Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Li Guanqi flew toward the heart of the city, observing his surroundings. His grandfather’s warnings about the Mo family kept him on high alert. The Mo family may have vanished ages ago, but this was still a major city. Even if it didn’t belong to the main family, a powerful side branch was still dangerous.

As he passed an enormous mayor’s mansion, he sensed a faint ripple of spirit power from within. He stepped inside to investigate and soon discovered a hidden room. At the entrance stood a stone door, its surface marked with three indentations of different shapes.

He did not want to waste time looking for the keys, so he sighed and touched his sword on the three indents, moving as quickly as lightning. Nothing happened.

He frowned, recalling the tactile sensation from the sword’s tip. Perhaps the mechanism required less delay between taps. Holding the sword in his right hand clearly hadn’t worked.

He changed his sword to his left hand, and his gaze sharpened.

Tap tap tap!

The mechanism clicked to life. The heavy stone door creaked open, revealing a small room with a single shelf. Rows of worn-out contraptions lined it—archer-type mechanisms, their bows long since splintered and their wood rotted with time. But on the topmost level of the shelf, something gave off a faint glow.

Li Guanqi took the object and scrutinized it. Then, he cried out in surprise, “A sleeve arrow [1]?”

It was half a palm in size, small and sophisticated. The entire mechanism was fully bronze-colored, with a shiny, metallic sheen. Two silver-tipped arrows, no longer than a pinky finger, were already loaded in place. He couldn’t identify the material of the bow itself, despite his careful examination.

When he put it on his hand, it felt like nothing at all. It did not impede his wrist movement at all.Li Guanqi shook his wrist gently, intending to fire the arrow. A silver light shot out without making a sound.

The stone wall three zhang away exploded with a thunderous crash. The arrowhead had detonated on contact.

Li Guanqi stared at the blasted rubble, then swallowed hard. That kind of force... Even a late Foundation Building Realm cultivator wouldn’t survive a hit like that at close range. Their vital force shield wouldn’t stand a chance. Tsk. This’ll come in handy.

Li Guanqi walked around the secret room but found no more arrows.

When he was about to leave, he extended his spirit consciousness and realized that there was a diamond-shaped object behind the shelf. He picked it up and realized it was cold to the touch. The character “” (Di - Earth) was carved on it. On the other side, there was an indentation in the shape of a cog wheel.

After some time, he finally reached the city’s center. The streets were lined with towering buildings, yet he hadn’t seen a single soul or even heard a single shout.

The extreme silence forced him awake.

What’s going on? This place is enormous, but I should’ve encountered someone else by now...

He looked up. The terrifying mechanisms had stilled after sealing the ruins underground, but Li Guanqi was still very nervous.

He eyed the towering city walls. Even without touching them, he could feel the chill radiating from the metallic surface. They stood at least eighty zhang tall.

At nearly six chi[2], Li Guanqi was tall even among adults. However, he could barely see the top, even standing in front of the city walls.

He reached out to touch the walls.

There was a faint trembling inside the wall. Li Guanqi quickly retreated.

Over one hundred indents appeared across the smooth surface of the walls. Wooden shafts protruded, clicking into place. They began assembling into large, mechanized bows, aligning one by one until they were all aimed squarely at Li Guanqi.

One by one, razor-sharp arrows whistled through the air toward Li Guanqi, their polished tips gleaming menacingly as they closed in on their target.

Clang clang clang! Clang clang!

Li Guanqi fled as fast as the wind, sprinting toward the distant mountains.

Boom!

An arrow as thick as two fingers pierced through the stone wall before him. After a short moment, all the large bows retracted back into the wall, and the pale-faced Li Guanqi gulped.

His right arm trembled, crisscrossed with cuts. The wounds were already turning black.

Without hesitation, he raised his arm and dug out the blackened flesh. Then, he turned his gaze toward the city solemnly.

How many more traps are hidden in this place?! If I hadn’t trained in the illusory realm, I would’ve died just now.

A brush against the walls nearly cost him his life.

Li Guanqi turned to look at another street ten zhang away. He frowned and wrinkled his nose. His sharp senses caught a faint trace of blood in the air. Taking to the sky, he scanned the streets and spotted a collapsed building in another street.

He rushed toward it. There, beneath the ruins, lay a corpse. When he saw the youth’s face, Li Guanqi’s expression drained of color.

The dead man was a fellow disciple from the Daxia Sword Sect—likely from Heavenly Earth Peak. He’d joined the sect two years before Li Guanqi, and they’d crossed paths once at the Missions Pavilion on Heavenly Pillar Peak.

His chest was caved in, with a dart stuck in his chest. Worse still, a shoe print was stamped into his robes, as if the attacker had stomped the dart deeper after it struck.

Li Guanqi crouched beside the body and released his divine consciousness, scanning the surroundings for clues but finding nothing. He measured the shoe print with his palm, estimating that the culprit must be roughly his own height. Glancing down at his own footwear, he frowned in confusion.

The pattern on the shoe print matched those on his own sect-issued footwear.

Li Guanqi gently closed the victim’s eyes before storing the body in his storage ring. Staring at the dart in his hand, he furrowed his brow and muttered, “Could fellow disciples have turned on each other for some treasure? But this rarely happens between sect brothers... Either the treasure was incredibly tempting, or...”

He couldn’t help but recall the mysterious attackers from a few days earlier.

He put the dart away with an icy expression and narrowed his eyes. “You’d better not let me catch you.”

Then, he rushed toward the western entrance of the city.

1. A hidden weapon that can shoot arrows, typically strapped to the wrist and hidden beneath long sleeves

2. Nearly 2 meters or 6 feet 7 inches