First Immortal of the Sword

The Precious Gem Workshop was located in a hidden realm within Evening Fog City.

It was the oldest of the three top black markets of the Immortal Realm, and its origins could be traced back to the Primeval Era.

It was an extraordinary place for the simple reason that here, you could find all manner of rare and precious treasures hard to find anywhere else.

Furthermore, they accumulated vast numbers of strange treasures from the Eastern Sea year-round. They were enormously enticing to experts of the Immortal Dao.

After Su Yi arrived, he stopped by a few of the larger trading companies, sold off the divine materials he had no use for, and acquired close to three hundred thousand absolute-grade Immortal Jades.

He then took a stroll through the Precious Gem Workshop.

He’d already asked around, and he knew that the Giant Whale Spirit Race’s auction was to be held tomorrow night.

Seats had long since sold out completely, but this was no problem for Su Yi. He paid three times the original price to acquire an admission ticket from a scalper.

“What do you want for this Five Aggregates Soul-Nourishing Wood?” asked Su Yi.

“I’ll give you three hundred.”

“Brother, who haggles like that? How is that any different from stealing?”

“Alright, I’ll just leave.”

“Argh, wait! Forget it. This old man will just sell at a bit of a loss. I’ll just consider it the cost of making a new friend!”

…Before long, Su Yi had acquired an extraordinarily high-quality piece of Five Aggregates Soul-Nourishing Wood.

He completely disregarded the vendor’s pained expression and kept hunting for treasures that caught this fancy.

Every vendor in the Precious Gem Workshop was a wily old timer, as crafty as a fox. Even though Su Yi was basically swimming in money, he didn’t want them to take him for a fatty lamp ripe for slaughter.

Take the old timer he’d just bought the Five Aggregates Soul-Nourishing Wood from. He’d asked for eight thousand immortal jades, a sky-high price. He might have said no haggling, but he clearly expected Su Yi to bring the price back down to earth.

Su Yi naturally wasn’t polite, either. He cut the price all the way down to three hundred immortal jades, just enough that the crafty old-timer wouldn’t suffer a loss, but not enough for him to make a killing, either.

Su Yi rather enjoyed this feeling.

There was no fighting and killing, and there were no elaborate schemes or intrigue, but he could still acquire treasures that appealed to him. It was satisfying and thoroughly relaxing.

From time to time, he found things others overlooked, buying extraordinary goods at low prices. That felt even better.

“I’ll have that piece of Divine Ember Iron.”

“I’ll give you three thousand immortal jades for those ten stalks of Nine-Leafed Bloodscale Vine.”

“What’s your asking price for this piece of Cloud Earth? If it’s reasonable, I’ll take it. If not, I’ll leave.”

Su Yi found one treasure after another. He was thoroughly satisfied with his harvest.

Some would be useful for repairing Lei Ze’s soul. A portion could help nourish the Tree of All Worlds.

Such treasures were occasionally seen in the outside world, but there was no way he’d be able to find so many in one place anywhere else.

This was the advantage of visiting the Precious Gem Workshop. Treasures from all over the world made their way here. There were goods to satisfy the needs of all different types of cultivators.

If you couldn’t find what you needed in the Precious Gem Workshop, you could visit the News Tree and hang a request from its branches.

If you recorded what you were after on the tree, along with a suitable reward, sellers would usually come looking for you.

Su Yi hung a request for goods for repairing the soul and growing immortal medicines, the higher the quality, the better. His reward was extremely enticing, too.

As soon as the offer went up, it drew an enormous amount of attention.

Numerous merchants and scalpers took action at once, spreading the word. They planned to seize this opportunity to profiteer and earn a pretty penny for their troubles.

This was the wondrous utility of the News Tree’s “wanted ads.”

So long as you offered sufficiently enticing rewards and conditions, you wouldn’t need to go to any trouble. Numerous people would rush at the chance to run around and spread the word on your behalf.

Everyone was out for profit, and all their racing and bustling was toward that end.

It had always been that way, even among immortals.

As night drew near, Su Yi returned to the News Tree. Numerous people had already gathered to exchange with him.

Alas, although most of the treasures they offered met Su Yi’s conditions, they weren’t particularly rare or precious. Only a tiny handful drew his attention, but Su Yi didn’t reject anything. He accepted them all and put them away.

Just as he was about to leave, a man in black rushed over and posted a wanted poster to the News Tree!

It had a portrait of a handsome, tall young man. Beneath it were a few lines of text that read: “Reports indicate that the wanted rogue cultivator, Su Yi, has entered the Little Spirit Province. Anyone who discovers his whereabouts and provides useful leads shall receive sixty thousand immortal jades as a reward!

“Anyone who reveals his exact hiding spot shall receive one million immortal jades as a reward!”

“Anyone who captures Su Yi alive shall receive three million immortal jades as a reward!”

This bounty was jointly issued by six top factions: the Church of the Pure One, the Church of Supreme Oneness, the Church of Divine Flame, the Church of the Exquisite Goddess, the Profound Blue Daoist Sect, and Qianyuan Sword House.

The crowd was immediately in uproar. The surrounding area exploded into a commotion of voices.

“Su Yi has come to the Little Spirit Province?”

“It seems that the six factions haven’t let up even after he rejected that duel!”

“What’s Su Yi doing in the Little Spirit Province anyway?”

“Has he perhaps sensed the danger and decided to flee into the Eastern Sea?”

“Why would you think that?”

“Everyone beneath the heavens knows that the Eastern Sea is an ideal place to seek refuge! Throughout the ages, countless people with no place left to go in the Immortal Realm have ventured into the Eastern Sea to hide.”

As the crowd debated, Su Yi’s brow furrowed. The portrait on the wanted poster was quite lifelike; it was an excellent likeness, and they nailed his personality, too. It was obviously the work of a master.

But the bounty was insultingly low.

Capturing me alive… is only worth three million immortal jades? The six sects sure are stingy!

Of course, Su Yi knew that the six sects didn’t really think a mere bounty would be enough to capture him. They were most likely only doing this to tell the world that Su YI was in the Little Spirit Province!

But it was strange. How did they know he was here?

Before Su Yi could figure it out, someone else dashed over and pasted yet another wanted poster on the tree.

It too had a portrait of Su Yi.

However, the accompanying text was completely different. “Three days ago, Su Yi appeared in the ruins of Bluewater Grotto and murdered over a thousand immortals of the Floating Mountain. If anyone can provide leads to his whereabouts, the Floating Mountain will agree to any request that’s within our power to grant!”

The Floating Mountain was behind this one!

When the crowd saw the second bounty, it boiled over, like a pot blowing off its lid.

“Isn’t Su Yi a bit too ferocious? How many prominent immortal factions has he provoked over the past few months? And now he’s gone and massacred experts of Floating Mountain too!”

“The ruins of Bluewater Grotto? What were Su Yi and the experts of the Floating Mountain doing there? Could it be that the rumors are true? Were they searching for the Kunwu Divine Tree?”

“This is big news! I’m certain Su Yi is in the Little Spirit Province! He might… even be in the Hidden Gem Workshop as we speak!”

“Why do you say that?”

“Stupid. The Giant Whale Spirit Race’s upcoming auction is the biggest, most eye-catching event in the entire Little Spirit Province. It’s drawn countless terrifying and mysterious experts. If Su Yi hears about the auction, he’ll probably want to participate too!”

…When Su Yi heard that, he was unwittingly dumbstruck. The speaker had no evidence for his claims whatsoever, but he was nonetheless right on the mark!

“Hah! If I were Su Yi, and if I saw those two bounties, I’d leave the Precious Gem Workshop as soon as possible. There’s no way I’d participate in the auction!”

“You’ve got it backward. Sometimes, the most dangerous places are actually the safest, and besides, everyone in the Immortal Realm knows that Su Yi has a heaven-defying cultivation base and balls of steel! Otherwise, how could he have single-handedly destroyed the Church of All Spirits? And how could he possibly dare to duke it out with those top factions?”

…The debate raged on.

Su Yi was already roughly certain that the Floating Mountain had told those six top immortal factions that he was in the Little Spirit Province.

In other words, the six factions and the Floating Mountain had joined forces to target him!

But the Floating Mountain was obviously keeping Divine Son Qing Xiao’s arrival tightly under wraps.

It seems that there’ll be no avoiding trouble when I venture into the Eastern Sea… Su Yi silently furrowed his brow.

But he wasn’t overly concerned.

The Eastern Sea was boundlessly vast, and further in, it was home to numerous as-of-yet unexplored mysterious grounds.

If Su Yi wanted to lie low, not even Wang Ye’s greatest enemies had any hope of finding him.

Suddenly, a voice drew Su Yi’s attention. “It seems that numerous people have already set their sights on Su Yi. That’s going to make it much harder for us to capture him.”

The speaker was an extraordinary-looking man in form-fitting, dark, warrior’s robes. His skin was fair, and he had unearthly and imposing, long, narrow phoenix eyes.

A hale and hearty old woman accompanied him. She was dressed strangely, with a string of fist-sized bone prayer beads hanging around her neck. She had a gray cloth bag on her back, and her triangular eyes were sunken, cold, and imposing.

When Su Yi looked over, the old woman immediately met his gaze.

She was like a poisonous snake looking for someone to devour. Even Su Yi felt a bit uncomfortable.

Fortunately, the moment soon passed. The old woman looked him up and down, then retracted her gaze.

The old woman said in a high-pitched, hoarse voice, “Young Leader, it’s too soon to say who will claim the ‘prized deer’ in the end.”

The man in ink-black warrior’s robes nodded. “That’s true. Come on, let’s go to the inn. If we can figure out the location of the ruins of the Dragon Palace at the auction…”

Before he finished his sentence, he and the elderly woman had disappeared into the distance.

Su Yi just stood there, entirely unmoving, just another forgettable face in the crowd.

But he could tell that a subtle, almost imperceptible strand of divine sense was silently hidden nearby.

And it was watching his every move!

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