Chapter 1031 - As if Walking on Level Ground

Su Yi stopped what he was doing. “I’ll give you a chance. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you.”

The old man took several deep breaths to suppress his terror. He dared say with certainty that if his answer didn’t satisfy Su Yi, the young man before him would squish him like an ant!

“A few days ago, the deacon brought captives back, and he placed devilworm parasites in each of their souls. That way, in the unlikely event that the worst-case scenario comes to pass, he can use the hostages' lives as leverage,” the old man said at top speed. “That means that if you kill your way directly into Kunwu Mountain, even if everything goes smoothly, they’re sure to threaten you. I’m sure you… don’t want to see the hostages die.

Su Yi said calmly, “That reason isn’t good enough to save your life. Don’t forget; I could get those answers by searching your soul, too.”

The old man’s heart clenched, and he said hurriedly, “I can help you!”

He gnashed his teeth, visibly grief-stricken. “To tell the truth, although I’m a member of the main line of descent, branch family members have always ordered me about as if I were a dog.

“But there’s nothing for it. The main lineage has been in decline for far too long. Me included, only a dozen of us remain, eking out humble existences…”

Su Yi furrowed his brow and cut him off. “If you keep up this nonsense, don’t blame me for my poor manners.”

The old man trembled, then gnashed his teeth. “I can help you sneak into Kunwu Mountain and free the hostages without being discovered! Furthermore, I can help you neutralize their devilworm parasites!”

“Oh,” said Su Yi. “Alright.”

But before the old man could even sigh in relief, Su Yi continued, “Lower your soul’s defenses and let me search it. If I confirm that you’re telling the truth, once this is over, I naturally wouldn’t mind leaving you a path to life.”

The old man instantly stiffened, and his expression was unsightly, but before he could speak…

Bang!

Su Yi tightened his grip, and everything went black before the old man’s eyes. He promptly fell unconscious.

Su Yi then proceeded to search his soul.

Shortly afterward, he withdrew his divine sense and sank into silence.

The old man’s name was Ye Yunshui, and he really was his mother’s uncle. Although he was born into the main branch of the family, his status was pitifully low, and he’d clung to life in degradation over the years.

His life had been full of obstacles. It wasn’t just the older-generation members of the side branch that ordered him about as they pleased. Even younger clansmen dared humiliate him in countless ways, and they saw him as a servant.

It was to the point that even fellow members of the main branch looked down on him. They disparaged him for being a weakling and bringing shame upon the main lineage.

But some of the details he’d discovered in Ye Yunshui’s memories caught Su Yi’s attention.

After his mother, Ye Yufei, fell prey to the clan’s schemes, Ye Yunshui secretly came looking for her just before she left for the Azure Continent. He told her to be careful, and that after she left, she should never come back, or else her life would be in danger.

Ye Yunshui had also secretly warned Ye Yunlan on numerous occasions, telling him to endure and that he shouldn’t oppose the forces of the branch lineage.

And after Ye Yunlan returned to the clan and announced Ye Yufei’s passing, Ye Yunshui privately visited her father’s grave and wept bitterly.

They were little things, but they’d been carved into Ye Yunshui’s memories. There was no way they were fake.

There was no getting around it: Ye Yunshui really was a weakling. People had walked all over him for years, and he simply let them humiliate him, never daring to fight back.

But the minor interludes Su Yi discovered in his memory ultimately changed his mind.

“After today, you ought to live with your head held high,” whispered Su Yi.

He then laid the unconscious Ye Yunshui out on the ground and left.

Ye Yunshui really could have helped him sneak into Kunwu Mountain unnoticed. He could have saved Wen Xinzhao and the others, too.

But Su Yi didn’t need his help.

……

It was drizzling, and the skies were overcast.

After leaving the Azure Continent, Su Yi proceeded directly toward Kunwu Mountain.

The Mysterious Blue Realm was the Eighth Star Ruin. A long time ago, it too suffered the corrosive effects of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness, and it too had welcomed a Radiant Epoch.

More importantly, it was already capable of sustaining Imperial Realm power!

In other words, there were already opportunities for the Spirit Dao cultivators of the Mysterious Blue Realm to prove their Daos and become Emperors.

Su Yi had learned this from Ye Yunjia and Ye Yunsui’s memories.

Naturally, he was also well aware of the forces at the Kunwu Mountain Ye Family’s disposal.

A long time ago, when the Ye Family was at its most dazzling, they’d had numerous Emperors to hold down the fort. The strongest were in the Profound Serenity Realm, and their might intimidated the entire Mysterious Blue Realm!

However, after tens of thousands of years beneath the corrosion of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness, the Ye Family had waned.

Countless years had passed since then. The Mysterious Blue Realm welcomed its Radiant Epoch, and the Ye Family seized the opportunity to gradually rebuild.

Now, in addition to the two ancient Emperors who’d survived the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness, they had four new Emperors, all of whom rose to prominence during the Mysterious Blue Realm’s Radiant Epoch.

Ye Yunjia was one of them.

He’d proven his Dao and become an Emperor twenty-nine thousand years ago. Despite his advanced age, he was a junior compared to the family’s two Profound Serenity Emperors.

That was true for the other three newly risen Emperors too.

While one of the Ye Family’s two Profound Serenity Emperors was from the main lineage, all of the other Emperors were from the branch lineage.

The main-branch Profound Serenity Emperor was called Ye Cangtu. He’d been severely injured during the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness, and his Dao wounds were all but incurable.

To preserve his life force and strength, Ye Cangtu spent almost all of his time in seclusion, paying no heed to worldly affairs.

This was one of the most important reasons why the main lineage of the Ye Family had declined.

The branch lineage, conversely, grew stronger with each passing day. They’d already seized control over the family, taking over positions of authority that had once belonged to the main lineage.

But Su Yi wasn’t at all interested in the Ye Family’s internal enmities, nor did he care who was right and who was wrong.

He was here to wipe the Ye Family from the face of the planet, not to punish the wicked and elevate the just.

Kunwu Mountain.

Kunwu Mountain was a hundred thousand feet tall, and it was the greatest blessed ground for cultivation in all of the Mysterious Blue Realm.

The mountain was tall and grand, with a favorable ambiance suitable for nurturing talent. It was covered in palaces and pavilions, and it was a glorious sight, like an otherworldly pure land.

When he saw it in the distance, Su Yi’s figure gradually faded until he was completely invisible.

The Cloak of Profound Light!

This was a wondrous technique capable of granting invisibility and hiding one’s aura.

Even Emperors would struggle to detect those who used this technique unless they deliberately sensed their surroundings with secret soul arts.

Su Yi then proceeded directly to Kunwu Mountain.

It was covered in a full nineteen large-scale formations. All of them were wondrous, and they included killing formations, illusion formations, bewilderment formations, among others.

If you weren’t a member of the Ye Family, you couldn’t possibly enter, not even if you were an Emperor.

Of course, this naturally was no problem for Su Yi.

He didn’t force his way in, nor did he attempt to discern the formation’s mysteries. Instead, he took out a command token and entered openly.

He’d found this token amongst Ye Yunjia’s belongings. It was emblazoned with the Ye Family Emperor’s will. With the token in hand, Su Yi could pass through Kunwu Mountain’s densely layered formations with ease.

With the token in hand, the formations might as well not have been there.

Of course, it would have been different had someone discovered Su Yi’s presence and deliberately activated the formations.

At the base of Kunwu Mountain, there was a tunnel leading into the heart of the mountain.

A massive liger sprawled out by the entrance. It had jade-colored eyes and a red mane, and its coat glittered like gold. It was the size of an elephant, and it could devour Spirit Dao cultivators with ease. It was fierce beyond measure.

More importantly, it had an extremely keen sense of smell and a powerful soul. It perceived even subtle shifts and differentiate between truths and illusions.

It suddenly sensed something, and it opened its eyes.

But before it could crawl to its feet, a calm voice resounded within its soul.

“Behave yourself.”

It was just four syllables, but they were like a divine invocation. Everything went black before the liger’s eyes. It convulsed, then toppled over, completely unconscious.

It couldn’t even struggle!

Then, Su Yi proceeded into the cave.

Had anyone been there to witness this, they would have found it difficult to believe.

After all, this was the Ye Family’s base, and they were the hegemons of the Mysterious Blue Realm. Their formations were enough to trap and kill even Emperors.

Yet it was as if Su Yi were out for a casual stroll through his own backyard!

The tunnel to the heart of the mountain was dimly lit, long, and winding. The dungeon cut into the mountain’s interior was where the Ye Family kept its prisoners.

When the invisible Su Yi arrived here, he saw all of the people the Ye Family had taken hostage. They were all unconscious.

Yuan Heng, Weng Jiu, Shui Tianqiu, and Xia Qingyuan were here too.

But what made Su Yi furrow his brow was that Wen Xinzhao wasn’t present.

He suddenly recalled the conversation he’d overheard when he first came to the Mysterious Blue Realm——

The Ye Family deacon was planning to give Wen Xinzhao to someone called Ye Feng as a dual cultivation vessel!

Su Yi narrowed his eyes.

He then got to work, freeing the captives one by one and placing them safely into the Seed of the Azure.

After examining them, he discovered that was just as Ye Yunshui had said. Yuan Heng, Weng Jiu, and the others each had an insidious devilworm parasite in their souls. It was called a Spirit Tether. With it in place, the caster could control their souls at will, manipulating them like puppets. The victims’ lives were entirely out of their control!

Were he any other Emperor, he might well have been helpless these insidious parasites, but to Su Yi, the devilworms weren’t even worth mentioning.

In his past life, he once flattened a heretical faction called the Aberrant Poisons Sect. It was an ancient faction of the Aberrant Dao, and its supreme legacy was known as the Profound Classic of Divine Devilworms.

The strongest of the parasitic arts recorded in it could confuse even the souls of Profound Unity Emperors!

The Profound Classic of Divine Devilworms recorded countless methods capable of removing the Spirit Tethers.

Thus, they presented no threat at all. He proceeded to remove the devilworms, one by one.

Nothing unexpected happened.

Once all of this was finished, Su Yi returned to the cave’s entrance. When he saw the unconscious liger, he promptly searched its soul.

Before long, Su Yi understood. That very morning, the Ye Family’s deacon, Ye Nanhe, had come to this prison to take Wen Xinzhao away!