First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 1129 - The Tailor!

Chapter 1129 - The Tailor!

Qing Tang’s words were light and airy, but the crowd couldn’t help but tremble!

Don’t tell me the terrifying expert who replaced Buddhist Master Inkstone Heart is here too?

As the crowd stood there in bewilderment, a calm, pleasant voice exclaimed, “Impressive. Over the years, I’ve always wondered just who you were, Qing Tang. Now, I think I can finally guess.”

There was a disturbance amongst the distant onlookers, and a slender figure emerged from the crowd and took to the skies.

She wore pristine white robes, and her bearing was tranquil and serene. This was none other than the young mistress of the Studio of the Heart!

Waves of uproar broke out on all sides. None of them had anticipated that, just months after the Swordmaster of Abstruse Force scared her off, the young mistress of the Studio of the Heart would reveal herself once more.

Su Yi furrowed his brow, then transmitted to the Heavensdeath Demon Empress, “If fighting breaks out, help me protect my disciples.”

She subtly inclined her head. She could sense that the situation was silently shifting and that it was highly likely an unpredictable storm was about to strike!

Off in the distance, Qing Tang glanced at the young mistress of the Studio of the Heart and said flatly, “How could a little girl like you possibly fathom my origins? Do you really think joining forces with the Tailor means you can turn the situation back in your favor?”

Her voice was full of complete disdain.

The Tailor!?

Su Yi’s heart shook. He finally understood just who the person Qing Tang referred to as one of the most dangerous figures of the stars beyond was.

Back on the banks of the Netherworld’s Reincarnation Pool, the Temple Master issued him three warnings.

One of them was that he’d best be cautious of the Tailor!

According to the Temple Master, the Tailor’s true body was the progenitor of the Dream-Eating Tapirs, but he had yet another, as-of-yet unknown identity. The Temple Master suspected that he worked for a mysterious faction!

Furthermore, the Temple Master thought that the Tailor was extremely strange and sinister. He said that when Su Yi grasped the Dao imprint he’d left in the Sword of the Nine Hells and the memories therein, he’d gain a better understanding of the Tailor’s abilities.

But Su Yi would never have guessed that the Tailor had arrived in the Wilds a long time ago and that he’d lain dormant ever since, much less that he’d replaced Buddhist Master Inkstone Heart!

And Qing Tang said that the Tailor had hidden in the Wilds all this time because he was after him!

I’m afraid it isn’t me the Tailor is after, but rather, the Temple Master, or perhaps the Sword of the Nine Hells, thought Su Yi.

Meanwhile, the young mistress of the Studio of the Heart furrowed her delicate brow. “‘Little girl?’ Qing Tang, you’re as respectful as can be in front of Su Xuanjun, all meek and agreeable, but here you are, putting on airs in front of me. Don’t you find yourself ridiculous?”

As she spoke, she stepped through the air and approached the gates of the Grotto of Abstruse Force.

Countless cultivators moved out of her way as she passed, dread written all over their faces.

Qing Tang disregarded her completely. Instead, she looked at Su Yi and bowed. “Master, this calamity is targeted at you, but it happened because of me. Now, please allow me to deliver the last of my presents to you!”

As she spoke, her slender figure burst with peerless sword intent. It surged into the firmament, and her entire presence abruptly transformed.

Boom!!

Heaven and earth swayed, and the landscape trembled.

The surrounding skies shook violently, undulating like water. It was originally clear and sunny, but everything abruptly darkened. Qing Tang’s majestic aura suppressed it completely.

Her black dress swayed and her hair fluttered in the wind. That unparalleled, beautiful face was full of icy indifference and contempt.

Gazing upon her from afar, it was like the descent of an unparalleled sovereign!

Ancestor Peng, the Border Mountain Yao Ancestor, and the other fossils’ held their breath. Their bodies stiffened as they sensed the pressure smacking them right in the face.

Earlier, Qing Tang already seemed more than strong enough. She killed Shang Tianqi, a prominent expert of the Church of the River of Stars, with ease.

But now, as Qing Tang revealed her full majesty without the slightest reservation, the old-timers were alarmed to discover that Qing Tang was even stronger than they’d imagined!

No surprise for someone connected to the Temple Master...

Su Yi’s gaze was inscrutable. Qing Tang’s aura was even stronger than his had been at the pinnacle of his past life!

Su Yi couldn’t help but suspect that she was a World King in her own right! Otherwise, her aura couldn’t possibly have been this strong.

“This...” Jin Kui, Wang Que, and the others were astonished. They suddenly realized something. Perhaps Qing Tang had never really betrayed them, but she was, after all, from the stars beyond, and her background was mysterious.

This meant they could no longer view her as their master’s ninth and final apprentice.

All of this took some time to describe, but in truth, it happened in a flash.

After releasing the full extent of her majestic aura, Qing Tang stepped toward the young mistress of the Studio of the Heart.

Her murderous intent overturned heaven and earth.

As Qing Tang advanced, austere killing intent arose throughout the landscape, and the Grand Dao rumbled and boomed throughout the clouds. Unstoppable sword intent spread outward.

The distant onlookers were flabbergasted, and all of them immediately moved further away. The entire area was instantly in chaos.

“Hmph!” The pupils of the young mistress’s bright eyes constricted, and a blue paintbrush floated into her grip. She swung it through the air.

A streak of misty blue light exploded into being, manifesting an ancient ritual diagram. It was ornamented with flowers, birds, bugs, fish, and celestial bodies. Shockingly, although it was indistinct, the sound of ancient people piously performing rituals emanated from within the diagram.

“The Painter’s Rhinoceros Horn Brush might be extraordinary, but in your hands, it isn’t even worth looking at.” Qing Tang’s eyes flashed with dazzling sword light, and she casually extended and snapped her fingers.

Kcch!

Sword qi poured down from the mountains and rivers.

A massive boom followed, and the ancient ritual diagram split into pieces and scattered into misty light.

The look on the young mistress’s beautiful face shifted abruptly. How is this possible?

She’d never underestimated Qing Tang, but she’d poured almost the full extent of her cultivation base into that attack. It was enough to threaten the lives of even Imperial Apex cultivators!

Yet against Qing Tang, it was no more threatening than paper!

“Now it’s your turn to take my attack,” said Qing Tang. She raised her hand through the air.

Weng!

A streak of inestimably powerful sword qi exploded into being, bringing with it the strange, heaven-shaking hum of a sword. Ripple-like gashes spread throughout heaven and earth.

When the young mistress of the Studio of the Heart saw this, she quivered, then turned and teleported away.

No one could have said she reacted slowly, but the power of Qing Tang’s slash had left spreading, circular rifts in the surrounding space. How could its power have been ordinary?

Bang bang bang!

A rapid-fire series of explosions rang out, like someone beating a drum.

Waves of astonishment overwhelmed the young mistress of the Studio of the Heart. Qing Tang’s sword qi stirred up the surrounding spatial ripples, and they descended upon her from all sides with a scattering of divine light. The sound of their impact rang out continuously.

In the blink of an eye, the young mistress’s defenses shattered, layer by layer!

Her delicate face was full of lingering terror, and her eyes were full of astonishment. Qing Tang... is far more terrifying than I anticipated!

When she saw the seemingly endless spatial rifts descending upon her once more, the young mistress’s heart filled with irrepressible panic.

I... couldn’t even block a single one of Qing Tang’s slashes?!?

Suddenly, a hoarse voice emanated throughout heaven and earth. “Ruoxi, I told you you couldn’t possibly be a match for Qing Tang. Now do you understand how strong she is?”

He spoke slowly, but every word seemed to contain the will of the heavens.

Countless cultivators felt agonizing pain in their minds, and they saw stars. All of them panicked.

Even the old-timers felt as if their minds had been struck by lightning. Their hair stood on end, and their expressions shifted dramatically.

Even they no longer dared to remain complacent. They circulated their cultivation base with all their might. Only then did they neutralize the terrifying power within that aged voice.

Su Yi’s brow furrowed as he silently circulated his qi. Although his mind never suffered any kind of shock, his expression was grim..

When that voice rang out, the ripple-like spatial rifts exploded, as if a hurricane had swept through them.

Ruoxi, the young mistress of the Studio of the Heart, had been saved right in the nick of time!

Her chest heaved with obvious fright.

However, Qing Tang clearly couldn’t be bothered to pay her any further heed. Instead, she looked up and gazed into the distant skies.

“Ol’ tortoise, you’ve finally left the Little Western Paradise.” A hint of mockery tugged at Qing Tang’s lips.

The crowd looked over and saw a curtain of darkness descend from the skies, blotting out the sun. It was as if ink were spreading through the heavens.

No one could tell when he’d gotten there, but a bony old monk covered in wrinkles now stood upright beneath the curtain of darkness.

His eyelids drooped, and his eyes were turbid. His entire body was shrouded in primordial darkness, and he seemed strange, sinister, mysterious, and terrifying!

“Buddhist Master Inkstone Heart!?” exclaimed one of the old-timers.

“No, he isn’t Buddhist Master Inkstone Heart, and he hasn’t been for a long time!” Ancestor Peng’s expression was unprecedentedly solemn.

It wasn’t just him. The other antiques’ expressions shifted too, as if they were facing a powerful foe.

This is the Tailor’s aura? Su Yi’s eyes flashed. He naturally no longer saw this as his dear friend Buddhist Master Inkstone Heart.

The moment Su Yi laid eyes on the Tailor, he recalled someone else entirely.

The Fisherman!

He’d met the man in plain cloth robes and a conical hat on the banks of the Reincarnation Pool. Although that Fisherman was just a Dao Clone, his aura was so terrifying that it would have been no exaggeration to describe it as “immeasurable!”

Now, when the Tailor appeared under the guise of Buddhist Master Inkstone Heart, his aura was even stranger, even more inscrutable, and even more terrifying! Throughout the surrounding area, everyone felt stifled. A terrifying atmosphere enveloped heaven and earth.

The spectating cultivators had already fled as far as they could, and they dared not approach again.

Everyone felt as if a dark shadow were shrouding their heart. They were terrified and ill at ease.

Even the old-timers felt suffocated!

Too strong!

The mysterious Tailor had only just appeared, but even just standing there against a curtain of darkness, his imposing majesty left them feeling helplessness and despair.

“Ol’ tortoise?” The Tailor’s eyelids rose, and he said slowly, “Even when your master was still around, he wouldn’t have dared speak so contemptuously of me.”

His voice was raspy and decrepit, as if he hadn’t spoken in a long time.

But in the eyes of the onlookers, it was like the voice of the heavens, and it shook their hearts and minds.

As he spoke, the Tailor’s turbid eyes scanned Qing Tang, then locked onto the distant Su Yi. They suddenly blazed with startling light, like a pair of revolving whirlpools intent on devouring his soul!

Su Yi’s heart shook, and he felt a piercing pain in his soul, as if countless wriggling insects had bitten into it in an attempt to drag it into the endless darkness!

“Hmph!” Su Yi’s eyes suddenly flashed with cold light. The Sword of the Nine Hells silently quivered within his sea of consciousness, and a wisp of its inscrutable power spread outward.

The strange power in his soul, like countless gnawing, wriggling insects, abruptly scattered and disappeared.