First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 1452 - A Striking Beauty in the Human Realm

A skeletal hand?

Mi Zhen seemed to understand. He laughed coldly, “So, this was your trump card all along.”

A frantic voice emanated from within the bronze box. “Fellow Daoist, I’m Qin Chongxu of the Epoch of Illusions. Our sect worships and reveres the Rahu Yao God. A long, long time ago, that woman plotted against me, sealing me within her skeletal hand. I humbly request your assistance, Senior!”

From beginning to end, Su Yi remained perfectly calm. He made no attempt to stop Qin Chongxu.

It was as if he were a bystander watching a trivial little farce play out.

“A worshiper of the Rahu Yao God...?” Mi Zhen’s eyes flashed. “Very well. While I’m at it, I’ll save your life.”

Boom!

Power poured from his fingertip and into the green lantern, which unleashed a streak of surging divine fire. Stinging and resplendent Laws of the natural order surged within the flames, making it far more terrifying than his last strike.

Su Yi’s “prison cell” instantly seemed to catch ablaze. As terrifying divine flames surged into the cage, a rain of snow-white light surged out of the bronze box, clashing with it head-on.

Boom!

A rain of light scattered, and the power of the Laws swept outward.

That snow-white rain of light was extraordinarily mystical. It looked illusory and ethereal, yet it completely blocked all of the incoming divine flames.

Mi Zhen snorted coldly, then poured his full strength into the green lantern.

Countless radiant divine flames surged forth, sweeping across the River of Time and charging at Su Yi’s cage.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Rapid-fire explosions rang out.

A few blinks of the eye later, and Su Yi’s bronze box trembled, and its snow-white rain of light was suppressed.

It wouldn’t hold out much longer!

“Senior, the skeletal hand’s power is on the verge of running dry!” Qin Chongxu’s excited shout emanated from within the bronze box.

“Mm.” Mi Zhen just let out a perfunctory grunt.

He attacked with everything he had, using his green lantern to unleash divine punishment. Terrifying, radiant divine flames swept toward the caged Su Yi.

Su Yi just stood there from beginning to end, perfectly calm and composed, never once attacking.

But his gaze landed squarely on the bronze box.

There was indeed a skeletal hand resting inside. Su Yi had obtained it in the Wilds’ Graveyard of Fallen Immortals.

Its owner was a mysterious woman named Luo Yao.

And there was a fragment of soul sealed within the bones. It belonged to a man named Qin Chongxu.

Qin Chongxu was not of this era. Rather, he hailed from the Epoch of Illusions, a parallel spacetime. Qin Chongxu once crossed the River of Time to enter the Dark and Gold Star Realm and launch a cataclysm, destroying the Dark and Gold Star Realm’s Path of Heaven’s Ascension!

But Luo Yao’s origins were even more mysterious.

A long, long time ago, she’d watched over the Netherworld’s cycle of reincarnation, but no one knew why.

Not even Venerate Flooding Heavens or the Infernal Monarch who presided over the Bureaus of the Six Paths knew her origins.

Back then, Qin Chongxu crossed the River of Time and fought his way into the Dark and Gold Star Realm. It was Luo Yao who intervened at a critical juncture, defeating Qin Chongxu.

It was during that battle that Luo Yao lost a hand.

According to Venerate Flooding Heavens, it was the River of Time that attacked her. He suspected that an inauspicious, taboo power had set its sights on her, forcing her to retreat as soon as she defeated Qin Chongxu.

When she fled, she left her severed hand behind, entrusting it to Venerate Flooding Heavens. She said she’d one day return to reclaim it.

That severed hand was now the slender, snow-white bones sealed within the bronze box.

Su Yi had acquired it while undergoing trials in the Graveyard of Fallen Immortals.

That aside, back then, Venerate Flooding Heavens’ remnant will said that even in ancient times, although the Infernal Monarch had mastery over reincarnation, due to external restrictions, he’d never truly opened the Path of Samsara!

Su Yi suspected that this was connected to the Contract of the Gods, and that the mysterious Luo Yao was somehow connected to all this too!

Only now did Su Yi realize that even after all this time, throughout the ages, only he had ever opened the Path of Samsara, undergone reincarnation, and returned!

It was only later that Su Yi learned that the mysterious Luo Yao had kept a remnant of Qin Chongxu’s soul confined in preparation for a trip to the Epoch of Illusions!

Luo Yao’s avatar of will told Su Yi that her true body was sure to return within three years! She also asked Su Yi to take good care of her skeletal hand, and that she’d give him an unexpected reward upon her return!

By now, more than two years had passed since Su Yi had acquired the skeletal hand.

Just now, when Mi Zhen appeared in the Abandoned Monument, the bronze box suddenly shifted, drawing Su Yi’s attention.

This was what led to what had happened just now.

Su Yi was quite surprised too. He wouldn’t have thought the power within the skeletal hand would be capable of contending with the power of the gods!

But even though he was surprised, there was no way he’d pin his hopes of survival on a skeletal hand.

He refrained from attacking earlier, but that was out of curiosity. He wanted to see what had caused the hand’s strange movements.

Now that the hand’s power was on the verge of breaking, Su Yi wouldn’t hold out much longer.

Rather, he couldn’t hold back the Sword of the Nine Hells much longer!

During his first confrontation with Mi Zhen, the sword was extraordinarily agitated, as if it had been provoked. It was clanging within his sea of consciousness and surging with murderous intent.

Nothing like this had ever happened before!

There was no doubt about it. The Sword of the Nine Hells had sensed the power of the gods. That was what had provoked this response.

“Even if that woman were still alive, there’s no way she could save you from divine punishment, never mind her mere severed hand!” Mi Zhen smiled faintly. “Relax. It’ll be just as I said earlier: I won’t kill you. I’ll simply capture you and take you to the gods for imprisonment!”

He controlled the green lantern, and it was as if he presided over divine punishment. He would soon suppress the skeletal hand completely!

Su Yi smiled too.

His eyes shone with cold, forceful light, and he was just about to attack when he sensed something. He suddenly gazed into the distance.

Meanwhile, a cold, clear, female voice rang out.

“You talk like a god, but you're nothing more than a dog.”

Boom!

The River of Spacetime swayed accompanying this voice.

A graceful figure, like a beam of flowing light, rode in on the wind and surging waves of the River of Spacetime.

She was shrouded in a snow-white, illusory rain of light, dreamlike and ethereal.

How terrifying were the river’s Laws of the natural order? Yet as she walked, they were as fragile as soap bubbles. She crushed them beneath her feet, paving a path!

Even Su Yi found this astonishing. She could actually cleave through the wind and waves, crossing time and space. Her elegant bearing was utterly unmatched!

“Hm?”

Mi Zhen’s gaze focused, and he attacked without hesitation.

The green lantern in his hands suddenly burst with endless radiance. Resplendent flames of the natural order slammed into the woman.

“Here atop the River of Spacetime, the Dipankara Buddha of the Past’s Natural Order of Fixed Radiance cannot touch me.”

Off in the distance, the woman’s gait never stopped. She was still walking toward them.

It was only when the divine flames filling the sky descended upon her that she raised her left hand and swung it through the air.

Boom!!

The divine flames filling the sky scattered and dispersed.

Mi Zhen’s expression shifted dramatically, and his eyes filled with disbelief. “It’s... really you? How is this possible? Didn’t the gods annihilate you a long time ago!?”

He obviously recognized her, and he could no longer remain calm.

The woman had already arrived, and she appeared before Su Yi’s cage in a flash. She completely ignored Mi Zhen, instead staring intently at the confined Su Yi. A hint of an apology appeared in her expression, and she said tenderly, “Daoist Brother... I arrived one step too late. You’ve suffered.”

‘Daoist Brother?’

Su Yi was stunned.

The woman was slender and graceful and dressed in pristine white. Her long hair flowed like a waterfall, and her skin was as soft as suet. Her features were extraordinarily beautiful.

Most eye-catching of all was the bright-red birthmark between her eyebrows, and eyes as blue as the boundless ocean, profound and elegant.

She had a four-foot blood sword on her back. Her graceful bearing was unmatched, enough to astonish everyone beneath the heavens.

When she faced Su Yi, she subtly inclined her head, her beautiful face apologetic, with a hint of wordless pity.

Su Yi was completely baffled, but he recognized her. This woman... was Luo Yao!

She was the owner of that skeletal hand. Long, long ago, before a cataclysm befell the Dark and Gold Star Realm, she’d protected the Netherworld. Even the Infernal Monarch had called this mysterious woman “senior!”

“It’s you!” QIn Chongxu’s shout emanated from the bronze box, tinged with alarm and fury.

“Die!”

Mi Zhen attacked suddenly, a green lantern flying through the air and scattering countless flecks of divine firelight.

The River of Spacetime churned violently. Terrifying power swept forth.

The woman stood there, facing away from it all. She didn’t so much as turn her head.

The four-foot blood sword on her back suddenly rose into the air.

Endless, blood-colored light illuminated everything on all sides. Terrifying, bloody, murderous intent burst forth, tinging the entire River of Spacetime a striking shade of red.

And when that slash swept past...

Boom——!

The endless divine flames collapsed, withered, and went out.

Immediately afterward, a massive bang rang out, and the green lantern condensed out of the Laws of the natural order was sent flying.

The blood sword was too forceful. It cut through everything in its wake as if it were made of rotten wood!

Mi Zhen’s expression shifted dramatically, and he roared in fury, “The Dipankara Buddha joined forces with numerous other deities to place this trap. Aren’t... aren’t you afraid of divine punishment!?”

The woman raised her left hand.

Crunch!

The cage confining Su Yi broke, offering no more resistance than a paper window.

Su Yi was free!

“Daoist Brother, there’s little time. My true body is fighting alongside our fellow Daoists in the Boundless Battlefield. I’ll kill this flunky, then get you out of here.”

With that, the woman silently turned. Her profound and elegant blue eyes were suddenly tinged the deep red of blood.

Her entire presence transformed.

Boom!

Dazzling, blood-red Laws of the natural order wrapped around her graceful figure, manifesting visions of space descending into oblivion, the collapse of all facets of creation, mountains of corpses, and oceans of blood.

“You...”

Mi Zhen was alarmed and furious, and he poured all of his power into the green lantern without the slightest hesitation.

The illusory figure of a Buddha presiding over the heavens arose, manifested amidst the green lantern’s countless flecks of firelight.

The River of Spacetime distorted, showing signs of breaking beneath the pressure.

It was also then that the woman attacked.

A four-foot blood sword swept into the air, like a beam of bloody light cleaving through the ages.

Bang!!!

That illusory Buddha had only just appeared when both he and the green lantern shattered beneath the blood sword.

Endless divine flames popped like bubbles beneath a giant hammer, disappearing into nothingness.

Mi Zhen was overcome with alarm, and he immediately turned to flee.

But before he’d gotten far, a blood-red sword curtain suppressed him with ease!