A Blind Swordsman's Sword Coffin

Buzz!

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Meng Jiangchu appeared beside Li Guanqi in an instant. Five green flames shaped like hungry ghosts blazed around him, as though they might set the heavens on fire.

He took in Li Guanqi’s grim expression, then swept his senses over the surroundings and frowned. “What happened?”

Zhou Yunqing arrived the next moment, only to frown as well. Clearly, he could no longer sense the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion’s location either.

Seeing how grim Li Guanqi’s expression was, Meng Jiangchu asked again in a softer voice. “Guanqi, what happened?”

Li Guanqi shook his head and looked at Meng Jiangchu. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. He still couldn’t make sense of anything Gu Yong had done.

After a moment, Li Guanqi waved a hand. “It’s over now. Sorry to make you and Senior Zhou come all this way.”

Zhou Yunqing smiled. “It’s fine. It was no trouble. I can also visit the Divine Treasure Territory while I’m here.”

Meng Jiangchu could tell Li Guanqi was in a terrible mood. Something must have gone badly inside the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion’s realm. Li Guanqi would never have unleashed his full strength otherwise. For a brief instant, his aura had risen high enough to pose a slight threat to a newly advanced Mahayana Realm cultivator, even with only a withered branch in Li Guanqi’s hand.

Meng Jiangchu stared at the branch, soon realizing it was just an ordinary willow twig rather than some rare treasure or a relic from an ancient divine tree. “Where’s your sword?”

Li Guanqi rubbed his nose awkwardly. “Something happened. I can’t use a sword right now.”

Meng Jiangchu rolled his eyes and muttered, “I can’t get a moment’s peace with you two damned brats around.”

“Did something happen to Wanshu?” Li Guanqi asked hurriedly.

Meng Jiangchu sighed. “She’s fine. In the year since she left for the Beiming Glacier in the Ethereal Immortal Territory, I’ve heard from her only once. All she said was that she was safe.”

Zhou Yunqing listened from the side, growing more surprised by the moment. He knew Meng Jiangchu’s daughter had left the Divine Treasure Territory, but he had never known where she’d gone.

Figuring they wanted to speak in private, Zhou Yunqing turned to leave with a smile. “Since everything’s fine now, I’ll head back first.”

Li Guanqi hurriedly bowed. “Senior, thank you for coming to my aid.”

As gracious as ever, Zhou Yunqing smiled and nodded. “Come visit my territory when you have time.”

Li Guanqi smiled. “I definitely will!”

Once Zhou Yunqing had left, Meng Jiangchu’s expression darkened. “Did Gu Yong attack you?”

An unreadable look flashed through Li Guanqi’s eyes. With a wave of his hand, he completely isolated the surrounding void from the outside world.

Meng Jiangchu realized that Li Guanqi wanted to speak in private. With a wave of his own hand, he summoned heavenly fire that surged up in the wind and formed a formidable barrier ten zhang wide around them.

Li Guanqi stared fixedly at Meng Jiangchu. His voice was grave. “Do you know where Gu Yong went to attempt his breakthrough?”

Meng Jiangchu frowned and shook his head. “No. Something that important normally wouldn’t be revealed to anyone. He must have prepared the location long beforehand, and no one would recklessly attempt a breakthrough without absolute confidence. No one knew where he went.”

He continued, “Even his granddaughter, Song Yunshu, wouldn’t have known a thing. Neither would any of the Four Tower Lords, including Ji Yuchuan!”

The certainty in Meng Jiangchu’s voice left Li Guanqi even more convinced that his suspicions were correct, though there were still several things he could not confirm.

Meng Jiangchu frowned and asked solemnly, “Why are you asking me this? What exactly happened in there?”

Choosing his words carefully, Li Guanqi said, “Gu Yong and I have fallen out. The conflict between the Guanyun Pavilion and the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion will probably be out in the open from now on. Gu Yong... seized my Heavenly Intelligence Map. He didn’t attack me outright, but if I had refused to hand it over, I can’t say what he would have done.”

Meng Jiangchu frowned, increasingly confused by what he was hearing. “The Heavenly Intelligence Map? Don’t they already have a replica? Why would Gu Yong need to take yours? He’s been to the Seventh Territory, so he knows what’s out there. He’d have to have a death wish to attack you!”

Li Guanqi took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “That’s what makes his behavior so strange! Ji Yuchuan told me Gu Yong had asked to borrow the Heavenly Intelligence Map several times. Ji Yuchuan refused each time, insisting the decision wasn’t his to make. Now, I suspect the map holds a secret that neither of us knows about.”

After a brief pause, Li Guanqi looked up at Meng Jiangchu. “In fact... I suspect the man who returned after that breakthrough wasn’t Gu Yong at all.”

Meng Jiangchu’s eyes widened. He stared at Li Guanqi, his voice trembling. “Do you realize what you’re saying? How... how could that possibly be true?!”

Li Guanqi stared at him. He hesitated for a long moment, then narrowed his eyes and said quietly, “Father-in-law, if you knew everything I’ve been through, you’d understand why I sometimes seem too suspicious of others, or why I kill people for seemingly no reason. When I dealt with He Yuning, I was pursuing a man named Cang Lu. But Cang Lu was only an insignificant clone of the person pulling the strings.

“Then there was Li Shenzhi, a disciple of the Bright Mirror Sect in the Falling Sunset Territory. He was a good friend I’d made just a few years after I began cultivating, but in the end, I killed him too. He’d been someone else’s puppet without ever knowing it. All this time, the enemies I’ve faced haven’t really been people from the Human World. They’ve been...”

Li Guanqi slowly raised his head and pointed toward the heavens.

Meng Jiangchu didn’t look surprised. If anything, he seemed to have known already.

Li Guanqi paused, puzzled by how readily Meng Jiangchu had accepted what he was telling him. Meng Jiangchu shook his head with a bitter smile. “Once you reach the Mahayana Realm, you’ll understand.”

He said nothing more about the Seventh Territory. Instead, he followed Li Guanqi’s reasoning and frowned. “So you suspect that Gu Yong hasn’t truly been himself since he returned from his breakthrough? You mean... someone from above has been controlling him?”

Li Guanqi gave a bitter smile. “The problem is, I can already tell there’s more than one player moving stones in the Immortal World. Someone was behind Cang Lu. Someone was behind Lu Wuhen when the Lu clan emerged and he challenged the Daxia Sword Sect to those wagered arena battles. And someone else is likely behind Gu Yong. I’ve even suspected that the person behind the Sha organization was also controlling Cang Lu...”