Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

The surrounding cultivators all rose to their feet, watching the martial stage teeter on the verge of collapse. The two had exchanged blows for only a few dozen breaths, yet the battle already felt fiercer than any that had come before. Every exchange hid a feint within a feint; one slip would mean death.

From the outset, neither of them intended to hold back. From the very first move, they had gone all out.

Nangong Xuandu frowned slightly. He hung his wine gourd at his waist and rapidly formed a series of hand seals.

Buzz!

Spatial fluctuations surged out, instantly shifting everyone two thousand zhang back. Within a breath, the barrier swelled to a radius of three thousand zhang, and the arena inside expanded just as fast, becoming a massive platform three thousand zhang across.

As the smoke slowly dissipated, two figures stood in midair, roughly thirty zhang apart.

Lu Wuhen stood slightly hunched, a savage wound across his waist that had nearly cut him in two. Li Guanqi was no better off. His Floating Cloud Robe offered little protection. A long gash stretched across his chest, deep enough to expose bone. His ribs lay bare beneath the wound, and the strike had come dangerously close to cutting through them.

Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes. That last strike... the blade clearly hadn’t landed. The sword tip had merely grazed past him, yet it sliced through his lightning armor and tore his chest open. If he hadn’t reacted in time and retreated more than ten zhang, that single stroke would have cut him in half.

“Sword Spirit, can you sense it?”

Sword Spirit’s expression was grim. Her voice echoed in his mind. “I can. It isn’t a fragment of my true body. It’s somewhat like Wrathful Slaughter and the others, yet different... That man carries a projection of my true body within his sword spirit void. In other words, the sword tip missing from the projection inside your own sword spirit void... part of it is in him.” Even as she spoke, uncertainty crept into her voice.

Li Guanqi frowned. Even Sword Spirit sounded unsure.

He couldn’t see her expression, but if he could, he would have been shocked. Her face was more solemn than he had ever seen it. Even when she had released the killing intent that drew out Su Xuan’s blade light, she had never looked this grave. No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t understand why Lu Wuhen possessed her projection. Worse still, that projection had become his spirit void artifact.

“The sword tip... shouldn’t it have been destroyed back then? The endless, desolate river of time carried me into the Human World? No... impossible... absolutely impossible! Lu Wuhen... Lu Wuhen…” Sword Spirit murmured.

Lu Wuhen sealed his wound and looked up at Li Guanqi, eyes alight with frenzied excitement. But there were still things he hadn’t confirmed. “You’re strong. You’re the first to force me to use Ascension this quickly. Far stronger than the trash from the other families.”

Sword Spirit never stopped calculating. Her left hand flicked through one deduction after another, and the further she progressed, the grimmer her expression became. Not because of what she saw, but because she saw nothing at all. Everything appeared to be a mere coincidence, and that was precisely what made it terrifying. To her, there was no such thing as a coincidence. Every coincidence was part of causality.

And behind causality... there might well be an invisible hand.

Sword Spirit gritted her teeth and said in a low voice, “I cannot act against him!”

Li Guanqi’s expression tightened, but he remained outwardly calm. “Why not? If he really has your projection, can’t you seize it with your power?”

“No…” Sword Spirit shook her head. Her voice turned cold. “I must conceal my presence now. No matter what, I cannot act! Lu Wuhen... might be bait.”

She then explained all her deductions and suspicions to Li Guanqi.

Li Guanqi took a sharp breath and gradually regained his composure. “Alright... then I’ll handle the rest.”

His gaze sharpened even as his heart sank. He hadn’t expected that confirming the nature of Lu Wuhen’s spirit void artifact would tie Sword Spirit’s hands. His original plan had been simple: the moment Lu Wuhen unleashed the Heaven-Opening Tier, Sword Spirit would seize the chance to devour his sword spirit void ability and destroy it.

Li Guanqi exhaled slowly. With a wave of his hand, he donned his lightning armor once more. The onlookers felt the air grow heavy with killing intent. The chilling auras radiating from the two men collided in midair.

Lu Wuhen licked his lips, his gaze fixed on Li Guanqi. “If I’m not mistaken... You devoured Sun Tianqi’s sword spirit void ability and took it for yourself, didn’t you?”

Li Guanqi’s pupils trembled slightly, and his brow lifted. The reaction lasted only an instant, but Lu Wuhen still caught it. A faint smile curved his lips. “As expected... Illusory Form. I’ve coveted that ability for a long time. Too bad I never had the chance.”

Lu Wuhen’s lips stopped moving. He transmitted his voice directly into Li Guanqi’s ears. “You really are like me. You snatch, and I devour! Hahaha! Three abilities, Li Guanqi... Your spirit void artifact must be no more than a tiny fragment, right?”

Li Guanqi looked at Lu Wuhen’s confident face, momentarily speechless and a little exasperated. If Lu Wuhen knew that Li Guanqi’s spirit void artifact was actually the projection of Sword Spirit’s true body, he would probably cough up blood from sheer rage.

Still, Lu Wuhen was a formidable opponent, even with just a projection of a small fragment.

Neither of them spoke again. Their killing intent had reached its peak.

Lu Wuhen gripped his sword and murmured softly, “Heaven-Opening... Ascension!”

Buzz!

A mysterious fluctuation spread from Lu Wuhen’s brow, and the sword in his hand slowly extended by a cun. At its tip, a dazzling crimson point gleamed with an eerie brilliance.

The moment Li Guanqi saw that red light, something inexplicably stirred within him. The aura radiating from the sword felt impossibly familiar.

The reason Lu Wuhen still harbored doubts was that Red Lotus was merely a vessel sword. Unlike Lu Wuhen, it had never fused its spirit void artifact into itself. It wanted to, but it could not withstand even one ten-thousandth of Sword Spirit’s power.

Li Guanqi drew a deep breath.

Boom!

Two thunderous explosions erupted as one, and both men blurred into afterimages, colliding in an instant.

Lu Wuhen no longer hid his strength. Sword intent brushing the threshold of the Sword Soul Realm burst forth, and Li Guanqi felt the change clearly. Lu Wuhen’s entire aura had transformed. He was a drawn blade now, razor-sharp, capable of tearing through anything.

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