First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 1256 - The Path of Transcendence

The Illusionist’s scalp went numb, and his eyeballs practically popped out of their sockets.

An illusory sword, that’s all, ans it suppressed this entire stretch of heaven and earth and made the Immortal-Burning Ruler tremble!

The Immortal-Burning Ruler was a forbidden treasure!

The Illusionist searched the Divine Kingdom of Illusions bitterly for countless years before finally learning some of its secrets and uncovering this treasure beneath the central altar.

According to his deductions, the Immortal-Burning Ruler was most likely a true immortal weapon of unimaginable power.

Although it was damaged in numerous places, a single attack could still incinerate suns, moons, and stars, refining entire worlds!

But it was because he was intent on refining this treasure that the Illusionist found himself trapped in the Divine Kingdom of Illusions, unable to escape.

The reason for this was simple. The Divine Kingdom of Illusions was like a cage; it existed to suppress the Immortal-Burning Ruler.

Although the Illusionist had refined this treasure and made it his own, this in turn implicated him. He too was henceforth bound by the Laws of the Divine Kingdom of Illusions!

He couldn’t escape without either breaking its Laws or giving up on the Immortal-Burning Ruler. Otherwise, he would never escape the Divine Kingdom of Illusions in his lifetime.

Yet now, the Immortal-Burning Ruler, a suspected immortal weapon, was quivering with fright, completely intimidated by an illusory sword. Of course the Illusionist was bewildered! How could he not be?

Before he came back to his senses——

The illusory Sword of the Nine Hells gently cut through the air.

A familiar scene unfolded before Su Yi’s eyes. The Immortal-Burning Ruler was like a fatty piece of meat on the carving block, chopped into bite-sized pieces and devoured.

Like a whale swallowing the sea.

Su Yi couldn’t help but sigh. He found it an awful pity.

There was no need to even question that the fiery ruler was extraordinarily mystical and terrifying. It wasn’t inferior to the Divine Tribulation War Spear that had once been suppressed deep within the Graveyard of Fallen Immortals’ Sea of Chaos!

After all, the Sword of the Nine Hells had taken the initiative to devour it. How could it possibly be ordinary?

Take the Divine Tribulation War Spear, the divine artifact of the Epoch of Illusions. Qin Chongxu used it to trigger the catastrophe that devastated the Laws of the Dark and Gold Star Realm.

From this, it was easy to infer how terrifying the Illusionist’s fiery ruler was!

But this was exactly why Su Yi found it a pity.

Given how heaven-defying the ruler was, watching the Sword of the Nine Hells devour it made his heart ache....

Splurt!

Off in the distant skies, the Illusionist coughed up blood.

He suffered a backlash from the Immortal-Burning Ruler’s destruction. The severe impact left him trembling from head to toe, and the blood drained from his face.

“It’s gone... It’s all gone...”

The Illusionist’s eyes were vacant, as if he couldn’t withstand this shock. He was on the verge of breaking down.

He’d spent a long, long time searching bitterly for the Immortal-Burning Ruler, and he’d paid an unimaginable price to refine this treasure and make it his own.

He’d even spent countless years trapped in the Divine Kingdom of Illusions for it!

Yet now, the immortal weapon he saw as his life had been devoured...

This came as far too great a blow.

The Illusionist found this even more painful than losing his parents.

After all, who could have imagined a sword would eat the treasure he’d sacrificed all this time and effort for?

“I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you——!!” The Illusionist’s eyes reddened, and his anger overcame him. He let out a heaven-shaking, bestial roar.

Boom!

His aura exploded around him as he shot toward Su Yi.

Su Yi subtly shook his head. He could tell that the Illusionist had completely broken down.

Su Yi no longer held back. He swung his sword and attacked.

Mere moments later, the Illusionist was covered in wounds. His entire body was smeared red with blood. In the end, a streak of sword qi containing the power of reincarnation suppressed him to the ground, tearing him apart. His hair was disheveled, and he looked incomparably wretched.

‘“Tell me where the pawnshop owner is, and I’ll grant you a quick death.” Su Yi walked up and gazed down at him.

The Illusionist threw back his head and laughed, his eyes surging with madness. “Do you know why I call myself the Illusionist?”

Su Yi’s eyebrows rose.

The Illusionist then flashed him a wanton grin. “Life is as unpredictable as an illusion. An Illusionist excels at never, ever letting anyone see through his tricks! Did you think the one you saw earlier was the real me?”

Bang!

Before his voice had even finished echoing through the air, the Illusionist’s corpse split into countless fine chunks of blood-colored light and dissipated.

An illusory, translucent figure appeared in the distant skies.

This was none other than the Illusionist!

He gazed at the distant Su Yi, his tone cold and indifferent. “You’ve mastered reincarnation and destroyed my supreme treasure. Within three years, my true body will return. I’ll put on a proper show for you then!”

With that, his illusory figure popped like a soap bubble and disappeared completely.

“A clone, that’s all, yet you’re acting all mysterious? Ridiculous.” Su Yi sneered.

The Illusionist’s cultivation base really was terrifying, and his Laws of the Grand Dao were as strange as could be.

But none of that changed the fact that illusions were ultimately just illusions.

Everything he’d seen earlier was as transient as a dream or a soap bubble.

What had driven the Illusionist to such madness? His mind had practically broken down?

It was simple. He’d suffered far too great a blow, and his losses had been far too enormous.

It wasn’t just the loss of a clone. Even that taboo, fiery jade ruler had been devoured.

It was only natural that this would infuriate him.

“His true body will return within three years?” murmured Su Yi.

The Illusionist’s words reminded him of two other people.

The first was the owner of that skeletal hand, Luo Yao, and that mysterious spearwoman.

Both had said that they’d return within three years.

Furthermore, the spearwoman had visited specifically to warn him that the long-vanished Domain Boundary Battlefield was due to reopen.

When it did, a battle for the direction of the future was sure to follow.

Those who seized this opportunity could transcend this era altogether!

This had long since drawn Su Yi’s attention.

The spearwoman also told him that the owner of the skeletal hand, Luo Yao, wasn’t from the Eastern Profound Star Domain, nor was she of this era!

Now, in the last moments before his death, the Illusionist’s clone said that his true body would return within three years. How could Su Yi not take note of this?

Within three years, the Domain Boundary Battlefield would reopen. Mysterious experts like Luo Yao, the spearwoman, and the Illusionist would appear one after another.

What exactly did all of this mean?

Was the Eastern Profound Star Domain about to change?

Su Yi sank into thought for a long time before finally shaking his head and setting the matter aside.

He walked up to the spot where the Illusionist’s clone had fallen. He’d left a golden jade slip behind.

Earlier, the Illusionist called it “the Guide to Immortality.” It supposedly recorded all of the secrets of the Divine Kingdom of Illusions.

Like the secrets of immortality and the mysteries of Penglai.

But when Su Yi inserted his divine sense into the slip, he was flabbergasted to discover that it was completely empty.

“That old bastard!” Su Yi grumbled to himself. “He deserved to die one hundred times over.”

But soon, his brow furrowed. Just where is that madwoman? Don’t tell me... something’s happened to her?

Su Yi fell briefly silent, then took out the crimson pendant and re-entered the grand palace. He searched meticulously, but in the end, he found nothing.

Su Yi was unwilling to just give up. He left the palace, then started searching elsewhere.

Enough time to burn a stick of incense passed before Su Yi returned to the ritual ground before the palace entrance.

It was ten thousand feet across, and full of mystery. Every step led to a different heaven and earth. It contained an unknown number of long-annihilated hidden realms and worlds.

And an altar stood proudly at the center of the ritual grounds. This was the exit from the Divine Kingdom of Illusions.

Su Yi stared at it intently, calmed his heart, and sensed it.

Finally, he deciphered a section of mysterious glyphs at the base of the altar.

“The ancestors said that an unknown, taboo power had severed the path of transcendence and the road to immortality. From this day forth, the Immortal Realm is the Immortal Realm, and the Human Realm is the Human Realm. The two shall no longer be connected, and immortals shall no longer exist in the Human Realm.

“After revealing the secrets of the heavens, the ancestor perished.

“From this day forth, Penglai Immortal Island is no longer home to immortals in the Human Realm.

“The days that followed proved the ancestor’s predictions. No one has soared into the clouds and transcended into immortality since. The Path of Transcendence has been severed.”

“As for our Penglai Immortal Island? Because our ancestor revealed the secrets of the heavens, we faced a strange and unpredictable curse. We were laid to ruin overnight...”

“I am the forty-ninth leader of Penglai, Pu Xuzi. My life is in peril, so I shall suppress our sect’s core treasure, the Immortal-Burning Ruler, here. I do this in hopes that it sees the light of day once more, and that our legacy continues into the future.”

After deciphering this message, Su Yi was unwittingly stunned. Waves coursed through his heart.

It turned out that once, an unknown amount of time ago, immortals really had wandered the Human Realm!

And that the Path of Transcendence, the road to immortality, truly existed!

And just as the turtle that carried him through the Jade Seas said, there once really was a sect called Penglai Immortal Island!

It turned out that an unknown, taboo power had severed the Path of Transcendence. In doing so, it severed the connection between the Immortal Realm and the Human Realm, separating them forever!

And there was another realm between the Path of Heaven’s Ascension and the Immortal Dao. They called it the Path of Transcendence!

These truths resolved many of the doubts and questions Su Yi had accumulated in his heart. He felt enlightened.

Did you ascend the heavens to become an immortal?

No! You had to soar into the clouds and transcend into immortality!

“The ancestor of Penglai Immortal Mountain was obviously an Immortal in the Human Realm, yet he died after revealing the secrets of the heavens!

“Did someone deliberately erase everything regarding the transcending into immortality from this world?”

“Or was it because Immortals were no longer permitted in the Human Realm? Is that why he met with disaster?”

“An unknown power actually severed the Path of Transcendence. What secrets and taboos are hidden behind this?”

Su Yi sank into contemplation, but ultimately, he shook his head.

He had too few leads. There was no way pondering these riddles would give him any answers.

“Perhaps, when Luo Yao, the owner of that skeletal hand, returns, I’ll be able to get some answers out of her.

“Perhaps I can learn some of these secrets from the spearwoman, too. But first, I’ll have to beat her while we’re both at the same cultivation boundary.”

As he pondered, Su Yi finally understood something.

The fiery red ruler the Illusionist used earlier was called the Immortal-Burning Ruler, and it was once the supreme, sect-protecting treasure of Penglai Immortal Island.

Furthermore, it contained Penglai Immortal Island’s legacy!

Su Yi’s heart ached; he couldn’t help it. For the first time in his life, he felt a hint of resentment for the Sword of the Nine Hells.

That blasted sword! Normally, it just sits there, but the moment it encounters a real treasure, it can’t control itself!