Chapter 677: A Chance Encounter With an Old Acquaintance

Dust and smoke permeated the air.

A destructive current of sword qi swept outward.

A new, perfectly straight, massive sword scar formed alongside the vast chasm, extending far into the distance.

It was a startling sight.

In one slash, he’d defeated the joint attack of four Spiritual Incarnation cultivators!

Its power was enough to terrify even gods and ghosts!

Xuan Zhi’s mind went blank, and her heart trembled.

Earlier, when she sensed that Su Yi had already broken into the Spiritual Manifestation Realm, she realized that he wasn’t the same as a few months prior.

However, she could never have guessed that Su Yi would become this terrifyingly strong after his breakthrough!

“How… How could he be so strong?” the distant red-robed elder shrieked in alarm.

His hair was disheveled, he was covered in blood, and he was already severely injured.

His three companions had all been so thoroughly brutalized that it was painful to even look at them.

Su Yi paid none of this any heed. He just continued ahead.

“Run!”

The bony old woman rose and attempted to flee.

Boom!

A streak of sword qi accompanied by heaven-shaking booms swept through the sky.

The old woman instantly exploded, dead on the spot.

“Xuan Zhi, don’t just stand there! Hurry up and stop them!” The child-sized dwarf shrieked.

As his voice rang out, he crushed a talisman and transformed into a streak of bloody light, which shot into the distance.

Su Yi watched calmly as a little blue sword shot out of his forehead, then disappeared in a flash.

The Divine Slaughter Sword!

Thousands of feet away, the skies trembled. The dwarf reappeared, then fell onto his back in midair.

His body thudded to the ground.

Even his soul had been exterminated!

When she saw this, Xuan Zhi’s face paled, and she couldn’t help but say, “Young Lord Su, might you…”

She’d only just started to speak when a miserable cry interrupted her.

Su Yi swept his sleeves, and the graying, armored man burst apart, as if a divine mountain had crushed him. Nothing remained of him but a spray of blood.

The sight left Xuan Zhi in a daze.

Only one of the Spiritual Incarnation Realm experts remained, the elder in red. However, his will to fight seemed to have collapsed. He cried out and begged in terror, “I’m willing to admit defeat! Your Excellency, please, spare my life!”

Even ants wanted to live, let alone people!

Splurt!

With a flash of sword light, the red-robed elder’s head flew through the air.

Astonishment was written all over his face, and he knew no peace even in death.

Now, all five Spiritual Incarnation experts, including their leader Gu Yuanxiu,?had?perished.

Xuan Zhi stood there in a daze.

Watching this bloody spectacle unfold left her completely bewildered.

It was then that Su Yi stopped his advance, turned, and faced Ye Xun. “If that wasn’t enough to satisfy you, once you’ve retrieved the source power within your body, we can kill our way into the Deathbringer’s Netherworld Palace together.”

Ye Zun froze, and an indescribable warmth welled within his heart. However, he shook his head. “Brother-in-Law, there’s no need for that. Going forward, the Deathbringer’s Netherworld Palace is the Deathbringer’s Netherworld Palace, and I am me. There’s no longer any connection between us.”

Su Yi nodded, but said no more on the matter. Instead, he pointed at the nearby remains. “Go, quickly.”

Ye Xun took a deep breath, then strode forward. When he reached his former body, his hands formed seals, and the obscure power sealing his corpse receded like waters at low tide.

Practically simultaneously, his formerly perfect and intact body withered at speeds visible to the naked eye, turning to ash and dissipating inch by inch.

In the end, only a dense, floating, mysterious bundle of light remained.

This was the?source power?remaining within Ye Xun’s body!

When he saw this, Su Yi couldn’t help but sigh.

Although Ye Xun used a secret art thirty thousand years ago to seal his body, it wasn’t truly impervious to the corrosive effects of time.

By now, little remained of his body’s?source power!

“Brother-in-Law, it’ll take me quite some time to use this source power to reforge my body, but it shouldn’t take me longer than three months to succeed,” said Ye Xun softly. “During that time, I’ll have to trouble you to look out for me.”

“Alright.” Su Yi nodded.

“Begin!”

Ye Xun’s entire body lit up, and in the blink of an eye, the body of the old beggar split, inch by inch, and disintegrated into ash.

His soul, meanwhile, transformed into a streak of light and shot into that bundle of source power.

The source power quivered, then sank back into dormancy.

Su Yi stretched out his hand and grabbed it.

After a moment’s thought, he used a secret technique to seal it, opened his mouth, and?swallowed. The source power transformed into a streak of light and surged into his Grand Dao Spirit Palace, alongside the Demonic Womb Xuan Ning was growing in. Both were enshrouded in the power of the Seed of the Azure.

Xuan Zhi stood not far away, and she watched this entire scene play out. Her face was pallid, and she couldn’t help but ask, “Y-Young Lord Su, don’t tell me you came here to help that person seize our founder’s remaining source power?”

“He’s Ye Xun, your Deathbringer’s Netherworld Palace’s Netherworld Asura Emperor,” Su Yi said calmly.

Xuan Zhi’s eyes widened. “Young Lord Su, don’t tell me you’re joking? How lofty and powerful of an existence is His Excellency the Netherworld Asura Emperor? How could he possibly…”

“I’ve never been one for jokes,” said Su Yi. “Believe me or don’t. It doesn’t matter anymore, does it?”

Xuan Zhi instantly fell silent.

Su Yi, however, had already started gathering up the spoils of war.

Xuan Zhi suddenly took a deep breath and said, “Young Lord Su, I’m afraid I cannot help you cover up what happened here today. If you want to silence me, do it now?”

“When did I say I wanted to kill you?” asked Su Yi.

Xuan Zhi was flabbergasted. “Aren’t you worried about the fallout of this incident?”

“If the Deathbringer’s Netherworld Palace wants revenge, they’re welcome to come looking for me,” said Su Yi. He’d already finished gathering his trophies. “Enough. I’m leaving.”

With that, he turned and walked away.

It was only after watching Su Yi disappear into the bloody mists that Xuan Zhi dared believe he really wasn’t going to kill her.

.

She stood there in a daze, then looked over the corpses littering the ground. She couldn’t help but look bewildered.

“Don’t tell me that unkempt old Daoist…. Was really His Excellency the Netherworld Asura Emperor?”

Xuan Zhi thought back to when she and Su Yi met in Little Ghost City Fengdu.

When they conversed, Su Yi told her that he knew the Netherworld Asura Emperor, Ye Xun.

He’d also told her that the reason he spared her life at the Spiritbend Assembly was that she was a member of the Ghost Serpent lineage.

He also said that he was friends with the Ghost Serpents’ legendary empress…

At the time, Xuan Zhi paid him no heed. She assumed he was joking around.

But after what she’d seen today, she suddenly realized something.

Regardless of whether or not Su Yi knew the Netherworld Asura Emperor or the Ghost Serpents’ legendary Empress, all of this was sufficient to prove that he did indeed have a close connection with the Ghost Serpents!

I just don’t know… exactly what kind of person he is…?Xuan Zhi sighed to herself.

She felt as if Su Yi were shrouded in dense layers of mist; she couldn’t wrap her head around him.

….

After leaving Demondark Mountain, Su Yi continued east.

Whoosh!

He shot through the air, his sleeves swaying around him, looking utterly composed and carefree.

Enough time passed to burn a stick of incense before he suddenly stopped.

This was the easternmost point of the Glittering Ghost Domain, a withered, devastated, empty place. Chaotic spatial and temporal turbulence danced through the air.

It was somewhat similar to the Ninth Star Ruin.

Both were like hidden realms separate from the outside world and floating in a boundless void.

Su Yi stood in the air and evaluated his surroundings. Before long, he saw meteor fragments hovering in the sky. Each was the size of a mountain.

This must be the place Ye Xun said had a corridor to the Netherworld…?thought Su Yi.

The enormous meteorite fragments were left behind when the corridor beyond the Azure Continent collapsed.

Su Yi silently examined them, then turned and left.

With his methods, once his cultivation reached the peak of the Spiritual Revolution Realm, he could repair the collapsed spatial tunnel!

For now, all he needed to do was remember its location.

……

Next, I’ve got to condense the Dao Charms of the Five Elements, Yin and Yang, and Wind and LIghtning into the Mysterious Truth of Genesis.

As Su Yi headed toward the exit, he pondered.

Only then can I sense the two Mysterious Truths within the Sword of the Nine Hells, the Supreme Palace and the Void Cosmos. Neither?is of this?world.

In his past life, Su Yi sensed two types of Mysterious Truth not present in the outside world within the Sword of the Nine Hells: the Supreme Palace and the Void Cosmos.

After numerous years of derivation, he finally confirmed that by mastering the Mysterious Truths of Genesis, the Supreme Palace, and the Void Cosmos, he could fuse them into a supremely powerful Spirit Dao mysterious truth known as the Apex of Genesis.

The start of genesis, the apex of the spirit. The Apex of Genesis is realized, and the Grand Dao returns to its origins!

However, reaching this step required refining the Mysterious Truths of Genesis first.

When I reach Nine Tripod City, I’ll have to go into seclusion for a while. Once I’ve refined the Mysterious Truths of Genesis, my combat strength will transform.

Also, I have to hurry and reforge the Abstruse God Sword and start nourishing my natal weapon…

Before long, Su Yi saw the exit to the Glittering Ghost Domain off in the distance.

There were numerous cultivators nearby, people who’d recently entered the Glittering Ghost Domain. They were clustered in small groups, and it was extremely lively. It was obvious that they’d come here in search of good fortune.

Su Yi ignored them. However, just as he was about to leave, he suddenly noticed a familiar figure.

He was a thin-faced elder, and he was traveling with a group of other cultivators. They were currently conversing atop a nearby ridge.

Zhang Yuntao!

Su Yi recognized him at a glance. The gaunt elder was none other than Elder Zhang of Cloudsky Divine Palace, the Little Sword Demon Wen Xinzhao’s martial uncle.

Su Yi promptly stopped in his tracks; he’d decided to ask Zhang Yuntao for news about Wen Xinzhao.

Months had passed, and the Great Xia’s world of cultivation had changed dramatically. The balance of power had undergone an earth-shaking transformation.

In the modern Great Xia, the seven great ancient factions and three great otherworld factions reigned supreme.

The likes of Cloudsky Divine Palace, the Fulcrum of Heaven Sword Sect, the Qingyi Dao Sect, and Maha Temple, the former top-four powerhouses, had already been reduced to second-rate factions.

Wen Xinzhao was cultivating in Cloudsky Divine Palace, and it was likely the changing circumstances had affected her.

However, before Su Yi could do anything, the distant Zhang Yuntao seemed to sense something. He looked over at Su Yi.

When he recognized Su Yi, Zhang Yuntao couldn’t help but be surprised.

However, moments later, his expression changed dramatically, and he transmitted, “Fellow Daoist Su, hurry up and leave! Don’t let those with me recognize you!”

Su Yi couldn’t help but feel stunned. His gaze landed on the cultivators beside Zhang Yuntao.

Don’t tell me there’s something strange about them?