First Immortal of the Sword

Chapter 2035 – With a Heart Full of Youthful Ambition, He Pursues the Sword to His Last Breath

The fifth divine chain shattered, inch by inch, then transformed into a rain of light, outlining Li Fuyou’s figure.

“I’ve been waiting for this day for a long, long time,” said Li Fuyou.

“Me too,” Su Yi said with a smile.

“Aside from my pursuit of the sword, I’d describe my life as dull and tedious,” said Li Fuyou, his eyes perfectly clear. “I was so infatuated with the sword that I let it blind me to all else. Perhaps that’s why I couldn’t advance beyond the Undying Realm Master God level.”

Su Yi couldn’t help but find this surprising. “Are you saying your mentality limited your pursuit of the Dao?”

“Exactly.” Li Fuyou nodded. “All I saw was the Dao of the Sword. I disregarded all else. This wasn’t at all advantageous for my cultivation.

“All rivers flow to the sea. Similarly, cultivators must accumulate an ocean of insight from diverse sources and experience the ups and downs of worldly affairs before they can grasp the secrets of the alternations of the heavens in all their facets.

“The same is true of human emotion and desire. If you’ve experienced neither love nor hatred, how can you temper a sword of wisdom sufficient to sever the ties of affection?

“If all that remains in your life is the Dao of the Sword, it’s all too easy to get hung up on the tiniest of details, overlooking the big picture.

“But the main problem is that my swordsmanship… only had room for my madness and obsessions. It couldn’t contain the myriad Daos of the heavens.”

Here, Li Fuyou looked at Su Yi. “When the Dao of the Sword is cultivated to the limit, it can encompass all Daos beneath the heavens and cast aside all distinctions of loftiness and humbleness, without regard for strength or weakness.

“Your vision will encompass both the enormity of celestial bodies in all their radiance and the subtleties of even the smallest grain of sand. You’ll appreciate the beauty of every tree and blade of grass.

“All Daos that exist in this world, be they great or small, contain their own profundities.

“That’s true for worldly affairs in all their facets, the teeming masses, the gods above, and the humblest of ants crawling in the dirt, too.

“In other words, your heart must encompass the ages, and your Dao must contain the heavens. It’s only with this breadth of spirit that you can achieve a Dao of the Sword unsurpassed in any place and any era!”

Su Yi thought of Li Fuyou as a cold, indifferent man of few words, but now, the words flowed out of him. He laid his inadequacies out in the open, and described the true, unsurpassed Dao of the Sword in almost a single breath.

There was no doubt about it. These heartfelt words had been building in Li Fuyou’s heart for a long, long time now!

Su Yi took a moment to chew on Li Fuyou’s words before asking, “Did you realize this when you fell at the gods’ hands?”

“I understood it before then, but time was not on my side. Just as I was about to attempt to rebuild my Dao of the Sword, the grand battle that cost me my life began,” Li Fuyou said calmly. “Losing to them didn’t matter. It just proves that I wasn’t strong enough.”

“….” Su Yi didn’t know what to say. My fifth incarnation sure is modest…. How would the enemies who viewed him with such dread feel if they heard this?

“In the course of worldly affairs, you must extrapolate and comprehend by analogy. The same is true of the Dao of the Sword. After fusing with my Dao Imprint, do not get stuck in my ways or follow in my footsteps. I hope that you can surpass me to achieve a true, unparalleled Path of Divinity,” Li Fuyou said solemnly.

Su Yi nodded. “In this lifetime’s cultivation, I compete with myself. I’ve surpassed one past incarnation after another. I’ll learn from you and your experiences, but I won’t become you.”

Li Fuyou looked gratified. “Those who learn from me flourish, while those who imitate me perish.”

With that, he turned and gestured to the fourth divine chain on the Sword of the Nine Hells. “That belongs to our fourth incarnation. His name was Yi Daoxuan, and in the God Domain, they’ve cursed him throughout the ages. They call him the greatest villain in the God Domain’s history.

“His enmities involve the God Domain’s most ancient ‘struggle of the orthodoxies.’”

Su Yi was instantly stunned. Yi Daoxuan… a man cursed throughout the ages? The greatest villain in the God Domain’s history??

He’s my fourth incarnation?

Su Yi took a moment to calm himself, then said, “He wasn’t really an irredeemable villain, right?”

“Right,” said Li Fuyou. “History is written by the victors. When he lost the ‘struggle of the orthodoxies,’ those who defeated him wrote all existing records of him. The ignorant masses naturally don’t understand that.

“Later, when you proceed to the God Domain and hear tales of your fourth incarnation, don’t let the ancient rumors circulating deceive you.”

Su Yi nodded.

Li Fuyou had nothing else to say, so he transformed into a rain of light and fused into Su Yi’s soul.

Boom!

A disorganized flood of memories surged into Su Yi’s consciousness. All of Li Fuyou’s experiences and knowledge fused into Su Yi’s source energies, like snowmelt fusing into a river. Soon, they were part of him.

Ultimately, he and Li Fuyou were the same person. The only difference was that they’d lived different lifetimes.

……

Li Fuyou’s life really was full of legendary flair.

He was born in the remote countryside, and his parents were farmers. They were poor, but not so poor that they went hungry, and at new years, they always managed to put together a sumptuous meal and buy a little new clothing.

His parents were simple, honest folk. They knew nothing of grand or mysterious truths.

But they always gave their son the best.

Once, when he was little, Li Fuyou happened upon a wandering swordsman. The sight instilled him with longing. He too wanted to wander beneath the heavens, sword by his side.

It was then that the seeds of his fixation with the sword took root in Li Fuyou’s heart.

Later, while still a young man, he bade his parents farewell, set off in search of a master, and began searching for his own unique path of the sword.

Alas, he was born in a mundane nation with only a handful of mortal martial artists. They knew nothing of cultivation.

Li Fuyou began his pursuit of the sword in his youth, but even as he grew older, he failed to realize his ambitions.

Soon, thirty years had passed.

When Li Fuyou returned home, his parents were already elderly and infirm.

He’d been gone for thirty years, but he’d accomplished nothing. Li Fuyou was demoralized, and he chose to remain by his parents’ side and follow in his father’s footsteps and work the fields as he had.

Several years later, his parents passed from old age. Both died peacefully in their sleep.

When Li Fuyou went through his father’s belongings, he discovered an iron sword and a sealed letter.

Its contents were simple. When Li Fuyou was young, his father understood that his son longed to become a wandering swordsman and learn true swordsmanship.

Alas, his father was but a humble farmer. There was little he could do for his son.

His father had always lamented this.

After Li Fuyou left home, his parents scrimped and saved. Finally, they’d accumulated enough wealth to visit a blacksmith and commission him to forge a sword for Li Fuyou.

Unfortunately, after Li Fuyou left, he didn’t return for thirty years, and there was no word from him during his long absence.

When he did return, the sword was long since covered in rust. Moreover, Li Fuyou had spent thirty years exploring, only to achieve none of his grand ambitions. When his father realized this, he hid the iron sword.

As if…. He were hiding an unrealized, abruptly severed dream.

When Li Fuyou saw the sword and learned the truth, he was overcome with grief, and he wept bitterly.

He spent three years in mourning for his parents, then sold their fields, and left the village with the sword his father had given him.

In the years that followed, he lived in the wilderness and slept beneath the stars, an aimless, rootless wanderer. He experienced the bitterness and adversity of worldly affairs, and the warmth and coldness of human life.

He never abandoned the dreams of his youth. He continuously sought his own path of the sword.

Even after becoming an old man, he’d only learned a few coarse, unseemly, superficial sword techniques, and he’d yet to even cross the threshold of cultivation.

All mortal men must age and die. Li Fuyou was no exception.

Finally, his body weakened to the point that he could barely walk. When he looked back on his life, it all seemed empty, like flowers reflected in a mirror or the moon reflected in a lake. He couldn’t help but grieve.

But…

Whenever he looked at the rusted sword his father had given him, an invisible power revitalized him.

Even if he progressed slowly, he’d spend his whole life in pursuit of the sword. He wouldn’t rest until he was dead!

Finally, Li Fuyou grew so old that he could no longer move. He collapsed on the ground in a cave near the shoreline, hugged his iron sword to his chest, and gazed at the stars reflected on the surface of the ocean.

When he thought back to his life, he realized that he no longer had any regrets.

He’d existed in this world. He’d never realized the dreams of his youth, but he’d spent his whole life striving for them.

It was enough.

On that day, after a lifetime of wandering and unwavering determination, just as Li Fuyou was about to reach the end of his longevity, he… gained enlightenment.

The Sword of the Nine Hells had lain dormant in his soul all this time, but in his last moments, his heart resonated with the sword, awakening it.

A transformation followed, like a phoenix reborn in flame.

On that night, when the dark skies were dotted with stars, and their light shone upon the open ocean, Li Fuyou achieved enlightenment and crossed the threshold of the path of cultivation!

This was the greatest turning point in Li Fuyou’s life and a new beginning in his pursuit of the Grand Dao!

Prior to that day, he lived a life full of hardships and obstacles, and he experienced the bitterness of wind, rain, and frost. The Sword of the Nine Hells had changed his fate, but it would have been more apt to say that his unwavering determination earned him an opportunity to step onto the path of a true sword cultivator.

The world had gained a new, legendary sword cultivator, and he soared through the ranks of the Grand Dao, rising to prominence to create a dazzling legend all his own.

He became the most mysterious and transcendent sword cultivator in the Immortal Realm, the man its experts revered as Sky Venerate Spiritual Desolation. Later, he became the Swordmaster of Spiritual Desolation, a man even the gods feared. He made friends with Master Gods, and they respectfully addressed him as “Daoist Brother.”

Unlike other people, Li Fuyou wholeheartedly loved the Dao of the Sword. He was completely infatuated with it, and he fought purely to strive for greater heights of swordsmanship and grasp its true, supreme mysteries.

Authority? Domination? Fame? Accomplishments? He never cared about any of that, nor did he care about love or enmity. He was focused purely on his Dao of the Sword.

The dreams of his youth were hidden in the rusted sword his father had given him, and he kept the sword with him at all times. It was there as he rose to prominence in the Immortal Realm, and he took it with him when he ventured into the River of Epochs, and later, to the God Domain…

And it was with him when the gods killed him.

Li Fuyou said that, aside from his pursuit of the Dao of the Sword, his life was tedious and dull.

But after fusing with his Dao Imprint and re-experiencing his legendary path to prominence, a long time passed before Su Yi managed to calm down.

Li Fuyou’s legendary accomplishments and unparalleled feats weren’t overly impressive to Su Yi. What really impressed him was that even before stepping onto the path of cultivation, Li Fuyou, then an ordinary mortal, had managed to pursue the Dao of the Sword to his last breath!

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