First Immortal of the Sword

Ao Chiting stood there, his expression racked with agony and bewilderment.

After losing the Book of Karma, that waterfall of blood-red karmic power silently slipped away.

Bang!!!

The six-inch sword coffin still chased and beat the Book of Karma, leaving the tome swaying and staggering. From time to time, frantic cursing appeared on its continuously flipping pages.

It really was an unbelievable scene. After all, the Book of Karma was one of the Nine Mysteries of Chaos, and its power over karma was far beyond “ordinary” Epoch Laws!

To the best of Xi Ning’s knowledge, the Book of Karma was a first-rate Epoch Treasure even by the standards of the God Domain. Even gods and Buddhas would scramble over it like mad.

Yet now, the book was getting the shit beaten out of it!

Fang Zhui was overcome with astonishment. He murmured to himself, Don’t tell me that six-inch coffin is an Epoch Treasure even stronger than the Book of Karma? If so, where on earth did Fellow Daoist Su acquire it?

Suddenly, Su Yi’s voice resounded in Xi Ning’s ears. “Did you plan to die alongside me earlier?”     

Xi Ning looked over. She wasn’t sure when, but Su Yi was approaching. His body was battered and covered in blood, his hair was disheveled, and his handsome face was pallid and translucent.

But his eyes were bright, and they shone with a subtle, nigh imperceptible hint of a smile. 

For some inexplicable reason, Xi Ning suddenly felt a bit ill at ease.

Nonetheless, a moment later, she met Su Yi’s gaze and said solemnly, “We faced the wind and rain aboard the same ship, so we naturally ought to face life and death together.”

Her voice was like the music of the heavens, tinged with incontrovertible conviction.

She was extraordinarily tall and graceful due to her long, smooth, jade-like legs. Standing there, she was only half a head shorter than Su Yi. Her figure was truly extraordinary.

In the battle earlier, she’d been badly injured, and she was covered in blood. She was no better off than Su Yi.

Su Yi couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pity, and he was deeply moved. “Rest up and tend to your wounds. Leave the rest to me.”

Xi Ning shook her head. “Seeing the Book of Karma take a beating was quite satisfying. I don’t want to miss such a wondrous spectacle.”

Su Yi couldn’t help but laugh. There was no doubt about it. Xi Ning had a bellyful of pent-up fire too. She was all too delighted to see the Book of Karma brutalized.

“Me too,” Fan Zhui said with a grin.

The earlier battle had been perilous and brutal. Their lives hung in the balance. It was enough to make one give in to despair.

Now, the situation had turned on its head. The Book of Karma had been suppressed, and Ao Chiting stood there like a clay statue, his awareness muddled. Just like that, a potentially lethal threat silently collapsed.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A rapid-fire series of explosions resounded throughout the hall.

The six-inch sword coffin seemed furious. It was still chasing and beating the Book of Karma, and it showed no sign of slowing down.

The power of karma had all but been removed from Ao Chiting’s body, leaving him transparent and ethereal. It seemed he might simply disappear at a moment’s notice.

A moment later, he finally seemed to regain some of his awareness. He let out a long sigh and muttered, “The Book of Karma let me become a god, but it also took everything from me… Perhaps this karma was long predestined…”

He suddenly looked at Su Yi and said, “How did you learn the secret language of the dragons?”

Su Yi didn’t answer. Instead, he said, “I encountered your avatar of will on the Dragon Ascension Platform. You left it there before you became a god.”

Ao Chiting froze, a bit dazed, his expression conflicted. “Were it possible, I’d love to return to that time and never entertain any extravagant notions of achieving divinity ever again…”

His voice was full of regret and melancholy.

“Your avatar of will has already started to make amends,” said Su Yi. “I promised to find him a suitable dragon, or someone capable of becoming a dragon, to take on the mantle of the Dragon Palace.”

Ao Chiting stiffened, and his dull eyes shone with new light. “Truly!?”

Su Yi nodded.

Ao Chiting let out a long sigh, and a relaxed smile appeared on his face; it seemed he’d finally found release. He murmured, “Wonderful! This cannot erase the enormity of my sins, but at least… I’ve helped my clan pass on its legacy…”

The ninth crown prince and former deity of the dragon race, Ao Chiting, faced Su Yi and bowed solemnly. “The sinner of the dragon race, Ao Chiting, thanks you with all his heart, Fellow Daoist. Might you tell me your illustrious name?”

Su Yi told him, then said, “If you truly want to thank me, might you answer a few of my questions before your remnant soul dissipates?”

Ao Chiting said, “Please, go right ahead and ask, Fellow Daoist. I’ll hold nothing back.”

A self-deprecating smile appeared on his face. “I’m not even comparable to a remnant soul. I’m at most a remnant of spirit soon to disperse…”

But Su Yi was nowhere near so rueful. He got straight to the point. “Who were the ones behind the dragons’ demise?”

Ao Chiting’s pupils constricted; Su Yi had clearly poked him in a sore spot. Irrepressible hatred filled his gaze. “I don’t know exactly where he came from. I just know they called him the Dipankara Buddha of the Past. It seems he was an extraordinary figure even among the gods!”

The Dipankara Buddha of the Past!

Su Yi’s heart shook.

He thought back to the Human Realm’s Eastern Profound Star Domain, where he’d fought with one of the Dipankara Buddha’s servants. He’d even clashed with the Buddha’s avatar of will over the River of Spacetime. 

At the time, the mysterious Luo Yao appeared to help him avert catastrophe.

It was also then that Su Yi learned that the Dipankara Buddha was one of his past lives’ irreconcilable enemies!

It was just that Su Yi didn’t know which of his past lives had been at odds with the Dipankara Buddha. According to his current understanding of his past lives, two of his past selves had died at the hands of the gods!

He could say with certainty that the Dipankara Buddha had been involved in at least one of those deaths.

How could he not be surprised to hear that the Dipankara Buddha had been involved in the destruction of the Dragon Palace, too?

“So, it was him.” Xi Ning looked stunned. “He’s one of the strongest Buddhas of the Western Paradise’s Spirit Mountain. His cultivation is unfathomably deep.”Nôv(el)B\\jnn

One of the strongest Buddhas of the Western Paradise’s Spirit Mountain? Su Yi was stunned. He suddenly realized that he had to find an opportunity to ask Xi Ning about the God Domain and get a clearer sense of just what kind of place it was.

He also wanted to know more about the so-called gods’ pursuit of the Dao, and what divisions of strength existed between them.

Take the Dipankara Buddha of the Past. He was obviously far from comparable to ordinary gods.

“Did the Dipankara Buddha descend into the Immortal Realm?” asked Su Yi.

The answer to that was critical.

“No, he used a forbidden divine ability to send a portion of his will into the Immortal Realm, and he used the Immortal Realm’s Laws to condense an avatar,” Ao Chiting said gravely. “But even though it was just an avatar of will, it was far more than we could handle.

“The Buddha said the Book of Karma was connected to the Western Paradise by fate and that the dragons weren’t qualified to control it. He said that if we tried, we’d inevitably meet with annihilation…” 

Su Yi’s eyebrows rose. He was simply stealing a treasure, yet he made it sound so grandiose. The Dipankara Buddha sure is shameless.

“Then you refused, and he attacked?” asked Su Yi.

Ao Chiting nodded, his expression full of grief. “Harboring a treasure is a crime in its own right. It was the Dipankara Buddha who destroyed us, but the Book of Karma was the source of the disaster. Ultimately, I should have followed our ancestral precepts. I should never have used the Book of Karma. Had I obeyed, this disaster would never have befallen us.”

But Su Yi did not agree with that. Harboring a treasure was no crime; all such talk was complete nonsense spouted by self-righteous thieves.

Ao Chiting hadn’t destroyed the dragons of the Eastern Sea. They simply weren’t capable of protecting the Book of Karma. 

Su Yi asked, “Why did the dragons’ ancestral precepts forbid you from using the Book of Karma?”

Ao Chiting sighed. “Our ancestors thought our strength was far from sufficient to wield it, and that any attempts to use it would bring unforeseen disaster, not good fortune.”

This made sense to Su Yi. Before you could enjoy good fortune, you had to make sure you could handle it.

The catastrophe that destroyed the Dragon Palace had perhaps begun when Ao Chiting used the Book of Karma without permission, but the true culprit was the Dipankara Buddha of the past!

Suddenly, Ao Chiting whipped around and pointed to the enormous Nine Dragons Cauldron, his voice urgent. “That’s the Dragon Progenitor’s Cauldron, a supreme Great Profound Treasure. It contains the purest ancestral blood of the dragon race, as well as our supreme legacy, the Draconic Origin Sutra, and our progenitor’s natal bone…”

Before his voice had even finished echoing through the air, his already indistinct figure silently dissipated into a rain of light.

Su Yi took out his jug of wine and silently took a sip. He felt no hatred for Ao Chiting despite how close this Dragon God had come to killing him. There’d been reasons behind it all.

After all, the real Ao Chiting had died long ago. The one who’d attacked him was just a muddle-headed wraith.

What truly shook Su Yi’s heart was that Ao Chiting, the most dazzling prince of the dragons, someone who’d achieved divinity in the Immortal Realm, couldn’t even fight the Dipankara Buddha’s avatar of will. Su Yi couldn’t even imagine how strong the actual Dipankara Buddha was.

“He’s… finally found release…” whispered Xi Ning. 

The greatest torment wasn’t death. It was longing to die yet being unable to do so.

A strange silence descended upon the area. Even the six-inch sword coffin and the Book of Karma were quiet.

Rather, the two treasures had already duked it out and determined a victor.

The six-inch sword coffin hovered, unmoving, while the Book of Karma lay sprawled out on the ground. It didn’t move either, but its pages were crinkled, as if someone had crumpled them up.

A new line of text appeared on one of its pages. “I can’t beat you no matter how hard I try, so just go ahead and bully me! I promise not to struggle anymore.”

It was obviously resigned to its fate.

The sword coffin just hovered there, as if it were unwilling to keep beating the Book of Karma, but also unwilling to relent.

When Su Yi, Xi Ning, and Fan Zhui saw this, all of them felt strange. The Book of Karma was one of the Nine Treasures of Chaos, and it had even helped Ao Chiting become a god. The Dipankara Buddha himself had tried to seize it.

Who’d have thought it’d get bullied so badly that it’d simply sprawl out on the ground, resigned to its fate?

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