First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 1245 - Old Monsters Arrive

The Blue Demon Bird carried Su Yi and Meng Changyun into the distance, in the direction of the bell.

Enough time to brew a cup of tea later.

Off in the distance, the stars surged with dense fog, like a black curtain obscuring the area ahead.

“Your Excellency, that’s the old Horned Dragon’s territory. The old bastard is cold-blooded and ruthless. He kills all trespassers, no exceptions, then devours their flesh, drinks their blood, and swallows their souls.”

The Blue Demon Bird stopped abruptly outside, his feathers standing on end.

The old Horned Dragon called himself Divine Monarch Longriver. He was one of the peak hegemons of the chaotic Dark Sea of Stars.

The Horned Dragon had cultivated for a long, long time, and he had Oneness Realm cultivation. He had ripped apart numerous opponents of the same realm, and he was cold-blooded and tyrannical to the extreme.

His territory was a forbidden zone!

Su Yi wasn’t at all concerned even after learning about the Horned Dragon. “A worm, that’s all. All you need to do is lead the way.”

The Blue Demon Bird was stunned. Just who is this young man? He isn’t even afraid of a Oneness Realm Horned Dragon?

But the bird dared not hesitate. He steeled himself, beat his wings, and shot into the distant mists.

Whoosh~

The dense sea of fog parted around them.

After proceeding over a thousand miles, a massive mountain suddenly appeared in the distant mist. It was fully one hundred thousand feet tall, and it just stood there, as if it were supporting the starry skies.

“That’s... the Mountain of the River of Heaven, the old Horned Dragon’s lair!” the Blue Demon Bird said with unease. He was obviously incomparably terrified.

Meanwhile, Su Yi gazed up at the distant Mountain of the River of Heaven. A bamboo building stood beneath the nighttime mists.

The bamboo building only had two stories. There was but a single lamp hanging from the gates, but its orange light was full of welcoming warmth.

Heaven and earth were shrouded in darkness, with but a single lamp for light.

A sign hung above the bamboo gates. It read: “Pawnshop!”

The characters flickered in and out of view beneath the orange light of its solitary lamp, giving them an additional layer of mysteriousness.

“You can leave.” Su Yi dismounted the Blue Demon Bird.

“Your Excellency, thank you so much for sparing my life!” The Blue Demon Bird let out a long sigh, then instantly transformed back into a bald man. He bowed at Su Yi, then left in a hurry.

Meanwhile, Su Yi and Meng Changyun walked toward the distant Mountain of the River of Heaven.

“Young Lord, that guy didn’t really leave. It seems he’s watching from a safe distance and he’s hoping for a show,” Meng Changyun said suddenly.

“Ignore him,” Su Yi said distractedly.

It was true; the bald man really hadn’t left. He’d hidden himself in the distant mists, and he was watching Su Yi and Meng Changyun advance further away.

“The old Horned Dragon has always loved nothing more than hunting human cultivators, and here you are, delivering yourselves to his door. How is that any different from casting yourself into the net?” The bald man’s eyes flashed. “I’ll be interested to see whether or not you can leave the Mountain of the River of Heaven alive!”

Suddenly, a sense of danger and oppression arose within his heart, and he subconsciously pulled his neck in.

There, off in the distance, he saw a bony figure shooting toward the mountain through the mists.

He wore white hemp clothes and a tall hat. He carried a fluorescent green lantern, and he drifted as silently as a ghost.

The bald man gasped, and he felt a chill in his hands and feet.

Dark Monarch Liu Xiang!

He’d long since become one of the peak hegemons of the Dark Sea of Stars. Rumor had it that he devoured over a thousand souls a day. He was a living fossil amongst ghost cultivators!

Before the bald man could react, the ringing of gongs and beating of drums filled the air.

A procession appeared in the distant mists. Two yao cultivators walked at the forefront. One blew a conch, and the other beat a drum. Together, they played a valiant war song.

Eight beautiful servant girls walked behind them, carrying a blood-red palanquin.

For such a procession to appear amidst dense mists was extremely unsettling.

“Old Devil Three Eyes’ subordinates!” The bald man’s scalp went numb.

He recognized the man seated on the palanquin. This was unquestionably Old Devil Three Eyes, an old toad. His true body was an ancient variant species, the Mountain-Bearing Toad.

In the Dark Sea of Stars, they all called him Old Devil Three Eyes. His position and status were extraordinary, not one whit inferior to Dark Monarch Liu Xiang and the old Horned Dragon.

“What’s going on tonight? Two old monsters have shown up....” The bald man’s heart trembled.

He suddenly recalled the two human cultivators, and he promptly looked over, only to discover that there was no longer any trace of them.

“They surely sensed that something was amiss and hid themselves!” The bald man said to himself.

He’d only just thought this when someone patted him on the shoulder.

His body stiffened.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a slender, crystalline hand.

“Little baldy, what are you doing here? Aren’t you afraid the old Horned Dragon will eat you?” A gentle, sultry female voice rang out.

Goosebumps appeared all over the bald man’s skin, and a chill coursed down his spine. He dared not move recklessly. All he could do was stammer, “I... I...”

“Enough. No need to explain to me,” that soft voice rang out once more. “But you’d best be careful. The old Horned Dragon has a bad temper, and while I never eat other yao, he’s not so picky.”

Before her voice had even finished echoing through the air, her hand disappeared from the bald man’s shoulder.

A slender, graceful, delicate figure appeared before him, seemingly out of nowhere. She wore a black dress, and a waterfall of black hair fell down to her shoulders.

She carried a blood-red umbrella as she slowly faded into the distance.

The bald man was still ill at ease. He couldn’t help but wipe the sweat from his brow, and the blood had long since drained from his face.

He really was terrified.

The woman with the black dress and blood-red umbrella was one of the most terrifying people in the Dark Sea of Stars. They called her Madam Tumi.

No one knew where she’d come from.

But in the long years following her arrival, her strength, brutality, and cold-bloodedness were such that even the fiercest crooks of the Dark Sea of Stars paled at the mere mention of her name!

Rumor had it that she loved gathering the blood of cultivators to brew into wine.

The blessed grotto she lived in contained a hundred-thousand-foot wine cellar full to the brim with all types of blood wine.

She even had wine brewed from the blood of World Kings!

The bald man muttered to himself, “All three of these old monsters are here. I’m afraid... something big is going to happen tonight!”

Meanwhile, in the mists not far from the Mountain of the River of Heaven.

Su Yi and Meng Changyun stood there in silence.

Wisps of profound and inscrutable Dao Light enveloped the two of them completely, like an invisible curtain.

This was a secret art for hiding one’s presence.

Su Yi unleashed it through the Laws of Restricting the Profound, so there was no need to fear even Oneness cultivators seeing through them.

The two of them could see Dark Monarch Liu Xiang walking alone, lantern in hand, as well as Old Devil Three Eyes, his procession, and the woman with the blood umbrella.

When Meng Changyun saw her in particular, a chill coursed through his heart.

She had a beautiful, youthful face, but her eye sockets were hollow and weeping tears of blood, which dripped onto the lapels of her clothing.

It seemed she’d long since grown accustomed to his, as her expression was tranquil and leisurely.

The sight of her was enough to make one shudder.

“A ghost cultivator, a yao cultivator, and...” When Su Yi saw Madam Tumi arrive, he was stunned. After examining her closely, he reached a conclusion. “...and a corpse spirit.”

A corpse spirit!

When those of powerful cultivations had their souls destroyed, their fleshly bodies lived on. After countless years of transformations, their soulless bodies became corpse spirits.

But Madam Tumi was obviously no ordinary corpse spirit. Aside from lacking eyes, her fleshly body was almost perfectly intact.

Furthermore, her cultivation was extraordinarily mighty. She was in the mid-stage Oneness Realm!

“This place sure is full of miasma, with hordes of fiends running wild,” whispered Su Yi.

He watched as the three old monsters arrived at the foot of the Divine Mountain of the River of Heaven and entered the Pawnshop of the Heavens one by one.

Old Devil Three Eyes was particularly eye-catching, as he took on the form of a beautiful, elegant young man. He held a feather fan, and he seemed suave and romantic.

But there was an eerie blue vertical eye on his forehead.

“Come on, let’s go have a look.” Su Yi had no intention of hiding any longer. He was truly curious. Just what has happened to the Pawnshop of the Heavens?

With that, he and Meng Changyun proceeded into the pawnshop.

“Holy crap! Those two actually dared enter the pawnshop? Aren’t they afraid to die?” Off in the distance, the bald man was astonished. He found this difficult to believe.

......

Within the pawnshop, there was an old counter with an abacus, a bronze lamp, and a set of scales.

Behind the counter, there was a shelf piled high with all manner of goods.

The mottled lamplight left the rest of the pawnshop shrouded in darkness.

A dignified old man in dragon robes stood behind the counter.

When he saw Dark Monarch Liu Xiang, Old Devil Three Eyes, and Madam Tumi, he smiled. “How many Divine Spatial Crystals have you gathered this time?”

The gaunt Dark Monarch Liu Xiang was the first to approach the counter. He took out a spatial treasure and gently overturned it.

A pile of walnut-sized Spatial Divine Crystals poured out.

They were radiant, crystalline, and translucent. The mysterious Laws of Space surged within them.

“Thirty-eight in total. Please have a look, Brother Longriver.” Dark Monarch Liu Xiang subtly clasped his fist.

The old man in dragon robes was none other than Divine Monarch Longriver, a Horned Dragon who’d lived too many years to count.

“Your turn, little fellow.” The old man tapped the Scales of Judgment.

The scales quivered, and their counterweight swayed. The pile of crystals flew onto the tray.

A moment later, the beads of the Starry Abacus clattered.

Before long, the value of these Spatial Divine Crystals appeared on the abacus.

“Your turn, old pawnbroker.”

The old man in dragon robes turned to look at a shadowed corner of the pawnshop.

An elderly man crouched there, his face withered and frantic, and his eyes sunken.

This was none other than the old pawnbroker.

When he heard that, he looked up at the old man in dragon robes, his eyes blazing with entirely unconcealed resentment and hatred.

But in the end, he endured.

He silently rose, took three bronze boxes from the shelves, and placed them on a counter.

Then, without a single word, he returned to his shadowed corner.

The old man in dragon robes smiled, but thought nothing of it.

His gaze returned to Dark Monarch Liu Xiang. “Fellow Daoist, each of these three bronze boxes contains a treasure. They are, respectively, Fire-fused Phoenix Marrow, a Divine Fragrance Soul-Replenishing Leaf, and a hunk of Starspot Divine Iron. Choose whichever you like.”

Old Devil Three Eyes and Madam Tumi, who’d been watching from not far away, both looked impressed. Their eyes blazed with a hint of fervor.

This wasn’t their first time here.

But even now, they couldn’t even begin to imagine just how many unknown and wondrous treasures the pawnshop contained!