Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

The young man had refined features and a face like jade. Wine had flushed his cheeks red, and his eyes were hazy.

A coarse voice rang out beside him.

“Get lost, punk! Don’t you know you’re sitting in my seat?”

The young man acted as if he hadn’t heard, continuing to drink on his own.

Bang!

A sheathed sword slammed onto his table, sending the wine flying.

“I’m talking to you! Didn’t you hear me?”

Clang!

Li Congxin glanced at the large man with hazy eyes. A flash of cold light cut through the air. He flicked his wrist, drawing and sheathing his sword in one motion.Thud!

An arm dropped to the ground. Only then did the man react, clutching his severed limb without a sound.

He saw the white-haired young man raise a finger to his lips, his gaze casually sweeping over his neck.

Li Congxin raised a finger to his lips, his gaze drifting casually across the man’s neck. The tavern went dead silent. Patrons scrambled for the exits, and even the dancers onstage went pale, their graceful movements faltering.

Li Congxin pursed his lips with a bored expression, drunkenly grabbed his wine jug, and stood up. He patted himself down and realized he had no money left.

As he got up and patted himself down, he suddenly realized he had no money left...

“Boss, put it on my tab!”

The old man behind the counter looked at him anxiously, the brush in his hand trembling.

Li Congxin smiled. “Don’t be afraid, old sir. I don’t eat people.”

He took the old man’s hand and wrote in the logbook. Li Congxin, three taels of green bamboo wine on credit.

Then he bit his finger, pressed his thumbprint, and smiled at the dazed tavern owner. “If I get the chance, I’ll definitely come back to pay.”

He staggered out of the tavern, and as everyone stared, he rose into the air.

Whoosh!

In his drunken state, he soared through the clouds, rolling over to look down at the people below.

Li Congxin wandered wherever he pleased. One day, he might visit a brothel to listen to music on credit; the next, he might travel ten thousand li just to fish for a single carp. He might also crave roasted eggs and steal beast eggs that some beast-taming sect had painstakingly cultivated. Li Congxin did as he pleased, following only his heart.

***

On the road back to the sect, Li Guanqi’s mind kept replaying Sun Tianqi’s sword strike. He had to admit that it had been stunning.

As he pondered, his entire being slipped into something like meditation. He stood motionless, head tilted slightly back, the image of Sun Tianqi’s Thunder Wrath strike looping endlessly in his mind.

Time slipped away. Li Guanqi’s left hand loosened into a slack grip, and behind him, the thunder within a hundred zhang radius dispersed obediently. Purple-black lightning condensed into a humanoid phantom dozens of zhang tall.

His sword void trembled as it unleashed the Illusory Form ability.

Li Guanqi’s mind and spirit shook. The world before him shifted, subtle but unmistakable. The vision of Thunder Wrath falling dissipated, leaving only the raw essence of the move.

Li Guanqi’s left hand lashed out in a sword strike. The blow was blindingly fast. The void tore open, a rift nearly a thousand zhang long ripping across the sky.

Behind him, a phantom figure swung a colossal sword in tandem. Its features were blurred, but it was radiating unmistakable fury.

Li Guanqi sought to understand the essence of the sword strike, much like when he had comprehended the origin of spirit spells. He was trying to understand the state of mind of the genius who’d created the move.

He opened his eyes, delight written across his face.

“Thunder Wrath... what a terrifying sword move. Whoever created this technique was a true genius among sword cultivators...”

Li Guanqi sighed. “How wonderful it would be to live in the same era as someone like that.”

Buzz! His jade slip buzzed. He pulled it out, surprised and confused. “Pavilion Master Qian, contacting me already? What’s the matter?”

Qian Qiusui was sitting in the pavilion of a luxurious trans-territory cloud boat, eyeing the two people before her with a strange expression.

—Two people from the Sun family want to join Guanyun Pavilion. What should I do?

She didn’t know. She was still preparing Guanyun Pavilion and hadn’t even returned to the Daxia Territory. Yet Sun Zhen and the badly injured Sun Tianqi located her and told her they wanted to join.

“Sun Zhen and Sun Tianqi?”

—That’s right...

“Pass them the jade slip.”

—Uh... Brother Li, you’re not going to reject us, are you?

Li Guanqi smiled coldly. He hadn’t expected them to track down Qian Qiusui. They were two mighty Illusory Refinement Realm cultivators. Li Guanqi’s eyes flickered slightly. “This isn’t a joke. If you two work for me, won’t your Sun clan turn the world upside down?”

Soon, Sun Tianqi’s voice actually came through the jade slip.

—You know we both want to break free from our clan’s shackles! After you left, my younger brother told me many things... In any case, I don’t want to sacrifice and compromise for the clan anymore.

Li Guanqi’s brows furrowed. He still wasn’t yielding. “Then if you join Guanyun Pavilion, won’t you feel like you’ve escaped one set of shackles only to enter another? What if one day I need you to make a big sacrifice for me? If you two Illusory Refinement Realm fellows just walk away, the Sun family will go mad. Go back for now.”

He set down the jade slip, ignoring whatever came after.

Cold light flickered in Li Guanqi’s eyes as he murmured, “Two Illusory Refinement cultivators… very tempting. But Sun Tianqi is not someone I can trust. Sun Tianqi, you’d better not cause trouble on your own...”

Just thinking about the intelligence organization he’d asked Qian Qiusui to establish was already giving him a headache. She had proposed the name Guanyun Pavilion, and he’d thought it was feasible, but the resources needed to cultivate talent were staggering.

“Sigh... I can’t exactly use Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion’s money to fund Guanyun Pavilion,” he said with a grimace.

Buzz!

Another spatial ripple. Li Guanqi frowned and muttered, “Why is everything happening today?”

Light flashed from the storage ring on his finger as he retrieved a glowing jade slip. The moment he saw it, a woman with an alluring figure came to mind.

“Song Yunshu? Why is she looking for me?”

He channeled his vital force into the slip, and Song Yunshu’s sweet voice came through.

—Mister Li, where are you now? I’m contacting you to deliver something.

Li Guanqi’s eyes flashed. Are they finally returning the Heavenly Intelligence Map?

—I’m at the Meng family estate in the Divine Treasure Territory. Sorry to have you make the trip.