A Blind Swordsman's Sword Coffin

Li Guanqi set down the jade slip with a deep frown, then slowly relaxed. Qian Qiusui had told him much of what had happened over the past two years. Relations between the two pavilions had grown tense, with repeated clashes and casualties.

Without him, the Guanyun Pavilion had been at a disadvantage and suffered greater losses. Before contacting him, Qian Qiusui had even been facing demands from her subordinates to step down, but his return had given her the confidence to deal with them.

What was done was done, and Li Guanqi gradually calmed down. Still, if things continued this way, the conflict between the two pavilions would only worsen. He had to resolve it.

He took a deep breath and activated his sprint technique. Lightning flashed beneath his feet, and he vanished.

Buzz!

As evening fell, Li Guanqi arrived above the mountain range where the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion stood. The familiar sight made him nostalgic. Back then, he had relied on his wits to maneuver between the Four Towers. That was also when he had met Ji Yuchuan. Who would have thought that only a few years later, he would return to meet Gu Yong as the pavilion master of another intelligence organization?

Li Guanqi shook his head with a sigh, took out his heavenly intelligence jade pendant, and infused it with a trace of vital force.

Buzz!

Li Guanqi’s expression darkened. His pendant no longer even granted him access to the Heavenly Intelligence Realm. “Looks like Senior Gu really has a problem with me. He’s even revoked my pendant’s access.”

Li Guanqi put the pendant away and took a deep breath. He used his vital force to project his voice far into the distance. “Senior Gu, I’m here. Please open the realm and let me in.”

He waited in midair with his hands clasped behind his back, but no answer came. His expression remained unchanged, though he was beginning to feel irritated. This petty display of authority was unnecessary. It only made Gu Yong look small-minded.

Li Guanqi rubbed his fingers together as he considered cutting the Heavenly Intelligence Realm open. Ultimately, he held back. The decision to act mattered as much as the action itself. Even if he could break through a barrier created by a Mahayana Realm cultivator, taking out his sword would signal open conflict between them. They had yet to meet, and there was no reason to let matters deteriorate that far.

Li Guanqi remained where he was, waiting quietly. He knew Gu Yong wouldn’t keep him standing outside for too long, but he sent messages to Meng Jiangchu and Zhou Yunqing just in case.

The delay was most likely a petty attempt to gain a psychological advantage before their meeting. In a way, Li Guanqi felt honored. Having a Mahayana Realm cultivator resort to petty tactics just to gain the upper hand over him was almost flattering.

Half an hour later, a pitch-black crack slowly opened in the air before him, and a middle-aged man in purple robes stepped through. The man was a Combined Body Realm cultivator. His aura was powerful, though its full depth was hard to judge. He saw Li Guanqi waiting calmly, but a chill ran down his back when Li Guanqi looked him over.

The man’s expression shifted. Bracing himself, he approached and stopped three chi from Li Guanqi. “I am Shen Feng. I’ve come to welcome you, Young Master Li.”

Li Guanqi sneered and lowered his gaze, an inexplicable pressure surging outward from him.

Buzz!

The terrifying pressure crashed down on Shen Feng. His shoulders buckled, his body sagged, and his head bowed against his will. Cold sweat covered his forehead, and his face went pale. He... he isn’t going to kill me, is he?

Li Guanqi began to walk past Shen Feng, only to stop short. He sneered. “Here to welcome me? Then you should have arrived before I did.”

Boom!

Shen Feng dropped to his knees in midair. His face flushed red as he fought with all his strength against the pressure, but he could not move. Despite being only one minor realm below Li Guanqi, Li Guanqi’s aura alone pinned him in place. The gulf between them was enormous.

Soon, Shen Feng was completely flattened against the ground. By then, though, Li Guanqi had already stepped into the Heavenly Intelligence Realm.

Shen Feng lay on the ground with blood streaming from his nose, looking as pale as someone recovering from a serious illness. He slowly struggled to his feet, trembling. As he glanced back at the realm’s entrance, a flicker of fear involuntarily crossed his eyes. He had felt so helpless before Li Guanqi that it almost felt as though he had been facing the Pavilion Master himself.

Inside the realm, Li Guanqi found that the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion had reinstated its old Four Towers system. He sighed. Through a series of schemes, he had brought the towers’ authority firmly under his control, only for Gu Yong to return and redistribute that authority. Gu Yong thought holding their soul lamps would be enough to keep them in check.

Don’t you understand that you can’t control human greed? Li Guanqi thought.

Before the crack closed, Li Guanqi turned to give Shen Feng a lingering look. If he was right, Shen Feng was now the Tower Lord of the Purple Tower, responsible for gathering intelligence for the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion.

Buzz!

Shen Feng took a long time to recover before finally remembering that he was supposed to escort Li Guanqi to Gu Yong. When he rushed back into the realm, Li Guanqi was already heading straight for the top of the Heavenly Intelligence Tower. Li Guanqi knew the tower well and went directly to Gu Yong’s study.

Knock, knock, knock.

Creak!

The door opened on its own. Gu Yong settled into his seat behind the desk and smiled at Li Guanqi. “You’re here? Come, sit down. I just stepped out for a bit. You haven’t been waiting long, have you?”

Li Guanqi smiled, though the elder before him seemed strangely unfamiliar. His courtesy rang hollow, and every word seemed to serve some selfish purpose. “Not at all. I only just arrived myself.”

He lifted the hem of his robes and sat across from Gu Yong. “Old Gu, it’s been a long time.”

“Not really,” Gu Yong said with a smile. “For cultivators like us, a hundred years can pass in the blink of an eye. It’s quite common to go hundreds or even thousands of years without meeting. You’ve only been in seclusion for two.”

Li Guanqi smiled and nodded, but his heart sank further. Gu Yong’s words were far less cordial than they sounded. Why mention that a hundred years could pass in the blink of an eye, if not to highlight how little time Li Guanqi had spent cultivating? His thirty-odd years of cultivation amounted to less than a single stretch of seclusion for someone like Gu Yong. Everything else Gu Yong said carried the same implication—as a young man, Li Guanqi should know his place.

Still, Li Guanqi’s expression didn’t change, as though he were an oblivious youngster who had missed every implication. “True. I spent two years in seclusion and made some progress, only to come out and find that quite a lot had happened...”

Gu Yong smiled as he looked down to prepare the tea leaves. A sharp glint flickered in his eyes.