Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Ye Feng and the others rushed forward with great concern.

“Big Brother! What happened to you?”

“Sister-in-law, what’s wrong with Big Brother? Weren’t you going to check on Nine Heavens?”

Xiao Chen wasn’t in the domain; he had gone to Ye Feng’s home.

A white light flashed. Peng Luo tore off his own arm and threw himself to his knees beside Li Guanqi, skidding forward before coming to a stop. His voice trembled on the verge of tears. “Master! Master, what happened to you? Everyone, move aside. Let me handle it!”

He swung his remaining arm to sweep the others back, but Ye Feng cut it off with his sword. “You almost hit my sister-in-law.”

Peng Luo coughed awkwardly. His arm regrew in an instant, and he bowed meekly. “My bad, my bad.”

Then he froze, blinking as he held his own severed arm. “Uh... there’s already a powerful medicinal force flowing through Master’s body. There’s nothing for me to do... there’s nothing to do... but I still have to do something!”

With that, he pried open Li Guanqi’s mouth and tried to dig the pill back out.

Ye Feng pulled him away impatiently. “There’s already medicinal force in his body. What are you doing?”Flailing, Peng Luo said, “But if there’s nothing for me to do, what good am I? This... this is basically all I’m good for, isn’t it?”

Ye Feng gave Peng Luo a long look, a flicker of heartache crossing his eyes. He hoisted Peng Luo onto his shoulder and said softly, “Your current cultivation realm isn’t low. You’re more than capable of fighting alongside us. Don’t think your only purpose is to serve as a substitute for pills. Whether it’s me, Eldest Brother, or anyone else, none of us would ever want to use you that way.”

Cao Yan silently agreed. He looked at Peng Luo with genuine sympathy.

Peng Luo hung his head as he listened to Ye Feng’s words. Suddenly, he felt a pang in his chest. Tears streamed down his face before he even realized it. He stood there with his head lowered, his hands fidgeting uncertainly in front of him. So... I was never just a “pill” to them... Haha… I’m so happy… So I never had to worry about having no value. I never had to fear not being needed…

Peng Luo turned and buried himself against Ye Feng, bawling.

Ye Feng let out a startled yelp. “Go ahead and cry, but don’t wipe your snot in my hair! It’s sticky and gross!”

Peng Luo only gripped Ye Feng’s hair tighter and refused to let go, no matter how hard Ye Feng shook him. The others burst out laughing.

Cao Yan looked over at Gu Li. It was obvious that Meng Wanshu had already told Cao Yan what had happened. He extended a hand. He held out a hand. “Cao Yan. I’m the third brother.”

Puzzled, Gu Li reached out and shook Cao Yan’s hand. Cao Yan held his gaze for a moment. “Don’t overthink it. When Big Brother decides to do something, he’s already weighed the consequences. Besides, he wasn’t seriously hurt. He only passed out after exhausting his divine consciousness.”

Even so, Gu Li still felt quite guilty.

Cao Yan turned to Meng Wanshu with a smile. “Sister-in-law, why don’t you take Big Brother back to the residence on Heavenly Lightning Peak? I’ll go to the Spiritfish Clan’s realm so I can keep an eye on Nine Heavens.”

Meng Wanshu nodded, then brought both Li Guanqi and Gu Li back to Heavenly Lightning Peak.

The moment they arrived, Li Nanting and Shen Lan hurried forward, startled to see Li Guanqi unconscious. After Meng Wanshu’s explanation, they calmed down.

Shen Lan began chatting with Meng Wanshu as though she were her own daughter, while Li Nanting sat beside the bed with a quiet smile.

Gu Li was restless. He paced around the courtyard for a good while before gritting his teeth and drawing out a jade slip. “Dad, I found you a disciple. You’re taking him whether you like it or not!”

In the Gu clan’s domain, Gu Changsheng stirred from his cultivation and looked at the jade slip, the corner of his mouth twitching. “Brat, stop causing trouble. Your old man has no time for disciples.”

“Dad, I’ve comprehended the Dao! The Immortal Talisman Dao!” Gu Li shot back.

Boom!

The cultivation room in the Gu clan’s back mountain exploded. Gu Changsheng stared at the jade slip, gripping it so tightly his knuckles turned white. He swallowed hard, his eyes trembling with disbelief. “Son... what did you say? You truly comprehended the Dao? You saw the Cliff Drop? You crossed it? Hahahaha! The heavens truly have blessed our family!”

Gu Changsheng was being too loud, so Gu Li held the jade slip at arm’s length. “Yes. I did. But Li Guanqi is the one who gave me my path, and in the frenzy of comprehension, I wounded him badly. So I don’t care—you’re taking a disciple.”

Gu Changsheng frowned. He couldn’t fathom how a sword cultivator could have guided Gu Li’s Dao comprehension. But whatever the case, if Gu Li said it, it was true.

“Agreed! Whoever this person is, I’ll take him!”

Gu Li pursed his lips and said irritably, “Even if you want him, we still don’t know whether he’ll agree. He was born with an unblemished sea of consciousness, he carries the Lightning Dragon Flame, and his talent in the pill Dao is on par with mine in talisman craft. He simply hasn’t met a good teacher. Think it over?”

Gu Changsheng was struck dumb. He had assumed his son would bring him a cultivator with poor talent and had steeled himself to accept the person regardless.

“Born with an unblemished sea of consciousness, carrying the Lightning Dragon Flame, with talent not beneath my son’s...” he muttered. “Hmm, somehow I feel like I’m getting the better end of this deal. No, I can’t let the other old bastards find out!”

He cleared his throat and put on a lofty air. “And what of it? You know your old man—“

“If you don’t take him I’ll just find someone else.”

Gu Li tossed the jade slip into his storage ring.

Gu Changsheng tore through the domain boundary and shot toward the Daxia Sword Sect at full speed. “No, no! I’m about to lose my disciple! Faster!”

With that, Gu Li let out a long sigh of relief.

Suddenly, in the medicinal pool of the Purple Spirit Paradise Realm, Coward Li’s finger twitched. His eyelids fluttered, and he struggled to pry his eyes open.

Boom!

On the bed, Li Guanqi’s unconscious body erupted with lightning-element power. Laden with destructive force, it exploded outward, utterly beyond control.

Gu Li had just stepped over the threshold when the blast hurled him back over a thousand zhang. As he tumbled through the air, he watched Heavenly Lightning Peak vanish beneath a sea of endless lightning.

Boom!

A surge of ice swept out, freezing the spreading lightning in place. The ice held for only three breaths before cracks spidered across its surface with a chorus of sharp cracks.

Lu Kangnian and the others arrived. He looked gravely at Meng Wanshu and said sternly,

“What is going on?”

Gu Li teleported back to the scene and raised his hand, releasing over ten thousand talismans at once. They blazed with spirit light, and layer upon layer of sealing barriers enveloped Heavenly Lightning Peak.

Meng Wanshu relocated every disciple of Heavenly Lightning Peak out of the area, then exhaled a breath of cold air and walked slowly toward the room.

Inside the ice, Li Guanqi’s body trembled, the lightning within threatening to shatter its way out.

Meng Wanshu pressed her hand to the ice. Then she spun sharply, looking up at Coward Li in midair, a white-haired figure with only a weak Golden Core Realm aura.

Icy killing intent flashed through Meng Wanshu’s eyes. Guanqi’s divine soul is incomplete.