"Whoa!" Tianshi Ya yelped as Su Yi slaughtered an army of Ascended beings and their commanding Supreme Sage Incarnations with a single slash. The torrential wave of sword light had engulfed it, precisely and perfectly severing lives despite its gargantuan nature. The flawless execution of his sword art awed her heart. While she was rather indifferent regarding Su Yi's final fate, his strength was inspiring.
Shortly after, his calm actions and words generated a formless momentum of invincible confidence. It painted such a vivid picture of his unrivaled strength and peerless bearing as a Sage that an Avatar of a Superior Sage had retreated without any prior negotiations, accepting the loss from the attempt to wade through muddy waters in foreign lands. This was an unprecedented feat, the first time she'd witnessed such an overwhelming talent in her lifetime!
The extraordinary stories told by others did not do it justice. Unbeknownst to her, an anomaly far greater was closer.
Then, just after she thought Su Yi would bypass this tribulation from two external Superior Sages, Superior Sage Yanzi flipped in attitude. This was unexpected as she yelped again, this time in shock rather than awe.
Suo Haoran's brows furrowed and gradually deepened as he observed this sight, almost creating a dark valley in his facial expression. He could only utter the faintest of sighs, containing resignation and acceptance. Others were unaware, but at his cultivation base, few transmissions could evade his senses.
Another individual had thrown their lot into the ring, albeit that individual already had an investment: the Superior Sage that had interfered earlier during the conflict between Sovereign Vilesnow, Chu Xing, and Hong Xuannu. After Sovereign Littlefather had infiltrated the fiery zone of the remnant Incinerated Dominion, two Superior Sages had taken action, hindering each other in an invisible battle, restraining each other.
The Superior Sage that had acted second to halt the intervention of the first had sent a transmission. In truth, barely any attempt was made to conceal the act. Suo Haoran had observed the two Superior Sages in question. They were sitting together atop a mesa on a medium-sized planet, eating snacks and drinking tea while served by beautiful women and men.
They were two elderly men with greying hair, yet bright eyes that exuded boundless, vibrant life and the ancient vicissitudes of great age. One had blue robes, and the other was a light brown with dark grey mixed in. They were not fighting using their resonant qi. Instead, they had cards on the table made of spiritual jade that were either dull and cracked or shining with a resplendent glow.
"..." Suo Haoran wasn't surprised. In fact, he fully expected this result.
This was the Utmost Purity Galaxy's culture. The two Superior Sages were hosting an active game of Mystics!
Moreover, of the cards that were held in each of their possessions, only three out of the potential six remained glowing. By a brief analysis of the game, one could tell that one Superior Sage had played a card to interfere, and the other had retaliated by countering. Then, the other Superior Sage had played another card, likely influencing Superior Sage Yanzi to take action.
Disregarding their rules or variation, this method was the way the Utmost Purity Galaxy handled events such as this. The Knightly Dao Pavilion and its resulting calamity were the result of extensive manipulation and planning, all to drive a specific result by multiple parties.
As his gaze fell on the two, the brown and grey-robed Superior Sage noticed while drinking from an exquisite teacup, sipping and relishing the flavor while enjoying a shoulder massage by a starfield-tier peak beauty. With a faint lift of his lips, he asked: "Superior Suo, want to join us?"
Hearing this, the frowning and frustrated blue-robed Superior Sage that was observing the battle between Su Yi and Superior Sage Yanzi with great intensity coldly snorted, yet he wasn't against the introduction of a third party. Suo Haoran qualified to enter this game.
Suo Haoran respectfully refused with a silent smile. He didn't wish to involve himself with Su Yi, this great variable of a reincarnator.
"Fine," the brown and grey-robed figure said with a hearty chuckle, utterly carefree and relaxed. However, the blue-robed Superior Sage became increasingly vexed, looking at his two remaining cards with unsaid curses in his eyes as if he was blaming them for being useless.
"I wonder how the game between the Zeniths is going," the brown and grey-robed Superior Sage asked Suo Haoran with curiosity in his voice.
There was a 100% chance that the Zeniths had entered into a game of Mystics themselves, absolutely disrespecting the Seven Towers of the Heavenly Sages' members, treating them like pieces to be played, especially since they held deep disdain for those wannabe Heavenly Saint Alchemists.
There was no chance Su Yi could ever kill a Heavenly Saint Alchemist in this galaxy or any galaxy without the implicit approval of its rulers. In fact, they had subtly interfered earlier so that no Alchemic Soul Alchemist was involved with the foreign Superior Sages' recruitment efforts. All those who decided to participate against Su Yi in that operation as a humanoid giant were pure cultivators or non-alchemic soul alchemists.
If Su Yi even tried to kill an Alchemic Soul Worldly Saint, every single Dao Enforcer in the galaxy, including Suo Haoran, would have taken action in an instant. The Zenith Towers would have been activated immediately, suppressing him with a united exertion of Heavenly Force no less inferior to Wei Wuyin's experience, perhaps even greater.
However, those who decidedly threw their lives away were not protected. Not genuinely protected at least.
Su Yi was most likely aware of this fact.
Actually, Su Yi killing Sovereign Littlefather was certainly a part of their game's win or lose condition, tactfully allowed to happen, and they likely were dealing with the lives of Sovereign Darkmother as well, while restricting the range of Su Yi's activity to prevent rampant destruction.
At least, this was the grey and brown robed Superior Sage's thoughts on the topic. There was also a great chance that Yue Baoyue and Wei Wuyin's fates were involved as well in this game of Mystics.
Suo Haoran's silent smile remained. He didn't reply, but his silence implied the truth. Moreover, there was a good chance that Tianshi Zaoxuan currently held the advantage. The grey and brown robed Superior Sage chuckled in amusement, sipping his piping hot tea with great relish.
That said, each foreign Supreme Sage involved in Su Yi's bounty was fully aware of the habits of the Utmost Purity Galaxy. Even Wei Wuyin was keenly aware of this, basing the foundation of his plans on their cultural traditions ingrained within them, but his life-saving operation had directly involved himself in the game as a variable piece rather than a player, capable of affecting the outcome. That said, they wouldn't dare make him the main topic, especially given how difficult it was to determine his intent, which could and has been known to change unpredictably.
The hoopla of Tianshi Ya continued as she tugged at Suo Haoran's sleeve. She was gesticulating excitedly, bringing a joyful smile to Suo Haoran's face as he began to give her details of the fighting.
CLANG! Swoosh!!
Su Yi clashed with an amethyst sphere of resonant qi. A deluge of spiritual aura, soul light, and sword light splashed across the region. The sphere was viciously heavy and excessively mighty, darting at him continuously without rest. Despite the Sword of the Transient Realm's sharpness, enhanced by a fourth-level Nascent Sword Soul's Profound Sword Energy and his incomplete Void Sword Intent, which had shown far greater progress to fully form than before, Su Yi's arm trembled as his feet skidded across the Dark Void, creating a titanic wake of split stable space with each clash.
Superior Yanzi held nothing back as the pentagram amethyst crystal at his glabella was releasing star-rivaling levels of spiritual qi, and the resonant qi within his Avatar was expending at a noticeable rate. Each strike he unleashed carried the weight of condensed space of the entire region encompassing his array, drawing upon the entirety of every last iota of spatial energy within for his use.
This was his authority! The Authority of Space! He commanded the very laws of heaven, exerting unrivaled control over all things space.
Su Yi found himself under tremendous weight as all of space acted against him, unable to gain any advantage through his Resonating Soul Spatial Arts forcefully used via the True Breath of Heaven Revolution. Without a Microheaven, he was only able to tap into the smallest amount of heaven's power.
Every blow of Superior Yanzi carried the authority of the laws and the power of the heavens, emulating via true Resonant Qi of the Heavens. Su Yi was calm. His breathing was steady. The flow of his Mystic Power was smooth. Each swing of his sword was precisely calculated to defend or assault while simultaneously extracting him from the fetters of space again and again.
Boosh!
Su Yi spun a full three hundred and sixty degrees as he pressed his feet against space, generating a spiraling, explosive eruption beneath him that discombobulated all of space, reaching into the depths of all three dimensions, and then he used this momentary respite of freedom to execute his movement art, dodging the barreling amethyst sphere at the nick of time.
After dodging, he indifferently glanced at his non-sword-wielding arm—it hung lifelessly at the side. The bones were crushed into paste, and his meridians that allowed smooth and conducive spiritual connection were obliterated. If it wasn't for his strong muscles, his arm would look like a mangled bag of twisted paste.
While he had dodged the sphere, it had briefly grazed his arm, leading to this brutal result.
'Fighting against a Superior Sage isn't so easy, akin to fighting against the heavens.' Su Yi remarked as he accepted the excruciating pain without the slightest frown.
Su Yi's cultivation base of this generation could be considered unrivaled, yet similar to how Wei Wuyin struggled to deal with the principle properties of Mysticism, such as the invisible unfathomability as a mortal, the power of Resonant Qi, and a Minor Authority backed by Heavenly Force of a Microheaven was disgustingly powerful.
Despite being an Avatar, Superior Yanzi wielded a low-grade Mystic-Heaven Spiritualist Weapon—the Amethyst-Bound Spirit Orb—with exceptional control and power. It exuded a Spiritual Pressure that restricted his ability to leverage his Mystic Soul to use his own Minor Authority.
Su Yi had grasped the extraordinarily rare authority of time, yet the lingering anti-temporal dust within the region was preventing him from wielding its powers to contest. The double-layered restrictions, both actively and passively in effect, were limiting his options.
Generally speaking, only Heavenly Force or the Aura of Laws can resist Laws effectively. If not for the innate laws of metal and acceleration that existed within the Sword of the Transient Realm, he wouldn't be able to effectively clash with the Amethyst-Bound Spirit Orb. If his Void Sword Intent was complete, he would have the means to do so, but its incomplete state could only allow him to leverage the Void to shatter the bindings of space.
The invincible bearing he cultivated in the Mystic Ascendant Realm was extraordinary, yet without certain aspects of a higher cultivation base or unique trump cards, there would also be a gap in strength.
This was not a Mythical Punishment of pure strength, but the versatile means of a Supreme Sage.
But he was not without recourse; the resonant qi and limited soul energy within the Avatar were rapidly exhausting without any path for replenishment. It couldn't maintain the strength of a Microheaven Envoy Superior Sage for long, and the sight of its increasingly pallid complexion was evidence of this fact.
Whoosh!
Su Yi swung his sword, executing his Commanding Resonance Sword Art in a gargantuan wave of sword light. The surrounding space and authority imposed on it trembled violently, loosened, and the Amethyst-Bound Spirit Orb crashed against it. The resulting sound was deafening on a spiritual level.
Su Yi didn't retreat this time. He gathered his Mystic Power and blasted forward! Like a peerless sword divinity, he seized the opening.
Superior Yanzi squinted his eyes, trying to locate Su Yi's figure to launch another attack. Then, those eyes of his widened with shock. Su Yi created an opening, hiding himself within his sword light. He was covered in tiny lacerations, bleeding with shredded robes, and with a pair of cold eyes, he stabbed his sword at his chest.
The speed of this attack was faster than light. Su Yi wanted to end this Avatar's life!
Yet Superior Yanzi's shock gave way to a faint smile. He visibly relaxed as his figure faded into nothingness.
Su Yi didn't hesitate or second-guess his attack, piercing into the chest region where Superior Yanzi had been.
Updated first onBut his sword made no contact.
"It's too easy for me to enter the Void within my array, Sage Su. Your attacks can't reach me," Superior Yanzi's voice echoed out through all of space and time, seemingly coming from the past, present, and future. The voice induced a form of headache-inducing temporal dissonance.
Su Yi's left eye bled a trail of crimson at its edge. The blood was tainted with an insidious poison. His Temporal Eye grew cloudy, and his concept of time was on the verge of collapsing.
'They're working in tandem, leveraging both of their preparations. She may have withdrawn, but she's still invested in my fate.' Su Yi thought as he was unknowingly infected with the anti-temporal dust poison after drawing upon the strength of his Void Sword Intent to seize control over the ambient energies, including the time energies converted into sword energy, tracing back through his Spiritual Aura like a starving parasite.
Superior Yushi and Superior Yanzi had made extensive plans to act against him, likely acquiring access to his clash against the Mythical Punishment, and studied it extensively, creating decisive counters against his tactics and powers.
No wonder... Su Yi's heart remained steady in the face of these odds. With his hair fluttering about, he held the sword horizontally before him. "Do you think you can escape by hiding within the Void?" He asked rhetorically.
"I devised this move after experiencing Heaven-Saint Neo-Dawn's unique Void Shifting Art. I call it the Void Cycle Sword Art," Su Yi remarked as he gently swiped his sword across the Void horizontally, as if making a careful surgical incision into soft flesh.
"Wh-what? What di—" The Avatar's voice ceased abruptly.
Su Yi breathed out slowly, wisps of life, death, time, and sword energies swirling around his lips. Then, a somewhat round object emerged from the Void roughly two million miles away. It spun with widened, disbelieving eyes.
Superior Yanzi's head!
"You really exhausted some of my mystic power. Unfortunately, you're not the only one who can devise decisive counters." Su Yi remarked as his gaze lifted, staring straight at Superior Yushi, who was watching silently under concealment.
As they exchanged gazes, an eerily unfathomable scene unfolded before him, with the head. The head moved, vanishing back into the Void as flesh, blood, and bone were stripped away. Then, as if under a great regression of causality, Superior Yanzi's intact body appeared before Su Yi, starting as a skeleton, gaining blood, veins, arteries, and then muscles and sinew, before it completely materialized. Only now, a body-piercing sword wound that pierced his chest and exited out of his spine existed.
And then, a horizontal bloody line manifested across his neck. The severed neck erupted with a geyser of refined blood, scalding hot and explosive! The head traveled for two million miles while spiraling continuously, eyes wide with disbelief!
It halted perfectly in the exact location it had been before!!
Erdiul's Note: Yeah... Idk. I've tried to just not care and just read, but this Su Yi character is just incredibly boring. If I wanted to read about him, I'd just read an old school xianxia. Whatever, I guess.

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