Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

When Meng Wanshu saw that the remaining three still hadn’t moved, she gave a small smile and stepped forward. “If you’re not going to do anything, I’ll go first.”

The men standing beside Cao Zhennan were old acquaintances of his. They cursed their luck, but they could no longer back down.

One of them had been staring at Meng Wanshu for some time. He looked like a lecher, with a garlic-bulb nose, drooping eyes, and sunken cheeks. Even his gold-threaded python robes[1] couldn’t mask his lecherous air.

“Hehe. Don’t kill the girl. She’s so tender... I’ll savor her later. Even her veil can’t hide that beauty. I don’t get chances like this often.”

Meng Wanshu’s glare turned cold with killing intent. She looked at him like an ant she could easily squash.

The other two men exchanged smirks, greed flickering in their eyes. But then, a youth with a half-ghostly face appeared in front of them and raised his sword. The strike came too quickly. They saw it, but they couldn’t dodge.

One of them retreated as fast as he could, but the blade still sliced him apart from shoulder to chest.

“Anyone who insults my sister-in-law deserves to die!” Ye Feng growled.

Before he could follow up, Jiang Ting’s sword flashed at his back. Ye Feng spun to block, and the two locked blades once more.

Far away, in a deep crater among the mountains, a fiery-red figure shot up from the ground. The battlefields had separated, each claiming its own domain. The lecher stood frozen, chest heaving. His eyes trembled with shock. If he’d moved even a fraction slower, he’d be dead.He realized that Jiang Ting, who had been very arrogant earlier, had fallen silent too. And if the lecher’s eyes weren’t deceiving him, the golden-haired youth was completely unscathed, while Jiang Ting bore sword cuts across his neck and chest.

The lecher swallowed hard.

“Wanshu,” Li Guanqi said softly, “leave this one to me.”

Meng Wanshu turned to glance at the calm Li Guanqi, then nodded. With a tap of her foot, ice spread across space, instantly trapping the other two surrounding enemies. The three of them vanished. An Illusory Refinement Realm cultivator’s domain could be hidden in the void, compressed to the size of a speck of dust. No one outside could perceive what happened within.

However, every onlooker understood that anyone in those domains was out for blood. Countless eyes watched the three figures suspended in mid-air, uncertain of what would unfold.

Cao Zhennan gripped Cao Yan tightly, terrified of losing his only insurance. Li Guanqi’s gaze swept past the lecher. Goosebumps erupted across the man’s skin. He felt like a helpless creature standing before a huge, ancient demon.

Li Guanqi tapped the air with his foot. The falling rain crackled with electricity, and electrified rainwater poured from the sky. Then the man and Li Guanqi disappeared.

When the lecher opened his eyes again, he found himself trapped in a prison of lightning. He lashed out in a panic, unleashing several rays of sword light.

The lotuses on Li Guanqi’s Red Lotus Sword bloomed, bright crimson light spilling forth. He murmured, “Red Lotus Heavenly Dance... Annihilation of Myriad Beings... Heavenly Destruction... Crouching Demon!”

While Cao Zhennan was still searching for the boundary of Li Guanqi’s domain, a terrifying sword light appeared behind him. Space tore open along its path, and every mountain in its way split in two.

Everyone who sensed that sword light felt the suffocating weight of death. Cao Zhennan slashed nine times but was still driven back more than a thousand zhang. Li Guanqi’s sword light had even warped the surrounding space.

Li Guanqi stepped out. Drops of blood dotted his white robes like blooming plum blossoms. He remained expressionless, sword in his left hand, a bloody human head in his right. His five fingers gripped the skull like an eagle’s talons around its prey. He squeezed and crushed it.

He looked up at Cao Zhennan, who was far away, and murmured, “Time to settle your debts.”

Cao Zhennan turned pale. Terror filled his eyes. Li Guanqi had killed the lecher in three breaths. The lecher may have had a vile personality, but he was still a true mid Illusory Refinement Realm cultivator—a man qualified to found his own sect in any of the six territories. Yet he hadn’t even been able to flee.

The world fell silent. Only the sound of pouring rain remained. The onlookers were terrified. Stomachs churned. Some held their breath, faces twitching. They suddenly thought that perhaps they didn’t need to stay and watch after all.

Many scattered and fled, terrified of being dragged into the crossfire. The powerful observers lurking in the shadows drew sharp breaths. They tried to put themselves in Li Guanqi’s position. They understood that killing an Illusory Refinement Realm cultivator was no simple matter, especially across a minor realm gap. Every cultivator who reached that realm was a genius. They might vary in combat ability, but all of them had tricks to preserve their lives.

The higher a cultivator’s level, the harder they were to kill. But this blind swordsman had done it in three breaths. It was… utterly terrifying.

After crushing the skull, Li Guanqi gazed calmly at the distant Cao Zhennan. The Southern Heavenly King had become a joke. Li Guanqi’s group had proven itself the strongest present.

The golden-haired youth had shattered a domain boundary with a single slash.

The veiled girl had turned Cao Zhennan’s full-force attack to dust with a casual flick of her hand, making him look like a child.

The spear-wielding youth, who had drawn little attention, had pierced Cao Zhennan and lifted him like a dead dog.

Their identities remained a mystery, but everyone knew that news of today’s events would spread across the entire Black Sect Territory by the end of the day.

Li Guanqi glared coldly at Cao Zhennan. “Time to settle your debts.”

1. Python robes (mǎngpáo) were formal attire for high-ranking officials in imperial China. The mǎng is a four-clawed, dragon-like creature that distinguishes officials from the emperor, the only one allowed to wear the five-clawed dragon. ☜