Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

This sense of severance was even more thorough than so-called blessed lands or independent pocket worlds. It was as if this ten-zhang stretch of space no longer belonged to this world at all, a place unacknowledged by heaven and earth, suffused with an inexplicable pressure.

Yet, Li Guanqi had clearly felt those sword strikes cut through something deeper than the surface of space. It was not as simple as splitting a pocket dimension.

Sword Spirit remained perfectly calm, though she had paled slightly, suggesting that tearing space apart was far from easy.

Li Guanqi looked around. When he tried to extend his divine consciousness to probe the surroundings, he found himself unable to do so. The powerlessness unsettled him.

Sword Spirit smiled faintly and tapped the void with one finger. An indescribable aura flashed past, and Li Guanqi’s sea of consciousness felt as though a seal had been lifted. He suppressed his doubts and swept his divine consciousness outward, yet he found nothing unusual.

Still, his perception was confined to ten zhang. Each time his divine consciousness touched the space beyond, the surging awareness vanished without a trace. Worse still, there was a lingering sensation that the world beyond was a sheer abyss. Once crossed, whatever was lost could never be retrieved.

Sword Spirit sensed his confusion. “This place is now a world of its own. A world even smaller than the Human World.”

Li Guanqi sucked in a sharp breath.

He had guessed that Sword Spirit split this space into a separate pocket, but he never imagined it had become an independent world. Could it be that the thing she severed was the connection between this world and the Spirit World itself?

If that were truly the case, her strength was simply terrifying. ***

Somewhere impossibly far away, a resplendent yet ancient palace drifted through the void. This void, even viewed across tens of millions of li, was utterly devoid of life.

A black-robed man with an eerie, demonic appearance sat cross-legged in the center of the palace. He held a black chess piece, poised to place it, when he suddenly paused. His gaze lifted slowly toward the void, and a strange curve tugged at his thin lips. He had narrow eyes, deep as an abyss.

“Would you be in this world?” he murmured, his voice uncanny. “Could it be him? No… that can’t be right. If not him… then who?”

He lowered his gaze to the chessboard before him, crowded with black and white pieces. He withdrew the chess piece he held and fell into thought once more.

Three thousand chessboards just like it were scattered throughout the great hall. Before each one sat an identical figure, exactly the same as the man, each playing a solitary game against himself.

***

Sword Spirit looked at Li Guanqi. Her expression turned solemn.

She spoke in a steady voice, her gaze growing resolute. “Do you know? I’ve been waiting for the day you created an illusory body.”

Li Guanqi’s heart tightened.

No wonder Sword Spirit hadn’t appeared of her own accord for so long, even deliberately weakening her presence. He had assumed she simply wanted him to forget her existence so he could temper himself more effectively. But that wasn’t it at all.

Sword Spirit had remained alone within the space of the sword coffin. Even Li Guanqi had no idea what she had been doing.

She opened her pale palm, and the crimson longsword transformed into a streak of light that shot into his brow. She lifted the hem of her red dress and sat down opposite him, her expression noticeably more relaxed than before. She seemed completely at ease, a hint of contentment in her eyes.

Li Guanqi couldn’t help but smile. “Want a drink?”

Sword Spirit looked at him with faint surprise. Her vermilion lips curved gently. “Forget it. I’m only a spirit. I can’t taste whatever wine you pull out. Every time I pretend to drink, it’s actually quite tiring.”

Li Guanqi felt a subtle stir in his heart. Yes, she was a spirit. A spirit without the three hun and seven po, born of the sword.

Perhaps sensing the shift in his eyes, Sword Spirit looked at him deeply. For some reason, a trace of joy rose in her heart‌.

She froze for a beat, caught off guard by her own reaction. Li Guanqi noticed. “What’s wrong?”

Sword Spirit shook her head faintly, momentarily dazed. “Nothing.”

After steadying herself, she surveyed the surrounding space before speaking softly. “When others create an illusory body, they only split off a small portion of their primordial soul. Even one ten-thousandth is enough.

“You, though…”

Li Guanqi straightened his back, meeting her gaze as he waited. Her lashes trembled slightly as she spoke. “I want you to split your primordial spirit’s three hun and seven po and shape an illusory body. No… perhaps it would be more accurate to call it a yin body.”

Li Guanqi’s pupils tightened. His heart hammered.

“The ultimate goal is to step outside the Three Worlds and the Five Elements. When you merge again, no one in heaven or earth will be able to divine you.”

Li Guanqi stood stunned. Even with all he had seen and endured, he was speechless. The words crashed through him like a tidal wave.

“Outside the Three Worlds, beyond the Five Elements…” he murmured, his voice hoarse.

“The Three Worlds? Does that mean there’s another realm besides the Human World and the Nine Heavens Immortal World?”

Sword Spirit nodded slowly. “Yes. A realm on par with the Immortal World and the Underworld, known as the Reincarnation World. It is a land filled with death and rebirth. The living cannot set foot there. No matter how boundless your power, it will not work.”

She shook her head with a slight smile. “It’s still too early to tell you all this. But from the moment you stepped into the Divine Transformation Realm, I sensed someone divining the secrets of heaven, and you were part of that calculation.”

She exhaled softly. “So… this time is your one and only chance to break free.”

Li Guanqi drew in a cold breath. Only now did he truly understand what creating an illusory body meant for him. He didn’t know who Sword Spirit was referring to, but he understood one thing clearly: from the moment he took the sword coffin from his grandfather, his fate had already shifted.

He snapped his head up, staring at Sword Spirit. “Then… who exactly is my grandfather? A supreme powerhouse? The Seventh Territory Lord?”

Sword Spirit looked at Li Guanqi and pondered for a long while, then said something completely unexpected. “I can’t see through him. Not with my current self, at least.”

The mysteries surrounding Su Xuan only deepened.