First Immortal of the Sword - Chapter 2858 - My First Incarnation Was the Big Boss of Sword Sovereign City!

Chapter 2858 – My First Incarnation Was the Big Boss of Sword Sovereign City!

The Heart-Tempering Sword House, in front of a thatched hut.

An old servant stood before the hut and said respectfully, “Founder, Senior Yun Wuxiang has requested your presence.”

A figure silently emerged. He was tall and thin, with cold, stern features. This was none other than the Malevolent Sword Venerate.

“I know,” said the Malevolent Sword Venerate.

But just as he was about to walk off, the old man lowered his head and transmitted, “Founder, Senior Yun Wuxiang is having a fit. If you go, you’d best be careful.”

The Malevolent Sword Venerate smiled, his gaze inscrutable. “It’s nothing but the impotent rage of the inept.”

He pondered briefly, then said, “How long have you served by my side?”

The old man paused, unsure of why the founder would ask such a question, but in the end, he answered honestly. “I’ve served you ever since you personally quelled the sect’s internal unrest.”

“Internal unrest, huh…?” The Malevolent Sword Venerate’s gaze filled with reminiscence. “Time sure passes quickly.”

Back then, Jiang Wuchen’s Karmic Tribulation led to internal unrest in the Heart-Tempering Sword House.

The reason was simple. Some of the sect’s old-timers insisted that Jiang Wuchen was dead, and they saw the Malevolent Sword Venerate as an enemy they must uproot.

These old-timers were all among those who’d first rallied under Jiang Wuchen’s banner, fighting alongside him. They all wielded immense authority.

When they joined forces to stir up waves, the resulting upset terrified the entire sect.

The Malevolent Sword Venerate didn’t hesitate to intervene, imprisoning them one by one. Then, he used tyrannical, cold-blooded means to restore peace to the sect.

No one in the Heart-Tempering Sword House had dared to oppose him since.

No one dared to call the Malevolent Sword Venerate a heart devil. To this day, everyone still saw him as their founder, Jiang Wuchen.

“I know that even now, many members of the sect don’t really acknowledge me, but… that no longer matters,” said the Malevolent Sword Venerate. With that, he set off.

The old man remained behind, completely bewildered. The founder seems rather off today.

……

The moment the Malevolent Sword Venerate entered the room, Yun Wuxiang said icily, “This was the plan you said was ‘all but guaranteed to succeed’?”

He sat in the centermost seat, one foot planted on Hei Ya’s dog head. There was no sign of anger in his gaze.

The Malevolent Sword Venerate walked into the hall and said calmly, “There are no absolutes in this world. I told you before this operation began that if we couldn’t take Su Yi down this time, I’d consider it my loss.”

Yun Wuxiang’s expression darkened, and his eyes surged with murderous intent. “You think admitting defeat is enough? If I hadn’t made an appearance, how could those Heavenly Monarchs possibly have agreed to work with you? Now that you’ve suffered such a crushing defeat, what shall become of my reputation?”

“You’re welcome to just kill me, you know,” said the Malevolent Sword Venerate. He was terrifyingly calm; his face didn’t so much as ripple with emotion.

Yun Wuxiang frowned. “Killing you would be letting you off too easily. How about this? I’ll give you a chance to make amends. Kill everyone in the Heart-Tempering Sword House, and I’ll consider us even!”

“Why?” The Malevolent Sword Venerate’s eyes narrowed.

“To vent my fury!” Yun Wuxiang said with a hideous laugh. “I’m in a bad mood, so others naturally ought to suffer, too! It was Jiang Wuchen who founded the Heart-Tempering Sword House, and Su Yi is Jiang Wuchen’s reincarnation. I refuse to believe he won’t suffer when the Heart-Tempering Sword House is destroyed!”

The Malevolent Sword Venerate said slowly and clearly, “I’ll find it painful, too!”

Yun Wuxiang snorted derisively. “Let me make myself clear. Either you massacre everyone in the Heart-Tempering Sword House, or I do it for you. Take your pick!”

The Malevolent Sword Venerate fell silent. After a lengthy pause, he slowly exited the hall.

Before long, the mountain’s defensive formation rumbled and boomed. Countless streaks of sword qi rose into the firmament, blanketing heaven and earth and covering the entire Heart-Tempering Sword House.

“What’s happening?”

“Don’t tell me we’re under attack?”

“Hurry! Ready yourselves for battle!”

Everyone in the Heart-Tempering Sword House, from the disciples to the higher-ups deep in seclusion, emerged to see what was happening.

But within moments, they were horrified to discover that the sect’s defensive formation had been activated—and that its sword qi was targeting them!

“Nooooo!”

“Founder, what’s going on!?”

“Retreat! Hurryyyy!”

Startled shouts and infuriated roars rang out, one after another.

A downpour of sword qi enveloped the sect. Desperate cries rose and fell in waves, and mists of fresh blood billowed into the air, spreading throughout the mountain.

Like a vision of purgatory.

The Malevolent Sword Venerate stood outside the building, watching it all. He didn’t move a muscle.

Yun Wuxiang threw back his head and burst into uproarious laughter. To him, the rumbling sword qi and desperate cries were the most beautiful music of all.

“Wonderful! You really are Jiang Wuchen’s heart devil. You sure are ruthless and evil!” Yun Wuxiang applauded.

Sword qi fell like a waterfall, pouring onto the world below, its humming like bestial, bloodthirsty roars as a wave of carnage swept throughout the sect.

Countless people fell to the ground dead. Even in their last moments, they didn’t understand why they were dying beneath their own sect’s defensive formation.

Some of the older-generation cultivators roared in fury and struggled with all their might, but in the end, even they collapsed into puddles of their own blood, their eyes bulging in their sockets. They knew no peace even in death.

The Malevolent Sword Venerate slowly turned and re-entered the hall. “Are you happy now?”

Yu Wuxiang frowned. He’d just realized that the Malevolent Sword Venerate seemed altogether too calm about all this. Moreover, he showed no sign of awe or subservience.

His expression never so much as shifted, not even when he personally cut down everyone in his sect.

Yun Wuxiang found his calm demeanor deeply unpleasant.

But then, he laughed, his gaze playful. “To tell the truth, after you lost the battle outside the Literati Continent, you ceased to be useful to me.”

He rose, his gaze sinister. “Even though you killed everyone in the Heart-Tempering Sword House, I can no longer value you!”

“So you’re planning to kill me anyway?” asked the Malevolent Sword Venerate.

Yun Wuxiang laughed and shook his head. “No. You are, after all, Jiang Wuchen’s heart devil, which means you’re connected to the Big Boss of Sword Sovereign City. I’ll imprison you, refine you into a secret treasure, and carry you with me wherever I go.”

Before his voice had even finished echoing through the air, he attacked out of nowhere, seizing the Malevolent Sword Venerate by the throat and holding him aloft in front of him.

He smiled intently at the Malevolent Sword Venerate. “Don’t even think of trying to kill yourself so long as I’m here. If I want you to live, you cannot die, no matter how much you want to!

“Later, when it comes time for me to deal with Su Yi, you can just barely serve as one of my killer weapons!”

But then, the Malevolent Sword Venerate laughed. “I anticipated that this would happen. You people from the Far Shore of Destiny all think you’re better than us. You don’t take anyone from the River of Destiny the least bit seriously. Yet when I look at you now, all I see is an inept waste throwing a tantrum!”

Yun Wuxiang froze. His expression instantly darkened.

But before he could respond, the Malevolent Sword Venerate continued, “Since you’ve revealed your true intentions, I’ll be direct with you, too. I’ve been preparing for the worst from the day I decided to work with you.”

Yun Wuxiang frowned. “What do you mean by that?”

“You sure are stupid,” said the Malevolent Sword Venerate, his eyes shining with a hint of pity. “You thought you could use me to defeat Su Yi, but am I not using you, too?

“Without you, I could never have convinced multiple Heavenly Sovereigns to work with me. Sure, they failed in the end, but tell me this: Did I suffer any real losses in the process? The dead are almost all members of the Heavenly Sovereigns’ factions!”

Yun Wuxiang glowered and forcefully suppressed his fury. “Is that all?”

The Malevolent Sword Venerate laughed. “Of course not. Prior to the death trap in the Literati Continent, I got everything in order. Did you really think I wouldn’t guess that you’d vent your fury on me the moment something went awry?”

Yun Wuxiang gestured outside the palace. “If your powers of prediction are really so impressive, why didn’t you guess that I’d make you kill everyone in the Heart-Tempering Sword House?”

The Malevolent Sword Venerate only laughed all the harder. “I forgot to mention this earlier, but after I agreed to work with you, I began arranging for those elders and disciples worthy of trust to leave the sect on various pretenses.

“Those remaining in the sect were all either cowards or double agents that other factions sent to infiltrate our ranks. Their deaths are unworthy of pity!”

The Malevolent Sword Venerate visibly relaxed. He exhaled and said, “People see me as Jiang Wuchen’s heart devil. They call me heartless, brutal, tyrannical, and beyond redemption. They say I’m utterly devoid of conscience.

“But how many of them realize that my evil is the product of Jiang Wuchen’s kindness?

“Jiang Wuchen spent his life doing good, but he was never rewarded for it, so I spend my life doing evil, repaying cruelty with cruelty!

“But no matter how wicked and brutal I may be, I’m still a sword cultivator! And everything Jiang Wuchen had in life, aside from that useless kindness of his, has long since become my own! It’s mine to protect! How could I possibly destroy it?”

“You think I’m weak. After all, I’m not even a Heavenly Sovereign. You think you can do with me as you please, but in my eyes, you aren’t even worth a fart!” The Malevolent Sword Venerate’s eyes flashed with increased disdain.

Yun Wuxiang’s glower deepened, his expression as unsightly as if he’d just swallowed a dead fly. “You predicted so much, but did you predict your own death?”

The Malevolent Sword Venerate fell silent. After a while, he said, “I lost to Su Yi in the Nine Luminaries Forbidden Zone, completely and utterly. I’ve known ever since that I would never get my revenge.”

There was no disguising the melancholy in his voice.

He’d rallied so many Heavenly Sovereigns and gone to such great lengths to set a trap, but it wasn’t enough to defeat Su Yi. How… could he possibly get the chance to get revenge in the future?

Especially since Su Yi was accompanied by his first incarnation’s heart devil!

“Do you know why I didn’t just die in battle then? It wasn’t because I was afraid, and it wasn’t because I hoped to live to fight another day,” the Malevolent Sword Venerate said calmly. “I just wanted time to tie up loose ends. Now, I can leave this world openly and without regrets!”

Yun Wuxiang laughed coldly. “Ah, but it seems to me that you won’t be able to die even if you want to! You must live on, like it or not!”

The Malevolent Sword Venerate sneered. “I knew you wouldn’t spare me, so I obviously made arrangements.”

Yun Wuxiang glowered. “What do you mean?”

The Malevolent Sword Venerate spat in his face and laughed. “Don’t forget that my first incarnation was the Big Boss of Sword Sovereign City! I might die, but you don’t get to decide how it happens!”

His laughter was full of pride, self-confidence, and disdain for Yun Wuxiang.

As it rang out, the Malevolent Sword Venerate’s figure silently caught ablaze.