Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes at the unsettling man before him. He had never encountered such an intelligent artifact spirit. Even the Red Lotus Sword could only express vague, blurry emotions—nothing that could be called true intelligence. But the Map Spirit of the Heavenly Intelligence Map didn’t just possess intelligence. It had even developed a rudimentary physical form.

Something was wrong.

He closed his eyes. The altar in his sea of consciousness hummed, and his divine consciousness poured outward like a tidal wave.

Immediately, he sensed what was happening beyond the barrier: fewer than two hundred of the three hundred Divine Transformation Realm cultivators remained. More than half were dead. Setting aside those he and Xuan Lin had killed, over a hundred people had slaughtered each other outside the main peak.

Li Guanqi glared at Tian Ji and asked, “What is your true objective?”

He didn’t even know what the Heavenly Intelligence Map was for, but its level far surpassed Lu Kangnian’s seven ancient treasure swords. That meant the Heavenly Intelligence Map was at least a spirit treasure[ref]Hierarchy: mundane tools < magical tools < spirit tools < magical treasures < ancient treasures < spirit treasures < heavenly spirit treasures. The Heavenly Intelligence Map is at least two tiers above Lu Kangnian’s ancient treasure swords.[ref].

Tian Ji smiled, flicking his sword with casual grace. His eyes glittered with greed as he studied Li Guanqi.

“The Empty Spirit Physique,” he murmured. “If I possess your body… I won’t be confined to this map any longer.”

Li Guanqi’s heart skipped a beat. He huffed coldly and charged ahead.

Whoosh!Lightning crackled around his body as he blurred forward, leaving an afterimage that lingered for a full second. His sword found its mark, and Tian Ji was blasted back over a hundred zhang. But the flesh between Li Guanqi’s thumb and index finger split open from the impact.

Tian Ji was powerful. Li Guanqi had used his full physical strength, carrying the power of the Dragon-Elephant Subduing Sutra’s fifth stage, yet he had only pushed Tian Ji backward. Even Xuan Lin, with qilin blood in his veins, could only withstand the third stage.

Tian Ji wiped blood from the corner of his mouth, glaring at Li Guanqi like a hawk. “You’re strong.”

A powerful aura erupted from Tian Ji’s body. Li Guanqi could not help but worry. He felt suffocated.

Tian Ji disappeared from Li Guanqi’s sight.

Trusting his extraordinary senses, Li Guanqi slashed horizontally behind him.

Boom!

Terrifying sword qi shot out, and the world seemed to tremble. Tian Ji’s aura shifted as sword qi flooded the entire hall. Li Guanqi raised the Red Lotus Sword’s aura to its maximum, his left hand swinging in constant motion. Sword light lashed out at impossible angles, his attack speed climbing higher and higher, sword force intensifying with every strike.

Clang clang! Clang clang clang!

Tian Ji parried as consecutive arcs of lightning sword light screamed past him. They both fought at top speed, the hall echoing with the sounds of whistling steel and crackling lightning.

The scales were tipping. Li Guanqi was losing ground.

Then something clicked, and his eyes narrowed. Tian Ji reminded him of the puppet in Sword Spirit’s Hundred Prides Illusory Realm. His attacks were fast and unpredictable, and his aura changed every few strikes. Li Guanqi struggled to defend against the sheer diversity of techniques.

Before long, sword cuts covered his entire body.

Li Guanqi threw a punch at Tian Ji’s blade. The impact blasted them both apart by a hundred zhang.

He stood there panting, his chest heaving as he fought for breath. His robes hung in tatters, dozens of wounds crisscrossing his body. He felt worried. This is taking too long.

He hadn’t expected a mere artifact spirit to be so difficult to defeat.

Still, he could tell Tian Ji’s aura had weakened significantly. Such an intense battle was taking its toll on both of them. Tian Ji was breathing hard too, and his body, which had been growing increasingly solid, had fractured.

Tian Ji eyed Li Guanqi grimly, torn by conflicting emotions. He had never imagined someone like Li Guanqi would appear in the secret realm, which had always killed its entrants without fail. The vital force stored in Li Guanqi’s body was as vast as an abyss. Even a cultivator half a step into the Illusory Refinement Realm was unlikely to possess as much.

Li Guanqi clenched his teeth. With a flick of his wrist, the Heavenly Fire Orb appeared in his hand.

He swallowed it without hesitation.

Boom!

A powerful aura erupted from his body. The moment he swallowed the orb, his cultivation skyrocketed to the late Divine Transformation Realm.

Tian Ji’s eyes went wide, and a wave of dread washed over him.

Li Guanqi licked the blood from his lips. His tattered robes fluttered despite the still air, and a savage snarl spread across his face. “Again.”

Battle spirit surged through Tian Ji as well. “Fight!”

He had suffered long enough as a bodiless spirit. Over the past ten thousand years, he had appeared hundreds of times, absorbing enough blood to gradually build a physical form. The moment he saw Li Guanqi’s Empty Spirit Physique, he knew his time had come. It was the only physique on par with the Heavenly Dao Physique—a blank canvas with limitless possibilities.

If he possessed Li Guanqi’s body, even ascending to the immortal realm would become possible. Without that incentive, Tian Ji wouldn’t have shown himself so easily. Li Guanqi would have had to reach the eighth level of the Fortune Wheel Tower just to glimpse the Heavenly Intelligence Map’s true form.

Li Guanqi, for his part, sought the Heavenly Intelligence Map to fulfill a promise. Naturally, his battle spirit burned just as fiercely. And beyond that, he sensed that Tian Ji was the strongest opponent he had ever faced. An amalgamation of every challenge in the Hundred Prides Illusory Realm. He was a prodigy from another era.

Boom!

The instant Li Guanqi broke through to the late Divine Transformation Realm, the Heavenly Lightning Orb completed its transformation into his nascent soul’s second dantian. The Heavenly Fire Orb dissolved into the purest wisp of energy, nourishing the two heavenly flames within him.

Boom!

He took a single step forward. The space around him warped and scorched under the heavenly flames’ heat. The Heavenly Intelligence Map itself was being engulfed, the heavenly flames threatening to reduce it to ash.