First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 1490 - The Heavenspan Platform

Nothing unexpected happened.

The Southern Flame Star Domain’s Dao Integration Experts and their Southern Flame City met with the same fate as Western Chill and Northern Abyss Cities.

Each time, a flash of sword light destroyed an entire city. All three star domains’ camps had been all but wiped out!

If word got out, it would shake every star domain.

However, the experts of the Eastern Profound Star Domain all had wooden looks on their faces. Their victory was so overwhelming that they’d grown numb to it! So many shocks in a row were just too much for them.

As for Su Yi? It was as if he’d done something trivial and unremarkable. He wasn’t emotional, delighted, or wistful.

He just casually ordered, “Gather up the spoils. I’m going back.”

With that, he soared away.

The experts of the Eastern Profound Star Domain looked at each other.

A long time passed before they emerged from their stunned state. All of them had strange, complicated looks on their faces.

“I can’t help but suspect that when His Excellency Su proceeds to the First Battleground, those Cloud Soaring experts won’t be able to block the sharpness of his sword either,” someone said with a sigh.

“One slash destroyed an entire city. Nothing like that has happened in the history of the Domain Boundary Battlefield,” someone murmured.

“I’m afraid that in Fellow Daoist Su’s eyes, experts of the Path of Transcendence are no more than ants too weak to take a single blow,” someone said in a daze.

In just one night, he had destroyed three cities. Who could match this accomplishment?

......

Eastern Profound City.

Su Yi sprawled out comfortably in his wicker chair, drinking wine as he silently admired the blood-colored full moon and thought, I just don’t know how much Grand Dao Profound Jade I’ll be able to acquire with my current merit.

In the Second Battleground, after every Blood Moon, cultivators could use the merit accumulated in their identity markers to receive Grand Dao Profound Jade born of the Laws!

This was the Second Battleground’s reward. One’s accumulated merit determined how much or how little they received.

The so-called Grand Dao Profound Jade was, in truth, manifested of the Second Battleground’s source, and it was full of xiantian chaos energy. It was inestimably useful for Dao Integration cultivators.

No matter which camp they hailed from, Grand Dao Profound Jade was an enormous stroke of good fortune to any cultivator!

It was in the wee hours of the morning that the experts of the Eastern Profound Star Domain returned with an ocean of trophies.

Su Yi selected around three hundred Five Aggregates Stones from among the trophies, but the rest of the spoils couldn’t pique his interest.

The others looked at each other, but none of them dared take a share of the treasure. After all, they’d contributed nothing at all. How could they accept the spoils in good conscience?

“Take them. I have no use for these things,” said Su Yi. He divided the treasures amongst the crowd himself, leaving no room for argument.

The crowd was flustered and out of sorts, so moved that they didn’t know what to say. Waves of emotion coursed through their hearts.

Su Yi had only just arrived in the Second Battleground three days prior, yet now, he’d struck like lightning to flatten the home bases of all three rival star domains!

It didn’t feel quite real; they even felt as if they were dreaming.

But all of them dared say with certainty that going forward, at least here in the Second Battleground, the experts of the Eastern Profound Star Domain would no longer need to fear their enemies humiliating them!

Some of the experts of the other three camps might well have survived, but not many. They didn’t present much of a threat.

And all of this was Su Yi’s work!

......

Morning the next day.

The skies lit up, and golden auspicious clouds hovered beneath the dome of heaven.

Su Yi stood atop the city walls, gazing at the distant skies. As he opened his hand, his identity token rose into the air.

Weng!

The token lit up with misty light, and a formless aura of the Grand Dao soared into the sky. The auspicious clouds floating overhead trembled.

Then, a rain of light fell down to earth, all of it gathering around Su Yi.

When it reached Su Yi, the rain condensed into spirit jades the size of an infant’s fist. There were over a hundred of them!

Every last piece of jade was swathed in dense and pure xiantian chaos energy.

So this is the Grand Dao Profound Jade.

The Eastern Profound Star Domain experts in the city noticed what was happening, and despite themselves, they were astonished, and their eyes filled with envy.

In the Second Battleground, you only received one piece of Grand Dao Profound Jade for every ten targets you killed. Yet now, it was quite literally raining down upon Su Yi.

In the end, Su Yi received a grand total of one hundred and seventy-nine pieces of Grand Dao Profound Jade. In other words, at least one thousand, seven hundred ninety enemies had died beneath Su Yi’s sword!

This was what it meant to accomplish an unprecedented feat. Throughout history, no one had ever accumulated anywhere near this much merit!

After gathering all the Grand Dao Profound Jade, Su Yi returned to the city. He’d decided to cultivate quietly for a little while and refine all his Five Aggregates Stones and Grand Dao Profound Jades before he left for the First Battleground.

......

Time slipped by. Two weeks passed in a flash.

Su Yi’s cultivation broke into the mid-stage Manifesting Truth Realm, and the power of his soul made even more astonishing improvements. By comparison, any other Transcendent would have been ashamed of their own inferiority.

Throughout these two weeks, the Second Battleground was extraordinarily peaceful.

The cultivators of the Eastern Profound Star Domain had no further reservations, and they started going out on expeditions, searching the Second Battleground for good fortune.

They had no ambitions of entering the First Battleground. Their only desire was to gather good fortune, raise their cultivation, and make it home alive.

......

Soon, a month had passed.

Su Yi’s cultivation entered the late-stage Manifesting Truth Realm.

However, he’d already refined every last Grand Dao Profound Jade and Five Aggregates Stone in his possession.

Were I any other Transcendent, refining those treasures would have let me break into the next major realm with ease. For some, it wouldn’t have been difficult to make two major breakthroughs.

But for me, it was just barely enough to let me reach the late-stage Manifesting Truth Realm...

His foundations in the Grand Dao were far too firm. That meant that breaking through was almost unimaginably difficult.

But Su Yi was satisfied. After all, it had only been a month or so since he’d reached Manifesting Truth, yet he was already in the late stage of the realm. His strength had risen to new heights, too.

By now, even with Wang Ye’s experiences, Su Yi found it difficult to gauge just how strong he’d become.

There was no getting around it; Su Yi’s alternate path of Transcendence was unprecedented. Even Wang Ye had never walked it, so Wang Ye’s knowledge alone naturally wasn’t enough to measure its true strength.

“I ought to head to the First Battleground,” Su Yi muttered to himself.

He rose, then shared his decision with the others.

The experts of Eastern Profound City had long since known that Su Yi wouldn’t linger here for long, but when they heard of his imminent departure, they couldn’t help but be reluctant to part with him.

“Your Excellency Su, please permit us to escort you to the Heavenspan Platform!” someone suggested.

If he wanted to go to the First Battleground, he needed to defeat the trial guardians manifested of thirty-six Laws of the Grand Dao. Each of them was comparable to a peak Dao Integration Realm expert.

Of course, everyone knew that a trial like this couldn’t hold Su Yi back in any way.

“Sure.” Su Yi nodded, and the group promptly set off, leaving Eastern Profound City and proceeding toward the Heavenspan Platform at the center of the Second Battleground.

......

The Heavenspan Platform.

It was an elevated ritual ground ten thousand feet across and black throughout.

“Your Excellency Su, after the first Night of the Blood Moon, a group of peak experts of the other three star domains passed the trial of the Heavenspan Platform and proceeded to the First Battleground,” Zhan Yun said when they arrived.

“Apparently, the most impressive of the successful trial-takers was Huan Qingsong, an unrivaled expert of the Northern Abyss Star Domain. He placed thirty-ninth on the Heavenspan Platform’s rankings.

“At the time, the Heavenspan Platform produced a strange phenomenon of heaven and earth, causing a huge commotion throughout the Second Battleground.”

Su Yi nodded distractedly. “That’s indeed extraordinary.”

The crowd’s expressions shifted slightly.

To them, Huan Qingsong’s ranking was so lofty that they could never hope to attain it. He was an absolutely top-class expert. But even though Su Yi's lips let out the word “extraordinary,” the bored expression on his face clearly showed what he actually thought.

“Very well. No need to escort me any further.”

Su Yi stepped onto the Heavenspan Platform.

Boom!

The power of the laws surged atop the platform, condensing into an ethereal figure. He was a man in dark armor, and he held a war sword. His aura was terrifying and imposing, comparable to a peak Dao Integration Transcendent’s.

This was a trial guardian manifested of the Laws.

It was only by killing thirty-six such guardians that a Dao Integration cultivator could earn passage to the First Battleground.

The amount of time someone spent overcoming the trial and whether or not they were injured in the process determined a trial-taker’s final ranking.

“Die!”

As soon as the trial guardian appeared, he swung his war sword and charged at Su Yi.

He was valiant and fierce, but Su Yi didn’t even look at him. He just snapped his fingers.

Bang!

The trial guardian exploded into a rain of light, only for another to condense and take his place.

This time, Su Yi didn’t even wait for the guardian to attack. He just raised his hand and tapped, tearing him apart as if he were made of paper.

This casual, effortless scene left the onlookers’ hearts churning. They couldn’t help but glance at each other.

But to Su Yi, this trial was nothing but tedium. In practically no time flat, he’d destroyed all thirty-six trial guardians with ease.

When the last guardian fell, the Heavenspan Platform rumbled.

The grand and ethereal sound of the Dao reverberated throughout the skies, and countless auspicious golden lights surged forth.

A strange phenomenon!

Meanwhile, Su Yi saw his rank. It was much like when he’d left his name on the Third Battleground’s Grand Dao Combat Stele: it leaped directly to first place!

Immediately afterward, the beam of light representing his name soared into the firmament, obscured by the Laws of the Second Battleground.

Not bad. At the very least, this proves that my strength in the Manifesting Truth Realm is far beyond the Dao Integration experts who’ve overcome this trial thus far, thought Su Yi.

“Farewell.” Su Yi turned and waved to the Eastern Profound Star Domain experts, then blurred into a beam of light and shot into the firmament.

“Take care, Your Excellency Su!”

The crowd clasped their fists and bowed.

The power of the Laws instantly wrapped around Su Yi, and he disappeared without a trace.