Chapter 504: The Sumeru Talisman

After a brief daze, the middle-aged man laughed bitterly.

He was worried that Su Yi’s excellence would draw others’ envy, and he sealed off word of the duel on Cloudcome Lake to protect him.

Who’d have thought that Su Yi wasn’t the least bit concerned, or that he was actually eager for the Qingyi Dao Sect’s Daoist Masters Lei Feng and Ting He to come knocking on his door…?

“Fellow Daoist, the Orchid Terrace Dharma Assembly begins in nine days. Dark currents are flowing beneath the surface of Nine Tripod City. Who knows how many experts have come for this event?” Weng Jiu couldn’t help but warn him, “When the time comes, it really won’t do to cause any further disturbances.”

Su Yi glanced at Weng Jiu. “Do I seem like the type to cause a disturbance?”

Weng Jiu shook his head. “You don’t.”

Su Yi laughed. “I’m just waiting for other people to come looking for me; I never said I’d go looking for them. Even if there’s a disturbance, they’re to blame for throwing their lives away, don’t you think?”

Weng Jiu was at a loss for words, but his master was finally starting to understand. Su Yi wasn’t afraid of anything; that was why he was so confident.

Perhaps, in the eyes of the general populace, the duel on Cloudcomb Lake was sure to stir up enormous unrest.

Even the middle-aged man was stunned when he heard about it last night.

After all, the fallen combatant was Huo Tiandu, an inner sect elder of Cloudsky Divine Palace as well as an influential member of the Huo Family.

How could the aftermath of his death possibly be insignificant?

But Su Yi didn’t care.

This wasn’t ignorance; he truly wasn’t at all concerned!

The middle-aged man thought for a moment, then changed the subject. “Fellow Daoist, this is a Sumeru Talisman.”

He passed it to Su Yi. It was about the size of his palm, and it was made of black spirit jade. It emanated faint and inscrutable energy fluctuations.

Before he’d even left the Great Zhou, Yue Shichan told Su Yi that those who placed in the top thirty at the Orchid Terrace Dharma Assembly the Xia Emperor was hosting would each receive a Sumeru Talisman.

Only those who possessed such a talisman could enter the Great Xia’s ultimate forbidden ground, Sumeru Immortal Island.

And according to Hua Xinfeng—or rather, Xia Qingyuan—it was highly likely that Sumeru Immortal Island hid clues to the origins of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness.

The trigger of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkenss was the Origins of the Azure.

Thirty thousand years ago, it was because of a change to the Origins of the Azure that the continent was shrouded in the power of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness. This was what plunged the world into thirty thousand years of darkness and upheaval.

Visiting Sumeru Immortal Mountain was one of Su Yi’s goals for his trip to the Great Xia.

Thus, a talisman granting him entry to Sumeru Immortal Island was one of the two conditions Su Yi had for the middle-aged man.

Now, this treasure had finally fallen into Su Yi’s hands.

After examining it briefly, Su Yi’s eyes lit up with surprise. “So, Sumeru Talismans are made out of Divine Barrier Stone! Does that mean Sumeru Immortal Island is actually a self-contained hidden world?”

“You’ve got good eyes, Fellow Daoist,” praised the middle-aged man. “They say that thirty thousand years ago, the Azure Continent’s top faction of yao cultivators, the Sumeru Shrine, produced these talismans. They’re the only way to enter Sumeru Immortal Island.”

Su Yi was actually well aware that thirty thousand years ago, there were several top factions of yao cultivations. He also knew that the Sumeru Shine was the greatest of them.

Its first Shrine Master was one of the Azure Continent’s Nine Emperors, the Sumeru Yao Emperor.

The Immortal’s Sword House, which now lay in ruins in the Great Qin’s Sea of Chaotic Spirits, was once a prominent sect of yao cultivators too. Its founder was the Heavensphere Yao Emperor.

Another top faction called itself the Burning Sun Sect. Its founder was the Spirit Crow Yao Emperor.

Thirty thousand years ago, all three of these factions had an Imperial Realm expert to hold down the fort; they were true imperial-level orthodoxies.

Su Yi said thoughtfully, “So is Sumeru Immortal Island effectively the Sumeru Shrine’s sect gate?”

The middle-aged man nodded. “Probably. Even if it isn’t their sect gate, it was undoubtedly once under their control."

He then proceeded to share various secrets with Su Yi.

Sumeru Immortal Island was a forbidden ground of the Great Xia, and a terrifying power sealed its entrance, separating it from the outside world.

Even with a Sumeru Talisman, only Origin Dao cultivators could enter.

The moment one’s cultivation exceeded the Origin Dao, or if one had yet to enter the Origin Dao, it didn’t matter whether or not they had a talisman; it was useless. The seal would keep them from entering.

Throughout history, incredibly capable Origin Dao cultivators had continuously ventured into Sumeru Immortal Island.

Without exception, not one had returned alive!

The middle-aged man had exhausted an enormous amount of effort researching ancient tomes that described the Sumeru Shrine.

In the end, he could only deduce one thing: the hidden world known as Sumeru Immortal Island was most likely connected to the source of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness!

Thirty thousand years ago, the Azure Continent’s top sect of yao cultivators, the Sumeru Shrine, sealed Sumeru Immortal Island away completely, heedless of the cost. They did this because they sensed the strange and sinister danger lurking within the island.

Of course, that was just the middle-aged man’s deduction.

Sumeru Immortal Island was, after all, a hidden realm, and even after all this time, it was a mystery. No one knew its secrets.

However, the middle-aged man also said that recently, as the power of the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness ebbed, the seal protecting the island’s entrance had loosened significantly.

To the point that, every so often, the same strange phenomenon appeared near the entrance.

It was like the boundless and ethereal beating of war drums. It started and stopped erratically, and it seemed to originate from an ancient battlefield.

Every time, the phenomenon lasted just long enough to burn a stick of incense before disappearing completely.

Understanding this only increased Su Yi’s interest in Sumeru Immortal Island. “Where is Sumeru Immortal Island?”

“Eighty thousand miles from Nine Tripod City, in Meteor Abyss,” said the middle-aged man. “Its entrance hovers ten thousand feet above the ground. It’s a forbidden place; since antiquity, the only way to reach it safely is through the unique power of an Altar of Teleportation.”

Weng Jiu added, “The Altar of Teleportation is under the control of the Great Xia’s imperial family. If you want to use it, you can wait until the curtains close on the Orchid Terrace Dharma Assembly. When the time comes, the imperial family will activate the altar and send the top elites selected during the Orchid Terrace Dharma Assembly to Meteor Abyss.”

Something suddenly occurred to Weng Jiu, who asked, “Right, are you planning to participate in the Orchid Terrace Dharma Assembly, Fellow Daoist?”

The middle-aged man looked curious too.

The Orchid Terrace Dharma Assembly had long since attracted attention from all over the world, and countless elites, miraculous geniuses, and monsters had gathered to participate in it.

Participants in this grand occasion wouldn’t just have a chance at the imperial family’s incredibly generous rewards; those in the top thirty would even obtain Sumeru Talismans!

Furthermore, the top contestant would receive a mysterious prize from the emperor himself!

“Will there be anyone there capable of competing with me?” Su Yi asked, but it was a rhetorical question.

Both Weng Jiu and his master were silent.

Su Yi was a young man capable of killing a mid-stage Spiritual Manifestation Realm cultivator like Huo Tiandu in a direct confrontation. If he wanted to find worthy foes at the Orchid Terrace Dharma Assembly, it would really be… a bit difficult…

It was then that the faint sounds of battle emanated from afar.

The middle-aged man’s brow furrowed slightly. “Is someone fighting at Goldenscale Lake?”

“Those are the energy fluctuations of the Spiritual Manifestation Realm!” exclaimed Weng Jiu.

“Nine Tripod City is getting livelier and livelier.” Su Yi was a bit surprised too.

“Fellow Daoist, how about you come with us to take a look?” asked the middle-aged man with a smile.

“That works too,” said Su Yi, rising from his wicker chair.

Goldenscale Lake was a blessed land permeated with spiritual energy. It was on Azure Dragon Lane, just like Su Yi’s current residence, Azurecloud Courd.

The lake covered nearly one hundred miles, and it had a wondrous ambiance and beautiful scenery.

Rumor had it that once, a goldenscale carp living at the bottom of the lake had undergone metamorphosis overnight, becoming a flood dragon. Its tribulation invited the strange phenomenon ‘Immortal Mists Bloom With Flowers’, and it soared out of the lake and into the heavens.

This was the source of Goldenscale Lake’s name.

And now, a peerless duel was unfolding in the skies above the lake.

A black-robed, white-haired, tall, stalwart man with Spiritual Manifestation Realm cultivation gripped a bronze spear.

His opponent was a gray-robed youth with short, sloppy hair and a handsome face. The young man fought barehanded, and he was only in the Gathering Stars Realm. However, when he fought, he was forceful, domineering, and incomparably mighty.

He was using a fist technique, and every punch manifested terrifying power, as if his fist could overturn heaven and earth or make Yin and Yang switch places. His fist force was so powerful that it blanketed the entire area!

Even more startling, the young man’s punches suppressed his Spiritual Manifestation Realm opponent and wounded him repeatedly!

Countless cultivators were watching from the banks of Goldenscale Lake. When they witnessed the young man in gray’s heaven-defying divine majesty, they were tongue-tied and wide-eyed with astonishment.

A young Gathering Stars cultivator had actually crossed cultivation boundaries to suppress a Spiritual Manifestation Realm cultivator!

This was unquestionably far too hard to believe!

“Who is that boy?” said the middle-aged man in simple cloth robes. His eyes shone with a strange light.

“Zeng Pu, a monster of the ancient era who reawakened in the Great Song. Even as an Origin Palace cultivator, he once relied on nothing but his own two fists to kill his way into the Great Song’s greatest sect, the Huayang Daoist Sect. He effortlessly overcame the joint attack of one Gathering Stars cultivator and four Origin Palace cultivators, crushing the Huayang Daoist Sect in one fell swoop.”

Weng Jiu hurriedly continued, “He arrived in Nine Tripod City half a month ago. The Darkspirit Guards have been investigating him all this time, but they’ve learned little thus far. All we know is that he’s accompanied by a middle-aged man who calls himself his servant.?They say that Zeng Pu once called the man ‘Uncle Lan’, and according to the Darkspirit Guard’s investigations, he’s highly likely an unfathomable expert of the Spirit Dao.”

The middle-aged man nodded. “Zeng Pu is only in the mid-stage Gathering Stars Realm. Despite this, he can actually fight the early-stage Spiritual Manifestation Realm Tang Xiaoshan, one of the Tang Family patriarchs, barehanded? His strength… really is impressive.”

He spoke with great emotion.

Among the city’s Spiritual Manifestation Realm cultivators, Tang Xiaoshan’s strength wasn’t the greatest, but he barely qualified as a first-rate expert.

Yet now, a Gathering Stars Realm youth was suppressing him with his bare hands. The Tang Family patriarch was covered in wounds. Who wouldn’t have been surprised?

Zeng Pu?

When he heard this name, Su Yi dimly recalled Ling Yunhe mentioning the monstrous young man on their way to the Great Xia.

Him aside, there was also a young woman named Chi Jiansu. She wasn’t simple either.