First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 1455 - Word of the Pawnshop Owner

There was a popular story about a drunk who collapsed beneath a pine tree, then asked it, “What do you think of my drunkenness?”

The drunk was then convinced that the tree was trying to help him up, and he pushed it away. “Leave me alone!”

The image of a drunken man conversing with a pine tree invited laughter. When you talked to yourself, no one answered.

But when Su Yi finished his conversation with himself, he felt refreshed. His mind cleared, and his whole body felt lighter.

It was just as Daoist Master Red Cloud thought. The trip to the Starjade Forbidden Zone had put unprecedented pressure on Su Yi’s mental state. This tempering had in turn transformed him completely!

Still lying in the wicker chair, Su Yi took out a bronze treasure pagoda.

“Old skinflint, wait any longer to come out, and I’ll tell Illuminating Emptiness all the shameful things you did while drunk,” whispered Su Yi.

A voice emanated from within the pagoda. “Tell me, then: just what shameful things did I do?”

Su Yi laughed. The old skinflint’s still on guard. He’s still afraid that I’m the Tailor in disguise.

Out loud, he said leisurely, “You swore on pain of death that if Illuminating Emptiness outdrank you, you’d take him as your ancestor and greet him as such every time you saw him. How about I call the monk over now?”

“Whatever you do, don’t!” The Antique Dealer’s voice sounded a bit panicked this time. “What... What else do you know?”

Su Yi said flatly, “There was also the time I drank you under the table, and you vowed to share half of the antiques you’d collected over the years with me. You said that if you failed to fulfill your vow, you’d take me as your ancestor too.

“To tell the truth, when you get right down to it, you’ve sworn to recognize quite a few ancestors. Shall I help you remember them all?”

The bronze treasure pagoda swayed, and the Antique Dealer’s awkward coughing emanated from inside. “No need for that!”

Su Yi said irritably, “Then quit the chatter and get the hell out of there!”

“Okay!”

Strange rumbling emanated from within the pagoda, and resplendent immortal light rose into the air.

A dreamlike, ethereal rain of light emanated from the base of the tower, then transformed into a stick-thin man in worn, undyed robes covered in patches. His face was thoroughly wrinkled, and he looked simple and honest.

The Antique Dealer.

A legendary old-timer of the stars.

He looked shabby and guileless, but that was only on the surface. In reality, the old man was as crafty as a ghost. Over the years, he’d accumulated a vast fortune by tricking too many people to count.

He’d even ruthlessly ripped off the Tailor, leaving the latter cursing with fury. His hatred for the Antique Dealer was bone-deep.

But the Antique Dealer had one excellent quality: he didn’t scam the poor and not even the rich, only the super-rich.

And he was one of the Temple Master’s closest friends.

The Antique Dealer looked at Su Yi suspiciously. “Are you... really my bro the Temple Master?”

As he spoke, more than ten treasures appeared around him, each flowing with colorful light. Tridents, halberds, swords, spears... All were different, and all of them had terrifying auras.

Su Yi laughed, then stretched out his hand and grabbed. One of the Antique Dealer’s treasures, a copper seal, landed in his palm.

It was perfectly square, with old-fashioned charm. Upon closer inspection, it was a rare immortal treasure!

“If I were the Tailor, that attack would have killed you,” Su Yi said slowly.

The Antique Dealer stiffened, then immediately cried out with excitement. “You really are my brother from another mother! In this world, only you would come to the Starjade Forbidden Zone to save me!”

“....”

Su Yi took out a jug of wine and passed it to the Antique Dealer. “Drink up.”

The Antique Dealer lit up with delight, accepted the jug, and drank.

Su Yi took out another jug for himself, and the two old friends laughed and chatted.

Over the course of their conversation, Su Yi learned that the Tailor hadn’t deceived him; his subordinates really had chased the Antique Dealer into the Starjade Forbidden Zone. Fortunately, the Antique Dealer had a superabundance of treasures. Ultimately, he’d relied on the bronze treasure pagoda, which was called Supreme Purity, to escape with his life.

As they discussed the past, both Su Yi and the Antique Dealer sighed with deep emotion.

The Antique Dealer stayed in the temple that night.

......

Several days later.

Late at night.

Su Yi, the Antique Dealer, and Illuminating Emptiness were drinking when the ringing of a bell resounded in Su Yi’s ears. His eyebrows rose, and he got up to leave.

Several hundred miles from Mount Clearmoon, the sky trembled, and a two-story bamboo building appeared out of thin air.

The Pawnshop of the Heavens!

A single dim yellow lantern hung from the gates, casting mottled light.

As soon as Su Yi arrived, the elderly pawnbroker pushed open the doors and rushed out to greet him.

“Your Excellency Su, please, save my boss!” the old pawnbroker said frantically.

“Don’t panic,” said Su Yi. “First, tell me what happened.”

The old pawnbroker took a deep breath.

“Not long ago, this old man received a message. It looked like it was from the boss, but when I took a closer look, I discovered that... a woman who called herself Lady Snowjade had sent it in her stead!”

Lady Snowjade!

Su Yi’s eyebrows rose. The name wasn’t at all unfamiliar. That was the woman who’d tricked and killed Shen Mu!

A woman from the Epoch of Demonism’s Six Desires Demonist Sect!

“Your Excellency Su, this is the message. You’ll understand once you’ve read it.” The old pawnbroker took out a strange black bone talisman and passed it to Su Yi.

Su Yi accepted it and inserted his divine sense.

“Go find Su Yi and have him come to the Epoch of Demonism. I’ll give him a month. If he doesn’t show up, your boss will die, and Shen Mu’s clansmen and master will all disappear from the face of the earth. If you think this sounds like a threat, you're right, it is.

“Of course, if he doesn’t care about their lives and deaths, he doesn’t have to come.”

When Su Yi saw this, his eyes glinted with cold light.

Has this woman gone insane? Rather, has learning that Shen Mu isn’t fully dead caused her serious mental problems?

In addition to this message, a spatial node was carved on the talisman.

According to Lady Snowjade’s message, so long as Su Yi carried this bone talisman into the River of Spacetime, he could use this spatial node to locate the Epoch of Demonism!

Su Yi withdrew his divine sense and looked at the old pawnbroker. “When did you receive this message?”

“Seven days ago,” the old pawnbroker said without even pausing to think.

“That means there are only about twenty days left until that woman’s deadline,” said Su Yi.

The old pawnbroker suddenly threw himself to his knees and begged in a quavering voice, “Your Excellency Su, if at all possible, please, save my boss’s life!”

“Don’t kneel!” Su Yi frowned, then dragged the old man to his feet. “Rest assured, I naturally won’t disregard this.”

His voice was already tinged with coldness.

Lady Snowjade of the Epoch of Demonism hadn’t just worked with the Tailor to set a trap for him and target his life deep in Crow Ridge. She’d also used Qing Wan as a pawn to foist karma onto him. He’d yet to slough off these karmic ties even now.

How could Su Yi possibly forget these enmities?

Su Yi paused, his gaze calm and profound. He said softly, “Besides, I’ve long since planned to go meet that woman anyway.”

He’d told Shen Mu that sooner or later, he’d end things with her once and for all. And now, it seemed she was in an even greater hurry to end this than he was.

In that case, Su Yi naturally didn’t mind giving her what she wanted!

“Many thanks, Your Excellency Su! Many thanks!”

The old pawnbroker was too excited for words, and he wept tears of gratitude.

“Why are you thanking me? Now that you mention it, your boss and I have a special relationship. There’s no way I’ll just let her die,” said Su Yi, a strange light in his eyes.

The pawnshop owner was a violent, tyrannical woman with a fiery temper. In the Wilds, she and Su Xuanjun had fought, then bonded through conflict.

But in his time as Su Xuanjun, Su Yi had no idea who the pawnshop owner really was. It was only after fusing with Shen Mu’s Dao Imprint that Su Yi learned the truth.

The pawnshop owner was called Mu Zijin, and she was from the Epoch of Demonism. More importantly, she was... Shen Mu’s junior apprentice sister!

Shen Mu’s master, Mu Jianchi, was the greatest swordsman of the Epoch of Demonism. Mu Zijin was both Shen Mu’s junior apprentice sister and Mu Jianchi’s only daughter.

Long ago, when Shen Mu was still cultivating with his master, the Shen Family suggested a marriage between Shen Mu and Mu Zijin. Mu Jianchi straightforwardly agreed, and Mu Zijin agreed too.

However, Shen Mu objected.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like Mu Zijin, but that he was infatuated with the Dao of the Sword, and furthermore, he saw Mu Zijin as a younger sister. He had no other thoughts about her. In the end, the marriage didn’t go through.

Su Yi hadn’t known any of this before fusing with Shen Mu’s Dao Imprint, but looking back on it now, he was fairly certain that Mu Zijin hadn’t given up after Shen Mu rejected her!

Otherwise, why come here from the Epoch of Demonism? Why appear in the Wilds as the owner of the Pawnshop of the Heavens?

But there were still a few things Su Yi couldn’t quite wrap his head around. For instance, how did Mu Zijin know that Shen Mu wasn’t truly dead? And how was she so certain that Shen Mu’s reincarnation would appear somewhere amidst these stars?

She’d even appeared in the Wilds. It seemed she’d long since guessed who he was. There were surely still secrets behind it all!

Furthermore, Su Yi had picked up on some hints. It seemed highly likely that Lady Snowjade was involved. Only she and the Tailor knew everything that had happened to Shen Mu; furthermore, the message in the bone talisman said that Mu Zijin was now Lady Snowjade’s hostage.

All of this suggested that Lady Snowjade was the one who told Mu Zijin about Shen Mu’s reincarnation! And if that was the case, she was undoubtedly using Mu Zijin to find Shen Mu’s reincarnation!

“The Tailor once said that he was Snowjade’s martial uncle, and that he too hails from the Epoch of Demonism. It hasn’t been long since the Tailor’s clone suffered a crushing defeat at my hands, yet I’ve already gotten a message from Snowjade demanding I come to the Epoch of Demonism.... Perhaps the Tailor is acting behind the scenes again!”

When Su Yi reached this conclusion, his eyes shone with murderous intent, and he whispered to himself, “Very well. I'll take a trip to the Epoch of Demonism and end this once and for all!”