First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 2816 – Attacking the Heart, Sin Souls

The Sin-Severing Dungeon was a dark, bloody prison excavated beneath the Ancient Nine Luminaries City. It was like a self-contained world, with three floors in total. The three levels confined different types of sinners.

During the Devastation, those who committed unforgivable crimes were confined here. The prisoners were not external enemies or Outsider Celestial Demons. All of them were once defenders of the Ancient Nine Luminaries City! Some had once been unparalleled figures in their own right, experts who had slaughtered too many Outsider Celestial Demons to count. However, they’d been imprisoned here after committing grave sins.

The Sin-Severing Dungeon was, as the name implied, intended to help these sinners turn over a new leaf and cleanse them of their sins.

…

On the first floor of the Sin-Severing Prison, lamps of everlasting light hung from the walls of the dingy, winding hallways. A cell was built beside each lamp. The cells were carved out of massive black stones. They were all but unbreakable.

Su Yi had only just arrived when a burst of hoarse laughter rang out.

“Oh? It seems yet another kid from the outside world has come to sightsee! Come on, then! I’m in a good mood today. Kneel and call me ‘grandfather,’ and I’ll be sure to grant you good fortune!”

Su Yi glanced at the nearest cell, then saw a respectable-looking middle-aged man in snow-white robes standing in the blood-splattered cell. He was smiling, and he had an impressive bearing, but the flesh beneath his robes was rotten, torn, and it reeked of filth and decay.

The moment Su Yi looked at him, a bloody, tyrannical, electric avatar appeared in his sea of consciousness and emitted terrifying destructive power.

The electric avatar was manifested of the middle-aged man’s will. He was trying to seize control of Su Yi’s soul! But within moments, the avatar split, then dissipated. The middle-aged man clutched his head and cried out in agony, his face bleeding and hideously contorted.

Su Yi shook his head slightly. By now, he’d lost track of how many powerful enemies had tried to invade his soul. Some old-timers even overestimated themselves so badly that they tried to possess him. Without exception, all of them had to face the Sword of the Nine Hells, and all of them suffered crushing defeats!

“Call me ‘grandfather,’ and I’ll spare your life,” Su Yi said with a laugh.

The middle-aged man glared resentfully at him in silence.

Su Yi, meanwhile, glanced at the “declaration of sin” carved in the wall beside the cell. Every cell had one. They both introduced the prisoners and documented their crimes.

“Cen Xinghe, a peak Heavenly Fate Realm Heavenly Monarch. He protected the Ancient Nine Luminaries City for three thousand, nine hundred years, slaughtering countless Outsider Celestial Demons and achieving one hundred and three acts of merit great and small…”

The carving began with Cen Xinghe’s accomplishments. It listed all of his meritorious feats in order and elaborate detail.

Su Yi quickly realized that Cen Xinghe was no ordinary Heavenly Monarch; he was extraordinarily strong.

But when he got to the description of his sins, he couldn’t help but frown.

Whenever Cen Xinghe earned military merit, he’d invite all of his friends to a massive banquet. They’d drink, carouse, and make merry all night long. At one such banquet, a woman he had taken a fancy to declined to drink with him, but that was enough to set him off. He drew his sword in fury and cut her into ten thousand pieces, scattering her ashes to the wind. He even destroyed her soul.

The woman had an illustrious background; she was the daughter of one of the old monsters stationed in the city. Cen Xinghe realized the severity of what he had done and chose to flee, only to find himself surrounded on all sides and suppressed. In the end, he was imprisoned here in the Sin-Severing Dungeon.

“Do you believe all that?” Cen Xinghe asked suddenly, his gaze eerie. He had a strange look on his face; it was hard to tell whether he was laughing or crying.

He sighed. “I was a lofty sword cultivator and a Heavenly Monarch. I slew countless demons and achieved enormous merit. How could I possibly go to such lengths just because a woman refused to drink with me?”

But then, his eyes widened in shock as the young man outside his cell just walked off.

It seemed he wasn’t even remotely interested!

“Hey, little fellow! Didn’t you come to the Sin-Severing Dungeon in search of good fortune? I can give it to you!” Cen Xinghe cried out.

But the young man just faded further and further into the distance.

“Haha, Ol’ Devil Cen, it seems your usual routine hasn’t been effective in a long time!”

“You’re still trying to fool little babies? You do realize that the Devastation ended a long time ago, right? All the babies who enter the dungeon come in knowing the situation like the back of their hands. There’s no way they’d fall for your lies!”

“You’re pitiful, Ol’ Devil Cen. You tried to bait him, but you got hurt instead, didn’t you?”

A clamor of laughter arose from the nearby cells.

The white-robed Cen Xinghe stood there, then sighed despondently. “But I was telling the truth!”

He then gripped the bars of his cell and cried out in the direction Su Yi had left, “Grandfather, hurry back! This is no place for you. It’s too dangerous!”

A second burst of laughter erupted from the nearby cells. It seemed that none of the others found Cen Xinghe’s behavior strange, but also that they took him for a mere joke.

Su Yi heard the disturbance, too. He couldn’t help but shake his head. He had indeed researched the Sin-Severing Prison before coming here.

Everyone here had died well before the curtain fell on the Devstation! The “people” inhabiting their cells were actually just lingering imprints. This sort of imprint was highly distinctive, a mix of soul power and concentrated sin intermingled with baleful qi. No matter how much time passed, they never changed, and here in the Sin-Severing Prison, they were little different than living people. Cultivators called them Sin Souls.

“Little Brother, your brow is marked with darkness, and your fate is shrouded in darkness. I’m afraid you’ll soon face a Blood Light Cataclysm! Why not let this humble Daoist tell your fortune?” A black-robed Daoist with an otherworldly air cried out from another cell. He gripped a copper coin used for divination.

Su Yi stopped in place. “First, perform a divination and tell me when you’ll die for good.”

The black-robed Daoist froze, stunned.

All of the cells instantly fell silent. The atmosphere was deathly silent.

It seemed that all of the Sin Souls were paying attention.

Su Yi noticed, but he didn’t find it at all strange.

So much time had passed that only nineteen Sin Souls remained on the first floor of the dungeons. Of them, two were the most dangerous. The first was Cen Xinghe, the man in the first cell. The second was the black-robed Daoist, Xuan Zhong.

Throughout the ages, no small number of cultivators had entered the prison, only to meet with disaster at Xuan Zhong’s hands. Worse, Xuan Zhong extracted their souls before they even got the chance to shatter their Nine Luminaries Medallions.

“Divination points directly to the mysteries of fate. It might be a lesser Dao, but it nonetheless is a Law of Destiny,” the black-robed Xuan Zhong said solemnly. “If you don’t believe me, why not let me tell your fortune? If it’s inaccurate, you can simply laugh it off. If it’s correct, I’m not after much; a little wine would be plenty.”

The atmosphere on the first floor of the dungeon was stifling and oppressive. The only sound was the echo of the Sin Souls’ hushed conversations.

Su Yi’s face flickered in and out of view beneath the lamplight. He stared intently at Xuan Zhong for a few moments before saying, “You haven’t given up yet? Alright, go ahead. Tell my fortune.”

Xuan Zhong said solemnly, “Please, open your hand and show me your palm!”

Su Yi did as he was told.

Xuan Zhong flicked his fingertip, and the copper coin shot into the air, producing a strange sound almost like a bird call. An inscrutable energy fluctuation swept outward, passing through the cell and landing on Su Yi’s palm.

A clamor of voices arose throughout the first floor.

“Haha! Another unlucky fool meets his end!”

“His Excellency Xuan Zhong’s soul-stealing magic has gotten even stronger!”

“That kid left Cen Xinghe the worse for wear. I thought he’d come prepared, but now, it seems I jumped to conclusions.”

Some of the voices were gleeful, others mocking. Still others were pitying.

Cen Xinghe was visibly overcome with grief. He beat his chest and said, “Grandfather, oh, Grandfather. If you were just going to throw your life away anyway, dying at my hands would have been far better than this!”

But it was then that Xuan Zhong’s expression shifted dramatically, as if he’d been struck by lightning. His knees thudded to the ground, and he convulsed violently, shrieking in agony.

The rest of the inmates fell deathly silent.

All of the Sin Souls were stunned. What’s going on?

They then watched as Su Yi closed his right hand. Xuan Zhong’s copper coin shot into his palm like a swallow returning to its nest, then spun repeatedly.

The Sin Souls were flabbergasted.

That copper coin was extraordinary, with impressive origins. It was called “Heart Executioner,” and it was inextricably connected with Xuan Zhong’s vitality. If he lost it, his body would collapse and vanish into nothingness.

But no one had anticipated that something like this would happen. No Unfettered Realm kid should have been able to pull this off!

Throughout the ages, no small number of powerful experts had tried to seize Xuan Zhong’s copper coin, but all of them had died grisly deaths.

The Sin Souls knew that the one to ever successfully fight off Xuan Zhong was a sword cultivator called Jiang Wuchen. But not even he had managed to seize Heart Executioner!

“This coin isn’t simple, huh?” Su Yi looked it over curiously. It looked almost like jade, but it wasn’t. It seemed almost metallic, but it wasn’t metal, either. Su Yi couldn’t tell what it was really made of. Moreover, when he gripped it, he felt as if he were holding onto a devil eager to steal his soul at the slightest opportunity. Its presence was strange and mysterious.

“You… Why are you immune to the Heart Executioner’s power? Don’t tell me you’ve long since condensed a Heart Soul?” hissed Xuan Zhong.

He was curled on the floor, looking utterly wretched. His whole body convulsed, and his face was contorted with agony.

A Heart Soul!? The other Sin Souls looked stricken. How could an Unfettered Realm cultivator possibly have condensed a Heart Soul? That’s a power even some Heavenly Sovereigns can only dream of acquiring!

Su Yi didn’t respond. He just examined Heart Executioner and said, “I heard that Heart Executioner’s power is like a leash tied around the necks of every Sin Soul on the first floor. Is that true?”

The other Sin Souls visibly freaked out.

“How does he know that?

“Who the fuck told him?”

“Xuan Zhong, you bastard. Did you tell him just to save your life?”

Infuriated voices rang out, one after another.

The black-robed Xuan Zhong cried out in fury, “There’s no way in hell I would have told him!”

It was then that Cen Xinghe put his hands on his hips and said smugly, “I’m the one who told my grandfather!”

“….”

The others didn’t know what to say to that.