First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 2654 – The Source Dries Up, and the Red Pine Descends

Xiao Jian said, “A strange power is sealing its true body. No one can tell how strong it really is, but I can sense that it’s dangerous for you.”

The black sheep just stood there in silence.

“She’s from the River of Destiny. Old Lord Gouchen turned her into a sheep.”

“Old Lord Gouchen?” Xiao Jian’s gaze shifted. “I’ve heard of the old-timer. They say he likes herding both stars and sheep. He’s one of the Four Heavenly Ministers, and they say he’s quite the eccentric.”

Su Yi said thoughtfully, “So, you know about him, too.”

That’s right. He mentioned Old Lord Gouchen to probe Xiao Jian. The results proved that Xiao Jian knew far more than Su Yi had anticipated!

Xiao Jian laughed. “I know far more than you imagine. It’s not because I’m particularly impressive, though. I just spent far, far too long at the far end of the Path of the Ancient Gods, and met far too many old-timers from long-destroyed worlds.

“I also read a lot of books. Every book I read expanded my horizons.”

With that, he pointed into the distance. “Come on, let’s find a place to share a drink. We won’t get another chance after the Battle for Order begins.”

“Alright.” Su Yi nodded.

……

A stone table stood in a mountainside cave. Two cups and a jug of wine rested atop it.

Su Yi and Xiao Jian sat across from each other, while the black sheep stood outside. She tried to eavesdrop, but she couldn’t hear a word.

The invisible power emanating from Xiao Jian sealed the cave off completely. It might have seemed like they were close to the sheep, but in truth, they effectively stood in separate worlds.

The jug of wine was soon empty, but Xiao Jian immediately took out another.

The two of them drank and conversed as time slipped away. The black sheep watched as the pile of empty wine jugs grew higher and higher.

Su Yi and Xiao Jian showed no sign of stopping their conversation, but the sheep couldn’t tell what they were talking about just by looking at them.

In the end, she just sat there and paid them no further heed.

In truth, Su Yi and Xiao Jian weren’t talking about anything important. They were practically touching on everything under the sun, from their understanding of the Grand Dao, to their experiences when cultivating, and their view of worldly affairs.

A lot of it was vague and superficial, but Su Yi had to admit that Xiao Jian’s experience and breadth of knowledge was extraordinary. It almost felt as if he knew everything that had ever happened anywhere in history!

It wasn’t just his understanding of cultivation. His knowledge encompassed a huge array of subjects.

Finally, after they clinked yet another glass of wine, Su Yi couldn’t help but ask, “How do you know so much?”

“I read,” said Xiao Jian. “I’m a scholar. When I was little, my greatest desire was to become a schoolteacher, not some bullshit sword cultivator.”

He sighed. “It was only because of what happened to my older sister that I started practicing my swordsmanship.”

“Your big sister?” Su Yi asked curiously.

Xiao Jian shook his head. “Let’s talk about something else.”

Su Yi didn’t push. “And you’re still in the habit of reading, even now?”

Xiao Jian nodded. “That’s right. It’s only when I read that I can forget about practicing the sword, and only when I practice the sword that I can forget about reading.”

Su Yi mulled that over briefly, then nodded approvingly. “Well said. Might I see what you’re reading now?”

Xiao Jian flipped his palm, and a yellowed tome appeared. “It’s a tale of passion and romance, love and hatred between one man and nineteen women. Much of its contents are quite unseemly, but I’ve got to say, some of the descriptions of dual cultivation are quite distinctive.”

“…” Su Yi had initially assumed that Xiao Jian was reading something deep and scholarly. He would never have guessed that Xiao Jian would be in the middle of a trashy novel!

Moreover, Xiao Jian described it openly and without the slightest embarrassment, as if he weren’t the least bit ashamed!

“It’s a pity, but the book is only half finished. It ends abruptly just as the main character is about to go to bed with all of his wives and concubines at once.” Xiao Jian gnashed his teeth. “As a reader, I hate nothing more than unfinished books. Every time I reach the end of a book without a satisfying conclusion, I feel frustrated and stifled, and I want nothing more than to find the author, lock him in a one-room hut, and tell him I’ll decapitate him if he doesn’t finish the story!”

Su Yi was stunned. Xiao Jian was ordinarily calm and aloof, with a bookish air about him. It seemed that heaven and earth could crumble around him and he wouldn’t so much as bat an eye.

Who’d have thought he’d lose his composure like this when the topic of unfinished books arose?

This was Su Yi’s first time seeing this side of Xiao Jian.

There was no denying that this side of Xiao Jian was quite relatable, and… cute.

“Want to read?” Xiao Jian offered Su Yi the tale of one man and nineteen women.

Su Yi shook his head. “I’m not interested in that sort of thing.”

“Oh,” said Xiao Jian, but he didn’t push. He just put the book away and changed the subject.

By the time night fell, the floor of the cave was completely covered in empty wine bottles.

Xiao Jian shook his head, rose, and said, “I’ve got to get going.”

“Did you… really just come here to drink and chat with me?” asked Su Yi. He really didn’t get it, and he found it quite surprising.

They’d drunk all that wine, and chatted about so many subjects. Su Yi had initially assumed that Xiao Jian wanted to seize this opportunity to lay his cards on the table and end things once and for all.

Or, at the very least, that he had some other ulterior motive.

But things weren’t at all like he’d guessed! Xiao Jian just rose and left without saying anything.

Xiao Jian laughed. “There was never any need to discuss our business, nor is there any point in discussing what’s yet to come.”

With that, he put his hands behind his back and sauntered out of the cave.

“I go where my heart takes me, coming and going as I please. That’s all there is to it,” said Xiao Jian. Before his voice had even finished echoing through the air, he faded into the distance.

Su Yi sat there alone, gazing at the wine bottles covering the floor in silence. He couldn’t help but laugh.

Xiao Jian sure is quite the character. He’s unconventional and strong-willed. He isn’t like other people.

When we met tonight and drank, it felt like we didn’t talk about anything, yet at the same time, it felt like we talked about everything.

When Su Yi looked back on it, it really did seem extraordinary.

But Su Yi knew that he and Xiao Jian could not coexist. When the Battle for Order began, one of them would have to die.

Outside the cave, the night sky was as dark as ink.

The black sheep sat there, gazing at the boundless night sky. It looked rather forlorn.

Su Yi retracted his gaze, calmed his heart, and sat down to meditate.

……

Ten days later, blood-red thunderclouds suddenly filled the skies over the Central Divine Continent. They looked as if they were burning, and they were quite the unsettling sight.

The experts throughout the Central Divine Continent shuddered. They could keenly sense that a terrifying, calamitous power was sweeping outward, spreading like the tides as it enveloped heaven and earth.

“What’s going on?”

“Don’t tell me that this is a sign that Red Pine Mountain is soon to appear?”

“Hurry up and hide!”

Everyone was frantic, and they hurriedly hid themselves, too afraid to leave their burrows.

Boom!

The blood-red clouds burned, shifting and churning as that terrifying, calamitous power grew denser and denser.

The strange creatures inhabiting the Central Divine Continent were instantly reduced to ash, no matter their strength. All of them silently perished.

The process continued for one full day and night.

In the end, heaven and earth were burnt the deep red of blood, dyeing the entire continent. It was an unsettling sight.

The Southern Flame, Eastern Victory, Ancient Nirvana, and Spirit Firmament Divine Continents shook violently, as did the thirty-three auxiliary worlds on the periphery of the God Domain.

Heaven and earth swayed. Everything was plunged into upheaval.

The trillions of living beings throughout the God Domain were plunged into terror. Everyone was startled!

Those with deep, lofty cultivations sensed it clearly. The God Domain’s source energies were receding and drying up at shocking speeds!

Blessed grounds for cultivation, famous mountains, and clear waters dimmed as their spiritual energy receded like waters at low tide.

The divine medicine growing throughout the God Domain, no matter its quality, silently dried up and withered.

Most shocking of all, every cultivator who tried to break through that day, no matter who they were or how high their cultivation, failed.

Because… The source power of heaven and earth was vanishing like mad!

If the God Domain was a giant tree, then its leaves were yellowing and falling off, while its trunk and branches were shriveling…

Nowhere beneath the heavens was exempt!

Even all the way in the Endless Ocean, the peach blossoms filling Sunset Perch Island withered and fell.

The heavens were truly changing!

…

Those looking down from the endless void of time and space beyond the firmament of the God Domain clearly sensed that the entire God Domain’s vitality was withering, flowing away, dimming, and drying up.

A group of experts from the River of Destiny had been waiting there. When they saw this, they couldn’t help but look eager.

Had the God Domain’s source run dry? No!

The chaos source Beneath the Nine Abysses was currently absorbing all of the remaining source power dispersed across the God Domain!

Red Pine Mountain would reappear once the God Domain was fully hollowed out!

“From this day forth, this world will gradually wither, plunging deeper and deeper into an abyss. This world’s orthodoxies… Will become water without a source and trees without roots. Their legacies will be severed, forever consigned to the dust of history!” sighed an old-timer. “When you reach your peak, decline inevitably follows!”

When a cultivation world lost its source, it lost all vitality. Everything related to cultivation was doomed to wither and fade away!

All of the lost epochs of the past had declined in exactly the same way.

Now, this scene was playing out in the present epoch!

…

The Red Pine Mountain Forbidden Zone.

A fist-sized yellow sparrow flew beneath the burning dome of heaven, shooting deeper into the forbidden zone.

Along the way, one Mountain Guardian Beast after another started following the sparrow further and further in.

Because the long-vanished Red Pine Mountain would soon re-enter the world!