When I break through and become a fifth-level Grandmaster, will the Sword of the Nine Hells resonate again? As he pondered, Su Yi couldn’t help but wonder.

As he pondered, Su Yi couldn’t help but feel curious. Upon reaching the fifth-level Grandmaster Realm, he could condense Five-Colored Spiritual Radiance, the five aggregates. This made his organs into elemental furnaces. When they circulated as one, it would trigger a metamorphosis from within, extending to his cultivation, soul, and physique!

Su Yi decided to go ahead and try it. He removed his hand from the ancient sword, Silversnow, got up, and sat cross-legged on the bed.

Whoosh~! When he circulated his cultivation, the inside of his body was like a vast river. The sound of a raging current emanated from within as overflowing true essence flowed through him, reaching every last nook and cranny. It washed his acupoints and meridians, and repeatedly tempered his innards. Then, it re-entered circulation, forming a complete cycle…

His skin shone as four colors—the dazzling radiance of wood, gold, fire, and water elemental Dao Light—lit up. Soon, Su Yi was bathed in an ethereal, seemingly holy aura.

Time slipped by.

Over the next three days, Su Yi didn’t take so much as a single step outside. He just sat there cross-legged, like a mud statue. He only moved to occasionally swallow another Nine Apertures Dragon Tiger Pill.

Late at night on the third day…

Rumble~! Boom!

Sounds reminiscent of wind and lightning, or alternatively, clashing mountains, emanated from within Su Yi’s body. The booming of his vital energy alone was enough to shake the spirit and seize the soul; it would have astonished anyone who heard it.

His power and essence were like floodwaters breaking through a dam as both surged toward his spleen furnace.

Once he got started, he forged straight ahead, like an axe through bamboo.

Bam!

Su Yi’s cross-legged figure shook. It was as if someone had excavated a hole through an invisible wall; his power burst forth like an avalanche or tidal wave. His blood and qi churned, his vitality aflame as the overflowing power of his cultivation circulated between his innards, linking them with the power of his physique and resonating with his soul. The power flowed both in and outside his body, forming a perfect, uninterrupted cycle

Whoosh! Above him, a streak of vast, yellow, earth elemental Dao Light surged into the heavens. In the blink of an eye, it reached eight thousand feet in altitude.  

Earth elemental Dao Light!

Su Yi’s cultivation then forged valiantly ahead, directly breaking through the final obstacle in its path as he stepped into the fifth-level Grandmaster Realm!

Whoosh! 

His qi rose like waters at high tide, rapidly climbing to greater heights. The green light of the wood element, the white light of metal, the black light of water, and the red light of fire soared eight thousand feet into the air as well, resonating with the yellow light of earth.

In the end, all five Spiritual Dao Lights surged as one, growing from eight thousand feet to ten thousand.

The Spiritual Radiance of the Five Aggregates fused, as perfect as a complete circle!

“Ten-thousand-foot Spiritual Dao Light? Throughout the long history of the Nine Provinces of the Wilds, no one has ever achieved this…” Pride welled within Su Yi’s heart.

He thought back to when he instructed his youngest disciple, Qing Tang, in her cultivation. Even with her shocking talent, at the end of the Inner Furnace Realm, she’d only managed eight-thousand-foot five-colored Spiritual Radiance. 

Now, in his new incarnation, he’d achieved unprecedented success in the Inner Furnace Realm creating a miracle!

It was then that the obscure, ethereal hum of a sword reverberated within Su Yi’s mental sea.

The blade wrapped in Nine-Layered Divine Chains, the Sword of the Nine Hells, emanated a strange and mysterious power, which surged into Su Yi’s body.

The change was subtle and miraculous, but Su Yi’s keen senses picked up on it. He instantly realized that, although he’d already undergone metamorphosis to enter the fifth-level Grandmaster Realm, his foundations in the Grand Dao were now undergoing yet another shocking transformation.

The five colors of Spiritual Dao Light fused into each other. Shockingly, they became one, transforming into a translucent and ethereal clear. They were as clear as jade, with a misty quality, as innocent as a child, yet with an almost holy majesty!

“Five elements fuse into one, becoming clear, with childlike purity, an ethereal quality, and a misty presence! This… Don't tell me that this is what true perfection in the Inner Furnace Realm looks like?” This miraculous, unbelievable transformation shocked even Su Yi.

Tempering the spiritual light of the five aggregates was impressive enough; even in the Nine Provinces of the Wilds, it was almost unprecedented. 

However, the strange resonance produced by the Sword of the Nine Hells caused the five-colored spiritual radiance to undergo a complete melding! Even with the knowledge and experience of his past life, Su Yi had never even heard of something like this!

Following this, Su Yi sensed the true essence within him transform. It, too, was now a translucent clear. It looked misty and ethereal, but its power was thick and concentrated to the extreme, vast beyond limit, yet innocent as a child!

A metamorphosis like this was unquestionably shocking. A long time passed before the changes silently came to a stop and the rumbling of Su Yi’s energy gradually stilled.

He silently opened his eyes, his gaze deep and tranquil. His aura had a new, ethereal charm to it.

“It’s just as I thought; every time my cultivation undergoes a qualitative breakthrough, it will resonate with the power of the Sword of the Nine Hells, sublimating my foundations in the Grand Dao!” Su Yi’s eyes flashed like stars, and a faint hint of a smile tugged at his lips.

Inside, he felt immense satisfaction. This sense of accomplishment was blissful beyond description.

By comparison, the pleasures of the world seemed tedious and bland.

Whoosh!

Su Yi’s divine sense spread out, covering all of Pinewind Villa in an instant.

Every needle on every towering pine, the dust motes hovering in the air, the light of the moon and stars, the rustling and music of the insects, the subtle traces of shifting air currents… It was as if all of it were right in front of him, displayed in full detail.

Fang Yuan was fast asleep in another wing of the villa. Su Yi could sense every change in his energy, down to his breathing’s effect on the airflow. 

As his divine sense spread, it instantly stretched over a thousand feet. He could clearly sense every movement in Peach Glyph Alley. It was only after its range extended to two thousand feet that Su Yi started to feel like he was pushing himself. 

Su Yi withdrew his divine sense and flicked his fingertip.

Kcch!

A streak of clear sword qi shot forth, filling the room with light. The sword qi almost seemed to breathe. It was fleeting and ethereal, and it flowed with the profound charm of the Dao.

Su Yi stared intently after it for a while, then thought to himself, The power of my sword qi is far greater than when I was a fourth-level Grandmaster. It hasn’t just doubled; the difference is like the gap between heaven and earth. They aren’t even remotely comparable.

With the power of this sword qi, I could kill a peak Grain Avoidance cultivator like You Tianhong even without the Abstruse God Sword!

This was the fifth-level Grandmaster Realm. After all the accumulations of the first four levels, he’d finally achieved an earth-shaking transformation in the fifth and final level.

It wasn’t just his cultivation; even his soul, body, and foundations in the Grand Dao underwent a complete metamorphosis! This meant that Su Yi’s combat prowess was in no way comparable to what it had been before.

As he pondered, Su Yi took out the ancient sword, Silversnow, the weapon You Tianhong had left behind. Others suspected that he’d obtained it in a ruin deep within the Sea of Chaotic Spirits. Its materials, forging methods, and power were all top-notch, making it the cream of the crop even among Origin Dao weapons. 

However, the wisp of hornless dragon soul essence sealed within the blade had already been devoured by the Netherflame Demon Sparrow, causing a sharp decrease in the blade’s power.

Of course, even so, it was a rare treasure, something any Earthly Immortal would drool over.

Yet now, Su Yi merely waved the wisp of clear sword qi at his fingertips, striking nine times in an instant. 

Crunch! Crack! Crack!

Silversnow broke apart, bit by bit, the sound crisp and clear.

Beneath Su Yi’s clear sword qi, this ancient treasure seemed no different from any ordinary weapon. He effortlessly sliced it to bits!

Su Yi didn’t seem the least bit pained; on the contrary, he looked pleased.

He took out the Abstruse God Sword, then “fed” it with the fragments that were once Silversnow, using them to boost its power.

If I don’t hurry up and increase its quality, I’m afraid that it won’t be able to keep up with my newfound power…

The power of my physique alone is comparable to the Glazed Golden Bodies of Origin Dao Buddhist cultivators. Furthermore, I can now unleash the Starry Sky Sword Fingers, an absolute art of the demonic way.

And today, I achieved the full Spiritual Light of the Five Aggregates and merged the five elements into one. This is enough to ride my sword into battle and display the power of the Great Five Elements Suppression Domain Sword!

The power of my soul is now sufficient to practice the One-Strike Divine Slaughter Incantation

His fifth-level Grandmaster Realm cultivation enabled him to use techniques he couldn’t before. Su Yi sifted through them, then decided on the “Starry Sky Sword Fingers'', the “One-Strike Divine Slaughter Incantation”, and the “Great Five Elements Suppression Domain Sword” as his targets.

The Great Five Elements Suppression Domain Sword was a peerless sword incantation he’d created in his past life, and it was ranked among the Wilds’ Thirty-Three Sutras of the Dao of the Sword.

It was a killing formation derived from the Dao of the Sword, and it could both attack and defend. When combined with the Rejoicing Sword Sutra, the two complemented and enhanced each other.

The One-Strike Divine Slaughter Incantation” was a top inheritance of soul cultivators, and it specifically targeted the divine sense. It was stronger than the Great Void Soul Sword Incantation by no small margin and incomparably despotic. 

As for the “Starry Sky Sword Fingers”, this was an inheritance of demonic body cultivators. When unleashed, it was like a starry sky filled with utterly destructive killing power.

These were three absolute techniques he could only use now that he was a fifth-level Grandmaster. Their subtleties involved the power and application of the five elements.

Before condensing Five-Colored Spiritual Radiance, he couldn’t possibly have unleashed abilities of this level as a mortal cultivator.

In the time that followed, Su Yi rarely left the house. He poured almost all of his mental energy into tempering his cultivation and martial arts. 

With Fang Yuan around, he didn’t need to worry about his daily meals, either. 

Before long, the first day of the fifth lunar month rolled around.

It had already been ten days since the battle on Nine Millet Mountain. During these ten days, nothing major had happened within the Jade Capital; it was extremely peaceful.

However, the prominent factions of the Jade Capital were all aware that this was just the calm before the storm. All of them knew that Su Yi and Su Hongli’s duel was fast approaching!

“The fourth, the day of their duel, is in just three days. Both father and son sure can keep their cool…” Within the imperial palace, Emperor Zhou sighed. 

The Dao light of the metal element was previously described as golden, but now it’s white. Not a translation error! Or if it is, the error happened in earlier chapters, not this one, aha. I’ll unify the colors later… once I know for sure which is right… Maybe…. If I remember. >_>