First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 1084 - Tricked

The stream burbled, and mist filled the air.

The young woman rose out of the water, stood in the air, and took out a fiery red dress, with which she covered her naked body.

Next, she extended her soft, jade-like hand and tied her loose hair behind her head. Furthermore, she stuck a pin made of white bone through her hair at an angle.

All of a sudden, her disposition seemed completely different.

She was like an unearthly immortal beauty, unmatched in her generation, with a proud, contemptuous air. As her inscrutable, starry gaze examined her surroundings, her eyes shone with faint purple light. She seemed utterly dignified and majestic.

The surrounding landscape descended into a strange silence as an invisible pressure bore down on it. It seemed as if even heaven and earth were bowing in submission!

Her red dress swayed around her as she stepped through the sky and arrived before Su Yi, her delicate face now utterly dignified.

This was the Heavensdeath Demon Empress’s true appearance!

Her movingly pitiful, charming demeanor was just another facet of her personality.

“Brother Su, I really do have a request for you,” the Heavensdeath Demon Empress said softly.

She stopped right in front of Su Yi, and her rosy lips parted. “As you know, my cultivation base has long since reached the peak of the Imperial Apex Realm. Although I’m not as strong as you were then, I’ve still reached the very end of the Profound Dao.”

A moment later, she sighed. “To inhabitants of the Wilds, that effectively means reaching the end of the Grand Dao. Reaching a higher level is harder than ascending the heavens.”

“The worst part is, I cultivate the most ancient legacy of the Demonist path, the Nine Revolutions Fortune Incantation. This legacy is wondrous, but it has a major downside: if I don’t make progress, I’ll regress!

“And if my cultivation base ebbs, that would be no different from falling from the pinnacle of the Grand Dao into an endless abyss. If that happens, I’ll never be able to reach greater heights in this lifetime.

“Over the years, I’ve had no choice but to use Dao-Sealing Demon Chains to suppress my cultivation base and maintain my peak condition.

“But I’m already using thirteen of them, and I can’t suppress my cultivation any further. If things go on like this, the Dao-Sealing Demon Chains will lose effect, and then… my long-suppressed cultivation base is sure to erupt completely. I won’t be able to control it, and I’ll surely meet my end. Even my soul will scatter.”

Here, the Heavensdeath Demon Empress couldn’t help but let out a long sigh.

Her talent was enough to dazzle any era, and her cultivation base made her an ancestral figure amongst the world’s Demonist factions!

But when she discussed the problems with her cultivation base, she couldn’t help but feel helpless.

She could only discuss things like this with Su Yi.

“Are you saying you want to undergo reincarnation and cultivate all over again?” Su Yi said thoughtfully.

At the peak of his past life, he too had spent years trapped in the Imperial Apex Realm. He understood the Heavensdeath Demon Empress’s predicament.

“No, I’m not like you. I don’t have the courage to cast away my peak cultivation base. Furthermore, I know that even if I reincarnate, I won’t necessarily be able to achieve my current success.” The Heavensdeath Demon Empress shook her head. “After all, far too much can go wrong in pursuit of the Grand Dao. Reincarnation means a new start, and at my weakest, even a strong wind could be enough to kill me.”

Su Yi understood this well, but a moment later, he realized something. “Don’t tell me you’ve already found a way to resolve your difficulties?”

A gratified smile appeared on the Heavensdeath Demon Empress’s face, and she sighed, “Few in the Wilds really understand me, and of them, you know me best of all, Brother Su.”

Su Yi laughed dryly. “Enough, don’t try to bewitch me. Just tell me the method you’ve found.”

She looked askance at him, but in the end, she suppressed the urge to tease him. “A few years ago, a self-proclaimed representative of a faction of the stars beyond the Wilds came looking for me. He said they wanted to cooperate with me, and that if I assisted them, they’d help resolve the difficulties with my cultivation.”

Su Yi’s gaze focused, and he listened with rapt attention.

“Their faction was called the Nine Heavens Pavilion. Apparently, they’re from a place called the Heavenly Prayer Star Realm, and they control an extremely powerful, taboo Law….”

The Heavensdeath Demon Empress continued, “They said that they wanted me to rally the Wilds’ Demonist factions to seek out treasures of the era before recorded history. In exchange, they offered to give me secret tomes with information about the Path of Heaven’s Ascension.”

Here, she looked at Su Yi in confusion. “Brother Su, why haven’t you reacted to this at all? Don’t tell me you already know about the Path of Heaven’s Ascension?”

Su Yi didn’t hide it. “I haven’t just heard about that; I know about the Nine Heavens Pavilion too. Back in the Netherworld, I even killed several of their disciples.”

After a brief, stunned pause, the Heavensdeath Demon Empress looked intrigued. “Might you tell me about it? Those Nine Heavens Pavilion guys irritate the snot out of me. Every last one of them looks down their nose at everyone around them. If I didn’t need to resolve the difficulties with my cultivation base, I would have long since reduced them to ash!”

As she said this, her expression filled with irrepressible murderous intent.

From this, it was clear that she’d accumulated a lot of discontent from her interactions with the Nine Heavens Pavilion.

“It’s a long story,” said Su Yi. Instead of going into all the details, he told her some of what he knew about the Nine Heavens Pavilion, Church of the River of Stars, and Studio of the Heart.

Furthermore, he didn’t hide anything. He told her the secrets of the Wilds’ lost history, and the mysterious catastrophe that destroyed the Dark and Gold Star Realm.

He also told her that all of these orthodoxies from the stars beyond shared the same goals: gathering Dark and Gold Essence, and seeking out the secrets of reincarnation.

After learning all this, the Heavensdeath Demon Empress couldn’t help but be stunned. Her beautiful face shifted erratically, and she sank into a long silence.

Finally, she muttered, “No wonder those Nine Heavens Pavilion people crossed the stars just to seek out Dark and Gold Essence and the secrets of reincarnation. So, the Dark and Gold Star Realm was once utterly glorious and resplendent, and it was seen as the origin of the countless Daos of the starry skies…”

Then, her eyes gradually lit up. “Brother Su, based on what you told me, if I gather Dark and Gold Essence and refine it, I’ll have an opportunity to break past the Profound Unity Realm and enter the Path of Heaven’s Ascension. Is that right?”

She was, after all, the founder of the Demons’ Elysium and the leading expert of the Wilds’ Demonist cultivators. Based purely on Su Yi’s description of these secrets, she keenly grasped the opportunity therein. Furthermore, her guess was quite close to the truth!

Su Yi sipped from a jug of wine, then said, “That’s right. Although the history and Daos of that forgotten era have long since been buried, Dark and Gold Essence is still the most fundamental energy of the Dark and Gold Star Realm, the source of this entire Star Realm’s Laws. If you master and refine it, it won’t just let your cultivation base undergo metamorphosis. You can also challenge the Three Realms of the Path of Heaven’s Ascension and become a World King.”

The Heavensdeath Demon Empress was visibly excited. Her red dress swayed around her, and her chest heaved.

Her aloof, prideful disposition and calm majesty gave way to utter delight and excitement.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t keep her cool, but that she realized the value of the secrets Su Yi had just shared with her. If word got out, it’d be enough to make any Imperial Apex cultivator lose control. None of them would be able to remain seated!

A moment later, she bit down on her lower lip and said in a soft, pleasing voice, “Big Brother Su, you didn’t tell me all of this in hopes that I’d repay you with my body, did you?”

Her beautiful eyes shone. She was utterly charming, and her voice was utterly enticing and provocative.

Su Yi frowned. “You’re still on about that?”

The Heavensdeath Demon Empress pouted, and her charm receded. “I just want to repay you for enlightening me, that’s all, but you refuse to accept my good intentions. If I didn’t know you loved ‘frolicking amidst the flowers’ and that you frequently indulged in amorous affairs, I’d suspect there was something wrong with a certain body part of yours.”

As she spoke, her gaze traveled down Su Yi’s body and deliberately lingered there.

Su Yi laughed coldly. “When I dual cultivate with other women, I experience the joys of a sublimation of the flesh and spirit. Were I to dual cultivate with a demoness like you, I’m afraid it’d be no different from a fierce battle. A moment’s incaution, and you’d strip me of my power and leave me nothing but dried-up bones.”

The Heavensdeath Demon Empress batted her starry eyes, and she couldn’t help but chuckle. “So, Su Xuanjun is afraid I’ll eat him.”

Here, Su Yi decided to change the subject. “Did you agree to work with the Nine Heavens Pavilion?”

The Heavensdeath Demon Empress snatched Su Yi’s wine jug away, took a big swig, then said, “I naturally agreed to help them. We’re using each other, that’s all. It’s not like I agreed to become their slave.

“Alas, even though I dispatched the forces of the Wilds’ various Demonist orthodoxies, and even though I did indeed find a few treasures left over from the lost era, none were Dark and Gold Treasures.”

Here, she sighed, and she sounded quite melancholy.

But Su Yi realized that something wasn’t quite right. “Who told you they weren’t Dark and Gold Treasures?”

“The Nine Heavens Pavilion.”

Su Yi’s eyebrows rose slightly. “Where are those treasures now?”

The Heavensdeath Demon Empress said casually. “Some, I gave to the Nine Heavens Pavilion. Others, I tossed into my immortal cave at the Demons’ Elysium.”

Here, she seemed to realize something, and her brow furrowed. “Don’t tell me… I was tricked?”

“You’re only just now realizing how stupid you were?” Su Yi couldn’t help but rub his forehead. “In my past life, I gathered a bunch of Dark and Gold Treasures too. Although I couldn’t figure out their secrets, I kept them in my treasury. But look at you! You didn’t understand them at all, but you carelessly believed the Nine Heavens Pavilion’s lie. You deserved to get tricked.”

It was only recently, during his time in Profound Sky Academy, that he used the Mysterious Truths of the End to discern the Dark and Gold Ruler’s secrets. In doing so, he learned the secrets of Dark and Gold Essence.

He was naturally well aware that the Heavensdeath Demon Empress couldn’t possibly have figured out which treasures in the pile were Dark and Gold Treasures.

When she heard Su Yi’s words, the Heavensdeath Demon Empress’s face filled with murderous intent, and her eyes shone with imposing purple radiance. She gnashed her teeth. “Those Nine Heavens Pavilion Bastards really are no good!”

“I’ll go back and teach them a lesson!” The Heavensdeath Demon Empress turned to leave. She was obviously furious and intent on finding the members of the Nine Heavens Pavilion to settle the score.

However, Su Yi pulled her back. “What’s the rush? It’s not like they’ve left the Wilds. We’ll make them pay you back—with interest—sooner or later. Besides, if you try to settle the score now, you’ll only alert them and ruin the big picture.”

The Heavensdeath Demon Empress abruptly stopped in her tracks. After a moment’s silence, she stared intently at Su Yi, then burst into laughter. “I just knew there was no way you wouldn’t help me, Big Brother Su.”

Su Yi looked at her in confusion. “???”