Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

The group of five left the Great Profound Sword Sect openly, slapping the sect in the face. Yet, He Yuanting could say nothing. Against Meng Wanshu and Chu Jingze, he was powerless. He Yuanting wasn’t as open-minded as one might imagine. On the contrary, he was chauvinistic and obsessed with appearances.

Inside the grand hall, He Yuning lay on the bed with his eyes closed, a single tear slipping from the corner of his eye. He had already awakened. He’d heard everything that occurred clearly and distinctly, but there was nothing he could do.

He Yuning deeply disliked his father’s temperament. If not for that, he wouldn’t have chosen to travel the continent at the age when he should have been learning about the sect’s affairs.

Li Guanqi and He Yuning had similar dispositions—upright and incorruptible, fiercely loyal to friends, and merciless to enemies. However, with Li Guanqi’s departure, the odds of them ever meeting again were slim.

***

The people who had left the Great Profound Sword Sect were hardly affected.

Chu Jingze chuckled. “Young Master Li, Miss Meng, now that things are sorted here, this old man will take his leave. I have plenty of other matters to attend to.”

A beautifully crafted storage ring appeared in his palm, shimmering with purple light throughout. It was clearly no ordinary item. Storage rings of this quality possessed vast internal spaces.

He handed it to Li Guanqi with a smile. “Young Master Li, this is the portion that belongs to you. I happened to have it with me.”

Meng Wanshu was momentarily confused. Why would someone of Chu Jingze’s status personally deliver a storage ring to Li Guanqi? He was the leader of the Taiqing Territory’s Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion, after all.Li Guanqi’s eyes lit up. He took the ring with both hands and laughed. “Elder Chu, you’ve gone through a lot of trouble. I’m not in a hurry. We’re all one family. There’s no need to be so formal.”

Though his words sounded mildly reproachful, his hands moved without the slightest delay. By the time he finished speaking, the ring was already firmly in his grasp.

Meng Wanshu covered her mouth and laughed softly. Li Guanqi really was the same as when he was little.

The only difference was that after stepping onto the path of cultivation, he’d become more decisive and ruthless in action. She herself had changed in much the same way. On the path of cultivation, such things were unavoidable. Without a ruthless heart, survival was impossible.

A sweep of his divine consciousness revealed more than eighty thousand mid-grade spirit stones inside.

Even Li Guanqi was startled. He raised an eyebrow. “Is this from just this period?”

Chu Jingze smiled and nodded, glancing at Meng Wanshu.

“It’s fine,” Li Guanqi said. “You can say it.”

Only then did Chu Jingze nod slightly. “Yes. This is only the profit from this period. Once the formation is fully refined and a formation spirit has formed, the items can be sent back to Young Master Li.”

Li Guanqi smiled broadly, his eyes curving with laughter. “Hahaha, no rush, no rush.”

Chu Jingze nodded with a smile. With a light tap of his finger, he tore open a spatial rift about a zhang wide and cupped his hands. “This old man will take his leave, everyone. Daoist Li, when you have time, come sit and chat with me.”

Li Changqing returned the salute with a grin. “Then Elder Chu better prepare some good wine next time, hahaha.”

After Chu Jingze left, Meng Wanshu said, “Let’s go to my cloud boat. I don’t feel like staying at the city lord’s residence anymore.”

Li Guanqi nodded with a smile. Meng Wanshu was clearly in a foul mood because of the city lord.

Her cloud boat was docked beside Heavenly Cloud City. Many array masters in luxurious white robes were busy maintaining the arrays, several of them working on embedding spirit stones into the boat’s formations.

Li Guanqi glanced at the array, a strange look on his face as he pointed at the stones. “High-grade spirit stones?”

Meng Wanshu glanced at them and replied, “Yes. We usually use mid-grade ones, but crossing territories has risks, so they were replaced with high-grade spirit stones.”

Her beautiful eyes sparkled with mischief. “What, are you worried I’ll squander my spirit stones? Why don’t you help pay for them?”

Li Guanqi raised his hand and passed her the storage ring from earlier. “Here. Take it.”

Surprise flashed in Meng Wanshu’s eyes. She didn’t know how many spirit stones were inside, but for a pavilion master at the Combined Body Realm to deliver it personally, it had to be an enormous sum. Yet Li Guanqi handed it over without the slightest hesitation.

Meng Wanshu reached out to touch the ring, grinning wickedly. “Then I’m taking it, alright?”

Li Guanqi laughed. “Take it. You’re the only person who can take advantage of me like this. If you don’t, you’re losing out.”

Meng Wanshu took the ring, glanced down at it, and pursed her lips. She stuffed it back into his hand and turned away. “I don’t want it. My father has plenty of money. The high-grade spirit stones for the cloud boat are nothing to me. It’s not worth you spending yours.”

Li Guanqi thought about it and realized she was right. Her father could casually pull out hundreds of magic treasures and several ancient treasures, so he clearly didn’t lack resources. Back in the village, Li Guanqi never would have guessed it. Every day, the man was scolded like a child, clearly terrified of his wife.

How did someone like him suddenly turn into the Divine Treasure Territory Lord?

Then again, when Li Guanqi thought of his own grandfather’s identity, he shrugged. It seemed normal after all.

The group boarded the cloud boat and went straight to the topmost level. Li Changqing, reading the room perfectly, turned around and left the hall, even closing the door behind him.

Nine Heavens coiled around Li Guanqi’s wrist and fell into slumber. It had just broken through and still needed time to consolidate its power.

As for Peng Luo, Li Guanqi had already stuffed it into the sword box.

Sitting across from the two of them, Ye Feng felt increasingly uncomfortable. He stood up. “Um, Boss, Sister-in-law, I’ll head out for some air. You two chat.”

He bolted out the door like the wind before they could say anything. Only Li Guanqi and Meng Wanshu remained, and the atmosphere turned ambiguous. The two sat side by side, neither speaking.

Li Guanqi sat stiffly upright, stealing glances at Meng Wanshu’s flawless profile. Her cheeks burned as she twisted the corner of her clothes in her hands, unsure what to say. A faint blush seemed to spread across her snow-white shoulders.

They spoke at the same time.

“You—”

“You—”

Li Guanqi turned to look at Meng Wanshu’s lovely face. Their gazes met, and both burst into laughter. In that moment, it felt as though they had returned to those carefree days of the past.