Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

The rift closed, and heaven and earth fell silent once more.

Su Xuan stood in the void with his hands clasped behind his back and said softly, “Return. Things should stay quiet for a few days.”

With that, he disappeared in a single step.

Long Hou, clad in broken golden armor, bowed respectfully toward the four figures standing at the highest point in the heavens. “Long Hou takes his leave.”

He flickered and disappeared.

***

Meanwhile, Xiang Huaizhi had already left with his people. Li Guanqi invited everyone who remained back to the Daxia Sword Sect.

Even the muscular Gu Lie came along, especially since Meng Jiangchu would also be accompanying them. Along the way, Gu Lie kept drawing Meng Jiangchu into conversation about one thing or another.

Meng Jiangchu was rather curious about the old man who had abandoned the path of a tier-eight martial cultivator to become an alchemist, so he casually chatted with him as well.

Throughout the journey, Li Guanqi remained silent, swallowing a few pills without so much as a glance at his own injuries. His gaze stayed lowered and empty, lost in thought.Before long, the group arrived at the Daxia Sword Sect.

Lu Kangnian led the sect elders out to greet them. After all, the Daxia Sword Sect had never hosted so many Mahayana Realm experts at once. Any one of them could be considered a territory lord in strength.

But when Lu Kangnian saw the group that walked out of the rift, his face changed in an instant. Without even stopping to greet the others, he crossed to Li Guanqi in a single step, and his throat bobbed. After a long silence, he said solemnly, “Where’s Ye Feng?”

Li Guanqi raised his head and opened his mouth, but no words came.

Meng Wanshu gently took over and briefly explained everything that had happened.

To Li Guanqi’s surprise, Lu Kangnian let out a small sigh of relief. Li Guanqi looked up, and Lu Kangnian met his gaze solemnly. He placed both hands on Li Guanqi’s shoulders and squeezed, as if to give him strength, and spoke softly through voice transmission.

“Ye Feng isn’t that kind of person. Don’t worry. He’ll hold on to who he is,” Lu Kangnian said softly through voice transmission.

Lu Kangnian slowly withdrew his hands and murmured, his voice thick with emotion. “As long as he’s alive... that’s all that matters.”

Li Guanqi’s eyes trembled. He unconsciously murmured it back, “Alive... is better than dead...”

His white eyes slowly regained their light. He let out a long breath, his chest rising and falling. With a little of his spirit restored, he offered everyone a smile, a silent reassurance that he would be okay.

Lu Kangnian escorted the gathered experts into the main hall to rest.

Without hesitation, he even unsealed two Xiushui territories specially suited for healing. Many went straight inside to treat their injuries, but Li Guanqi went alone to the Daxia Sword Sect’s demon-suppression grounds.

He looked at the long-shattered altar, and an inexplicable gleam flickered in his eyes. He took out a jade slip and said coldly, “Pass down my order. The three pavilions will work together to purge every remaining Abyssal Demon. No matter the cost, hunt down every last one that escaped. A bounty of one million spirit stones for every member of the Sha Organization.”

Li Guanqi set the jade slip down. He trembled ever so faintly, and icy killing intent flickered in his eyes.

He forced the killing intent down, shut his eyes, and stood in silence, breathing deeply for a long time.

This time, Li Guanqi was truly furious.

Peng Luo timidly poked his head out. “Master… The aura I left on Ye Feng has been erased.”

Li Guanqi inhaled deeply. “I understand.”

Buzz!

Two exceedingly well-hidden ripples spread slowly outward through the void. “Brother Ji, I’m begging you, help me find where Ye Feng is.”

Out in the void, the thousands of spirit lights around Ji Yuchuan suddenly dimmed. Holding a jade slip, he sighed. “Very well. I’ll use every resource at my disposal to find him. But... something has happened in the Seventh Territory, and I may need to return there in secret. You’ll have to oversee Guanyun Pavilion’s affairs yourself for a while.”

Li Guanqi nodded. “All right. I’ll handle everything.”

Ji Yuchuan smiled. “Xi Yunhuai will stay at the pavilion. Anything you’d say to me, say to him.”

After a brief pause, Ji Yuchuan lowered his voice. “This incident has completely cleared You Ming of suspicion. ‘I’ watched the entire fight, and he didn’t hold back in the slightest. If anything, he fought even more ruthlessly than everyone else. He should have nothing to do with Sha.”

Li Guanqi’s eyes narrowed to slits. He had barely set the jade slip down when a second transmission arrived. “Brother, don’t worry, I’ll use every connection I have to find Second Brother Ye!”

It was Coward Li’s voice.

After ending the transmission, Coward Li turned to a richly dressed young man seated beside him whose eyes had gone glassy after too much wine.

“Brother Li, what’s happened? Why the grim face?” the young man asked lazily.

Coward Li slowly rose to his feet, his expression solemn. “Eight Hundred Ninety-Second Brother, Sister-in-law… I have a favor to ask. Help me find someone.”

The young man sprang to his feet. “Brother, just say the word! Finding one person is nothing. Leave it to me!”

Coward Li left behind an imprint of Ye Feng’s appearance and aura before shooting into the sky. Along the way, he pulled jade slips from his storage ring one after another, then grew impatient and simply dumped out several hundred at once.

The moment he finished speaking, every single jade slip lit up in succession. Not a single recipient ignored him.

The corners of Coward Li’s mouth lifted slightly. “So this is what having backers feels like... It really is reassuring.”

Coward Li on his own was worth an entire intelligence network.

***

Li Guanqi looked back at the now-empty Abyssal Demon rift beneath the altar and slowly approached it. Only endless silence awaited him. Not a trace of demonic qi remained.

After leaving the demon-suppression grounds, Li Guanqi raised a hand. A colossal lightning sword, one hundred zhang long, took shape in the sky and hung inverted above the mountain peak.

He believed Ye Feng would be all right.

He took out a jade slip and spoke into it, saying, “Sect Master, I want Ye Feng’s life jade slip.”

Lu Kangnian rose from his chair, cupped his fists to everyone present, then teleported away. A moment later, he appeared beside Li Guanqi. “Come with me. I’ll take you there.”

A short while later, with Qin Xian and Ling Daoyan lending their strength, the three of them opened a mysterious domain space. It was packed with the life jade slips of the Daxia Sword Sect’s disciples.

Lu Kangnian waved his hand, retrieving Ye Feng’s golden life jade slip and handing it to Li Guanqi.

Li Guanqi gazed down, staring blankly at the jade slip. He noticed the threads of demonic qi clinging to its edges, and his expression turned complicated. He rubbed at the jade slip, but no matter how much he did, they would not come off.

His fingers reddened. He rubbed harder and harder. The rims of his eyes reddened too.

Lu Kangnian reached out and firmly grasped his hand. “Guanqi… that’s enough.”

In the empty mountain chamber, only Li Guanqi and Lu Kangnian remained.

Li Guanqi slowly looked up, his eyes red-rimmed. His lips trembled, and his voice came out hoarse. “Sect Master... Ye Feng... he... he ended up like this... because... because of me...”