Emperor’s Domination

“It’s too early for you.” He chuckled and stood up: “Let’s go.”

“You’re moving upstream, Young Noble?” She hurriedly asked.

“No, Sword Burial is vast and there are other places to be. A fun show is waiting.” He shook his head and started walking.

“What type of fun show?” She followed and asked.

“What is the most tempting thing about this place?” He glanced at her.

“The divine swords?” She blurted out before correcting herself: “No, the immortal sword.”

“Not quite the latter, but it’s still very tempting.” He said.

“A heavenly sword then?” She speculated, aware that something interesting to Li Qiye would shock all of Sword Continent.

The behemoths such as Sea Emperor and Nine-wheel Citadel were here already. A dao lord weapon might not warrant a full mobilization from them. The first thing that came to her mind was the missing Myriad Era.

“No need to guess blindly, just wait for the show.” He smiled.

She followed closely while brimming with curiosity.

***

Though Sword Burial had five domains, they weren’t layered perfectly. Some borders overlapped with multiple further out domains. This allowed cultivators to select a safe path.

Over the years, this path became well-studied, perfected, and most importantly, available to most.

Moreover, Sea Emperor and Nine-wheel’s legions have led the way. It became easier for people to know where to go.

Some deliberately ignored the potential swords at the river. They crossed it first to head for the second domain – Sword Abyss.

This place was a canyon that meandered around the inner regions of Sword Burial, deep enough to be described as bottomless just like the jaws of a great beast.

Upon closer inspection with a heavenly gaze, one could see flickering pulses, akin to spirits playing in the dark.

Unfortunately, the dark affinity was just too strong down there. The pulses were on the verge of extinguishing.

“Sword reflections.” Of course, cultivators knew what they were – divine swords.

Sword Abyss had another name – Wish Pond. The reason was very simple – one would just need to throw their swords down here.

If one sword managed to hit a divine sword, then the divine sword would fly up and become the reward. In the case of failure, they simply lost their abandoned swords.

The probability of success was rather low. As for jumping down there to get them? Others had this idea before. They never came back up again regardless of their cultivation prowess. Even dao lords stopped on top and didn’t dare to take the risk.

From another perspective, the abyss was actually quite safe as long as cultivators knew their limit. This made it a popular destination for the vagabonds and those from smaller sects.

They didn’t have enough power to take divine swords from the river or the grave. On the other hand, the abyss relied on luck and a willingness to throw away any sword, whether it be their favorite or some random ones.

“Clank! Clank! Clank!” There was a long line already of cultivators tossing swords down the abyss.

Just hitting the divine swords didn’t guarantee success. Nonetheless, the clanks gave them hope. Many came prepared; some brought thousands and thousands of worthless swords made from ordinary steel.

A few experts cared more about their status and threw down cultivation swords instead of mortal swords. There were some who threw down precious swords as well.

The most popular strategy seemed to be making it a number game – throw down as many swords as possible and hope for the best.

Since most tossed swords were worthless, trading a million of them for one divine sword was more than worth it.

Therefore, some sects mobilized numerous disciples. The smaller sects had everyone ranging from the ordinary disciples to the sect masters arriving.

The person currently in the front of the line was a top cultivator. He activated his heavenly gaze and spotted the flashing lights. He locked onto them and threw out more than a thousand swords at the same time. Loud clanks could be heard akin to pearls accidentally falling on the ground.

Alas, nothing reacted and he left with a wry smile.

One younger cultivator showed respect and bowed his head towards the abyss with his palms placed together. He seemed to be praying: “Venerable ancestors and spirits, please guide me…”

Another focused on a single divine sword, throwing all of his swords in one direction…

***

“Sigh, nothing after 36,000 iron swords.” One attempter became disappointed after tossing out the last one.

“Lucky, I brought more than 80,000 swords.” The next attempter saw this and remained optimistic. He tossed them down in a particular order as if he had gotten hold of the rules here.

“That’s nothing, brat.” An old man nearby said: “The last time this place showed up, our ancestor led three thousand disciples here and a total of 90,000,000 swords. We returned empty-handed after wasting all of our resources on those swords. It wasn’t nice being poor for a long time afterward.”

***

Of course, there were happy stories. One cultivator prostrated and performed a full kowtow rite; his sincerity nearly moved some to tears.

“Clank!” He used all of his might to throw a sword forward.

“Whoosh!” Suddenly, a meteoric ray accompanied by a phoenix screech rushed upward. A fiery sword landed in his palm.

The crowd was amazed because he only needed one attempt to obtain a divine sword.