A Blind Swordsman's Sword Coffin

Tang Ru looked around wistfully.

“The Hundred Treasures Pavilion is nothing but a cage to me. I, too, want to visit all six territories and live a carefree life!”

The old man didn’t say another word. He ‌bowed before vanishing.

A few breaths later, Tang Ru picked up the jade slip. “I can keep your master alive for one month. That’s the most I can do.”

Li Guanqi replied softly, “Thank you.”

Whoosh! Rumble rumble!

Nine Heavens streaked through the void, traveling at an incredible speed, letting out a violent aura.

Rumble! Boom! Clang clang!

The battle in the sky raged on. Cang Lu, a guqin cultivator, was proving nearly impossible to bring down.

Even with Ling Daoyan joining the fight, neither side gained ground.

Suddenly, something surfaced in Ling Daoyan’s mind. His gaze locked on Cang Lu’s fingers.

“The Six-Fingered Guqin Demon!”

Cang Lu looked up with a sneer. Tilting his head, he looked at Ling Daoyan. “Oh? Didn’t think anyone from the tiny Daxia Sword Sect would know me. Hahahahaha! I’m leaving. I’m done playing with you.”

His melody shifted, turning from urgent to fierce, like ten thousand warhorses trampling a kingdom flat.

Killing intent spread in all directions. Flames roared beneath Ling Daoyan’s feet as he flung everyone behind him clear of the blast.

He planted his feet and raised his sword, gripping it as if lifting a mountain. The air beneath him shattered.

“Flaming Slash, Army Breaker!”

Cang Lu froze as an unprecedented sense of danger washed over him. In his eyes, Ling Daoyan grew impossibly tall, bringing down a colossal sword.

The force hammered Cang Lu out of the sky and slammed him onto the barrier below.

Boom!

His eyes widened with disbelief.

Pfft!

Blood sprayed from his mouth. At least three of his ribs had snapped. With a determined glare, he planted his guqin upright beside him and plucked its strings.

More and more power accumulated in the guqin, waiting to erupt at the last moment.

Ling Daoyan drew in more power for his Flaming Slash. Veins bulged along his right arm, the muscles ballooning. A mist of blood spurted from his swollen arm, and dark red droplets covered his withered skin.

The slash looked as if it could cleave the heavens.

The barrier shattered, and the flaming sword light shot out.

Clang!Twang, twang!

Cang Lu roared, “Die!”

Pluck, pluck, pluck!

Three of his five strings snapped at once. A hundred-zhang-long sound wave burst forth, slicing through the air like a crescent blade.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Flames swallowed the sky. The shrill clash of sound and fire pierced everything.

All nearby disciples fainted, bleeding from facial orifices. Although they had blocked their senses with vital force, ‌it was useless.

Rumble!

The terrifying explosions turned the sky into a sea of fire. The combined barrier of a dozen elders shattered.

Suddenly, a furious, elderly voice rang out.

“Don’t you think you can run away!”

Whoosh!

A pitch-black spatial tear opened amid the storm. Cang Lu, blood-soaked and pale, shot them a cold look before stepping into the void.

Six streaks of sword light flashed after him.

Lu Kangnian bellowed, “After him!”

Ling Daoyan’s robes were shredded. Multiple gashes criss-crossed his chest, deep enough to reveal bone.

He coughed up blood, and bits of flesh came with it.

He looked down at his chest, great power still leaking from within. Blood dripped from his ears; his eardrums had burst.

His arm was turning purple-black, but he stood mid-air with his sword still raised, doing everything he could to stay upright.

Lu Kangnian turned just in time to see him, then glanced toward the direction Cang Lu had fled. His face twisted with rage, but he could only huff angrily and rush to Ling Daoyan instead.

“Old Ling, are you alright?”

Ling Daoyan panted heavily. He lifted a hand. “I’m fine. Go check on Old Li!”

Lu Kangnian’s throat trembled. He forcefully swallowed the blood rising in his mouth and raced toward Heavenly Lightning Peak.

The sight of the gravely wounded Li Nanting brought tears to his eyes. His hand trembled where it rested on the old man’s body.

He could feel Li Nanting’s life slipping away.

Even with spirit liquid guarding his meridians and the Spiritfish clan’s thousand-year fish pearl sustaining him, his golden core...

It was like a broken stone, forcefully reassembled. If even one fragment slipped free, the entire core would collapse, and the backlash would kill him instantly.

It still held, but his life force continued to drain at a frightening speed. In other words, Li Nanting was as good as dead.

The middle-aged woman next to him held Li Nanting’s cool hand. She stared at Lu Kangnian blankly.

“Nanting... will be fine... won’t he?”

Lu Kangnian opened his mouth but couldn’t form a single word.

Yu Sui’an stood in place, expressionless. Tears streamed down her face as she wrung her hands, lost and helpless. She looked up at the chaotic sky with aching hope.

“Little blind boy... come home... hurry...”

Buzz!

Amidst the chaotic currents of vital force in the sky, purple lightning flashed.

A hundred-zhang-long spatial tear ripped open.

Roar!

A twenty-zhang-long dragon shot out of the spatial tear.

The entire sect tensed immediately. The disciples were overwhelmed, unable to lift their heads under the pressure of a tier-five demonic beast’s aura.

Ling Daoyan looked up and drew his sword.

Then he saw the youth standing on the dragon’s head, fury burning in his eyes.

“Guanqi...”

Li Guanqi leaped down and teleported straight to Heavenly Lightning Peak. The sight of his blood-soaked master stabbed through him like a blade. When he scanned Li Nanting with his divine consciousness, his face darkened.

Clutching Li Nanting’s cold hand, he rasped, “Where is... Cang Lu?”

The bloodied Lu Kangnian answered, “He was badly injured, but he managed to flee...”

Boom!

Killing intent radiated from Li Guanqi, uncontrolled, only to be suppressed moments later. He rose to his feet and tore open the space beside him, shaping a short spatial tunnel.

Whoosh!

An old man in black robes stepped out and offered Li Guanqi a palm-sized jade bottle without a word. He bowed, stepped back into the void, and tossed out a glittering cloud canoe before disappearing entirely.

The bottle was heavy. When Li Guanqi opened it, a powerful surge of life force filled the air.

Ling Daoyan squinted. “That’s at least five-thousand-year-old bamboo jade essence!”

Li Guanqi generously poured the whole bottle into Li Nanting’s mouth. The jade essence coursed through his body, pooling around his golden core.

The draining of his life force slowed.

Yet everyone knew that even something so precious could buy only one month.

The air hung heavy with sorrow.