A Blind Swordsman's Sword Coffin

After leaving his room, Li Guanqi leaned on the railing by the staircase and looked down. The diversity of the crowd below amazed him. He’d never imagined a place where humans, demons, and ghosts could live together.

The Hell Rivers really were a strange place.

The busboys of the guesthouse were all ghost cultivators.

When Li Guanqi saw a ghost cultivator making a payment, he noticed the man wasn’t using spirit stones, but a black, thumb-sized crystal. Li Guanqi inspected it with his divine consciousness and found that it contained pure yin hell force.

The ghost cultivator had a decent cultivation level, so when he sensed Li Guanqi’s aura, he looked up and smiled. Damn it, why’s this guy staring at me? I haven’t done anything to provoke him, have I?

While the ghost cultivator’s mind raced, Li Guanqi descended the steps and left the building without approaching him.

As soon as Li Guanqi departed, the guesthouse got more lively.

News of Li Guanqi’s actions at the city gates had quickly spread, and many people had also set their eyes on Peng Luo.

But the moment they saw Li Guanqi, they all changed their minds. They didn’t want to die, after all.

After leaving the guesthouse, he wandered aimlessly down the main street. The cultivators walking in the opposite direction moved aside to make way for him.

“Wow,the Hell Rivers region is huge!” he exclaimed, gazing at the map of it he’d just purchased.

Strictly speaking, the Hell Rivers region was almost the size of the entire Azure Cloud Continent. Hell River City was merely the entrance to the Hell Rivers. The true heart of the region required traveling deeper.

The Hell Rivers were the top choice for many ghost cultivators and ghost cultivator factions.

Admiring the bustling streets, he wandered casually into a shop. It was a huge establishment with several floors and opulent furnishings.

A large plaque hung above the entrance.

Hell Rivers Myriad Treasures Pavilion.

Below it, another line in smaller text read:

Three-thousand-year-old shop. Number one in the city.

Li Guanqi smiled. What an interesting shop! Myriad Treasures Pavilion... Bold name.

The only thing that made him slightly uncomfortable was that the building was entirely lit with dim, green candlelight. It made sense, though. They were in the Hell Rivers region, where many ghost cultivators dwelled, so they had to accommodate them.

The most eye-catching part was a gigantic wooden sign at the door.

Please fix your yirong[1] before entering the shop.

Li Guanqi paused and muttered, “Did they make an error? It should be 仪, not 遗.”[2]

A human server girl in white robes walked up to him. She curtsied slightly in greeting, then chuckled and said in a bright voice, “You read that right, sir. We are indeed referring to the yirong for corpses.”

“Why?” Li Guanqi asked curiously.

The girl seemed resigned. She sighed and said, “This is the Hell Rivers region, after all. We can’t have customers showing up with mangled faces.”

Li Guanqi imagined it. “Hmm... That makes sense.”

A thought popped into his mind. He turned to the girl and asked in a low voice, “The owner of this shop wouldn’t happen to be a human cultivator, would he?”

The girl looked startled. Although she didn’t respond, the answer was clear.

Li Guanqi smiled and stepped into the shop.

The moment he entered, he sensed a densely packed layer of black stones beneath the stone tiles. They radiated a gentle coldness that made him uncomfortable. The Yin Hellfire in his body grew more active, trying to exit through the soles of his feet to devour all the energy in the stones.

He noticed that the ghost cultivators in the shop were all slowly absorbing energy from below.

The server girl explained, “There is a packed layer of black hell stones under the stone tiles. Every customer that enters the shop can absorb as much energy as they want.”

“The boss is a smart businessman,” Li Guanqi said.

She smiled, seemingly happy that he had praised her boss.

Then Li Guanqi spoke again. “As much as they want? Really?”

The girl didn’t realize the weight his question carried. Li Guanqi was a human cultivator, and typically, the energy in the black hell stones was useless to humans. If he absorbed too much, it would even have a negative effect.

“Don’t worry, sir. Seeing as our shop dared to make a statement like this, we won’t set a limit.”

Li Guanqi smiled, and the Yin Hellfire in his body surged. His vital force circulated through his meridians as he absorbed the yin hell force from below.

The wisps of yin hell force entering his body made him feel refreshed, even though the Yin Hellfire devoured all his energy. Surprisingly, the fire seed itself grew stronger.

Li Guanqi was shocked. He hadn’t known that the heavenly fire could grow stronger through such a method. Now even more eager to absorb the energy, he had the server guide him around the shop.

Soon, he noticed a problem. He could only absorb the yin hell qi in thin wisps. Extending his divine consciousness, he noticed an array carved into the stone tiles that limited the release of the black hell stones’ energy.

Li Guanqi pursed his lips but didn’t push it. He was only in the shop for a stroll, after all. Breaking their array would be inappropriate.

Soon, two items on the register attracted his attention.

One was an entirely black but slightly translucent bead, roughly the size of his thumb. The other was a set of black Daoist robes locked in the cupboard.

The server explained, “That’s the Hell Heart Bead. It’s a very special item in the Hell Rivers region. When tier-five Black Hell Beasts die, such beads may appear. It has mind-calming properties. If you put it in your mouth, it helps prevent the effects of the confounding mist in the Hell Rivers region, which suppresses your divine consciousness. If you crush it in the presence of someone on the brink of death, it will seal their divine soul so it won’t disperse for a hundred years.”

Li Guanqi’s eyes brightened. “That’s amazing...”

He could use it himself or give it to someone else.

“How much is it?”

The girl hesitated, but still showed him two fingers. “Two thousand high-grade spirit stones.”

Li Guanqi was taken aback. That was more expensive than he’d thought. He had over thirty thousand spirit stones, but he still thought it was expensive.

“Can I get a discount?”

Then, a shrill voice sounded next to Li Guanqi.

“If you’re poor—”

Bam!

Before anyone could react, Li Guanqi had already kicked the speaker into the air, instantly knocking him out. To the crowd’s terror, the unconscious youth’s body burst into terrifying black flames.

His entire body was consumed by the flames. Just like that, the youth was reduced to a cloud of ash, drifting away on the wind.

He hadn’t even landed yet.

“Hmph.” Li Guanqi huffed in annoyance. “Why are there always so many imbeciles around...”

He bought both the Hell Heart Bead and the Black Hell Robes, paying a total of four thousand high-grade spirit stones.

1. 遗容 (yirong) refers to the appearance of a corpse prepared for public viewing at a funeral. ☜

2. 仪容 and 遗容 are both pronounced “yirong.” 仪容 refers to a living person’s appearance and presentation, while 遗容 refers to a corpse’s appearance. ☜