First Immortal of the Sword

The six-inch stone coffin was pitch black, yet clear as the night sky.

Holding it was like holding a towering divine mountain in the palm of your hand. It was enormously heavy and mysterious, and its surface revealed none of its secrets.

Su Yi was quite curious. This is a treasure connected to my fifth lifetime. Just what’s hidden inside?

Alas, despite numerous attempts, he couldn’t open the stone coffin. Even using the Sword of the Nine Hells’ aura merely made it tremble.

“Let me try,” said the Divine Fortune Teller. He wasn’t willing to give up like this.

He held the stone coffin and pondered it, but in the end, he failed too. Frustration was written all over his face.

“Do you know what this is?” Su Yi looked at the tall, stalwart man in armor, Lei Ze.

Lei Ze didn’t even pause to think. “Master, this is the sword coffin you sealed!”

A sword coffin? So it’s a sword’s coffin?

The Divine Fortune Teller couldn’t help but say, “Lei Ze, what else do you know?”

Lei Ze just stood there as if he hadn’t heard anything.

“You look down on me, huh!” The Divine Fortune Teller couldn’t help but find this infuriating. Still, he realized that Lei Ze, the Combat Soul Puppet, obviously only obeyed Su Yi!

“How do you open this?” asked Su Yi.

“I don’t know,” said Lei Ze.

Two men and one bird fell silent. “....”

Su Yi rubbed his forehead, but in the end, he could only let it go. He just put the six-inch stone coffin away for now.

Inwardly, he concluded, Once I fully awaken the power of my fifth lifetime’s Dao Imprint, I’ll naturally know how to open this!

“Ee? There’s something weird about those blood-red chains!” the Divine Fortune-Teller cried out. “Their aura resembles the cataclysm of the Age of Fallen Immortals!”

Su Yi looked over and examined them intently.

Lei Ze was tall and stalwart, like a miniature mountain, and his armor was battered and broken. A blood-red chain went through his shoulders and wrapped around his chest and abdomen. It was a startling sight.

Upon closer inspection, the chain was covered in contorted, hideous Dao Markings, and it emanated a nigh imperceptible air of calamity.

Su Yi examined it briefly, then frowned and looked at Lei Ze. “What’s going on with this blood-red chain?”

Lei Ze’s eyes shone with bloodthirsty light. A moment later, he quivered from head to toe, his face twisted with agony as he rasped, “Divine misfortune!”

He’d only just said this when he let out a muffled grunt and his eyes dulled and his mind went blank.

It seemed that answering Su Yi’s question was more than his soul could take, and he’d paid a heavy price.

Divine misfortune! Su Yi was inwardly solemn as he recalled what he’d seen in the golden beast skin.

During the Primeval Era, the gods unleashed a mysterious and terrifying cataclysm on the Immortal Realm, slaughtering its Great Realm experts.

The old man in black, the servant who’d once accompanied Luo Changning, was among the fallen!

Su Yi hypothesized that this cataclysm and the so-called “divine misfortune” were one and the same.

In the present day, the old monsters of the Great Realm had gone into seclusion, too scared to show themselves in the open. They were hiding to avoid meeting with similar divine misfortune.

There was no doubt about it. The Combat Soul Puppet, Lei Ze, had met with divine misfortune, and the chains piercing his flesh were proof!

“Divine misfortune? The five signs of decay? No wonder it seemed familiar. I saw this during the Age of Fallen Immortals too. Old Monk Qing Qu of Lotus Temple met his end due to a bout of divine misfortune!” The Divine Fortune Teller exclaimed, “It’s just… this Lei Ze took divine misfortune head-on without dying. Isn’t he a bit overly ferocious?”

After all, Qing Qu of Lotus Temple, the famous Dharmadeva Buddha, had been a true expert of the Great Realm! Yet even he perished beneath the effects of divine misfortune. It was easy to imagine how terrifying this calamitous power was.

Yet this Combat Soul Puppet from the Primeval Era had endured both divine misfortune and the passage of countless years. It was truly unbelievable!

The Zhuyou Great Peng gasped. “You’re saying that at his peak, that puppet was comparable to a Great Realm expert?”

“It’s entirely possible!” said the Divine Fortune Teller, his gaze heated. “I can’t even begin to imagine what kind of terrifying existence crafted a Combat Soul Puppet of this caliber in the Primeval Era!”

Su Yi walked right up, looked at Lei Ze, and noticed that the blood-red chains had caused enormous damage.

It seemed likely that his soul wouldn’t have been so badly wounded if not for having endured divine misfortune.

“Stand still. Don’t move. I’ll help you resolve your divine misfortune,” ordered Su Yi.

The Zhuyou Great Peng opened its beak to dissuade him, then suddenly recalled that this was the same young man who’d dispelled the power of a divine tribulation at the former site of Mount Taiwu. The bird instantly decided not to say anything after all.

Weng!

A wisp of the inscrutable aura of reincarnation wrapped around Su Yi’s fingers. When he grabbed hold of Lei Ze’s blood-red divine chain, the links shattered in rapid succession.

Crunch! Crunch!

Each blood-red link transformed into a rain of light, completely destroyed by the power of reincarnation!

Nothing unexpected happened. The process went smoothly.

Su Yi was increasingly cognizant of how forbidden a Grand Dao reincarnation was.

It was just as Luo Changning said. The gods were terrified of reincarnation because its power could strip them of their control over the natural order of the epochs!

And it seemed highly likely that both divine misfortune and divine tribulations were, ultimately, just manifestations of the gods’ control of the natural order of the epochs!

When Su Yi realized this, any dread he’d felt for them vanished. The truth seemed somehow underwhelming. So, this is all so-called ‘divine tribulations’ and ‘divine misfortune’ amount to.

After the blood-red chain vanished, Lei Ze’s entire body surged with dazzling golden flames, as if he’d caught on fire. Now that he’d been freed, he blazed with potent life force!

Even his dull, wooden eyes shone with new intelligence.

He got down on one knee and clasped his fist once more. “Many thanks, master!”

His voice was hoarse, with an instinctual excitement.

Before Su Yi could ask any further questions, Lei Ze said gravely, “Please forgive me, Master. My soul is severely damaged, and my awareness is muddled. I’ve only temporarily regained a hint of mental clarity, but it won’t be long before I sink back into a mental stupor."

“But although I cannot answer your questions, just say the word, and your subordinate will die ten thousand deaths without complaint!” said Lei Ze, his voice full of staunch conviction.

The Divine Fortune Teller said hurriedly, “Quick! Seize this opportunity to ask who this ‘master’ he speaks of is!”

He’d only just said this when Lei Ze’s eyes went blank and muddled. Even his forceful vital energy fluctuations silently receded.

“....”

“Asking about that isn’t important right now,” said Su Yi. “I’ll naturally help him repair his soul and rebuild his body. When the time comes, he’s sure to regain awareness.”

With that, Su Yi walked toward the platform. The Divine Fortune Teller and the Zhuyou Great Peng hurried after him.

This time, the Combat Soul Puppet made no attempt to stop them.

The platform was made entirely out of jade, and it emanated a dense, pure, and ancient air.

“It’s just as I thought! This really is a Dao Contemplation Platform made of Chaos Essence Stone! A rare, unparalleled treasure of the Dao!” The Divine Fortune Teller lit up with delight, and his eyes flashed. “Even top factions would fight tooth and nail over such a treasure!”

The Zhuyou Great Peng was practically drooling over it too, but a moment later, it cried out, “Why is this thing covered in so many cracks?”

Su Yi and the Divine Fortune Teller looked over and indeed, the base of the platform was covered in spider web-like cracks. It looked like it was on the verge of collapse.

The Divine Fortune Teller’s heart thudded in his chest, and he cursed. “Fuck! I understand. No matter how wondrous this treasure is, the passage of countless years has corroded it. It won’t last much longer!”

He then frantically shot up onto the platform and plopped down. “Let’s seize this opportunity to glean enlightenment and see if we can…”

Before he even finished his sentence, a strange look appeared on his face. His gaze shifted, almost as if he were intoxicated, and he sat there in silence, his mind wandering.

Meanwhile, wisps of chaos mist rose from the platform and flooded into his body, lending him a mysterious charm.

“That old bastard really doesn’t know how to share!” The Zhuyou Great Peng shouted, its heart itching with impatience. It could tell that the Divine Fortune Teller had entered a wondrous state of enlightenment, and it wanted in. Alas, the platform was only big enough for one.

It was truly unbelievable. The Divine Fortune Teller had been mid-sentence when a wave of enlightenment washed over him!

Even Su Yi couldn’t help but be impressed. He realized how wondrous this Dao Contemplation Platform was.

At Wang Ye’s peak, he refined a Dao Contemplation Platform on Mount Taiwu. It was famous throughout the Divine Realm. They called it a sacred ground for contemplating the Dao.

Even Wang Ye’s friends, fellow experts of the Great Realm, sang its praises.

But this Dao Contemplation Platform was even more mystical. It had existed since the Primeval era, and since it was refined from Chaos Essence Stone, it contained mysteries that touched upon the most primordial and ancient mysteries of the Grand Dao!

Time slipped by.

About an hour later, the Divine Fortune Teller opened his eyes and laughed. “Wondrous, truly wondrous! During my contemplation, it was as if I experienced the shifting of countless ages in an instant. I felt the shifting of the Grand Dao, and I’ve finally answered some of the questions that have confused me for a long time!”

He was beaming with delight. He’d obviously benefited considerably.

“Stop bragging and make space for me!” The Zhuyou Great Peng dragged the old man off the pedestal and charged over. Before long, it too sank into a contemplative state. Its eyes went vacant, as if its mind were elsewhere, and it fell completely silent.

Su Yi turned to look at the Divine Fortune Teller. “Just what answers did you grasp just now?”

The Divine Fortune Teller shook his head. “The secrets of the heavens are not to be revealed.”

Su Yi glared at him. “You’ve revealed no small number of them, haven’t you? You’re already plagued with countless tribulations. Won’t more won’t kill you.”

“...” The Divine Fortune Teller’s expression shifted. Finally, he sighed. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to fool you.”

Earlier, he’d borrowed the Dao Contemplation Platform’s power to grasp one of the secrets of the heavens!

He’d succeeded, only to witness a strange and terrifying potential future.

Countless stars rained from the sky as the gods waged war beyond the nine heavens.

Divine blood fell like rain; agonized roars resounded throughout the dome of heaven. The sky fell, the earth collapsed, and the world was plunged into a sunless, eternal darkness!

Like a vision of the apocalypse here in the Immortal Realm!