First Immortal of the Sword

The Cave of Trials, the eighth floor.

Xue Hongfeng sat on the ground, meditating. He was dressed in black, with cold, steely features. He was from an Immortal Lord clan, and his aptitude was extraordinary, especially for the Dao of the Saber. Yet… he’d failed to overcome the eighth trial twice in a row.

Xue Hongfeng gnashed his teeth. “Next time, I’ll win for sure!”

Suddenly, the golden Dao stele to the side of the hall drew his attention. A rain of light scattered as a new ranker appeared: three hundred and ninety-third place.

This rank wasn’t high, but it absolutely wasn’t low, either. After all, despite the passage of countless years, only a select handful of Universe Realm Immortals had ever overcome the trials of the eighth floor.

“He’s just one rank below me!” exclaimed Xue Hongfeng. After overcoming the seventh floor, his results put him in three hundred and ninety-second place!

A moment later, he saw the new arrival.

He was a young man in blue, tall and upright, with the air of one who’d risen out of the dust of mortality. Most importantly, he showed absolutely no sign of a cultivation base.

This made it impossible to see through him.

He glanced at the meditating Xue Hongfeng, then proceeded toward the next trial.

But then, Xue Hongfeng suddenly said, “Please wait!”

“Do you have business with me?” asked Su Yi.

Xue Hongfeng rose and grinned. “My name is Xue Hongfeng, and I’m from the White Reed Province, a scion of Divine Cloud Mountain’s Xue Family. Might I ask your name?”

Divine Cloud Mountain’s Xue Family! A famous Immortal Lord clan of the White Reed Province!

And Xue Hongfeng was the son of their leader, a prominent elite of their younger generation! He’d stepped into immortality at just three hundred and ten years of age!

Alas, Su Yi had never heard of him, so he naturally didn’t have much of a reaction.

“I'm Su Yi.”

“Oh,” said Xue Hongfeng. He then got straight to the point, “I’d like to duel you!”

Su Yi found this quite surprising. “And how would you like to duel?”

Xue Hongfeng swept his gaze across the area. “We can do it here, to victory and defeat. The loser offers the victor their supply of immortal medicines.”

Su Yi’s gaze was strange. “You’re just short on immortal medicine, aren’t you?”

Xue Hongfeng’s expression froze, and he looked a bit uncomfortable, but he didn’t hide it. “That’s right.”

“At least you’re honest.” Su Yi casually took out a stalk of immortal medicine. “Our meeting was a stroke of fate. This is yours.”

Xue Hongfeng was astonished, but he threw it back and said in displeasure, “I’m no wastrel mooching off my family’s name! And I won’t accept handouts from anyone!”

Su Yi laughed. “You’ve got spirit.”

Xue Hongfeng’s eyes flashed with imposing light. “Drop the nonsense! All I want to know is, dare you fight me? Rest assured. Although I lack immortal medicines, I have plenty of treasure. So long as you win, I’ll give you this!”

With that, he flipped his palm, and a purple seven-inch flying knife floated into the air. Misty light flowed around it, and it glinted with sharp, resplendent light.

It was obvious at a glance that it was an extraordinary, high-quality treasure.

Su Yi just glanced at it briefly, then looked away. “Very well.”

Xue Hongfeng burst into laughter. “That’s the kind of spirit a cultivator ought to have! Based on that alone, win or lose, I’ve got to befriend you!”

“.....” Su Yi didn’t know what to say to that, so he just said directly, “Then let’s get started. I’m in a hurry.”

“A hurry….?” Xue Hongfeng frowned and was just about to say something when Su Yi turned, stepped toward him, and pressed down.

Xue Hongfeng’s pupils constricted. He’d fought his way to the eighth trial, so he was naturally no ordinary genius. By the standards of the Immortal Realm as a whole, he might not compare to the monsters at the top of the Universe Realm Immortal Rankings, but he was still a top-class figure.

But Su Yi’s casual palm strike made him feel an unprecedented, powerful sense of impending crisis.

Without the slightest hesitation, Xue Hongfeng bellowed. His sleeves billowed, and he raised his hands into the air, like an overlord holding a tripod cauldron aloft!

Boom!

Surging immortal light interwove with terrifying power.

Beneath Su Yi’s palm strike, Xue Hongfeng was like a mantis trying to block a chariot. His strike shattered instantaneously.

The pressure sent Xue Hongfeng flying backward, and he slammed into a distant wall.

Bang!

The entire hall shook.

Xue Hongfeng practically deflated. His long hair hung loose, and he looked utterly dazed. I… couldn’t even block a single hit!?

Su Yi tossed that stalk of immortal medicine back over and laughed. “Consider it a loan.”

With that, he turned and left the hall.

Xue Hongfeng’s gaze shifted erratically.

Suddenly, he looked ashamed, and he muttered curses under his breath. “Fuck! I really embarrassed myself this time. What good are those rankings? They aren’t reliable at all, dammit!”

……

The battleground of the eighth trial.

There were six trial guardians, each powerful to the extreme.

Them aside, all manner of powers of the Laws targeted the trial-takers. The booming of thunder intimidated the soul, baleful mists influenced the heart, and fierce gales restricted the movements…

Most terrifying of all, all six trial guardians were twice as strong as the trial-taker!

This trial was simply perversely difficult.

In this trial, Su Yi faced an extraordinary threat. A full hour passed before he finally managed to take the trial guardians down, one by one!

But he paid a heavy price to do so. His entire body was covered in bleeding wounds, and his cultivation base was on the brink of running dry.

Yet Su Yi felt an unprecedented sense of satisfaction!

In this battle, he’d given it his all, unleashing everything he’d learned and further excavating his latent potential. He’d benefited considerably.

“Ultimately, the Cave of Trials tests determination, wisdom, and potential!

“The trial guardians might seem unreasonably powerful, but ultimately, they’re manifestations of the Laws. They lack essence, qi, and spirit, and they naturally lack the will to fight without regard for their own lives, the determination to fight on, and potential to excavate!”

As he refined the rain of light the defeated trial guardians had left behind, Su Yi silently sensed his changes. He could clearly discern that he’d unleashed yet more of his latent potential, and that his cultivation base had advanced!

Starting from the sixth floor, the trials had gotten difficult and perilous.

But at the same time, the rewards for passing were simply enormous.

Su Yi had gone from the first floor to the eighth in just four hours, but on every floor, his development and revelations were extraordinary.

He had an incomparably firm cultivation base, but he’d nonetheless gone from the early-stage Cloud Soaring Realm to the middle stage. He was already starting to show signs of a breakthrough into the late stage!

This rate of advancement was practically miraculous!

Had Su Yi simply cultivated assiduously in the outside world, he couldn’t possibly have done this.

Meanwhile, within the hall of the eighth floor, Xue Hongfeng’s heart shook.

An hour had passed, but Su Yi hadn’t returned. That unquestionably meant he’d passed the eighth trial!

That guy is every bit as perversely strong as the Divine Jade Pure Lands’ Wen Jue! But why haven’t I heard of a monster like him before?

Xue Hongfeng was completely stunned.

Suddenly, he thought back to when Su Yi suppressed him beneath a single palm strike.

He showed no sign of immortal power. He only used Laws on the level of the Path of Transcendence. Don’t tell me… he’s yet to become an immortal!?

Xue Hongfeng’s eyes widened, and his mind went blank. Does that mean someone yet to become an immortal defeated me with a single palm strike?

A long time passed before Xue Hongfeng finally calmed down, looked at the stalk of medicine Su Yi had given him, and muttered, “What an impressive guy!”

……

The hall on the ninth layer of the Cave of Trials.

Weng!

When Su Yi arrived, a rain of light appeared on the golden Dao stele, followed by a ranking:

Eighty-first!

This ranking was far beyond his prior score.

But from another angle, this proved that despite the passage of countless years, very, very few challengers had ever made it this far!

“Huh?” A surprised voice rang out.

He was a handsome young man in dark robes and a Daoist Crown. He had an extraordinary bearing.

It seemed he hadn’t expected that someone would arrive at the ninth-floor hall, and his eyes were wide with surprise.

Su Yi disregarded him, but after an inadvertent look around the room, he noticed a corpse seated in the corner!

It belonged to a man in jade-colored robes. His long hair hung loose, and his body was covered in blood. His life force had long since dried up, and his body was as stiff as wood.

“Please don’t misunderstand,” the young man in dark robes explained. “That’s the unrivaled top genius of the Divine Jade Pure Lands’ younger generation. His Dao Heart broke, leading to obsession and death.”

“Is that Wen Jue?” asked Su Yi.

The young man in dark robes nodded. “That’s right. Not long ago, he repeatedly attempted and failed the ninth trial. His heart burned with obsession, and in the end, he couldn’t escape this insidious catastrophe. He perished, and his Dao was destroyed.”

Su Yi laughed. “It seems you’re terrified I’ll misunderstand.”

There was no need to even question it. The young man in dark robes had to be Pu Heng of the Six Directions Daoist Temple.

“Anyone in my shoes would feel the same, especially since Wen Jue’s background isn’t simple. He was the most extraordinary rising star among the Divine Jade Pure Lands’ Universe Realm Immortals, and he was even higher in the Universe Realm Immortal Rankings than me. Now, he’s died in the Cave of Trials, and I just happened to be nearby. How could someone not suspect me?”

Pu Heng sighed deeply. A moment later, he laughed. “Fortunately, you’re here, Fellow Daoist. You can serve as my witness.”

Meanwhile, Su Yi walked up to Wen Jue and examined him intently.

Shortly after, he sighed. “It’s a pity.”

Pu Heng sighed too. “It really is a pity. When your heart shatters, no one can save you. That’s what makes the ninth trial so terrifying. It’s full of heavenly demon karmic flame, a strange and terrifying power. When it corrodes your heart, it’s like a heart devil, and it can easily lead you to obsession and destruction.”

Su Yi shook his head and looked at Pu Heng. “No, it’s a pity that he didn’t die of obsession.”

Pu Heng looked stunned. “What do you mean?”

Su Yi laughed. “Unless my eyes deceive me, while he might well have run into mental instability, what really destroyed his heart was a poison known as the Five-Colored Tribulation Demon Flower.”

He paused, then continued, “And if I’m not mistaken, you’re the one who poisoned him.”

Pu Heng’s expression shifted dramatically.

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