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As the crowd watched in astonishment, Hua Xinfeng laughed apologetically. “My older brother has always been straightforward, and he’s never held back out of consideration for others’ feelings. Now, he’s gone and forced His Sixth Highness to his knees, leaving his reputation in shambles. I’m truly very sorry.”
Although she said this, the light in her eyes and the angle of her eyebrows said she took pride in this, and there was an arrogant smile on her face.
“What are you apologizing for? I said it earlier; he invited his own humiliation,” said Su Yi calmly.
“Uh…” Hua Xinfeng’s gaze darted back and forth, seemingly in embarrassment. She said to the crowd, “See? I told you my brother was straightforward. He was born this way; I’m afraid he’ll never change in this lifetime.”
“.....” The crowd was speechless.
Qin Fu was so angry that he almost coughed up blood.
He’d already been forced to his knees, and he’d already embarrassed himself. He already couldn’t bear to show his face in public. Hua Xinfeng's words dripped with sarcasm, and they only rubbed salt in his wounds and further twisted the knife.
Su Yi, meanwhile, completely ignored him. How could an ant-like existence possibly be worthy of his notice?
It would be inappropriate to do so here, but any other time, he would have long since extracted the soul possessing the prince. There was no way he’d let it off so easily.
Qin Fu picked up on Su Yi's disregard, and he inwardly sighed in relief. However, at the same time, he felt the humiliation of being ignored.
There was only one thing harder to take than getting trampled: someone who couldn’t even be bothered to trample you.
“Your turn.” Su Yi glanced at Shang Luoyu.
The crowd’s hearts clenched. All of them realized that this young man from the Great Xia was one tough customer. When he wasn’t fighting, he was unassuming and unremarkable, extremely easy to overlook. However, the second he took action, he was domineering to the point that he didn’t know how to rein it in!
A serious look rose on Shang Luoyu’s face, but she wasn’t afraid. She met Su Yi’s gaze head-on, then rose to her feet, expression cold. “Even as a Xiantian Martial Ancestor, the Great Zhou’s Su Yi possesses the heaven-defying power to slay Origin Palace cultivators. I’m afraid you’re nowhere near his level.”
This statement won the approval of the vast majority of the guests.
Although they saw Su Yi as their enemy, none of them could deny Su Yi’s terrifying accomplishments.
It was just…
The corners of Hua Xinfeng’s lips twitched violently, and the urge to laugh was so strong that it hurt to suppress it.
She would never have guessed that Shang Luoyu would use Su Yi’s accomplishments as a bludgeon to belittle Su Yi…..
Su Yi’s gaze was a bit strange too. “Oh? I’ll give you a chance to attack first, too.”
He’d done the same for Qin Fu, only to effortlessly suppress him.
Yet now, even though his opponent was the Grain Avoidance Realm Shang Luoyu, he made the exact same offer. His relaxed bearing shook those present, and they realized something wasn’t quite right here.
“Hah?” Shang Luoyu’s face frosted over. Throughout her years of cultivation, she’d never once encountered someone so wildly arrogant.
“Swords and sabers are merciless. You’d best watch out,” said Shang Luoyu. She was just about to attack when—
Qin Dongxu suddenly laughed and said, “That’s enough. Our young friend from the Great Xia has already proven his strength. Any further sparring will only lead to conflict.”
Su Yi furrowed his brow, but Hua Xinfeng immediately appeared beside him and transmitted, “Young Lord, revealing too much strength won’t do us any good either; it could easily put these old-timers on guard against us. We’ll have ample opportunities to harvest trophies once we’ve entered the Sea of Chaotic Spirits.”
In her eyes, the prominent figures in attendance had already become trophies…
Even as she transmitted this message, Hua Xinfeng got her expression under control and said in a calm, proud voice, “Senior Qin, does that mean my brother and I have earned your recognition?”
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Qin Dongxu burst into laughter, then swept his gaze across the jade platform. “I trust that none of my Fellow Daoists have any objections?”
If even Qin Dongxu agreed, who could possibly object? It was settled.
Shang Luoyu fell silent, then returned to her seat. However, whenever her gaze landed on Su Yi, her eyes glinted with sharp, cold light.
…..
Late that night.
Su Yi and Hua Xinfeng left Celestial Waters Mountain Villa and returned to their residence in the Dongfu Prefectural Capital.
“You borrowed the Pomegranate Flame Monarch’s name tonight,” asked Su Yi as they made their way back. “That wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision, was it?”
The moon was bright, but there were only a few scattered stars visible overhead, and there were few pedestrians walking the city streets.
“It wasn’t,” admitted Hua Xinfeng. “But you can rest assured. The Pomegranate Flame Monarch has already returned to the Great Xia. Even if she finds out about this, she won’t make trouble for us any time soon.”
She then smiled faintly and said, “Of course, I’m well aware that you’re not afraid of any such thing. You must have asked that because you think I tell too many lies, and you suspect I’m untrustworthy. Am I right?”
Su Yi shook his head. “You’re wrong. I don’t care about that. I just want to warn you. Your appearance is fake, your name is fake, and you conduct your business with a mixture of truth and lies. None of that matters to me in the least, so long as you don’t cross my bottom line.”
Hua Xinfeng blinked in a daze, then asked curiously. “Then what is your bottom line?”
“Betrayal,” said Su Yi casually.
She instantly smiled. “Young Lord, rest assured. While we’re working together on this operation, there’s no way I’ll entertain any duplicitous thoughts.”
Su Yi said no more. He just put his hands behind his back and continued ahead.
Hua Xinfeng hurried after him. However, as she watched Su Yi’s back, there was a newfound thread of curiosity in the depths of her gaze.
At tonight’s banquet, Su Yi saw through Qin Fu and Shang Luoyu’s secrets at a glance. That gave Hua Xinfeng an enormous shock.
And his disguise technique was even more shocking and exquisite. Despite the grandeur of tonight’s banquet and the sharp gazes of the numerous experts in attendance, not one had picked up on anything out of the ordinary.
All of this had piqued Hua Xinfeng’s curiosity.
As the grand elder of the Ten Directions Pavilion’s Great Zhou branch, she’d gathered practically every available piece of information about Su Yi.
His origins, his background, what he’d been through, every battle he’d fought, both big and small, all the way down to his temperament, his likes and dislikes, and his cultivation... She’d researched them all so many times, she’d lost track.
She’d once suspected that Su Yi was possessed, but when Su Yi fought the Su Family in the skies above the Jade Capital, she promptly rejected that conjecture.
If he’d really been possessed, why would he seek revenge against the Su Family, heedless of the potential consequences?
But what Hua Xinfeng really didn’t understand was why the more she researched Su Yi’s past, the more numerous his secrets seemed. He was like an impenetrable bundle of mysteries.
Now, after traveling with Su Yi personally, Hua Xinfeng realized something. The more time one spent with Su Yi, the more unbelievable he seemed. It was impossible to even gauge just how much he was hiding.
Now, there was a certain truth Hua Xinfeng had no choice but to acknowledge—
Su Yi had already thoroughly piqued her curiosity, to the point that she couldn’t stop thinking about him. It was like drinking. The more you drank, the more muddle-headed you got….
I can’t fall like this! Once they’d returned to their temporary residence, Hua Xinfeng took a deep breath and warned herself, You have to keep your curiosity under control!
Curiosity killed the cat, and curiosity could lead to a woman’s downfall!
Hua Xinfeng most certainly did not want to unwittingly fall into that trap.
Su Yi had no idea that Hua Xinfeng was having so many thoughts about him. He was currently meditating.
Not long ago, at Heaven’s Origin Academy, he refined a batch of Yin-Yang Nine Purities Pills. Only five remained.
If he continued taking one a day, he’d finish tempering his xiantian qi within five days. Then, he could attempt to break into the Grain Avoidance Realm.
The Grain Avoidance Realm was the first of the Three Realms of the Origin Dao.
It was also the true start of the path of cultivation.
One’s success or failure at establishing firm foundations in the Grain Avoidance Realm would affect one’s entire future path.
At a fundamental level, the goal of the Four Realms of the Martial Dao was preparing to step into the Grain Avoidance Realm.
When Su Yi reincarnated and began his cultivation anew, he started with the Peerless Martial Emperor’s Pine and Crane Body Refining Technique, the top foundational technique of the Wilds. First, he achieved full spiritual awakening of the acupoints, followed by opening his Hidden Meridian and achieving the spiritual light of the Five Aggregates. His foundations in the Grand Dao were enough to shock any era, past or present.
Furthermore, the power of the Sword of the Nine Hells resonated every time he achieved a qualitative breakthrough, sublimating his foundations at every step.
It was no exaggeration to say that his current foundations in the Four Realms of the Martial Dao far surpassed his past self at the same stage. The Nine Provinces of the Wilds were home to billions of cultivators, yet his accomplishments were without equal.
All of this hard work was in preparation for stepping into the first realm of the Origin Dao!
The name “Grain Avoidance” referred to casting off the fetters of mundane food. Grain Avoidance cultivators could subsist on light and morning dew, and they refined origin energy to strengthen themselves.
This was what it meant to “avoid the products of mortal kitchens.”
Grain Avoidance cultivators could drink molten gold and eat silver essence. They could breathe in the origin energy of heaven and earth, control the clouds, and ride the mists. They could travel through both air and seas, summoning wind and lightning, and they feared neither fire nor water.
It was for these reasons that the people of the mundane world called them “Earthly Immortals.”
In the eyes of cultivators, those who reached this realm had stepped onto the path of the Grand Dao. They could cast off the shackles of their short mortal lifespans, increasing their longevity to three hundred years.
To Su Yi, this realm was of the utmost importance.
Even trees big enough to wrap one’s arms around were once sprouts.
Nine-story buildings arose from layers of dirt.
The Grain Avoidance Realm was the beginning of the Grand Dao, the root of cultivation. How could a tree extend into the heavens without first planting firm roots?
I wonder what grade of origin power seed I’ll form when I step into the Grain Avoidance Realm? As he cultivated, Su Yi couldn’t help but yearn for it.
When one became a Grain Avoidance cultivator, they planted an origin power seed within their body. The higher its grade, the firmer one’s foundations.
In the Nine Provinces of the Wilds, different orthodoxies graded origin power seeds according to different standards and called them by different names.
For example, Buddhists called them Nirvana Roots, which were divided into nine leaves. Each leaf represented a world.
Daoists called them Origin Sources, which they divided into three types and nine classes.
Demonic cultivators were even more direct; they divided them into two categories, demonic, and not demonic.
However, there was one thing all peak-level orthodoxies could agree on: “Dao Seeds” were the strongest kind of origin power seed.
A Dao Seed was an origin power seed that contained the charm of the Dao.
Those who obtained Dao Seeds upon entering the Grain Avoidance Realm were seen as natural-born cultivation geniuses, and they were rare, less than one in a thousand.
The appearance of a Dao Seed depended on the individual.
The strongest among them could, during breakthroughs, trigger heavenly and earthly phenomena that resonated with the Grand Dao, causing miraculous and inscrutable phenomena within the seed itself.
Some Dao Seeds could manifest mountains and rivers or moons and stars, while others manifested all miraculous and profound treasures. Some even condensed totems of thunder, lightning, wind, or rain…
Each had their own mysterious power, like a unique talent. Such cultivators’ foundations and power far surpassed their peers.
However, to Su Yi, as rare as such Dao Seeds were, they weren’t what he wanted.
He’d reincarnated to strive for the strongest Dao Seed possible!