Chapter 2517 - His Heart Wanders, and His Thoughts Connect the Ages

As soon as Su Yi undid the seal on the rusted sheath, the heart devil called out to him. “Were you up to no good behind my back again?”

His voice was tinged with mockery.

Su Yi’s eyebrows rose.

It seems he’s getting livelier and livelier as time goes on.

The heart devil quickly got back on topic. “Tell me, then. What do you want from me this time?”

“I just wanted to tell you something,” said Su Yi.

“Oh? What is it?” the heart devil asked distractedly.

“The All-Wonder Dominion has changed,” said Su Yi.

“What?” The heart devil obviously found this surprising. “That blasted place has existed in perpetuity, never so much as shifting. How could it have changed?”

“I don’t know either,” said Su Yi.

“Who told you this?” pressed the heart devil.

“It’s a secret.”

“Bullshit. Given your cultivation base, you’re far from qualified to learn the mysteries of the All-Wonder Dominion. You shouldn’t even know its name! Let me guess...” Something seemed to occur to the heart devil. “Did you... see

her?”

Su Yi sighed to himself.

I knew there was no way I could keep this from my first incarnation’s heart devil.

“Don’t bother trying to deny it. She must have told you about the All-Wonder Dominion,” said the heart devil, his voice suddenly low and solemn. “What else did she say?”

“She said that during this change, even an existence who’d mastered reincarnation had to leave the All-Wonder Dominion," said Su Yi.

He’d promised not to discuss anything he saw deep within Xi Ning’s soul, but he hadn’t made any such promises regarding the All-Wonder Dominion.

“Someone who’d mastered reincarnation... could it be him?” said the heart devil. “Strange. What kind of change could possibly have forced him to retreat? But no, I suppressed Alpha Origin. Don’t tell me something happened with the seal?”

Alpha Origin!

Su Yi’s eyes narrowed. The heart devil had told him previously that Alpha Origin was his first incarnation’s mightiest enemy.

Only now did Su Yi learn that Alpha Origin had been suppressed in the All-Wonder Dominion, and he was likely the cause of its changes.

“Is that all you wanted to tell me?” asked the heart devil.

“Yes, that’s all,” said Su Yi.

The heart devil sneered. “Why do I get the sense that you were baiting me on purpose? Your goals weren’t exactly pure, were they?”

Su Yi didn’t deny it. “I really did want to seize this opportunity to ask you about the All-Wonder Dominion.

The heart devil fell silent. A long time passed before he said, “If she didn’t tell you the inside story, it means she doesn’t think you’re worthy of knowing it yet. I naturally won’t overstep my bounds.”

“...” Su Yi didn’t know what to say to that.

“But this information was quite important to me, so... I’ll naturally pay you back later,” said the heart devil. “Also, um... If she needs any kind of help, tell me. I’ll naturally pay you back for that, too.”

Su Yi’s eyebrows rose. This was his first incarnation’s heart devil, a being obsessed with balance. No matter what he did, he believed that fortune and disaster went hand in hand, and that every advantage had its price. Even favors and feelings were to be exchanged in the name of balance.

It was different from doing business, which was more about squeezing out every last possible drop of profit.

Rather, this was his Dao. He sought a sort of balance within the Grand Dao.

“This doesn’t cost me anything,” Su Yi said casually. “If you think I’m trying to squeeze benefits out of you, you’re way off base.”

“I understand. How could I not understand?” laughed the heart devil. “You dislike the Dao I seek, and you aren’t willing to go along with my plans. You’re afraid that I’ll gradually bait you into growing dependent on me, but you can relax. We can each just carry on as we see fit.”

“That would be best,” said Su Yi.

𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

When he finished his conversation with the heart devil, he put away the rusted sword sheath and let out a deep breath.

Then, he cast aside his scattered thoughts and focused on his cultivation.

On that day, Su Yi went into seclusion on Sunset Perch Island, and he ventured out no further.

......

Flowers bloomed, then withered. Spring turned into autumn.

Soon, three years had passed.

The God Domain was strangely quiet. Worldly strife had largely died down.

The various top orthodoxies had all called back their forces and gone dormant. The entire cultivation world was calm and quiet.

But this sort of atmosphere filled the world’s experts’ hearts with worry. All of them knew that this was merely the calm before the storm!

Who knew how many dark currents and hidden dangers were brewing beneath this calm surface?

All of this was because the Dark Days of Legend would soon arrive.

“Di E has returned to seclusion, the top factions have gone dormant, and even Sword Venerate Su hasn’t taken a step outside in years. I can already say with certainty that all of them are preparing for the Dark Days of Legend,” said an older-generation cultivator, his heart heavy. “Even those at the pinnacle of the God Domain are keeping such a low profile and taking this so seriously. I can already imagine how chaotic and tumultuous the world will become when the Dark Days of Legend arrive!”

Most of the world’s experts weren’t in any position to do anything special in preparation for the Dark Days of Legend.

When the sands of the changing era fell on their heads, it might well spell disaster!

“Upheaval and turmoil are opportunities. Heroes are born in turbulent times!”

“When the former order collapses, countless opportunities will arise. We can seize the chaos to rise to prominence in our pursuit of the Grand Dao!”

There were also some people who were full of lofty aspirations. They were looking forward to the Dark Days of Legend coming to overturn the God Domain’s balance of power.

There was no small number of such people, either.

In times of peace, there were few opportunities to defy heaven and change your fate, as the world’s cultivation resources and authority had long since been monopolized by its top factions.

Rising rapidly to prominence under those circumstances was unquestionably far too difficult.

But turbulent times were different. Everything would soon undergo reshuffling!

A reshuffling meant that past monopolies would break. Countless opportunities would arise. So long as someone seized them, they had hope of leaping over the dragon’s gate and changing their destiny!

It would be dangerous, but opportunities were hidden amidst the peril.

The greater the danger, the greater the corresponding opportunities. The pessimists just saw the dangers, but the optimists saw the opportunities!

...

It was a misty morning on Sunset Perch Island.

The distant surface of the sea was flecked with orange sunlight. Salty winds blew past, swaying the peachblossoms covering the island.

Su Yi sat alone on a boulder near the seaside, gazing quietly at the distant intersection of sea and sky.

His heart and soul were empty; he’d forgotten himself completely and entered a wondrous state of consciousness.

His qi was still within him, but with every breath he took, the churning waves, the blowing winds, the traces of the Grand Dao in the surrounding skies...

All of them produced a wondrous, rhythmic motion, as if in resonance with Su Yi’s breath.

When the heart concentrated, it forgot the body, yet merged with all things!

Su Yi had already sat here alone for a full month. He watched the sun rise and light flood the heavens, then watched as the sun set and darkness set in, only for a new dawn to break...

Heaven and earth were too beautiful for words. The workings of the seasons could not be described, nor could the laws of nature.

True greatness was formless!

His heart wandered, fusing with heaven and earth. It could ride on the waves, or soar with the wind beyond the nine heavens. It could shift with the clouds, scattering in all directions, but his thoughts connected the ages!

To an outsider, Su Yi might have seemed as unmoving as a boulder, but his heart and soul were wandering beyond the nine heavens, exploring the depths of the Endless Ocean, wandering amidst the alternations of the ages, conversing with the Grand Dao of the ages, and resonating with the breath of the heavens.

The boulder he sat on couldn’t have been more ordinary. It had once been buried on the ocean floor. Time had worn it away, and the seawater had cleansed it. Over the passage of countless years, seawater had swathed it time and time again. In the end, this process carried it all the way to the shore.

Seabirds had once stood on it, and sea turtles had once laid eggs beneath it...

Su Yi could sense all of this. It was just a cold, lifeless boulder, but to Su Yi, it was like a book bearing the story of the vicissitudes of countless years. He’d read countless stories and secrets in its “pages.”

And this was just a single rock.

To the senses of his heart and soul, everything in heaven and earth hid similar truths, and every change in his surroundings was emblazoned with similar mysteries!

This was a wondrous, indescribable mental state!

The River Child stood guard not far away, not daring to let anything disturb Su Yi. He could tell that his master was immersed in his cultivation, and that he’d entered a mysterious, unknown mental state.

“What are you doing here, Yi Chen?” The River Child suddenly noticed Yi Chen rushing over with a worried look on his face.

“I have a problem,” said Yi Chen. “A big problem.”

The River Child could tell that he was out of sorts, so he dared not be negligent. “No one else can resolve it?”

There were countless powerful old monsters in seclusion on Sunset Perch Island. They were enough to resolve the vast majority of difficulties.

The River Child didn’t want anyone to disturb Su Yi unless it was absolutely necessary.

“They cannot resolve it,” said Yi Chen. “Only my... father can resolve this.”

He still wasn’t used to the word “father,” and he struggled to get the title out.

The River Child fell briefly silent. “Master has reached a critical juncture of his cultivation. If...”

But before he could finish, Su Yi’s voice emanated from the distant boulder. “Let him come over.”

“Understood!” The River Child promptly stepped aside.

Yi Chen took a deep breath and walked over. When he reached Su Yi, he clasped his fist in respect before saying, “It’s been a month since I last heard from my mother.”

There was no hiding the worry in his voice.

Su Yi knew that Yi Chen and Lu Qingmei frequently kept in touch. Furthermore, they had an agreement that unless something happened, Yi Chen would get a new message from Lu Qingmei within a month of the last message.

They’d kept it up for several years now, but Su Yi had never asked about the contents of their correspondence.

When he heard of Lu Qingmei’s silence, Su Yi couldn’t help but feel stunned. “You can’t contact her?”

Yi Chen nodded, then said with concern, “I haven’t heard anything from her at all.”

“What did she talk about in her last message?” asked Su Yi.

Yi Chen took out a jade slip and proffered it to him with both hands. “Her last message is inside.”

Su Yi promptly started reading.