A Blind Swordsman's Sword Coffin

Li Guanqi’s aura plummeted uncontrollably. It looked as if he had been trampled under the hooves of some enormous beast. Nearly every bone in his body was broken, his muscles were shredded, and scarcely a single meridian remained intact.

He had circulated his lightning vital force with such force that he had nearly torn every meridian in his body apart.

The Spirit-Boosting Pill’s main side effect would prevent him from using any vital force for a time. It also sent excruciating pain deep into his bones. At his current realm, these effects were even more severe. His cultivation aura had already fallen to the mid Combined Body Realm and was still falling.

Li Guanqi had swallowed two of them, along with a Frenzied Comprehension Pill that raised his spirit comprehension. Even then, he could threaten his opponent only because he had reached the seventh level of the Spirit Comprehension Stage.

Li Guanqi fell from the sky. Two trails of bloody tears streamed from the corners of his eyes as he clutched his chest with both hands, his brow furrowed in agony.

Shen Lan had already fainted, overcome by grief. As Li Guanqi fell, the people behind him reached out together, catching and supporting him.

Wu Bing sighed, his expression solemn. Complicated emotions flickered in his eyes as he looked at Heavenly Lightning Peak, which had been almost completely destroyed. “Take Junior Brother Li somewhere to rest. Find some healing pills in the treasury and send them over. Activate the sect’s domain array! Close the sect to all visitors!”

Everyone acknowledged the order. Gong Ze then led a group through the sect, screening the disciples for any remaining hidden dangers.

Qin Xian’s eyes brimmed with tears. He rolled up his sleeves and wiped the corners of his eyes.

Ling Daoyan remained silent. Standing in midair, he stared blankly at the place where Li Nanting had been.

After a long while, he gathered the torn pieces of Li Nanting’s Daoist robes and silently poured out an entire flask of strong liquor.

Everyone understood that Li Nanting was dead. His life jade slip had shattered. Although Li Guanqi had used unfathomable power to gather the fragments of his divine soul, Li Nanting would never awaken again.

No one knew exactly what had happened, but they all understood one thing: the enemy was terrifyingly powerful. They had begun to suspect that a Mahayana Realm cultivator was pulling the strings, and the methods used against them had been vicious beyond measure.

First, the enemy had abducted several Daxia Sword Sect disciples on patrol and planted their power inside them. Then, when the moment was right, they detonated it, trapping Heavenly Lightning Peak behind a blood-mist barrier and cutting off anyone else from coming to their aid.

But most insidious of all, the enemy had exploited the bond between Li Nanting and Li Guanqi to force Li Guanqi to surrender his sword coffin. That alone left everyone deeply shaken.

Li Guanqi was a heaven-defying prodigy, a monstrous genius who had already reached the late Combined Body Realm. Yet, for the sake of his master, a mere Divine Transformation Realm cultivator, he had lowered his mental defenses and allowed the enemy to seize his sword coffin.

Even more shocking was Li Nanting’s response. He had chosen to destroy his own dantian rather than become leverage against Li Guanqi.

How much resolve had that taken? How dearly must he have cherished his disciple?

When Li Nanting self-destructed, he had not even had the chance to say a single word to Shen Lan. He had never managed to give her the wedding he had planned.

For a time, the entire Daxia Sword Sect was shrouded in grief. Eventually, rumors began to circulate that Li Guanqi had been severely injured, had “dropped a cultivation realm,” and even that he had “lost his cultivation entirely.”

Before long, every clan and faction across the Azure Cloud Continent had turned its attention to the Daxia Sword Sect. Everyone knew that the sect’s current strength rested largely on Li Guanqi, Xiao Chen, Ye Feng, Cao Yan, and the others.

But Cao Yan and the others had vanished without a trace in recent years, while even Li Guanqi himself had disappeared for more than two years. Now that news of him had finally surfaced, no one had expected such a catastrophe to follow.

As the disturbance surrounding the Daxia Sword Sect spread, another rumor began circulating rapidly.

“A suspected Mahayana Realm powerhouse attacked the Daxia Sword Sect! Li Guanqi swallowed a Spirit-Boosting Pill, fought the enemy’s clone projection head-on, and killed it!”

“Li Guanqi’s first master, Li Nanting, detonated his own dantian and died for his disciple... And for some reason, Li Guanqi can’t use his vital force for the time being.”

The Daxia Sword Sect activated its protective array, cutting off all news of what was happening inside. The factions across the Six Territories who’d been watching the sect, but now they fell silent. The rumors, however, only grew more rampant.

Many people also noticed that the friction between the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion and Guanyun Pavilion had been brought completely into the open. Neither side tried to conceal its hostility toward the other. The Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion even issued an announcement declaring that a cultivator could possess either a heavenly intelligence jade pendant or a Guanyun Pavilion jade pendant, but not both.

Meanwhile, the Guanyun Pavilion imposed no restrictions on cultivators. Qian Qiusui still remembered Tang Ru’s teachings. They were a service organization, and even Foundation Building cultivators were clients. Their job was to serve every customer as well as they could, regardless of cultivation.

The Guanyun Pavilion issued its own announcement, stating that it fully respected every cultivator’s choice and did not mind if anyone possessed jade pendants from both organizations. The announcement came exactly four hours after Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion’s, though whether that was deliberate, no one could say.

Many cultivators had shrugged off the news about their heavenly intelligence jade pendants. Once they read Guanyun Pavilion’s announcement, however, quite a few cursed and shattered their heavenly intelligence jade pendants on the spot.

At that moment, Qian Qiusui was inside the Guanyun Pavilion, her expression exceptionally grave. She already knew everything that was happening outside. Xi Yunhuai had gone to the Daxia Sword Sect, so she had to remain behind and oversee the Guanyun Pavilion.

Meanwhile, Li Guanqi lay in the Purple Spirit Paradise Realm as Sun Miao and the other alchemists watched anxiously, sweat beading on their brows.

Buzz!

Two terrifying waves of pressure descended. Zhou Yunqing appeared above the Daxia Sword Sect with a solemn expression.

Wu Bing’s gaze shifted. He rose immediately and led a group of elders out to greet him.

Zhou Yunqing merely nodded and exchanged a few brief pleasantries before closing his eyes and carefully sensing the surroundings. His brow immediately furrowed.

“A Mahayana Realm cultivator really was behind this! Was it a clone? Or a puppet? Hiss... Why does this feel more like some mysterious secret art? I can’t sense even the slightest trace of their aura.”

Boom!

A spatial crack nearly ten zhang wide tore open, and three figures emerged one after another.

The old man in the lead asked anxiously, “Where is Young Friend Li? Where is he?”

Wu Bing stared at the three elders, taken aback. If I’m sensing this correctly, all three of them are Mahayana Realm cultivators. And those robes... They’re tier-eight alchemists!

Jiang Qizhi and Guo Feng both looked anxious. The moment they closed their eyes and released their divine consciousness, nearly everyone present felt their hearts stop for an instant.

Zhou Yunqing looked at the three men with a somewhat unnatural expression. There was even a hint of ingratiation on his face.

“I am Zhou Yunqing, the Daxia Territory Lord. Greetings, Old Jiang, Old Guo, and Old Han!”

Han Yuan did not even spare him a glance. He turned and followed the other two straight toward the Purple Spirit Paradise Realm.

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