Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Wu Changfeng turned to leave, but Li Guanqi suddenly whispered in an extremely low voice, saying, “My grandfather... is the Territory Lord of the Seventh Territory!”

He had no other choice. Sword Spirit had stopped responding, so he had to risk revealing his grandfather’s identity.

To his horror, Wu Changfeng merely smiled bitterly and shook his head, waving him off. “Everyone knows there are only six territories. Where did the seventh come from?”

He chuckled mirthlessly. “No one can save you now. Not unless Yuning lives. But… it’s not looking good for him.”

The old man took a long look at Li Guanqi and sighed. He opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it. His Adam’s apple moved, but no words came.

Li Guanqi understood. The old man had essentially handed him a death sentence.

Before leaving, Wu Changfeng stopped beside the slender man and gave him an intimidating glare. “Even if he’s going to die, the sect master should be the one to kill him. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Cold sweat dripped from the bowing man’s forehead. He swallowed hard. “Yes, Elder Wu.”

With that, Wu Changfeng departed.

The man shot an anxious glance in the direction Wu Changfeng had gone, then shot Li Guanqi a venomous glare. The light barrier rose, hiding them from outside view. The man had an idea. He turned to look at Nine Heavens, licking his lips as greed flickered in his eyes.

He glanced at the barrier, then tapped the air to make the barrier soundproof. He leaped up, a dagger appearing in his hand with a white flash of light.

The man eyed Nine Heavens greedily and muttered, “Heh! So dragons do exist.”

He continued, “Well, don’t blame me for this.”

He stabbed the dagger into Nine Heavens’ body.

Ding!

The blade bounced off, leaving only a faint white scratch on the dragon’s scale.

When Li Guanqi heard the muttering and the ring of metal, he knew exactly what the man was trying to do.

Crash crash!

The chains shook as he struggled. The hair sticking to the dried blood on his face made him look even more tragic. He roared hoarsely, “You... bastard! Touch Nine Heavens, and I’ll kill you! Don’t you dare!”

But the man had no intention of listening. He smirked, his voice dripping with contempt. “Heh! A dead man threatening to kill me? What a joke. I’ve cultivated for thirteen hundred years. I’m a powerful mid Illusory Refinement Realm cultivator! How exactly are you going to kill me?”

He straightened his fingers and drove his palm into the wound where the chains had pierced Nine Heavens’ body.

Pfft!

“No! You’ll pay for this! I kill you!” Li Guanqi screamed.

He struggled fervently but didn’t even budge.

The man laughed maniacally and collected the golden blood in a jade bottle. He even tore a chunk of flesh from the wound. The unconscious Nine Heavens let out an agonized scream.

A vein bulged at Li Guanqi’s temple.

The man slapped him across the face.

Slap!

Bright red fingerprints appeared on his cheek.

The man took a bite of Nine Heavens’ flesh, then chewed it slowly right in front of Li Guanqi.

“Mmm! Dragon flesh is packed with powerful spirit qi! Hahaha! Why are you glaring at me? Feeling frustrated?”

Slap! Slap! Slap!

He struck Li Guanqi again and again. “Look at yourself. You’re like a stray dog beaten half to death on the streets. What can you do but bark? Hahahaha! And you’re blind too. You can’t even see.”

Li Guanqi slowly stopped struggling. To the man, it looked like he had given up and accepted his fate.

But Li Guanqi’s hoarse voice, thick with killing intent, cut through the silence. “Tell me your name.”

The man smiled, grabbed Li Guanqi by the hair, and lifted his head. He leaned close to Li Guanqi’s ear and chuckled. “You want to know my name? Hehe. What will you do with it? Listen carefully. My name is Liu Chuan. I am the son of the Great Profound Sword Sect’s Grand Elder, Liu Dong.”

Li Guanqi raised his bloodshot eyes to meet the man’s gaze. His cracked lips moved, and a chilling voice rang in Liu Chuan’s ear. “You will die by my hand. I will make you understand that death is mercy. I will have you kneel before me and beg me to kill you.”

Liu Chuan met those bloodshot eyes, and a chill ran down his spine. He looked away and huffed coldly, but did nothing else to him.

Instead, he turned his attention to torturing Nine Heavens and Peng Luo. Peng Luo had a special ability to regrow broken limbs, so Liu Chuan sat in midair, collecting Nine Heavens’ blood and hacking off Peng Luo’s arms one after another. Peng Luo cursed furiously, but it made no difference.

Not once did Peng Luo blame Li Guanqi. But he cursed Liu Chuan and eighteen generations of his ancestors.[1]

Li Guanqi gritted his teeth, burning Peng Luo’s curses and Nine Heavens’ wails into his heart. The barrier remained up. This was only the beginning.

The hours went by, and a heavy weight settled over Heavenly Cloud City.

The past six hours felt like an eternity to Li Guanqi.

When the sky lightened, Liu Chuan tucked away his twelfth bottle of dragon blood with obvious satisfaction. He had ripped off more than a hundred dragon scales through brute force.

All four of Peng Luo’s limbs had been severed, and he had lost his regenerative abilities.

Li Guanqi was covered in blood. He had gritted his teeth so hard that several had cracked.

He was covered in whip marks, his limbs and shoulders still pierced by chains. The blood on those chains had long dried, staining a large section deep red. It was the distance the chains had moved when Li Guanqi struggled.

Dong!

A bright bell rang out. The morning sun fell on Li Guanqi’s face, warm against his skin. But within him, a sky-high wave of killing intent was brewing.

The whole of Heavenly Cloud City fell silent. Even Liu Chuan narrowed his eyes and faced east.

Li Guanqi had recovered a sliver of his strength. He slowly opened his heart’s eye and saw Nine Heavens and Peng Luo’s tragic states. His heart felt as if it were being squeezed by an invisible hand.

He looked east and saw an ice-blue cloud boat emerge on the horizon. It boasted twelve floors and stretched a hundred zhang long.

1. A common insult in Chinese culture, wishing misfortune upon someone and their entire family line. ☜