First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 307: Ptarmigan Ridge, a Night of Contemplating the Dao

The last jade talisman recorded a deep secret about the Radiant Epoch.

In simple terms, numerous strange and perilous lands dotted the Azure Continent. These included the Great Zhou’s Eight Great Yao Mountains, the Great Wei’s Four Great Forbidden Grounds, the Great Qi’s Sea of Chaotic Spirits, and many others. All could be described as “strange” and “out of the ordinary.”

If you ventured deep into any of these places, you’d find extremely terrifying sealed power. Some were even connected to other worlds, while others involved the Azure Continent’s lost ancient knowledge and vanished orthodoxies.

For example, numerous ruined bastions of ancient knowledge were located deep within the Sea of Chaotic Spirits.

All such ruins were once presumably factions that dwelt within the Azure Continent, but when strange and terrifying changes came to the world, they were lost and buried in the flow of time.

Furthermore, that same terrifying change resulted in the Azure Continent’s spiritual energy becoming weak and sparse and its accumulated knowledge almost disappearing.

But ever since ancient times, numerous rumors of the “Radiant Epoch” had circulated throughout the continent.

Of them, the prophecy carved on a stone stele deep within Green Ivy Yao Mountain was the most famous.

It was the Sea-Swallowing King, Ge Changling, who discovered it. On it was written:

“The sealed power will one day break free of the earth.

“Everything that is shackled will one day escape its bonds.

“The grand events and bloodshed of days long gone will return even grander than before.

“Before the mists part, consider all unusual occurrences omens!”

……It was this prophecy that left Su Yi stunned. He recalled the spatial barrier he’d encountered deep within Bloodthistle Yao Mountain, as well as the otherworld cultivator he met on Treasure Temple Yao Mountain. The man called himself the Crimson Peng Monarch, and he hailed from the Incarnation of the Stars Sect, a faction of yao cultivators.

He then connected these observations with what Ning Sihua told him about Silverflame and Ten Thousand Poisons Yao Mountain, as well as various other rumors.

Su Yi instantly understood. The “sealed power” almost certainly referred to the body of knowledge lost to the ages, such as… the Prajna Meditation Garden!

They were a faction of Buddhist cultivators, and they’d placed the Burning Heaven Restricting Demon Formation to suppress the spatial barrier. Furthermore, it was highly likely that they’d once given rise to a white-robed monk mighty enough to ride a true dragon through the stars.

It was likely that long ago, numerous comparable orthodoxies existed on the Azure Continent.

“‘The sealed power will one day break free of the earth…..’ Perhaps this sentence means the lost legacies and orthodoxies of bygone days will reappear in this world.

“As for ‘everything that is shackled will one day escape its bonds’, that’s easy to understand. I can assume that’s referring to the shackled spiritual barriers. In their restricted state, they prevent the possibility of otherworld cultivators invading the Azure Continent en masse.”

When this occurred to him, Su Yi suddenly furrowed his brow.?Could the line about ‘the grand events and bloodshed of days long gone will return even grander than before’ mean that when ancient knowledge resurfaces, and when the restricted spatial barriers break, the Azure Continent will undergo a vast transformation once more?

Interesting!?

Su Yi was suddenly a bit eager.

Were the Azure Continent merely a spiritually-barren, mundane world, wouldn’t it be a bit too boring?

When the power of ancient knowledge reappeared, when otherworld cultivators swarmed into their world, what would become of the Azure Continent?

Might this be the Radiant Epoch the jade talisman spoke of?

“Before the mists part, consider all unusual occurrences omens….” This was the final line of the prophecy. As Su Yi mulled over its implications, he couldn’t help but laugh.

This sentence seemed rather similar to his own deductions.

Over the past few months, he’d encountered numerous unusual and interesting occurrences, and he’d personally sealed the spatial barriers hidden below Bloodthistle and Treasure Temple Yao Mountains.

Furthermore, he estimated that in three years at the earliest or five years at the latest, the power of the seal would run out. When the time came, otherworld cultivators were sure to cross over.

When that happened, all so-called “mists” were sure to part!

After a while, Su Yi set those thousands aside and returned the jade talismans to Monk Hongji. “Does the Ten Directions Pavilion know who left the stele with the talisman deep in Green Ivy Yao Mountain?”

Monk Hongji said, “I fear you’ll have to ask the Sea-Swallowing King, Ge Changling, if you want to know more. He was the first to discover the stele.”

Su Yi suddenly remembered. Back when he still lived in Guangling City, when he ventured into Mother Ghost Ridge, he ran off with several Pure Yang Fire Peaches. The tree they grew on had been claimed by Ge Changling.

“If I get the chance, I would actually rather like to meet him,” said Su Yi.

“That’s easily done. Ge Changling lives in seclusion on Mount?Heavencloud, about eighty miles away from the Jade Capital,” said the monk before immediately changing the subject. “Young Lord, how do you view the impending ‘Radiant Epoch?’”

Su Yi said calmly, “From my perspective, it’s absolutely wonderful news, but for the rest of this world’s cultivators, you could say that disaster and fortune will coincide. Although it’s called a Radiant Epoch, it will inevitably bring unrest and bloodshed. As for the precise nature of the spectacle to unfold… It’s still hard to say.”

Monk Hongji smiled. “Without any prior discussion, we reached the same conclusion. The Radiant Epoch will bring inestimable fortune, but it will also surely bring unforeseeable bloodshed and destruction. Alas, even now, no one has determined just when the curtains will open?on this?new era.”

Having said this, he sighed.

Su Yi pondered for a moment, then said, “So, the Ten Directions Pavilion wants to establish good karma with me, in part?as means?of preparing for the descent of the Radiant Epoch?”

The monk couldn’t help but sigh with admiration, straight from the heart. “Young Lord Su, your foresight is incredible indeed. I just don’t know if you’re willing to work with us?”

“We can give it a shot,” said Su Yi casually.

The monk instantly lit up with delight. “Now I can go back and report my success! Then I won’t disturb you any longer. Farewell!”

He then scurried off, seemingly in a big hurry.

“Wait.” Su Yi suddenly called out.

“Young Lord Su, is there anything else?” Monk Hongji turned around.

Su Yi thought for a moment, then said, “The information you offered me is rather useful. As a reward, I can tell you that in three years at the minimum, or in five years at most, the curtains will open on the great upset you call the Radiant Epoch.”

The monk drew in a cold breath, shock written all over his face.

Some time passed before he solemnly clasped his fist. “Young Lord Su, many thanks for your guidance!”

Su Yi waved him away. “Quick, go back.”

Monk Hongji didn’t linger. He just dashed off.

Su Yi, meanwhile, leaned into his chair and stared into the night sky, pondering the information he’d received tonight. After a while, he laughed to himself, “The Azure Continent… Really is getting more and more interesting…”

….

Morning the next day, the eleventh.

Su Yi ate breakfast in the Lanling Xiao Family’s estate, bade them farewell, and left.

Xiao Tianque, Zijin, and the others planned to send him off in a horse-drawn carriage, but Su Yi refused their offer.

While wandering outside civilization, he preferred to travel on foot.

Just as he had before, Su Yi set out on his own, venturing into the wilderness with only the moon and stars for company.

Everything he thought about along the way was related to his cultivation.

Although his battle with Li Changning, the Earthly Immortal of the Great Qin’s Profound Moon Temple, came with no particularly lethal threats, he still used the battle as an opportunity to comb through and refine his cultivation.

This was the advantage of combat.

Moreover, Su Yi knew that when pursuing the Dao of the Sword, combat was the best way to achieve breakthroughs in one’s swordsmanship!

Sitting alone in seclusion and meditating without tempering yourself in combat made you a tree without roots or a building without a midsection.

This was what it meant to be a sword cultivator.

Swords were weapons!

Combat was an inextricable component of pursuing the Dao of the Sword.

Alas, to the current Su Yi, finding opportunities to fight to his heart’s content wasn’t at all easy.

Because this was the world of the mundane, worthy foes were few and far between.

This was one of the reasons he was eager for the descent of the Radiant Epoch.

Two days later.

The middle of the night, Ptarmigan Ridge.

It was drizzling out, and the mountains were silent and still save for the occasional distant roar of wild beasts.

Qing Wan hugged her knees and squatted before a run-down temple. Her pretty but slightly spacey face was raised slightly, and her bright eyes stared into the deep darkness of the night sky as her mind wandered.

Su Yi was slumped back in his wicker chair and reclining by the fireside. However, his divine sense silently spread out, like a long, slender hand reaching into the mist and rain. It continued, spreading further into the darkness.

When he used divine sense to survey heaven and earth, what he saw and felt was starkly different.

The sound of the light drizzle and the wind, the rustling of leaves, and the song of insects were all extraordinarily clear. Even the shifting of energy and changes in the air—everything appeared within his mental sea.

Su Yi’s divine sense had captured everything around him, all facets of creation, down to the tiniest traces. He could now experience their vitality and charm firsthand.

This was the benefit of having divine sense; you could perceive subtle changes in your environment, including subtleties the body’s five senses couldn’t catch.

And as he immersed himself in his perceptions, Su Yi’s cultivation silently started circulating, like a gentle stream, reaching the tips of his extremities, entering his acupoints, and passing through his meridians. The energy gathered, growing from a tickle into a roiling current, and surged into his five major organs…

Time slipped by.

The daydreaming Qing Wan suddenly seemed to notice something. She turned her head to look at Su Yi.

She instantly saw three-colored spiritual Dao Light—red, green, and gold—suffusing the air around him. It was beautiful and resplendent, and so bright that the campfire seemed dull by comparison.

Gradually, the three-colored Dao Light extended, reaching into the night sky through the misty drizzle. A thousand feet, three thousand feet, five thousand feet…

In the end, Qing Wan couldn’t even tell just how far the light extended.

However, she could keenly sense an energy brewing and building up steam within Su Yi, as if eager to burst forth. In the end—

Whoosh!

A streak of black light shot out of Su Yi’s body, then rose into the sky like a cyclone.

“This…” To Qing Wan’s astonishment, she discovered that Su Yi’s cultivation had broken through. His aura grew like a bamboo shoot over a spring rain, rapidly soaring to new heights.

“The mystic master broke through just by lying there? Isn’t that a bit?too?amazing?” Qing Wan’s pink lips parted slightly, an irrepressible look of shock on her adorkable little face.

The night had only just ended, and the first light of dawn broke through the darkness.

The drizzle scattered the light of the heavens, illuminating everything below. In the sky, red, green, gold, and black lights shone and intermingled, the colors seemingly dancing in the sky.

The reclining Su Yi opened his eyes, a hint of a daze on his face.

Last night, he felt deeply moved. Only now did he realize that he’d spent the entire night in contemplation. Here, in this run-down temple, as drizzle poured down outside, he broke through and became a fourth-level Grandmaster!

It was unexpected, but miraculous beyond words!

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