Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Sun Zhen was deeply conflicted. He hated Li Guanqi, but Li Guanqi’s strength and ruthlessness kept him from showing even a flicker of it. Perhaps it was precisely the fear Li Guanqi inspired that kept him silent. Outsiders might not sense it as keenly, but the more one knew of Li Guanqi, the more terrifying he became.

Sun Zhen clenched his fists, his eyes brimming with grief as he bent to embrace Sun Tianqi’s charred corpse. With bloodshot eyes, he looked at Li Guanqi and said, “The Sun clan will never let this rest!”

Li Guanqi’s brows furrowed at the hatred flashing in Sun Zhen’s eyes.

The space between heaven and earth twisted, rapidly warping into a lightning purgatory.

Sun Zhen’s heart filled with terror at the sight. He activated his sprint technique and retreated over a hundred zhang, then glared at Li Guanqi. “You want to kill me?!”

Not just Sun Zhen. The surrounding cultivators were stunned as well.

Hiss!

Gulp...

“Has he gone mad? Sun Zhen is from an ancient clan! Not only did he kill Sun Tianqi, but now he wants to kill Sun Zhen too?”

“That’s right! Is he planning to fight the Sun clan to the point of mutual destruction?”“He’s going to kill both of the Sun patriarch’s sons... He’s truly a living Yanluo...”

The crowd’s chatter made Sun Zhen tremble. A sharp, unmistakable killing intent rolled off Li Guanqi.

Li Guanqi looked at Sun Zhen with an indifferent gaze. He’d seen that look far too many times, and those who wore it… were all dead.

A lightning longsword condensed slowly in Li Guanqi’s palm. He looked at Sun Zhen and said softly, “Since the Sun clan wants revenge, I might as well be thorough.”

Cold sweat seeped from Sun Zhen’s forehead as the terror of death closed in. Only now did the haze of Sun Tianqi’s death begin to lift. He regretted his harsh words, but it was too late.

Sun Zhen raised his hand and crushed several special scrolls, but the spatial fluctuations went nowhere. He blanched in shock. Looking around in terror, he stammered, “This... this isn’t a domain space... it’s... a self-contained realm!”

Li Guanqi had practically mastered the art of cutting space. He wasn’t about to let Sun Zhen ask for help. More than that, he was weighing whether to wipe out the entire Sun clan.

After a moment’s thought, Li Guanqi smiled. With Uncle Long and the others suppressing the ancient clans, they wouldn’t dare descend to the mortal world. Furthermore, he had nothing to fear from cultivators below the Combined Body Realm.

Lightning flashed, and Li Guanqi vanished, his speed shaking Sun Zhen to the core. He barely caught a trace of an afterimage.

Sun Zhen gripped his longsword, bracing to weather Li Guanqi’s assault while looking for an opportunity to escape.

Lightning erupted through the space, its terrifying power blanketing nearly all of heaven and earth. Unable to dodge, Sun Zhen swung repeatedly, shattering bolt after bolt.

Outside the invisible space, the crowd could only feel the rumbling as heaven and earth shook without pause. A terrifying pressure saturated the void, pressing down so intensely that everyone struggled for breath.

“Thunder Wrath,” Li Guanqi murmured.

Boom!

A solid, hundred-zhang sword light crashed down on Sun Zhen from above. Behind Li Guanqi, a phantom that resembled a lightning deity took shape.

“Ahh! Break!”

Sun Zhen poured everything he had into his sword and swung with full force. But he could only watch, grimacing, as his sword light shattered inch by inch, the defenses he’d raised crumbling like nothing. Li Guanqi’s sword light, wreathed in unmatched power, devoured Sun Zhen’s strike.

In the final moment of his life, a strange relief settled over Sun Zhen. He didn’t know what he’d been living for anymore, or whether the man he’d been lately was still him. Aside from a general reluctance to die, there was a feeling almost like freedom.

Sun Zhen was torn in half, his primordial soul utterly annihilated.

Heaven and earth trembled. A figure in white robes slowly walked out from the distorted sky.

Everyone stared at Li Guanqi in terror. He was even carrying a corpse.

Li Guanqi’s expression remained calm as he turned to a Sun clan disciple in the distance whose legs were shaking. “Once you return to your clan, remember to tell them everything.”

The young man lowered his head, his gaze shifting away as he bowed in acknowledgment.

Li Guanqi tossed Sun Zhen’s corpse to him, having already taken the storage rings from both Sun Zhen and Sun Tianqi.

Li Guanqi and the Sun clan simply stood on opposite sides, Sun Zhen included. Originally, he hadn’t intended to kill Sun Zhen, but after those final harsh words and that hateful, venomous look in his eyes...

He preferred to remove any threat to himself and those around him before it could grow, even if it meant his feud with the Sun clan would end in mutual destruction.

Still, he didn’t want to desecrate the corpses, so he let the Sun clan take them back.

The young man picked up the corpses of Sun Zhen and Sun Tianqi. As he did, his legs grew as heavy as lead, rooted to the spot.

Li Guanqi paid him no mind, turning instead to Zhou Shiyu, who sat cross-legged on the ground. Zhou Shiyu still looked dazed, but his cultivation level, which should have been plummeting, had stabilized.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

Several figures arrived before Li Guanqi. The elder in the lead bowed respectfully, his expression grave. He was none other than Gu Huai, Sect Master of the Six Gates Holy Sect, a man who appeared and dressed like an immortal sage.

“I am Gu Huai, Sect Master of the Six Gates Holy Sect. Thank you for your help today, young friend!”

Li Guanqi waved dismissively and said softly, “It was just a coincidence. You don’t need to take it to heart, Sect Master Gu.”

Gu Huai couldn’t help but cast a few more glances at Zhou Shiyu. Li Guanqi smiled in response. “Whether he can break through and rebuild his foundation depends on himself.”

Overflowing with gratitude, Gu Huai gestured for Li Guanqi to enter. “Young friend, please come inside.”

Li Guanqi nodded and was about to step through the mountain gate when an irritated, elderly voice cut in. “Hmph! I see no need to invite him in!”

Li Guanqi slowly turned his head. A short, thin elder stared at Li Guanqi, speaking with no courtesy whatsoever.

Gu Huai’s expression shifted slightly. “Tu Sisheng! Shut your mouth! Have you gone mad? What’s the meaning of this?”

The elder’s lips curved into a cold smile. “If he had merely driven the Sun clan away, I, Tu Sisheng, would naturally have treated him with courtesy. However, he killed Sun Tianqi and Sun Zhen on our territory, in front of everyone! If the Sun clan seeks revenge, the Six Gates Holy Sect will be on their list. And it will all be because of him!”