Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Tang Ru was torn. The jade slip he had been using to contact Li Guanqi pulsed incessantly, but no answer ever came.

Gu Chuan had already realized knew what Tang Ru intended to do. He rushed to the dungeon entrance and stared at the newly sealed doorway, his face twisting with distress. “Tang Ru! Do you have any idea what you’re doing? You’re throwing your life away! Why? Why do you have to go?”

Years earlier, Gu Chuan had incurred a great debt to Tang Ru. Tang Ru had helped him through the most difficult period of his life. That was also why Tang Ru had never worried that his two elder brothers would truly try to kill him. When Guanyun Pavilion was founded, Tang Ru immediately reached out to Gu Chuan. Despite their age difference, the two were more like old friends.

Tang Ru leaned against the stone wall, his expression calm. “Some things have to be done even when you know they’re impossible. Right and wrong, good and evil... sometimes there’s no separating them. I believe this is something I should do, so I’m going to do it.”

His voice was quiet and remarkably calm, and Tang Ru’s mind had never been clearer. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Somewhere in the void, a pair of eyes watched everything unfold. The unseen figure sighed softly and nearly revealed itself, only to stop at the last moment. It melted back into the darkness.

Boom!

Within the realm, Tang Ru dropped his concealment. His full cultivation at the mid Divine Transformation Realm erupted without restraint.

He teleported into the sky and shouted with all his strength, “Stop right now!”

Pfft!Several spirit swords formed from vital force pierced Tang Ru’s limbs and pinned him to the stone wall behind him.

Lu Hengtian narrowed his eyes, his hands pausing over the array trays. He studied Tang Ru and asked coldly, “Hmm? Stop? Who are you?”

As he spoke, threads of dark demonic flame connected the surrounding array trays, weaving them into an intricate formation. Inscriptions spread across the void as the trays shifted into a mysterious pattern.

Tang Ru fought through the searing pain, his face twitching as his blood streaked down the stone behind him. “Me? Hahaha! I’m an elder of Guanyun Pavilion, serving under Li Guanqi. My father is Tang Wei, the head of the Hundred Treasures Pavilion in the Daxia Territory!”

A sharp gleam flashed in Lu Hengtian’s eyes. “Well, well. What an unexpected windfall. So you’re the one running Guanyun Pavilion’s business operations! Hahaha! Delivered right to my doorstep. Don’t tell me you came here to investigate what happened to the Gu clan?”

Lu Hengtian flicked his wrist, and the spirit swords embedded in Tang Ru transformed into chains that dragged him closer. Bound in place by spatial force, Tang Ru felt a surge of helplessness well up inside him.

Given Tang Ru’s cultivation, he was bound to lose to a Mahayana Realm cultivator. Yet, one thought kept surfacing. If this were Li Guanqi, he would have found a way to draw his sword! I’m… so useless…

Before his vital force could be sealed, Tang Ru sent one final message and shattered Li Guanqi’s jade slip.

Lu Hengtian did not kill him. Seeing Tang Ru’s fate, the other two alchemists halted their assaults and retreated some distance. Standing back-to-back, they watched their enemies warily.

Zhu Ying disengaged from the battle and shouted, “Find them quickly! We’re running out of time.”

Elsewhere, Yu Chang’an and Gu Lie remained locked in a savage brawl, their destructive power spilling outward in every direction. All three volcanoes had gone dark, and more than half the surrounding peaks had been reduced to rubble.

Gu Lie’s face was twisted in a ferocious grimace, his body drenched in blood, yet his tiger-like eyes still blazed with fighting spirit.

Yu Chang’an’s stolen abilities could not last forever. In only fifteen minutes, his strength had already dropped by seventy percent.

Yu Chang’an cursed, “You old bastard! If you don’t hurry up and help me, I’m finished!”

Lu Hengtian’s expression shifted. His hands formed seals even faster, and the spatial pulses rippling through the air grew more frequent and powerful, intensifying the array trays’ search.

Meanwhile, Li Guanqi and his companions were racing through the void at full speed, but they still needed more time. Li Guanqi’s face was grim. He had not expected the Gu clan to come under attack during their absence.

More than an hour had passed without a single message leaving the Gu clan. Li Guanqi had also tried contacting Ji Yuchuan but received no response, which puzzled him.

Gu Changsheng’s face was dark as a storm cloud, his body wreathed in terrifying flames. Meng Jiangchu’s expression was equally grim. He had not expected the situation to become so serious.

Ye Xuan was beside them, his face solemn. The enemy had struck with terrifying decisiveness. If they dared attack an ancient clan as powerful as the Gu clan, the forces of the Ethereal Immortal Territory might well become their next targets.

Meng Wanshu watched Li Guanqi with concern and murmured soft reassurances. Li Guanqi was more worried than anyone. Ye Feng and the other two were still in the Gu clan’s safe haven. If anything happened to the three of them, Li Guanqi didn’t know what he might become.

He was deeply worried about Tang Ru as well. Given Tang Ru’s temperament, however, Li Guanqi believed he might stay safe.

Within the Gu clan’s realm, the cultivators from the Lu and Zhu clans struck with overwhelming force, catching the alchemists—whose combat prowess was limited to begin with—completely off guard.

One by one, their dantians and divine souls were sealed. Bloodied and broken, the captives were hauled onto the cloud boats, like lambs being led to the slaughter.

Lu Hengtian closed his eyes and furrowed his brow. He could not understand it. The safe-haven realm fragments described in his intelligence reports were nowhere to be found. Even the spatial coordinates did not match. There was nothing.

Tang Ru clenched his teeth and rasped, “If you don’t leave now, you may never get another chance. Li Guanqi went to the Nine Dragon Immortal Sect in the Ethereal Immortal Territory. The Yu clan ambushed him on the way there, and both Xiang Huaizhi at peak Mahayana Realm and the Five Yang Ghost Emperor are with him! What’s more, I heard Nangong Xuandu is there too. Are you really so confident they won’t return quickly? A peak tier-seven ink jiao dragon can cross the void nearly as fast as a cloud canoe. Do you still want to stay?”

Tang Ru spoke rapidly and steadily, as though none of it had anything to do with him.

Lu Hengtian whipped around and drove a hand through Tang Ru’s throat.

Pfft!

Blood sprayed, and Lu Hengtian ripped a strip of flesh from Tang Ru’s throat. “Shut up. You’re irritating. This place is far from the Ethereal Immortal Territory. Do you think they can return within an hour? Besides, do you really think the Gu clan’s realm is still in its original location?”

Lu Hengtian chuckled. “Still, you make a fair point...”

He licked his lips and snorted. “Since we can’t find them, taking you back will suffice. If I recall correctly, you and Li Guanqi are sworn brothers, aren’t you? I hear you’ve known each other for years and are quite close.”

Zhu Ying cut in with a frown. “Enough. Since we can’t find them, just take him and leave. The result is the same either way! With Tang Wei behind him, he might even fetch us a handsome pile of resources.”

Lu Hengtian made his decision immediately. He stored the array trays, seized Tang Ru by the throat, and shouted at Yu Chang’an, “We’re leaving!”

That was when a languid figure stepped through the Ancient Era barrier as though it did not exist. The man regarded the group with an amused smile. “Leaving? Where to?”

Tang Ru’s pupils contracted. He stared at the man in shock, and a single name escaped his lips.

“Blood Sovereign You Ming!”