First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 2921 - Breaking a Bottleneck

The ancient battlefield was deathly silent. From beginning to end, Su Yi had no idea where on Fangchun Mountain he was.

All he could say for certain was that the battlefield was really a hidden realm used to cultivate. Its murderous aura was shockingly dense and incomparably fierce; ordinary Eternals could never have endured it.

Su Yi responded to Ling Xuanzi’s question without hesitation. “I’m going to rest up first.”

Ling Xuanzi was obviously disappointed. “And here I thought you’d keep fighting to the bitter end. Who’d have thought... that you’d be so cautious and conservative? That isn’t befitting of a sword cultivator.”

Su Yi said calmly, “This is a show of respect for the disciples of Fangchun Mountain, as well as for myself.”

Ling Xuanzi raised an eyebrow, while a rare smile appeared on Xuan Kong’s steelly face. “That’s the spirit of a true sword cultivator!”

The disciples of Fangchun Mountain each had their pride. Even if Su Yi had chosen to keep fighting, his next opponent would have surely given him time to recover first. They’d have insisted on fighting him in peak condition; none would want to take advantage!

This was Su Yi’s first time meeting the disciples of Fangchun Mountain, but his words proved that he respected them and their sect.

Who wouldn’t have sighed with admiration over his spirit? This was how a sword cultivator ought to be!

“Go ahead and rest up, then,” said Ling Xuanzi, pursing his lips. He feigned disappointment, but in truth, he quite appreciated Su Yi’s words, too. His impression of Su Yi had improved considerably.

Su Yi promptly sat down and crossed his legs.

His cultivation base had long since reached the peak of the Divine Wandering Realm. Just a little more, and he’d break into the Silent Realm.

He’d actually planned to break through in the Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone, but the battle between Heavenly Sovereigns had delayed him.

He’d had one fortuitous encounter after another since descending beneath the surface of the River of Destiny, but all were related to his cultivation of the heart or his mastery of the Book of Destiny. His cultivation base had stagnated.

But now, he wanted to break through here on Fangchun Mountain!

Su Yi had witnessed Grandmaster Bodhi’s magnificence for himself, and he’d once conversed with Lin Jinghong’s father, Demon God Lin. Fangchun Mountain had left a deep impression on him.

This was a rare opportunity to spar with its disciples. Su Yi was naturally full of anticipation.

He wasn’t actually all that fussed about whether or not he earned their recognition.

Enough time to burn a stick of incense later, Su Yi silently rose.

Ling Xuanzi was stunned. He recovered so quickly? I saw with my own eyes how severe his injuries were. For him to recover so quickly can only mean one thing—his foundations in the Grand Dao are unbelievably firm!

In the end, he didn’t comment. He just swung his sleeve, and the scenery transformed around them.

When the world came back into focus, Su Yi discovered that he and Ling Xuanzi now stood in a stretch of mist-shrouded ancient mountains.

“Fourth Senior Apprentice Brother, is this perhaps that swordsman?” A voice rang out, and a figure appeared out of nowhere.

He looked young, with coppery skin and an agile build. He had a beast-skin quiver on his back, a bone bow in his hand, and a sharp air about him.

“He’s that swordsman’s reincarnation,” corrected Ling Xuanzi. Only then did he introduce Su Yi’s next opponent. “This is Junior Apprentice Brother Jing Zhongyue, the twentieth disciple of Fangchun Mountain. He’s a natural genius of the Dao of Archery, and they once honored him as the First God of the Bow, the man whose arrows could startle the ages. I’ve seen many master archers in my day, but I’ve never met one who could compare with my junior apprentice brother.”

Ling Xuanzi was extremely generous with his praise, to the point that Jing Zhongyue couldn’t help but scratch his head bashfully. “Senior Apprentice Brother, don’t brag like that. You might not care about your face, but I care about mine.”

Su Yi couldn’t help but laugh. This Jing Zhongyue is quite interesting.

Ling Xuanzi glared at him. “I was complimenting you, now here you are, calling me shameless! It seems I’m going to have to teach you how to behave!”

He gestured to Su Yi, then said, “Don’t get complacent. He’s already defeated Junior Apprentice Brother Xuan Kong.”

“Mm,” said Jing Zhongyue, his eyes as sharp as a hawk’s. “Please guide me, Senior!”

Su Yi was eager to see the abilities of the “First God of the Bow,” so he was all too happy to agree. “If you please!”

A grand battle instantly broke out. Mist and smoke filled the landscape, and sword qi shot forth like a windstorm, stirring up the wind and clouds.

From time to time, dazzling divine arrows arced through the air.

The Dao of Archery centered around killing enemies in a single blow.

And Jing Zhongyue’s attainments in this Dao had reached extraordinary heights. Every arrow he fired was full of endless murderous intent and endless transformations.

His movements were unpredictable, as elusive as a ghost, as mysterious as an illusion, and as swift as lightning. He could avoid opponents’ divine senses, preventing them from locking onto him.

This enabled him to catch foes off guard.

This wasn’t a competition to see whose cultivation base was higher. Rather, it was a clash between the Dao of the Sword and the Dao of Archery.

An hour later, the battle finally came to a close.

Jing Zhongyue’s movements and attainments in the Dao of Archery were wondrous, and he could avoid Su Yi’s divine sense, but he couldn’t avoid the Light of the Heart.

In the end, Su Yi unleashed a sword cage that enveloped the entire area, blanketing the sky and blotting out the sun. He trapped Jing Zhongyue inside, then pelted him with a raging downpour of sword qi, defeating Jing Zhongyue in a single, unblockable attack.

Jing Zhongyue didn’t lose heart after his defeat. On the contrary, he seemed relieved. “I just knew that the swordsman Little Junior Brother and Master respected was extraordinary. Seeing you now, you sure live up to your reputation!”

There was no need for further confirmation. Jing Zhongyue had made his approval of Su Yi perfectly clear.

Only Ling Xuanzi’s brow furrowed slightly. Su Yi had now won two battles in a row, but Ling Xuanzi still couldn’t see through his limits. It was like gazing into an unfathomably deep, enormous abyss.

Ling Xuanzi said inwardly, I’d like to see if you can keep winning like this!

“You flatter me.” Su Yi inclined his head, then sat cross-legged and started meditating. He hadn’t taken any injuries during this battle, but he’d expended an enormous amount of energy.

This was because Jing Zhongyue’s Dao of Archery was extraordinarily hard to pin down. He appeared and vanished suddenly, his movements unpredictable. This made his attacks extraordinarily dangerous.

When fighting him, no amount of caution was enough. It was immensely exhausting.

And this was just Jing Zhongyue’s clone. Moreover, he was limiting himself to the Silent Realm.

The way Su Yi saw it, if Jing Zhongyue’s clone went to the Eternal Heavens Domain, it’d be able to kill Heavenly Monarchs!

And of course, Jing Zhongyue’s true body had long since broken the shackles of destiny and proceeded to the Far Shore...

Thus, even though he’d won, Su Yi didn’t look down on his opponent in the slightest. On the contrary, he admired Fangchun Mountain more than ever.

Both Xuan Kong and Jing Zhongyue had their own unique majesty, and they sought starkly different Grand Daos. Su Yi was increasingly eager for the sparring matches to come.

Ling Xuanzi didn’t disappoint him, either. He brought Su Yi to one section of Fangchun Mountain after another. There, Su Yi met the avatars of different disciples, each with their own distinctive Grand Dao.

Su Yi fought them one by one, experiencing their unparalleled majesty firsthand.

There was Lan Cangjia, the twenty-second disciple of Fangchun Mountain, a supreme body cultivator who’d proven his Dao with his fleshly body and gained enlightenment into the minutiae of the human body. He’d used the power of his flesh to break through the shackles of destiny!

Then there was Liu Xiangchi, the twenty-fifth disciple of Fangchun Mountain. He was an unparalleled elite among soul cultivators, and his secret soul arts were unique and unequaled.

And there was Cheng Yu, the sixteenth disciple of Fangchun Mountain. She looked like a young maiden, blessed with innate, moving beauty, yet she was a master of the Dao of Talismans. It was only when she attacked that she revealed her true, extraordinary abilities.

......

Seven days later, Su Yi had fought twenty-two of the disciples of Fangchun Mountain. Every battle was soul-stirringly shocking. Had they fought in the outside world, it would have caused an enormous commotion.

Over the course of these battles, Su Yi was repeatedly injured, and he had numerous close calls. Oftentimes, he was pushed into a corner, utterly wretched.

Nonetheless, he won every battle in the end.

Strictly speaking, these weren’t really battles between experts of the same realm of cultivation. Every time he fought, Su Yi urged his opponent to display strength one or two realms beyond his.

That he won nonetheless was utterly extraordinary.

Ling Xuanzi watched it all. He started out calm, but all of his conversation and laughter had gradually given way to silence.

He understood his apprentice siblings’ strength better than anyone else. It was because of this that watching Su Yi defeat them all in just seven days’ time had such an impact on him. He found it frustrating, but more than that, astonishing.

Ling Xuanzi had always spoken without a filter. He was proud and arrogant, but now, even he had no choice but to admit that Su Yi was a true anomaly!

An anomaly that not even he dared to underestimate or disregard!

From Su Yi’s perspective, his victories over the past seven days weren’t the least bit important. He’d benefited enormously from the battles themselves, broadening his horizons as he witnessed the legacies of Fangchun Mountain and gained a deeper understanding of the strength of its disciples.

Thus far, all of them had left a deep impression on him, but it was Fangchun Mountain’s thirty-eighth disciple, Jun Huan, who’d impressed him the most.

She was a striking, soul-stirring beauty, the type to topple entire nations. More than that, her attainments in the Dao of the Sword were incomparably astonishing. When they spoke of her, they said, “The path becomes empty in an instant, the path of the sword is the most elegant.”

Xue Ya, the nineteenth disciple of Fangchun Mountain, was noteworthy too. He was a mellow, elegant scholar with a vast breadth of knowledge. His attainments in Confucianism would have been shocking in any era, and in his epoch of origin, they called him the “Emperor Dao Top Scholar.”

Jun Huan and Xue Ya aside, thirteenth disciple Li Xuanwei shocked Su Yi, too. Li Xuanwei was a green lotus born of chaos and the inventor of the Green Lotus Grotto Art. They called him Sword Sovereign Qingxiao, and they said he was the only truly immeasurable expert on the Path of Eternity.

Su Yi won his spar with Li Xuanwei, but only after a truly brutal struggle. Li Xuanwei was a sword cultivator, and he attacked without reservation, heedless of his own life and death.

Su Yi did the same.

Thus, by the time their battle reached its conclusion, Li Xuanwei’s avatar was indistinct, ethereal, and on the verge of shattering.

Su Yi was badly injured, too; his whole body was covered in blood. These were the worst wounds he’d suffered since entering the ancestral grounds of Fangchun Mountain.

But Su Yi found this incomparably delightful and satisfying.

This was because, after seven days of fighting, and especially after his battle with Li Xuanwei, he’d broken through the bottleneck in his cultivation!