First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 2525 – The Return to the Hidden, a Jade Pendant, Leads

Su Yi was instantly thoroughly intrigued by this Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran.

Over the years, he’d fought all over the God Domain, but he’d never known that a woman so shrouded in mysteries was hidden in the Ruins of Supreme Simplicity.

It wasn’t that Su Yi’s information network was lacking, but that this former ruler of the Age of Supreme Simplicity had never ventured beyond the ruins.

It wasn’t just him; practically no one in the present-day God Domain knew of the mighty and mysterious expert hidden here.

“If you aren’t opposed, might you tell me a little about your path, Fellow Daoist?” Su Yi took it upon himself to ask.

“It’s called the Return to the Hidden,” said Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran. “It’s a power of the Grand Dao associated with destiny and divinations. It’s the place where all streams converge, and the place where all things hide their mysteries. Thus, it can manifest all Daos and hide all things.

“By the same token, it can illuminate all Daos and manifest the mysteries of creation. With it, I can comprehend the transformations of fate.”

Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran paused, then said, “Of course, it can sever fate, shatter negative karma, and destroy all things, too.”

Su Yi couldn’t help but feel stunned. This power is actually quite similar to Profound Ruin. Both can sever destiny! Does that mean that all supreme Daos connected to destiny can do this?

“I’d actually love to see this Dao for myself,” said Su Yi, making no attempt to disguise his eagerness.

“You’ll see it when the Dark Days of Legend arrive,” said Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran. She seemed to sense his eagerness, and she couldn’t help but smile. “I’m similarly interested in the power of reincarnation.”

Su Yi pondered briefly, then said forthrightly, “Reincarnation is not the foundation of my path.”

Both Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran and the Goddess of Silent Darkness were stunned.

Who in the God Domain didn’t know that Su Yi had mastered reincarnation? Who could have imagined that he’d say that his foundations in the Grand Dao weren’t based on reincarnation?

“Then what is your foundation in the Grand Dao?” Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran was clearly intrigued.

“I used my body as a seed, fusing all Daos into my sword. My Dao of the Sword is my Dao,” said Su Yi, casually laying his deepest secrets out in the open.

There was no need to hide anything. Even if others learned his secrets, they couldn’t possibly imitate him.

Just as he expected, the Goddess of Silent Darkness was stunned. “The Dao of the Sword is a skill. It’s only when you apply the Dao to it that it can be called ‘the Dao of the Sword.’ How could it possibly serve as your foundations in the Grand Dao?”

The Daos of the Sword, Saber, and Spear… were all methods of applying the Grand Dao in combat. They weren’t Grand Daos born of heaven and earth.

This was common knowledge among cultivators.

No Laws born of nature or Daos arising from the chaos were strictly “Daos of the Sword.”

Even the Grand Dao of Divine Execution hidden in the Tianxiu Sword Shrine was a supreme power of the Grand Dao suitable for and connected to the Dao of the Sword. It wasn’t a Dao of the Sword in its own right.

Yet now, Su Yi was saying that his Dao of the Sword was his foundations in the Grand Dao. Silent Darkness and Ling Ran found this unquestionably unbelievable.

It was a shock to their very understanding of cultivation!

Su Yi laughed, but he didn’t answer the Goddess of Silent Darkness’s question. All he said was, “Fellow Daoist Ling Ran, if you want to know, you’re welcome to test me now. I’m sure you’ll understand once you’ve seen it.”

The Goddess of Silent Darkness could tell that Su Yi was doing this on purpose. He wanted to duel Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran!

The woman shrouded in the darkness of the hall shook her head. “It’s not that I don’t want to, but that I can’t.”

“Why can’t you?” asked Su Yi.

“I’ve turned this place into my prison, never once leaving this hall, all for the sake of repairing my Dao Heart,” said Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran. “I’m not quite there yet.”

Su Yi couldn’t help but find this a pity. After eating those three Fire Jujubes, his Dao Heart had reached a bottleneck. No external items could help him break through now.

He could only seek out other solutions. A duel with Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran might well stimulate his Dao Heart and help him break through his mental blockage.

Alas, she’d refused a duel.

But Su Yi had always been relaxed about this sort of thing, so he wasn’t at all bitter about it.

“Then let’s just wait for the Dark Days of Legend,” said Su Yi. He rose. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll be on my way.”

Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran set down her needle and thread once more. “A moment, please, Fellow Daoist.”

She then took out a jade pendant and passed it to him from afar. It floated in front of him.

“In your past life, you were known as the Greatest of the Unthroned, and you visited numerous forbidden zones of the Eternal Heavens Domain. Do you perhaps recognize this?”

Su Yi took the pendant and examined it intently. It was black, smooth, and translucent. It was shaped like a feather, with a chip on its edge.

The front of the pendant was carved with a divine flame, while the back was carved with a line of text. However, the text was fragmented and indistinct, rendering it illegible.

The pendant was cold to the touch and as light as a goose feather, but he couldn’t sense anything else about it.

“I don’t recognize it,” said Su Yi. “I’ve yet to awaken the memory of that lifetime.”

“Is that so…?” Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran couldn’t hide her disappointment. “If, later on, you recognize that pendant’s origins, please inform me. I’ll be sure to repay you.”

Su Yi couldn’t help but find this surprising. “Is this pendant important to you?”

Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran nodded but didn’t explain. Su Yi considerately refrained from asking any further questions. He just returned it to her and bade farewell.

The Goddess of Silent Darkness followed him.

This time, Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran didn’t try to stop him. She just watched them fade away before slowly taking a seat back on the prayer mat. She gazed down at the black feather-shaped jade pendant and sighed softly.

A hint of melancholy appeared on her brow.

Outside the temple, the divine fowl, Qing Chi, had taken on the form of a man in Daoist robes once more. He tentatively asked, “Master, given your cultivation and abilities, keeping Su Yi here wouldn’t have been at all difficult. Why just let him go?”

“There’s no grudge between us, so why keep him here?” Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran shook her head slightly. “Only seven years remain until the Dark Days of Legend. Do not let anyone else into the Ruins of Supreme Simplicity until they arrive.”

“Understood!” Qing Chi nodded his assent.

The door to the ancient Daoist temple silently shut.

Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran looked at the Fire Jujube Tree and sank into thought.

One of her seniors had given her that jade pendant. At the time, she was just a little girl, so young that she could barely remember anything from that time.

But she vividly recalled that senior telling her that the jade pendant was the mark of her past, and that if she learned its secrets, she’d be able to reunite with her mother and father.

That’s right. Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran was once an orphan with no mother or father to look after her.

It was only after she reached the peak of the Undying Realm and became the sole ruler of the Age of Supreme Simplicity that she learned that the senior who’d given her that pendant was an extraordinary figure of the River of Destiny.

And even though she’d become the sole ruler of the God Domain, she still couldn’t see through the pendant’s secrets…

Even if Fellow Daoist Su reawakens the memories of his past life, there’s no guarantee he’ll recognize the jade pendant’s origins. It seems I’ll just have to search for answers on the River of Destiny.

Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran sighed to herself, then returned her attention to the bloody clothing she was mending.

All was silent and still once more. It was as if time no longer existed.

All that remained was the rustling of the jujube tree in the courtyard.

……

After leaving the Ruins of Supreme Simplicity, Su Yi replayed everything he’d experienced. He really hadn’t made this trip in vain.

He’d met Ancient Aberrant Xuan Ming, learned a few secrets, and acquired an Eternal Key, a way to pass through Eternal Gateways.

But more than all that, it was Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran who’d left the deepest impression on him. She was completely shrouded in mysteries. She wasn’t “simply” a former ruler of the God Domain.

That was obvious from the Fire Jujube planted in her courtyard, as well as her understanding of the River of Destiny.

Her powers of the Grand Dao, “the Return to the Hidden,” a supreme power of destiny, filled Su Yi with curiosity.

“Do you know Sovereign Venerate Ling Ran’s origins?” Su Yi asked suddenly.

The Goddess of Silent Darkness shook her head, a bit stunned. “All I know is that she and the Ancient Aberrant met each other a long time ago, and that she owed him a favor. That’s all I know.”

All Su Yi had to say to that was, “Oh.”

He decided to leave immediately and bring Lu Qingmei back to Sunset Perch Island.

But just as he was about to leave, the Goddess of Silent Darkness said, “Fellow Daoist Su, if you want to defeat the Dipankara Buddha, I have a useful lead to offer you.”

Su Yi could tell at a glance that she was trying to win him over, but he didn’t find this at all surprising. Ancient Aberrant Xuan Ming had chosen to set aside their enemy. As his subordinate, she naturally had to adjust her attitude toward him accordingly.

“If you do that, I’m afraid you won’t be able to work with the Dipankara Buddha ever again,” said Su Yi.

“That’s no longer important,” said the Goddess of Silent darkness without missing a beat. “He and I were never in the same camp. I naturally have no need to fear his enmity.”

Su Yi took a deep, hard look at her. “Alright, let’s hear it.”

During his three years in seclusion on Sunset Perch Island, he’d acquired several leads. He knew that the Dipankara Buddha had taken the disciples of the Western Paradise Spirit Mountains and hidden them in the Ruins of Supreme Obscurity.

But when he went to investigate, he discovered that they’d all fled before he arrived. He hadn’t been able to find any leads toward the Dipankara Buddha’s whereabouts since.

“Not long ago, Gu Huaxian and I wrote messages to each other. It was then that I learned she’d spent the past several years at the Dipankara Buddha’s side,” said the Goddess of Silent Darkness. “She didn’t tell me exactly where she was hidden, but the message contained clues. I managed to piece them together.”

She passed a jade slip to Su Yi. “This contains a secret map. It might well be useful to you, Fellow Daoist.”

When Su Yi saw the map recorded in the jade slip, he couldn’t help but feel stunned.