Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

“The Alliance Master… the Alliance Master is dead!”

“All the elders are dead!”

“Quick! Spread the news. Once word gets out, powerful experts will come to kill him!”

Cries of horror rang out, yet many disciples of the Immortal Crane Alliance simply stood frozen in place, unable to believe what they saw. One lone youth had stormed their gates and slaughtered them all.

Even their Divine Transformation Realm leader had fallen.

To them, Li Guanqi’s arrival had seemed like nothing short of suicide. A lone Nascent Soul Realm cultivator challenging a faction with someone at the Divine Transformation Realm was unprecedented.

The gap between the Nascent Soul Realm and the Divine Transformation Realm was an unbridgeable chasm. In their eyes, he had come only to die, a fool delivering his own head for a bounty.

Yet before they could fully process it, the corpses of their elders and their Alliance Master lay strung together like refuse, dragged along by a lone youth.

Terror spread like a plague. The stench of blood filled their lungs. When their gazes fell upon Li Guanqi, more than a few eyes flickered with dread.

Soaked in blood, Li Guanqi swallowed hard against the backlash roiling inside him. Against a Divine Transformation opponent, every heartbeat had teetered on the edge of life and death.Why had he chosen the Immortal Crane Alliance? Partly because it was near. But more importantly, the Intelligence Pavilion’s reports mentioned that their Alliance Master had relied on pills to force his breakthrough, weakening his foundation.

Li Guanqi had arrived not just to battle, but to prove his strength. If he didn’t kill, the chase would never stop. As such, he had to kill, and he would keep killing until the world itself went dark.

He straightened his posture slowly, blood dripping from his torn body, his aura wavering yet unbroken. Not a single soul dared rise to meet him.

This was domination, pure and unshakable.

He stood tall, his presence like a sword raised toward the heavens, unyielding and proud. Raising his hand, he bound dozens of corpses behind him, cold eyes sweeping the crowd below.

Many disciples glared at him with hatred and venom. Their Alliance Leader and elders were dead. Their faction was finished, and their home was gone.

Li Guanqi’s white eyes narrowed, lids trembling. A wave of killing intent burst forth, sharp and merciless.

With a flick of his hand, the Lightning Pool Sword Prison reformed. Lightning swords wrapped in heavenly fire rained from the sky.

“Ahhh! Run!”

“He’s crazy! He’s going to kill us all!”

The wet sound of flesh being pierced filled the air, unending.

Li Guanqi’s gaze was as cold as ice, without the faintest mercy. He reaped their lives without pause.

Within three breaths, the Immortal Crane Alliance had become a river of blood. The blood of the fallen flowed down the mountain, dripping into the valleys below. Only when fewer than a hundred survivors remained did he finally stop, his face drenched in gore.

His boots squelched through the blood as he walked. Over thirty broken corpses trailed behind him, bound in chains of lightning, their lingering presence heavy and oppressive.

The surviving disciples coughed blood, faces pale with despair. Every one of them had their cultivation crippled.

Li Guanqi had annihilated the entire upper echelon of the Immortal Crane Alliance. He killed every disciple who dared to harbor hostility. The mountains themselves seemed to bleed.

Four hundred and ninety-two corpses in all.

Li Guanqi descended from the peak. The commotion was impossible to hide.

Dozens of Nascent Soul Realm cultivators had already surrounded the mountains, and more arrived by the moment. Black-robed figures flickered into view, the air warping around them, yet none dared advance.

The stench of blood saturated the void. It was thick and suffocating, strong enough to taste even a thousand zhang away. The onlookers turned grim. Just how many had Li Guanqi killed to create such a suffocating aura?

Though torn and bleeding to the bone, Li Guanqi stood tall, straight as a sword. He lifted his head, eyes pale and cold as winter, without a trace of fear.

At last, someone broke the silence, voice trembling as he stared at the corpses trailing behind. “That’s Wei Xian, the Immortal Crane Alliance’s leader… He’s dead.”

And it wasn’t just him. Among those bodies lay many famed cultivators who had once joined the hunt, proud and certain they could claim Li Guanqi’s head.

Killing Nascent Soul Realm cultivators was one thing—he was ranked sixth on the Nascent Soul Leaderboard. But killing a Divine Transformation Realm expert was something else entirely. Li Guanqi had transcended a realm, surpassing everyone in the crowd.

Li Guanqi’s calm gaze swept across the encirclement. Every person who met his gaze shuddered uncontrollably, yet more cultivators still rushed in from afar, driven by either ignorance or greed. The bounty was enough to sustain a thousand years of cultivation.

For rogue cultivators, resources were everything. Beasts could be hunted, but the risks were high and the rewards uncertain. Why not take a chance on killing one wounded Nascent Soul Realm youth?

Rumble! Dark clouds gathered overhead. Lightning tore through the night, illuminating the blood-soaked mountain.

Li Guanqi stood above in the void, facing the encroaching horde. Barely a hundred zhang separated them. Nearly forty Nascent Soul Realm cultivators had surrounded him.

He remained calm. In his sleeves, high-grade spirit stones crumbled to powder one after another. On his wrist, Nine Heavens trembled faintly, yet he made no move to summon it.

The Dark Raven Order had yet to appear, and Nine Heavens would not move until then.

Besides, he’d been holding back more than one trump card throughout his battles.

Rumble! Crackle! Bolts of lightning danced wildly across the night sky.

Li Guanqi moved. Scarlet light flared from the Red Lotus Sword as his voice thundered.

“Kill!”

Boom!

His body blurred into a streak of lightning, surging forward.

The hesitation of the crowd shattered the instant he struck. Feral cries erupted.

“Together! Kill him!”

“He’s gravely wounded. This is our chance!”

“Kill him! Take the bounty!”

In an instant, dozens of figures rushed at him, their faces twisted with bloodlust.