First Immortal of the Sword
Chapter 2210 - Saving Someone, Fishing, and a Trap

Chapter 2210 - Saving Someone, Fishing, and a Trap

Heaven and earth were in turmoil. Shocking destructive power ran rampant.

As Su Yi walked along, he occasionally saw gods scampering away in panic.

These were experts of top orthodoxies. They’d ventured into the Barren Mountains of Divine Calamity in search of Luo Qingdi just as Su Yi had.

Yet now, this grand battle had sent these gods fleeing with all their might.

Kaboom!

Lightning flashed overhead, and arcs of lightning shot through the sky.

This was the aftershock of the Master Gods’ fierce battle. It swept outward, crushing one mountain after another.

There was no counting how many of the beasts inhabiting the mountain died brutal deaths.

Even some of the fleeing gods suffered the aftershock. Some were badly injured, while some died brutally on the spot!

Su Yi disregarded all that. He shifted through space, drawing continuously closer to the battlefield. It was only as he drew closer that he grasped just how enormous the tree was.

It was like a towering mountain connecting heaven and earth. Its tens of thousands of branches danced madly about, as if drawing upon the river of stars. Its power was terrifying to the extreme.

A tree that’s comparable, at the bare minimum, to a Nine-Tribulation Master God!? Su Yi was inwardly quite startled. Who could have imagined that such a terrifying lifeform dwelled deep within the Barren Mountains of Divine Calamity?

No, that’s not right! Su Yi suddenly furrowed his brow. He’d just noticed the surging spacetime power behind the enormous tree. A bone altar hovered near that spacetime power.

Su Yi instantly realized that the tree wasn’t of this era!

The bone altar it protected was, in truth, a spacetime forbidden ground. It represented a spacetime node!

It was just like the run-down temple in the barren black plains. The only difference was that this time, it was a mysterious tree guarding the altar instead.

Hong Taiyu was right. There are indeed at least two more spacetime nodes in these mountains. The bone altar the tree is protecting is one of them, thought Su Yi.

He was starting to understand what must have happened. Someone had inadvertently drawn close to the bone altar, then tried to call for aid. The Master Gods had rushed over to save them.

But then, there was no avoiding a grand battle with the mysterious tree watching over the altar!

In other words, the experts searching for Luo Qingdi had inadvertently provoked the tree’s ire.

This was what they meant when they said that life was unpredictable and that no plan could account for everything.

If Luo Qingdi is hidden in these mountains, I’m afraid the battle has already startled him. It’s just, where exactly is he hiding? Su Yi wondered

But then, he realized that something was amiss. His brow furrowed. If the Master Gods are here for Luo Qingdi, why bother fighting that tree?

A full ten or so Master Gods were attacking the tree. Even the weakest was a Five-Tribulation Master God, while the strongest were several Eight-Tribulation Master Gods!

All of them were working together to fight the tree, but despite their joint efforts, they weren’t at all at an advantage. On the contrary, the weaker Master Gods were already piling on injuries.

After all, the tree had the strength to face even a Nine-Tribulation Master God!

If not for its need to protect the white bone altar, and by extension, its inability to leave, the tree could have crushed the Master Gods a long time ago.

Su Yi silently came to a halt, gazed at the battle raging in the distance, and sank into thought. He was increasingly certain that something wasn’t quite right here!

Suddenly, an infuriated roar rang out. “Dammit!”

Su Yi’s pupils constricted. He’d just caught sight of a familiar figure in dire straits. One of the tree’s branches had broken his defenses, sending him flying and practically tearing him open.

That was none other than High Elder Rong Yue of Qingwu Divine Court!

He was a smooth-faced, gray-haired, short old man. Huang Changting had brought Su Yi and the others to greet him and High Elder Li Shanming before they entered the mountains.

Su Yi had a deep impression of Li Shanming; the high elder obviously had it out for him.

Rong Yue’s attitude toward him, meanwhile, was merely lukewarm.

Bang!!

Rong Yue’s blood-covered figure slammed into a distant mountain. Perhaps due to the severity of his wounds, he couldn’t get back up.

He wasn’t at all far from Su Yi.

Su Yi hesitated. Should I finish him off?

But he quickly rejected the idea. If he did, the other Master Gods would notice immediately. That would inevitably reveal his identity, and he could forget about lying low in Qingwu Divine Court any longer.

Another possibility suddenly occurred to him. Well... I guess trading the old-timer’s life for a supreme merit point isn’t bad either.

If he wanted to rise through the sect’s ranks, the fastest method was to achieve a feat of supreme merit.

The way Su Yi saw it, he could seize this opportunity to lend Rong Yue a hand. The sect would, at the very least, give him a supreme merit point for it!

Having made his decision, Su Yi immediately snuck over.

He was close to the battlefield, and the aftershock of battle raged throughout the surrounding area.

A battle of Master Gods was so terrifying that ordinary gods simply didn’t dare to approach.

When Rong Yue saw Su Yi approach, he couldn’t help but frown. “Xiao Jian, what are you doing here?”

He was so badly injured that his body was on the verge of splitting open, and he was completely covered in blood. He looked utterly wretched.

Wisps of strange, wriggling, golden power swarmed around his wounds, digging into his flesh and unleashing terrifying destructive power. They were corroding his vitality.

Even though Rong Yue did his utmost to neutralize their effects, he couldn’t stop his wounds from worsening.

That strange golden power of the Laws originated from that divine tree!

Rong Yue was in an extremely dangerous situation, and he could no longer fight whatsoever.

“High Elder, this disciple was in the area earlier. I planned to flee, but when I saw you fighting for your life, I remained behind,” said Su Yi, casually coming up with a lie. He walked over to Rong Yue and said, “High Elder, I’ll get you out of here!”

Rong Yue couldn’t help but feel moved. “Good boy! Even in a moment of peril, you didn’t forget to come back and save this lofty one. Not bad! Truly not bad!”

He really was moved. Just now, he’d been on the brink of certain doom, and he’d given in to despair. He didn’t think he’d ever leave this place alive.

Who could have imagined that in his moment of need, the young Xiao Jian would show up?

“How could this disciple possibly remain a bystander when you were in trouble, High Elder?” said Su Yi.

As he spoke, he took out a treasure ship, placed Rong Yue on board, then steered it into the distance.

Boom!

The aftershock of the battle swept out like a windstorm, sending the treasure ship flying and almost shattering it.

Su Yi let out a muffled grunt.

Rong Yue looked stricken. “Xiao Jian, are you alright?”

Blood was flowing from the corner of Su Yi’s mouth, and his face was deathly pale.

“I’m fine,” said Su Yi. He took a deep breath, then steered the treasure ship with all his might.

All of this was, of course, an act.

He was only in the Creation Realm, so he couldn’t come across as too powerful. Otherwise, a Master God like Rong Yue was sure to realize that something strange was afoot.

It was indeed a perilous journey. The aftershock of the battle was just too terrifying, and it battered the treasure ship like raging tidal waves. It seemed the ship might capsize at any moment.

Just watching it made Rong Yue break out in cold sweats. His heart was on tenterhooks.

Fortunately, in the end, they managed to escape the aftershock of the battle, startled but unharmed.

Rong Yue sighed in relief. He could finally relax.

But when he sensed his rapidly worsening injuries, a bleak, bitter look appeared on his face.

“High Elder, don’t tell me that tree is actually our target for this mission?” Su Yi asked suddenly.

“It isn’t,” sighed Rong Yue. “At this point, there’s no further need to hide it from you. The various top factions didn’t really join forces to hunt down Su Yi’s guardian.”

Su Yi was stunned. “They didn’t?”

“That’s right! This is actually a trap targeting that criminal, Su Yi!” explained Rong Yue. “On the surface, we’re trying to arrest his Dao protector, but that’s actually just bait. Our real purpose is to lure Su Yi into the Barren Mountains of Divine Calamity.”

“Oh,” said Su Yi. “So that’s it.”

Waves of emotion coursed through his heart. He finally realized what was amiss about this whole thing.

He’d almost fallen for it, too. He’d really believed that his enemies had chased Luo Qingdi into the mountains. In truth, the Southern Flame Divine Continent’s top factions were just working together to set a trap for him!

Luo Qingdi was just bait!

When Su Yi realized this, he couldn’t help but celebrate that he’d come here under the guise of a member of Qingwu Divine Court. No one would find his presence here at all suspicious.

Were that not the case, he really might well have fallen into their trap!

But Su Yi couldn’t manage to be happy about this. He’d thought he’d be able to reunite with Luo Qingdi, but now... it seemed that obviously wouldn’t be possible.

“As you know, a few months ago, Su Yi infiltrated the Southern Flame Divine Continent. There’s been no trace of him since,” said Rong Yue. “Thus, the continent’s top factions decided to join forces and set a trap for him. We’re trying to capture him here in the Barren Mountains of Divine Calamity.

“None of us could have anticipated that something would go wrong before Su Yi revealed himself.”

“Are you talking about that divine tree, High Elder?” asked Su Yi.

“That’s right.” Rong Yue’s eyes filled with deep-seated dread. “That tree is a terrifying existence not of this era. The bone altar it’s protecting is actually a spacetime node!!

“When the Dark Days of Legend arrive, the faction behind the divine tree will pass through the altar to arrive in the present day!”

His brow was fraught with worry.

“But High Elder, if the tree is that powerful, why were all of you fighting it?” asked Su Yi. “After all, it’s not the target of our mission.”

“Simple: none of us anticipated this development, but it happened, so we had to adapt on the fly. We knew the battle would cause a disturbance, so we hoped to use that to lure Su Yi in,” said Rong Yue. “We wanted Su Yi to think we’d already found his Dao protector. Then, he’d naturally fall into our trap.”

Inwardly, Su Yi couldn’t help but gasp. Just as I thought. None of these old-timers are easy to deal with!

This had been a close call. Had he continued to believe that Luo Qingdi was somewhere in the mountains, he’d have kept investigating, and these old-timers would have seen through him the moment he did something out of character!