First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 302: I Have a Sword to Sever Melancholy

Why could Earthly Immortals borrow the force of heaven and earth?

The crux of the matter was their divine sense!

With divine?sense, they could sense the distribution of the?origin?energy of heaven and earth, then use their own cultivation to guide it and unleash secret arts. In this way, they could borrow the power of their surroundings toward their own ends!

This was the difference between a mortal martial artist and a cultivator!

Although Su Yi looked down on such gimmicks, his expression showed hints of seriousness.

Whoosh~!

He stretched out his body.

Instantly, a rumbling emerged from his body’s inner furnaces, and his flesh lit up. The charm of the Dao circulated within his crystalline radiance.

His surging true essence left his body, suppressing and dispersing the flow of air within several hundred square feet. His sweeping divine sense spread outward, and he calmly sensed every change in the forces of heaven and earth.

After his cultivation broke through and he became a third-level Grandmaster, Su Yi’s divine sense could cover a six-hundred-foot radius. Furthermore, it was focused, clear, and incomparably durable.

Its quality was enough to make even Origin Dao cultivators too ashamed to show their faces.

This was due to the tempering of the Universal Self-Embodiment Sutra!

Even if Li Changning were far more capable, he likely never could have anticipated that a teenage, mortal Grandmaster like Su Yi had divine sense, something typically unique to Origin Dao cultivators!

And it was for this very reason that Su Yi dared face an Earthly Immoral without fear!

“Go!” Li Changning controlled his surroundings, using divine sense to activate Return to Origin. It slashed through the air.

Boom!

The accumulated power of heaven and earth surged forth, as if it had found an outlet. Return to Origin slashed downward, forming an explosive current of sword qi that hurtled toward Su Yi.

The sword qi current was so vast and imposing, it far surpassed the onlookers’ imagination.

It mixed and stirred the air, forming countless gales. Wherever the sword qi passed, it left massive, hundred-foot rifts in its wake, a startling sight.

It was just one slash, but its raw power seemed intent on tearing open the skies!

When they saw this, everyone’s scalps went numb, and their eyes widened.

“Good!” When Su Yi saw this, he jumped, both hands empty, and casually threw a punch.

In an instant, vast, seemingly limitless true essence surged out of his body like mad. Endless golden light illuminated the skies; he practically transformed into a glowing comet as he punched the vast current of sword qi.

Rumble!

The skies collapsed and the ground split before their very eyes. Su Yi’s fist force only lasted a few breaths of time, but it shattered the current of sword qi into fragments.

Then, he was flung back. He retreated several hundred feet back before managing to stabilize himself. Only then did he stop the current of sword qi.

His blood and qi flowed in reverse, and he looked somewhat bedraggled. Furthermore, as he flew back, he left a massive rift in the sky behind him.

The power of a single flash tore a thousand-foot scar in the earth!

This was the first time Su Yi had been forced back since the start of the battle.

“Martial Uncle’s strike is too miraculous for words!” exclaimed You Xinglin. He could no longer suppress his mad glee.

“This is the true power of an Earthly Immortal! Men such as myself bitterly strive for greater heights of the Martial Dao. Why, if not to one day wield such power ourselves and transcend the limits of mortal flesh?” Shi Lanshan’s heart surged with irrepressible emotion.

But against all expectations, once Su Yi stabilized himself, he said calmly, “It’s no use. Your divine sense is weak, and you used a secret technique that damages your own cultivation to forcefully borrow the power of heaven and earth. As time passes, you’ll only inevitably hurt yourself.”

Having said this, Su Yi shook his head. “Besides, your methods of manipulating natural origin energy are overly coarse. You’re wasting all that power.”

When true Origin Dao cultivators fought, the key to victory lay in their respective cultivations, Daoist magics, magic treasures, and combat methods.

Although everyone could manipulate the?origin?energy of heaven and earth, all Origin Dao cultivators knew that there were far too many disadvantages in doing so. First, it was slow. Second, the power was too scattered. Third, it accelerated the expenditure of one's cultivation base. Fourth, at the end of the day, it was just “borrowed” power. When you manipulated the power of heaven and earth, it was extremely easy to suffer a backlash.

In battles between true cultivators, these flaws were all taboo.

Even if the power Li Changning was controlling were stronger, if this continued, Su Yi wouldn’t even need to intervene. He’d burn through his own energy and sink into a weakened state.

Li Changning was obviously well aware of this too, so he wasted no words. He seized every available moment to attack.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

He called down one lightning bolt after another. The electricity wrapped around Return to Origin and burst toward Su Yi.

It was a display of power reminiscent of the wrath of a deity. Any one of those lightning bolts could have obliterated a Xiantian Martial Ancestor.

But viewed through the lens of Su Yi’s defense, although these lightning bolts each carried shocking destructive power, they were scattered and disorderly, with no precision to speak of.

He leaped, then darted ahead, finding the weak points in the relentless onslaught. When there was no escape, he punched his way through. Although he was forced back several times, he suffered no damage.

Watching from a distance, Li Changning was like a deity manipulating the power of the heavens. He controlled the ambient origin energy, and his sword qi surged like a current. The force and momentum were shocking, but alas… It couldn’t hit its target.

In stark contrast, even in the face of those terrifying attacks, Su Yi drew relentlessly closer to Li Changning. It was as if he were dancing on the edge of a knife. It was perilous to the extreme, yet despite countless close calls, he always managed to dodge just in time.

Countless stunned cries rang out amongst the onlookers.

But before long, Su Yi started to get a bit bored.

“If that’s all you’ve got, we can decide a victor now,” he said flatly.

Li Changning was briefly stunned.

Clang!

The low, clear hum of a sword rang out, and a spiritual sword as dark and serene as the night sky appeared in Su Yi’s hand. The faint image of a vicious bird beating its wings appeared on the blade, lending the sword an additional layer of ferocity.

The Abstruse God Sword!

When the sword appeared, Su Yi’s aura suddenly changed, becoming sharper, like an edge piercing the dome of the heavens. His eyes became as cold as snow and as tranquil as the bottom of a well.

He hadn’t drawn his sword since the start of the battle. Who here could possibly have known that in his past life, it was his attainments in the Dao of the Sword that shook the world? He reigned supreme over the Nine Provinces of the Wilds thanks to his sword!

Back then, everyone called him the Swordmaster?of Abstruse?Force.

Su Yi had always seen himself as a sword cultivator pursuing ever greater heights of the Grand Dao!

“I, too, pursue the Dao of the Sword. Li Changning, dare you bear witness to my sword?” Su Yi’s eyes flashed like cold lightning, unruly and unrestrained, like a fallen immortal looking down on the world.

“Why wouldn’t I dare?” Li Changning laughed coldly, then took a deep breath. Return to Origin suddenly paused in midair.

Boom!

Countless three-foot-long streaks of sword qi appeared in the air, continuously absorbing the ambient power of heaven and earth. In an instant, there were a full eight hundred of them.

All eight hundred swords shot into the sky, dispersing to form a massive sword formation.

Li Changning shouted, “With this sword formation, I can direct the power of heaven and earth and use qi to guide my sword. I call it the ‘Eight Hundred Swords Formation!’ Tell me, Fellow Daoist, is it worthy of your notice?”

He had now, in one fell swoop, condensed eight hundred streaks of sword qi and manipulated the origin power of heaven and earth to form a formation. This level of expenditure left him gasping for breath. His chest heaved, and mist rose from his hair as his sweat evaporated.

“That’s borrowed power. You needn’t embarrass yourself any further.” Su Yi laughed dryly, flicked his sword, and stepped into the air.

“Go!” The sword formation formed of eight hundred streaks of sword qi hummed, then shot towards Su Yi like a raging storm.

Everyone’s expressions changed.

Any one of those eight hundred streaks of sword qi could effortlessly slay a Xiantian Martial Ancestor. They carried the vast, sweeping power of the origin energy of heaven and earth, and all eight hundred fired at once. The sharp?sword qi pierced?so many holes that heaven and earth looked like a beehive. Everywhere you looked, the air was full of sharp, cold light.

From a distance, the eight hundred streaks seemed to form an army that bore down on heaven and earth.

Power of that level was terrifying beyond limit!

In the face of an attack of that level—

Su Yi’s eyes flashed with sharp light, and without any hesitation, he leaped into the air and slashed with his sword.

Whoosh!

A ten-thousand-foot streak of golden sword qi shot forth. Boundless, murderous sword force burst around it.

It gave those who saw it the impression that, once unleashed, it could cut the heavens, cut the earth, and even cut the emotional blockages of the heart!

This was a sword force that looked down on all of creation, a valiant spirit that suppressed heaven and earth and cut through everything in its path.

One slash to divide life and death. One slash to several all grievances!

This slash was called “Severing Melancholy”.

This was the last of the Rejoicing Sword Sutra’s six great stances.

The name came from the phrase, “I have a sword to sever melancholy, rejoicing with every breath”.

And when this sword cut through the air—

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The space around it boiled, and the origin energy wrapped into the eight hundred streaks of incoming sword qi suddenly scattered and fell apart, as if they were no longer under control.

At the same time, Li Changning grunted in pain, and his expression filled with undisguised shock.

Su Yi’s sword had actually instantly severed the link between his divine sense and the origin energy of heaven and earth. As a result, he lost his connection to the power he was manipulating!

Afterward, amidst a heaven-and-earth-shaking boom, he saw Su Yi cut through that vast, sweeping attack of eight hundred streaks of sword qi as easily as if they were made of glass.

Bang bang bang bang!

A dense series of explosions rang out as the sword qi burst apart, like eight hundred fireworks exploding in midair. The sight was bright and dazzling to the extreme.

The Eight Hundred Sword Formation was, in Su Yi’s eyes, no different from a clay chicken or porcelain dog; it couldn’t withstand even a single attack!

When Su Yi’s sword hit the ground, the result was like an earthquake. A massive chasm, fully a thousand feet long, formed in the earth. It was as straight as if he’d drawn it with a ruler. Even after it fell, a destructive aura lingered around it.

Throughout the venue, everyone was too stunned to speak. Even the likes of You Xinglin and Shi Lanshan were rooted to the spot, completely dazed.

That sword….

How terrifying!

Even though they were only watching from a distance, they felt as if it cleaved straight into their hearts, shattering their emotional blockages. All of their terror, despair, and bewilderment surged out like a landslide or tidal wave.

Clang!

Clouds of dust filled the air. Amidst the commotion, Su Yi asked calmly, “Li Changning, what did you think of my sword?”

Li Changning stood off in the distance, but he said nothing. His hair was in disarray, his clothes were in tatters, his face was pallid and transparent, and his energy was rapidly dissipating, like a receding tide, weaker with each passing moment…

He instantly seemed to have aged many years.

Some time passed before he turned and, with much difficulty, looked up at Su Yi and said in a raspy voice, “I’ve cultivated the sword for forty-nine years. When I became an Earthly Immortal, I contemplated the flying serpent sword intent, and learned how to manipulate the force of heaven and earth. I thought that I could contend with anyone of my generation, and that I was a towering figure among those of my cultivation, or even those of higher cultivations. Who’d have thought that today, your sword would become my death knell….?”

Li Changning let out a long sigh, his expression a complicated mixture of admiration, unwillingness, and bitterness. “You’ve killed me, as well as my pride. No matter how unwilling I might be, I cannot help but admire a sword of such power.”

His desolate voice still echoed through heaven and earth as the last of his life force silently left his gaunt frame. In the end, he toppled backward, fell from the air, and plummeted down to earth.

An Earthly Immortal from the Great Qin’s Profound Moon Temple had fallen in battle!

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