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Su Yi!?
Practically simultaneously, Blueriver Sword Manor’s Mu Cangtu and Elder Zhou Huaiqiu froze, rooted to the spot.
The softshell turtle suddenly stopped, and Su Yi rose from his wicker chair. His gaze landed on Yuan Wutong. “Family Head Yuan, long time no see.”
Yuan Wutong was Yuan Luoxi and Luan Luoyu’s father, the head of the Yuan Family. They’d gotten acquainted during Su Yi’s time in the prefectural capital.
“Master Su, is it really you?” Yuan Wutong’s face filled with excitement.
Su Yi smiled, put away his wicker chair, and led his companions off the back of the giant turtle. “Yuan Heng, I’ll leave this place to you.”
The softshell turtle was none other than Yuan Heng. He nodded his assent. “Yes, sir!”
“Family Head Yuan, I only just returned to the Great Zhou. On my way here, all I saw were ravaged landscapes and beacon fires. Might we perhaps enter the city for a chat?”
Yuan Wutong nodded repeatedly. “Alright.”
With that, the group proceeded directly into the Cloudriver Prefectural Capital.
Meanwhile, ten thousand beasts remained prostrate and trembling.
Mu Cangtu, Zhou Huaiqiu, and the other Cloudriver Prefectural Capital higher-ups all watched Su Yi and his companions disappear through the city gates. Their hearts shook, and a long time passed before they came to their senses.
The giant softshell turtle that was Yuan Heng swept his gaze across the countless spirit beasts lying prostrate before him. “From this day forth, none of you are to approach this city. Otherwise, this lofty one will crush your homes beneath his feet. Scram!”
His low voice rumbled like thunder, reverberating throughout heaven and earth.
The prostrate spirit beasts reacted as if they’d received an imperial pardon. All turned and fled in panic.
In just a few blinks of an eye, they’d disappeared over the horizon. The area around the Cloudriver Prefectural Capital was now empty save for the corpses and pooled blood the beasts left behind.
Whoosh!
Yuan Heng returned to his human form. Then, without so much as glancing at the dazed human martial artists, he walked right through the city gates.
“Was that young man really Su Yi?” After a while, Elder Zhou Huaiqiu of Blueriver Sword Manor muttered in a daze.
“Who but the Great Zhou’s imperial preceptor could possibly have such a magnificent bearing?” said Sect Leader Mu Cangtu with a sigh and a conflicted look on his face.
Su Yi!
He was once the top disciple of Blueriver Sword Manor’s outer sect, but when he lost his cultivation, his former sect kicked him to the curb, and he became the live-in son-in-law of Guangling City’s Wen Family.
Who’d have thought that after a year of dormancy, the “crippled” young man would achieve a shocking victory at the Dragon’s Gate Banquet?
That day marked the young man’s rapid ascent, the start of his legendary path of cultivation.
In just a few months, he became the imperial preceptor of the Great Zhou, a household figure, and the most dazzling genius of the nation’s younger generation.
At the Imperatorial Province’s Western Mountain Tea Party, he cut down a group of experts, single-handedly taking charge of the situation!
In the skies above the Jade Capital, he suppressed the head of the Su Family and destroyed the Unknown Dragons of the Great Zhou’s imperial family.
In the Great Wei, he and his sword forced the Wheel of the Moon Sect, the nation’s top faction, to lower its head in defeat!
Tales of these legendary accomplishments still circulated throughout the Great Zhou. Who
 could possibly forget him?
“Wasn’t he rumored to have left the Great Zhou a long time ago? Didn’t he go all the way to the incomparably distant Great Xia?” Family Head Zhang Zhiyan asked in a daze.
Early in the seventh lunar month, Su Yi disappeared from the Great Zhou; it was as if he’d evaporated into the thin air. There’d been no word of him since.
Who’d have thought that this legendary figure would return, appearing before the Cloudriver Prefectural Capital like a deity?
“He’s come back! And it seems he’s
 even stronger than before!” Mu Cangtu said gravely.
The softshell turtle had, with a single roar, suppressed a vast army of spirit beasts, effortlessly saving the prefectural capital from disaster.
What level of terrifying power did that represent?
Yet the turtle was just Su Yi’s mount.
From this, it was easy to guess that after several months away, Su Yi had become incredibly powerful.
“Come on, let’s go greet Su
” Mu Cangtu paused, then said, “His Excellency Su Yi!”
When Zhou Huaiqiu heard his sect leader change how he referred to Su Yi, he felt a bit dazed.
Not long ago, Su Yi had been nothing more than an outer sect disciple of Blueriver Sword Manor, and had then been kicked out after losing his cultivation. This had made him a laughingstock.
Yet now, even Mu Cangtu, the leader of Blueriver Sword Manor, could only gaze upon him from afar!

.
That very night, the Cloudriver Prefectural Capital was in uproar.
The imperial preceptor of the Great Zhou, the most dazzling genius of the younger generation, had disappeared for months. When he reappeared, the power of his mount alone was enough to suppress an entire army of spirit beasts, ending a battle that had raged for three days straight and saving the city!
This news spread throughout every corner of the city at shocking speeds, causing countless exclamations and shouts for joy

The ninth floor of the House of Prosperity, the Mountain and River Palace.
When he sat in this familiar room, Su Yi couldn’t help but feel rueful.
He thought back to his last time here, when he and Huang Qianjun left Guangling City. On their first night in the Cloudriver Prefectural Capital, he invited siblings Feng Xiaofeng and Feng Xiaoran to the House of Prosperity for a meal.
Using the purple jade token Xiao Tianque gave him, he got them into the ninth floor’s Mountain and River Palace.
He’d killed quite a few people here, too.
Thinking back to those days now, how could Su Yi not be emotional?
The dining room was thoroughly illuminated, and a sumptuous feast was laid out across the table.
Yuan Wutong, Mu Cangtu, Zhou Huaiqiu, Zhou Zhiyan, and the other top experts of the prefectural capital sat on one side.
Whenever they glanced at Su Yi, their expressions filled with unconcealable respect.
“You’re saying that all the changes to the Great Zhou happened within the past month?” Su Yi said thoughtfully.
“That’s right.” Yuan Wutong hurriedly nodded. “Aside from the calamitous beast waves, numerous otherworld cultivators have invaded. There’s no doubt that the current strongest otherworld faction is the Celestial Prison Demon Court.”
The Celestial Prison Demon Court? Su Yi’s eyebrows shot up. For some reason, that name seemed familiar.
Before long, he remembered: Chu Xiu, the Possessed, hailed from the Xuandu Continent’s Celestial Prison Demon Court!
He had Spiritual Manifestation Realm cultivation, and he’d refined a few demonic puppets as avatars.
Deep in the Sea of Chaotic Spirits, in the ruins of the Immortals’ Sword House, Su Yi had cut down one of them.
Then, in the Great Xia’s Nine Tripod City, Chu Xiu joined forces with Lei Feng and Ting He, two Spiritual Manifestation Realm cultivators of the Qingyi Dao Sect. The three of them attempted to trap and kill Su Yi.
Find the original at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.
In the end, Lei Feng and Ting He died, while Chu Xiu lost yet another demonic puppet.
At the time, the Xia Emperor ordered Chu Xiu’s arrest.
However, even with all the imperial family’s power, the Great Xia was unable to capture the incomparably crafty Possessed before Su Yi’s departure.
The Celestial Prison Demon Court hails from the Xuandu Continent, and its forces have already infiltrated the Great Zhou
 Is this connected to Chu Xiu? Su Yi’s brow furrowed slightly.
Chu Xiu knew full well that he was from the Great Zhou.
Back in Nine Tripod City, it was because he was concerned that the crafty and insidious Chu Xiu would proceed to the Great Zhou that he took two countermeasures.
The first was having Weng Jiu use the power of the imperial family to deliver a message to Heaven’s Origin Academy. In his message, he told Ning Sihua to lead his friends and family into the Sea of Chaotic Spirits, where they could seek refuge within the Immortals’ Sword House.
The second was sending Yuan Heng to deliver Mortal Edge and a message to Broken Dragon Cliff. The black flood dragon, Ying Que, then proceeded to the Sea of Chaotic Spirits personally, where he was to protect Ning Sihua and the others from the shadows.
Now, when he heard that the Celestial Prison Demon Court’s forces had spread throughout the Great Zhou, how could Su Yi not be concerned?
I’m just glad I made arrangements and sent everyone to take up residence in the Immortals’ Sword House. If they’d stayed within the Great Zhou’s borders, it’s hard to predict what the consequences would have been, thought Su Yi.
“Is the Celestial Prison Demon Court strong?” Ge Qian couldn’t help but ask.
“They are,” said Yuan Wutong gravely. “In less than half a month, this otherworld faction swept across the Great Zhou, occupying five of the Eight Great Yao Mountains!”
“What did they do that for?” asked Ge Qian.
“Apparently, the world’s changes have affected the Eight Great Yao Mountains the most. Every mountain is now overflowing with shocking spiritual energy, and quite a few long-buried ancient treasures have resurfaced,” said Mu Cangtu of Blueriver Sword Manor.
“They’ve got keen eyes,” said Su Yi. “As the spiritual energy of heaven and earth recovers, nowhere in the Great Zhou will benefit faster than the Eight Great Yao Mountains. As time passes, the perilous yao mountains will eventually transform into blessed grounds any cultivator would drool over.”
He’d ventured into Bloodthistle Yao Mountain and Treasure Temple Yao Mountain. He was naturally well aware that thirty thousand years ago, these so-called danger zones were the blessed grounds of ancient orthodoxies.
Take Treasure Temple Yao Mountain, for instance. It was originally the ancestral ground of the Prajna Meditation Garden!
When they heard this, Yuan Wutong and the others instantly felt enlightened.
“Your Excellency, recently, there have been rumors that the Celestial Prison Demon Court’s forces have already forced the Great Zhou’s imperial family and Hidden Dragon Sword Sect to submit. We now fear that the Great Zhou has already become an otherworld faction’s territory
”
Mu Cangtu sighed.
Su Yi wasn’t at all surprised by this, nor was he particularly emotional about it. “No one can stop these changes. Over the course of the next year, the world will only change even more. To cultivators, this is an unpredictable, stark transformation. Bloodshed and turmoil are sure to follow, as well as countless opportunities and strokes of fortune.”
He then swept his gaze across Yuan Wutong and the others. “For example, you’ve all been stuck in the Four Realms of the Martial Dao for years. Without some stroke of fortune, you’re unlikely to enter the Grain Avoidance Realm in this lifetime.”
The Grandmasters’ hearts shook, and they sank into contemplation.
After chatting a while longer, Su Yi rose and took his leave.
Too much had changed in the Great Zhou over the past month. There were all kinds of rumors floating around.
With Yuan Wutong and the others’ abilities and backgrounds, it was difficult to learn the truth about what was happening in the Great Zhou. They naturally couldn’t provide Su Yi with much in the way of worthwhile intelligence.
By the time they left the House of Prosperity, it was already dark out.
The streets of this formerly prosperous, bustling metropolis were all but deserted. What few pedestrians remained were all in a hurry.
There was no doubt that three days of an attacking beast tide had dealt an enormous blow to the prefectural capital.
This left Su Yi with no further desire to stroll through the city streets, so he decided to leave that very night.
“Hm?”
Just as Su Yi was pondering whether or not to head straight to Guangling City, he sensed something. He turned and looked further down the dark city streets.
An old man in black robes stood there, holding a Soul-Beckoning Banner.
When Su Yi looked over, the old man raised his head. His cracked lips curved into a sinister grin, and his turbid eyes shone with eerie green light.