First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 328: Who Beneath the Heavens Can Defeat Him?

Chapter 328: Who Beneath the Heavens Can Defeat Him?

Yue Shichan watched the battle from a distance, looking a bit bewildered.

Her face suggested she was in her late teens, and her clothes were pristine white. She carried an ancient sword and a yellow-skinned gourd. The combination made her seem as ethereal as smoke, transcendent and detached.

Yet now, quite some time passed before the woman the Great Zhou honored as “the type of genius that only appears once in a millennium” calmed herself down.

How mighty of an existence was You Tianhong? Yet Su Yi had cut him down in a single attack. She could never have anticipated this.”

“Praise the immeasurable glory of the Buddha.” The chief elder of Shanglin Temple’s Arhat Hall, Lonely River, clasped his hands together and chanted sutras. He looked conflicted.

Just like him, You Tianhong hailed from the Great Qin. He knew better than anyone how lofty You Tianhong’s position was in the hearts of the nation’s sword cultivators.

It was no exaggeration to say that You Tianhong’s combat prowess placed him in the top five among the Great Qin’s Grain Avoidance cultivators!

Yet now, You Tianhong had fallen atop Nine Millet Mountain, at the hands of the fourth-level Grandmaster, Su Yi!

A chill coursed down Shi Fengliu’s spine, and his expression was utterly dark.

Just watching this battle startled him so badly that he broke out in cold sweats. He realized that back then, atop the Qinglan River, if he hadn’t fled in time, he might well have suffered the same fate as You Tianhong!

.

Yun Zhongqi gripped his insignia and feather whisk. He sighed to himself.

This high elder of the Great Wei’s Wheel of the Moon Sect had indeed planned to seize this opportunity to jump in. However, his rationality told him that this wasn’t the right time.

Su Yi was too strong!

From beginning to end, he hadn’t suffered so much as the slightest injury. The methods with which he slew You Tianhong were so imposing that they made even the mighty Yun Zhongqi shudder.

Hong Shenshang was silent, and his brow was tightly knit, as if he’d encountered some thorny, difficult problem.

Far off in the distance, an elderly Daoist mixed in with the crowd relaxed the hands clenched within his sleeves. He shook his head, then silently turned and left.

……

Now, heaven and earth were silent. Even the birds ceased their song.

The onlookers were all tongue-tied and dumbstruck. They sank into a daze.

As they stared at the distant blue-robed youth standing in the skies, their hearts surged with wordless shock, awe, and dread.

“How could a mortal Grandmaster possess power sufficient to slay an Earthly Immortal?” An older generation expert quivered from head to toe, his voice containing three parts surprise and three parts dread, as well as deep astonishment.

Before the battle began, no matter how highly they thought of Su Yi, they would never have guessed that You Tianhong couldn’t so much as scratch him even after unleashing his trump cards!

You Tianhong’s final attack flew through the air with enough force to threaten even Origin Palace cultivators!

Yet in the end, You Tianhong still lost.

Were Su Yi an Origin Dao cultivator too, they could have accepted it, albeit with some difficulty.

But he was only a Grandmaster, yet he’d slain a peak expert of the Grain Avoidance Realm. This heaven-defying power was just too terrifying!

“Brother Su won!” The Mountain-Subduing King, Mu Xi, finally smiled.

Those beside him—Pu Yi, Jiang Tanyun, Lu Zhangfeng, among others—sighed in relief too.

The battle had been so shocking and intense that, until its final moments, their minds and hearts were utterly tense. It was only now that they let themselves relax that they realized that their clothes were already drenched in cold sweat.

“After this battle, who in the Great Zhou could be Su Yi’s opponent?” Some of the more farsighted big shots were already starting to consider the aftermath of the morning’s duel.

Su Yi had just killed the Great Qin’s Sword Monarch Tianhong, and he’d done so in front of countless people. The strength he revealed in the process placed him at the very pinnacle of the Great Zhou!

He was only seventeen this year. Given more time to grow, how terrifyingly mighty would he become?

……

Clang!

Su Yi stretched out his hand, pulling You Tianhong’s ancient sword, Silversnow, toward him. He held it up to his face and examined it briefly before turning to face the distant onlookers.

“Even before arriving in the Jade Capital, I heard that numerous people are after my life. Why not take this opportunity to step forth and end this here?” His tone was leisurely, and his clear, calm voice reverberated throughout the ears of everyone present.

The resulting commotion broke through the deathly silence. Almost without exception, those prominent figures in attendance drew in a breath of cold air.?Wasn’t killing You Tianhong enough for him?

Lonely River, Yun Zhongqi, Shi Fengliu, and the other Earthly Immortals remained silent.

Su Yi had only just killed You Tianhong. Who would be stupid enough to jump out and attack him now?

The curtains had fallen on this duel, but Su Yi wasn’t even injured. No, he hadn’t lost so much as a single hair on his head!

From beginning to end, none dared accept his challenge.

When he saw this, Su Yi couldn’t help but shake his head. He walked through the air and landed gently back on the ground.

“Fellow Daoist Su, before the duel began, you said ‘what a pity.’ Might I ask what you meant?” an expert of the older generation couldn’t help but ask.

This question instantly drew the crowd’s attention. All of them thought back, and indeed, Su Yi had said that very inexplicable sentence.

“It’s nothing much, and there’s no harm in telling you,” said Su Yi casually. “I was just lamenting that You Tianhong received his grand stroke of fortune too late. Had he inherited the power of an ancient orthodoxy while still in the Four Realms of the Martial Dao, he might well have forged unimaginable foundations. In that case, killing him would have at least taken a bit of effort.

“Alas, he encountered his good fortune after stepping into the Origin Dao, when it was already too late to repair the flaws he left behind during his time in the Martial Dao.”

This explanation left the crowd bewildered, but more than that, their hearts churned with emotion once more.?So it turns out that even before the fighting began, Su Yi was completely assured of his victory. You Tianhong wasn’t enough to scare him at all!

It was then that Yun Zhongqi spoke up. “Fellow Daoist Su, witnessing your abilities and bearing today has left us all shocked and awed, but we’re curious, too. When the fourth day of the fifth month arrives, will you really duel your father, Su Hongli?”

Su Hongli!

The head of the Jade Capital’s Su Family, a man so mysterious and low profile that it was terrifying. All information about him had been kept under lock and key for over a decade. Practically no one knew just how strong Su Hongli had become.

But there was one thing everyone was certain of: ten years ago, Su Hongli was already a legendary, dazzling figure in the Great Zhou. His prestige was no inferior to State Preceptor Hong Shenshang’s!

And?Su Yi?was Su Hongli’s son. His conflict with the Jade Capital’s Su Family was already common knowledge.

Who wouldn’t have been curious to know just how the two of them would clash?

“What does that have to do with you?” Su Yi’s brow furrowed slightly as he swept his gaze across Yun Zhongqi.

Yun Zhongqi’s expression froze; this blatant show of disrespect was hard to take.

Su Yi paid him no heed. He just turned and walked away.

His tall, lean figure gradually faded from view. From beginning to end, no one dared block his path!

…..

That very day, as the martial artists gathered on Nine Millet Mountain dispersed, word of the duel spread through the Jade Capital at lightning speed.

The various factions had long since started keeping tabs on the situation. Without exception, they were shaken, and they found themselves at a loss for words.

Su Yi had won!

He killed the Great Qin’s You Tianhong!

They said that in You Tianhong’s final moments, he used power sufficient to threaten cultivators of the Origin Palace Realm, yet Su Yi still broke through it without suffering even the slightest injury. The implications were terrifying; how shocking were his foundations?

Who knows how many people gasped, “Don’t tell me Su Yi really is invincible?”

Lately, news of Su Yi’s accomplishments had rocked the nation like a series of tidal waves, spreading repeatedly throughout the Great Zhou.

He’d never lost, not in any of the battles he participated in!

Atop the Imperatorial Province’s Western Mountain, he single-handedly turned the tides and sent numerous heads rolling.

At the battle at the provincial governor’s estate, he executed even the mighty Firedome King, Xia Houlin, as well as the White-Eyebrowed King and numerous other big shots.

After leaving the Imperatorial Province, on his journey to the Jade Capital, he overcame the battle of Dragonbridge Station, the fight at Roiling Cloud Temple, and the battle on Treasure Temple Yao Mountain…

Along the way, he cut down who-knows-how-many long-famous Xiantian Martial Ancestors.

The battle in the White Province, in the Cloud-Scraping Army’s encampment, was particularly notable. At the time, he was only a third-level Grandmaster, yet he slew the Earthly Immortal, Li Changning.

This battle made the nation boil over completely, stirring up countless waves. Su Yi’s name spread far and wide, shining as brightly as the sun overhead!

By comparison, sending Shi Fengliu packing over the Qinglan River wasn’t nearly as surprising.

None of his past accomplishments could strike terror into the hearts of Origin Dao experts, but after today’s battle atop Nine Millet Mountain, which Earthly Immortal would dare overlook Su Yi?

What really made them gasp was that every time the onlookers thought You Tianhong was about to win, Su Yi displayed some new terrifying and unexpected power. In the end, he achieved an overwhelming victory!

This was, naturally, not really any different from being invincible.

“Is there anyone in this world who can suppress Su Yi? How can a Grandmaster like him wield such terrifying power?”

Numerous factions tried to analyze his accomplishments.

“They say that You Tianhong didn’t manage to force Su Yi to draw his weapon until the very end of their duel, and that Su Yi won without any injuries. Doesn’t that mean that killing peak Grain Avoidance cultivators like You Tianhong is already no trouble for Su Yi!?

“That means that, if someone really wanted to suppress Su Yi, unless they had comparatively heaven-defying and unreasonable abilities, they’d need to be at least an Origin Palace cultivator to have any chance of success!”

This was a reasonable analysis, no matter how you looked at it.

Nonetheless, some vehemently disagreed. “You’re wrong. I’m afraid that when Su Yi took down You Tianhong, he didn’t use his full power. That means that even now, no one knows just how strong he is, or if he has any forbidden killer moves up his sleeves. How can anyone talk of suppressing Su Yi under such circumstances?”

Similar debates played out non-stop throughout the nation.

No one could deny that Su Yi already wasn’t someone just any old Earthly Immortal would dare look down on!

It was just that even after all this, no one knew just how Su Yi managed to obtain such heaven-defying strength as a mere Grandmaster.

It was like a riddle haunting the world’s cultivators.

Those like Yue Shichan, Hong Shenshang, Shi Fengliu had deduced or picked up on a few hints, but no more than that. They couldn’t see the full picture.

This added a layer of mysteriousness to Su Yi’s image.

And when word of the duel on Nine Millet Mountain reached the Jade Capital’s Su Family, everything seemed to go dark before You Qingzhi’s eyes, as if heaven and earth were spinning around her, and she almost passed out.

She was utterly bereft!