Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

The sudden news stunned them both.

Down in the auction hall, the white-robed elder could no longer hold back. He whirled around with a glare. “So it was the Gu clan! So it was Meng Jiangchu! Over a little bidding war, a petty squabble between juniors, you actually sent those two brats to kill him? Meng Jiangchu! Gu Changsheng! Come out and face me!”

Meng Jiangchu narrowed his eyes and melted the array barrier before him, stepping out slowly.

He came to a halt atop five ghostly flames, leaning forward slightly. A cold light flickered in his eyes. “Zhao Zongcheng, I’m warning you. Don’t talk nonsense. If I wanted to crush you, it would be no harder than crushing an ant. As for Zhao Bin... heh. What would my son-in-law or I gain from killing him?”

Gu Changsheng stepped forward, his face grim as his cold gaze swept over the old man. He remained silent, but his icy stare said everything.

Elsewhere, Li Guanqi and Gu Li were trapped inside a mysterious sealing barrier, one as thick and strong as the seal Nangong Xuandu had once laid down during the wager battles.

Gu Li’s expression darkened. They had barely arrived when a mysterious figure sealed them inside a barrier. And no matter how hard they struck it, it wouldn’t budge.

Anger flashed in Gu Li’s eyes. He flipped his hand and produced ten golden scale fragments.

These were none other than the Nine Revolutions Breaking Realm Talismans. Even Qin Wushang had paid eight million high-grade spirit stones for just one, yet Gu Li had drawn out a full ten.

He formed hand seals, and the ten scales arranged themselves into a strange array. He bit his finger, then used the blood as a guide to forcibly link them into a single array talisman. Li Guanqi raised a hand to stop him, then casually took out a heavy black sword.

Gu Li’s eyes lit up. “Isn’t that Coward Li’s Yanluo Sword?”

Li Guanqi nodded. “Put away the talismans. They’re worth eighty million spirit stones. It’d be a shame to waste them.”

Gu Li shrugged, put away the talismans, and stepped back.

Li Guanqi took a deep breath and moved as though unsheathing a sword.

Boom!

Endless lightning erupted. In an instant, the void for ten thousand zhang around them transformed into a Sword Prison.

Li Guanqi’s prison-like domain swelled into a vast field of vital force. A phantom rose behind Li Guanqi, and an overwhelming sword intent exploded outward.

A formless wave of blood-red energy swept outward, making Gu Li’s robes snap in the wind.

“Heaven-Opening Tier, Yanluo.” The words came as a faint whisper.

The Yanluo Sword took on a deep, razor-sharp aura as thunder roared without end.

Gu Li stared at Li Guanqi, eyes wide. The void beneath Li Guanqi’s feet shattered. Under that surge of overwhelming blood energy, even space could not bear the pressure and collapsed.

Crack… Boom!

“So strong! Is this his peak state?” Gu Li said.

The lightning sword came free. A single slash descended.

“Sword-Unsheathing Technique, World Annihilation!”

Boom!

A sword light, condensed to its limit, slashed out.

Rumble!

The explosion was deafening. The barrier rippled violently, then sharp cracks rang out as the array collapsed.

The seal shattered, and the two of them moved in a flash. Their expressions turned grim when they looked at the scene outside.

A corpse lay on the ground, cut clean in half by the residual sword light. It was Zhao Bin, the very man they had clashed with earlier.

Gu Li cursed under his breath and snapped, “Someone’s framing us!”

Li Guanqi understood that much too. The intent behind it was what he couldn’t quite grasp. Zhao Bin was nothing special, and the Zhao clan was not even a top-tier power among the ancient clans. His death wasn’t enough to provoke a conflict between the ancient clans and the sects of the Six Territories.

Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes slightly. “Am I being targeted?”

Gu Li frowned. “Why so sure it’s you, Brother Li? Could just as easily be a trap set for me that dragged you in.”

Li Guanqi walked over to Zhao Bin’s body and examined it carefully. He found nothing unusual. Aside from traces of his own sword qi, the corpse bore no visible injuries.

Gu Li squatted down and said softly, “Let me handle it.”

The two exchanged a glance, both realizing the same thing.

Li Guanqi nodded. A faint, almost imperceptible glint flashed in his eyes as he cautiously scanned the surroundings.

Then he saw just how terrifying Gu Li’s spirit power, fueled by suppressed anger, truly was.

Buzz! Boom!

In the blink of an eye, Gu Li’s spirit force surged out like a raging sea, sweeping across a hundred li of void.

His eyes snapped open. In one motion, he slapped hundreds of talismans onto Li Guanqi, and three dark green snake-skin talismans vanished into the void as he roared, “Found you!”

Bang!

The void beside Gu Li collapsed for hundreds of zhang. Li Guanqi shot out like a streak of light, the Yanluo Sword in his grip, killing intent blazing in his eyes.

A hundred miles away, within a layer of the void, a black shadow paused in apparent surprise before teleporting ten thousand zhang away.

“Trying to run?!” Gu Li shouted.

Boom!

His hands flew through seals so quickly that they left afterimages. The three dark green talismans flashed into place around the figure, forming a triangle.

“Three Realms Heaven-Imprisoning Seal!”

Boom!

The talismans ignited, forming a triangular sealing array a hundred zhang across.

The mysterious man’s expression shifted. He gripped his sword in both hands and slashed out violently. Sword light flashed as thunder roared, ripping a massive gap through the barrier.

“Ugh!”

Gu Li’s spirit link faltered, his face draining of color as he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Li Guanqi seized the opportunity to close the distance to within a thousand zhang of the mysterious figure.

Rage burned in Gu Li’s eyes. With a wave of his hand, ten golden scale fragments appeared. Instead of using them immediately, he took out a talisman brush and began revising the talismans he had already completed. On each scale, the blood-colored runes flickered, and Gu Li forcibly erased part of them. With a shift in hand seals, the ten scale talismans teleported into position.

“Nine Revolutions Sealing Realm, Reverse!”

Boom!

A golden, diamond-shaped barrier once again enveloped the mysterious figure. He struck back, his sword light repeatedly striking the barrier.

“Careful!” Gu Li shouted. “This guy’s at least a late Combined Body Realm cultivator! I can’t hold this much longer!”

Even as he spoke, faint cracks were spreading across the golden array.

Gu Li’s talismans were formidable, or Qin Wushang would never have paid so dearly for them. Gu Li had used a full ten of them, yet they barely held.

Just as the barrier was about to shatter, Li Guanqi appeared like a ghost before the black-robed man.

Veins bulged along the arm holding the Yanluo Sword, and his right fist shot out. “Shattered Skies Fist Technique, Heaven Strike!”

Boom!

The thunderous punch sent the mysterious man hurtling back over a thousand zhang. His arms tore open, flesh splattering away to bare the white bones beneath. However, despite the gruesome wound, the bones remained intact.

The recoil flung Li Guanqi back over a hundred zhang, but the blow had stopped the mysterious man’s escape.