Chapter 2135 - You’re On Your Own

The sheath barely weighed anything; it felt as light as a goose feather in Su Yi’s hands.

As light as it was, it was extraordinarily firm. At first, Su Yi was even afraid he’d crush the severely rusted sheath by accident, but when he gradually tightened his grip, he found that even when he gave it his all, he couldn’t damage the sheath in the slightest!

This instantly drew Su Yi’s interest.

Just as I thought. The sheath might look unassuming, but it hides enormous mysteries!

Su Yi pondered, then separated a wisp of his divine sense and inserted it into the sheath.

Boom!!

He suddenly felt as if he’d entered a world of endless darkness. He could see nothing, and he had no sense of direction. Everything just seemed vast, desolate, and empty.

When Su Yi circulated the full extent of his soul power and continuously inserted his divine sense into the sheath, he discovered what looked like a dark, endless world inside it.

Su Yi’s soul was stronger than even the strongest of Fortune Realm soul cultivators, but soon, even he started to feel exhausted. He couldn’t find the bounds of the world within the sheath!

Su Yi was unwilling to accept this, so he continued the search even though the process severely depleted his soul power.

As his divine sense pushed deeper in, he still saw nothing but endless darkness and desolation.

An unknown amount of time passed before Su Yi suddenly let out a muffled grunt. His soul was on the verge of drying up, and his handsome face was deathly pale.

Su Yi was unwittingly astonished.

Just what kind of mysterious land is hidden within that sheath?

When his soul was on the verge of drying up, Su Yi had no choice but to give up.

But just as he was about to withdraw his divine sense, he sensed something strange—twin lights silently lit up deep within the endless darkness!

They appeared in a flash, gone as soon as they arrived. Everything was soon shrouded in darkness once more.

Su Yi’s heart shook.

Those... those looked like eyes!

He mentally replayed what he’d just seen. The two lights had vanished as soon as they’d appeared. He’d only caught the barest glimpse of them. Still, Su Yi could roughly discern that they were indeed a pair of eyes.

Eyes that glinted like the edge of a sword!

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Don’t tell me that someone is living in this endless darkness? If so, who could they possibly be?

Su Yi had only just thought this when a sigh resounded throughout the darkness, tinged with endless loneliness.

Su Yi stiffened and instinctively withdrew his divine sense.

When he next looked down at the rusted sheath, his brow furrowed.

There’s something sinister about this thing!

Earlier, he had the strong premonition that if he didn’t withdraw his divine sense, he’d be in unpredictable peril, and Su Yi had always trusted his intuition.

Looking back on it now, the mysterious person hidden within the sheath had to be an extraordinarily dangerous character, one who could almost certainly threaten his life!

Strange. Why arrange such a sinister sheath as my reward for overcoming the ninth divine tower? I’m sure my first incarnation left it here, so I might be able to get some useful leads out of the River Lord after I leave the Path of the Ancient Gods.

Su Yi put the sheath away, sat cross-legged, and started recovering his soul power.

......

As time passed, the outside world descended into uproar. The whole world shook.

Everyone in the Ancient God Domain was talking about how Su Yi had overcome all of the Nine Great Celestial Trials and broken their long-established records.

The territories of the ancient Qin Family.

“We’re finished!”

“After achieving divinity, he broke the record in even the eighth and ninth divine towers! That means he’s stronger than any Greater God in history!”

“What do we do?”

The higher-ups of the Qin Family had all gathered in a meeting hall, their expressions grave and fraught with worry.

There was a grudge between them and Su Yi!

Both Qin Wenxiao, whom Su Yi had killed in the City of the Beginning, and the prominent Qin Family experts whom Su Yi had killed in the Deification Star Sea had been their clansmen.

Qin Family experts had been there when Su Yi first entered the Ancient God Domain and appeared at Heaven’s End Divine Mountain, too!

“What’s there to be afraid of? Su Yi is all on his own. Surely he wouldn’t dare fight his way into our territories?” a middle-aged man with long gray hair said expressionlessly.

This was Qin Wenzhou, a Fortune Realm Greater God of the ancient Qin Family.

Qin Family experts had gone after Su Yi in the Deification Star Sea on his orders.

“That’s right! The Qin Family is under Celestial Venerate Fiery Abyss’s protection. If Su Yi dares commit murder here, we can simply request the Celestial Venerate’s aid!”

Everyone was talking at once, trying to come up with countermeasures.

Family Head Qin Mingfeng sat at the center of the room in complete silence. He hadn’t said so much as a single word this entire time.

“What do you think of this matter, Family Head?” asked Qin Wenzhou. The others looked over as well.

Qin Mingfeng raised his head and looked at him. “Do you have the mallet of the Drum of Injustice in your possession?”

“It is.” Qin Wenzhou nodded.

“That makes things simple. Better late than never. It’s not too late to turn things around,” whispered Qin Mingfeng.

“Family Head, are you saying we should give Su Yi the mallet in a bid to smooth things over?” Qin Wenzhou furrowed his brow. “Wouldn’t that make the Qin Family seem inept? If word spreads, how will the other factions of the Ancient God Domain see us?”

Many of the others voiced their agreement. Su Yi was strong, and unquestionably a troublesome opponent, but none of them thought that Su Yi could threaten the entire Qin Family by himself.

Family Head Qin Mingfeng shook his head. “That’s not enough. If we want to resolve this, we’ll have to open a vein. Nothing else will do.”

The crowd was stunned.

What does he mean by that? Su Yi’s all on his own. Is he really worth going so far?

Qin Mingfeng suddenly stood, then fixed his gaze on Qin Wenzhou and sighed. “Third Elder, I’m sure you couldn’t bear to see anything happen to the Qin Family.”

“Of course not!” Qin Wenxzhou said solemnly. “But what are you getting at, Family Head?”

Qin Mingfeng said solemnly, “I’m going to need to borrow your head. With it, I can ensure the safety of the entire Qin Family!”

Qin Wenzhou looked stricken, but before he could respond...

Splurt!

A streak of cold light flashed past, decapitating Qin Wenzhou before he knew what hit him.

Qin Mingfeng stretched out his hand and grabbed. Qin Wenzhou’s still-bleeding head landed in his palm.

Deathly silence fell over the crowd. All of them were horrified, and they found this difficult to believe. None of them had anticipated that Family Head Qin Mingfeng would be so cold-blooded. He’d actually decapitated the third elder!

Qin Mingfeng swept his gaze across the room, then said with grief, “Every debt has its debtor. The third elder committed an unforgivable crime, and now, he has offered up his head in penance to help the Qin Family escape catastrophe. His was a worthy death, a death worthy of respect!”

The crowd exchanged glances. All of them were as silent as cicadas in winter.

You call that ‘offering up his head in penance?’ Family Head, you obviously just decapitated him with your own two hands!

But none of them dared say anything.

“Once we’ve resolved the crisis at hand, we’ll hold a grand funeral for the third elder so that everyone in the clan can pay their respects!” Qin Mingfeng took a deep breath. “But first, there’s something I must do. Pass on my orders. Everyone in the clan involved with the third elder must be put to death!”

The crowd’s hair stood on end.

Killing the third elder wasn’t enough!?

Qin Mingfeng sighed. “Earlier, I requested aid from Celestial Venerate Fiery Abyss, but all he said in response was, ‘You’re on your own.’”

The others’ eyes widened. “....!”

“Now do you understand how dire the situation is?” Family Head Qin Mingfeng said with a complicated look in his eyes. “Not even the Celestial Venerate dares to get involved in this. Who in the Ancient God Domain can fight Su Yi now?”

The entire hall sank into silence. The only sound was Qin Wenzhou’s blood dripping onto the flood, each droplet eye-catchingly red.

Later that night, Su Yi arrived in the Qin Family’s territory, only to be greeted by the sight of an orderly row of severed heads.

Family Head Qin Mingfeng stood there with the rest of the family’s higher-ups.

“We knew you were on your way, so we’ve been waiting here for the opportunity to repent and plead for your forgiveness.” Qin Minfeng bowed, then proffered a jade box. “This contains the mallet of the Drum of Injustice. The criminals behind its theft have all been executed, and their heads are laid out here for you to see.”

As his voice rang out, his clansmen bowed in unison, heads lowered in terror.

Were the cultivators of the Ancient God Domain here to see this, their jaws might well have fallen off in sheer fright. After all, the Qin Family was one of the Ancient God Domain’s top factions.

But now, they’d caved before Su Yi even reached their door!

Su Yi swept his gaze across the crowd. He couldn’t help but arch his eyebrows.

He’d come here, in part to reclaim the mallet of the Drum of Injustice, and in part to teach the ancient Qin Family a lesson. He wouldn’t have thought they’d admit defeat before he even got the chance!

They’d even offered up the mallet of his own accord and executed the offending clansmen!

In the end, Su Yi just put away the jade box, turned, and left.

There was no point in any further conversation, nor was there any need to say anything. Sometimes, staying silent

was

taking a stance!

Qin Mingfeng and the other Qin Family higher-ups watched Su Yi fade from view. They couldn’t help but sigh with relief, but it didn’t feel quite real.

Some of the higher-ups’ backs were completely drenched in cold sweat. Had Su Yi cast all reservations aside and attacked, the Qin Family would have been helpless to stop him!

...

In the days that followed, Su Yi was like a rootless wanderer in the Ancient God Domain.

The Ancient God Domain was incomparably vast, and full of experts of bygone epoch civilizations.

Different epoch civilizations gave rise to different systems of cultivation and different Laws. All of them had once been glorious.

All of this frequently broadened Su Yi’s horizons and got him thinking about the Grand Dao.

Amidst the alternation of the epochs and the rise and fall of worldly affairs, even though cultivation systems varied, all pursuit of the Grand Dao ultimately led to the same place.

Everyone was in search of greater heights!

...

On the night of a new moon, Su Yi sat alone by the side of a lake, fishing with a bamboo pole.

Suddenly, he sensed that the year was almost up, and it was time he left the Path of the Ancient Gods.

When he thought back to this last year, waves of emotion coursed through his heart.

On that night of fishing beneath the new moon, the boundless waters and skies seemed to merge, but as beautiful as the scenery was, it couldn’t last.

“It’s time I left.”