First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 1873 - Slaying Gods in the Great Realm

Chapter 1873 - Slaying Gods in the Great Realm

Three days later, Su Yi emerged from his enlightened state. He’d thoroughly stabilized his Great Martial Stage cultivation. It was now flawless.

He examined the results and concluded, I might only be in the Great Martial Stage, but I’m already as strong as Wang Ye was at his peak!

Back then, Wang Ye was the sole ruler of the Immortal Realm, the hegemon of his era. He suppressed others of the same cultivation so thoroughly that they couldn’t hold their heads up high. Even the Blood Firmament Immortal Sovereign, Jiang Tai’e, and other unparalleled experts were more than a notch beneath him.

Now, Su Yi had only just stepped into the Great Realm, but he wasn’t any weaker than Wang Ye at his peak!

Even Su Yi couldn’t help but sigh over his transformation.

In my past life, I suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of Eternal Night and was forced to reincarnate. Now, I’ve yet to even step into the Great Profound Stage, but I’m already comparable to my past self! There’s no need for me to wait until I reach the Great Profound Stage. By the time I’ve tempered my cultivation base to the peak of the Great Martial Stage, I’ll have left Wang Ye in the dust!

Su Yi knew that this was exactly what his past selves most wanted to see.

It was just as he’d told Lin Feng. He and all of his past lives were, ultimately, the same person. They’d simply lived different lives. And in this lifetime, he was Su Yi, Su Xuanjun, the Temple Master, Shen Mu, Wang Ye, and Li Fuyou, too. None of his past lives could replace him.

It’s time I met with Li Fuyou. As Su Yi pondered, his awareness entered his sea of consciousness. He manifested a soul avatar and approached the Sword of the Nine Hells.

During his grand tribulation, Li Fuyou’s Dao Imprint awakened and manifested, wielding the Sword of the Nine Hells to force the gods to retreat. The sight astonished even Su Yi!

It was also then that he realized that Li Fuyou had been capable of using the Sword of the Nine Hells in battle.

The Sword of the Nine Hells hovered in his sea of consciousness as always, unmoving. But now, only five of its original nine divine chains remained.

As Su Yi drew near, the fifth divine chain clattered, and a calm, flat voice rang out.

“I’ve been looking forward to this day for a long, long time.”

Who else could it be but Li Fuyou?

“You've been looking forward to this?” Su Yi said thoughtfully, “Are you perhaps like Wang Ye? Do you too hope to replace me to pursue your unrealized desires and strive for greater heights of the Dao?”

But against his expectations, Li Fuyou said, “No, the path I sought has already been severed. If I replaced you, I might well be able to make it a little further, but I wouldn't be able to avoid treading that old, familiar path. That isn’t what I wish to see.”

Su Yi couldn’t help but find this surprising. “Then what is it you’re looking forward to?”

“A reincarnation who’s different from me, and not just in terms of the Grand Dao. Ideally, your personality and mentality would be different too,” said Li Fuyou, his voice completely flat, without the barest ripple of emotion.

Just as Su Yi thought after learning about his fifth incarnation, Li Fuyou was far too detached, distant, and unapproachable.

Su Yi asked with great interest, “A different Dao, I can understand. Why do you want a different personality and mentality, too?”

“My life was far too tedious and dull,” said Li Fuyou. “The problem lay in my personality. I wholeheartedly sought the Dao of the Sword. I severed the grudges of mundane life, disregarding worldly affairs. I lived alone and strived alone. If anything stood in my way, I cut through it. If anything tried to fetter me, I severed it. I never cared about anything except my cultivation. And I mean anything.

“My relatives died when I was young, and I had no friends, nor anyone I was interested in. I simply wholeheartedly sought the Dao, my sword my only companion. I had enemies, but practically all of them perished beneath my sword a long time ago. Only a handful of powerful deities survived, but I’ve never been resentful or bitter about it. I know that my failure to kill them was due to problems arising in my Dao of the Sword; it wasn't because they were undefeatable.

“Moreover, even my four disciples found me hard to approach, and they were right. We were master and apprentice only in name. It’s not that I don’t care about them; that’s just how my personality is. But because of that, when I looked back at my life, I discovered that aside from my considerable attainments in the Dao of the Sword, there was nothing worth remembering.”

His tale left even Su Yi unwittingly stunned. There was no getting around it. Li Fuyou’s life really was dull and flavorless. It seemed he had none of the usual seven emotions and six desires. He simply sought the Dao of the Sword alone.

But his Dao of the Sword was, perhaps, so extraordinarily strong for this very reason! He sought only the sword with no thought for “why.” He devoted his life to it, tempering his edge to terrifying extremes!

Without extreme fixation, you can’t reach the peak!

This, at least, Su Yi admired deeply.

In the course of human affairs, people love and hate. They are bound by cause, effect, and all manner of strife. There are always people and situations you don't want to give up, and unexpected storms and difficulties along the way. There's unattainable affection, there's the bitterness of separation, there are resentment, hatred, and indignation... The binds of the seven emotions and six desires mean that, no matter who you are and how powerful, it's almost impossible to be truly free and unfettered.

Li Fuyou had experienced all that too, but he was so fixated on the Dao of the Sword that he disregarded it all. Thus, he seemed extraordinarily aloof and detached.

Su Yi asked, “Have you perhaps realized that your fixation on the sword, to the exclusion of all else, resulted in a dull, tedious life? Do you regret your decisions?”

“No,” said Li Fuyou. “I’m like this by nature. Although solitude was my constant companion in life, I endured it gladly. I’ve never regretted any of it.”

Su Yi was stunned. “Then why are you so eager for me to be different from you?”

Li Fuyou’s reply was simple. “Because I don’t want you to become a second me. Wouldn’t that be even more dull and even more tedious?”

Su Yi mulled that over, then nodded. “True enough. Honestly, even if you didn’t want us to be different, there’s no way I’d let you replace me.”

“That’s exactly what I wanted to discuss,” said Li Fuyou. “If you try to fuse with my Dao Imprint now, I’m sure to replace you, whether I want to or not.”

“....” Su Yi raised his eyebrows.

But before he could respond, Li Fuyou continued, “Once you’ve stepped into the Great Profound Stage, I’ll naturally offer you my Dao Imprint in its entirety. By then, you’ll likely be immune to my influence.”

“Why wait until then?” asked Su YI.

“In the Great Profound Stage, you can transform the natural order of the Immortal Dao to your own ends and temper Great Profound Qi. When the time comes, I’ll know for sure whether your Dao of the Sword is truly greater than mine was in the Great Profound Stage,” said Li Fuyou calmly. “If you can’t even surpass me as I was then, you won’t be able to surpass me even if you fuse with my Dao Imprint.”

“....” Li Fuyou was so blunt that Su Yi instantly understood the implications. Still, he asked, “Are you saying that I’m not yet comparable to you as you were in the Great Profound Stage?”

Li Fuyou didn’t deny it. “In the Great Profound Stage, I traversed the River of Epochs freely, and strove for tens of thousands of years. I acquired a unique stroke of good fortune, letting me realize an unprecedented, irreplicable breakthrough within the Great Profound Stage.”

He paused, then added, “Back then, if I went all out, I could kill the weakest of deities, Low-Rank Gods.”

“???” Su Yi was stunned. So, Li Fuyou could kill gods even as a Great Profound cultivator? Isn’t that a bit too heaven-defying?

Even though Su Yi had experienced—and done—all manner of unbelievable things in his life, Li Fuyou’s accomplishments stunned him.

The most ridiculous part was that Li Fuyou seemed downright disdainful of “weaklings” like Low-Rank Gods...

Su Yi took a moment to steady himself, then said, “Does that mean that I’ll only be worthy of fusing with your Dao Imprint if I possess the same level of strength in the Great Profound Stage?”

“No, you must surpass me at that level,” said Li Fuyou. “But you needn’t feel undue pressure. You’re already considerably stronger than I was in the Great Martial Stage. When you reach the Great Profound Stage, you’re highly likely to be stronger than I was at that level.”

Su Yi smiled. “I’m sure I will be.”

For some reason, he’d started mentally comparing Li Fuyou and Wang Ye.

At Wang Ye’s peak, he wasn’t heaven-defying enough to kill Low-Rank Gods, but he’d still dominated the entire Immortal Realm. Alas, during a critical moment of seclusion, Wang Ye’s enemies joined forces to attack him. In the end, he had no choice but to undergo reincarnation.

Had Wang Ye lived longer, he might well have achieved strength comparable to Li Fuyou.

“Right,” said Su Yi. “Might you tell me what level of cultivation you reached before you entered the cycle of reincarnation?”

“It’s too boring to discuss,” said Li Fuyou. “And it would come across as boasting. Besides, you’ll know all that once you’ve fused with my Dao Imprint.”

“....” Su Yi wasn’t willing to give up just yet. “Can you at least tell me why you reincarnated?”

“I lost to a group of powerful enemies,” said Li Fuyou. “In the process, I finally realized that problems had appeared in my Dao of the Sword. It was a worthwhile death.”

“A worthwhile death?” Su Yi was at a loss for words. He was killed by his enemies, but it’s like he doesn’t even care...

Su Yi tried another question, “And how strong were the enemies who killed you?”

He was trying to gauge Li Fuyou’s peak strength in a roundabout way, but to his disappointment, Li Fuyou once more refused to answer. All he said was, “You’ll naturally learn the answer to that once you’ve fused with my Dao Imprint.”

“Very well. I won’t ask any more about that,” said Su Yi, rubbing his forehead. “Do you have anything you’d like to say to me?”

He already understood that Li Fuyou wouldn’t tell him anything he’d learn upon fusing with his Dao Imprint; Li Fuyou simply couldn’t be bothered.

But then, Su Yi hated wasting his breath too. In this regard, the two of them were quite similar...

“I naturally have some things to tell you,” said Li Fuyou. “....When you’re capable of fusing with my Dao Imprint.”

“...” Su Yi finally understood how dull and tedious a person his fifth incarnation was. His personality really did match his self-description: distant and unapproachable!

Su Yi finally understood why Lin Feng, as one of Li Fuyou’s disciples, felt that his master was so hard to get close to.

This was someone... who could kill off any and all conversations!