First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 1396 - He Arrives at Mount Luowu

Chapter 1396 - He Arrives at Mount Luowu

Three days later.

Mo Qingchou visited and informed Su Yi that they’d indeed discovered traces of the Tailor within the Flying Immortal Forbidden Zone!

Unfortunately, the old-timer was extremely crafty. The Mo Family’s forces arrived one step too late; the old man gave them the slip.

Su Yi wasn’t at all surprised to learn this.

The Tailor was long accustomed to walking in the shadows, and he excelled at nothing more than hiding. Ordinary people had no hope of finding him.

It was enough that Su Yi could confirm the Tailor’s presence in the Flying Immortal Forbidden Zone.

Su Yi then did as he’d promised. Mo Qingchou made the arrangements, and he proceeded to help the Mo Family’s Cloud Soaring Realm experts break their curses.

Their ranks included Mo Yuanshan.

“Fellow Daoist Su, in the face of your magnanimity and noble spirit, I truly cannot help but be ashamed of myself,” said Mo Yuanshan with a bow.

And here he’d been worried that Su Yi would hold a grudge against him and refuse to break his curse. Reality proved that he’d been worried for nothing.

Su Yi had no response to this.

“Fellow Daoist Su, this is a token of the Mo Family’s gratitude. Please accept it,” said Mo Qingchou, passing him a storage bracelet with both hands.

It contained an inestimably valuable collection of Transcendent divine materials and medicinal ingredients. There were several hundred of them.

Furthermore, there was a single stalk of immortal medicine, a rare sight in the Human Realm!

This was a token of Mo Xinglin’s gratitude.

Mo Qingchou dared say with certainty that after Su Yi saw these “tokens of gratitude,” he’d sense the Mo Family’s good intentions on a deeper level.

Su Yi didn’t refuse. He accepted the bracelet, to Mo Qingchou’s obvious delight.

She said, “Tomorrow at dawn, my great uncle and I will lead the experts of the Mo Family to escort you to Mount Luowu. Fellow Daoist, please rest assured as you prepare for the coming battle. If you need anything, please feel free to ask.”

Su Yi thought for a moment, then said, “I only have one request.”

Mo Qingchou batted her starry, bright eyes and said charmingly, “You have my full attention.”

“Tomorrow, after the battle begins, no matter what happens, even if I find myself trapped in inescapable peril, you are not to intervene,” said Su Yi.

Mo Qingyuan’s smile froze in place.

But Su Yi had already put his hands behind his back and walked off. He was returning to his residence.

In regards to tomorrow’s duel, his heart was as smooth as a mirror. He knew that even with the Mo Family as guarantors of fairness, unpredictable waves were inevitable!

But that was exactly what he was most looking forward to. It wasn’t just a simple matter of tempering himself. No, he wanted to seize this opportunity to resolve a very important issue!

......

“He doesn’t need our help?” Within the Mo Family’s forbidden grounds, Mo Xinglin was stunned.

“That’s right. He said that even if he finds himself in inescapable peril, the Mo Family is not to come to his aid,” Mo Qingchou said softly.

She found this difficult to understand.

Mo Xinglin fell silent. After a moment’s contemplation, he said, “Fellow Daoist Su wouldn’t have said that if he didn’t have reason to be confident. Even so, we cannot truly remain uninvolved.

“At the very least, we need to make sure that every other faction in the Flying Immortal Forbidden Zone knows that we’ll stand decisively by Fellow Daoist Su’s side!

“Furthermore, if his life is truly in danger, we must help him with all our might!”

His voice was full of staunch conviction.

“Understood!” Mo Qingchou nodded her assent.

But then, she couldn’t help but ask, “Ancestor, do you think Celestial Red Cloud will show up?”

After a moment’s silence, Mo Xinglin said, “Existences on her level had always been difficult to fathom. All we need to do is attend to our own affairs properly.”

Mo Qingchou nodded.

......

Within his pavilion.

“A stalk of immortal medicine?”

After Su Yi took inventory of the storage bracelet’s contents, he couldn’t help but be surprised.

The pile of Transcendent treasures actually included a single stalk of immortal medicine.

It seemed like some sort of ginseng. It was snow-white, translucent, and crystalline. A single root hair grew from its tip, and its leaves were blue-green. There were nine in total.

The stalk of immortal medicine had been sealed, but there was no disguising the dense, immortal light emanating from it, nor its soothing medicinal fragrance.

“This is most likely from Mo Xinglin himself... and I’m sure his reasoning has little to do with me.” Su Yi rubbed his nose as Daoist Master Red Cloud’s silhouette came into view.

He might be confident and proud, but he knew that the Mo Family was treating him this way largely on account of her.

Su Yi couldn’t help but feel strange about this. When he conducted his affairs, he disdained depending on others. Still, no matter how he felt about it, this time, he was benefiting from his association with Daoist Master Red Cloud.

Let’s try refining an immortal pill. Su Yi’s heart stirred, and he took out the Divine Replenishment Furnace and tossed the immortal ginseng inside.

Boom!

The furnace rumbled as if incomparably delighted. Firelight rose.

Unlike prior instances, this time, the furnace took a full two hours to produce a batch of three pills.

Each was swathed in resplendent immortal light and covered with strange markings of the Immortal Dao. Their fragrance alone was enough to make Su Yi’s qi boil over with vitality.

Whoosh!

Purple immortal light interwove within the furnace, like a brush writing a line of text. It read: “The Immortal Origin Snow Ginseng Pill can establish one’s foundations in the Immortal Dao, quench the origin of the soul, and temper the blood and qi of the fleshly body, creating inexhaustible vitality...”

Su Yi was astonished. Has the furnace truly gained sentience? It’s never told me about a pill’s uses before!

The Divine Replenishment Furnace then selected one of the pills for itself. The others, it sealed with wondrous purple light and gave to Su Yi.

Su Yi couldn’t help but suspect that, had the furnace not sealed them, the pills would have flown off on their own!

These really are immortal pills. They’re extraordinary, Su Yi exclaimed inwardly. He then put both the furnace and the pills away and started meditating.

Late at night.

All was silent and still, save for the rustling of insects.

“It seems to me that you and I have something we must discuss openly.”

Suddenly, Su Yi heard his sixth incarnation’s voice resound within his sea of consciousness.

His voice was still imposing and tyrannical, but it was much more peaceable than before.

Su Yi was still seated in meditation, but a smile tugged at his lips. Can’t take it anymore, huh?

Out loud, he said casually, “What would you like to talk about?”

“This lofty one agreed to grant you the opportunity to fuse with my Dao Imprint. Ours will be a war of the mind, a struggle for the self,” said his sixth incarnation. “Given the circumstances, you’d best heed my advice. Don’t break through lightly. You’re only thinking about your breakthrough into the Path of Transcendence, but your achievements in the Immortal Dao are on the line!”

“How could I possibly break through without making ample preparations?” said Su Yi.

“You’ve never experienced cultivation on the Path of Transcendence. How can you speak of ‘making ample preparations?’” Su Yi’s sixth incarnation scoffed. “Relying on nothing but a smattering of ancient tomes and others’ advice? Hah! Ludicrous!

“You might well have surpassed me within the Path of Heaven’s Ascension, but you understand so little of the Path of Transcendence that you seem to me no different from a frog in a well!”

Su Yi narrowed his eyes, but he didn’t argue. He just sighed. “Alas, time is not on my side.”

“What do you mean?” His sixth incarnation asked in surprise.

“Tomorrow, I must face powerful foes alone,” said Su Yi. “It’s only by breaking through that I can avert this crisis.”

His sixth incarnation’s voice was now tinged with fury. “Are you threatening this lofty one?”

Su Yi laughed. “You said it, not me. In that case, let’s be straightforward, shall we? Give me your knowledge and experiences regarding breaking into the Path of Transcendence now, and perhaps... it’ll come in handy tomorrow.

“Do that, and you’ll have no need to fear flaws in my foundations, while I’ll be able to resolve the crisis at hand. It’s a win-win.”

“....” His sixth incarnation fell silent for a while. When he spoke, his voice was overcast. “You’ve been scheming against me this entire time, haven’t you? You hope to seize this opportunity to wrest my secrets from me.”

“You’re welcome to refuse,” said Su Yi without even pausing to think.

His sixth incarnation fell silent.

Then, he said slowly and emphatically, “I won't help you unless you beg me. Otherwise, forget it!”

With that, he said no more.

Su Yi just sat there and took a sip of wine. He said calmly, “I’ll just lay this out in the open, then. Even if I die, I won’t beg for your help.”

His sixth incarnation didn’t answer, but Su Yi wasn’t at all concerned.

Why had his sixth incarnation taken the initiative to speak to him tonight?

Because he was frantic! He wouldn’t be able to endure this much longer!

This was a test of endurance. They were competing to see who could outlast who.

Admittedly, his sixth incarnation hadn’t given in this time, but Su Yi wasn’t in a hurry. He was at an absolute advantage; it was only right that his sixth incarnation was frantic.

......

Dawn the next day.

Mount Luowu.

Its steep slopes towered into the heavens, piercing the clouds. The entire mountain was pitch black, and nothing grew there, not even an inch of grass. Its rocks were strangely shaped and craggy, and the land within a thousand-mile radius was covered in gentle, rolling hills. This made Mount Luowu as eye-catching as a crane amongst chickens.

Dawn had only just broken, but the area around Mount Luowu was already a sea of people, an ocean of bobbing heads of black hair.

These were all experts of various ancient orthodoxies and immortal factions. Even the weakest of them were Nascent Divinity revenants!

And there were Cloud Soaring Realm revenants all over the place.

As for World Kings? There weren’t any.

This was because during the End of the Dharma, those beneath the Path of Transcendence either perished or became unintelligent revenants. None survived with their awareness intact.

A solitary figure in white stood at the peak of Mount Luowu, his back as straight as a spear.

Hong Feiguan!

His arms were crossed in front of his chest, and his eyes were shut. The clear light of the heavens bathed his tall, upright figure, making him seem like a god or immortal gazing down at the world below.

Countless eyes were upon this leading figure among descendants of immortals, some with awe, some with reverence, and others with jealousy.

Some of the older-generation experts couldn’t help but sigh to themselves.

In terms of bearing, foundations, and strength, a descendant of immortals like Hong Feiguan was enough to make them ashamed of their own inferiority!

“That Su Yi person still hasn’t arrived? He sure knows how to put on airs!” someone said with obvious displeasure.

“What’s the hurry? If he shows up, there’s no way he’ll ever leave. Let’s just wait patiently,” someone chuckled.

Who could fail to see the current situation clearly?

Even if Su Yi didn’t die at Hong Feiguan’s hands, he was certain to lose his life in the storm that followed their duel!

He was the one who’d mastered reincarnation. If only for that reason, no one could permit him to leave this place alive!

As the crowd discussed the upcoming duel amongst themselves, they commented on Su Yi freely.

From beginning to end, Hong Feiguan paid their discussions no heed. He just stood there, silent and steady as a boulder.

Time slipped by.

Suddenly, Hong Feiguan’s shut eyes silently opened, and he gazed into the distant dome of heaven.

Practically simultaneously, there was an uproar amongst the spectators as everyone instinctively looked over.

A grand procession was soaring through the skies. All of them were from the Mo Family, save for the man at the head of the group.

This was none other than Su Yi.

He was dressed in blue, with his long hair tied up in a Daoist topknot. His hands were behind his back, and his tall, upright figure was bathed in the light of the heavens, making him seem as if he’d risen above the dust of mortality.

As soon as he appeared, he became the center of attention.