonism. In other words, Shen Mu wasn’t over this era either! He was from the Epoch of Demonism, just like Lady Snowjade.

Su Yi couldn’t help but find this surprising.

But after thinking it over, it made sense.

After all, the Temple Master had explored the stars for a long, long time, yet he’d somehow never heard of Shen Mu, an astonishing, heaven-defying genius of the sword.

That had long since indicated to him that Shen Mu wasn’t from the Eastern Profound Star Domain!

Yan Daolin had known these truths, but that was because of the Tailor.

Yan Daolin had owed the Tailor an enormous favor for a long time. And one day, the Tailor suddenly sent Yan Daolin a message saying he hoped for help with something: locating Shen Mu’s reincarnation!

It was then that Yan Daolin learned that a woman who called herself “Lady Snowjade” wanted to eradicate the “unfaithful” Shen Mu completely.

This was why Yan Daolin repeatedly mocked the Temple Master for his disloyalty.

After learning the full story, Su Yi couldn’t help but sneer. A woman with no bottom line dares call Shen Mu disloyal? She sure is shameless!

However, after learning that the Tailor was the thread linking all of this together, Su Yi couldn’t help but take this seriously. He only now found out that there was a link between the Tailor and Lady Snowjade.

According to Yan Daolin, Lady Snowjade’s true body couldn’t cross the River of Time and enter the Eastern Profound Star Domain. Thus, she asked the Tailor for help.

And the Tailor came knocking on Yan Daolin’s door.

Furthermore, it was the Tailor who brought Heavenly Prayer to Yan Daolin, saying she was Lady Snowjade’s legacy disciple. Lady Snowjade had used a secret immortal art to recreate her body and soul and send her to the Eastern Profound Star Domain across the barriers of space and time.

Heavenly Prayer was her disciple, but also her killer weapon for hunting down Shen Mu’s reincarnation!

It was then that Yan Daolin gave Heavenly Prayer her Daoist name and brought her to the Nine Heavens Pavilion.

......

Heavenly Prayer and Qing Wan were indeed the same person!

Strictly speaking, Qing Wan was Heavenly Prayer’s clone. Both of them had a Soul Birthmark.

When their Soul Birthmarks fused, the two of them would become one once more, and they’d reawaken their past memories.

......

In the jade slip, Yan Daolin explained why he hadn’t attacked the Temple Master, and why he’d waited all this time. In truth, his reasoning was simple. It wasn’t that he didn't want to take the Temple Master down, but that he couldn’t!

When the Temple Master was still alive, neither Yan Daolin nor the old Tailor were any match for him.

......

Similarly, Yan Daolin spoke of how he’d rescued Wei Shan and his daughter, the Netherworld King.

He was direct, too. Even before Wei Shan and his family met with disaster, the old Tailor had set his sights on Wei Shan and Ol’ Cripple Wei.

This was because the Tailor suspected that the Temple Master hadn’t really fallen, and that he’d instead reincarnated. Thus, he wanted to use Ol’ Cripple Wei and his foster son to set a trap. Later on, when the Temple Master returned, he could use them as pawns.

Who’d have thought that before the Tailor could take action, enormous disaster would befall the Wei Family overnight?

In the end, only Wei Shan and his daughter made it out alive.

It was Yan Daolin who rescued them. He didn’t like how the Tailor did things, and even though he opposed the Temple Master, he disdained implicating innocents like Wei Shan and the Netherworld King in the process.

Thus, over the years, Yan Daolin didn’t mistreat the two of them. He simply treated them as uninvolved parties.

After learning all this, Su Yi had a rough picture of the ties of enmity leading up to this.

Ultimately, it was because of Shen Mu.

Lady Snowjade was the primary culprit, and the Tailor was her assistant.

Yan Daolin owed the Tailor a favor, and to make it up to him, he became the primary executor of their plan.

Heavenly Prayer, Qing Wan, Wei Shan, and the Netherworld King... were no more than pawns on his chessboard.

Everything was for the sake of destroying Shen Mu’s reincarnation!