Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

The three heavenly kings were thrown before the crowd like dead dogs. Li Guanqi’s group made a tear in space and departed.

The battle had ended. The sky had shattered, and space itself had collapsed.

The Realm of the Southern Heavenly King had been broken with a single sword slash. Soon, it would vanish from the world entirely. The Southern Heavenly King, Cao Zhennan, had been killed in public, while the three other heavenly kings were thrashed despite rushing over to help.

Six Illusory Refinement Realm cultivators had died, each famous in the Black Sect Territory. Through all of this, the Black Sect territory lord never appeared. It wasn’t because Zhang Qixuan didn’t want to—he couldn’t.

No one knew where Zhang Qixuan had gone. Even his subordinates who’d returned to report on the incident with the four heavenly kings didn’t know where to find him. The cultivators of the Black Sect Territory were stunned by the events, with many speculating that the perpetrators were prodigies from a hidden faction, each as powerful as a heavenly king.

The first one they identified was naturally Li Guanqi.

Whoosh!

A luxurious spacecraft shot through the pitch-black nothingness. Inside, a group of people surrounded Cao Yan solemnly.

Meng Wanshu retracted her divine consciousness. “His injuries are too severe. Almost all his meridians are broken, and his spirit root was extracted. Although he got it back, merging it into his body again will be extremely difficult. Full recovery...”

She shook her head. “His dantian isn’t damaged, but I’m afraid...”She didn’t need to finish. Everyone knew what she meant. Even if Cao Yan survived, he might never cultivate again.

Li Guanqi frowned deeply. If Cao Yan could never cultivate again, it would be a fate worse than death. Ye Feng’s cultivation had been rising steadily, and if Cao Yan were to fall too far behind them, he would never be able to accept it.

And if Li Guanqi were in his place…

Li Guanqi’s face darkened, silently helping Cao Yan mend his broken meridians. He said nothing, but his actions told everyone present he wasn’t giving up.

Ye Feng gritted his teeth. “We’ll do our best and leave the rest to the heavens. We’ll talk about his ability to cultivate later. First, we need to save his life.”

Meng Wanshu nodded. She raised her hand, and a long ice platform appeared. “Place him on top. This ice platform will help him heal.”

She hung an emerald-green pendant around Cao Yan’s neck. He was instantly wrapped in green light.

“I can’t believe this pendant from a thousand-year-old glass tree core finally gets its turn today,” she said softly.

The emerald light contained a powerful life force that gathered at Cao Yan’s Tianling acupoint and dantian, guarding his fragile primordial soul. Since his spirit root had been extracted, his primordial soul had been continuously weakening.

Peng Luo emerged, hesitated for a moment, then plucked half a leaf from his head and stuffed it into Cao Yan’s mouth.

Li Guanqi looked down at him. Peng Luo immediately clutched his head and eyed Li Guanqi suspiciously. He jogged to the end of the ice platform and frowned. “Don’t look at me. I don’t have many leaves left. They take forever to grow.”

During his time with Li Guanqi, he’d given far more than he’d received. When Li Guanqi gave out treats, Peng Luo usually had to wait until Nine Heavens ate before getting his share. He’d broken off his own arm for them more times than he could count.

When Meng Wanshu’s ice poison flared up, he had gritted his teeth and given her a leaf. If not for that leaf, Meng Wanshu wouldn’t have been able to guard her spirit platform and would have fallen into a coma. And if that had happened, the ice poison would have grown stronger.

Li Guanqi looked at him and said softly, “Thank you.”

He took out six bottles of pills from his storage ring and tossed them over.

Peng Luo hugged the jade bottles and said, his voice full of disbelief, “They’re for me? They’re all for me?”

Li Guanqi nodded with a smile. They were regular pills that wouldn’t help Cao Yan’s injuries. Besides, with Li Guanqi’s cultivation rising so fast, he couldn’t take more pills for the time being.

Meng Wanshu looked at the two remaining half-leaves on Peng Luo’s head. After a moment, she took out a jade bottle containing something similar to spirit liquid. Peng Luo wriggled his nose, and his eyes shone with greed.

He gave her a few loud kowtows, took the jade bottle happily, and ran to a corner. He downed the whole thing in a few gulps. After a while, the leaves on his head grew significantly.

“Hoo…”

Li Guanqi took a deep breath and looked at the others. “We’ll treat his external injuries first, then straighten his meridians. As for how we’ll merge his spirit root back... let me think of a way.”

He closed his eyes and sank his mind into the realm within the sword coffin.

An illusory figure appeared. It was Sword Spirit, leaning against the sword coffin. Li Guanqi looked at her, his gaze filled with hope.

“Sword Spirit… Is there any way to save Cao Yan’s spirit root?”

She looked at him. “Yes, but he would need to endure pain far beyond human comprehension.”

Li Guanqi gritted his teeth. He trusted that Cao Yan’s mind was strong enough to endure it.

Sword Spirit flicked her finger, and a ray of spirit light shot into Li Guanqi’s brow. He studied the secret technique. His anxiety eased, and he smiled. Initially, he felt uneasy, unsure if Sword Spirit had any solutions.

“Thank you.”

As Li Guanqi’s figure faded from view, Sword Spirit’s voice echoed through the void. “You can’t keep raising your cultivation level so fast. It’s becoming unstable.”

Li Guanqi nodded. He had noticed some problems too. His physique was in the Illusory Refinement Realm, but he had very little actual insight into it. In battle, he had to rely on brute strength.

“Once this is sorted, take a break to cultivate in seclusion. It’s also time for you to refine your swordsmanship. Right now, you fight like a brute, relying solely on brute force.”

Her tone made clear she wasn’t satisfied with his current swordsmanship. She seemed to consider his sword technique too weak for his level.

Li Guanqi’s eyes lit up, figuring he’d soon be learning a lot from her once more.

He gave her a fist salute and chuckled. “Alright! After this ends, I’m going to enter closed-door cultivation and focus on improving myself. I’m still too weak, and my swordsmanship is lackluster. This is an embarrassment to Sister Sword Spirit.”