Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Xiao Chen asked in surprise, “Boss… you’re going to…?”

This time, when he called him “Boss,” he truly meant it with full respect.

Li Guanqi patted his shoulder, channeling a stream of pure lightning energy to clear the blockages in Xiao Chen’s meridians. His expression was sharp as a saber.

“Today, I’ll teach you your first lesson,” Li Guanqi said softly.

“What lesson?”

“Cutting to the root[1]! Prepare the Xiao family to face the resources of the six great families.”

Li Guanqi could never let these people off so easily. If he was going to strike, it had to terrify everyone. Everyone had to tremble at the mere mention of the Xiao family.

Xiao Chen retracted his arm, eyes glinting with fierce light. He had been hesitating, but his gaze fell on his mother’s worried face, then on one of his family elders watching from the side. Sharp resolve flashed in his eyes.

He drew the Divine Blood Spear. “All right!”

Li Guanqi smiled faintly. Lightning energy surged around the Xiao family’s territory, forming a lightning barrier. Xiao C hen added a layer of heavenly fire.Li Guanqi contacted Li Changqing through his jade slip, and Li Changqing immediately relayed the news to Meng Jiangchu.

However, Meng Jiangchu was unable to receive any messages, as he was en route to the Dungeon Abyss with another elder.

Beside Meng Jiangchu stood a slightly stooped, thin old cultivator.

Meng Jiangchu smiled. “Fellow Daoist Gu, you’re about to break through, huh? Congratulations.”

Gu Yong waved his hand modestly, a faint bitterness in his voice. “I have no choice. If I face two more heavenly tribulations at my age in the Combined Body Realm, this old body won’t make it.”

Meng Jiangchu nodded, still shaken from his own trials at the heavenly tribulation of the Combined Body Realm. The memory of enduring multiple cycles of heavenly tribulation… only those who had endured it understood.

Soon, the two arrived at a desolate black desert. The sky was grey, and black sand whipped through the air, blotting out the sun and horizon. Without extending their divine consciousness, visibility was no more than three chi. Anyone else entering would get lost almost immediately.

The black sand shifted along their path, revealing skeletal remains of cultivators scattered on the ground. The wind quickly turned these bones to dust.

As they went deeper, a strange, oppressive aura and eerie energy enveloped them, severely suppressing the cultivation power of ordinary cultivators. Still, for Meng Jiangchu and Gu Yong, it was negligible.

When they reached the edge of a black chasm a hundred zhang wide, several streams of demonic qi shot out toward them. But a few zhang from them, an invisible force blocked the energy.

Meng Jiangchu exhaled in relief. “Looks like the sealing power here is still intact.”

Gu Yong frowned and murmured, “If the seal is still intact, why are there Abyssal Demons appearing?”

He paused, his voice growing heavy. “It has been nearly ten thousand years since the last Abyssal Demon appeared.”

Meng Jiangchu inhaled deeply, speaking gravely, “Yes… Back then, the Six Territories were devastated. It took enormous sacrifices to seal all the entrances. This time… someone is likely orchestrating it deliberately!”

As they spoke, Gu Yong slowly hovered over the chasm and looked at Meng Jiangchu.

“Let’s go. Let’s take a look below.”

Meng Jiangchu nodded. They ignored the upper layer of the barrier entirely and descended directly. This upper layer was merely a visual obstruction; the true seal lay below. If whatever lurked beneath could break through the lower seals, this superficial layer would be meaningless.

Around them, the light vanished as though swallowed by the demons, leaving nothing but pitch-black darkness. There was almost no spirit qi, as if they had stepped into a dead land.

After descending more than a hundred zhang, a brilliant golden seal appeared before them. Meng Jiangchu produced an oddly shaped eight-sided magical device and pressed it against the array.

The two were enveloped in golden radiance, their forms dissipating entirely as they passed beneath the first seal.

When the light faded, Meng Jiangchu frowned.

Awooo!

Several black shadows shot up at them from below.

Gu Yong extended a single finger, effortlessly crushing the weak Abyssal Demons.

Still, more Abyssal Demons kept surging toward them. The dense black shapes swarmed like bats, attacking relentlessly. Their powerful auras made them stand out like blazing suns, and such concentrated spirit energy was irresistible to the demons.

Gu Yong snorted coldly, and every Abyssal Demon surrounding them exploded. Despite the endless demonic qi, not a single one dared approach.

They had only descended a little over a hundred zhang and hadn’t even reached the second layer of the seal, yet the sheer number of Abyssal Demons already sent chills down their spines. Even within the first layer, the population density was terrifyingly high.

Meng Jiangchu frowned. “How… how could it have become like this? The Dungeon Abyss stretches eight hundred li, spanning the entire Taiqing Territory. Even here, there are nearly a hundred Abyssal Demons… how many must there be across the whole first layer of the seal?”

Gu Yong furrowed his brow. Neither of them had imagined these numbers. He closed his eyes, extending his divine consciousness several hundred li. When he opened them again, his face darkened.

“A breach has formed in the second-layer seal,” he said. “Demonic qi is surging up from the layer below.”

Meng Jiangchu’s face darkened instantly. He turned to the side and said firmly, “Let’s go. We need to see what’s happening.”

As they flew, they crushed every Abyssal Demon in their path. But the closer they got to the rift, the grimmer Meng Jiangchu’s expression became.

This was not his first time here. All six territorial lords knew of the Dungeon Abyss. Each was required to patrol and clear its first seven layers of Abyssal Demons every thousand years.

As for layers below the seventh… no one knew what lay beyond, and no one dared venture there. It wasn’t impossible; it was just too dangerous.

Meng Jiangchu snorted coldly. “The situation here has gone unnoticed until now? Hmph. Looks like these fools have been living in comfort for far too long, they’ve become utterly complacent!”

Gu Yong did not want to meddle too much in the territorial lords’ affairs. “We’re almost there,” he said quietly.

Sure enough, when they arrived, a gap roughly a zhang wide had appeared in the sealing array barrier.

1. “斩草除根,” pronounced zhǎn cǎo chú gēn, is a Chinese idiom that first appeared in Zuo Zhuan, Year Six of Duke Yin. Literally, it means cutting down weeds and pulling them out by the roots so they cannot grow back. Figuratively, it refers to eliminating the source of trouble completely, leaving no future repercussions. The idiom is often used in serious, resolute contexts, especially when describing how one deals with enemies, persistent illnesses, or hidden dangers. ☜