Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Li Guanqi sat cross-legged on the ground, taking deep breaths. As the spirit stones around him gradually turned to dust, he opened his eyes. He exhaled, rose, and a brief flash of light ran over him, like a treasured sword catching the sun before slipping back into its sheath. Vital force moved through his body, and there was a constant rumbling of thunder within.

He shook dust and dirt off himself, put on his robes, and tapped the air once.

Buzz!

A long spatial tear opened, and Li Guanqi stepped through.

Tang Ru had prepared everything. The old man looked very pale and otherwise normal, but up close, his eyes were losing focus. Tang Ru’s darkened face showed he’d already confirmed who the culprit was.

Before Li Guanqi entered, he had spotted the crowd gathering outside the Hundred Treasures Pavilion. There were far more shoppers than on an ordinary morning, especially since the sky was just beginning to brighten.

“This matter spread all over Wuzi City in the last few days,” Tang Ru said quietly. “I’ve made the evidence public, but with my second brother’s influence, many still refuse to believe it.”

He glanced at the old man. “He can’t die here in Wuzi City. Brother Li, I’m trusting you to handle this.”

Tang Ru pressed the storage ring he’d prepared into Li Guanqi’s hand, effectively placing his entire livelihood in Li Guanqi’s care.

Li Guanqi took a deep breath and met his eyes. “I’ll take it.”He wrapped a thread of lightning force around the old man, slung him across his back, and walked out of the Hundred Treasures Pavilion.

The crowd stared in disbelief as a youth carried an old man, who was shouting about the money he was supposedly owed. Word had spread that the old man had forged the loan document. The onlookers figured he’d been roughed up during his time at the Hundred Treasures Pavilion.

When Li Guanqi stepped into the open, a large stone sword coffin materialized on his back. Many cultivators’ eyes widened; that coffin was unmistakable.

A youth in fine robes swallowed hard. There was a jade pendant hanging from his waist, which belonged to a sect in the Northern Territory.

He pointed at Li Guanqi and muttered bitterly, “That’s Li Guanqi of the Daxia Sword Sect. Why is he here? Shouldn’t he…”

He wasn’t the only one who recognized him. Even those who’d never seen Li Guanqi had heard of him. His sword coffin and pure white eyes made him easy to recognize.

Li Guanqi calmly flew with the old man from the city center to the eastern side of the city.

Meanwhile, a youth with cropped hair flew slowly from the eastern side of the city to the city center, hands tucked behind his back while wearing a strange smile.

Li Guanqi’s departure attracted a lot of attention. A few bold onlookers even flew after him secretly, curious as to why he would leave so conspicuously with the old man.

Some people had their own ideas about it.

“Tsk, the Hundred Treasures Pavilion is being cautious. Even after proving their innocence, they’re safely escorting the old man away.”

“Can they afford not to? I doubt the young boss of the pavilion is a fool.”

As the onlookers discussed among themselves, Li Guanqi suddenly looked up at the horizon. Everyone followed his gaze, but they saw nothing until a dozen breaths later, when a black dot appeared in the distant sky.

Li Guanqi recognized the black dot. It was the youth who’d walked past him at the hotel.

He smirked, stepped forward, and teleported to the cloaked youth.

The youth looked at the old man bound in a rope of lightning, then back at Li Guanqi. “I didn’t expect it to be you.”

Li Guanqi shrugged. “No shit.”

He reached out and unleashed a surge of lightning force, sealing the old man in a lightning prison.

The youth grinned and wagged a finger. “You’re famous up north, a disciple of the Daxia Sword Sect. What was your name again…”

He scratched his head for show. “Oh. Li Guanqi, right?”

He snorted and laughed. “You must think you’re the shit, don’t you? Even though the most impressive thing you’ve managed was killing a few Foundation Building Realm and Golden Core Realm trash.”

Li Guanqi frowned, not knowing what the youth was alluding to. The youth spoke with obvious contempt. He met the youth’s gaze and asked teasingly, “Well, what exactly counts as shocking to you?”

Li Guanqi paused and fixed the youth with a hard stare. “What if I killed you? Would that be shocking? Would it shock the whole city?”

The youth stopped laughing. Beneath his hood, his eyes locked straight on Li Guanqi. He snorted. “Kill me? If you could actually kill me… then yes, you’d qualify. You’d even get noticed by those above me. Remember the name of the man who will kill you: Lu Yi. Today I will—”

Boom!

Lu Yi’s vision blurred, and Li Guanqi disappeared. A cold, overwhelming sense of death slammed into him, and goosebumps rose all over his body.

Without thinking, Lu Yi instinctively spun around, raising his arms to protect himself.

Dong!

A dull, earth-yellow shield shimmered across Lu Yi’s body, but it shattered under Li Guanqi’s fist.

Boom!

Lu Yi flew backward like a cannonball. Both his arms cracked audibly. Cold sweat dripped from his face.

That had been a single punch. One ordinary punch from Li Guanqi had been enough to break both his arms.

The space around Lu Yi warped, and several pitch-black spatial tears opened.

Li Guanqi stood in place and picked at his ear with a finger. “Big talker for someone so weak. Come on. I think another punch will finish you.”