First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 545: Another Mountain’s Stones Can Be Used to Polish Jade

“However…” said Xuan Ning, his bitterness and helplessness vanishing from his face. A heartfelt smile took their place. “Now that we’ve been reunited, I feel it was all worth it!”

Of course he was happy!

Five hundred years ago, everyone in the Nine Provinces believed that the man whose blade suppressed the heavens, the sovereign of the Wilds, the Swordmaster of Abstruse Force, encountered an unexpected obstacle and fell in pursuit of the Grand Dao.

The world then descended into upheaval.

The various peak-level orthodoxies all got involved, and the distribution of land and power was reshuffled.

Even the followers and disciples of the Swordmaster of Abstruse Force turned on each other.

It was a time of bloodshed and upheaval.

It was also the most uncertain, depressing period of Xuan Ning’s life.

Now, seeing that his master was still alive, he felt as if light had returned to the darkness. It was easy to imagine his delight and excitement.

“Only you, you stubborn little turtle, would be reckless enough to come looking for me.” Su Yi sighed.

He had nine legacy disciples in total.

Of them, the Xuanwu, Xuan Ning, was unquestionably the most stubborn.

It was likely due to his stubborn temperament that Xuan Ning went so far as to spend hundreds of years wandering the Netherworld in search of his master’s whereabouts.?Despite knowing full well that hope was fleeting, he didn't hesitate.

Su Yi calmed himself, then wondered out loud, “When Cui Longxiang helped you, did he say anything?”

He felt that something was rather strange about all this.

Cui Longxiang, the Adjudicator of the Netherworld, was upright, proud, and aloof. Furthermore, he and Su Yi didn’t have a particularly close bond. Although they’d “discussed the Dao” on numerous occasions, the old man’s repeated losses left him feeling stifled and angry.

Yet Cui Longxiang helped Xuan Ning without reservation, even going so far as to use the Cui Family’s ancestral Tree of Ten Thousand Worlds. Su Yi couldn’t help but find this strange.

Xuan Ning’s eyes shone with confusion. “All Senior Cui said was that, should I ever find you, I was to ask this question on his behalf: does… 'does your conscience hurt?'”

“....” Su Yi frowned and sank into silent contemplation. After a while, he said, “It doesn’t seem like I’ve done anything to offend the Cui Family. When I was in the Netherworld, I never interacted with any other member of the Cui Family. What exactly… Did he?mean by that?”

Xuan Ning shook his head. “I don’t know either.”

Don’t tell me… Was Little Leaf involved??Su Yi fell silent. Throughout the entire Netherworld, he only felt guilt toward one person.

That was Little Leaf, Ye Yu.

She was one of the Nine Kings of the Netherworld, the first-ever empress of the Ghost Serpent Race.

A delicate figure resurfaced in his sea of consciousness. Her eyebrows were curved, and she wore a crown and crane robes. She held a lotus-shaped lantern circulating with clear light.

“Su Xuanjun, I’ll wait for you to come back. Even if it means I spend the rest of my life waiting, it won’t matter.”

That frail yet determined voice was like an unerasable imprint. When he recalled it, that trace of guilt within his heart silently spread.

Su Yi sighed, grabbed a wine gourd, and took a sip. “Little turtle, no need to bring up the past again. When the day comes that I return to the Wilds, I’ll be sure to settle things.”

Xuan Ning nodded. He could tell that his master was in low spirits.

“Your injuries are severe,” said Su Yi, changing the subject. “But they’re not incurable. Even if you’ve lost your body, I can help you rebuild it.”

He looked at Xuan Ning. Before his reincarnation, Xuan Ning was in the Profound Illumination Realm, the first of the Three Realms of the Profound Dao.

Yet now, his physical body was lost. Even most of his primordial spirit was gone, and the remaining wisp was severely damaged.

Xuan Ning had effectively lost his entire cultivation!

Simply repairing such wounds would be relatively easy, but returning his cultivation to its former peak would be harder than ascending the heavens!

Even at the pinnacle of his past life, it would have taken him an enormous amount of effort to restore Xuan Ning to his former glory.

But now…

Even if Su Yi knew how to help him, it was useless; even a clever housewife couldn’t cook without ingredients.

There was nothing for it; he was currently only in the Origin Palace Realm.

Furthermore, it would be far too difficult to find the divine materials needed to help an Emperor recover their cultivation on the Azure Continent.

However, Su Yi had other plans.

Xuan Ning grinned. “Master, I don’t covet my former glory. I’ll be satisfied so long as I can live and serve by your side.”

He naturally knew full well how difficult treating his wounds and recovering his former cultivation would be.

Su Yi laughed dryly. “If I had you serve me in your current condition, others would think me hopelessly inept.”

He paused, his gaze profound. “It’s true that in my current state, I cannot help you recover your former cultivation boundary, but I can choose a different path for you. Would you like to try it?”

Xuan Ning’s spirits soared. “Master, please instruct me.”

“You cannot create without first destroying. You must break before you build,” said Su Yi. “Give up on your former cultivation and cultivate again from the beginning.”

Xuan Ning’s eyes lit up, then dimmed. “Master, my body is already lost, and my primordial spirit is severely damaged. How could I cultivate?anew?”

“Do you remember your third senior apprentice brother’s origins?” asked Su Yi, his tone rife with meaning.

“Of course I remember,” said Xuan Ning. “Third Senior Apprentice Brother Huo Yao was sealed in a Demonic Womb prior to his birth. He was nourished in the origin of Xiantian Flames. You were the one who retrieved him and brought him back to the sect.”

Xuan Ning paused here, seemingly stunned, as if he’d understood something. “Master, do you intend for me to enter a Demonic Womb to cultivate anew?”

Su Yi nodded. “That’s right.”

Xuan Ning took a deep breath. “That is one way of doing it, but… To the best of my knowledge, refining a Demonic Womb is incomparably difficult…”

Only top powerhouses of the demonic path could refine Demonic Wombs, and the process was incomparably complex and difficult.

It required gathering Heavenly Demon Source Essence as the core of the womb, followed by a huge array of secret methods to seal it. The womb then needed to be nourished within the source of a given landscape.

That was the only way to nourish the life force and spirituality of the entity within the Demonic Womb. Only then could it grow and evolve.

Even in the Nine Provinces, Demonic Wombs were a rare and precious treasure!

Su Yi waved his sleeves, and a bronze box appeared out of thin air.

“There’s a Demonic Womb sealed within this box,” he said softly.

Back at Spiritbend City’s Spiritbend Assembly, Su Yi ruined the Deathbringer’s Gate’s plot and subdued the Demonic Womb.

However, the Demonic Womb was currently no use to him. Thus, after sealing it with an Edict, he casually tossed it into the Snow Beetle Jade Pendant.

As he spoke, Su Yi opened the bronze box. The Demonic Womb refined of Heavenly Demon Source Essence lay dormant beneath numerous layers of seals.”

Xuan Ning was stunned. He instinctively looked at the Demonic Womb. He could faintly discern a blurry, almost illusory spiritual body, but he couldn’t tell what it looked like at all.

Whatever it was, it seemed to sense Xuan Ning’s gaze. The Demonic Womb trembled violently, and the power of the seals covering it burst with radiant light. It flickered with strange and mysterious energy fluctuations.

“I don’t know the origins of the entity within the Demonic Womb,” said Su Yi. “But its aura is incomparably startling. If the seals weren’t suppressing its power, I’m afraid it would have broken through a long time ago. If my estimate is on the mark, it’s likely already in the Spirit Dao.”

Xuan Ning couldn’t hide his excitement. “Then do you intend for me to oust it and occupy its nest?”

“What are you talking about?” said Su Yi irritably. “That’s a wicked, unorthodox way of doing things. This is just using another mountain’s stones to polish our jade, that’s all.”

Xuan Ning instantly looked ashamed. “You’re absolutely right, Master.”

Su Yi thought for a moment, then said, “Although this Demonic Womb can help you build yourself a new body, this means you’ll have to cultivate again from the beginning. Are you willing?”

Using a Demonic Womb to restart your cultivation wasn’t quite the same as reincarnating, but it was rather similar.

The biggest difference was that with a Demonic Womb, there was no need to die before your rebirth.

Xuan Ning said staunchly, “Master, back then, you reigned supreme over the Wilds, yet you nonetheless chose to abandon your cultivation and began anew in pursuit of greater heights. My spirit cannot compare with yours, but I’m willing to imitate you in this regard. I’ll cultivate anew alongside you!”

He naturally knew what cultivating again from the beginning would mean.

It meant abandoning his former glory and cultivation and starting his pursuit of the Grand Dao from the very beginning. Not just any Imperial Realm expert could accept such a price.

“Alright. Once I’ve returned from Sumeru Immortal Island, I’ll help you begin!” Su Yi nodded.

Xuan Ning had searched for him for hundreds of years, losing his body and cultivation in the process. How could he not be moved?

He naturally had to do everything in his power to help Xuan Ning take the first steps down a new and greater path!

He put away the bronze box sealing the Demonic Womb, then pointed at the still-unconscious Ge Qian. “Don’t tell him about me.”

Xuan Ning hesitated, then said, “Master, earlier, I already decided to have Ge Qian come see you. He suspects that there’s a connection between you and the Xuanwu True Essence Sutra. How should I explain this to him?”

Su Yi found this rather funny. “Little turtle, you’re an Imperial Realm expert. Do you really need to ask me about something so trivial?”

Xuan Ning said sheepishly, “I don’t know why, but whenever I’m with you, it’s like I have no opinions of my own. All I want is to carry out your orders.”

When he heard this, Su Yi’s smile faded, and he was even more solemn than before. “You still don’t understand why I arranged for you to cultivate alongside Buddhist Master Inkstone Heart, do you?”

Xuan Ning fell briefly silent. “I vaguely deduced a little. Buddhist Master Inkstone Heart espoused the ideal ‘meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha. Meet the ancestors, kill the ancestors.’ You hoped his example would help me break free of my mental shackles and overcome my reverence for you.”

Su Yi’s expression mellowed significantly. “That’s right. Of my nine disciples, only you were reserved and reverent before me. You looked upon me as others might a god; it was as if your heart were shackled. If you don’t free yourself of this, you’ll live forever in my shadow, and every step you take in your pursuit of the Grand Dao will be arduous.”

He paused, then said, “You’ve now decided to cultivate anew. You ought to break through these mental shackles! Otherwise, won’t you just walk the same path as before?”

Xuan Ning’s heart shook, and his expression shifted?uncertainly.

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