First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 2777 – He Can Forget About Turning Things Around

Snowy Pine Peak.

Inside his cave, Su Yi held the Toad Palace Pearl aloft and extracted a batch of mature medicinal herbs.

Over the past half year, he’d used the merit he accumulated to buy three thousand, nine hundred seeds. When he was out exploring, he used Eternal Essence Gold to buy the rest.

By now, the chaos ground in the Toad Palace Pearl was a veritable medicine garden. All manner of medicinal plants were sprouting, blooming, and bearing fruit.

Su Yi had severed a few of the osmanthus tree’s branches for fertilizer, so the herbs grew extraordinarily quickly. He could harvest a new batch once every few days.

Every time, he’d extract the mature plant’s seeds, then refine the rest into medicine, creating an endless, self-perpetuating cycle.

The herbs of this garden will be more than enough to sustain my cultivation in the Unfettered Realm, thought Su Yi. When I reach Divine Wandering, I’ll have to switch some herbs out.

The Toad Palace Pearl was truly an unbelievable treasure. The hidden world inside, the Toad Palace, contained a tree that bore Toad Palace Osmanthus Fruits, as well as a chaos ground wondrously useful for growing medicines of the Grand Dao.

More than that, it solved Su Yi’s most burning problem: running out of resources.

His cultivation required an absolutely enormous quantity of cultivation resources. Even cultivating in a blessed ground like this wasn’t enough to sustain his cultivation; he needed to supplement it with herbal medicines.

His progress was slow and difficult, but over the past six months, Su Yi had continuously tempered his soul, body, Laws of the Grand Dao, and attainments in the Dao of the Sword.

It might have seemed like he hadn’t made much progress, but his strength had improved considerably.

Three days later, the Ancestral Hall began the selection of legacy disciples.

Su Yi didn’t go watch. It was only later that he heard that the outcome was just as everyone had predicted. The top three in the inner sect had each taken a Heavenly Monarch for a master and gone on to continue their cultivation in the Ancestral Hall.

The strongest of all, Lu Xuanwu, drew the most attention. He was mighty enough to cross cultivation levels and defeat Divine Wandering Realm opponents.

They said he was the greatest Unfettered Realm sword cultivator in the Blueleaf Sword Sect, and he was known throughout the Literati Continent.

Apparently, Divine Reverence Pavilion had long since taken note of Lu Xuanwu. They saw him as a candidate for the Unfettered Ranking; he’d likely be on the list next time they updated it.

Su Yi couldn’t help but recall True Martial Sword Court’s Yu Guangjun.

But he quickly set the matter aside.

This time, after returning to the sect, Su Yi didn’t leave on any new missions.

The reason was simple; he’d already burned through all the missions available for Unfettered Realm cultivators.

Although no one else in the sect knew it, during his frequent excursions, Su Yi had done a lot more than just complete missions.

Thus, there was currently no need to go out again. He could just focus on his cultivation, increase his strength, and accumulate merit.

Su Yi’s next goal was the sect’s trials.

Blueleaf Sword Sect had a place called the Mountain of Trials. It was full of trial grounds designed to temper the sect’s disciples.

For instance, there was the Sword-Tempering Cave, the Heart-Quenching Pit, the Sword-Nourishing Pool, and the Demon Transformation Battlefield.

Every trial ground had levels suitable for disciples of different cultivations.

These were the foundations of a major orthodoxy. Its disciples didn’t just receive legacies; they could also undergo trial to temper their combat prowess, cultivation, Dao Hearts, and souls.

This was something the world’s rogue cultivators couldn’t help but envy.

The Blueleaf Sword Sect had numerous pure sword cultivators. They often tempered themselves in its trial grounds, sometimes taking several months, other times staying for a hundred years.

Accumulate enough merit, and you could enter any trial ground you could afford.

Different trials had different rewards. The simplest way to earn a reward was to break the existing record, but there were numerous other assorted tasks one could complete to earn merit, too.

Su Yi wasn’t here to temper himself; he just wanted to accrue merit.

In the Blueleaf Sword Sect, if you accumulated enough merit, you could negotiate with the sect’s elders.

Su Yi had done some calculations. He didn’t need to participate in any sort of test or competition. So long as he accumulated enough merit, he could buy a spot in the Nine Luminaries Dao Assembly.

For most people, this approach would have been more difficult than just earning a spot in a competition. After all, it wasn’t easy to accrue merit in the trial grounds.

But if Su Yi wanted to accrue merit, he could do so with ease.

Su Yi planned to complete this goal within the next two years.

He could have squeezed all possible merit out of the trials in less than a month, but that would draw too much attention.

If he did that, Su Yi suspected that the elders would surround him and investigate him thoroughly, inside and out.

Being a crane among chickens seemed illustrious, but it was easy to provoke envy and invite unwanted trouble.

Su Yi didn’t want to reveal his identity, so he had to keep a low profile.

……

A year passed in a flash.

On Snowy Pine Peak, Mountain Lord Mo Lanhe read a jade slip, then sank into thought.

The slip recorded the details of Li Muchen’s results in the Sword-Tempering Cave.

Over the past year, Li Muchen had undergone its trials nineteen times. The first time, he took tenth place and received a modest reward of merit. The second time, he took ninth place and received a similar reward.

After that, he went up a rank with every attempt, receiving a reward each and every time.

During his ninth attempt, he made it into first place!

Had that been the extent of it, Mo Lanhe might not have cared. After all, it wasn’t that unusual for someone to come in and break the record. It happened from time to time.

But Li Muchen was different.

In his tenth attempt, he broke his own record.

In his eleventh attempt, he did it again.

His nineteenth attempt left the second-place results in the dust, a feat made all the more ridiculous by the fact that ranks two through ten all belonged to Li Muchen, too.

When Mo Lanhe saw this, he found it hard to stay calm.

The rankings in the trials for Unfettered Realm cultivators had shifted numerous times over the years. Occasionally, someone broke the old record.

But no one had ever repeatedly set new records like this before. It was simply terrifying!

But the jade slip didn’t just record Li Muchen’s accomplishments in the Heart-Tempering Cave. It had his results in the Heart-Quenching Pit, the Sword-Nourishing Pool, and the Demon Transformation Battlefield, too.

All of them were dazzling. He’d repeatedly broken one record after another.

By the time he’d finished reading, even Mo Lanhe, a seasoned Heavenly Monarch, struggled to stay calm. It’s barely been a year since he joined the sect. He’s actually this heaven-defying?

But there’s no faking a record like that!

Mo Lanhe’s heart suddenly filled with regret. If I’d intervened, disregarded Elder Yun Husheng’s objections, and arranged for Li Muchen to have participated in the discussion of the Dao, he’d have made it into the Ancestral Hall easily!

But Mo Lanhe quickly shook his head. Did he regret it?

A little, but it didn’t matter.

The current top ten Unfettered Realm disciples hadn’t visited the sect’s trial grounds in a long time, for the simple reason that its trials were no longer useful to them.

No matter how impressive Li Muchen’s performance was, ultimately, all he’d done was set a few new records.

Mo Lanhe pondered briefly, then decided to give Li Muchen a spot in the next inner sect discussion of the Dao.

He’d done well, so he naturally ought to be rewarded. Mo Lanhe was at least magnanimous enough for that.

Even though he still thought Li Muchen was a hotheaded fool ignorant of human affairs, he didn’t mind giving him a chance to show off his strength.

Whether Li Muchen appreciated it or not wasn’t important. What mattered was that everyone in the sect saw Mo Lanhe’s grace and comportment.

In this regard, Mo Lanhe looked down on how Yun Husheng did things. Wholeheartedly suppressing a newcomer and forcing them to lower their heads was ultimately just too petty and small-minded.

Su Yi received the news that very day, but he just smiled and said nothing.

In his eyes, neither Mountain Lord Mo Lanhe nor Elder Yun Husheng’s opinions and decisions were the least bit important.

Using the trials to prove his strength? Hmph. How naive! When Yun Husheng heard the news, his expression darkened.

In truth, it wasn’t just them. The entire sect had heard of Li Muchen’s results in the trials, and they’d drawn a lot of attention and discussion.

Even many of the sect’s old-timers were paying attention to Li Muchen. His performance in the trial grounds was just too impressive!

Some of the old-timers were even tempted to meet with Li Muchen ahead of schedule.

The inner sect disciples, who’d rejected and ostracised Li Muchen, felt rather conflicted about the whole thing. The newcomer they’d suppressed, the ignorant hothead they disdained, had risen to prominence in just one short year!

The whole sect was paying attention!

Who among the inner sect disciples could have accepted this calmly?

But it was Yun Husheng who found it hardest to take.

Recently, he’d endured a lot of criticism. People said that as an elder of Snowy Pine Peak, suppressing a newcomer like Li Muchen was too narrow-minded and ungracious. He’d let his power corrupt him, and he was morally unfit for his position!

Yun Husheng wouldn’t have minded the occasional comment, but he’d heard that even the sect leader and the old monsters of the Ancestral Court disapproved.

How could Yun Husheng possibly remain seated knowing that?

Li Muchen! Just you wait. I’ll make you understand how cruel reality really is! Yun Husheng inwardly gnashed his teeth, his eyes flashing with viciousness. Just you wait. You’ll lower your head before me in the end!

That very day, Yun Husheng went to visit an old monster of the Ancestral Hall.

All he said was this. “Li Muchen is highly likely to claim a spot in the Nine Luminaries Dao Assembly. I’m afraid that might have an impact on your closed-door disciple.”

After a brief pause, the old monster said, “The young need to temper themselves if they’re to grow, don’t you think?”

Yun Husheng quickly understood what he was getting at. He smiled. “You’re wise indeed, Patriarch. I’ll naturally do my best to give Li Muchen opportunities to temper himself, but I’m afraid that people will talk….”

The old monster said expressionlessly, “I’m here to handle things in the Ancestral Hall, and I’ll talk to the sect leader!”

Only then did Yun Husheng thoroughly relax. Now that Patriarch Du Ya has spoken, Li Muchen can forget about turning things around anytime soon!