Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Li Guanqi exhaled. He was panting. Xiao Chen grinned mischievously. “Aiya, don’t get mad, Boss.”

Even Meng Wanshu gave him a worried glance.

Li Guanqi shook his head to show he was fine, and the lecture continued. They answered many questions from the crowd, sometimes selecting disciples for demonstrations. More than a hundred people achieved breakthroughs through this lecture alone.

In the back mountains, Ye Feng and Lu Kangnian were going mad trying to supervise the massive number of disciples. Lightning flashed across the sky, gray clouds layering over each other for dozens of li. Consecutive heavenly tribulation strikes rained down on the sect, bolt after bolt of lightning hammering the peaks.

The cultivators watching from outside the sect ground their teeth hard enough to crack them.

Ye Feng and Lu Kangnian scanned the surrounding space with their divine consciousness, monitoring every disciple undergoing a heavenly tribulation.

The lecture was still underway when Li Guanqi’s face went white. He swayed on stage and pitched forward, falling headfirst.

Meng Wanshu caught him in her arms and gripped his wrist, wrapping him in her powerful divine consciousness.

Cao Yan saw Li Guanqi’s body flickering and blurring. His divine soul was destabilizing and starting to split. Powerful ripples of energy pulsed from Li Guanqi’s body too. It was happening far too soon.

Stunned, Cao Yan raised his hand and erected several layers of barriers around the Daxia Sword Sect, then sent a transmission to the back mountains. “Second Brother, come back now! Boss’s primordial soul is trembling. Get here and help us suppress it!”Ye Feng’s eyes widened. A dark purple lightning pillar shot into the clouds, and he turned to bark a quick explanation to Lu Kangnian before vanishing.

Lu Kangnian was just as shaken. He ordered Qin Xian and Ling Daoyan to take over supervising the disciples and rushed toward the depths of the back mountains. He transmitted to Meng Wanshu, “Come to the back mountains!”

The crowd erupted into chaos. Li Guanqi had been fine a moment ago, so why had he collapsed? The disciples lingered around, worried and confused, with no idea what had happened. The peak masters and elders could only comfort them and send them back to their peaks for closed-door cultivation.

Li Nanting made a tear in space and rushed to the back mountains in a panic.

Meng Wanshu rushed over to the back mountains too, carrying Li Guanqi in her arms. Her eyes were filled with worry. She continuously injected ice power into his body, gradually stabilizing his fluctuating aura. But the vital force inside him was still violently agitated, and lightning power kept arcing off him.

The lightning tore through the flesh of her arms, leaving them raw and bloody. Her fair, slender arms became a mess of mangled skin and exposed muscle.

Cao Yan couldn’t bear to watch any longer, but he remained silent. Xiao Chen stepped forward. “Let me.”

Meng Wanshu furrowed her brow. “No, I’m the only one who can suppress it! Contact my father and ask how long it’ll take for the things to arrive!”

She grimaced as lightning shot into her body through the open wounds. Her shoulders shook and her arms trembled, yet she didn’t dare hold him too tightly.

Ye Feng had an idea. He concentrated, and a flame sparked to life inside Li Guanqi’s body.

“Don’t!’

Boom!

The flame had triggered the Lightning Dragon Flame within Li Guanqi’s body, rousing it to protect its master. Two powerful heavenly flames erupted inside him at once.

If not for Meng Wanshu’s ice power shielding Li Guanqi’s meridians, the flames would have destroyed them.

Pfft!

Blood sprayed from Li Guanqi’s mouth. Meng Wanshu went pale.

Ye Feng’s eyes flashed in panic as he realized what he’d done. “I’m… I’m sorry. I didn’t expect—”

Meng Wanshu cut him off. “Xiao Chen, contact my father’s men now. Cao Yan, be prepared to receive the delivery team when they arrive with the materials!

“Ye Feng, chase away everyone hiding within a hundred li of the sect! Give them thirty breaths. Kill anyone who disobeys on sight! Tell Sect Master Lu that from this moment, the Daxia Sword Sect needs to close. Raise the sect’s protective array!”

Meng Wanshu rattled off the orders calmly, and the others nodded and scattered.

Xiao Chen took out his jade slip to contact Meng Jiangchu in the Divine Treasure Territory. For some reason, his messages weren’t reaching Meng Jiangchu at all, vanishing like stones dropped into the ocean.

Xiao Chen gritted his teeth and pulled out a jade slip with the character “萧 (Xiao)” carved on it. “Father… help me contact Uncle Meng. It’s an emergency!”

Soon, his jade slip flashed, and a man’s furious shout erupted from it.

—You still have the nerve to contact me?! You have utterly embarrassed the Xiao family! Hmph! You came back to the Divine Treasure Territory but didn’t come home to see me? Why? Are you that afraid of seeing me? Since you refuse to see me, you’d better not come back ever—

Bam!

Xiao Chen crushed the jade slip in his hand, his face darkening. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. Cao Yan patted his back gently.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine… I’ll try contacting other people.”

He soon learned from Li Guilan that Meng Jiangchu wasn’t even in the Divine Treasure Territory. Li Guilan was the only one who knew, and she’d only learned of his departure when she went looking for him just now.

Thankfully, Meng Jiangchu had already dispatched people for the delivery before he left.

Xiao Chen set down the jade slip. “Let’s go meet them!”

Cao Yan and Xiao Chen disappeared from the sect grounds. After Lu Kangnian issued the commands, a powerful protective array activated, raising a robust barrier around the sect. Seven colorful pillars of light shot from the seven peaks into the sky, feeding copious energy into the barrier.

Ye Feng hovered in the air a thousand zhang high, glaring at the surrounding space.

“Leave the area around the Daxia Sword Sect within thirty breaths. Anyone who remains will be killed on sight!”

He started counting, “One! Two! Three!”

Ye Feng released his powerful aura, and his sword intent carved lines through the air around him. One by one, the auras hidden in the void winked out. His killing intent was no joke.

A subtle aura moved toward him through the void. He unsheathed his sword and pointed it at the approaching presence. “Who is it?!”

An old man in white robes stepped out of the void. He was only at the early Divine Transformation Realm, with an unremarkable face that would easily get lost in any crowd.

The old man stopped ten zhang away and bowed with a fist salute. “I am from the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion. May I ask if Mr. Li needs any help?”

Ye Feng thought for a moment. His eyes darted westward, then he smirked. “Wait a moment!”

Boom!

The space beneath his feet collapsed, and he reappeared ten thousand zhang away.

A golden sword light flashed, and Ye Feng returned with a severed head in his hand. He looked at the old man and said, “Follow me. We’ll talk inside.”