First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 1774 - Seclusion

The woman dressed like a peasant was none other than Daoist Master Red Cloud!

The yellow mutt at her side was Xing Que.

Not long ago, they’d overcome grave peril to ascend from the Human Realm to the Immortal Realm. They’d come dangerously close to losing their lives in the spacetime windstorms along the way.

When they arrived, Daoist Master Red Cloud was so badly injured that she had to go into seclusion to tend her wounds. She’d only finished recovering recently.

She then led the dog, Xing Que, to the Little Spirit Province’s Bluewater Grotto.

When Su Yi left the Immortal Realm for the Domain Boundary Battlefield, he gave Daoist Master a Red Cloud a jade slip and instructions to visit Bluewater Grotto and see whether the Kunwu Divine Tree planted there still stood.

He also asked that she leave the jade slip he’d given her on the second-highest branch.

Along the way, Daoist Master Red Cloud had learned of Su Yi’s numerous accomplishments. Only now did she realize that after just three years apart, Su Yi was already strong enough to kill Immortal Kings!

It was like a miracle. On numerous occasions, she almost suspected the Su Yi famous in the Immortal Realm and the Su Yi she’d known in the Human Realm were two different people.

“Mistress, have you managed to make contact with the clan?” Xing Que suddenly asked.

“I haven’t. So much happened during the Age of Fallen Immortals, and the Immortal Realm is no longer the place we were once familiar with... How could it be so easy to find my clansmen?” Daoist Master Red Cloud sighed.

Her name was Ning Hongyun, and she hailed from the Southern Profound Ning Family.

Long ago, one of her ancestors, Ning Nanxuan, served as the seventh monarch of the Central Immortal Court!

But when the Age of Fallen Immortals arrived, the Southern Profound Ning Family split into two groups and left the Immortal Realm.

The first group braved grave peril to flee to the Immortal Realm.

The second sought a path to life in the River of Epochs.

Thus, after returning to the Immortal Realm, Daoist Master Red Cloud discovered that... it wasn’t the home she remembered, and it hadn’t been for a long time.

“Then let’s go find His Excellency!” said Xing Que, its eyes sparkling with excitement. “Even back in the Immortal Realm, I knew that Su Yi’s origins weren’t simple, but now, I finally understand. So, he was the Eternal Night Immortal Sovereign’s reincarnation!”

The dog’s voice was full of reverence.

Daoist Master Red Cloud froze, a bit dazed. There was a strange look in her eyes.

When she knew him in the Human Realm, she learned that Su Yi was the reincarnation of the Temple Master, and she suspected that before that, he’d been the Sword Fanatic, the leader of the Ten Great Immortal Lords of the Central Immortal Court.

Looking back on it now, she realized how ridiculously far off she’d been. Su Yi was really the reincarnation of the man who’d once stood atop the Immortal Realm, the Eternal Night Immortal Sovereign!

A Sovereign of the Dao of the Sword unparalleled in his era!

Daoist Master Red Cloud took a moment to steady herself, then said, “Once we’ve completed our mission in Bluewater Grotto, we can visit Fellow Daoist Su.”

“Okay!” Xing Que said eagerly.

......

The ruins of the Palace of Eternal Night, the Underground Palace of Seeking the Profound.

Su Yi had brought Qi Fufeng back with him, while the Zhuyou Great Peng had already begun its return trip to the Buzhou Mountains’ Divine Fulcrum Pure Lands.

That night.

Immortal Queen Liu Yun, Fang Yourong, and Fang Han held a banquet to welcome Su Yi back from his journey.

At the banquet, Su Yi said to Qi Fufeng, “The days ahead will not be peaceful, and the factions hostile to me will only attack with greater frequency. You’d best stay here and go into seclusion.”

Qi Fufeng solemnly nodded. “Very well!”

“Sovereign, is the Immortal Realm going to descend into chaos?” Liu Yun couldn’t help but ask.

Su Yi mulled it over, then said, “The storm is hard to predict, but enormous changes are inevitable. I’ll need to spend some time in seclusion too.”

In the Buzhou Mountains, Su Yi stopped the Church of All Spirits from ushering Divine Son Lu Feng into the Immortal Realm.

And when he visited the Church of the Exquisite Goddess, he ruined their plans to usher in a divine son, too.

When the leaves fell, he knew that autumn was coming. By the same token, Su Yi dared say with certainty that such incidents would only become all the more common in the days ahead!

Simply put, the gods would arrange for more and more divine sons to enter the Immortal Realm.

This was sure to result in enormous changes, but it was hard to predict the extent of the resulting waves. After all, nothing like this had ever happened in the Immortal Realm before.

That aside, of late, he’d fought across the Immortal Realm, killing too many Immortal Kings to count. He already stood where the wind and waves were fiercest. The factions hostile to him had undoubtedly set their sights on him already.

Why had those six hostile factions declared war?

Simple! It was because they sensed a threat! I

In the days ahead, attempts to target him would only increase!

Su Yi had never been afraid of trouble. However, he knew that in times of turmoil, even if he didn’t go looking for trouble, trouble would come looking for him!

He went into seclusion that very day.

......

The Spring and Autumn Space.

A space born amidst the void. A chaotic aura permeated the air, and the space was full of interweaving, colorful powers of the Laws.

Here, time seemed to stand still.

It had been a year since his last visit. Now, Su Yi had returned to this miniature world full of chaotic energy.

“Spring and Autumn” referred to the alternation of the seasons, the passage of time.

Inside, time moved at a different rate than in the outside world. For every year that passed inside, only one day passed in the outside world.

You could stay for at most sixty years before you had to leave. That corresponded to just sixty days outside.

Wang Ye had discovered a wave manifested of temporal power while exploring the River of Spacetime. He found this wondrous chaos space inside.

Thus, he used an unparalleled divine ability to seal the chaos space off and bring it back to the Immortal Realm. He hid it in the Underground Palace of Seeking the Profound.

Last time, Su Yi went into seclusion as a Universe Realm Immortal, and he stayed for just ten years before leaving.

Now, he’d returned. Unlike last time, he was already an early-stage Immortal Lord, and he was just one step away from breaking into the mid-stage Saint Realm!

“This time, I’ll spend a full sixty-year cycle in here. Let’s see how far secluded meditation can advance my cultivation.”

Su Yi sat down and crossed his legs. The chaos energy permeating the Spring and Autumn Space enveloped him, and his figure flitted in and out of view.

Sixty years here represented just six days in the outside world.

Before long, Su Yi cast his scattered thoughts aside, calmed his heart, and started cultivating.

His essence, qi, and spirit circulated throughout his body, and within his Immortal Origin Space, the power of the Grand Dao rumbled and boomed, and the seedling of the Tree of All Worlds swayed.

Su Yi had never worried about his cultivation. If he wanted to break through, he could have smoothly reached the peak of the Great Realm by now, but he’d chosen not to.

The crux of the matter was that he understood the importance of establishing firm foundations at every step of his pursuit of the Dao of the Sword. He wasn’t after speed. No, he wanted to surpass his past selves and strive for greater heights!

......

Half a year later, Su Yi’s cultivation base broke into the mid-stage Saint Realm with ease, as naturally as water overflowing the brim of a cup.

Just half a day had passed in the outside world.

Three years later, Su Yi reached the pinnacle of the mid-stage Saint Realm. One more step, and he could break into the late stage.

But Su Yi didn’t push it. Instead, he started contemplating his Saint Realm Laws and combing through his attainments in the Dao of the Sword.

That aside, the Divine Replenishment Furnace used these three years to refine all of the trophies Su Yi had accumulated. The medicinal ingredients became immortal pills, while the divine materials were refined for other purposes.

During these three years, the Divine Replenishment’s quality transformed once more. It was no longer at all inferior to the greatest of Immortal King treasures.

......

Ten years later, Su Yi smoothly broke into the late-stage Saint Realm.

That aside, he reforged the Sword of the Human Realm. The sharpness of its edge was now completely reserved, and its blade had gone from blue-gray to plain, unadorned black, like the serene darkness of the night sky.

It was at least fifty percent stronger than before!

Su Yi was particularly gratified that over the past decade, the Divine Replenishment Furnace had refined such an abundance of pills to repair the soul that the all-but-depleted Combat Soul Puppet, Lei Ze, had finally recovered some of his source power.

Lei Ze still hadn’t regained his memories, but Su Yi was confident that at this rate, Lei Ze would slowly but surely return to his former peak!

After ten years of bitter cultivation, the nourishment of the Grand Dao of Profound Ruin had helped the Tree of All Worlds grow, and it was starting to resemble a sapling. Its branches were jade-green, and it billowed chaos energy.

This was Su Yi’s tenth year in seclusion, but just ten days had passed in the outside world.

...

Late at night, the Little Spirit Province.

Daoist Master Red Cloud and the dog, Xing Que, walked through a stretch of ruins.

This was Bluewater Grotto!

But this blessed ground had met with disaster during the Age of Fallen Immortals; it had long since been reduced to scorching earth.

Nowadays, people seldom visited.

Xing Que couldn’t help but say, “Mistress, we’ve been searching all day and night, and we’ve practically dug the whole place up. It’s obvious that the Kunwu Divine Tree died during the cataclysm.”

Daoist Master Red Cloud pondered in silence.

Suddenly, she recalled the jade slip Su Yi had given her. It contained nothing but a mystical diagram consisting entirely of strange and intricate Dao Markings. Earlier, Daoist Master Red Cloud tried to sense its mysteries, but she learned nothing at all.

She’d just decided to try again. If she really couldn’t cut it, she could just give up this expedition and leave.

Hm?

When she inserted her divine sense into the diagram, a strange, inexplicable sensation arose in her heart, as if she’d sensed something.

Moments later, something unbelievable happened.

The mysterious diagram lit up!

At the same time, Daoist Master Red Cloud clearly sensed a grand and mystical power arise throughout the ruins, producing a strange resonance with the diagram in the jade slip!

“What’s that?” Xing Que exclaimed. A bundle of dreamlike, misty light suddenly surged out of the distant ruins shrouded in darkness, then silently condensed into a portal!

“I just knew the jade slip Fellow Daoist Su gave me wasn’t simple.” Daoist Master Red Cloud’s spirits soared. “Come on, let’s have a look. If it’s as I suspect, the Kunwu Divine Tree is hidden beyond that doorway!”

She then led Xing Que through the illusory portal.

Whoosh!

As soon as they passed through it, it transformed back into mist and dissipated, like waters receding at a low tide.

The night sky was as dark as ink, and the ruins were utterly desolate.

It was as if nothing had happened at all.