First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 2407 – The Boundless Battlefield

A barren stretch of heaven and earth. An endless rain of blazing meteors whooshed to the ground and slammed into the earth.

Murky, blood-red mists slowly rose, rising like tide waters and spreading through the heavens.

Otherworld Celestial Demons gathered into armies, like soldiers on patrol, whooshing through heaven and earth.

Every type of Celestial Demon represented a type of tribulation. They were among the most dangerous lifeforms of the Boundless Battlefield.

Crunch!

A rotting skeleton suddenly broke free of the earth, transformed into a beautiful woman, and opened her mouth, swallowing all of the blood-red, baleful energy in a ten-thousand-mile radius. She didn’t leave so much as a drop behind.

In the end, she turned back into rotting bones and vanished into the bowels of the earth.

This was an Undying Divine Corpse. They were formed from the bodies of fallen Master Gods. The Outsider Celestial Demons sent their will into the corpses of the dead, granting their bodies awareness.

Unlike true Outsider Celestial Demons, the Undying Divine Corpses were classified as “strange lifeforms.” They too were incomparably dangerous.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a massive, blood-red butterfly beat its wings and appeared beneath the dome of heaven. It was over ten feet long, its bloody wings covered in eerie eyes. With every beat of its wings, the countless white ants hidden in the sky wailed like human infants. Soon, the butterfly had gathered them all up and devoured them.

The white ants were called Void Ants. They could shuttle throughout the Boundless Battlefield, like deeply hidden assassins. When they attacked in swarms, even Master Gods had no choice but to flee.

But it was the blood-red butterfly that was the most terrifying. It was known as the Soul Annihilation Butterfly, and it was among the most dangerous inhabitants of the Boundless Battlefield. Wherever it passed, nothing grew, not even an inch of grass. Even Master Gods paled at the mere mention of its name.

As the blood-red mist spread, Su Yi put his hands behind his back and watched quietly as the Soul Annihilation Butterfly vanished into the distance. Only then did he look away.

“It seems… about the same as before, but… it ultimately has changed a bit…” Su Yi gazed into the firmament.

In the past, the skies over the Boundless Battlefield had been an endless sea of stars. The corpses of countless fallen stars had floated amidst the void.

The Outsider Celestial Demons lived within those densely clustered dead stars, deep within the void.

The star corpses were also surrounded by a barrier of the natural order year-round. They called it the Boundless Barrier.

It was precisely because the Boundless Barrier existed that Outsider Celestial Demons couldn’t invade the Boundless Battlefield en masse.

Even so, every so often, when the Boundless Barrier’s power of the natural order ebbed and fluctuated, numerous Outsider Celestial Demons would seize the chance to infiltrate the Boundless Battlefield.

Yet now, when Su Yi returned to the Boundless Battlefield countless years later, he discovered that the Boundless Barrier was covered in countless cracks. The walls were full of openings!

More than half of the floating star corpses had vanished, too. The sky seemed hollowed out and empty.

All of this told Su Yi that the Boundless Battlefield really had changed!

The Boundless Barrier was a line of defense, but it had fallen. That meant that the Outsider Celestial Demons could invade the Boundless Battlefield as they pleased.

No! Most likely, they’d already invaded it, and it had fallen completely under their control!

This really is troublesome, thought Su Yi.

Only gods were qualified to enter the Boundless Battlefield, but even Master Gods risked dying here.

All of this was because the Boundless Battlefield was just too dangerous.

It had Otherworld Celestial Demons, and strange lifeforms like the Undying Divine Corpses.

Then there were Void Ants, Soul Annihilation Butterflies, and other variant beasts born of the Boundless Battlefield.

That aside, there were numerous natural disasters and tribulations of the Grand Dao.

Throughout the ages, the Boundless Battlefield had always been seen as a forbidden zone, a place that bore the remains of countless gods!

Who knew how many valiant experts had fallen here? Worse, they knew no release even in death. Outsider Celestial Demons invaded their bodies, transforming them into Undying Divine Corpses. It was too cruel to even look at.

Even so, countless gods risked their lives and came here anyway.

The reason was simple. They were after good fortune!

In the Boundless Battlefield, you could find opportunities to break through scarce in the outside world, as well as treasure and resources!

To Master Gods in particular, the Boundless Battlefield was home to irresistible Undying good fortune!

Back then, Li Fuyou and his old friends had fought here for the sake of their cultivations, too, as they knew that the Boundless Battlefield was the part of the God Domain closest to the River of Destiny!

When your cultivation was deep enough, you could sense traces of the River of Destiny in the Boundless Battlefield!

But now, all of that had changed. The Boundless Barrier was gone. That in turn meant that the natural order of the Boundless Battlefield had changed.

Then there was the Tribulation of the Five Witherings that the Angler had told him about.

All of that combined meant that Su Yi couldn’t help but worry about his old friends’ situation, but after a while, he shook his head and set those thoughts aside.

Whoosh!

He shifted in place and got to work.

Shortly after, he abruptly stopped in place and stretched out his hand. The sky collapsed as if it were made of water, and countless white Void Ants whoosed forth.

But before the Void Ants could flee, Su Yi’s hands formed seals, and he pressed down on the sky.

Bang!

The ants’ bodies caught ablaze. Wisps of temporal power surged around them. Then, Su Yi directed his magic seal, and it formed a strange golden diagram in the air.

The Void Transmission Talisman.

This was a talisman used for the express purpose of sending messages in the Boundless Battlefield. Anyone else with a similar talisman would receive any message he sent through it.

“I’m back. Are… all of you okay?” Su Yi used his divine sense to inscribe the talisman, then activated it. The golden diagram instantly erupted with resplendent light, like a rain of fireworks.

Su Yi stood in place, waiting patiently.

But time slipped by, and he received no response whatsoever. Although he remained silent, his heart gradually grew heavier.

When Li Fuyou died and entered the cycle of reincarnation, he’d had seven dear friends.

Factoring in his other allies, there were over thirty people in total. If even one of them had received the message he’d sent, they’d have responded immediately!

Yet he’d gotten no response whatsoever. How could Su Yi not be worried?

Don’t tell me that Luo Yao and the others are already… Su Yi shook his head, then cast those thoughts aside. He didn’t want to pursue that line of thought any further.

If his old friends were dead, that would be an unquestionably heavy blow.

No, that can’t be right. They were all fine less than ten years ago. How could all of them have died?

Su Yi recalled his tribulation in the Immortal Realm’s Epoch Battlefield. Back then, Luo Yao and his other old friends had appeared from across endless time and space to intercept Master God Yun He and his other enemies.

Less than ten years had passed since then. How could they all have died?

That aside, it had only been a few years since Di E had sealed the Boundless Battlefield’s entrance. Given Luo Yao and the others’ abilities, how could they all have been captured so easily?

Unless…. Some unforeseen, grave peril had befallen them!

Su Yi suddenly thought of the Angler and the Dipankara Buddha. Both old-timers were convinced that they’d be able to lure him here because they knew there was no way Su Yi wouldn’t go to his old friends’ aid!

If his old friends were already dead, wouldn’t the Angler and the Dipankara Buddha worry that Su Yi would just turn and leave?

And if he left, all of their planning would have been a waste!

When Su Yi realized this, he instantly saw a thread of hope.

He understood the Dipankara Buddha and the Angler. Their temperaments were different, but both were shrewd old schemers.

If Luo Yao and the others were already dead, neither of them would have been confident that they could lure him here!

No matter what, I’ve got to take a trip to Dao-Seeking City and see if I can find any leads. Su Yi cast aside his scattered thoughts, then made up his mind.

Dao-Seeking City.

That was the name of a base Li Fuyou and his old friends had built in the Boundless Battlefield. As time passed, it grew into a city. It was a place where Li Fuyou and his allies sought refuge from the wind and rain.

…

Bloody mist permeated the air.

The skies were dark and overcast.

Enough time to burn a stick of incense later, a sprawling mountain range came into view.

Boom!

The skies were in turmoil. Sword qi boomed through the air.

A desperate shriek rang out, and a massive, ape-like creature with four pairs of skeletal wings toppled over with a bang.

Its head toppled from its shoulders.

An Eight-Winged Blood Eye!

This was a strange, ancient lifeform comparable to an Eight-Tribulation Master God. They were more violent and brutal than demons and mad with bloodlust.

Su Yi raised his hand and grabbed.

A resplendent crystal of the power of the Laws shot into Su Yi’s hand, then transformed into a fist-sized bundle of light.

This was a portion of Undying Source Power. In the eyes of Master Gods, it was a grand stroke of good fortune. It could be used to raise one’s Undying cultivation.

Unlike Undying Masterials, Undying Source Power was pure power of the Laws of the Grand Dao. It was incomparably precious.

Su Yi put the Undying Source Power away, then exhaled.

Only enough time to burn a single stick of incense had passed, yet he’d run into danger several dozen times already.

Undying Divine Corpses attacked out of nowhere, and then there were other variant beasts like the Eight-Winged Blood Ape…

Some of these perils, even Su Yi had no choice but to avoid. If trapped, he’d be in for endless trouble and a relentless pursuit.

The Boundless Battlefield really has gotten even more dangerous.

Su Yi glanced down at his left hand. There, he saw a wound glowing with strange blue light. It was the work of the incomparably venomous fangs of one of the local variant beasts.

Although he’d suppressed the venom, he wouldn’t be able to use his left arm anytime soon.

These were the dangers of the Boundless Battlefield.

Even though Su Yi had grown strong enough to defeat Eight-Tribulation Master Gods with ease, he couldn’t avoid injuries.

Had any other god come here, their situation would have been even more perilous.

But Su Yi’s harvest was considerable, too. He’d already gathered seven types of Undying Source Power, and that’s before factoring in the rest of his treasures.

His spoils also included Undying Materials!

Fortune and disaster went hand in hand. Nowhere else was that more apparent than in the Boundless Battlefield.

Off in the distance, mountains rose and fell. They stretched as far as the eye could see.

Once I’ve crossed the Leaping Dragon Mountains, I should be able to reach Dao-Seeking City in less than two days, thought Su Yi. He’d decided to rush there as soon as possible.

But then, a female voice choked with sobs suddenly resounded from the depths of the fog-shrouded landscape.