Chapter 2691 - I’d Like to Offer Him Six Toasts

Xiao Jian stood there, his life force flowing away.

The four Heavenly Sovereigns saw it all, but they didn’t rush to attack.

It wasn’t that they were afraid, but that there was simply no need to risk it. If things went as they expected, Xiao Jian’s life force would run dry in moments.

Thus, all they had to do was keep him here and wait until he died.

“Was it worth it?” Heavenly Sovereign E asked suddenly.

Xiao Jian glanced at the four Heavenly Sovereigns. “A cultivated gentleman is willing to sacrifice his life in the name of righteousness, and a sword cultivator would rather die than submit. It isn’t a question of whether or not it’s ‘worth it.’”

𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

His voice was hoarse, and he spoke with great difficulty.

He said no more. He just looked down at the yellowed, bloodstained scroll in his hands, a figure rising to the forefront of his consciousness.

She was a woman, gentle and friendly. Her gaze was utterly tender.

Xiao Jian thought to himself,

Big Sister, I’m afraid I’ll never see you again, but once Su Yi inherits my everything, he... will remember you the same way I did, right?

From a young age, all he wanted to do was read. He wanted to become a schoolteacher when he grew up.

But fate was capricious.

In the end, he stepped onto the path of a sword cultivator.

And his sister was the one he’d set aside his writing brush and picked up the sword for.

It doesn’t matter. I should have vanished from this world a long time ago. Back then, I lived on, not to pursue the Dao, but because I wanted to see you again one day. Now, I accept my fate. Later... another me will remember this for me...

Xiao Jian’s gaze filled with tenderness.

The blood around his mouth had already dried up, and his life force was rapidly flowing away. His tall, thin figure was growing indistinct.

It seemed it would soon vanish.

Xiao Jian felt the sudden urge for a drink. He wanted to make six toasts.

A toast to the picturesque beauty of heaven and earth.

A toast to the Dao of the Sword.

A toast to all of the books he’d read.

A toast to his gentle, lovable big sister.

A toast to Su Yi, the one who’d won his recognition, whom he saw as a like-minded individual.

And a toast... to himself.

Unfortunately, he had no alcohol on him. It was truly the regret of a lifetime.

Xiao Jian sighed, then closed his eyes. He didn’t want to look at his enemies any further.

No one knew it, but at his peak, he could have slain these Heavenly Sovereigns with ease.

They certainly didn’t know that even now, he’d yet to lose heart, nor had he set down his sword.

Sword cultivators ought to die fighting. The same was true of scholars. This was their spirit, and their pride.

To Xiao Jian, it was also the natural order of things!

The four Heavenly Sovereigns exchanged glances. They could see that Xiao Jian would soon pass away, but none of them dared to get complacent.

On the contrary, they were more cautious than ever.

There was nothing more fearsome than an enemy’s death throes, especially when you were on the verge of victory.

They had no intention of giving Xiao Jian any such opportunity.

“It’s begun,” Heavenly Sovereign Ling said softly.

The others instantly looked at the Five Elements Peak.

...

Meanwhile, in that miniature hidden realm...

Bang!!

A treasure tower slammed into the young monk. He staggered backward, coughing up blood, but before he could steady himself, another treasure slammed into him.

A monk’s ruler smacked him in the face, leaving a bloody gash. It didn’t do much damage, but it was

extremely

humiliating.

Countless sages manifested from ancient text sat on all four sides, reciting the classics. Together, they sealed the young monk’s escape routes off completely.

Then, there was the whooshing sword and rumbling saber. A glittering mountain of treasure attacked in a mad flurry.

The young monk was wretched, flustered, and frustrated.

He’d originally planned to keep a low profile and attack while the Heavenly Sovereigns weren’t paying attention, seizing both Su Yi’s Dao Fruit and that mysterious tripod cauldron before others got the chance.

Who could have guessed that he’d run into this unreasonable woman, or her even more unreasonable hoard of treasure?

He’d only just broken through, fusing three lives into one. This should have been his most glorious moment. Now, even Heavenly Sovereigns paled in comparison.

Who could have guessed that he’d get beaten up like this without even getting the chance to show off his strength?

“Miss, your treasures are powerful, but you cannot display their true strength, and you cannot kill this humble monk. Why not stop now?” said the young monk. “Take a step back, and I promise to leave immediately. I won’t get involved in today’s conflict any further!”

He spoke with the utmost solemnity, but his face was black, blue, and swollen, making him seem ridiculous.

Lin Jinghong frowned. She hadn’t anticipated that the bald donkey would be so stubborn. He might have

looked

unseemly, but his wounds weren’t at all serious.

Ultimately, I’m just too weak...

Lin Jinghong thought glumly. She hesitated.

Should I try to break through my shackles? If I do, I’ll instantly step into Eternity!

But when she considered the consequences of that, she instantly felt a headache coming on.

“See that? Xiao Jian has hit his limit. The Heavenly Monarchs are attacking Red Pine Mountain!” the young monk said out of nowhere. “You’re the only one who can save Su Yi now.”

There was no need for the warning, as Lin Jinghong had long since noticed what was going on.

Xiao Jian’s attack had astonished her.

If Father were here to see this, even he would have been impressed. I’m sure he wouldn’t have been stingy with his praises.

But in the end, Xiao Jian couldn’t kill the Heavenly Sovereigns.

Meanwhile, the Heavenly Sovereigns would soon reach Red Pine Mountain!

Lin Jinghong’s heart clenched. Her expression shifted erratically beneath her bronze mask.

At most, I’ll just have to go all out.

Lin Jinghong gnashed her teeth.

But then, she froze, stunned. Something was happening!

...

Meanwhile, atop Five Elements Peak.

Chaos mist flowed over the Five Elements Platform, flashing with five-colored divine radiance.

Su Yi sat cross-legged, not moving a muscle, but in truth, he’d been awake this entire time. He saw everything that was happening.

He hadn’t anticipated that Xiao Jian would step forth and attack the enemies in the void overhead, much less that this self-proclaimed scholar would put his life on the line like this.

Su Yi didn’t know just how terrifying the battle in the endless spacetime void was, but when he saw that Xiao Jian would rather die than retreat, he fell silent.

He couldn’t calm down.

And you call yourself a scholar?

No, perhaps... perhaps this is what it means to be a true scholar!

He’s read countless books and carried his sword for countless miles. To Xiao Jian, studying is practicing the sword, and practicing the sword is studying.

No one knew just how many books Xiao Jian had read in his life, or how far he’d traveled. More than that, no one knew how much adversity he’d faced in his life, or how many dazzling feats he’d accomplished.

Prior to this, Su Yi’s impression of Xiao Jian was rather vague. He just knew that his third incarnation had seized a mystery of destiny, a highly unusual second chance at life, and that he was power.

But even now, Su Yi had no idea just how powerful Xiao Jian really was.

Not long ago, he and Xiao Jian drank and chatted. Over the course of their conversation, Su Yi gradually came to realize just how many books Xiao Jian had crammed into his brain over the years; it seemed there was nothing he didn’t know.

It would have been an exaggeration to say Xiao Jian knew everything, but Su Yi couldn’t think of a better way to describe him.

The thought that Xiao Jian was his third incarnation filled Su Yi’s heart with indescribable delight. He took pride in his past life’s accomplishments.

But now, Su Yi wasn’t the least bit happy, because... Xiao Jian was about to die!

And because all he could do was watch. There was nothing he could do to save him!

He should have been able to control the source power of the Five Elements Altar at will, but something had gone awry.

As he refined the platform’s source power, an indescribable, mysterious force arose. It hadn’t just stopped him; it had completely suppressed him.

That mysterious power was utterly terrifying and tyrannical. It was full of indescribable power, and it seemed capable of suppressing anything and everything.

Even when Su Yi went all out, all he could do was hold fast!

Not even the rusted sword sheath or the Sword of the Nine Hells could help. It seemed that this invisible power had sealed even them.

In all his time cultivating, this was Su Yi’s first time encountering such a problem.

How could the Sword of the Nine Hells have been suppressed?

And that rusted sheath contains my first incarnation’s heart devil. How could he willingly let an external power seal the sheath?

Su Yi racked his brains, but all he could do was chalk it up to some unknown quality of that mysterious power.

He couldn’t retreat even if he wanted to, so he had only two choices. He could let that mysterious power suppress him, or he could defeat it, whatever it was!

Fortunately, as he continuously assumed control of more and more of Red Pine Mountain’s source power, he gradually gained the strength to challenge that mysterious power.

But that was the extent of it. If he didn’t defeat it or whoever was causing it, he’d have no choice but to remain on the Five Elements Altar.

That was what Su Yi found the most frustrating.

Xiao Jian was facing all that alone, and Su Yi could only watch helplessly. Now, Xiao Jian was on the brink of death, but Su Yi was still stuck, unable to do anything but watch!

“They’re here,” said the yellow finch. “Don’t blame me for my heartlessness. I’m an incarnation of the Laws and the natural order, and you’ve yet to assume true control over Red Pine Mountain’s chaos source, so I cannot obey your orders. Thus, I cannot intervene. You’d... best be careful.”

Su Yi noticed that over a dozen terrifying figures were hurtling toward him from the distant dome of heaven.

They were extraordinarily fast.

Earlier, he watched as the River Lord and Gongye Futu stopped those ten-plus figures in their tracks.

It was also then that he learned that these were Heavenly Fate Realm Heavenly Monarchs, experts of the fifth and final realm of Eternity!

Every last one of them was far beyond his ability to contend with!

Yet now, all of them were descending into the God Domain at once.

Su Yi couldn’t help but frown. If they attacked him now, he really wouldn’t be able to fight back at all.

That is... unless he let that mysterious power suppress him!

But Su Yi would do no such thing. He had a strong premonition that the consequences of that would be far more dire than mere death by his enemies’ hands.

But that didn’t mean there was nothing he could do. He could, for instance, throw all caution to the wind, burn his life force and cultivation base, and risk it all!

He’d only just thought this when Madam Purple Blue, Meng Tianya, Heavenly Monarch Xun, and the other Heavenly Monarchs appeared beneath the distant dome of heaven.

“The chaos source is still there, so we’re practically stuck in the middle. We won’t be able to attack unless we suppress our cultivation bases,” said Heavenly Monarch Xun with a sigh. “If we really attack without reservation, we’ll destroy the entire God Domain.”

To Heavenly Sovereigns, the God Domain was far too fragile. It was like a shallow pool, while they were like flood dragons. If they wanted to travel through the shallows, a flood dragon had to shrink its body. By the same token, to enter the God Domain, they had no choice but to suppress their cultivation bases.

All of them now suppressed their cultivation bases in preparation for entering the “shallow pool” of the God Domain.

“Let’s pluck the Dao Fruit first. It won’t be too late to decide the God Domain’s fate then,” said Meng Tianya.

With that, he took a step forward, then stretched out his hand, reaching for the Su Yi seated atop the Five Elements Altar from afar.