First Immortal of the Sword

A streak of misty blue sword light exploded into being, then flashed past.

Crunch!

The descending massive white bone hammer split in two midair, but the blue sword light didn’t stop there. It continued, its power undiminished, and split the now-gigantic old man in two at the waist.

Splurt!

Fresh blood gushed forth as both halves of the old man’s body fell, slamming into the ground like a mountain.

The cut was as smooth as the surface of a mirror.

The old man cried out in agony as his torn half slammed into the dirt, his face contorted with agony.

The other Aberrant experts were shocked. All of them looked visibly stricken.

The old man with the goatee was one of their libationers. He was tasked with guarding the mountain gates, and he was a ferocious combatant.

Who could have imagined that someone would cleave him in two in an instant, almost killing him?

“Let’s go,” said Su Yi, paying none of this any heed. He just passed through the gates as if the Aberants weren’t even there.

Given his strength, killing the old man with the goatee would have been easy. He chose to spare him instead for the simple reason that, despite all the conflict between the Heart-Tempering Sword House and the Aberrants, there’d been no bloodshed.

That was in part because the Heart-Tempering Sword House had thus far chosen to endure, and in part because the Aberrants didn’t want a complete falling out.

That aside, regardless of everything else that had happened, the Aberrants had, after all, offered the Heart-Tempering Sword House refuge.

They had to acknowledge that kindness. Thus, Su Yi chose to show mercy.

“Stop!”

“Are you trying to declare war?”

The Aberrants guarding the gates roared in fury.

Su Yi waved his sleeve, and a windstorm of sword qi swept forth, sending the Aberrant experts flying. All of them landed in the dirt, badly injured.

Meanwhile, Su Yi and Wu Qing walked in openly.

Along the way, groups of Aberrants attacked like mad, filling the sky with a rain of firelight.

But none of them could block even one of Su Yi’s attacks. Su Yi left one group of Aberrants after another defeated, sprawled out in the dirt. Massive impacts, explosions, and agonized cries rose and fell in waves.

Wu Qing stuck close to Su Yi. He originally planned to help bear some of the burden, but he soon realized that there was no room for him to intervene!

Su Yi was just too fast, to the point that it seemed he had precognition. Every time a group of Aberrants attacked, Su Yi routed them immediately. None could stand in his way!

At the same time, Wu Qing noticed that Su Yi was showing mercy. He’d yet to kill a single opponent. They were, at worst, left badly injured.

Meanwhile, on the mountaintop, the disturbance had alerted Chief Meng Che and the tribe’s higher-ups. All of them rose and left the hall.

“I would never have guessed that the two of them would charge directly into our territory like this!” someone said in fury, their murderous intent on full display.

“Who is that young sword cultivator, and why haven’t any of us seen him before? His sword force is ridiculously powerful!” someone said with a frown as he watched Su Yi from afar.

“Who cares who he is? Now that he’s trespassed on our mountain, he must die!” someone else said grimly.

“I’ll deal with him!” The armored Bei Lin took a big step forward.

Someone had invaded their mountain. That was an enormous humiliation!

“Stop!” Chief Meng Che called him back. “Don’t let your anger muddle your head. Given our strength, we can’t afford a complete falling out with the Heart-Tempering Sword House. Yes, our victory is all but assured, but we’d surely pay a heavy price!

“As aggressive as those sword cultivators are, they’ve yet to kill anyone. It’s obvious they still have reservations; they don’t want a complete falling out, either. Given that, we might as well be patient a while longer. Let’s get a feel for the situation, then decide how to respond.”

He took a step forward and said gravely, “Everyone, heed my orders. Retreat and let them climb the mountain unimpeded!”

His voice boomed like thunder, echoing throughout Heavenly Aberrant Mountain. The flow of experts blocking Su Yi’s path receded like waters at low tide.

Su Yi wasn’t at all surprised. He was already showing mercy. The Aberrants would have to be completely brainless to continue throwing their people at him.

Wu Qing sighed in relief. A half-starved camel was still bigger than a horse. The Aberrants’ foundations were ancient, and they had numerous killer weapons up their sleeves. If they went all out, it was hard to say whether he and Su Yi would ever make it off the mountain alive.

Before long, Su Yi and Wu Qing reached the peak under countless enraged, resentful gazes.

Chief Meng Che and the Aberrant higher-ups were ready and waiting for them. They, too, had dark looks on their faces.

“Is this how the Heart-Tempering Sword House negotiates?” asked Meng Che, his presence terrifying to behold.

As the chief of the Aberrants, he was among their strongest warriors, an expert comparable to a Piercing Illusions Stage Heavenly Monarch.

“Negotiate?” Su Yi laughed. “You’re mistaken. I’m not here to negotiate.”

“Then what are you here for?” Meng Che glowered.

“I’m here to get even,” Su Yi said casually.

The crowd was stunned, then so angry that they almost burst into laughter. They half suspected that they’d misheard him.

Chief Meng Che forcefully suppressed his murderous intent, then looked Su Yi up and down. “Settle the score? What do you mean by that?”

“Of late, your people have caused trouble on numerous occasions. They’ve repeatedly provoked and extorted members of our sect. I naturally want to settle this score,” Su Yi said calmly. He took a jade slip out of his sleeves. “I recorded it all in here. I suggest you have a look. Then we can discuss how you plan to compensate the Heart-Tempering Sword House.”

Su Yi tossed the jade slip over to Meng Che, who slammed it into the dirt, his eyes blazing with murderous intent. “Bastard! We’ve been more than tolerant enough already. Otherwise, we would have attacked a long time ago. Now here you are, demanding compensation? You’re simply sick in the head. You deserve to die ten thousand times over for this!”

Meng Che was furious, but he wasn’t the only one. The other higher-ups were ashen with anger, too. Even if you’d hit them over the head, they would never have anticipated this. The Heart-Tempering Sword House hadn’t chosen to lower their heads and submit after all. On the contrary, they’d sent two blind, ignorant fools to “settle the score.”

Who wouldn’t have been furious?

Even Wu Qing was unwittingly stunned. He hadn’t anticipated that Su Yi was here to demand compensation either.

He’d even prepared a list of the Aberrants’ offenses!

In the face of the Aberrant experts’ fury, Su Yi just laughed, not the least bit concerned. “Does that mean we have nothing to discuss?”

Chief Meng Che glowered. He was so angry that he was on the verge of losing control of his murderous intent.

But at the same time, he found the situation strange. Where does a sword cultivator so young get the confidence to oppose the entire Aberrant Race? Has the entire Heart-Tempering Sword House gone insane?

“Wu Qing, who is this? Don’t tell me that he can represent everyone in the Heart-Tempering Sword House?” Grand Libationer Mu Yang asked coldly.

Wu Qing didn’t tell them Su Yi’s identity. All he said was, “He can!”

The Aberrants exchanged glances, unwittingly stunned. All of them could tell that something strange was afoot.

“In that case, let me make our attitude perfectly clear,” said Meng Che, his gaze sinister. “The Heart-Tempering Sword House must make a decision today. Either you submit, or you get the hell out of the Heavenly Aberrant Hidden Realm!”

He looked at Su Yi. “You represent the entire sect, don’t you? Then make your choice!”

Su Yi took a sip of wine and said, “Once we’ve settled things between us, I’ll naturally lead the people of the Heart-Tempering Sword House away.”

Meng Che was so angry that he laughed. “Is that so? Then I’ll be interested to see just how you plan to ‘settle’ things!”

The others were all seething with murderous intent, too.

Su Yi raised his right hand. His hairpin flew out of his topknot, then transformed into a three-foot bamboo sword and landed in his palm.

“I’m a sword cultivator. If I have a score to settle, I’ll naturally do it sword in hand,” said Su Yi. One hand held a jug of wine, the other gripped his sword. His voice was light and airy. “Want to wriggle out of this? I’ll just have to pummel you until you acknowledge what you’ve done wrong.”

He’d just kicked the metaphorical hornet’s nest. The Aberrants’ pent-up murderous intent and fury all erupted at once.

“Chief, are we seriously supposed to tolerate this?”

“Fuck! I’ve never seen such a brazen sword cultivator in my life!”

“We’ve got to kill him! No, we’ve got to kill them all!”

The armored Bei Lin was the first to lose control. He took a step forward, then charged explosively at Su Yi.

Boom!

His armor lit up, glowing with blood-red Aberrant totems. His ferocious majesty shook the world, ripping the skies asunder.

He swung his fist directly at Su Yi. His tyrannical fist force was comparable to that of a first-rate Heavenly Monarch.

But Su Yi had faced twenty-nine Heavenly Monarchs barehanded during the first of the Heart-Tempering Sword House’s three trials. He’d since broken into the late-stage Silent Realm on the Sword-Testing Tower’s twelfth floor, making him even stronger than he’d been then.

And that’s before factoring in that he now carried his bamboo sword, Proper Conduct!

Thus, Su Yi didn’t so much as glance at Bei Lin’s fist. He just thrust his sword, and its tip bore a hole through the sky.

Bang!!!

A heaven-shaking impact rang out.

Where the tip of the sword passed, it bore through the fist force, then pierced Bei Lin’s arm. Tyrannical sword qi spread, destroying even Bei Lin’s armor, which exploded into countless pieces.

Bei Lin was left with countless bloody gashes, and he flew uncontrollably backward, like a kite with its strings cut.

He’d been badly injured in a single strike!

Su Yi spun his wrist, gripped his sword, and took a big gulp of wine, pausing to savor its flavor. Then, he said casually, “If you aren’t convinced, all of you are welcome to try me, too. I promise to keep fighting until you acknowledge what you’ve done wrong.”

Silence descended over the area.

Chief Meng Che and the other higher-ups were completely stunned. Bei Lin was among their mightiest experts. He could suppress most others of the same level.

Yet now, he’d been defeated in a single blow, offering no more resistance than paper window paneling!

They even got the distinct sense that the young man had attacked casually; that was in no way the limit of his strength.

All of them naturally understood that this young sword cultivator had shown mercy. Otherwise, Bei Ming would have died already!

The atmosphere was instantly tense, stifled, and oppressive to the extreme. The way the crowd looked at Su Yi silently shifted.

Just who is this terrifying young sword cultivator, and where the hell did he come from?