Chapter 108 - 81: The Sword Immortal Slays the Emperor

Chapter 108: Chapter 81: The Sword Immortal Slays the Emperor

The Nujiang River changed its course, submerging the Imperial Mausoleum and flooding the land for hundreds of miles. Su Chen walked on the water, heading back the way he came, toward Jinjiang City.

He couldn’t find her.

Still, he couldn’t find her.

Gazing toward the banks by Jinjiang City, he couldn’t even see Cyan Sparrow’s Longevity Fire.

He did, however, find Little Turtle.

Little Turtle, the color of black jade, cut through the waves toward him. It bit Su Chen’s trouser leg, spinning around frantically and gesturing anxiously about something.

Su Chen understood, but he refused to believe it.

Cyan Sparrow... had been swept away by the flood.

Soon.

Su Chen followed Little Turtle to the riverbank outside Jinjiang City. There lay a shattered carriage and hundreds, even thousands, of bloated corpses.

Su Chen searched through them, one by one.

Not her.

Still not her.

Not a single one was Cyan Sparrow.

"Did she... die?"

Su Chen asked Little Turtle.

Little Turtle lowered its head, not daring to answer.

"No, it can’t be."

’A monstrous wave... it could fell a First-Grade master, but it couldn’t possibly harm a Cultivator...’

Su Chen walked over and broke off a bone from one of the corpses. He reverted to his true form—a youth like an Immortal, clad in the Muddy World Profound Robe.

Tree Whiskers surged.

He activated Soul Fusion Remembrance.

No image of Cyan Sparrow.

Next.

He activated Soul Fusion Remembrance.

Hope flickered in Su Chen’s heart.

’Perhaps.’

’Little Turtle saw wrong.’

One after another. Su Chen let out pained grunts as the flood of countless chaotic memories washed over him, making him struggle to remember who he was.

But he kept checking, one after another.

After a long while.

He saw it.

And fell silent.

...

A carriage was parked by the mountains. A young woman in a Cyan Robe gazed toward the Imperial Mausoleum, as if waiting for her beloved.

The Nujiang River churned, its main channel diverting. A Copper Coffin emerged, its chains shattering.

A shard of metal shot out, piercing the young woman’s heart and shattering the carriage. The great river swelled, its waves devouring the sky, and swept her body into its depths.

She was dead.

Vanished in life, her body lost in death.

...

On the bank of the Jin River, amidst piles of hundreds and thousands of corpses, the immortal-like youth in the Muddy World Profound Robe leaned against the ruined carriage. His eyes were vacant, and he remained there, stunned, for a long, long time.

Daylight came and went, then came and went again.

But the bright sunlight, it seemed, could no longer reach the youth’s heart.

How ironic.

To protect Cyan Sparrow, he had first rejected Crown Prince Jie, then backed Long Xuanjun. He had rushed to the Jin River to slay an emperor, but in the end, a single oversight meant he would never see his Cyan Sparrow again.

’Interfering with imperial power, interfering with imperial power.’

Su Chen was no longer sure if he had wanted to interfere with imperial power for the Wish of All Living Beings needed for his First-Grade Ceremony to become an Extreme Realm Grandmaster, or simply to protect his Little Cyan Sparrow.

But now, it was all meaningless.

He was all alone again.

"At least."

"I have to find her."

"And give her a proper burial..."

The sky remained perpetually gloomy.

Su Chen searched along both banks of the river, searched in the river’s waters. He searched and searched for so long that he even lost his Sword Box.

He paid no mind to the world’s changing tides or the turbulent state of affairs, nor did he go to the Jin River to cause trouble for the Flame Emperor.

From the end of the third year of the Xuanlong Dynasty to the end of the fourth, he searched, clad in a straw cloak and a conical hat.

A year had passed.

He had not found her.

’Can’t I even give her a burial?’

Su Chen looked up at the sky.

It began to rain.

Along the banks of the Jin River, tens of thousands of corpses had rotted and stunk, turning into piles of white bones. For a year, no one had tended to them.

The world had fallen into chaos.

Human life was the cheapest thing of all.

On the riverbank, Su Chen sat. At his feet, Little Turtle was curled up, biting his trouser leg, terrified of being lost again. It had stayed with him the entire time.

Just then, a black-canopied boat came drifting down the river.

Aboard it was a withered, white-haired figure.

His eyes were cloudy. He was holding a Sword Box and leading a young child.

"It’s been a year."

"Have you found what you were looking for?"

Su Chen did not answer.

"It is a fine sword."

"I’ve heard that to obtain this sword, Xu the Thief bathed the Sword Cleansing Pool in blood, creating a feud to the death between the Western Depot and generations of Sword-Cleansing Cultivators."

"Though Xu the Thief’s actions were despicable, it would be best if Lord Su did not betray the sentiment behind this sword."

The black-canopied boat docked.

The withered, white-haired figure placed the Sword Box beside Su Chen.

Soul Fusion Remembrance was not a power to be used carelessly.

Including his past life, Su Chen had only about fifty years of experience, yet he had fused with the memories of a thousand people. Even though they were all mortals, the influx had washed away his own sense of self.

Gradually, he forgot everything. All he remembered was that he was by this river, searching for the name of someone very important.

He had forgotten who it was.

Now, the arrival of the black-canopied boat startled Su Chen’s own memories back to life.

’Who is Xu the Thief?’

’This sword is mine!’

’Sentiment?’

’Whose sentiment!’

A ripple passed through Su Chen’s eyes.

He looked over.

Inside the Sword Box, the Dust-Washing Sword lay quietly, its divine light contained within.

Vaguely.

He seemed to see a figure in a Big Red Python Robe, brewing tea for him and presenting this blood-soaked sword, saying earnestly...

"Master Su deserves the finest sword!"

On the riverbank, before the black-canopied boat, the immortal-like youth in the Muddy World Profound Robe clutched his head in agony as a thousand chaotic memories collided in his mind.

"Who am I?"

"Butcher Zhang from West Street in Jinjiang City? No, I’m Xuu Sanniang from the Brocade Pavilion... that’s not right either, I’m a porter from Jinjiang Pier..."

"AHHH!"

Su Chen looked up, his expression frantic. He stared at the withered, white-haired figure before him and asked, word by word,

"WHO! AM! I!"

BOOM!

The Jin River began to boil, its waves surging as if to capsize the black-canopied boat.

"You are Lord Su!"

"Lord Su, head of the Three Dukes of Great Liang!"

"The Wind Snow Sword Immortal, the most famous cultivator in the world."

"You once stood atop the Heaven-Ascension Tower and stunned the world with a single strike, sending a Grandmaster to his death and forcing a hundred First-Grade Minor Grandmasters to bow their heads, silencing the world!"

"You once reminisced with the world’s foremost Grandmaster in a pavilion, and with one slash, you broke the spine of the Great Zhou Dynasty."