A Blind Swordsman's Sword Coffin

Under a pitch-black sky in a desolate mountain range, the sound of fresh blood dripping onto the earth cut through the night.

Li Guanqi stood with labored breaths, face twitching slightly, his sword clenched tightly in his hand. Covered in injuries, he surveyed the battlefield with narrowed eyes.

Corpses lay in piles all around him, with severed limbs scattered like broken dolls. For a thousand zhang in every direction, the land had been torn open by deep ravines, blackened by raging flames. Craters pocked the ground like the scars of heaven’s wrath.

Li Guanqi raised a hand and called forth the Lightning Dragon Flame, turning every corpse to ash. He glanced at the storage ring in his palm and, with a flick of his divine consciousness, erased every seal. The purple dragon bracelet on his wrist trembled, a thread of golden light running through it.

Li Guanqi smiled faintly and murmured, “No need for you to intervene.”

Suddenly, his head snapped to the side. He squinted and murmured, “Again?”

With a flash of lightning beneath his feet, his figure vanished instantly, concealing his aura as he slipped into the void.

He erased all traces of the spatial fluctuation, then altered his appearance with the Face-Changing Bug, put on a white robe, and disappeared.

In just three days, he’d killed twelve waves of assassins. And none of them knew how his location had leaked.

In just three days, nearly a hundred cultivators had fallen to his sword. None of them had been weak.

An icy light flashed through his eyes. He had underestimated how tempting the Mo Family’s bounty would be to rogue cultivators. Worse, rifling through their storage rings had revealed disciples from established sects among the hunters.

Even established sects dare to move against me... They’ll have to face the consequences.

He narrowed his eyes, pulled out a jade slip from his sect, checked it against the map, and streaked away like lightning. After swallowing a healing pill, he gripped two high-grade spirit stones and absorbed their qi.

His cultivation at the late Nascent Soul Realm steadied amidst the constant battles, and his mastery of the Sword Prison sharpened with every clash. Using high-grade spirit stones for recovery was extravagant, but with danger at every turn, he could not afford to care.

Buzz!

A ripple of mysterious energy passed through the void. Tang Ru’s voice slowly emerged from his jade slip.

—Guanqi, you should stick to remote, uninhabited paths. Almost everyone hunting you is from assassin guilds. The Mo Family is buying information about your whereabouts at any cost and sharing it with the entire cultivation world.

Li Guanqi’s eyes narrowed. “How generous of them. Their intel didn’t come from the Intelligence Pavilion, did it?”

Tang Ru’s voice grew grim.

—No. In fact, the Intelligence Pavilion has refused to sell any information on your whereabouts. Word is that Mo Zhiyuan, the head of the Mo Family and father of Mo Congyun, even visited them personally. But the elders didn’t even grant him an audience. They turned him away at the gates.

Li Guanqi lowered the jade slip, his expression unreadable. He hadn’t thought the Intelligence Pavilion would pass up such a chance to extort the Mo Family. Mo Zhiyuan would have paid almost anything, as long as it wasn’t utterly ridiculous.

Intelligence Pavilion, what exactly are you playing at?

After some thought, he said. “Contact Ning Xiu of Inferno Valley. She’s tied to the Intelligence Pavilion. Tell her I owe them a favor for this. And help me dig up everything you can on these six sects.”

He listed the names one by one.

Tang Ru, sitting in his study, froze when he heard them. His face quickly darkened.

—Brother Li, I can investigate, but you should think carefully. Your head is worth a fortune. If you strike back at these sects, your movements will be exposed. You’ll draw endless waves of enemies. Is it worth it?

Li Guanqi’s lips curled into a cold sneer. “They won’t learn their lesson unless I peel a layer of skin from them.”

Tang Ru sighed and gave in.

—Fine. I’ll send you the location of a courier station. Go there. I’ve prepared special pills and a magical treasure.

Tang Ru set the jade slip down, his voice heavy. “Get me full intel on these sects within thirty minutes: the Hundred Refinement Sect, the Demon-Slaying Sect, Floating Light Mountain, Green Lotus Island, North Sea Temple, and the Immortal Crane Alliance.”

Li Guanqi studied the coordinates. The courier station was only half an hour away. After some thought, he decided to head there. Lone combat was useless against a territory-wide hunt.

But first, he would make them bleed. He would make them fear him.

He would kill until the very mention of his name made them tremble.

A mysterious wave stirred in the void, delivering intelligence on the six sects. The closest was the Immortal Crane Alliance, whose Sect Master was a cultivator at the early Divine Transformation Realm. The attacker who’d struck at Li Guanqi had been their Third Elder.

Li Guanqi’s eyes narrowed. With a flash of lightning, he tore through the void to a deserted alley in a grand city. He changed into a black robe, suppressed his aura, and vanished into the night.

As he moved, multiple jade slips across the city flickered faintly. Unaware that his movements had already been exposed, he arrived near the courier station Tang Ru had mentioned. He did not enter immediately. Instead, he wandered the streets, slipping into a deserted corner to change his appearance once again.

Now, he wore plain linen robes, with a sweat cloth wrapped about his head. He looked like any lowly commoner melting into the crowd. Even his eyes were disguised, their brilliance hidden beneath a dull sheen.

I just got here. Why are so many people watching me? Have I been exposed?

He replayed his steps in his mind. He had wiped every spatial trace. There had been no slip.

It shouldn’t be possible, unless...

Back in Tang Ru’s study, his expression darkened from a sudden realization. His encrypted jade slip had been opened in advance.

His voice turned cold. “Old Qian.”

Buzz!

A shadowy figure materialized soundlessly behind him. “I’m here.”

Tang Ru’s eyes flashed with murderous intent. “Kill all our shadows. We have a traitor.”

The old man’s eyes flashed coldly. He offered no words, only a curt nod.

Moments later, in the secret chamber three floors beneath the Hundred Treasures Pavilion, over a dozen bodies lay sprawled in a pool of blood. Not a single one was left alive.