Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Li Guanqi’s voice was ice-cold, carrying an indifference that would keep anyone a thousand li away.

The coy, alluring look on Song Zhi’ang’s face slowly faded. The nervousness, fluttering excitement, and anticipation of moments ago gave way to confusion, humiliation, and shame. Her beautiful eyes were wide, brimming with tears as she stared at Li Guanqi. She said nothing. She did not even reach for the fallen garment.

A long moment passed. Song Zhi’ang stared at Li Guanqi, her voice trembling faintly. “Why...”

Li Guanqi, with his back to the doorway, offered no explanation. He turned sideways through the doorway and stepped outside.

Whether from the cold wind drifting through or something else, Song Zhi’ang kept her head low, her whole body trembling slightly.

Tears streamed down her face and fell onto the bed. She roughly wiped her eyes, her vision blurring. After removing her rouge and putting on her outer robes, she slowly rose to her feet. Her gaze turned cold. With her head bowed, she followed Li Guanqi out.

“I, Song Zhi’ang, may be of humble birth, but I am at the Nascent Soul Realm now! I cultivate diligently. My peers respect me. What is wrong with my figure, with my face? I just don’t understand. How am I inferior to your Dao partner?! You... you could have at least turned me down gently...”

Li Guanqi looked down at Song Zhi’ang, his gaze cold.

His voice was icy. “You will never be Wanshu’s equal. Not by a fraction. Do you think I care for her because of her face and figure? Or that I love her for her monstrous cultivation and her family background?”

Song Zhi’ang’s head snapped up, her eyes burning red. She jabbed a finger toward his face and snarled under her breath, saying, “Isn’t that exactly it?! Her father is the lord of the Divine Treasure Territory! She was born into wealth and luxury, with boundless resources for cultivation. With that much, anyone could be raised into a peerless expert on resources alone!” Li Guanqi shook his head, looking at Song Zhi’ang with an expression of profound disappointment. “You don’t understand, and that is why you are not her equal. I love her for who she is. Nothing more.”

As his words fell, Li Guanqi raised a hand and grasped at the empty air. Without the slightest courtesy, he tore open the void and hurled her out.

His voice, cold and imbued with vital force, echoed throughout the Daxia Sword Sect. “Effective immediately, Song Zhi’ang is stripped of her position as outer sect steward!”

Every disciple in the sect heard it. The younger generation found themselves picturing the kind, smiling woman who worked in the dining hall. None of them knew what had happened.

Li Guanqi’s brow furrowed faintly. He turned toward the outer sect, let out a quiet sigh, and vanished.

***

Song Kangning kneeled with both hands pressed to the ground. With his head bowed, he spoke softly. “Song Kangning greets Elder Li.”

Li Guanqi reached down to help him up, only to find that Song Kangning had no intention of rising. He did not press the matter and let him remain kneeling.

Beside Song Kangning sat a heap of spirit fruit and cooked meat, left over from the last banquet. He was dressed in coarse linen, his sect-issued white robes neatly folded on a sheet of oil paper, as if he were afraid of soiling them.

Song Kangning let out a long sigh and spoke earnestly. “The two of us, father and daughter, have survived these ten years only because of your kindness in saving us back then. And now... since my daughter began cultivating, her temperament has changed a great deal. If she has offended you, Elder Li, I hope you will be magnanimous and not hold it against her. She’s still young.

“When she was a child, she lived like a rat crossing the street, despised by everyone. Once she began cultivating, stepped beyond mortal limits, and became the kind of senior everyone addressed with respect, it was inevitable that she would get a little carried away.”

Li Guanqi could not help but interrupt the man. “Hmph! She learned to walk the path to immortality but never learned to be filial. Better she had never learned at all! She let even the most basic bond between parent and child grow this cold, yet you still speak up for her. Why?!”

Tears were already streaming down Song Kangning’s face. Li Guanqi’s words felt like a knife twisting in his gut, but he did not answer the question.

“And so... I take my leave. Many thanks to the Daxia Sword Sect for sheltering us, father and daughter, for all these years.”

Reluctant to see him go, Li Guanqi turned his face away, then reached down and helped him to his feet.

Song Kangning smiled, clasped his fists in a bow, slung his small bundle over his shoulder, and started heading down the mountain path.

Han Chengxian stood suspended in the void, hands clasped behind his back, watching with an outwardly calm expression.

Inwardly, he was anything but calm. With a resentful tone, he muttered, “This brat doesn’t even go near women?! Don’t tell me he’s actually... impotent?! Ah... What a waste. I won’t get to use the heartlock venom worm I planted in that girl.”

Whoosh!

Li Guanqi appeared at Han Chengxian’s side.

Han Chengxian caught the dark look on Li Guanqi’s face from the corner of his eye, and a chill ran through him. He forced a composed smile. “Elder Li.”

Li Guanqi’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “If you had any hand in this behind the scenes, you’d better pray I don’t find out. Otherwise... you’ll have to cultivate with one eye open from now on.”

Han Chengxian swallowed and hurriedly said, “I would never dare... I only listened to the girl talk for a little while, that one time! If you don’t believe me, you can look into it yourself!”

Li Guanqi gave him a long, deep look before turning to leave.

No one knew where Song Zhi’ang had gone. Her sect identity jade slip had been wiped clean. As for Song Kangning... no one knew where he had gone either.

Li Guanqi sat atop the mountain peak, drinking alone, and murmured to himself. “Does everyone change in the end? She used to be such a good person. Gentle, timid, always putting others first. But now, she has become so narrow-hearted...”

Song Zhi’ang should count herself fortunate. When she had looked at Li Guanqi, her eyes had held only anger and resentment. If, in that moment...

Even the bright moon overhead lay mostly hidden behind the clouds.

As Song Zhi’ang sobbed loudly in the void, a mass of pitch-black demonic qi engulfed her, and she vanished without a sound.

Over the past few days, Xi Yunhuai had finished preparing the array Li Guanqi needed and built a separate realm for opening spirit voids. Once Li Guanqi used the array himself, it would become the Daxia Sword Sect’s dedicated site for helping disciples open their spirit voids. Its quality surpassed the Purple Sun Pavilion’s array by several tiers.

Within a pitch-black great hall, behind a shattered blood-red mask, a pair of icy and sinister eyes lay hidden. “That was fast... In that case... let us hold a celebration for everyone! Pass the order down. Activate the riot plan and seize the chance to gather soul power!”

Below, shadowy figures shifted and blurred, vanishing one after another. They scattered to the far corners of the world, waiting only for their leader’s command.

They were shaken too. Their leader had been severely injured, and even worse, rumor had it that the person who had wounded their leader was still alive. That was the truly terrifying part.