First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 866: Don’t Be Afraid

The ninth room of the third floor of Cloud Tower Treasure Ship.

“Tens of thousands of years have passed, but I’ve finally returned to the Netherworld! I just wonder if anyone still remembers Ye Xun’s illustrious name?” Ye Xun was sometimes emotional, and sometimes wistful, but sometimes, he just clutched his stomach and laughed.

The Netherworld Asura Emperor, the man who’d founded the Deathbringer’s Netherworld Palace on the Azure Continent, was obviously beside himself with excitement upon learning that they were currently in the Netherworld’s Ghost Lands Territory.

Not far away, Su Yi leaned casually against the bed and said distractedly, “If you keep up that nonsense, don’t blame me for tossing you back into the Seed of the Azure.”

Ye Xun’s grin froze, and he hurriedly smiled apologetically. “Brother-in-Law, I’ve been stifled for too long, so I… lost control of my emotions.”

Su Yi took out a jade slip and tossed it to Ye Xun. “Take a look and tell me if you recognize those three.”

“Got it!” Ye Xun obsequiously approached, accepted it, and inserted his divine sense.

After a moment, he looked a bit confused. “Brother-in-Law, is there a problem with those three?”

“You don’t recognize them?”

Ye Xun shook his head.

“Unless my eyes deceive me, all three are Ghost Serpents,” said Su Yi.

The jade slip was carved with none other than the thin man Su Yi had seen earlier, as well as his two companions.

Ye Xun was stunned as he realized that something wasn’t quite right. He furrowed his brow. “Brother-in-Law, is there something off about them?”

Su Yi thought for a moment, but decided not to hide it. ?He then concisely recounted everything he’d heard in the treasure ship’s restaurant.

Something had happened in the Dark Capital!

The Yin-Yang Road was severely damaged!

The Falling Feather Spirit Empress Ye Yu was trapped!

And there was unrest in the Ghost Serpents’ ranks!

Ye Xun’s expression shifted as he realized how grave the problem was.

A while later, he let out a breath of turbid air and muttered, “And here I thought this was some kind of disaster. So, that’s all it is?”

Su Yi couldn’t help but find this strange. “Aren’t you worried?”

Ye Xun tittered gleefully. “Brother-in-Law, with you here, what could I possibly have to worry about?”

With that, a massive weight seemed to lift from Ye Xun’s shoulders, and he visibly relaxed.

“???” Su Yi hadn’t expected that. Does he really think I’m his brother-in-law?

Ye Xun pounded his chest and said, “Brother-in-Law, all you need to do is tell me how you need me to cooperate with you!”

The corners of Su Yi’s lips twitched imperceptibly. There’s an idiom about hitting a snake, only for it to crawl up your staff. They were talking about people like Ye Xun.

But then, he isn’t wrong. The Ghost Serpents are in turmoil. If only for Little Leaf’s sake, I can’t possibly just stand back and watch.

“Let’s see what the Ghost Serpents’ situation is like when we get to Tianya City, then talk,” said Su Yi after a moment’s thought. “Most importantly, we have to see whether your uncle Ye Nanzheng is around or not.”

Ye Xun didn’t even pause to think. “Brother-in-Law, leave it to me!”

Tens of thousands of years had passed, but he was still a main-line descendant of the Ye Family. It would be easy for him to ask around the clan for information.

Su Yi glanced at him. “This isn’t thirty thousand years ago, and you’re no longer the Netherworld Asura Emperor who could command the wind and rain on the Azure Continent. You do realize that with your current cultivation, if you reveal your identity, someone’s sure to beat you to death, right?”

Ye Xun’s expression shifted.

Tens of thousands of years ago, he fought a grand battle against a jailer, almost losing his life in the process. In the end, only a battered remnant of his soul survived.

He’d drifted aimlessly ever since.

It was only last year when, with Su Yi’s help, he finally recovered his “remains” from the Azure Continent’s Glittering Ghost Domain and refined the source power therein. Only then could he begin rebuilding his body.

However, he still hadn’t had enough time to recover. Even though he’d absorbed quite a bit of the Azure Continent’s source power, and even though he’d been cultivating within the Seed of the Azure ever since, his cultivation was less than a thousandth of his former peak. He was at most comparable to a Spirit Dao cultivator.

Furthermore, thirty thousand years had passed since departure, and time changed everything. Who knew how the Ghost Serpents had changed in his absence?

Especially since they were currently facing internal unrest.

Given the circumstances, if he revealed his identity, he really would most likely face an unpredictable storm!

After a little while, Ye Xun gnashed his teeth and steeled himself. “Brother-in-Law, with you here, what do I have to be afraid of?”

“….” Su Yi couldn’t help but facepalm. Finally, he decided to seal Ye Xun back up for now and wait until the time was right to make arrangements for him.

Otherwise, with Ye Xun’s personality, he would undoubtedly cause all sorts of trouble!

“Brother-in-law, why… are you looking at me like that?” Ye Xun discovered that Su Yi was staring at him, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit uneasy.

Su Yi said, “Those who talk too much are prone to errors, and loose lips lead to disaster. Do you understand?”

Ye Xun instantly realized that this wasn’t looking good. He hurriedly cried out, “Brother-in-Law, I promise. Agh, Brother-in-Law, don’t, I…!”

Before he could finish, Su Yi knocked him unconscious and tossed him back into the Seed of the Azure.

Quiet returned to the world.

Su Yi let out a breath of turbid air, calmed his heart, and started meditating.

His cultivation was currently in the early-stage Spiritual Revolution Realm, and his mastery of the Mysterious Truths of the Apex of Genesis was still rudimentary.

He had a long road ahead of him before he could prove his Dao and become an Emperor.

But Su Yi wasn’t in a rush.

After all, it had been only a little over a year since he reawakened the memories of his past life.

He’d started from the Four Realms of the Martial Dao, and he was now in the Spiritual Revolution Realm. This cultivation speed was astonishing enough already!

……

Late at night.

The first room on the third floor of the Cloud Tower Treasure Ship.

“Your Excellency, I’ve already investigated. There are one thousand and nine cultivators on board this vessel. A little over twenty of them have reached the Spiritual Revolution Realm. Of course, it’s possible that some are hiding their cultivations, but there shouldn’t be more than a few such people.”

Beneath the lamplight, the saber-wielding middle-aged man, Tu Yong, said at top speeds, “Cultivators aside, there are about thirty ordinary mortals on board.”

“Ordinary mortals?” The thin, sickly man couldn’t help but exclaim.

“That’s right. They’re all children. The oldest are twelve or thirteen, while the youngest are only five or six. They’re the hand-picked talents for cultivation chosen from the general populace by a sect called the Netherworld Spirit Sect. They’re on their way to the sect to begin their cultivation,” Tu Yong said solemnly. “I checked them all, one by one. There are no problems with any of the children.”

The skinny man nodded.

He vaguely remembered the Netherworld Spirit Sect. They were a third-rate faction of the Ghost Lands, and they weren’t worth worrying about.

Tu Yong hesitated, “Your Excellency, I still think that young man in blue we saw when we first boarded is fishy.”

The skinny man was stunned. “Did you discover something?”

Tu Yong shook his head. “It’s just my intuition.”

The skinny man laughed. “If he were really our enemy, do you think he’d just let us discover him?”

“Err…” Tu Yong couldn’t help but fall silent. That was the very thing he couldn’t wrap his head around.

“But caution isn’t a bad thing,” said the skinny man. “We’ll just have to be careful on the road ahead.”

Tu Yong nodded his agreement.

“Also.” The skinny man looked at Tu Yong. “If anything unexpected happens, use that secret treasure, take Boheng, and flee.”

Boheng, or rather, Ye Boheng, was the young man in purple.

Tu Yong’s expression shifted. “Your Excellency, I…” .

The thin man didn’t let him finish. “That’s an order.”

Tu Yong’s expression shifted, but finally, he clasped his fist and bowed. “Yes, sir!”

The thin man smiled. “That’s only if the worst comes to pass, but I hope… nothing unexpected happens along the way.”

……

Three days later.

The Cloud Tower Treasure Ship stopped at a place called “Carpenter’s Square City” for an hour. Some passengers disembarked, while others got on board.

.

Then, the ship set off once more, soaring through the night sky and into the distance.

There was a massive viewing platform at the highest point of the ship.

Su Yi stood there with his hands behind his back, gazing into the night sky.

A silver full moon hung in the night sky, casting its gentle radiance.

Not far away, a group of children played. There were more than ten of them, both boys and girls. The oldest were around ten, while the youngest were only five or six. At this age, they were still naive and innocent.

A white-haired elder in black stood by the railing, holding a pipe and bag of tobacco. As he breathed out clouds of smoke, he silently kept watch over the children.

Further away, in a shadowy corner, a young man and woman conversed in secret.

The young man was dressed in purple, with eyebrows sharp as swords and starry eyes.

Su Yi remembered him: this was the same young man who’d boarded the treasure ship alongside a thin older man and a middle-aged man in warrior’s robes.

The young woman wore a black dress, and her skin was fair as snow. She was movingly pretty.

The sight drew Su Yi’s attention.

If he remembered correctly, the young woman had boarded the ship earlier today, outside of Carpenter Square City.

Both she and the purple-robed young man looked as if they didn’t want to be seen. They were hiding in a dark corner, and they conducted their conversation entirely through transmissions.

Who knew what they were talking about, but the purple-robed young man’s brow was tightly knit, and his expression was racked with worry.

The young woman in black was obviously trying to comfort him.

Before long, the young man sighed, turned, and left.

The young woman, however, waited a while longer before emerging from the shadowy corner.

When she looked at the playing children, she couldn’t help but smile.

“Big sister, you sure are pretty!” a roughly six-year-old girl with pigtails looked up at the young woman and exclaimed.

The woman in black caressed the child’s cheek and said, “What a sweet little girl you are.”

She then looked up and saw Su Yi standing not far away. She walked over to him, seemingly coincidentally, then stood about ten feet away from him. As she twirled her dark locks around her finger, she muttered, “The moon sure is pretty tonight.”

Su Yi feigned deafness, ignoring her completely.

The woman in the black dress laughed, not the least bit concerned, and leaned languidly against the railing. She then turned and took in Su Yi’s profile.

“Young lord,” she whispered, “Ever since I boarded this treasure ship, I’ve had a strange feeling. Would you like me to tell you about it?”

“No,” said Su Yi.

“….”

The woman fell silent, but a moment later, she burst into laughter, as beautiful as a flower in bloom. “Are you nervous, young lord? Don’t be; we’re just chatting. It’s not like I’m going to eat you.”

Su Yi’s gaze remained focused on the distant skies. He paid her no heed.

In the face of his cold indifference, the woman in black’s smile faded, and her willowy eyebrows knit together.