First Immortal of the Sword

Su Yi thought back to his experiences and combined them with what the Zhuyou Great Peng had told him. In the end, he reached a conclusion——

The gods could not descend into this world, but they already knew with certainty that Wang Ye was one of his past lives!

It was for this reason that they joined forces during the Age of Fallen Immortals to make Mount Taiwu disappear!

Now, after the Zhuyou Great Peng sensed the gods atop the River of Epochs, the gods knew that the Reincarnator had returned to the Immortal Realm!

When Su Yi realized this, he actually grew calmer. The unknown was the most stressful of all. Now that he’d figured out some answers, there was no more need for all that guessing.

“And? What else did that guy say?” the disheveled old man couldn’t help but ask.

The Zhuyou Great Peng shook its head. “Nothing at all! That figure standing in the darkness just attacked. He obviously wanted to kill me!”

The bird continued its tale. It turned out that in a moment of crisis, something strange happened.

“Another group of gods appeared over the river and started fighting the first group!”

Disbelief was written all over the bird’s face. It clucked its tongue. “Even if you’d hit me over the head, I would never have guessed that such conflicts would break out among the gods! Well, not that I'm complaining. That’s why I managed to escape.”

The disheveled old man was unwittingly stunned. He murmured, “They started fighting? It seems the gods are divided into different camps too…”

He then looked at Su Yi and transmitted, “Why do I get the sense that some gods are using Mount Taiwu as bait to lure you in and kill you, while others have chosen to do their utmost to stop them from killing you?”

Su Yi’s gaze was inscrutable. “That may very well be the case.”

He recalled that when he met the mysterious Luo Yao over the River of Spacetime, she said that her true body was in a place called the Boundless Battlefield, and that she and her fellow Daoists were locked in fierce combat with powerful foes! Those foes included the Buddha of the Past, the Dipankara Buddha!

Luo Yao also said that she and her Fellow Daoists were hard at work to prevent the Dipankara Buddha and his allies from leaving the Boundless Battlefield. That was why the Buddha sent a divine emissary like Mi Zhen to kill Su Yi in his stead!

Furthermore, she said that even if a god wanted to descend in person, due to the restrictions of the Laws, they could at most send an avatar of will across the River of Spacetime.

All of this combined meant that if the gods wanted to take Su Yi down, they couldn’t do it directly, nor could they hunt him down themselves. All they could do was send their emissaries to do their bidding.

It was also then that Su Yi learned that the two of his past lives who’d been slain by the gods had allies, people committed to helping him resist the gods.

It was even highly likely that those two past lives had been gods in their own right!

The Zhuyou Great Peng’s experiences seemed to prove that point.

Gods had attacked, only for other gods to get in their way. How could that have been a coincidence?

The disheveled old man gazed intently at the Zhuyou Great Peng and pressed, “What happened then!”

The bird said irritably, “Didn’t you see it? That tribulation light cleaved into me!”

“Who sent it to you?”

“I don’t know, but I think it was that guy standing in the darkness!”

“Think harder! Were there any other worthwhile leads?”

“Uh…” The bird racked its brains, then cried out in alarm. “Fuck! They marked me! I heard someone say he’d leave a mark that was impossible to erase on me so that they could send their emissaries to kill me!

“Isn’t it obvious? When that tribulation light hit me, it made me a target! I’m finished, I’m finished… Oh, this is really bad…!”

The Zhuyou Great Peng wailed.

The disheveled old man’s hair stood on end, and he hurriedly examined himself.

A moment later, he grimaced. “Dammit! There really is a mark!”

“You old bastard! You really screwed me over this time!” shouted the Zhuyou Great Peng.

Suddenly, Su Yi reached out and grabbed the dirty feathered hooligan. “Don’t struggle. Let me have a look.”

“Who the hell are you? I…” The Zhuyou Great Peng was just about to curse him out too when the old man hit it over the head.

“If you don’t want the gods to hunt you down, behave yourself!”

The Zhuyou Great Peng was stunned, but it was instantly much more cooperative.

A wisp of the power of reincarnation appeared around Su Yi’s hand and silently entered the bird’s body.

Before long, Su Yi sensed that trace of strange, calamitous power. It was as if it had transformed into a spirit snake and wrapped itself into a bundle deep within the Zhuyou Great Peng’s soul.

When the power of reincarnation appeared, that calamitous power suddenly jumped in fright. It was just about to flee when Su Yi’s power of reincarnation trapped it.

Su Yi raised his palm, and…

Kcch!

He extracted a faint streak of calamitous power from the Zhuyou Great Peng’s body.

“This…” The disheveled old man cried out in surprise. “What a strange power! It’s like the cataclysm of the Age of Fallen Immortals, but even more terrifying!”

The Zhuyou Great Peng stared, then looked at Su Yi in surprise. “Not bad, little brother! You’re so young, yet you managed to thoroughly dominate the mark of the gods!”

Su Yi examined the calamitous power trapped by the mysteries of reincarnation for a little while before responding. “This is indeed the power of a god. It transcends the Immortal Dao, and it’s extraordinarily terrifying.”

“How’d you subdue it, then?” the Zhuyou Great Peng couldn’t help but ask.

Su Yi laughed and tightened his grip, eradicating that wisp of divine power completely before saying, “You wouldn’t understand.”

“????” The Zhuyou Great Peng looked baffled. It whipped its head around to look at the disheveled old man. “Old scoundrel, aren’t you going to tell me this kid’s origins?”

The disheveled old man said soothingly, “You’re better off not knowing. Sometimes, ignorance leads to longevity.”

The Zhuyou Great Peng was so angry that it burst into a series of expletives, but the old fortune teller didn’t care in the slightest.

Su Yi then went on to remove the divine power from the fortune teller’s body too. The old man visibly relaxed, as if a massive weight had lifted from his shoulders.

“You really helped me this time,” said Su Yi. He took out a jug of wine and passed it to the disheveled old man. “If you need anything down the line, just say the word.”

If not for encountering the old fortune teller, he could never have learned the truth of Mount Taiwu’s disappearance, nor could he have known that it was bait in the gods’ trap!

Furthermore, the old-timer had lost two secret treasures warding off that streak of tribulation light. He’d been injured, too.

Su Yi couldn’t help but feel bad about it all.

Who’d have thought that the old man’s eyes would dart about, or that he’d smile gleefully?

“I was waiting for you to say that!” he said with a laugh. “No need to wait. Agree to do something for me now! How about it?”

“...” Su Yi suddenly realized that something wasn’t right here. He furrowed his brow. “I understand. You were interested in the secrets of Mount Taiwu’s disappearance to the point of risking your life to investigate… simply because you wanted me to owe you a favor. Is that right?”

The disheveled old man instantly looked uncomfortable. “Do you really think I’m that kind of person?”

Su Yi laughed coldly. “Yes.”

The disheveled old man broke into hacking coughs.

He was just about to say something when Su Yi waved. “Enough, no need to explain. Just say it. What do you want me to do?”

The disheveled old man took a moment to steady himself, then said with the utmost solemnity, “If I run into a tribulation I cannot resolve, one that will lead to my inevitable doom, I want you to help me!”

Su Yi’s heart shook as he realized how serious the problem really was.

In terms of strength, this old-timer wasn’t anything special, but in terms of sheer longevity? There’d never been his equal in the Immortal Realm!

Despite facing countless divine punishments and tribulations over the years, and despite being forced to flee and hide from catastrophe, the old-timer had survived all this time.

For him to say something like this meant the problem was dire!

“Don’t tell me you sensed something?” asked Su Yi.

The old man’s expression shifted erratically. “Not long after I left the Black Dragon Market, I had a sudden urge to tell my own future, only to discover that I was highly likely to meet with a tribulation that would mean my doom in the near future!”

Here, he let out a self-deprecating laugh. “As you know, I’ve used my skills in divination to avoid one crisis after another. I’ve lived as frantically as a dog, but I’ve always managed to hold on.

“But this time… will be different!”

The disheveled old man rubbed his face and sighed. “This is the first insurmountable crisis I’ve encountered in all my years of life. No matter how hard I look for answers, I can’t see a single path to life!”

“So..” The old man said gravely, “I resorted to desperate measures and came looking for you. I’m hoping you can find me a way out of this. Of course, you needn’t feel overly pressured. If you really can’t help me, forget about it.”

He grinned broadly. “After all, I’ve lived long enough already! So long that I’ve lost track and grown numb to it all!”

Su Yi stared intently at the disheveled old man for a moment, then took out a jade slip and passed it to him. “If you need my help, you can come find me at any time.”

The disheveled old man was stunned. “You agreed, just like that?”

Su Yi laughed. “Could I refuse?”

The disheveled old man rolled his eyes. “No way in hell!”

“Enough. I’ve got to get going. We’ll meet again.” Su Yi waved and turned to leave. He planned to set off for Blue Cliff Academy!

The disheveled old man watched him disappear from view, then burst into smug laughter. “With that guy’s help, ‘tribulations’ and ‘certain doom’ are nothing but dog farts! There’s no more need for me to live in fear!”

“Just who was that?” the Zhuyou Great Peng asked out of nowhere.

“Couldn’t you tell? That was a Universe Realm Immortal in his twenties!”

“....” The Zhuyou Great Peng longed to beat the old scoundrel to death with its wings.

The disheveled old fortune teller thought for a moment, then said, “Come on, carry me to the Middle Province. I heard that they’re hosting a Divine Hunt in six months, and that good fortune connected to the Primeval Era has entered the world. Let’s go have a look!”

“I’m not going!”

“You’re sure you aren’t going? To the best of my knowledge, the Church of Supreme Oneness’s Purple Lightning Golden Condor will be there. The condor has a Golden-Winged Great Peng bloodline, and she’s female! Don’t you want to meet her?”

“Why didn’t you say so? Don’t just stand there. Let’s get going!”