Firmament Sword

Xu Luo gently stroked Su Qianqian’s long, smooth hair and said with a soft chuckle, ”Your Brother Huangfu and Brother Xu Jie... they’ve both ascended to godhood.”

”Godhood? What’s that? Can you eat it?” Su Qianqian’s voice was melodious. She looked at Xu Luo with an innocent expression, even sticking out her delicate, pink tongue to lick her lips and swallow. She looked incredibly cute.

”Well... if it’s a non-humanoid god, I suppose you could eat it?” Xu Luo replied with equal seriousness.

Standing to the side, Sophie couldn’t help but roll her eyes hard. ’This guy really is fearless,’ she thought. ’He doesn’t have the slightest bit of respect for the gods.’

However, Sophie’s gaze now turned toward the vast, distant horizon, a flicker of worry in the depths of her heart.

Sophie had a sensitive premonition about the words Huangfu Chongzhi and Xu Jie had spoken just before their ascension. ’That old undying bastard they mentioned... who could it be?’ she wondered silently.

A person’s intuition is usually accurate, especially a woman of considerable strength. Their intuition can be frighteningly precise!

Just as this ominous premonition surfaced in Sophie’s heart, a burst of arrogant, maniacal laughter echoed from the distant horizon.

”BWAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Little Fatty rubbed his eyes and said, ”Is this guy sick in the head? What’s so funny all of a sudden?”

”Xu Luo, you little whelp, do you see? Even the heavens want you dead!”

”If those two beside you hadn’t ascended and had stayed here, this old man would have truly had a headache. Newly-ascended Saints have such vigorous vitality... they aren’t easy to deal with.”

”But I never expected you to be so arrogant! Hahahaha, your insolence has sealed your fate!”

”Today, not only can this old man capture that little slut who fused with the Heart of the Fire Dragon, but I can also refine a reincarnated star—Beidou’s Eighth Star! Hahahahaha!”

A wizened voice cackled, sounding utterly delighted.

His laughter echoed throughout the entire world.

”Once you’re done laughing, get out here and die. If you’re not, then keep going,” Xu Luo said, his face expressionless and his voice cold.

”Junior, don’t be so impudent! You are no match for this old man. Surrender obediently, and you can spare yourself a great deal of physical suffering!” As the voice drew near, a figure slowly materialized from the void.

It was a short old man with a sharp-beaked, monkey-cheeked face and an incredibly ugly appearance.

The old man wore a tattered Daoist robe. The top of his head was nearly bald, with only a few sparse, yellowed strands of hair left around the sides, drooping like weeds.

A vicious glint flashed intermittently in his shifty, triangular eyes.

From a distance, or in the dark, one might even mistake him for a monkey.

After the ugly old man appeared, he wore a smug look on his face. He swept his gaze across Xu Luo and the others, his eyes finally landing on Sophie. He stuck out his tongue, licked his dry, dark lips, and cackled strangely, ”You’re Sophie?”

Sophie stared at the utterly hideous old man and snapped, ”What’s my name to you?”

”Little girl, quite the fiery temper. A bit like me...” the ugly old man said. Then, raising his nearly-bald eyebrow, he bellowed, ”I am your ancestor! Seeing me, why aren’t you kneeling and kowtowing?”

”Nonsense! Whose ancestor are you? Why should I kowtow to you?”

Sophie was instantly furious. It was just as she’d feared. But what she found most unacceptable was this: she, Sophie, was a peerless beauty of national renown. Even if her ancestor wasn’t some handsome, dragon-among-men prodigy, he should at least... at least be presentable, right?

How could it be this sharp-beaked, monkey-cheeked monstrosity before her? He looked like some monkey that had run down from a mountain... This person was her ancestor?

Little Fatty chimed in from the side, ”Exactly! You shameless old bastard! Why don’t you take a piss and look at your own reflection? Someone like you should go be an ancestor to monkeys...”

”Little Fatty, you dare insult me?” The ugly old man flew into a rage. Two terrifying beams of light, filled with countless mysterious runes, shot from his eyes directly at Little Fatty.

With a strange yelp, Little Fatty dodged to the side, shouting, ”Old bastard, Master Fatty must have hit a sore spot! I can tell from your reaction!”

The ugly old man hadn’t expected the fatty to dodge his gaze attack and grew even angrier. Just as he was about to strike again, Xu Luo flashed in front of him, blocking his way. He stared at the ugly old man and said, ”An old undying bastard who failed to reach the Great Saint Realm, your vitality decayed to its absolute limit. You took advantage of a time when the world’s laws allowed it, just to eke out a wretched existence in this Mortal World. Over these past years, in order to stay alive... you’ve eaten quite a few of your own descendants, haven’t you?”

”You can see through my origins?” The ugly old man was somewhat surprised, but then he sneered. ”So what if you can? As a Saint, would this old man fear a snot-nosed brat who hasn’t even reached the Saint Realm? So what if my vitality has decayed? Dealing with you... is child’s play! Eating my descendants... what does that have to do with you? They are the descendants this old man sired myself. It’s like the fruit from a great tree falling to the ground and turning into fertilizer to nourish the tree... it’s the same principle!”

”You... you really are... the Su Family Ancestor?” Sophie seemed to have realized something, her face turning pale. She stared at the utterly hideous old man in disbelief, simply unable to accept that such a shameless and vile old man could truly be her ancestor.

”What are you doubting? Of course I’m the Su Family Ancestor!” the ugly old man sneered, revealing a gap-toothed mouth. The few teeth he had left were stained beyond their original color. ”Did you think I was this ugly from the start? This is a Dao Injury! Do you even know what a Dao Injury is? Forget it... explaining it to a little doll like you would be pointless. You wouldn’t understand. Still, your aptitude isn’t bad. You’re barely worth eating.”

”What did you say? You... you want to eat me?” Sophie stared at the ugly old man in utter disbelief. She never could have imagined that such utterly shameless words would come from the mouth of her own ancestor.

The ugly old man spoke as if it were the most natural thing in the world. ”Yes. What’s wrong with eating you? You, your father, your father’s grandfather, your father’s grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather... you are all my descendants. Since you only exist because of me, isn’t it perfectly normal for me to eat you to replenish my vital essence and resist my Dao Injury?”

”How could you...” Sophie’s eyes were filled with shock. She truly couldn’t accept that her ancestor was this kind of person—selfish and cold to the absolute extreme.

”Why can’t I be this way? As my descendants, isn’t it normal to make some offerings to your old ancestor? I ensure the Su Family prospers for ten thousand generations, and the family line won’t be extinguished just because I consume some blood-food. What’s wrong with what I’m doing?” The ugly old man argued plausibly, a cunning glint in his eyes. He added smugly, ”In any case... today’s harvest is truly immense. It’s beyond my expectations, but I am very satisfied!”

”I’m not even afraid of experts who have advanced to the Saint Realm, let alone an old undying bastard like you whose vitality is depleted and is nothing but a pile of rotting flesh! A great harvest? Hehehe, I think so too! To be able to kill a piece of scum like you today, my harvest... is also great!” As Xu Luo spoke, his figure flickered, and he charged directly at the old man.

The old man let out a strange laugh as a world-shakingly powerful aura erupted from his body, suppressing the heavens and the earth. Even the tribulation clouds high above, which had just begun to disperse, rapidly gathered once more.

The old man had once been a peerless prodigy of his generation in the Su Family. It was only because the Power of Laws in the world was so strong back then that even those in the Saint Realm could not easily ascend to the Divine Domain.

In that era, the simplest way to enter the Divine Domain was to step into the Great Saint Realm!

However, throughout all of history in this world, there have been countless astonishing geniuses, but how many have ever been able to step into that realm?

Therefore, this Su Family Ancestor used a Secret Technique to seal himself away. Every hundred years, he had to consume blood-food. The best kind was his own direct descendants—young, powerful experts who were astonishingly talented and brimming with vitality!

Because only these most outstanding youths could provide him with the most abundant life force, allowing him to stave off death!

”I... I see now. So... the legends were all true!” Sophie muttered, looking utterly devastated. ”Every hundred years, one of the most outstanding direct-line disciples in the family disappears... The official story was always that they entered the ancestral lands for secluded cultivation. But after so many years, not a single one ever came out. Gradually, other rumors began to spread. The one that was hardest for anyone to believe... was that these people had actually died after having their vital essence drained by the Ancestor... To think, the story we were most unwilling to believe... and the most unable to accept... was actually the truth! As the Su Family Ancestor, how could you be so selfish?”

”Selfish? Hmph... you are the selfish ones! As I just said, without me, there would be no you! I am your ancestor! What does ’filial piety comes first’ mean? Did your elders not teach you?” the ugly old man demanded, glaring at Sophie with a furious expression.

Then, narrowing his eyes and sneering repeatedly, he engaged Xu Luo in battle. ”Junior, even if you are the reincarnation of a star, how could you possibly be my match?”

Xu Luo said nothing, using his supremely powerful physical body and his unparalleled footwork to entangle the ugly old man in close combat.

The sounds of fists and feet colliding rang out with a series of THUDS. The two had returned to the basics, forgoing flashy techniques of seemingly immense destructive power. This kind of close-quarters combat was, in fact, far more dangerous. The slightest mistake could lead to eternal damnation!

Sophie’s exquisite face was a mask of shock, disbelief, and fury. No one would want to believe their own ancestor could be such a vile monster.

Even Little Fatty, having heard everything up to this point, now basically understood what this old man had done to stay alive.

He couldn’t help but grit his teeth and curse, ”Even a vicious tiger won’t eat its own cubs, yet a beast like you exists in this world! Calling you a beast is an insult to the word ’beast’! You’re worse than an animal! No wonder you’re so ugly. You’re stinking from the inside out! They say one’s appearance is born from the heart. You’re hideous to the extreme, which just shows how evil your heart is... Hahaha, a Dao Injury? Bullshit Dao Injury! You ugly fiend, you’re just a pile of trash!”

The Su Family Ancestor was so enraged by Little Fatty’s scathing tirade that he shrieked with fury, but his mind remained completely unaffected. Every move he made carried a terrifying Dao rhythm that suppressed Xu Luo.

This suppression from a higher realm was difficult for the current Xu Luo to overcome, but it was exactly what he needed most!

Because Xu Luo needed to be tempered!

He would use this old man to hone his Martial Dao. He had to become stronger!