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The fifth day of the fifth lunar month was destined to go down in the annals of the Azure Continent’s history.
When the battle before the Glittering Ghost Domain’s Starpluck Mountain ended, news spread as if it had grown wings, flying to every corner of the world.
The resulting waves shook the nation.
The Demonic Huan Family.
When they learned what had happened, the experts who’d remained behind to watch over the sect reacted as if they’d been struck by lightning.
“The heavens have forsaken the Huan Family!” an elder cried out in a voice rife with despair.
They’d long since prepared a banquet and all manner of fine wines to celebrate Huan Tiandu and company’s triumphant return.
Who’d have thought this terrible news would return instead? It came out of nowhere, like a thunderbolt from clear skies!
Throughout the clan, everyone, regardless of rank, was overcome with grief and despair.
…..
The Pure Emptiness Buddhist Sect.
An ear-piercing bell rang out continuously.
With each ring, the monks’ faces paled.
By the twenty-first ring, an almost suffocating, stifled atmosphere had enveloped the entire temple.
It was as if the monks had lost their souls. Their expressions were utterly bleak.
Each ring represented a fallen sectmate.
Twenty-one rings meant that every single expert who’d gone to the Glittering Ghost Domain to kill Su Yi had fallen in battle!
……
Tianji Dao Mountain.
“Thirty thousand years under the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness couldn’t destroy us, yet now… we've fallen to a single young man!” An elder lost his composure, shouting and crying as if he’d gone mad. “We’re finished! We’re completely finished…”
……
The Burning Sun Sect.
“Disperse, everyone, and take the sect’s treasures with you. But remember this: going forward, you are not to proclaim yourselves disciples of the Burning Sun Sect. If you do, you’ll only bring disaster upon yourselves,” said an elder, his expression wood. “From this day forth… the Burning Sun Sect no longer exists in this world…”
As he said those last few words, the old man’s lips quivered. In the end, he couldn’t stop his tears from falling.
He was an older-generation cultivator who’d seen his fair share of wind and rain, and he’d long since grown accustomed to the ups and downs of worldly affairs. He knew with absolute certainty that even if Su Yi didn’t act against them, in the days that followed, countless hungry wolves would swarm in, rip what remained of the Burning Sun Sect to shreds, and devour it completely.
……
As word of this defeat spread, the ancient factions with the accumulations to stand at the pinnacle of this world all descended into turmoil.
Similar scenes played out in the House of the Skywalking Sword, the Incarnation of Stars Sect, and the Tiandou Spirit Cult.
“So long as the Azure Continent has Su Yi, there’s no room for us to establish ourselves!”
“Let’s go! If we stay any longer, the smell of blood will send the sharks into a feeding frenzy. Some people are all too happy to throw rocks at those trapped at the bottom of a well…”
“Right and wrong, victory and defeat, how empty it all seems! And how tragic!”
“How is this ‘returning even grander than before’? What, did we not suffer a crushing enough defeat or lose enough people the first time?”
The three great otherworld factions sank into uproar. In the end, without so much as consulting with each other, all three made the same choice.
They left the Azure Continent!
……
In stark contrast, when the Deathbringer’s Netherworld Palace, Hidden Cloud Sword Mountain, and the Dongguo Family learned this, they rejoiced.
They rejoiced that, each for different reasons, they’d abstained from the battle against Su Yi. In doing so, they’d narrowly avoided calamity!
“I saw them build a tower, I saw them host a banquet for their guests, and I saw… the tower come crashing down. Worldly affairs are unpredictable indeed!”
The palace master of the Deathbringer’s Netherworld Palace sighed repeatedly.
On that day, cultivators everywhere descended into uproar.
All of them were discussing today’s battle, which would have been dazzling no matter the era it took place in.
There was one name they brought up far more than any other.
Su Yi!
Some called him “His Excellency”, while others referred to him as a “banished immortal.” Some lavished him with praises, while others were astonished at his power…
To the world’s other cultivators, Su Yi was a legend!
A figure straight out of myth.
A dashing and undefeated master of the Dao of the Sword!
He really was like an immortal banished from the heavens, a rare sight in the human world.
……
The Great Zhou.
It was already late at night, but the grand imperial palace was thoroughly lamplit.
A group of beautiful songstresses dressed in fine gauze danced, their slender figures flickering beneath the lamplight. Their dance was accompanied by drumbeats and joyous laughter.
Zhou Zhili watched from his throne, but he seemed unenthused, even lonely.
The populace honored him as their emperor, and he wielded massive authority. He reigned over the entire nation.
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But he understood loneliness better than anyone!
“Reporting!” An old eunuch rushed into the hall.
The revelry came to an abrupt halt, and the dancers paused mid-step.
“What is it?” Zhou Zhili furrowed his brow.
The elderly eunuch had just received a secret message from the Great Xia, which he proffered to the emperor.
When Zhou Zhili finished reading it, he was stunned.
A long time passed before he suddenly whapped his throne, threw back his head, and laughed excitedly. “From this day forth, Brother Su shall stand at the pinnacle of this tumultuous era!”
He rose in high spirits, laughing nonstop.
The old eunuch couldn’t help but sigh to himself. It’s… been a long time since His Majesty was so happy.
“Why are you just standing there? This is cause for celebration. Let the dancing and music continue!” Zhou Zhili’s voice boomed. “Tonight, we’re drinking to our heart’s content!”
When the elderly eunuch saw this, he hurriedly raised his voice and urged, “Quick! Keep playing! Keep dancing——!”
……
Late at night, inside a restaurant.
Lively discussions continued without end. All of the diners were discussing Su Yi’s battle with the seven allied factions.
Shen Li sat alone in a corner.
When he listened to the discussions, his heart swelled with emotion.
“A man and his sword destroyed the alliance of seven great factions, dominating the entire world. This Su Yi… really does seem like an immortal from on high.”
“But a legendary figure like that is ultimately just too far away from me.”
Shen Li sighed.
He was a minor figure on the path of cultivation, and he’d only just started to make a name for himself. He couldn’t even imagine how terrifying and majestic someone like Su Yi had to be.
Shen Li finished his drink in silence, rose, and left.
No matter how impressive Su Yi was, it had nothing to do with a small fry like him. To him, his own cultivation mattered most.
“If only I could meet the senior who taught me my cultivation technique again! Then, I could ask him questions about it.”
As he walked the streets, Shen Li couldn’t help but recall a certain tall, upright figure, calm, detached, and dressed in blue.
He still remembered that senior patting him on the shoulder and telling him that “on the morally ambiguous, lawless path of cultivation, you must first recognize your own strength, then stay true to yourself.”
It was that very senior who taught him the “Mysterious Embryo Demonic Chapter.”
Even now, Shen Li’s heart filled with gratitude whenever he thought about it.
In the eyes of the world at large, Su Yi is a banished immortal among men, but in my eyes, that senior is the true banished immortal, Shen Li muttered to himself. Alas, I don’t even know his name…
Many years would pass before Shen Li, by then an established major power with authority over an entire region, would learn that the senior he felt so grateful to and the “banished immortal” the people spoke of were one and the same.
Su Yi, the legend whose sword dominated thirty thousand years!
……
“Master, that’s Floating Immortal Ridge’s Grassy Creek Village. Cao Ping and Cao An live on the village’s western edge.”
“This village isn’t simple!”
Beneath the deep, clear darkness of the night, two figures appeared outside Grassy Creek Village.
One was an elder in dark Daoist robes. The other was a valiant-looking young man in white.
The elder’s eyes shone with a strange light. It was the middle of the night, but an invisible, auspicious air shrouded Grassy Creek Village, making it seem like an otherworldly paradise.
“You’re absolutely right, master. Starting last year, this remote, mundane village has transformed. The villagers have enjoyed prolonged longevity and good fortune, but that’s not all. No vicious beasts have attacked the village whatsoever, not even once,” said the young man in white. “Siblings Cao Ping and Cao An are particularly noteworthy: they’re like the village’s lucky charms. Rare and strange good fortune just keeps falling into their laps. At this point, the mortals throughout the surrounding hundred miles refer to them as ‘stars of good fortune’ from the heavens.”
The old man nodded. “This is fortune. Come, let’s go see the Cao Siblings’ residence.”
As he spoke, he led the way into Grassy Creek Village.
It was the middle of the night, and the villagers were all at rest. Only a few homes still lit their lamps.
As soon as they stepped into the village, the old man’s keen senses alerted him to something out of the ordinary. “Incredible! The leylines and even the force of the mountains have changed. They’re not gathering the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, but rather the fleeting and ethereal auspicious energies of the Grand Dao!”
This looked like a perfectly ordinary village, but because of this auspicious aura, it had become a blessed ground.
The elder couldn’t help but be moved. Just what kind of person had transformed a village’s feng shui to invite such prosperity?
“Master, that’s the Cao Siblings’ residence up ahead.”
The young man in white pointed into the distance.
It was a simple, crude courtyard with three straw huts, a cowshed, a vegetable garden, and a chicken coop.
One look at their residence and it was obvious that they were poor.
However, when the old man saw the courtyard, he stopped in his tracks, his gaze focused. Irrepressible shock arose on his face.
The auspicious air of the residence was subdued, like a dragon hiding in an abyss. There was no outward trace of it. Never mind ordinary people; even cultivators would struggle to detect it.
“Master, I heard that starting from last year, no shortage of cultivators have come here to investigate, but that without exception, they retreated in silence. None dared disturb this village’s peace,” exclaimed the white-robed young man with a cluck of his tongue. “Especially after the onset of the Radiant Epoch. Countless vicious yao and ghosts have appeared throughout Floating Immortal Ridge, but none dare act up in the village. It’s simply unbelievable!”
“Is that strange?” asked the old man. “It isn’t strange at all.”
He looked up at the red paper pasted above the doorway. Four characters were written on it:
Peace is a blessing.
Four perfectly ordinary characters, the kind you could have found anywhere.
But the handwriting had a simple, ancient charm, and the brushstrokes were forceful. Looking at it calmed the heart and mind; the more someone looked, the better they felt.
However, in the old man’s eyes, these four words contained inestimably boundless power. They were brimming with a boundless, auspicious, and profound charm!
For some inscrutable reason, his heart trembled, and he almost felt as if he weren’t looking at a line of text, but rather, a boundless world!
For a while, the old man stood there, expression shifting, eyes transfixed, and hands and feet quivering.