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Jiang Yingliu’s sudden attack was beyond the crowd’s expectations.
But the old butcher couldn’t help but laugh. Ambushing Old Monster Su? She’s simply seeking death!
Su Yi’s gaze was typically as tranquil as the depths of an ancient well, but the moment Jiang Yingliu launched an attack at him, his eyes rippled with a hint of emotion.
Both the aura emanating from Jiang Yingliu and her legacy of the Dao of the Sword were far, far too familiar.
So familiar that he didn’t even need to think to know how to counter them.
Su Yi stood there, unmoving. He used his fingers as a sword and swept through the air.
Bang!
It was as if a boulder had plunged from the heavens, landing in the center of a tranquil lake and stirring up massive waves.
Jiang Yingliu suddenly shook mid-charge.
Then, her power of the Grand Dao deflated like a popped ball. She shook violently and staggered several steps back.
The look on her beautiful face changed dramatically, and she couldn’t help but shout, “How is this possible!?”
Her voice was full of unconcealed disbelief.
Her attack might have seemed simple, but it had been so sudden that Su Yi had no room for error, yet he’d targeted her weak points with perfect precision!
How could Jiang Yingliu be anything but astounded?
In all her days of cultivation, this was her first time encountering anything so unbelievable!
When the onlookers saw this, they were too astonished for words.
It was already unbelievable that Su Yi had slain an Emperor like Ye Jing in a single slash.
But now, he’d countered Jiang Yingliu’s ambush with a single strike. Jiang Yingliu, Pi Mo’s disciple! This was so astounding that the crowd’s minds went blank.
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They couldn’t even begin to imagine how a Spiritual Revolution Realm cultivator could possibly possess such heaven-defying power.
“All I can say is, with your attainments in the Dao of the Sword, you cannot wield such a high-level legacy effectively,” whispered Su Yi. It seemed he was losing interest.
But this sentence seemed to provoke Jiang Yingliu, and she uncharacteristically lost control. “I don’t believe it!”
She cultivated the Abstruse Spiritual Essence Pearl Scripture. This supreme Daoist canon was the work of the founder of her lineage, the Swordmaster of Abstruse Force. It was ranked among the Wilds’ top ten Imperial Apex Daoist scriptures!
It didn’t just include a complete cultivation method for each realm of cultivation; it included corresponding legacies of the Dao of the Sword.
With this legacy, Jiang Yingliu had established an illustrious reputation for herself. Even Emperors of the same realm were rarely a match for her!
Yet now, a Spiritual Revolution Realm young man was saying that she was unworthy of the Abstruse Spiritual Essence Pearl Scripture. How could she possibly tolerate that?
Whoosh!
Jiang Yingliu attacked once more. She raised her fair hand, and an incomparably dazzling streak of sword qi swept forth like a bolt of clock. It seemed as if the inscrutable Laws of the Profound Dao were playing out endlessly within it, and it was as forceful and momentous as could be.
The Transient Sword Jade Light!
When Su Yi saw this attack, he couldn’t help but feel increasingly melancholy.
In his past life, only his youngest disciple, Qing Tang, had understood the true Abstruse Spiritual Essence Pearl Scripture on a deep level. She’d cultivated this Daoist canon to the peak of perfection, to the point that her mastery of it surpassed even his.
Su Yi vividly remembered that Qing Tang had once specifically sought out his guidance in regards to the profundities of the Transient Jade Sword Light.
At the time, all he had to do was point her in the right direction. Qing Tang didn’t just fully grasp the technique’s secrets; she even used it as a foundation to blaze a new trail and create all-new variations!
Her talent for the Dao of the Sword had deeply astonished even Su Yi.
A long time had passed since then. It was easy to imagine how melancholy Su Yi felt when he saw Jiang Yingliu use this familiar technique.
However, his movements didn’t slow.
As Jiang Yingliu’s slash descended, he clenched his hand into a fist, then suddenly stepped forward and punched.
Boom!!
The illusory, jade-like sword qi dispersed with a bang on impact.
He’d punched through it, like an axe through rotting wood.
Jiang Yingliu’s delicate frame flew back like a kite with its strings cut, and she landed over a hundred feet away.
Her face was as white as paper, and bright red blood flowed from the corners of her mouth. Bewilderment and disbelief were written all over her face, as if she couldn’t accept what was happening.
“Impossible
 This is impossible
” Jiang Yingliu muttered despondently, as if she’d lost her soul.
She could more clearly than anyone that Su Yi hadn’t broken through her inheritance of the Dao of the Sword with overwhelming force.
No, it was as if he could sense her technique’s weaknesses and neutralize her attack with ease!
This came as no mere shock; it was simply astonishing!
She felt as if her abilities, and all of her secrets, had been laid bare before Su Yi. How terrifying was that?
When they saw what had happened to Jiang Yingliu, the crowd’s hearts shook without end.
Everyone could tell that Pi Mo’s disciple had suffered an enormous shock, to the point that it seemed she’d lost control.
However, when they imagined how any other Emperor would feel if a Spiritual Revolution cultivator had repeatedly neutralized their attacks, they understood. A blow like that really was difficult to accept.
Only the old butcher was accustomed to this sort of thing.
A grand-disciple going up against their master’s master was just asking for a beating.
“Tell me your goal, and I can leave you a path to life,” said Su Yi.
Jiang Yingliu’s expression was bleak.
A little while later, she took a deep breath, then said calmly, “I said it earlier: there are no cowards in the Grotto of Abstruse Force. I lost today. Kill me or skin me if you please; I won’t so much as furrow my brow!”
She spoke with firm conviction. The crowd couldn’t help but look moved.
Su Yi stared intently at her, then turned to look at Ye Donghe. “Do you have anything to say?”
Ye Donghe suddenly looked up, then swept his gaze across his clansmen and rasped, “Are you really going to let an outsider humiliate me in our clan’s Ancestral Hall?”
There was a disturbance amongst the Ghost Serpents’ ranks. Even Ye Zishan and the young woman in the ink-black skirt looked hesitant.
If they just let Su Yi kill Ye Donghe, it wouldn’t matter why he’d done it; Su Yi would become enemies with the entire Ghost Serpent Race!
Su Yi glanced at the old butcher. “Let her out.”
The old butcher promptly waved his sleeves.
A delicate figure fell to the floor. This was none other than the Empress of the Blood Pheasants, Xiang Tian.
When Jiang Yingliu saw her, her expression darkened. She finally understood why Ye Tianqu had made it back to Tianya City alive.
Ye Donghe couldn’t help but react too.
Su Yi looked at Xiang Tian. “Tell me who put you up to assassinating Ye Tianqu, and who told you to seize the Ancestral Jade Seal. So long as you tell the truth, I’ll let you live.”
Xiang Tian was obviously weak and in low spirits. She scanned the area, and when she saw that Jiang Yingliu was injured and that Ye Donghe had been forced to his knees, her heart sank.
She realized that not even Jiang Yingliu and Ye Donghe would be able to save her!
Xiang Tian took a deep breath, lowered her head, and said bitterly, “I was acting on Her Excellency Jiang Yingliu’s orders. She said that Third High Elder Ye Donghe of the Ghost Serpents was planning something big and that she needed me to deal with Ye Tianqu and bring back his Ancestral Jade Seal.”
The entire hall was instantly in uproar.
Ye Zishan and the others, who moments prior had sympathized with Ye Donghe, couldn’t help but be enraged.
A high elder of the Ghost Serpents had colluded with Pi Mo’s disciple to send outsiders to target his own clansman? How insidious was that?
How was that any different from killing a clansman directly?
The way the Ghost Serpents looked at Ye Donghe instantly changed.
“Lies and slander! Everyone, don’t believe a word that witch says!” Ye Donghe was beside himself with fury.
Xiang Tian couldn’t help but snap, “Daoist Brother, you ought to take responsibility for your actions. You’re a Profound Serenity expert, but you don’t even have the courage for that? Do you really need me to take out proof?”
Proof!
Even Su Yi couldn’t help but be surprised. I didn’t think this Xiang Tian woman had something like that up her sleeves.
But then, Jiang Yingliu let out a long sigh. “Fellow Daoist, the trend is no longer in our favor. It doesn’t matter whether she has proof or not; you and I will find it difficult to escape calamity this time.”
She paused, then said calmly, “But I don’t regret what I’ve done, nor do I think I was wrong to do this! Had the Ghost Serpents selected a new leader at today’s conference, it would have quelled their internal unrest. I trust that that’s just what every member of the Ghost Serpents hopes to see.”
She’d effectively admitted that Xiang Tian was telling the truth!
Ye Donghe’s lips quivered, but in the end, he slumped in dejection and said nothing.
The older-generation Ghost Serpents were both surprised and furious.
“And what exactly were you after?” asked Su Yi.
After a moment’s silence, Jiang Yingliu said, “I wanted to use this as an opportunity to retrieve our founder’s sword from the Ghost Serpents!”
Su Yi was stunned. He would never have guessed that this woman was targeting the Tiny Heart of the Cosmos!
Throughout the hall, the crowd was bewildered and uncertain. Many of them felt confused.
“How could the Ghost Serpents possibly have your founder’s weapon?” the young woman in the skirt as black as ink couldn’t help but ask.
Jiang Yingliu said calmly, “You don’t know about this, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Rather, with your statuses, you aren’t qualified to learn this secret. If it weren’t for the sake of obtaining our founder’s sword, why would I intervene in the Ghost Serpents’ affairs?”
Even the old butcher couldn’t help but feel stunned; not even he had known that Su Yi had left his sword here!
“Uncle, is this true?” Ye Zishan looked at Ye Donghe.
Ye Donghe slumped and said bleakly, “It’s true. Throughout the Ghost Serpent Clan, only Ancestor Ye Yu and I know this secret. According to Ancestor Ye Yu, the Swordmaster of Abstruse Force left it here himself, temporarily entrusting it to our care.”
The entire hall was instantly in uproar.
To the prominent older-generation Ghost Serpents in attendance, this was an unquestionably shocking secret. They only now realized that there were secret ulterior motives behind the push to select a new leader!
And Su Yi finally understood.
He’d already deduced that Jiang Yingliu was most likely trying to get into the Ghost Serpent’s Ancestral Forbidden Ground.
And only the leader of the Ghost Serpents was qualified to enter the Ancestral Forbidden Ground, and only if they first gathered the four Ancestral Jade Seals.
That was why Jiang Yingliu had allied herself with Ye Donghe.
But although Su Yi had already figured that part out, he only now realized why she wanted to go there: she was after the Tiny Heart of the Cosmos!
“Did your master, Pi Mo, tell you to do this?” asked Su Yi.
Jiang Yingliu froze, then said, “As an inheritor of the Grotto of Abstruse Force, since I learned this secret, I naturally must do everything in my power to bring our founder’s weapon back to the sect!”
Su Yi furrowed his brow as he realized that Jiang Yingliu must have decided on this course of action for herself.
It was then that a commotion rang out beyond the grand hall.
Immediately afterward, a grave, imposing voice emanated from outside.
“Just who dared barge into Ghost Serpent Territory and cause a ruckus!?”
Every word clanged like metal against metal, brimming with murderous intent, shaking the heart and soul.
Before this voice had even finished echoing through the air, a tall, stalwart figure shot into the Ancestral Hall like a beam of dazzling divine light.