Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Chan Kongzi set down the jade pendant in his hand, his expression turning utterly grim.

The jade pendant stayed completely silent. Several breaths passed before Long Hou’s voice came through.

“Carry on.”

The other six could all hear the suppressed, boundless killing intent in Long Hou’s voice. They cast aside every trace of contempt they had been holding onto. The Sha organization was far stronger than they had imagined and had hidden itself far better than they had expected.

Even now, they had not found a single base of operations belonging to the Sha organization.

Chan Kongzi narrowed his eyes and murmured under his breath, “The enemy was actually able to gravely wound Second Sister? Half-step into the Tribulation Realm? That shouldn’t be possible… If there was someone like that, the Seventh Territory would’ve known about them. Who on earth is it…?”

It was not just Chan Kongzi. Everyone else was thinking the same thing.

Long Hou’s gaze was ice-cold. He now took the Sha organization unbelievably seriously. “Guanqi should have noticed them by now as well. That works out. At least there’s one less thing to worry about.”

Boom!

The void cracked apart, and Long Hou vanished from the spot. Li Guanqi observed the other three, who were already engrossed in their cultivation. He then raised his hand and produced one hundred thousand spirit stones, causing the surrounding spirit qi to become exceptionally dense.

For the first time, Ye Feng refined power faster than both Xiao Chen and Cao Yan. Even deep in cultivation, he could not keep the smile off his face. Watching him, Li Guanqi smiled warmly as well.

He flickered, then opened the Purple Spirit Paradise Realm and stepped out.

Rumble!

Beneath a sky blazing with lightning, thick dark clouds gathered and condensed above the Daxia Sword Sect. At the very center of that thundercloud was the Jade Teapot Peak.

Li Guanqi blinked. Xi Yunhuai was floating suspended in midair.

Countless runes and threads of spirit light flickered around him. The old man’s mind was clear and open, and the vital force within him erupted in violent waves.

Li Guanqi let out a sigh, raised a hand, and shattered several tens of thousands of spirit stones near the old man. He tossed out an array tray and gathered every last thread of spirit qi around him.

Before long, Xi Yunhuai’s aura erupted and surged upward by a tremendous degree.

Having broken through to the mid Combined Body Realm, he threw back his head and roared with laughter. “Hahaha, I’ve got it! I’ve got it! Hahahaha, so that’s how it is! So that’s how it is!!”

His eyes snapped open, two sharp beams of light shooting from them. His face flushed red with excitement, his eyes glistening with tears. He looked down at Li Guanqi, clasped his fists, and bowed deeply. “Xi Yunhuai thanks the Pavilion Master!”

Feeling somewhat awkward, Li Guanqi put on an air of deep composure. “Now that you understand it, get to work. I need this array rather urgently.”

Li Guanqi paused, then began painting a grand vision of the future for the old man. “Ahem... Well... work hard, and even more advanced arrays will be waiting for you! You’ll even have more chances at epiphany!”

Xi Yunhuai’s face lit up with excitement. He was so eager that he nearly swore a heavenly vow to pledge absolute loyalty to Li Guanqi before everyone.

Li Guanqi had no idea what it meant to an array master to casually produce an array like the one Sword Spirit had handed over...

Xi Yunhuai’s cultivation had stagnated for nearly a thousand years, with no hope of a breakthrough. But the array Li Guanqi gave him was like opening a door. A door to the nine heavens of the Immortal World.

With that, Xi Yunhuai became the first person genuinely willing to dedicate everything to the Guanyun Pavilion. He firmly believed that as long as he followed Li Guanqi faithfully, one day he would attain the Dao and ascend to the Immortal World.

Ji Yuchuan and Su You did not count yet. They were only honoring a promise.

Xi Yunhuai’s expression turned grave and solemn. “Pavilion Master, give me one day to prepare the materials. Seven days from now, the array will be complete!”

Li Guanqi nodded. He liked Xi Yunhuai’s habit of setting clear deadlines. It gave him a sense that everything was under control.

Xi Yunhuai wasted no more words. He flickered and vanished from the spot, mobilizing every connection he had to gather materials at full speed. The stakes of the array were enormous, and the materials required were all exceedingly rare. He dared not show even the slightest negligence.

Once Xi Yunhuai was gone, Li Guanqi turned to Lu Kangnian, who stood nearby with a grin stretching ear to ear. Li Guanqi shrugged. “What are you staring at?”

Lu Kangnian put his hands behind his back and smiled with satisfaction. “Just watching our Daxia Sword Sect’s nameless, unrecognized laborer break through.”

As those words fell, the two looked at each other and burst out laughing.

Lu Kangnian wished everyone in the Daxia Sword Sect could break through. What did spending a few spirit stones matter? It was not as though the Daxia Sword Sect could not afford it. These days, the sect was practically dripping with wealth.

Lu Kangnian gave him a complicated look and said softly, “You’ve worked hard.”

Since Li Guanqi’s return, he had been tirelessly handling various matters. Though he had not personally stepped out to do much, the powers now working with the sect—the Six Gates Holy Sect, the Tang family of the Hundred Treasures Pavilion, and the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion—were all doing so because of Li Guanqi.

As for the Six Gates Holy Sect, Gu Huai’s face was practically worn out from smiling. In the beginning, many within the Six Gates Holy Sect had said that the cooperation with the Daxia Sword Sect was a bad deal. Now, every one of them beamed brighter than anyone else, telling everyone they met that the Six Gates Holy Sect and the Daxia Sword Sect had become allies.

Gu Huai had even begun to feel that his sect’s Dao Comprehension Platform was not enough as an offering, so he recently began preparing to reactivate the Six Great Stone Gates.

“Right, Song Zhi’ang has been looking for you for the past couple of days,” Lu Kangnian said.

Li Guanqi furrowed his brow. His current impression of Song Zhi’ang was not particularly good. He gave a brief acknowledgment before changing the topic. “Sect Master, have Han Chengxian and Duantai Yiting come looking for you lately?”

As they talked, Lu Kangnian and Li Guanqi flew side by side toward the study.

“Han Chengxian hasn’t come. Duantai Yiting stood outside my door for an entire day, and in the end, I sent him off to handle some thankless work. That old fellow actually did a decent job, but there’s no rush, so I’m planning to keep observing.”

Li Guanqi said nothing further. He trusted Lu Kangnian to handle everything properly.

After chatting casually with Lu Kangnian for a while, Li Guanqi returned to the Jade Teapot Peak.

He sat cross-legged on the bed in the wooden cabin and began cultivating. Lately, he had felt he was close to touching the barrier of the Combined Body Realm, so he decided to cultivate diligently and try to grasp that feeling.

But his yin body’s strength and cultivation were still not sufficient. It needed more tempering.

Creak!

Li Guanqi frowned. Someone had pushed his door open. Who in the entire Daxia Sword Sect did not know that the Jade Teapot Peak was his cultivation peak?

What cultivators feared most while cultivating was being disturbed.

But when Li Guanqi opened his eyes, he froze. Song Zhi’ang stood in the doorway, looking coy and bashful.

Her cheeks flushed a brilliant crimson like the evening clouds at the horizon’s edge, and a breeze swept through and lifted the wide hem of her skirt.

Li Guanqi’s brow furrowed sharply. He had seen a bit more than he wanted to...

“Li Guanqi... I... I like you!”

With those words, Song Zhi’ang moved to throw herself into Li Guanqi’s arms.

But Li Guanqi’s cultivation was on a completely different level from hers. With a single teleport, he appeared at the doorway, and she caught only air.

Whether she meant to or not, her foot landed on the hem of her skirt as she lurched forward. Her loose, flowing skirt slid to the ground like smooth silk, and Song Zhi’ang turned to look back at Li Guanqi with timid, coy eyes.

She gently bit her lip, her eyes slightly red and already welling with tears. Anyone who saw her would have been moved.

But Li Guanqi merely raised a hand and tossed the garment onto the bed. He turned his back to her, speaking with undisguised coldness and revulsion. “Put it on. Get out.”