A Blind Swordsman's Sword Coffin

“I... don’t... give a damn... who you are. You’re... all dead!”

Li Guanqi smiled, leaned close to Luo Siyang’s ear, and whispered, “My name is Li Guanqi.”

Buzz! Drip, drip...

Luo Siyang shook uncontrollably, his eyes wide with terror. His face had gone ashen, and yellow liquid trickled onto the chariot beneath him.

Li Guanqi methodically crushed all of Luo Siyang’s finger bones. He then took the storage ring from Luo Siyang’s hand, erased its divine consciousness seal, and searched through its contents.

A moment later, he pulled out a green jade slip. He waved it before Luo Siyang’s face. “Is this Luo Changqing’s jade slip?”

Luo Siyang struggled to think through his mounting terror. His breathing came in ragged gasps, his mind reeling. Li Guanqi... he’s Li Guanqi! What’s he doing here?! Right, the Daxia Sword Sect. He’s from the Daxia Sword Sect!

Since Luo Siyang failed to respond, Li Guanqi lost interest. He turned to Kong Yan with a smile. “Senior, just focus on recovering. I know what I’m doing. Once you’ve recovered a little, you can tell me exactly what happened.”

Kong Yan could only return to tending to his wounds. His power had been sealed for far too long, and the helplessness of having no strength left him deeply uneasy. Once Kong Yan closed his eyes and began refining the energy within him, the smile vanished from Li Guanqi’s face. He sealed the void around the old man with a wave of his hand, then slowly turned toward Luo Siyang.

He had no intention of killing Luo Siyang yet. Instead, he broke through the jade slip’s restrictions right in front of him and spoke coldly into it. “I’m Li Guanqi. Your brother is in my hands. Come find me in the Taiqing Territory.”

With that, Li Guanqi crushed the jade slip. Seeing Luo Siyang’s bewilderment, he said quietly, “Don’t get your hopes up. Even if he comes, he won’t be able to save you.”

A sealing spell surged hundreds of zhang into the sky, pinning Luo Siyang beneath the clouds to roast in the sun. After a mere two hours, he was dehydrated and whimpering, his eyes glazing over. With his vital force sealed, he could only pray for his brother’s arrival, preferably with every powerful cultivator of the Luo clan in tow.

Too weak to move, Luo Siyang imagined Li Guanqi on his knees, begging for mercy. Perhaps only that fantasy could offer him a shred of comfort. Perhaps only that could make the blazing sun feel a little less brutal.

Dressed in white robes, Li Guanqi sat cross-legged atop the mountain, sipping his wine with his eyes half-closed. He didn’t know the specifics of what had happened to Kong Yan, but he understood that the old man must have endured years of humiliation.

Li Guanqi had initially hesitated to reveal his identity, worried that Kong Yan might feel ashamed to be seen in such a state by a fellow member of the sect. In the end, however, he decided to tell him. They were family, and he trusted that Kong Yan wouldn’t feel awkward or embarrassed.

Kong Yan’s reaction proved him right. The moment he learned who Li Guanqi was, his first concern was not his own humiliation but stopping Li Guanqi from killing Luo Siyang. He feared the consequences would endanger both the Daxia Sword Sect and Li Guanqi himself.

As he drank, Li Guanqi turned his thoughts to Luo Changqing. After a moment, he took out a jade slip and asked, “Do you know Luo Changqing?”

Qin Wushang’s voice came through almost immediately, tinged with curiosity.

—I’ve heard of him, but we’re not close. Did you pick a fight with him?

Qin Wushang made no effort to hide his amusement at the prospect of trouble. Li Guanqi couldn’t help but laugh. “You could say that. I’ve got his brother. He’s hanging in the sky, sunbathing as we speak.”

Qin Wushang bolted upright in bed.

—Tsk. His brother... Luo Siyang? That spoiled brat’s a lost cause. How did the two of you even cross paths?

Li Guanqi didn’t feel like explaining. He gave a brief reply and set the jade slip down.

Qin Wushang, however, couldn’t sit still. Knowing Li Guanqi, “sunbathing” could mean any number of horrific things. If Luo Siyang was merely hanging in the sun with his skin intact, then Li Guanqi was already showing remarkable restraint.

Qin Xiao happened to be passing the rear courtyard when he saw Qin Wushang flying away. He frowned. “Where are you going?”

“To watch the show!” Qin Wushang vanished from the domain, then flew straight out of Qinhuang City.

Elsewhere in the Ethereal Immortal Territory, saber qi swept through the void above the rear mountain of an ancient clan’s estate. A young man in blue-purple robes rose into the air. His features were sharply defined, and his stern face showed no trace of a smile. He stood as straight and proud as a pine atop a mountain, holding a pitch-black scabbard in his left hand. The saber’s hilt was black as well.

A lock of his long black hair fell across the left side of his forehead. When the breeze lifted it, it revealed that he had no left ear.

Luo Changqing narrowed his eyes, his brow furrowing deeply. A piercing light gleamed in his deep-set eyes as several Luo clan elders arrived behind him.

The elder in the lead frowned. “Changqing, why have you come out of seclusion so soon?”

Luo Changqing glanced over them, then turned away with a sneer. “Because of that wonderful grandson of yours!”

He drew his saber and slashed!

Rumble!

The entire domain trembled slightly under the blow as a rift a hundred zhang long tore open.

Ignoring the voices calling after him, Luo Changqing strode into the void. A grave look crossed his face as he murmured, “Li Guanqi... I’ve heard plenty about him. It’s time we finally met. The others have faced considerably more pressure over the past two years. Those men are all his sworn brothers, I believe.”

Li Guanqi waited quietly. Before long, Kong Yan opened his eyes, a sharp gleam flashing in them. He exhaled as powerful waves of vital force surged around him. It seemed he would soon recover to the late Divine Transformation Realm.

Every pill Li Guanqi had given him was extraordinarily precious. Once he took the remaining two, he might even have a chance to break through to the Illusory Refinement Realm.

Kong Yan picked up the Daoist robes neatly laid out before him. His eyes grew moist as he examined them. Li Guanqi had prepared the white robes reserved for the elders of the Daxia Sword Sect.

Kong Yan’s hands trembled as he lifted the garment, his fingers tracing the sect’s emblem while he murmured, “After drifting for so long, it was the sect that came to my rescue in the end.”

Kong Yan changed into the new robes and tied back his disheveled white hair. In Li Guanqi’s eyes, the old man no longer looked so dispirited.

“Elder Kong, can you tell me what happened over the years?” Li Guanqi asked gently. “How did you end up like this?”