First Immortal of the Sword-Chapter 2106 - Outside the Chessboard, a Primordial Ancestral God

That streak of clear Dao Light was incomparably mystical. Wherever it passed, that calamitous, destructive power was flattened. It quelled all the unrest in its path!

An auspicious, tranquil air swept throughout heaven and earth.

The Seven Great Celestial Venerates’ terrifying strike lost its power beneath this beam of clear light, and the three forbidden divine swords hovered in place, as still as if they'd gone dormant.

Only the Dao-Severing Bone Spear remained mobile, but it seemed startled. It immediately fled the battlefield and shot further into the distance.

The Seven Great Celestial Venerates were gobsmacked. All of them gasped.

The old man had just neutralized a crisis and quelled all associated unrest with a swing of his sleeves. He’d eradicated all of that destructive power!

Pure qi permeated heaven and earth, auspicious and holy, as if transforming the place into an otherworldly pure land!

What kind of abilities were these? What level of divine ability had he used?

Su Yi’s eyebrows rose. He resolved the crisis at hand just like that! His strength really is unbelievable!

The gods spectating from afar were flabbergasted too. All of their hearts and minds were affected. They couldn’t even work up the will to resist, nor could they bear to ruin the peace and tranquility before them.

The Seven Great Celestial Venerates looked stricken. All of them felt the impact, and their hearts and minds quivered.

Three taboo divine swords had been silently suppressed, and the Dao-Severing Bone Spear had been simply scared off!

The seven of them attacked at once with all their might, only for their offensive to quietly fall apart.

Meanwhile, the old man stood there, elegant and above it all, as if he stood beyond the nine heavens. He had a transcendent, at-ease air about him.

“Come here, you,” the old man said warmly.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

All three taboo divine swords shot toward him like swallows returning to their nest, then landed in his outstretched hand.

Then, he looked at the Celestial Venerates, his gaze suddenly solemn. “Now, it’s time that you paid for your mistakes.”

The Seven Great Celestial Venerates’ eyelids twitched.

Celestial Venerate Profound Frost shouted, “Wait! Who are you? Why are you getting involved in...”

But before she could finish the sentence, the old man laughed and shook his head. “Trying to stall for time won’t get you anywhere.”

Boom!

He raised his hand and casually pinched the air as if he were lifting a piece from a chessboard.

Heaven and earth quivered, and ten thousand Daos resonated. Endless, indistinct Buddhist light fell.

Celestial Venerate Profound Frost stiffened, and in the blink of an eye, mysterious talisman markings manifested of the rain of Buddhist light sealed her completely.

Her face contorted with agony, as if tens of thousands of knives were cutting into her flesh. She felt as if her very soul itself were being slashed to ribbons.

This was an agony originating from the soul. Even though she was a Master Goddess, the torment left her on the verge of breaking down. She couldn’t stop herself from crying out.

The golden Buddhist light sealed her so thoroughly that she couldn’t even struggle, let alone fight back. All she could do was endure the endless, brutal torment!

The sight startled the other Celestial Venerates. All of them felt chills course through their hearts, and all of them wondered the same thing. Who on earth is that old man? How could he have sealed a Master Goddess in a single attack!?

“Retreat!”

Celestial Venerate Bright Universe and the others didn’t hesitate to shift through the sky and flee explosively into the distance.

“My Dao might lie within my heart, but it extends to everything outside it.” The old man shook his head. “You’ve long since fallen into my net. How could you possibly escape?”

As his gentle voice rang out, the old man waved his sleeve, and his palm struck the air.

Boom!

Endless light of the Yao Path erupted throughout heaven and earth, manifesting an endless vision of purgatory.

The six remaining Celestial Venerates were pulled back, like horses and oxen attempting to flee, only for their masters to yank on the reins. All of them were swept uncontrollably into that endless purgatory.

A massive blast followed, and the originally boundless purgatory shrank, then transformed into six blood-red pillars. Each had one of the Celestial Venerates sealed inside.

They were trapped like criminals awaiting decapitation. Their lives and deaths were entirely out of their hands!

Deathly silence ensued. Even the birds ceased their song.

Every last god in the audience was startled and terrified almost out of their wits!

Six Celestial Venerates had been sealed within pillars in a flash. The gods half suspected they were dreaming. If they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes, they wouldn’t have believed it.

Luo Xuanji quivered, waves of emotion crashing through her heart.

She understood. This old man has to be a terrifying existence far beyond a Master God. Otherwise, a mere remnant of his will could never have toyed with Master Gods like this.

When Luo Xuanji realized this, she couldn’t help but laugh bitterly to herself. Who here could have imagined that an unassuming remnant of will would be this ridiculously strong?

I’m afraid... that even Fellow Daoist Su had no idea!

She instinctively glanced at Su Yi, then keenly picked up on the lingering surprise on his face.

Su Yi really was surprised.

However, he wasn’t surprised by the old man’s strength. Rather, he’d noticed that when the old man attacked, he’d used four starkly different but supreme legacies at once!

A Buddhist secret art, a Daoist divine ability, the Valiant Haoran Qi of a Confucianist, and a magic incantation of the Yao Path!

But the old man was neither Buddhist nor Daoist; neither Confucianist nor yao!

Has he mastered and fused the legacies of all different orthodoxies into his powers of the Grand Dao? Su Yi’s heart shook.

He too could use the arts and abilities of other schools of thought, but his swordsmanship was still the heart of his powers of the Grand Dao. He couldn’t display the abilities of each orthodoxy simultaneously and with equal facility like the old man did.

The seven suppressed Celestial Venerates, meanwhile, were all enraged and furious.

“You... You broke through the wall of the Undying Realm a long time ago to step into Eternity and become a Primordial Ancestral God?” asked Celestial Venerate Bright Universe in a quavering voice. Surprise was written all over his face.

Such existences were like legends. They were truly free, truly unfettered, and truly transcendent!

Primordial Ancestral Gods!

Gasps arose throughout the crowd.

“A Primordial Ancestral God?” The old man shook his head. “I’m not.”

He then turned to look at Su Yi and said softly, “These Master Gods are just pawns in someone else’s chess game. The real game lies outside the chessboard.”

“Outside the chessboard?” Su Yi frowned.

“That’s right. He’s using the Master Gods to probe your limits. Once he’s gotten a feel for your abilities, he’ll decide the outcome of this confrontation, all while remaining outside it,” the old man said warmly. “From this, it’s clear that even though you’ve yet to become a god, and even though your cultivation base is lacking, the man behind the scenes sees you as a top threat. Unless it’s absolutely necessary, he won’t dare appear in person and clash with you directly.”

Su Yi was instantly solemn. Only now did he realize that such danger lurked hidden in the darkness!

Luo Xuanji couldn’t help but be stunned, too. “He’s using Master Gods as pawns simply to test Fellow Daoist Su’s abilities? Does... Does that mean that the man behind the curtain is a Primordial Ancestral God?”

There was once a group of utterly terrifying existences who lived at the far end of the Path of the Ancient Gods. Each was a legend who’d waged war across multiple epoch civilization, and all of them had strength far beyond Undying Realm Master Gods!

These were the Primordial Ancestral Gods!

But a long, long time ago, that swordsman consigned all of the Primordial Ancestral Gods to the darkness. Since then, there’d been no sign of them in the Path of the Ancient Gods.

“Primordial Ancestral Gods?” The old man just laughed, his gaze inscrutable. “Some are, and some aren’t.”

Su Yi and Luo Xuanji exchanged glances. Both of them understood the implications.

There was more than one person acting behind the scenes!

“Fellow Daoist, you needn’t worry about all that. Just take it for a grand spectacle. Later on, when you look back on what happened here today, all will naturally become clear whispered the old man.

He’d been calm and composed from the moment he arrived, and it seemed he sensed and understood everything happening around him.

Su Yi fell briefly silent, then nodded. “You’re saying the show has only just begun?”

“No, it’s already time to determine a victor,” said the old man. “By intervening at all, I’ve already violated the rules. I shouldn’t have changed anything. Still, since chance brought us together, I naturally ought to do a little something for you, Fellow Daoist.”

These words left ample room for thought. Su Yi silently pondered the implications.

Violated the rules? What does that mean? And why does he say he shouldn’t have changed anything? Is he saying that he shouldn’t have appeared here at all, and that there really are other variables hidden behind this attempt to target me?

Suddenly, an icy voice rang out.

“You are not of the Path of the Ancient Gods, nor are you of the world beyond it. Intervening really is a violation of the rules!”

Kaboom!

Before this voice had even finished echoing through the air, the crowd was shocked to discover that the dome of heaven was shrouded in endless darkness.

And indeed, the darkness encompassed the entire Ancient God Domain. It was as if the whole world had been plunged into endless, lightless darkness!

As the voice rang out, a figure silently came into view. He was a man in dark robes, his back as upright as a sword. His long gray hair hung to his waist, and his skin was as fair as jade.

But his eyes were like twin portals to the endless pits of hell. It was as if the man’s mere gaze could devour someone’s soul!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

As the man in dark robes appeared, the Celestial Venerates’ seals broke, and they regained their freedom.

“Master!” Celestial Venerate Burning Winds called out in disbelief. “You... You’ve escaped the endless darkness?”

Master? The crowd was stunned, but they quickly realized what this meant. The man in dark robes was a Primordial Ancestral God, an unfathomably powerful existence!

“That’s him! The legendary Lingyu Dao Monarch!” exclaimed Luo Xuanji. “I wouldn’t have thought... that he was still alive...”

The Lingyu Dao Monarch was a legend of the Path of the Ancient Gods, someone so mysterious that only Master Gods knew of his existence.

But his origins were still shrouded in mystery. Practically no one knew where he’d come from!”

“Step back. You can no longer handle this,” said the man in dark robes as he emerged from the darkness.

All of the Seven Great Celestial Venerates did as they were told and stepped back. None of them dared to disobey.

Meanwhile, the dark-robed man fixed those eyes like the pits of hell on the old man.

“If you were here in person, you might well be able to turn this around, but a mere remnant of your will has no hope of victory,” said the man in dark robes. “I came here to deliver a warning. If you overstep the Laws, the Laws will erase you in turn!

“Leave now, while you still can. Otherwise, this avatar of yours might reveal a trace of your true body’s presence, and bring disaster upon him!”