First Immortal of the Sword

An austere air hung over heaven and earth. Terrifying destructive power surged around the central peak, connecting heaven and earth. This drew the attention of everyone in the Endless Swords Immortal Sect.

The Four Absolutes Immortal-Slaughtering Sword Formation!

The Xuanyi Dao-Smelting Cauldron!

The Sword Cage of Heaven and Earth!

There was no doubt about it. All three were the sect’s hidden trump cards, their killer weapons. It had been a long, long time since they’d last been used. No one could have expected that Sect Leader Lei Yunting and the high elders would unleash all three of these killer weapons at once, much less out of the blue like this.

The same thought rose unbidden to everyone’s mind. Don’t tell me the enemy attacking us is a Great Realm expert?

……

“Sect Leader, I’m afraid that Su Yi has long since been reduced to ash!” said one of the Immortal Kings overseeing the Four Absolutes Immortal-Slaughtering Sword Formation. "We can no longer sense any trace of his presence!"

The other three Immortal Kings nodded.

But someone else felt that something was amiss. He transmitted, “Everyone, Su Yi is the reincarnation of the Tyrant, Wang Ye. How could he possibly die so easily?”

“I have three questions for you,” said a white-bearded elder in black. “What is Su Yi’s cultivation level?”

“Rumor has it that he’s an unrivaled Immortal Lord, but even if that’s true, he’s still in the Saint Realm. Even if he’s somehow hidden his true cultivation base, he’s at best an Immortal King.”

The elder in black nodded. “And what do you think of our deathtrap?”

“It’s enough to kill everyone beneath the Great Realm with ease, and even experts of the Great Martial Stage wouldn’t fare well inside!”

“That’s right,” said the elder. “Now, for my final question: if Su Yi is still alive and in possession of powerful hidden cards, why hasn’t he struggled or fought back?”

“Err….” In the face of the black-robed elder’s questions, the other high elder fell silent.

“I’m certain he’s already dead!” The black-robed elder swept his gaze across the crowd, puffed up his chest, and said with pride, “In other words, under our sect leader’s leadership, we destroyed the reincarnation of the Tyrant Wang Ye with ease!”

Many of the elders couldn’t help but admire their leader. They hadn’t realized he’d prepared so thoroughly. He’d struck with unstoppable force right off the bat, crushing their foe in a single strike!

Lei Yunting smiled and said calmly, “I had a plan, and he didn’t. Never mind Su Yi, even most Great Martial Stage experts would have died beyond a doubt!”

The crowd couldn’t help but smile with him.

But it was then that the sound of applause emanated from afar. A tall, upright figure appeared in the distant skies accompanying the sound.

This was none other than Su Yi. He clapped and said, “I have to admit that this trap of yours was quite ruthless, and that its interlocking powers didn’t have even the slightest gap to exploit. Were I trapped inside, I’m afraid I couldn’t have broken free quickly.”

“!!!”

The atmosphere was suddenly deathly silent. Lei Yunting and the high elders’ smiles froze in place, and their eyes practically popped out of their sockets. An indescribable sense of astonishment washed over them.

None of them could have imagined that the enemy they thought was already dead would appear before them, alive and well, mere moments later.

Even experts like Lei Yunting stared in wide-eyed shock. How… How is this possible?

All of them watched with their own eyes as Su Yi was trapped by the Four Absolutes Immortal-Slaughtering Sword Formation, followed immediately afterward by the Xuanyi Dao-Smelting Cauldron and the Sword Cage of Heaven and Earth.

Even a Great Martial Stage expert would have struggled to escape so many layers of death traps!

Yet now… Here Su Yi was, right in front of them!!

“Weren’t you… weren’t you trapped inside?” someone couldn’t help but blurt. Disbelief was written all over his face.

Su Yi laughed. “If you survive, I wouldn’t mind sharing this secret with you.”

Before his voice had even finished echoing through the air, his figure disappeared from view.

Not good! The crowd’s expressions shifted, but they didn’t panic. After all, all of them had overcome countless battles, crossing rivers of blood and climbing over mountains of corpses to reach their current heights. Even though Su Yi’s survival was an enormous, unexpected variable, they’d never lowered their guards.

The moment Su Yi appeared out of nowhere, they’d instinctively readied their treasures and circulated the full extent of their cultivation bases. Their divine majesty shook the heavens!

But in the end, they’d still underestimated how terrifying Su Yi was.

Su Yi silently appeared behind one of the Immortal Kings. Practically simultaneously, he pressed his fingers into a sword and slashed.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A rapid-fire series of explosions rang out. The Immortal King’s defensive treasures and power broke like paper window paneling.

A rain of light scattered, and his expression filled with horror. He leaped and tried to dodge, never once turning to look behind him.

But he was ultimately one step too late.

Su Yi cut off his head as if he were cutting open a melon!

Splurt!

Fresh blood splattered from the stump.

His still-bleeding head flew through the air, his face a mask of terror and bewilderment.

He was one of the four Immortal Kings working together to run the Four Absolutes Immortal-Slaughtering Sword Formation and a late-stage Miracle Realm expert. Yet now, he’d been executed!

Meanwhile, Su Yi had already disappeared back into thin air.

This wasn’t teleportation. He’d just disappeared from view, and no one could grasp any sign of his presence.

Not even the Immortal Kings’ divine senses could lock onto him!

The other Immortal Kings were horrified. Chills coursed down their spines. When you couldn’t even grasp your opponent’s position, that meant you could face a lethal strike out of nowhere at any moment!

They were effectively blind!

“Activate!” An Immortal King readied his defenses, pouring all of his strength into the secret treasures and abilities he kept in reserve. His defenses covered a full thousand-foot radius around him.

But when the next streak of sword qi flashed through the air, his defenses popped like soap bubbles.

The sword qi struck with unstoppable momentum, cleaving open a perfectly straight rift in the sky.

At the far end of the rift, a bloody hole opened in that Immortal King’s throat.

His eyes bulged, and his body quivered.

In the last moments before his death, he finally understood. Su Yi had appeared in the spot that sword qi had originated from, only to disappear in a flash.

His enemies barely caught a fleeting glimpse of him before he disappeared once more. He was just too quick!

Try as they might, there was no defending against such speed. Within just two blinks of an eye, two of the four Immortal Kings powering the Four Absolutes Immortal-Slaughtering Sword Formation had been cut down like grass!

“Hurry up and return!” bellowed Lei Yunting, his voice booming like thunder. His hair and beard bristled with fury, and his face was ashen as he withdrew the Xuanyi Dao-Smelting Cauldron and the Sword Cage of Heaven and Earth.

The cauldron hovered over his head, its power now used to defend him and the other nearby high elders. The thirty-nine Golden Lightning Bamboo Swords that comprised the Sword Cage of Heaven and Earth now hovered in the air, ready to strike.

There was no need to even question it. Once Lei Yunting locked onto Su Yi’s position, both the Xuanyi Dao-Smelting Cauldron and the Sword Cage of Heaven and Earth would swoop in and deal Su Yi a lethal blow.

But… Lei Yunting couldn’t lock onto Su Yi’s position!

A massive explosion resounded in the distance. An Immortal Queen fled the peak with all her might, but before she’d gotten far, her body split into pieces, splattering the sky with blood.

Like blooming red fireworks, beautiful yet bleak.

Meanwhile, in another stretch of sky, another of the Immortal Kings formerly working to power the Four Absolutes Immortal-Slaughtering Sword Formation realized his predicament and fled into the distance. But then, Su Yi silently appeared in his path.

“No—!” the Immortal King shrieked in panic.

Splurt!

A streak of sword qi descended from the heavens, running him through. Blood gushed forth like a waterfall.

He was destroyed, body and soul!

By now, the four Immortal Kings who’d controlled the Four Absolutes Immortal-Slaughtering Sword Formation from the east, west, north, and south had all been killed. And it happened in just four blinks of an eye!

In other words, once the massacre began, Su Yi killed each Immortal King in one single move, and he did it instantaneously.

No matter how they dodged or fled, no matter what defensive treasures and abilities they drew on, none of them could take more than a single hit. All of them fell like grass beneath a scythe!

He struck so quickly and with such ruthlessness that even Lei Yunting and the high elders felt their scalps go numb. Their courage completely broke down!

They finally understood how badly they’d underestimated Su Yi. He might “just” be Wang Ye’s reincarnation, but in his past life, he’d stood supreme at the pinnacle of the Immortal Realm, suppressing even other Great Realm experts. He was an unparalleled legend of his era!

The Endless Swords Immortal Sect had placed a death trap sufficient to kill, or at least injure, Great Martial Stage experts. But when this trap failed to restrict its target, it became nothing more than empty posturing!

After the deaths of those four Immortal Kings, Lei Yunting and the high elders were fully aware of how terrifying Su Yi was.

How proud and powerful were Immortal Kings? In the present day, Great Realm experts couldn’t leave seclusion, so Immortal Kings represented the pinnacle of power!

Yet against Su Yi, they amounted to no more than clay chickens and porcelain dogs. They couldn’t even take a single hit!

Who wouldn’t have been terrified? After all, they were all “just” Immortal Kings too…

“In the face of absolute power, no amount of scheming can withstand even a single hit,” said Su Yi, his blue robes fluttering around him.

He placed one hand behind his back and walked through the air, approaching the peak.

He was just one person, and he no longer used that slippery and elusive movement technique, but his approach put immense pressure on Lei Yunting and his allies.

Boom!

Lei Yunting attacked directly, pouring his strength into the thirty-nine Golden Lightning Bamboo Swords. The swords reformed the Sword Cage of Heaven and Earth and descended upon Su Yi....

...only for Su Yi to vanish once more. That strike mighty enough to threaten even a Great Martial Stage expert hit nothing but air.

When Su Yi appeared once more, he was less than ten thousand feet away from Lei Yunting and his allies!

Their expressions shifted, and their hearts sank. What kind of movement technique is that? We can’t lock onto him with our divine senses at all!

At their level, aiming their attacks was all about locking onto them with their divine sense. When they couldn’t do that, they were effectively taking stabs in the dark.

Most terrifying of all was that despite their mastery of varying secret soul arts and techniques for seeing through truth and illusion, none of them were of any use at all. It was as if Su Yi were wandering freely through time and space, disappearing as soon as he arrived. He was impossible to trace!

“That isn’t how you’re supposed to use the Sword Cage of Heaven and Earth,” sighed Su Yi.

The moment he laid eyes on the formation, he realized that his old friend Xu Fushi had left it for his sect, and that it was indeed a first-rate killer weapon.

However, in Lei Yunting’s hands, it couldn’t even display ten percent of its original power!

“Su Yi, if you stop here, I wouldn’t mind conversing with you!” Lei Yunting said gravely.

Su Yi shook his head. “We can talk when I'm done.”

He’d tried being patient with Lei Yunting earlier, but the sect leader didn’t cherish the opportunity. He even tried to suppress and kill Su Yi! Yet now that he realized the situation wasn’t in favor, Lei Yunting was suddenly willing to talk. It was ridiculous!

Whoosh!

Su Yi silently disappeared into thin air.

Everyone looked stricken.

“Suppress!” Lei Yunting bellowed, and the Xuanyi Dao-Smelting Furnace rumbled over his head, erupting with countless streaks of the fiery power of the Laws. They blanketed the sky and obscured the sun, enveloping the peak completely.

Bang!!

A streak of sword qi descended practically simultaneously.

In the end, it was blocked and neutralized, but its power shook the entire Xuanyi Dao-Smelting Cauldron.

Lei Yunting, the one controlling the cauldron, was forced back, his blood and qi churning. It hurt so badly that he almost coughed up blood.

“Only Great Realm experts can unleash the full power of Great Realm treasures. With your late-stage Miracle Realm cultivation, you might well be able to wield that cauldron, but its power is limited, and it won’t last long.”

Su Yi’s calm voice resounded throughout heaven and earth, but Lei Yunting couldn’t tell where it was coming from.

Suddenly, a streak of sword qi exploded into being and descended from above.

Kaboom!

The Xuanyi Dao-Smelting Cauldron swayed violently, and its divine flames churned. Although it blocked the sword qi’s power, the impact made Lei Yunting’s face pale, and blood dripped from the corners of his lips.

His vital energy churned violently within him. It would have been obvious to anyone that if things went on like this, Lei Yunting wouldn’t last long!!