Chapter 544: Master and Apprentice Sit and Discuss the Past
It was already after midnight, and everything was still and quiet.
Nine Tripod City was noisy and bustling by day, but now, it seemed to have sunk into a deep slumber.
Azurecloud Court.
Su Yi sat in a wicker chair and asked, “Does Ge Qian know your origins?”
Xuan Ning squatted off to the side. “Master, I’ve never told him anything about my origins, and the kid knows nothing whatsoever about our sect.”
He hesitated for a moment, then said, “But I brazenly took it upon myself to teach him some of our Daoist canons and secret arts…”
Su Yi waved dismissively. “It’s just a couple of legacies, that’s all. That Ge Qian won your approval is his good fortune.”
Xuan Ning thought for a moment, then said, “Master, to tell the truth, although Ge Qian is a bit overly cautious, his temperament is the steadiest of anyone I’ve ever met. When I first arrived on the Azure Continent, all that remained of me was a damaged wisp of my primordial spirit. I feared something would go wrong and that I would perish before passing on my mantle. Thus, I chose to pass my legacy on to Ge Qian.”
Su Yi glanced at him. “When did you arrive on the Azure Continent, and how did you enter this world?”
This was his biggest question.
When he reincarnated to pursue the Dao of the Sword afresh, he first entered the netherworld and borrowed the power of the cycle of samsara to realize rebirth on the Azure Continent. This was an unprecedented stroke of fortune.
Yet now, his seventh disciple had appeared on the Azure Continent too. This came as an enormous surprise.
After all, if Xuan Ning could cross the barrier between worlds, didn’t that mean his other disciples could too?
“Master, when you completely ‘disappeared’ from the Nine Provinces of the Wilds, everyone thought you fell in pursuit of greater heights of the Dao. Even we, your disciples, thought you had perished…” Xuan Ning looked lost, as if he were replaying memories of those tumultuous times.
“I know all that already. No need to go into further detail,” said Su Yi. His expression was a bit conflicted as he said gravely, “Back then, I witnessed the ‘seven days of mourning’ funerary rites your eldest apprentice brother and youngest apprentice sister performed for me. I also saw some?other… interesting things.”
Those “interesting things” included——
His eldest disciple, Pi Mo,?colluding?with experts of the six great Daoist sects to fight their way into the Grotto of Abstruse Force, all for the sake of competing for the treasures Su Xuanjun left behind.
He saw the Golden-Winged Great Peng who’d once served and cultivated by his side take advantage of the chaos to run off with his Heaven-Smelting Furnace.
He saw his third disciple, Hua Yao, pilfer the supreme treasure protecting the Grotto of Abstruse Force, the Abstruse Primordial God Mirror.
His youngest and most beloved disciple, Qing Tang, maintained a vigil over his grave for seven days, but her ultimate goal was the Sword of the Nine Hells and everything else Su Xuanjun had left behind.
On that day, blood fell like rain in the Grotto?of Abstruse?Force. The resulting storm shook the world.
Qing Tang then displayed the limitlessly terrifying power of her Dao of the Sword, flattening the resulting upheaval before declaring herself Empress Qing Tang, the sole ruler of the Wilds.
Only then did Su Yi learn that his youngest and most beloved disciple had been hiding her true strength from him all this time…
Xuan Ning couldn’t help but ask, “Master, before you strangely ‘disappeared’, you arranged for all nine of your disciples to depart the Grotto?of Abstruse?Force. Could it be that you’d already decided to… to cultivate anew?”
Su Yi nodded. “That’s right. When I was still around, I could suppress my various enemies. They could only endure and suffer in silence; none dared cause trouble. However, how could they possibly remain unmoved even after learning of my departure?”
He looked at Xuan Ning. “Thus, before I left, I made arrangements for you, and I turned the Grotto of Abstruse Force into an unparalleled killing formation. That way, even if my enemies dared invade, they’d lose a layer of skin, and that’s assuming they made it out alive.”
A trace of melancholy appeared on his face, and he sounded forlorn. “I wouldn’t have thought that all my arrangements and safeguards would fall apart at the hands of my own disciples…”
“Master, back then, I acted in accordance with your arrangements and proceeded to the Little Western Paradise to hear Buddhist Master Inkstone Heart’s teachings. I only learned of the incident at the Grotto?of Abstruse?Force later. By then, Little Apprentice Sister had already seized control of it and declared herself ruler of the Wilds.”
Xuan Ning said gravely, “And Eldest Senior Apprentice Brother announced to the outside world that since you were no longer around, we, your disciples, ought to divine your treasures equally. He said we absolutely couldn’t let Little Apprentice Sister take everything for herself.
“Furthermore, he joined forces with the Wilds’ six great?Daoist?sects. They joined forces against Little Apprentice Sister. They call themselves the Abstruse Force Alliance, taking their name from your Daoist title. They swore to reclaim the Grotto of Abstruse Force and punish Little Apprentice Sister severely.
“At the time,?Eldest?Senior Apprentice Brother came looking for the other disciples. He hoped we’d lend him a hand and help him defeat Little Apprentice Sister.
“However, in the end, only three agreed: Third Apprentice Brother Huo Yao, Fourth Apprentice Sister Po Suo, and Sixth Apprentice Brother Ye Luo.”
When he heard this, Su Yi couldn’t help but smile coldly. “That bastard Pi Mo sure has guts. He thought he could forge an alliance in?my?name and do whatever he pleased as soon as I was ‘dead?’”
“Master,” whispered Xuan Ning, “I heard all of this secondhand. It’s possible there’s more to the story that I don’t know about.
“More to the story?” Su Yi’s eyes flashed. “I actually rather hope there’s more to the story. When I return to the Nine Provinces of the Wilds, I’ll naturally ask them face to face and see what answer they give me.”
His tone was casual, yet his words were chilling.
He then looked at Xuan Ning. “Pi Mo contacted you too, didn’t he?”
Xuan Ning’s heart clenched, and he said in a low voice, “Master, it wasn’t just Eldest Senior Apprentice Brother. Little Apprentice Sister sent me a transmission as well. Both hoped for my aid, but I refused. This was partially because I didn’t know the full truth, and partially because in my heart of hearts, I didn’t believe you were truly gone.”
Su Yi smiled. “Let’s hear it, then. How did you get to the Azure Continent?”
Xuan Ning pondered momentarily, then said, “Back then, you arranged for me to accompany Buddhist Master Inkstone Heart and receive his guidance. However, when I learned that something had happened to you, I was frantic with concern. I wanted to investigate and get to the bottom of things.
“However, Buddhist Master Inkstone Heart stopped me. He said that your disappearance would inevitably send unprecedented waves throughout the Wilds, and that as your disciple, I would surely be swept up into an unimaginable storm.
“But I naturally didn’t care about that. I was dead set on leaving the Little Western Paradise to learn the truth. When Buddhist Master Inkstone Heart saw this, he told me that with your cultivation and breadth of spirit, even if you’d encountered calamity and fallen, you’d unquestionably have arrangements already in place. He said?that you arranging?for me to cultivate in the Little Western Paradise meant you’d long since planned for this.”
Su Yi nodded. “It’s only natural that someone as wise as Old Monk Inkstone could discern that.”
“However, I was too personally involved to see clearly,” said Xuan Ning. “My heart was in turmoil; I wasn’t ready to hear any of that. In the end, Daoist Master Inkstone had no choice but to point out a path for me.”
“What path?” Su Yi asked with great interest.
“Daoist Master Inkstone Heart said that you’d learned everything you could from both heaven and man and that your sword suppressed the Nine Provinces. He said that although you reigned supreme, and although you were invincible in the Wilds, your cultivation had stagnated at the peak of the Imperial Apex Realm for a long time. Despite everything, you couldn’t reach greater heights. Thus, he believed your sudden disappearance was most likely an attempt to strive for something greater.
“The way Daoist Master Inkstone Heart saw it, there were only two ways to resolve your problem. The first was to brave almost certain doom amidst the stars and seek out forbidden worlds.
“The second was to search within yourself and seek answers within the illusory and ethereal cycle of Samsara.
“In the end, he deduced that with your temperament, if you wanted to seek answers amidst the stars and venture into those forbidden lands, you would have done it a long time ago; there would have been no need to wait all this time. Thus, he suspected that you’d proceeded to the Netherworld in search of the legendary path of reincarnation.”
Su Yi’s eyebrows shot up, and he couldn’t help but sigh. “He really does know me well.”
Xuan Ning said, “It’s thanks to his guidance that I chose to enter the Netherworld.”
According to Xuan Ning, after arriving in the Netherworld, he faced numerous setbacks. He searched for hundreds of years before finally uncovering a clue:?an Imperial Realm expert who called himself a member of the Cui Family, the Overseers of the Six Paths of Reincarnation!
“Cui Longxiang?” Su Yi felt as if he were finally starting to understand.
“So, you really are acquainted with him.” Xuan Ning seemed enlightened too.
“He’s the high elder of the Cui Family. They call him the Adjudicator of the Netherworld. A long time ago, he was one the rare legendary figures of the Netherworld, as well as one of its six sovereigns.” Su Yi’s eyes shone with reminiscence. “You can count those denizens of the Netherworld who understand the secrets of reincarnation on your fingers, but Cui Longxiang is one of the few. In the distant past, he and I ‘discussed the Dao’ on numerous occasions. I’m not surprised he’d help you, but…”
Su Yi furrowed his brow and looked at Xuan Ning. “Even with his power, he couldn’t possibly know where I reincarnated to. How did you find me?”
Xuan Ning said solemnly, “It’s all thanks to the sword you forged for me all those years ago, True Xuanwu. It's emblazoned with a wisp of your heart’s blood. Senior Cui Longxiang used a secret art to examine it, and he shared the resulting vague premonition with me.”
Su Yi instantly understood.
True Xuanwu was the sword he’d forged for Xuan Ning.
In order to improve its quality, he sat in bitter meditation for nine days and nine nights, using a drop of his heart’s blood as a guide to repeatedly nourish the blade. In the end, the sword manifested “the momentum of a mountain supporting the sky or flames searing the galaxy.” It was an unmatched masterpiece.
True Xuanwu was the name Su Yi had chosen for the sword.
However, he wouldn’t have guessed that the old Cui Longxiang could determine such secrets from the sword’s energy!
Xuan Ning continued, “Afterward, Cui Longxiang activated the Cui Family’s ancestral ‘Tree of Ten Thousand Worlds’, creating a path between realms. With the path and the premonition he gleaned from True Xuanwu, I ultimately arrived in the Azure Continent.”
His expression suddenly filled with lingering terror. “However, I wouldn’t have guessed that crossing between realms was so perilous and terrifying. The path was full of unbelievably strange perils and calamities. Although I reached the Azure Continent in the end, my fleshly body had been corroded into nothingness, and even my primordial spirit had suffered practically irreparable damage…”
When he said that last part, Xuan Ning’s voice filled with dense bitterness and frustration.
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