First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 901 - The Netherworld Crow Reappears

But Lu Changming didn’t get angry.

He was well aware that the young man in blue had shocking origins. Otherwise, Mo Wuhen wouldn’t have gone so far as to strip a Profound Serenity Emperor like Lu Changming of his position on Su Yi’s account!

Lu Changming smiled. “This might well be fate. Young Lord Su, are you here in Snowy Skies City to investigate what happened in the Dark Capital too?”

Su Yi nodded, then started to walk off. He didn’t have a good impression of Lu Changming.

“Please, wait up.” Lu Changming couldn’t help but call out.

“Do you have business with me?” Su Yi didn’t so much as turn to look at him.

Lu Changming took a deep breath and said, “Young Lord Su, you perhaps don’t know this yet, but shortly after you left Naihe Ridge, one of our Emissaries of the River, Mo Wuhen, lost his temper…”

He then explained how the grand and third libationers had been punished, as well as how he’d been stripped of his position as high elder.

Su Yi couldn’t help but be surprised.

He knew that Mo Wuhen was Yun Ziying’s junior apprentice brother, and that he’d once been the leader of Meng Po Palace.

However, he wouldn’t have guessed that Mo Wuhen would go so far on his account. He’d even punished a Profound Serenity Emperor like Lu Changming.

But then, it makes sense. When I underwent trials in the Divine Cave of the River of Forgetfulness, the Netherworld Abyssal said that Mo Wuhen was in seclusion deep within the cave. It seems he must have guessed who I am…

Lu Changming let out a deep sigh. “Young Lord Su, we were in the wrong the last time we met, but we’ve already been punished for it. I hope you won’t nurse a grudge over that incident.”

Su Yi laughed dryly. “You’re overthinking this; I’m above clinging to something so trivial.”

Lu Changming visibly relaxed, then smiled. “Let a smile erase old grudges and enmities. Young lord, if you aren’t opposed, I’d love to travel to the City of the Wrongfully Dead alongside you tomorrow.”

He paused, then said, “Young lord, you needn’t worry. The Emperors of Meng Po Palace, Yellow Springs Palace, and Fire Illumination Divine Palace have already joined forces. Our alliance should be enough to overcome whatever perils lie in the City of the Wrongfully Dead. If you wanted to come with us, we could look out for each other.”

Su Yi was stunned; he hadn’t expected this.

As if afraid Su Yi would understand, Lu Changming said seriously, “Young lord, you’re someone Emissary Mo Wuhen attaches great importance to you. I swear that I have no ulterior motives in making this offer.”

Su Yi shook his head. “No need.”

Lu Changming couldn’t help but mock himself. How could he fail to realize that no matter how hard he tried to express his goodwill, the young man of mysterious origins wasn’t taking his good intentions to heart?

“I urge you against going to the City of the Wrongfully Dead,” Su Yi said suddenly. “The so-called ‘sudden development’ in the Dark Capital is, in fact, nothing but a trap the Mysterious Netherworld Divine Court set.”

Lu Changming was briefly stunned. Then, his pupils constricted.

A trap!?

He suddenly recalled Second Libationer Xiao Beiye, who’d traveled here alongside him and Yuan Linning, only to disappear in Snowy Skies City. He already suspected the Netherworld Divine Court’s involvement.

“Is that true, Young Lord Su?” Lu Changming couldn’t help but ask.

“Believe me or don’t. It’s entirely up to you,” said Su Yi. With that, he and You Xue walked off.

Lu Changming opened his mouth as if to say something, but in the end, he held back. At the end of the day, there was no real bond between him and Su Yi. They’d even come into conflict once.

It didn’t matter how many questions he had; he couldn’t bring himself to ask them.

……

Meanwhile, beneath the same night sky.

Three hundred miles east of Snowy Skies City, a stretch of wilderness near Inverted Ridge.

The monk the Night Watchman called Malevolent Release, the grand libationer of the Mysterious Netherworld Divine Court, sat on the ground holding prayer beads made of black bone. He looked calm and serene.

But then, a still-bleeding severed head flew toward him from afar.

The old monk’s turbid eyes blazed with terrifying light as he reached out and grabbed it.

The bloody head landed in his hand. Its face was thin, and each of its hollow eye sockets was inhabited by toads the size of broad beans. One was white, the other black.

“My lord, the Night Watchman said that from this day forth, any member of the Mysterious Netherworld Divine Court who steps foot in Snowy Skies City will be reduced to ash.”

The severed head of the thin-faced old man spoke, his voice starting and stopping.

Before his voice finished echoing through the air, the head silently cracked, then crumbled into dust in the elderly monk’s hand.

The old monk in black sank into silence, his expression shifting and uncertain.

“Didn’t he change his attitude a bit too decisively…?” murmured the old monk. Earlier that day, when he visited the Night Watchman at his workshop, the taciturn middle-aged man hadn’t expressed any such intentions.

Yet now, after the monk sent his attendant to “invite” that young man and woman to see him, this had happened! The monk would never have anticipated this result.

“One of those two is the Night Watchman’s old friend, and tonight, the Night Watchman went and killed my old attendant. I’m sure his sudden change in attitude is somehow connected to those two.” The old monk in black recalled the young man in blue and young woman in white he’d met at dusk, and he couldn’t help but furrow his brow.

“Don’t tell me their arrival means that the Night Watchman no longer fears our threats? I have to report this to the Esteemed Black Crow right away.”

The monk flipped over his palm, and a strange, feather-shaped bone talisman floated into the air. He started muttering, and…

Kccch!

The strange bone talisman suddenly shone with dazzling divine flames.

The divine flames interwove, outlining a foot-tall crow. Its feathers were as dark and serene as the night itself, and its eyes were as red as blood.

This was the Nine Serenities Netherworld Crow!

However, this was obviously just a portion of its will, as its figure was illusory and intangible.

The old monk in black clasped his palms together and inclined his head. “Greetings, Esteemed Black Crow.”

“Malevolent Release, don’t tell me something went wrong when you visited the Night Watchman?” said the Nine Serenities Netherworld Crow, its voice low and dignified.

The old monk then explained everything that happened.

After hearing the full story, the crow’s blood-red eyes shone with sharp light. “That old bastard of a Night Watchman insists on doing this the hard way! Does he really think we can’t free the Netherworld King from confinement without him?”

“Your Excellency, it seems to me that the Night Watchman’s change in attitude was connected to that young man and woman I met earlier,” the old monk said in a low voice.

“Do you know their origins?” asked the Nine Serenities Netherworld Crow.

The monk shook his head.

The crow said with obvious displeasure, “Then what do you know?”

The monk stiffened. “I remember what they looked like. Please, have a look.”

As he spoke, his fingers interwove, and he formed an inscrutable seal.

Weng!

A rain of light drifted down, outlining a scene in the air: Su Yi and You Xue standing in front of the smithy.

When it saw this scene clearly, the Nine Serenities Netherworld Crow couldn’t help but be stunned, and its blood-red eyes widened.

The elderly monk in black was lowering his head, so he didn’t notice. He simply continued, “Your Excellency, I suspect that young woman is an extremely terrifying existence. Although she hid her presence, the majestic air revealed in her every gesture is extraordinary; it obviously far surpasses even typical Emperors.”

A long silence followed this declaration.

The monk couldn’t help but be confused, and he instinctively looked up, only to see the Nine Serenities Netherworld Crow staring intently at the young man in blue. The look in its red eyes shifted erratically.

“Your Excellency?” the monk said softly.

The Nine Serenities Netherworld Crow reacted as if awakening from a dream, and it gnashed its beak hatefully. “I know who that guy is!!”

Its voice was full of unconcealed hatred.

The old monk in black couldn’t help but be surprised. “You recognize that young man in blue, Your Excellency?”

The Nine Serenities Netherworld Crow said coldly, “Although I don’t know the boy’s name, I know he’s from the ancient Cui Family, and his origins are suspicious. He was the one who ruined my plans during the Lantern Festival. We failed at the last stage of operations, and all of our work went to waste, all because of him!”

The monk couldn’t help but gasp.

The Nine Serenities Netherworld Crow had led a massive army to Ziluo City, joining forces with several ancient factions. The monk naturally knew all about that.

He even knew that the crow had traveled alongside several terrifying existences, including a Dark Vassal, but that its forces had been entirely wiped out. Even the crow itself only narrowly escaped death.

“Your Excellency, don’t tell me that boy… is the Swordmaster of Abstruse Force!?” the old monk exclaimed in astonishment.

The mere mention of the Swordmaster of Abstruse Force made him break out in cold sweats, and his heart shook.

The Nine Serenities Netherworld Crow snorted coldly. “That pipsqueak merely borrowed the power Old Monster Su left with the Cui Family back then. Without it, he’s nothing but a Spirit Dao cultivator, and he’s not even worth looking at.”

The monk felt a massive weight lift from his shoulders. He said softly, “I’m just glad it isn’t him. I’m just glad…”

“What’s there to be afraid of? When the Netherworld King escapes confinement, it won’t matter even if Old Monster Su is reborn. There’ll be no need to fear him whatsoever!” the Nine Serenities Netherworld Crow said with pride.

The old monk in black nodded.

“But the boy’s status in the Cui Family is extremely mysterious. I sent people to Ziluo City to investigate, but none of them discovered anything. Furthermore, the spirit of the Cui Family’s Tree of Ten Thousand Daos once left the city with him. This unquestionably implies that, whoever he is, his position in the Cui Family isn’t simple.”

The Nine Serenities Netherworld Crow’s eyes flashed. “And now, he’s gone to see the Night Watchman. Don’t tell me he plans to enter the City of the Wrongfully Dead?”

Here, the crow suddenly recalled his first meeting with the young man in blue, in which he brought up several incidents that happened in the City of the Wrongfully Dead:

“There are over a hundred forbidden grounds in the City of the Wrongfully Dead. Of them, nine are more perilous than the others. These nine danger zones include Calamity Ridge and the Great Chaos Ruins. Unless I’m mistaken, you’ve got to be from one of the two.”

“Do you know how the City of the Wrongfully Dead’s Divine Monarch Bloodmoon died? Or who imprisoned the White Bone Emperor after he fell from grace? Or how that Heavenspan Yao Vine occupied the ‘Little Necropolis’?”

….. As he recalled what the young man in blue said to him back then, the crow realized that he was most likely in the Snowy Skies City because he planned to visit the City of the Wrongfully Dead!

The Nine Serenities Netherworld Crow sank into thought. If I figure out who killed Divine Monarch Bloodmoon, who imprisoned the White Bone Emperor, and how the Heavenspan Yao Vine came to occupy the Little Necropolis, will I be able to guess who that kid is?”

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