First Immortal of the Sword

Su Yi stared at the name “Li Nandu” in silence for a while before retracting his gaze.

It was getting late, and the curtain of night was setting in.

But Su Yi decided against turning in for the night. He wanted to challenge the Blue Cliff Twelve Towers immediately.

Meng Xinguan watched Su Yi walk up the path to the peak, thought for a moment, then turned to leave.

……

As Su Yi walked alone up the steep slopes, he couldn’t help but recall visions of Wang Ye’s youth. As Wang Ye's reincarnation, these experiences had left an indelible mark on him.

As had Li Nandu, the first person to guide Wang Ye’s cultivation!

Wang Ye began his cultivation with Li Nandu when he was just seven years old, and he quickly learned from those around him that Li Nandu was from Blue Cliff Academy. He’d once been one of their elders.

Li Nandu had ambitions of bettering all of society, and he spent a full sixty-four thousand years guarding the Sixth Gate of Heaven. He was injured countless times, and he slew countless foes. On numerous occasions, his life hung in the balance!

Yet Li Nandu never shrunk back. He fought valiantly, and he was wise, determined, and ambitious. His words and guidance had an enormous influence on the young Wang Ye.

When Wang Ye was twenty-seven years old, he fought his way into the enemies’ camp all on his own and fought for thirty days straight. He overcame numerous life-or-death perils, then returned with a thousand bloody heads, only to be greeted with terrible news.

The Sixth Gate of Heaven had fallen!

Li Nandu’s head had been hung from the city gates. Wang Ye’s uncle, Wang Xuanting, had been skinned alive and slowly tortured—death by a thousand cuts. Wang Ye’s friends and brothers-in-arms were all nothing but corpses.

And the culprit was Wang Ye’s biological father, a prominent expert of the demons of the Beyond!

When Wang Ye saw this, he broke down and went completely insane.

That very day, his biological father descended the walls of the Sixth Gate of Heaven, looked him in the eye, and expressionlessly cursed him out. “Your mom was a bitch, and you’re an unfilial little bastard!”

He also said, “I won’t kill you this time. Instead, I’ll have you see how the world you’ve been protecting all this time treats you going forward. When you can’t take it anymore, come find me. If you kneel before me and repent, I’ll give you a place to stay!”

Leaving nothing but those disdainful, humiliating words behind, that man led his army of demons away.

Wang Ye spent the rest of the day kneeling there, facing the Sixth Gate of Heaven and weeping tears of blood.

Even though, in the years that followed, Wang Ye fought his way into the demons’ territory and slew his biological father, the demon who’d sullied Wang Xuansu, as well as an army of a hundred thousand demons…

Even though Wang Ye reached the pinnacle of the Immortal Dao and achieved dominion over the Immortal Realm…

None of that could bring Li Nandu back to life.

The tragedy of his youth naturally became one of Wang Ye’s lifelong regrets, as well as a source of lasting pain.

“Teacher, in this lifetime, I’ve finally come to the Blue Cliff Academy you took such pride in. Allow me to fulfill my promise to you on my past life’s behalf,” Su Yu murmured to himself.

The image of a thin old man floated into view. He smiled at the then sixteen-year-old Wang Ye and said, “Little fellow, you’re my student! Should the opportunity arise, you’ve got to take a trip to Blue Cliff Academy and test yourself in the twelve towers!”

The old man then patted Wang Ye on the shoulder. “A disciple isn’t necessarily inferior to his master. I have faith that you can succeed!”

At the time, Wang Ye solemnly agreed.

Alas, Li Nandu was killed before Wang Ye could make good on his promise, and the Immortal Realm branded Wang Ye a traitor. Wang Ye had no choice but to flee for his life.

And by the time he established himself in the Immortal Realm, he was no longer eligible to attempt the trials of the Blue Cliff Twelve Towers.

As Su Yi pondered, he arrived at the first of the towers.

Inside was a little table with a writing brush laid out on its surface.

The first test was called “Flowers Bloom at a Wondrous Stroke of the Brush,” and it tested Universe Realm Immortals’ cultivation.

Trial-takers had to take the writing brush on the table and use their cultivation base as ink to write a sentence on the wall. There were no limits regarding content.

Those whose writing resonated with three of the wall’s formations were considered second-rate. Less than one in ten thousand could accomplish this.

If the fourth through sixth formations resonated with your writing, that was considered first-rate. Those who achieved this were considered rare, miraculous geniuses.

If the seventh through ninth formations resonated, you received full marks. That made you an absolute, astonishing genius!

Throughout the ages, countless experts had attempted the first tower’s trial, but those who managed first-rate results were already rare.

And experts who received top marks were so rare that tens of thousands of years might pass without seeing even one!

Overcoming the Blue Cliff Twelve Towers required making the academy's bell ring twelve times. That in turn required top marks in the first trial.

Su Yi wasn’t all that interested in his score. He just walked up, grabbed the brush, and waved it over the wall.

Weng!

When its tip touched the wall, the wall lit up, blooming with vivid, lifelike flowers of the Grand Dao. The layers of petals were colorful and resplendent, with dazzling radiance and a holy air about them.

As Su Yi wrote, more and more flowers bloomed, filling the walls and illuminating the entire room.

Each flower of the Grand Dao represented one of the room’s formations.

By the time Su Yi wrote the first half of his sentence, nine flowers had bloomed. He’d already earned top marks. This was already enough to mark him an absolute genius!

But it still wasn’t over…

Ten, eleven, twelve…. One wondrous flower of the Grand Dao after another bloomed at the tip of Su Yi’s brush.

By the time Su Yi lowered his brush, eighteen flowers of the Grand Dao covered the wall, each resonating with the others. It was too wondrous for words.

A rain of light fell in bursts, drifting onto Su Yi’s body to nourish his cultivation base.

Within just a few blinks of an eye, all of these strange phenomena disappeared.

And Su Yi’s cultivation base had advanced slightly!

When he looked at the wall again, he saw a glittering, golden line of text slowly fading away.

It read, “Just as blue dye is more vivid than the plant it comes from, a disciple isn’t necessarily inferior to his master!”

These words came straight from Su Yi’s heart. They were also Li Nandu’s hope for Wang Ye.

Su Yi set down the brush, turned, and left.

The hall of the first tower returned to stillness, but an aged voice full of astonishment resounded from the darkness.

“Wondrous truths were born at the tip of his brush. Eighteen flowers bloomed! What kind of heaven-defying monster is he, to have achieved such a thing?”

Immediately after, a quavering, frantic voice rang out. “I can say with certainty that no one has accomplished this feat throughout all of Blue Cliff Academy’s history!”

“It’s unprecedented! Unheard of!”

“Who is that boy? Why haven’t I seen him before? How about we investigate right now?”

“Don’t be so hasty. Let’s see how far he can make it first.”

“Very well.”

…This secret conversation quickly faded back into silence.

Although none of those old-timers knew it, Su Yi had not even used the full extent of his cultivation base. If he had, his score couldn’t possibly have been so “low!”

……

The interior of the second tower had nothing but nine bronze tripod cauldrons lined up in a row. Each was about a foot tall.

The second trial was called “The Mighty Carry Cauldrons on Their Shoulders.” It was a test of trial-takers’ physical strength.

The tripod cauldrons were immortal treasures. Even though they were each just a foot tall, even the lightest of them was as heavy as a hundred-thousand-foot immortal mountain!

And the heaviest of them was made of the legendary Essence of the Earth. Even Buddhist cultivators who proved their Daos through their fleshly bodies and had the strength of golden vajras struggled to budge it, never mind carry it on their shoulders!

Trial-takers simply had to select a bronze cauldron and lift it onto their shoulders, relying on only their physical body.

When Su Yi arrived, numerous eyes were watching from the shadows.

“Do you think he’ll choose the ninth and heaviest cauldron?”

“He’ll try. After all, over the years, most trial-takers with even a bit of spirit have at least made the attempt.”

“Throughout the ages, I remember just seventeen Universe Realm Immortals capable of lifting the ninth cauldron onto their shoulders. Nine were yao cultivators, descendants of creatures like the Suanni, Kui, and Zhuyan. All were blessed with limitless strength.

“The other eight were either Buddhist cultivators with the strength of an invincible golden vajra, or Demonists whose demonic magics made them all but indestructible.

“And this young man is obviously a sword cultivator. During the first test, he waved his brush as if he were drying his sword, and wrote in sweeping, natural strokes. As I’m sure you’re all aware… sword cultivators’ physiques can’t compare to yao, Demonists, and Buddhist cultivators.”

“It seems to me that he might well pass with ease, but it’s unlikely that he’ll be able to lift the ninth cauldron.”

“I think so too.”

Soon, however, the conversation came to an abrupt halt.

The hidden observers watched in mild confusion as Su Yi placed the lightest of the cauldrons onto his shoulders.

Before they could react, Su Yi picked up the second cauldron and placed it on top of the first.

He then proceeded to stack the third, fourth, and fifth cauldrons.

It was as if he were casually picking up random bricks. Throughout the process, he seemed incomparably relaxed. Even with five cauldrons on his shoulders, he showed no sign of exertion.

The hidden onlookers’ eyes widened.

It wasn’t that no one had done this before, but no one had ever done it with such casual ease.

“Don’t tell me he’s going to lift the sixth cauldron too?” someone couldn’t help but ask.

He’d only just said this when Su Yi proceeded to do exactly that.

“This…”

Before the group could react, Su Yi lifted the seventh and eighth too.

By now, the group’s jaws hung slack, and their eyes were as round as dinner plates.

He’d lifted the first eight ancient tripod cauldrons without even pausing to catch his breath. His physical strength was so terrifying that the hidden observers couldn’t help but suspect they were looking at a legendary dragon in human form!

The Buddhist golden vajra strongmen could move mountains and fill oceans, but if they were here to see this, they’d have surely lowered their heads in shame!

“Don’t tell me he… he’s going to lift the ninth cauldron onto his shoulders too?”

One of the hidden onlookers gulped with great difficulty.

But as soon as the words left his mouth, he shook his head and rejected the possibility.

How could such a thing be possible?

Seth's Thoughts

A large chunk of this chapter is taken directly from Chapter 1432, with one notable difference. That chapter said "demons and yao" while this one has edited all mentions of yao out of the text. I think it's fair to assume that this is a retcon.