First Immortal of the Sword - Chapter 2756 - The Battle That Ended the Devastation
Chapter 2756 – The Battle That Ended the Devastation
“You’re a sword cultivator, too?”
This question was an answer in its own right.
The greatest warrior of the Jianghu, Xiao Zhixuan, called himself a sword cultivator!
Su Yi inclined his head. “That’s right.”
Xiao Zhixuan patted the hilt of his sword. “There are things a sword cultivator will do, and things he won’t. You might not be especially strong, but the way you treat ordinary mortals with equanimity is a rare thing indeed!”
Pu Xuan fell silent. Shockingly, he felt strange, invisible pressure emanating from Xiao Zhixuan!
It seemed unbelievable. He should have just been a swordsman of the mortal world, yet he seemed to possess extraordinary power.
Pu Xuan instantly recalled what Su Yi said earlier. Xiao Zhixuan really is different from the other three!
“Rare?” Su Yi laughed. “I just know that both on the River of Destiny and in the worlds and realms outside it, the vast majority of people live in the mundane world, and that the vast majority of cultivators originate there. Naturally, that includes me.”
He took a sip of wine. “In my eyes, the only difference between a mortal and a cultivator is their strength; neither is intrinsically superior.”
“Does that go for Heavenly Sovereigns, too?” asked Xiao Zhixuan.
Heavenly Sovereigns! Pu Xuan narrowed his eyes. If Xiao Zhixuan knows about Heavenly Sovereigns, that means there’s no way he’s just a swordsman of the mundane world!
“Buddhists say that all living beings are equal,” said Su Yi. “Why should I treat Heavenly Sovereigns any differently? The heavens are without compassion; to them, all living things are like straw dogs. I quite like that sentence, and I strive to treat all people equally, too.”
Xiao Zhixuan nodded. “A good sentence indeed. It provides ample food for thought.”
He gazed at the hundred thousand Tiger Warriors in the distance, then at Imperial Preceptor Lu Yuan, Shen Duqiu, and Yun Zhao’an. “I haven’t made any move to kill you because you haven’t killed anyone unnecessarily, nor have you made any trouble for any mortal living here. Furthermore, you aren’t simply putting on airs or looking upon them with pity; you truly see mortals and immortals as equals.”
Pu Xuan suddenly noticed that although Lu Yuan, Shen Duqiu, and Yun Zhao’an were nearby, none of them sensed what was happening.
It was as if they were in a separate world!
Pu Xuan was instantly solemn. Does that mean that this swordsman used a secret technique to create a separate space?
Pu Xuan currently had no cultivation base or divine sense, so he hadn’t sensed a thing. Still, the clues were enough for him to put the pieces together!
He couldn’t help but take another look at Su Yi. He knew that Su Yi must have realized the situation well before he did.
Xiao Zhixuan pointed to the nearby stele carved with the Divine Hunt Edict. “Could you grasp its mysteries?”
Su Yi said honestly, “I didn’t have enough time to contemplate it.”
Xiao Zhixuan sighed. “I have a strong premonition that I’m going to miss out on the good fortune here.”
An exasperated look appeared on his face.
But then, he stretched out his hand without the slightest politeness. “Give me a jug of wine.”
Su Yi tossed him one.
Xiao Zhixuan threw back his head and drank in great big gulps. His eyes lit up. “It’s been a long, long time since I last tasted the divine brews of the outside world.”
“How long?” Su Yi asked casually.
Xiao Zhixuan paused to think. “Eight thousand years? Ten thousand? Tens of thousands? I’ve forgotten. To me, there’s nothing less valuable than time.”
Pu Xuan gasped; he’d suddenly realized something.
Here in this mundane territory, every cultivator who entered was subject to the confines of the Laws and reduced to a mere mortal. Not even Heavenly Monarchs like Mu Qing were exempt!
Yet Xiao Zhixuan had lived in the Huaihuang Empire for an incredibly long time, and he could even use his cultivation base. That meant there were only two possibilities.
He was either a rare exception, an anomaly like Su Yi, or…. He was a Heavenly Sovereign!
Because only Heavenly Sovereigns could contend with the Laws of the mundane world!
Pu Xuan couldn’t help but sink deeper into silence. He couldn’t help but suspect the latter possibility. It seemed that this drunken swordsman wandering the red dust of mundanity was really…a Heavenly Sovereign!
Pu Xuan couldn’t even begin to describe how he was feeling.
The Blue Peak Continent had an incomplete Will of the Heavens, and its cultivation world was pathetically weak. Its cultivators’ cultivation bases weren’t even worth looking at.
It was the lowliest of the Eternal Heavens Domain’s territories, a remote backwater.
Who could have imagined that a Heavenly Sovereign would take up residence in the most unassuming locale in the Blue Peak Continent, a mundane nation?
Or that they’d just so happen to bump into him?
Pu Xuan’s thoughts raced. He was trying to figure out which of the nine Heavenly Sovereigns of the Eternal Heavens Domain hadn’t made an appearance in recent memory.
But in the end, he couldn’t come up with anything.
Because throughout the ages, all of the Heavenly Sovereigns had seldom revealed themselves. All were mysterious and elusive.
More importantly, Pu Xuan was formerly an inauspicious spirit. His only source of information was the cultivators of the Blue Peak Continent, so his understanding of the Eternal Heavens Domain as a whole was far, far too limited.
Even though he’d been traveling with Yu Guangjun and Mu Qing of True Martial Sword Court, he hadn’t learned much.
As Pu Xuan’s thoughts raced, Su Yi said, “Might you tell me about the good fortune of the Mountain of Bitter Rains?”
Xiao Zhixuan stared blankly at him. “You only gave me a single jug of wine. Do you think that’s enough to trade for such secrets?”
Su Yi took out another bottle of wine and passed it to him. “Two bottles, then.”
Xiao Zhixuan shook his head. “As much as I like wine, I’ve always disdained trading for it. You…”
But then, Su Yi took out another jug.
Xiao Zhixuan said irritably, “It doesn’t matter how many you bring out! There’s no way!”
This time, Su Yi took out ten jugs at once.
“There’s really no talking sense into you. Fine! It’s a deal!” Xiao Zhixuan waved his sleeve, pulling all of the jugs into his sleeves.
Pu Xuan’s jaw dropped. That really worked?
Xiao Zhixuan seemed to have been lonely for far too long, or perhaps, it had simply been far too long since he’d last drunk the divine brews of the outside world. He threw back his head, then explained between gulps of wine, “A ferocious sword called ‘Great Sorrow’ is suppressed at the base of the Mountain of Bitter Rains. They say that when it appears, heaven and earth will mourn with great sorrow!
“During the battle that ended the Devastation, there was also a competition over Eternal Thrones!
“During that battle, two Eternal Thrones were destroyed. One fell into the Abyss of Endless Tribulations, while the other was lost to the Sea of Fate. The remaining nine were claimed.
“And that sword, Great Sorrow, was the weapon that shattered one of the Eternal Thrones.”
Pu Xuan couldn’t help but feel astonished. Su Yi was quite surprised, too.
On his way to the Huaihuang Empire, he’d asked Mu Qing about the battle that ended the Devastation. However, even though Mu Qing was a Sword Monarch of True Martial Sword Court, he didn’t know the inside story.
Because the participants were Heavenly Sovereigns!
Others were in no way capable of getting involved.
All Mu Qing said was that the battle that ended the Devastation was, fittingly, dubbed the “End of the Devastation.”
The end of that battle marked a new era in the Eternal Heavens Domain’s History, the Age of the New Beginning.
Those Heavenly Sovereigns who survived the End of the Devastation became the nine supreme rulers of the Eternal Heavens Domain. One hundred thousand years had passed.
However, that was all Mu Qing knew. It wasn’t just him, either; everyone in the Eternal Heavens Domain knew that the details of the End of the Devastation were top secret.
All nine Heavenly Sovereigns’ lips were tightly sealed. None was willing to reveal any details of the battle.
The general populace just knew that these nine Heavenly Sovereigns who ushered in the Age of the New Beginning had emerged victorious in the End of the Devastation.
In light of that, Su Yi was naturally stunned to hear Xiao Zhixuan comment on the battle’s details.
“But it’s a pity. The master of Great Sorrow is already dead. The sword itself was damaged in the process of shattering an Eternal Throne,” said Xiao Zhixuan. He took a big gulp of wine and sighed. “Its master ought to have claimed a Heavenly Sovereign, but he ultimately perished during the competition over an Eternal Throne. With the last of his strength, he sacrificed himself to destroy the Eternal Throne in question completely. What a tragedy.”
Su Yi couldn’t help but ask, “Who was he?”
Xiao Zhixuan shook his head. “All of that is ancient history. No need to bring it up.”
He pointed at the stone stele, the one marked Divine Hunt. “As for why Great Sorrow is sealed here? And who placed that stele here to protect this place? Win the sword’s recognition, and you’ll naturally get your answers.”
Su Yi couldn’t help but exclaim, “Even with all your strength, you cannot take the sword away?”
Xiao Zhixuan awkwardly wiped the wine off his lips and scratched his head, looking a bit sheepish. “There’s nothing for it. I’m a sword cultivator, yes, but that vicious blade’s temperament is too strange and belligerent. It refuses to acknowledge me.”
He stamped his feet and sighed. “Over the years, I’ve immersed myself in the Jianghu of the Huaihuang Empire, all in hopes that my sincerity would move that vicious sword. I figured that so long as I kept at it, one day, it might well throw itself into my arms, but… it turns out that the sword is the ungrateful sort. I’ve wasted my time accompanying it all these years. All of my efforts were in vain.”
He sounded like a jilted lover.
Pu Xuan wanted to laugh, but he dared not do so for fear that this suspected Heavenly Sovereign would kill him on the spot. All he could do was force himself to keep a straight face and force his laughter back down.
Su Yi rubbed his nose and sank into thought.
Xiao Zhixuan’s identity was mysterious and extraordinary. There was no doubting that.
But Su Yi didn’t think he’d give up the good fortune he’d put all these years of effort into acquiring so easily.
Xiao Zhixuan took a sip of wine, then looked askance at Su Yi. “Are you afraid I’ll kill you to seize the treasure? Relax. The me standing before you is just an avatar, and my cultivation base is restricted here, too. I’m not much stronger than you.”
He tossed away the bottle he’d just finished, then grabbed another. “Of course, if you’re afraid, you’re welcome to give up. After all, who can force good fortune?”
Pu Xuan suddenly felt indescribable pressure. Having a mysterious old-timer like this set his sights on you was terrifying indeed.
But against Pu Xuan’s expectations, Su Yi decided to test his luck at winning the sword’s approval.
Xiao Zhixuan couldn’t help but ask, “You really aren’t worried I’ll kill you and seize it if you succeed?”
Su Yi walked up to the stone stele. He didn’t even look back. “How could you do that in good conscience after drinking so much of my wine?”
Xiao Zhixuan looked flabbergasted.
