Chapter 1970: A Sword Comes From the West

Bang!

Both halves of Blood Firmament’s bisected corpse crumbled into ash. Only his soul remained, flickering like a candle in the wind.

He let out a long sigh. “A single wrong move meant my death. Divinity was so close at hand, but I let it slip through my fingers. I’m truly… unwilling to accept this!”

Off in the distance, Su Yi took out a jug of wine and drank with relish. “Prior to the Age of Fallen Immortals, you were no match for me. Now, even if you achieved divinity, you’d die beyond a doubt against me.”

Blood Firmament laughed coldly. “In the past, I was inferior to you. I admit that. But if you think you could beat me even after I became a god, you think too highly of yourself!”

“Jiang Tai’e recently became a god,” said Su Yi. “Just six hours ago, we fought, and he died by my hand.”

Blood Firmament was stunned. “He’s… dead!?”

“If not, where do you think all these wounds came from?”

Blood Firmament’s expression shifted erratically. He stared intently at Su Yi for a long time before letting out another sigh. “The winner is a king, the loser a criminal. Losing to an opponent of your caliber is, at the very least, a worthy death.”

“You’re wrong,” said Su Yi calmly. “In my eyes, you’ve never been worthy to be my opponent. You weren’t then, and you aren’t now.”

Blood Firmament was visibly flabbergasted, but Su Yi had no interest in talking to him any further. He just swung his sleeve, and…

Boom!

The last wisp of Blood Firmament’s soul was destroyed.

Su Yi wasn’t overly emotional about this. He’d simply ended a lasting enmity.

It was just as he’d said. Blood Firmament, Nan Pingtian, Chu Shentong, and his other old enemies from his past life weren’t worthy of being described as his “opponents.” Even Jiang Tai’e was no exception.

The reason was simple. Prior to the Age of Fallen Immortals, Wang Ye reigned supreme over the Immortal Realm, gazing down proudly upon creation. He put so much pressure on his old enemies that they dared not raise their heads before him.

Back then, not one of them was fit to be Wang Ye’s opponent!

Wang Ye lost the Battle of Eternal Night for two simple reasons.

First, Wang Ye had reached a critical stage of his secluded cultivation when he was ambushed, caught off-guard.

Second, Blood Firmament was not alone. He and no fewer than thirty-two others attacked him by surprise.

Even so, despite the peril and despite the suddenness of it all, Wang Ye slew twenty-one of his enemies, and not one of them escaped uninjured!

In other words, not one of them would have been a match for him by themselves. They only won because their ambush ruined Wang Ye’s cultivation. Otherwise, they wouldn’t necessarily have won despite their vastly superior numbers.

Given the circumstances, how could any of them have been fit to be his “opponent?”

And in this lifetime, Su Yi’s cultivation far surpassed Wang Ye’s. He’d cut down a god while still in the Great Unity Stage. Even badly injured, he was absolutely strong enough to one-sidedly crush the Blood Firmament Immortal Sovereign! RἁƝőBĘŜ

Suddenly, Su Yi whipped around and gazed into the distance. “How about you come out and play?”

“Retreat!”

A group appeared in the distance, turned, and fled.

Su Yi just laughed and disregarded them, then walked off.

That very day, word of how Su Yi had used himself as bait to lure in his enemies spread. No small number of experts had been preparing to attack when they heard the news. All of them broke out in cold sweats and cursed Su Yi’s insidiousness.

……

A day later, Su Yi awakened from his meditation. His wounds had fully healed. Without any further delays, he continued east.

The chaos energy was getting denser and denser, like currents of mist floating in the air.

He seldom bumped into other experts along the way, but he did encounter natural variant beasts comparable to demigods!

No wonder I’ve run into so few people. The creatures here are enough to scare most of them off,

thought Su Yi.

Of course, demigod-level variant beasts were no threat to him. Whenever he encountered one, he dominated it with overwhelming force.

Suddenly, a Divine Tribulation appeared beneath the dome of heaven, complete with strange phenomena.

“Someone’s becoming a god again, huh?” Su Yi’s eyes narrowed.

Meanwhile, in a mountainous stretch of land, a group of experts gazed into the distant dome of heaven, where a tall, stalwart man in golden robes was undergoing tribulation.

Deep beneath the dome of heaven, lightning flashed, thunder boomed, and tribulation clouds churned. A calamitous, destructive aura swept outward, bearing down on the surrounding area with such intensity that the onlookers could barely breathe.

The golden-robed man leaped through the air and fought off the relentlessly descending tribulation light.

“If all goes as expected, Emissary Tao Long will successfully overcome his tribulation and become a god,” someone whispered.

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

The speaker was a divine son in imperial robes, a feather headdress, and a broad belt. His hair was as white as snow.

He stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze eager. “When Emissary Tao Long becomes a god, we can immediately set course for the source of the Epoch Battlefield and compete for a supreme Epoch Fragment!”

The other divine emissaries couldn’t help but look envious. Tao Long was originally one of them, yet now, he was about to become a god!

Of course they were jealous. How could they not be?

“You needn’t lose heart. On the road ahead, I’ll do my utmost to acquire opportunities for you to achieve divinity too!” the divine son promised with a smile.

“Many thanks, Your Excellency!” The divine emissaries each expressed their gratitude, their faces nothing but smiles.

They watched Tao Long’s tribulation from a safe distance, conversing amongst themselves.

Suddenly, someone said, “I heard that the experts who went after Su Yi yesterday were all killed! I have to say, that Su Yi guy sure is black-hearted and insidious!”

The others all reacted differently to this statement. Not long ago, they too had planned to join their divine son in taking advantage of Su Yi’s injured state.

Fortunately, they found out about how Su Yi trapped and killed the others before they managed to locate him. In the end, they gave up on the operation entirely.

The divine son frowned, then snorted coldly. “Once Tao Long becomes a god, killing that heretic Su Yi will be as easy as turning over our hands!”

The others nodded in complete agreement.

Boom!

The tribulation clouds dispersed, and a seemingly endless rain of light enveloped Tao Long’s tall, upright figure.

His aura visibly soared as it underwent an earth-shaking transformation. Within just a few blinks of an eye, terrifying divine power spread from his body, shifting the wind and clouds and making the very sky itself wail!

“He succeeded!” someone called out in excitement.

The others felt waves of emotion crash through their hearts. They’d just watched someone overcome his Divine Tribulation and become a god with their own two eyes. It was an enormous shock.

The divine son couldn’t help but laugh. “To tell the truth, I’m actually rather eager for that heretic Su Yi to show himself. If he does, we can let the new Lesser God, Tao Long, show off his divine might.”

The others smiled too.

Someone jeered, “Had Su Yi seen Tao Long become a god, I’m afraid he’d have dashed off with his tail between his legs like a scared dog. How could he possibly be bold enough to draw near?”

Before this voice had even finished echoing through the air, the clear, impassioned hum of a sword rang out.

Clang!!

A man and a sword appeared beneath the dome of heaven, like a beam of flowing light shooting over from afar. They cleaved through the dome of heaven and charged straight at Tao Long.

In that moment, the same thought rose unbidden to everyone’s minds:

What idiot could be so over-confident as to try to ambush a newly ascended god? Have they gone insane?

But what happened next made their eyes widen.

Boom!

A heaven-shaking impact rang out. Everyone watched as a man and a sword bore a hole through Tao Long’s body like a beam of flowing light!

They even saw the flabbergasted, bewildered look on Tao Long’s face before he died in vivid detail. He’d obviously never anticipated that he’d die at his strongest, proudest moment!

His body exploded, like a scalding, crimson firework. His blood stained the sky a striking shade of red.

The divine emissaries and the divine son’s minds went blank.

Tao Long was a god! How could someone have cleaved through him and killed him in a single slash?

If they hadn’t witnessed it with their own eyes, they would never have believed it.

Whoosh!

The man and his sword came clearly into view. They were none other than Su Yi and the Sword of Proximity.

Su Yi walked through the sky and arrived at the spot in which Tao Long had fallen. A resplendent bundle of golden light hovered there. This was the Godhead Tao Long had just condensed during his tribulation!

Su Yi stretched out his hand, and it landed in his palm. This Godhead contained a fifth-level Epoch Law. It had little appeal to Su Yi, but he could always give it to someone else.

He casually put it away, then swept his gaze across the group gathered in the distance. “Didn’t you say you were eager for me to show up? Why are you so quiet all of a sudden?”

The crowd shuddered.

Su Yi! That heretic just killed a god!!

“Su Yi! There’s no grudge between us. Why strike with such ruthlessness?” said the divine son, his face ashen.

“‘No grudge between us?’” Su Yi’s eyes flashed with mockery. “This is a struggle for good fortune. We have to determine victory and defeat, as well as life and death. Besides, all of you serve the gods and see me as a heretic. How could you say that there’s no grudge between us? It’s ludicrous!”

As he spoke, he approached the group from afar.

“Run!” The divine son visibly lost his cool, turned, and tried to flee with his divine emissaries.

But they were one step too late.

When Su Yi exerted his will, the hovering Sword of Proximity turned in midair, and streaks of chaos-like sword qi shot forth.

Splurt! Splurt! Splurt!

Muffled impacts rang out. Wherever the sword qi aimed, a divine emissary died. Not one survived.

The divine son took out his Epoch Treasure, but not even that was enough to block the Sword of Proximity. He too died in an instant.

A mist of fresh blood permeated the air.

The Divine Replenishment Furnace emerged to gather the spoils.

Su Yi, meanwhile, put away the Sword of Proximity and thought back to killing Tao Long. He felt an altogether different sensation.

He hadn’t used the Sword of Proximity against Jiang Tai’e.

Just now, when he used the Sword of Proximity to attack, he had a moment without the slightest misgivings in his heart. He had absolute confidence in his ability to kill his enemies in a single hit!

The reason was simple. Tao Long had only just broken through, and he’d yet to stabilize his cultivation base. Moreover, his Godhead’s quality was far inferior to Jiang Tai’e’s.

This let Su Yi use the Sword of Proximity to kill a god in a single hit!

Meanwhile, the Divine Replenishment Furnace had just finished gathering the spoils when it rushed over with a dull gray chaos stone. “Your Excellency, quick, look at this! There’s something strange about this treasure!”