457: Beyond the Realm!

Su Ming's eyes twitched slightly as he watched this.

He took a step forward, pushed aside the dazed Lin Tian, and looked at the over-familiar youth before him.

"Little brother, surely you need to consult your Revered Master before accepting disciples into the sect?"

The youth waved his hand dismissively, his movements as casual as tossing away a weed.

"There's no need to ask Revered Master about such a small matter; I can make the decision myself!"

"Besides, no living person has set foot in this godforsaken place for three hundred years. If Revered Master knew I brought back so many people at once, he'd definitely be grinning from ear to ear."

As he spoke, the youth skillfully shouldered his medicine basket and turned to the crowd, flashing a set of white teeth.

"Oh, I almost forgot to introduce myself. I'm Sword Thirteen, the youngest Junior Brother of the Immortal Sword Manor."

Su Ming silently noted the name.

Sword Thirteen, ranked thirteenth, and the youngest.

Didn't that mean there were twelve Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters above him?

"My name is Su Ming."

Su Ming briefly introduced Lin Tian, Zhuge Qing, and the others behind him.

Sword Thirteen warmly invited everyone toward the thatched huts after listening.

The moment Sword Thirteen turned around, Su Ming's eyes narrowed slightly.

Deep within his pupils, two extremely subtle golden glints flashed and vanished.

Eye of Truth!

Activate!

He wanted to see what Sword Thirteen's cultivation level really was.

Why couldn't he sense any aura from him, not even a trace of Sword Intent?

However, the instant the golden light appeared...

Sword Thirteen, walking ahead, stopped without warning and abruptly glanced back.

That single glance held no Killing Intent, yet it made Su Ming feel an immense terror envelop his body, as if his Divine Soul were about to be pierced by that gaze.

Su Ming's heart pounded wildly. He instinctively retracted his Eye of Truth, a layer of fine sweat breaking out on his forehead.

"Junior Brother Su, your eyes are quite special."

Sword Thirteen looked at Su Ming with a faint, inscrutable smile.

There was an indescribable meaning in his gaze.

Su Ming gave a dry laugh and scratched his head awkwardly, concealing his internal shock.

"Senior Brother is joking; it's just a small trick."

"You don't need to go out of your way to check my cultivation level. If you want to know, I'll just tell you."

Sword Thirteen stopped, the honesty on his face vanishing.

Then, he released his aura without reservation.

At that moment, the peaceful pastoral scenery seemed to have been hit by a pause button.

A majestic aura soared into the sky.

Although it only lasted an instant, it made the hair on Su Ming's entire body stand on end.

"Immortal... Immortal Sovereign?"

Su Ming's eyes widened as he looked at Sword Thirteen in disbelief.

Not just him, the others were also completely dumbfounded.

A youth who looked no more than sixteen or seventeen, running around the mountains with a medicine basket, actually possessed the cultivation of an Immortal Sovereign Realm?

In the domain where the Nine Heavens Immortal Sect was located, an Immortal Sovereign was already a titan capable of founding a sect and dominating a region.

But here, in the Immortal Sword Manor, an expert of the Immortal Sovereign Realm was actually just the thirteenth and youngest Junior Brother?

Su Ming couldn't help but swallow hard.

If the youngest disciple was an Immortal Sovereign, then what Realm were the twelve people ahead of him?

Could it be that there was more than one Immortal Emperor here?

At the thought of this, Su Ming's lips felt dry.

"Let's go, stop dazing around."

Sword Thirteen withdrew his aura and reverted to the honest youth, pointing at the thatched huts ahead.

Reaching the huts, Sword Thirteen casually tossed the heavy basket, which hit the ground with a dull thud.

"There are plenty of vacant thatched huts here. Feel free to choose whichever one you like."

He brushed the dirt off his hands and added nonchalantly.

"However, I'm the only one in the manor right now. My Senior Brothers, Senior Sisters, and Revered Master aren't here at the moment."

Lin Tian was curiously examining a rickety thatched hut when he instinctively stopped upon hearing this.

"Then where did they go?"

"In such a grand manor, they left you alone to watch the gate, Senior Brother?"

Although Sword Thirteen was an Immortal Sovereign expert, his over-familiar nature prevented Lin Tian from feeling any distance due to his cultivation; instead, he felt a bit closer to him.

Sword Thirteen didn't look up; he squatted down and began sorting the herbs in the basket, speaking in a flat tone.

"Oh, they went to the Outer Heaven."

"The Outer Heaven?"

Su Ming frowned slightly; this term was extremely foreign to him.

He had never heard any description of the Outer Heaven.

Xuanyuan Tianji, who had remained silent, suddenly spoke up to explain.

"The Outer Heaven is the only relatively safe zone within the Chaos Void."

"It is also the outermost region of every Immortal Realm, directly bordering the Chaos Void."

"The environment there is extremely harsh; only the most powerful can set foot there."

Su Ming turned to Sword Thirteen, changing his form of address.

"Senior Brother Shisan, may I ask what Revered Master and the other Senior Brothers and Sisters are doing in the Outer Heaven?"

Sword Thirteen's hand sorting the herbs paused, and he replied without looking up.

"Recently, another batch of Eerie Creatures has become restless, trying to force their way through the Outer Heaven to enter the Vast Immortal Domain."

"Revered Master said the scale is quite large this time, so he took everyone there to fend off the Eerie Clan."

"What?"

Su Ming was deeply shaken.

In his mind, the mountain-like corpses he had seen when entering the abyss instantly reappeared.

"What... what exactly is going on?"

Su Ming stared intently at Sword Thirteen, trying to read something from his face.

He had always thought that the Eerie Creatures within the Vast Immortal Domain were the entirety of the threat.

But now, it sounded like that was only the tip of the iceberg.

"Aren't the Eerie Creatures only those causing trouble within the Immortal Realm?"

Hearing this, Sword Thirteen's hand holding the herbs suddenly froze.

He slowly raised his head; his originally honest smile had vanished, replaced by a cold sneer.

"The few in the Immortal Realm? Heh, those were merely left behind intentionally by Revered Master."

Sword Thirteen stood up, brushed the dirt off his trouser legs, and cast his gaze through the layers of Barriers toward the deep Void Realm.

"If Revered Master wanted to kill them, those so-called Eerie Immortal Emperors would have been dead long ago."

"But if they were completely wiped out, the Eerie Clan deep within the Major Thousand Worlds would realize the balance had been broken. At that time, they would come out in full force and completely submerge the Vast Immortal Domain."

He turned around and looked directly into Su Ming's shocked eyes.

"Leaving those few crippled Immortal Emperors behind is to give the Eerie ones outside an illusion."

"To make them think the Immortal Realm is still under their control and being slowly consumed."

"Only by maintaining this fragile balance can the Vast Immortal Domain survive in this chaotic world."

Su Ming felt a buzzing in his head.

What he heard this time overturned his understanding once again.

He hadn't expected the strength of the Immortal Sword Manor to far exceed his imagination.

They had completely disregarded the Eerie within the Vast Immortal Domain, instead pointing their swords at the Eerie Clan of the outer domains..."