A vast pressure swept across the mountains and rivers.
He formed a hand seal, and clouds surged behind him as an imperial figure suddenly appeared. Its face was still a blur, but it stood a hundred feet tall, and its color had changed from pale gold to pure gold.
In an instant, the old man's gaze sharpened and his presence began to grow stronger. His blood Qi scattered the surrounding mist, and his appearance began to change. His snow-white topknot turned black, and the wrinkles on his face vanished one by one. From the brink of death, he returned to middle age.
Finally, he brought out a small golden bell. Its lingering chime seemed capable of freezing all things in place.
"Your final battle? What a pity. It's all in vain. How long can your withered blood Qi sustain you?" Su Yu's expression was cold. A mere three breaths later, the Four Extremes Fourth Heaven cultivator who had forcibly extracted the essence of his blood Qi was killed outright by the Imperial Dragon Qi. His exquisite little bell was shattered as well, breaking into countless golden fragments that splashed across the surrounding mountains like a shower of golden rain.
"Ancestor!"
When the remaining elders and the sect master saw the grand elder perish, they all broke down in tears. Yet they were full of fighting spirit and immediately activated the mountain gate's grand formation, intending to trap Su Yu until he died.
But under the impact of the "Clouds in the Blue Sky, Water in the Vase" phenomenon, everything was reduced to dust.
Su Yu watched coldly from the sidelines, with no desire to act personally. These cultivators were only in the Dao Palace Secret Realm, while the one before had belonged to the self-destruction school, whose edge even Dragon Transformation cultivators had to avoid for a time. He had no wish to come to grief.
He gathered all the Source in the storehouse into his storage bag, then sent out a fire dragon. Amid flames that filled the sky, the Wind Feather Sect was reduced to ruins.
The mortal servants all scattered and fled for their lives, while the cultivators were bound by an immobilization spell, unable to break free.
A Great Dao Treasure Vase formed in the air and shot out chains that pierced the Wheels of Life of every cultivator...
After using the Indestructible Heavenly Art to devour all the cultivators, Su Yu emerged from the endless flames without a speck of dust on him, like an immortal descending into the mortal world.
As long as he had enough resources, he could cultivate all the way to the Dragon Transformation Secret Realm.
And as a cultivator of the Indestructible Heavenly Art, his so-called resources were these cultivators. He had long since come to terms with that.
Suddenly, amid the scarlet flames, a shadow crossed Su Yu's heart. If this continued, would he eventually lose himself? He also thought of Ye Fan's vigorous blood Qi and unique origin when they had met, and the desire that had surged up within him...
Without dwelling on it, Su Yu rode a streak of rainbow light toward the other two sects, the Azure Cloud Sect and the Mysterious Moon Grotto from the original story.
"Next stop, the Azure Cloud Sect."
After arriving at the Azure Cloud Sect, Su Yu wasted no words. He unleashed a strike of Imperial Dragon Qi, and the dragon Qi, comparable to the Dragon Transformation Nine Changes, smashed the sect's mountain gate. The Azure Cloud Sect's master, an old cultivator at the Dao Palace Fifth Heaven, had rushed out of the Grotto-Heaven and had only just caught sight of Su Yu when the dragon Qi struck him dead.
Su Yu then walked openly into the Azure Cloud Sect's main hall. All the elders and disciples stood in rows on either side, their faces filled with fear.
It was as though he were the master of the sect.
Chapter 22: Vast as the Sea, Tiny as Dust
Looking at the elders and disciples, all silent as cicadas in winter, Su Yu did not attack again. Instead, he casually pointed at one of the elders.
The Azure Cloud Sect elder he had singled out was terrified. He walked shakily up to Su Yu. "May I ask what you summoned me for, Senior?"
Looking at the man's graying hair, Su Yu frowned slightly and asked, "Among the roving bandits your sect sends out to collect Source, is there one called Chen Big Beard? Find him for me now, and I'll spare your life."
"Chen Big Beard? I know him, Senior. Rest assured, I'll bring him here at once." The elder's terrified heart settled at once. He felt there was still hope of survival.
An old hand like him feared hotheads like Su Yu most, the sort who would wipe out an entire household at the slightest disagreement. Now that he knew the reason, the elder fawned over Su Yu repeatedly.
Then anger rose in his heart. Damn you, Chen Beard! You went and stirred up a terrible disaster out there! He had originally been pleased by the man's eagerness when he brought Source and had planned to give him some spiritual medicine to open his Bitter Sea. Now he wanted nothing more than to split the man in two with a palm strike.
This was a calamity out of the blue! Poor sect master, dead just like that. But this was also his chance. Perhaps he could get into this senior's good graces, and then wouldn't the whole Azure Cloud Sect be his to command? At the thought, the elder's mournful face began to blossom into an incomparably radiant smile.
Su Yu had no idea the elder's thoughts had already turned to currying favor with him. He gave the man a cold look and shot a strand of chaos Qi into his Immortal Platform.
Sensing the danger to his soul, the Dao Palace Third Heaven elder looked as though he had lost both parents.
"One hour. If you don't find him, you die!"
The elder immediately rode off on a Divine Rainbow. Before long, he returned with a burly man in his forties, whose beard was like a lion's mane and whose face was exceedingly fierce.
But in the Azure Cloud Sect's main hall, Chen Big Beard was on the verge of collapse. He had been robbing people of Source as usual when his old superior suddenly descended from the sky, said only, "You've stirred up a terrible disaster!" and brought him to the Azure Cloud Sect.
He knelt and bowed in the center of the hall, raising his head slightly to look at the young man above him. Both the young man and the pottery lid above his head made Chen Big Beard's legs go weak.
Su Yu activated the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid, filling the entire hall with a faint, ultimate imperial pressure. He said to the man below:
"You should have obtained a special piece of jade. Hand it over."
Chen Big Beard was a little bewildered, while the elder shouted sternly, "Chen Wu, do as His Excellency says!"
By then, Su Yu had already removed the chaos Qi from the elder's body.
Only then did Chen Wu hurriedly prostrate himself and take out all the unusual pieces of jade he had on him, spreading them haphazardly across the hall's floor. Then he said in a trembling voice, "Which one does the immortal want?"
Su Yu spotted a palm-sized fragment of jade at a glance. It was engraved with the outlines of mountain ranges and a blurred character for "emperor."
He beckoned with his right hand, and the ancient jade flew into it.
He examined it through the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid. In the lid's mirror surface, a purple divine mountain stood tall. A bell faintly rang out, and the Dao laws of time brushed past.
In a daze, Su Yu seemed to see a majestic man with his back to all living beings. He stood there without the years leaving a single trace on him. He looked to be in his twenties, with a commanding bearing, thick black hair, and wise eyes that could see through everything. With his every movement, the myriad Daos of heaven and earth trembled and wailed for him. His bearing was unmatched beneath the heavens.
Then the figure grew ever more distant, vanishing into the endless river of time.
"Wushi, with his back to all living beings!" Su Yu closed his eyes and pondered the faint imperial image for a moment. Then he put the Wushi Emperor Jade into his Bitter Sea, retrieved the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid, and looked again at the people below.
The many cultivators in the hall instantly dared not even breathe. The entire hall fell deathly silent.
When the Imperial Dragon Qi emerged, every cultivator stared in terror at the fifteen-foot-long dragon of chaos Qi.
The elder's heart sank. His dream of becoming sect master shattered with the appearance of the dragon Qi. Even so, he was secretly relieved, for His Excellency had said he would spare his life.
The remaining disciples all fell to their knees in fright, begging incessantly for mercy.
The thick dragon circled through the vast hall. Su Yu looked at Chen Wu with interest. At this point, the man had not yet taken charge of Fifth Master Zhang's village or offended it.
"You're lucky. I'm in a good mood right now, so your little life is safe." Looking at the relieved Chen Wu, he called over the elder he knew and gave him an instruction.
He flew away through the air, neither destroying the Azure Cloud Sect's Grotto-Heaven nor using its people to cultivate the Indestructible Heavenly Art. Their cultivation was too low to be of much use to him.
Besides, weren't these people sensible? Unlike the Wind Feather Sect, which had wanted to tear the net even if the fish died.
As for the Azure Cloud Sect's Source, he had taken it long ago.
Next stop, the Mysterious Moon Grotto!
Flying past a cliff, he sensed a faint wisp of dragon-shaped mist stir a response from his Imperial Dragon Qi. He gave form to his divine sense and released it.
"The place where Wushi comprehended the Dao?"
Looking at the stone cliffs rising all around and a cave among them, he felt the long passage of time in this place. From beginningless to endless, without end forever, it held an extraordinary, eternal charm.
Three lines were carved into the cliff beside the ancient cave: "The Dao is boundless, beyond knowing; the heart is free and unrestrained; things follow one another, none amiss."
The characters had nearly worn away, yet they held a supreme charm. Cultivators had discovered this cave long ago. A grand elder of the Yaoguang Holy Land had spent half a year here, only to leave disappointed.
The emperor jade in Su Yu's hand, however, could summon a remnant image of Great Emperor Wushi.
He took out the emperor jade. The fragment in his hand was very warm, and in the sunlight it shone with a crystalline radiance. Soft light streamed through Su Yu's fingers, and his heart, restless from killing, slowly began to calm.
Su Yu silently ran his hand over the cliff carvings. Sunlight filtered through gaps in the mountain trees and fell on the mottled ground, like walking beneath a hazy moon at night.
"The Dao is boundless, beyond knowing..." Su Yu softly recited. The Devouring Heaven Demon Lid above his head cast down dark light, stirring the space and time of this place.
Suddenly, light poured from the ancient jade, its soft radiance flooding into the cave. In an instant, space and time reversed and the years flowed backward. Su Yu stepped forward, as though standing beneath the starry sky of more than a hundred thousand years ago.
The emperor jade had opened the imprint of an imperial image from over a hundred thousand years ago.
It was as though a shattered scroll of history unfurled before Su Yu. An illusory figure flickered in and out of sight.
"Gazing to the end of the immortal path, I see no predecessors before me, no successors behind me. Alone I stand atop the clouds, vast as the sea, tiny as dust. All things have..."
Just as Su Yu was sinking deeper into the experience, everything suddenly shattered. The broken scroll scattered on the wind in the end, leaving little behind.
The remaining imprint let him sense a divine charm of the Great Dao. His spirit and flesh were bathed in what felt like holy light, receiving a baptism beyond words. His soul grew ever more flawless, as though he were about to open the Immortal Platform Secret Realm.
Mist flowed, and the figure of the Daoist sitting in meditation remained fixed before the ancient cave, like the bright moon in a well.
Looking at the flaking pieces of stone, Su Yu sent out several rays of spiritual light to reinforce the cave, then left the place...
Chapter 23: Obtaining the Lihuo Divine Furnace
The great sun sank westward, and drifting clouds filled the sky.
The Mysterious Moon Grotto was close to the ancient cave. Su Yu descended at its mountain gate. A short while later, flames soared into the sky within the Grotto-Heaven. Amid the sea of fire that had engulfed the Mysterious Moon Grotto, Su Yu lifted a corpse. It was the Mysterious Moon Grotto's grand sect master, a Dao Palace Third Heaven cultivator.
This time, he had slaughtered without restraint. All the cultivators lay dead, pierced by the Great Dao Treasure Vase to aid his cultivation of the Indestructible Heavenly Art.
After the baptism of Wushi's imperial image, his cultivation had advanced a great deal, and his understanding of the Four Extremes had deepened. His flesh had begun to crave divine power, like an unsatisfied infant.
After burning everything to ashes, he soon reached the Lihuo Sect, seven hundred li from the Mysterious Moon Grotto...
An unknown time later, a violent disturbance erupted in the Grotto-Heaven, breaking the mountains and rivers. All the rivers here were burned away, and the waterfalls on the green peaks were instantly vaporized. Mist filled the whole world.
Countless mortal servants scattered and fled. Corpses littered the Lihuo Sect, and clusters of five-colored, glasslike true fire burned everywhere. Amid the bodies strewn across the ground, Su Yu held a bronze furnace, and beneath his feet lay a lavishly dressed dried corpse. It was the Lihuo Sect's grand elder, who had possessed the Lihuo Divine Furnace.
One person still lived on the bluestone plaza. He wore a purple-gold crown and a blue robe, and his hair was white as a crane's. The Lihuo Sect master, once possessed of an immortal air and a Daoist bearing, was now covered in dust, his white hair flecked with blood, a sorry sight.
Watching the Lihuo Sect's destruction before his eyes and seeing its elders and disciples drained into dried corpses, he glared viciously at Su Yu and roared in utter grief, "Demon, just you wait! The Yaoguang Holy Land will never let you go! I'll be waiting for you in the Underworld!"
Su Yu was studying the Dao patterns on the Lihuo Divine Furnace. Hearing those words, he used his magical power to pull the man over, then circulated the Indestructible Heavenly Art. In an instant, the Lihuo Sect master too became a dried corpse.
He had refined every cultivator in the Lihuo Sect with the Indestructible Heavenly Art.
Then he gave a soft shout:
"Ha!"
The Lihuo Divine Furnace flew into the sky, giving off a sparkling, crystalline light. From an inch tall, it grew, shattering the void, and in the blink of an eye became a hundred-meter-tall bronze furnace, towering high in the heavens. Incomparably beautiful flames rose from its mouth.
Su Yu formed another spell seal. The enormous divine furnace shook with a sound like rolling thunder, deafening to the ears. Its lid shone with ten thousand feet of light. Though made only of bronze, it was as clear and pure as five-colored glass, and the endless true fire blazing inside could be dimly seen.
"Click."
The lid flipped open, and a sheet of incomparably fierce divine fire immediately poured down from on high. Like a waterfall of flame, it fell from the ninth heaven into Lihuo Grotto-Heaven, burning even the void until it twisted.
Crimson light filled the sky, and the might of the fire shook the heavens. Scarlet radiance spread across the firmament, and everything in sight was blood-red.
The vegetation on the green mountains within the Grotto-Heaven withered in an instant. Every blade of grass and every tree on their slopes turned to ash. Even the rocks on the peaks melted into a layer of glowing red liquid that slowly flowed down. The waterfalls dried up, but a river of fire fell in their place.
Endless divine fire burned everything in sight. Only flames remained between heaven and earth. All the dried corpses and the Lihuo Sect itself turned to ash, dispersing into the world.
Feeling the improvement in his flesh and soul, Su Yu understood. Having cultivated the Indestructible Heavenly Art, he could only walk this path of devouring. He had no other choice.
"The whole world as my enemy? No, it's time for those king physiques to tremble."