First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 1810 - Karmic Power

Blood-red mist surged into the long-robed man’s body like mad.

His face, skin, and even his hair turned the bright red of searing flames. In the end, even his eyes blazed like fire.

“No——!” The long-robed man shrieked, and his face contorted with agony.

Even just watching from afar sent chills down the elderly, gray-robed archer’s spine. What exactly is going on here!?

Su Yi furrowed his brow too. The long-robed man was a peak Immortal King, just one step away from proving his Dao and entering the Great Realm, yet now it seemed he’d been possessed by a Qingyi Fire Peach Tree!

It was simply unbelievable.

Suddenly, the long-robed man turned his head to gaze at the elderly archer in gray.

“Do you... want to steal this lofty one’s Qingyi Fire Peach Tree too?”

A ferocious aura emanated from his body. His hair was disheveled, and his face was hideously contorted. He seemed to have become someone else entirely.

The old man gasped, then turned and fled.

“Anyone who dares covet this lofty one’s Qingyi Fire Peach Tree must die, no matter who they are!!”

The long-robed man roared, then charged explosively.

Boom!

He stretched out his hand, and blood-red flames transformed into thousands upon thousands of divine changes. They blanketed the sky and sealed off every last one of the gray-robed elder’s escape routes.

When he opened his hand and grabbed, the countless chains returned, trapping the old man in gray inside. It was as if he were pulling in a net.

“Break!!” The old man roared and swung his bronze bow.

But it was to no avail. Within the blink of an eye, countless divine chains enveloped him, then erupted with red flames, reducing him to cinders.

Just like that, a Ba Serpent late-stage Immortal King had perished!

From beginning to end, he didn’t even have the strength to struggle.

Su Yi’s brow furrowed. It really did seem that the long-robed man had been possessed!

And the one who’d possessed him was most likely a mighty expert of the Great Realm. Otherwise, he couldn’t possibly have been so powerful.

“You won’t escape either!”

The long-robed man suddenly whipped his head around and fixed his blood-red gaze on Su Yi.

Before Su Yi could respond, he shot toward him in a frenzy.

Boom!

Countless red chains surged forth, descending upon Su Yi from all sides.

Su Yi snorted coldly, raised his hands into the air, and grabbed.

The countless red chains were ripped to shreds, offering no more resistance than paper window paneling. The fragments scattered and dissipated.

Strangely, the rain of red light burst with a strange power, enveloping the space around Su Yi completely.

Kcch kcch!

Su Yi’s defensive power of the Grand Dao was corroded, and threads of red light pierced it, then spread across his body.

Su Yi’s gaze focused, and he circulated the full extent of his cultivation base. Only then did he grind away the threads of red light.

What kind of power is this? The power of a curse? The power of sin? The power of a vengeful spirit? No... it's none of these!

Threads of red light effortlessly pierced the defensive power of an Immortal King. Even factoring in his past lives, this was Su Yi’s first time seeing such a thing.

Boom!

Before Su Yi could wrap his head around it, the long-robed man stretched out his hand and grabbed. A blood-red spear condensed in his grip, then shot explosively through the air.

Its power was far beyond the bounds of the Immortal King Realm!

Su Yi furrowed his brow, swung his fist, and met the attack head-on. The red spear shattered on impact. Su Yi’s fist force was like an axe through bamboo; it cleaved right into the long-robed man’s chest.

Bang!!!

The long-robed man was sent flying back. His chest caved in, and blood gushed from the seven apertures of his face. An agonized cry escaped his lips.

Before he could steady himself, Su Yi leaped through the air and seized him by the throat. Power burst from his fingers, forcing its way into the man’s body.

The long-robed man’s physical body exploded with a spray of blood.

But at the same time, a bright red, ethereal figure lunged at Su Yi from close quarters.

Su Yi backhanded it, sending the creature flying backward.

Only then did Su Yi get a clear look at it. It was a soul body, neither fully human nor fully ghost, and it was swathed in undulating bright red mist. The fog obscured its features, and its body emanated extraordinary ferocity.

Strange. It obviously looks like a vengeful spirit, but it’s somehow different. Su Yi’s brow furrowed.

To his senses, the red illusory figure seemed more like a strange bundle of energy using a soul body as a vessel.

In other words, the blood-red figure had been corroded and possessed by a strange power!

This was unquestionably unbelievable.

“Die!”

The red figure attacked once more in an incomparable frenzy, as if it had completely lost its rationality.

Su Yi stretched out his hand and smacked the air.

Bang!

The illusory, blood-red figure was suppressed in midair, unable to budge.

Su Yi wanted to examine it and determine its nature, so he didn’t strike to kill. Once the soul body was suppressed, he separated a wisp of his divine sense, which bore into the figure’s forehead, right between the eyes.

Boom!!!

Strange and explosive power traveled up Su Yi’s divine sense and forced its way into his soul.

“I planted the Qingyi Fire Peach Tree. Even dead, I won’t let anyone take it, not even a god!”

“Greed is the source of all tribulations? That’s nothing but dog farts! This was mine to begin with. How can you call that greed?

“Die! Die! Die!”

...Deranged roaring rang out amidst that strange power, and churning red fog spread through Su Yi’s sea of consciousness.

Greed is the source of countless tribulations! Su Yi’s heart shook as he suddenly recalled the secret glyphs of the Dragon Palace he’d deciphered; they’d contained that exact sentence.

The fragmented text also said, “Blessings and disasters are not predetermined. People bring them upon themselves. Rewards and retribution follow good and evil like a shadow.”

From this, Divine Daughter Xi Ning concluded that the destruction of the Dragon Palace was connected to one of the Nine Mysteries of Chaos, the Book of Karma!!

Does that mean the strange power I sensed is actually karmic ties? When Su Yi realized this, something occurred to him. He circulated the Laws of Profound Ruin, condensing them into a sword inside his sea of consciousness.

The sword swung outward.

Kaboom!

The surging red fog was instantly eradicated, as if it had met its bane!

The strange power that had surged into Su Yi’s sea of consciousness reacted as if startled. It instantly turned tail and tried to flee.

But how could Su Yi possibly let it escape?

As he drew upon the mysteries of Profound Ruin, he manifested an immeasurably vast soul avatar within his sea of consciousness. It was bathed in the dark, mysterious Dao Light of Profound Ruin, and it instantly eradicated that strange power!!

It really worked! Su Yi’s spirits soared.

Of his powers of the Grand Dao, Profound Ruin was among the most mysterious. It wasn’t at all weaker than reincarnation.

It was his first incarnation who’d granted him this power. It was condensed from the mysterious River of Destiny, and it could sever karmic fetters and restrict the bonds of fate!

His first incarnation gave him this power to ensure that the Dao Imprints of his past lives wouldn’t influence him when he awakened them.

But by now, Su Yi knew that the power of Grand Ruin was truly strong. It was enough to effortlessly destroy the blood-rest mist, which Su Yi suspected was the power of karma! n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The Book of Karma controls the power of karma, which the power of Profound Ruin can sever. Doesn’t that mean that, if the Book of Karma really exists somewhere in the Dragon palace, I’ll be able to counter it? pondered Su Yi.

...

Meanwhile, at the heart of the ruins of the Dragon Palace, the book floating over an ancient altar shook, and a line of text appeared on its blank page.

“Why... can I sense deep-seated malintent?”

A moment later, the book disappeared into thin air.

...

Meanwhile, Su Yi had already started using the power of Profound Ruin to destroy the illusory red figure!

He stretched out his right hand, the mysteries of Profound Ruin flowing around his fingertips, and pressed it against the figure.

Boom!

The red illusory figure caught ablaze, and in the blink of an eye, it was gone. All that remained was a nearly transparent soul body.

Upon closer inspection, he was a venerable-looking elder.

The old man laughed uproariously, seemingly mad with delight. “I’m free! I’m finally free of my karmic fetters! Hahaha! Hahaha!”

Before Su Yi could respond, the old man’s almost transparent soul body transformed into a rain of light and disappeared into thin air.

“Karmic fetters?” Su Yi’s eyes flashed as he guessed some of what was going on here.

In life, the venerable old man had most likely been a Great Realm expert. However, the power of karma had reduced him to a remnant soul that was neither fully human nor ghost: a wraith. All he could do was attach himself to the Qingyi Fire Peach Tree.

Karma, of course, consisted of both cause and effect. If it was as Su Yi expected, the Qingyi Fire Peach Tree the old man had planted was also the source of his karmic fetters!

“The thing you worried about most in life became an obsession, a karmic fetter. In the end, a karmic tribulation turned you into a wraith, a remnant spirit mad with bloodlust, neither fully human nor fully ghost. It’s truly tragic, and truly pitiable,” Su Yi sighed.

He was starting to understand how terrifying—and even unsettling—the Book of Karma of the Nine Mysteries of Chaos was.

After all, every living beneath beneath the heavens was subject to the fetters of karma, from the loftiest immortals to the mortal men still subject to death, old age, and disease!

Emotional debts, heart devils, favors, grudges.... Everyone had emotions and desires, so everyone in this world inevitably found themselves bound in karmic ties!

And the Book of Karma could clearly use these karmic ties to create disasters!

Of course, it wasn’t invincible.

Cultivation was a path that went against the heavens to begin with. Even if you found yourself riddled with karmic fetters, so long as you were strong enough, you could sever them all!

As far as Su Yi could tell, the Book of Karma could direct the order of cause and effect and use the seven emotions and six desires of the human heart to inflict disaster upon them!

Of course, this was merely a hypothesis. There were still numerous mysteries surrounding the Book of Karma. He’d have to find it to understand it fully.

Su Yi set those thoughts aside, then shifted his gaze to the Qingyi Fire Peach Tree lying on the battlefield.

Su Yi stretched out his hand, and the tree flew into his palm.

This was a divine lifeform, a rare and precious treasure. It emanated the dense aura of Qingyi Divine Fire, and its singular peach was bright, fiery red, like a blazing sun.

Even Su Yi’s heart shook looking at it, and his thoughts raced.

This was just the periphery of the Dragon Palace, yet he’d already discovered a treasure of this caliber. They said the Dragon Palace’s treasury contained all kinds of rare and precious treasures from all over the Immortal Realm. He couldn’t even imagine what unknown treasures lay in wait deep within the ruins!