Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Li Guanqi and Meng Wanshu stood back to back, unleashing everything they had to hold off the storm of blades sweeping toward them.

Terrifying sword qi crisscrossed the air. Within moments, both of them were covered in fresh wounds.

A streak of sword light slashed toward the back of Meng Wanshu’s head. Li Guanqi yanked her toward him with one hand and swept his sword horizontally with the other. The impact sent him flying hundreds of zhang backward, blood spraying from his mouth.

A ghostly figure appeared behind Li Guanqi and seized him by the throat with one hand.

Yu Qingkun sneered. “An ant’s futile struggle.”

His fingers tightened. Li Guanqi reversed his grip and slashed twice behind him.

“Heavenly Destruction Technique, Crouching Demon!”

Two terrifying arcs of sword light opened like a pair of shears aimed at Yu Qingkun’s arm.

Yu Qingkun did not react. He simply produced a palm-sized ancient seal and hurled it at the sword light.

The seal shattered both attacks and continued unabated. It expanded to the size of a ten-zhang boulder before crashing down. Four softly glowing words were carved into its square, earth-yellow face: Suppress Evil, Execute Demons!A square containment barrier ten zhang across emerged from the seal and snapped shut around Li Guanqi.

Meng Wanshu stopped her backward movement. Her sword let out a piercing cry.

Screech!

Strange memories flooded her mind, and her expression went blank for a moment.

Meng Wanshu vanished from the spot in an instant, as though her body had transformed into a flurry of ice petals.

She reappeared atop the ancient seal, raised her sword, and rapidly unleashed hundreds of slashes. Frigid sword light bloomed outward, engulfing Yu Qingkun.

The chill in every strike was too potent for Yu Qingkun to dismiss. He fell back a hundred zhang, glanced at the ice-covered wound on his arm, and frowned.

Ice-element vital force alone should never have penetrated his protective barrier, much less wounded him.

Yu Qingkun licked his lips, his eyes lighting up as they focused on Meng Wanshu’s silhouette. Something was unusual. Her strength should not have been enough to pierce his defenses, yet she had done exactly that.

Whether his suspicions were correct didn’t matter. He was going to capture her. The vital yin force in a woman of her caliber would nourish him far more than ordinary yin-nourishing items.

Meng Wanshu sensed his repulsive gaze and muttered, “I’ll have Peng Luo give him a proper beating.”

Power erupted beneath her feet, and light blazed from her boots. The force she unleashed in that instant nearly matched a full-power blow from a Mahayana Realm cultivator.

Boom!

Endless lightning erupted. The void for ten thousand zhang in every direction became a sea of lightning.

The flame seal’s power within Li Guanqi had dissipated. His aura was now only that of an early Combined Body Realm cultivator nearing its peak, but the vital force rampaging through him elevated his combat power to that of an ordinary late Combined Body Realm cultivator.

Li Guanqi forced himself to remain clear-headed. Working with Meng Wanshu from inside the barrier, he shattered the ancient seal’s confinement through brute force.

He burst free, his expression grave. He moved close to Meng Wanshu and said quietly, “When is your father getting here? This isn’t looking good.”

Before the words had fully left his mouth, Yu Qingkun’s cold gaze locked onto them. “It seems I need to get serious.”

Dozens of afterimages flickered into being around Li Guanqi and Meng Wanshu. Yu Qingkun moved so quickly that even their divine consciousness could not follow his movements.

Thud! Thud!

Yu Qingkun appeared between them and drove a fist into the flat of the Red Lotus Sword.

The blade bent like a drawn bow. The force tore through the sword and slammed into Li Guanqi’s chest, shattering his ribs and rupturing his organs. If Li Guanqi had not poured everything into protecting his heart meridians, that single punch could have critically wounded him.

Yu Qingkun kicked Meng Wanshu in the waist. Bones cracked, and her soft armor shattered.

The two shot more than a thousand zhang in opposite directions. The force of the blows left their minds reeling.

The difference in cultivation realms was vast. While they could previously fight and even defeat opponents at higher levels, the gap widened the further they progressed.

Their once-prized techniques were utterly futile against Yu Qingkun. He saw through every attack with contemptuous ease, exposing their inherent weaknesses.

Li Guanqi gritted his teeth and called out to Sword Spirit through his mind.

This time, Sword Spirit did not ignore him. She replied irritably, “I told you to deepen your spirit comprehension, but you refused! If it had reached a deeper level, what could he possibly do to you, even if you forced a breakthrough now?”

Li Guanqi could not argue. He simply nodded and gritted his teeth. “I know I was wrong, but now isn’t the time. You can lecture me another day.”

Sword Spirit’s expression was frigid. She huffed. “Be ready for me to take over at any moment. Wait a little longer.”

Li Guanqi gritted his teeth and forcibly endured the raging vital force within him. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth as he shot forward once more, becoming a streak of lightning as he raced toward Meng Wanshu. The void beneath his feet collapsed across a hundred-zhang radius.

Yu Qingkun’s fingers were about to close around her waist.

Li Guanqi’s temper flared, and his eyes turned cold. “You’re courting death!”

His berserk power nearly engulfed the entire void. The remaining Yu clan elders could not even come within ten thousand zhang of the battle.

Peng Luo returned from the void. In full view of everyone, his markings blazed as he split into two identical copies.

One climbed onto Li Guanqi’s shoulder and the other onto Meng Wanshu’s. Without a word of explanation, both copies snapped off their arms and handed them out.

Nine Heavens’ dragon eyes flickered. Using the aftershocks of the battle as cover, he shot straight into the Yu clan’s ranks.

Even with a true dragon over a hundred and fifty zhang long hurtling toward them, the Yu clan members showed no fear.

Three of the elders moved to intercept him. Strange red light ignited in their eyes, and overlapping layers of pupil techniques struck directly at Nine Heavens’ mind.

Nine Heavens’ golden, slit-pupil eyes expanded. The black of its irises bled outward, threatening to swallow his entire eye. Its vast body suddenly went slack, and the colossal form that had been soaring through the air plummeted earthward.

The vertical pupils in Nine Heavens’ golden eyes suddenly dilated, the black nearly swallowing the gold entirely. His vast body abruptly went limp, and he plummeted toward the ground.

The three elders sneered, their eyes gleaming with anticipation. They rushed forward with specially made chains, intending to bind Nine Heavens.

But as soon as they lowered their guard and closed in, Nine Heavens’ eyes snapped back to normal.

Still perched on Li Guanqi’s shoulder, Peng Luo mocked them. “Bunch of idiots. True dragons are immune to all pupil techniques.”