First Immortal of the Sword - Chapter 2757 - The Nine River-Stabilizing Steles
Chapter 2757 – The Nine River-Stabilizing Steles
Su Yi faced the stone stele, then inserted his divine sense into the Divine Hunt Edict.
Within moments, a strange vision arose in his sea of consciousness.
On the River of Destiny, an endlessly distant stretch of water was enshrouded in dim mists. It was like a curtain obscuring the river’s far end.
The mists churned, flowing with chaos qi.
It was indistinct, but Su Yi could dimly discern nine steles stabilizing the river. All were shrouded in dense chaos mist.
The steles were unimaginably huge; they seemed endlessly enormous, vast beyond comprehension.
When this scene floated into Su Yi’s sea of consciousness, one of the steles let out a strange, mystical rumbling.
Countless dazzling lights of the Grand Dao erupted from its surface, like countless dazzling arcs of light interweaving amidst the chaos mist.
In the end, they condensed into an Edict.
The Edict contained the characters “Divine Hunt” written in ancient, primeval script.
When Su Yi tried to examine it more closely, the Edict suddenly shifted. He felt as if he’d been flung into a prison.
The “prison” was incomparably strange. It was formed out of blood-red Laws of the Will of the Heavens, all of them emanating scalp-tingling, terrifying, suppressive power.
At a glance, the cage didn’t seem enormous, yet it extended endlessly in all directions, blanketing heaven and earth.
Those inside it felt as if they stood somewhere abandoned by heaven and earth, separated from the outside world, as if the only thing left in existence were this endless, dark, silent cage!
Before Su Yi could examine it more closely, the cage shifted, its blood-red Laws coming to life. Countless streaks of blood-red tribulation light descended from out of nowhere, shooting toward the caged Su Yi from all sides.
The tribulation light was incomparably sharp and as quick as lightning. It was full of taboo, destructive power.
Su Yi didn’t even have time to react before everything went black and all of these strange visions faded away.
A moment later, he reacted as if awakening from a nightmare. He let out a muffled grunt of pain, and his face paled.
His eyes were still wide with astonishment. What terrifying power!
The one who’d “died” earlier was actually just a wisp of his divine sense, but even so, Su Yi’s heart and soul shook.
That cage separated from all of creation was unimaginably terrifying. As mighty as his divine sense was, in the face of that cage and its tribulation, he couldn’t even react!
Pu Xuan couldn’t help but worry. He could tell that Su Yi had just suffered badly!
“Your soul wasn’t badly injured? Impressive!” Xiao Zhixuan sat cross-legged atop a boulder and took a big gulp of wine. He stuck up his thumb, then clucked his tongue. “Of the Nine Edicts of Heaven’s Will, the Divine Hunt Edict is capable of both suppressing and killing. When it appears, it creates a separate space akin to a prison. No matter who you are or how high your cultivation is, once you’re trapped, you’re doomed. Your soul will inevitably soon disperse.
“The Divine Hunt Edict carved here is incomplete, and the passage of countless years has worn it away. Its power has long since diminished. That’s what’s finally given Great Sorrow the opportunity to break free.
“Even so, not just anyone can contend with the Divine Hunt Edict’s power. I have to say, you’re quite lucky… that you managed to survive with your soul intact.”
He drank with extraordinary speed, drinking as he spoke. Within just a few blinks of an eye, he’d drained another bottle.
“Senior, did you know how dangerous the stele was?” asked Pu Xuan.
Xiao Zhixuan laughed. “I did.”
Pu Xuan couldn’t help but give him a big thumbs up. “When it comes to insidiousness, you’re quite accomplished indeed, Senior.”
Xiao Zhixuan burst into laughter. “It’s not like I’m that kid’s grandfather. Why should I have warned him? Besides, if you want to acquire good fortune, you have to face the corresponding danger. There’s no getting around it.”
Su Yi stood before the stele, facing away from them. He said nothing. After a moment’s silence, he split off another wisp of his divine sense and inserted it into the stele.
Within moments, he let out another muffled grunt. The second wisp of his divine sense had been destroyed, too.
Pu Xuan frowned. It seems things aren’t going well.
Xiao Zhixuan rested his head in his hands, his eyes bleary. “You still aren’t willing to give up? Your courage is admirable, but pushing would be foolish.”
Pu Xuan was already certain that Xiao Zhixuan was an extraordinarily terrifying existence. Even so, he couldn’t suppress his temper. He laughed, “Senior, you insult yourself with such ruthlessness that this junior cannot help but admire you.”
Xiao Zhixuan was stunned. “What do you mean?”
Pu Xuan shook his head. “Nothing at all.”
Xiao Zhixuan pondered briefly, then understood. I’ve watched over this place for countless years, but I still have yet to acquire that sword.
If Su Yi is a fool for refusing to give up, then I’m an even bigger fool, aren’t I?
But Pu Xuan’s ambiguous phrasing left Xiao Zhixuan unsure of whether to laugh or cry. He laughed, “You’re quite loyal to that kid, huh?”
Pu Xuan hurriedly waved, then said modestly, “Senior, your kindness is too much for this junior to accept.”
He’d noticed that Su Yi was making a third attempt to discern the stele’s secrets. He obviously planned to keep at it.
Xiao Zhixuan laughed. “Sarcasm, huh? Keep that up, and you’ll suffer for it.”
He suddenly raised his hand, and Pu Xuan’s sword flew through the air and landed in his palm.
Pu Xuan’s heart sank, but outwardly, he smiled. “In my hands, that sword is no more than rusted scrap iron, entirely unworthy of attention. To think it was so fortunate as to pique your interest! If you like it, Senior, go ahead and take it!”
His words contained hints of mockery. He was basically saying, “Isn’t someone of your status ashamed to covet my humble weapon?”
But Xiao Zhixuan pretended not to notice. He pulled Pu Xuan’s sword from its sheath and examined it, then nodded. “Just as I thought. You’re Jiang Wuchen’s disciple, right? Or perhaps his grand-disciple?”
Pu Xuan fell silent.
“You can lie, but your sword won’t,” said Xiao Zhixuan, drawing his finger across the mottled blade. “This sword was refined with a special technique called ‘Heart-Refining.’ Jiang Wuchen invented it, and there’s nothing else like it in the Eternal Heavens Domain. It’s exclusive to the Heart-Tempering Sword House; they don’t share it with outsiders.”
“Do you know Jiang Wuchen, Senior?” asked Pu Xuan.
Xiao Zhixuan sheathed the sword and tossed it back to Pu Xuan. “He… was blessed with unparalleled talent, but he was born at the wrong time. He missed the competition for Eternal Thrones during the End of the Devastation. Otherwise, given his attainments, he’d have easily claimed an Eternal Throne.”
Xiao Zhixuan’s eyes suddenly filled with reminiscence, and he sank into silence.
Pu Xuan gazed at his sword, then thought back to his time as an inauspicious spirit. Even in that state, his master had spent three years teaching him the Dao.
The master he remembered wore wide-sleeved, Confucian robes, and he carried a longsword on his back. He was kind and warm, but he had an extraordinary bearing.
It was his master who’d given him this sword. Its name was Rusted Truth.
The flecks of rust on its blade looked like bloodstains, and they were shaped like plum blossoms in bloom. However, they were really seals created with a secret method.
The name, “Rusted Truth,” was a homonym for “Seeking Truth,” which in turn referred to cultivation. When his master gave him the sword, he ordered Pu Xuan, then still an auspicious spirit, to always cultivate his true self, no matter whether he was engaged in Buddhist practice or in practicing the sword.
I still don’t know what Fellow Daoist Su’s relationship with my master was, or why Master’s calligraphy would throw itself into his arms. Pu Xuan gazed at Su Yi, who still stood before the stone stele, and sank into thought.
In the time that followed, Su Yi tried again and again and again. Each attempt ended in failure. By now, he’d lost too many wisps of his divine sense to count.
His soul was covered in wounds, but his eyes were increasingly bright.
Every time his wisps of divine sense were eradicated in the cage of the Divine Hunt Edict, he experienced something akin to death. It was so terrifying that someone with a weaker Dao Heart would have broken down a long time ago.
But Su Yi wasn’t at all affected. On the contrary, with every attempt he made, he gleaned deeper insight into the truths of the Divine Hunt Edict!
It was just as Xiao Zhixuan said; the Divine Hunt Edict was about trapping and killing. It was, fundamentally, a manifestation of the Laws of Heaven’s Will!
Wherever this Edict appeared became a forbidden zone, a cage that could trap all cultivators in range in a place forsaken by heaven and earth. It severed their connection to the outside world, suppressing their cultivation bases and reducing them to helpless mortal prisoners it could execute at will.
There were numerous similar abilities and techniques. Lots of people had ways of capturing or restricting their opponents or transforming their surroundings.
What made the Divine Hunt Edict so uniquely terrifying was that it was a manifestation of the Laws of Heaven’s Will. Here on the River of Destiny, it represented the majesty and power of heaven!
Su Yi could already say with certainty that the vision he’d seen before, the one of the nine steles at the far end of the River of Destiny, represented nine Laws of the Heaven’s Will.
The Edicts carved upon the steles were manifestations of those nine Laws, what the people of the Eternal Heavens Domain knew as the Nine Edicts of Heaven’s Will!
According to Sword Monarch Mu Qing, the Nine Edicts of Heaven’s Will had existed since the Primordial Era. Only Heavenly Sovereigns could glean insight into their mysteries.
However, those who’d fully mastered these nine Edicts were so extraordinarily rare that they only existed in legends!
“Keep trying, and your soul will inevitably crumble,” Xiao Zhixuan said out of nowhere. “Ultimately, it’s impossible for an Unfettered Realm sword cultivator like you to grasp an Edict of that level.”
By now, he was surrounded by a pile of empty wine jugs.
He sloshed the wine in his last remaining jug, then said with an air of self-deprecation, “Of course, I couldn’t do it either. Even Heavenly Sovereigns find it difficult to master these Edicts in their entirety.”
“Has no one ever achieved it?” asked Su Yi.
“Someone has!” said Xiao Zhixuan. He didn’t even miss a beat. “It happened in the Primeval Era, during the Devastation, and again in the New Beginning. However… such cases are so rare that you can count them on your fingers! And everyone who succeeded was a Heavenly Sovereign!”
He paused, then said, “This Edict’s power has all but run dry. Why not just wait here a while longer? That vicious sword might reveal its power, break free of the Edict’s restrictions, and fly out of the mountain at any moment.”
“I’m more interested in the Divine Hunt Edict than in Great Sorrow,” said Su Yi.
With that, he got right back to it.
But this time, he drew on external power.
