Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Faint traces of lightning qi leaked from the corners of Li Guanqi’s mouth, and a barely perceptible flash of crimson flickered in the depths of his white eyes.

Boom!

“Heaven-Opening Tier, Red Lotus!”

His sword spirit void surged to full power, and Li Guanqi brought his sword crashing down.

Thump!

Li Guanqi shot backward, spinning through the air. His feet carved two long black cuts across the void before he finally stopped several hundred zhang away.

He fought down his churning blood and qi as a sharp gleam flashed in his eyes. He murmured under his breath, “If that’s all the power you have, you’re not leaving this place!”

Boom!

The fire mark on Li Guanqi’s forehead blazed to life, and his aura climbed yet again.

Li Guanqi unleashed the full force of his mid Combined Body Realm cultivation. With his sword spirit void active, his strength rivaled that of a late Combined Body Realm cultivator. It was one of the reasons he had been able to go toe-to-toe with Ye Feng when he’d succumbed to the Ghost Arm.On top of that, Sword Spirit’s power was flowing through his veins.

The flame mark on his forehead suddenly blazed to life, shattering the void for more than a hundred zhang around him.

Li Guanqi crouched low with both feet planted on empty air. His gaze was razor-sharp, and killing intent surged all around him. As the mark blazed, every last restraint on his power burned away.

Boom! Thud!

The void beneath Li Guanqi’s feet shattered as he shot toward Cizhi like a bolt of purple lightning.

He spoke rapidly to Meng Wanshu, Peng Luo, and Nine Heavens all at once. “The power he can project should cap out at the peak of the late Combined Body Realm at best. He can’t even reach the half-step Mahayana Realm. I’ll take the lead. Wanshu, support me. Peng Luo, stay back. Nine Heavens, restrain that beast!”

Sword intent swirled around Li Guanqi as he narrowed his eyes. “Today, we will slay an immortal together!”

Boom!

Every last trace of fear vanished from Peng Luo’s eyes, leaving only boundless fury. Now that the shadow over his heart had lifted, all that remained was a hatred that churned without end.

Violent vital force rippled across Peng Luo’s body, and he appeared in front of Cizhi in an instant. Enormous fists rained down like a storm.

Cizhi’s eyes gleamed with amusement. He opened his fists into palms and parried several hundred of Peng Luo’s strikes in the blink of an eye.

The ground around them sank several chi beneath the force of their terrifying exchange. The void shattered, and Cizhi drove a fist through Peng Luo’s shoulder, leaving a gaping hole in his body.

Peng Luo was hurled toward the ground by the sheer force of the blow. The split second before he hit the earth, Peng Luo scooped something up from below himself and flung it at Cizhi, screaming at the top of his lungs.

“Drink my piss, you bastard!”

Though liquid splattered through the air, a barrier around Cizhi caught every drop.

Peng Luo crashed into the ground with a thunderous boom. He let out a few pitiful wails, clearly annoyed that his plan hadn’t worked.

Meng Wanshu’s sword qi blazed like a rainbow. Perhaps due to her awakened inheritance, a frost phantom had manifested behind Li Guanqi as well, a manifestation of her budding Sword Heart Realm sword intent.

Frost tore through the void as a torrent of ice-blue sword light rained down upon Cizhi. Inch by inch, the void around Meng Wanshu froze solid, proof that she was not to be underestimated. With the power she now wielded, even an ordinary late Combined Body Realm cultivator would struggle to withstand her attacks.

For the first time, Cizhi felt truly pressured. His expression hardened, and his sword lashed out again and again.

Golden sword qi erupted in every direction as one explosion after another rocked the battlefield. The resulting storm of vital force churned violently and spread across the surrounding area.

The scattered sword qi carved apart all of Qixia City. The earth cracked, and countless buildings collapsed into rubble.

Ruins extended as far as the eye could see. Yet, outside Qixia City, not the faintest trace of anything unusual could be detected. Not a single sound escaped beyond the city’s boundary.

Anyone standing above Qixia City would see nothing out of the ordinary, as if everything were exactly the same as any other day.

Pfft!

Meng Wanshu flew backward. Peng Luo suddenly appeared at her shoulder, snapped off a finger, and shoved it into her mouth.

The tiny Peng Luo perched on her ear and hissed, “Mistress! Help me beat him up! He used to bully me! ”

Meng Wanshu said nothing. She turned toward Li Guanqi and Nine Heavens, each of whom had one of Peng Luo’s clones by their side. Peng Luo’s true body, meanwhile, lay in a crater, whimpering pitifully.

Li Guanqi took Meng Wanshu’s place and faced Cizhi head-on.

Clang! Ding ding! Clang clang clang!

Swords clashed, sending sparks flying. Their blades moved faster and faster until all that could be seen was a continuous flicker of bursting light in the center, with golden and crimson phantoms flashing by too quickly to follow.

Pfft!

Blood sprayed from Li Guanqi’s shoulder, yet his expression remained calm, and his eyes didn’t waver in the slightest. His sword was as fast as lightning and as heavy as a mountain, with every strike carrying enough force to split mountains and cleave seas.

The longer Cizhi fought, the more alarmed he became.

Li Guanqi’s understanding of the sword Dao was terrifying. More than that, something about Li Guanqi gave him an inexplicable sense of unease.

Li Guanqi’s sword stance shifted abruptly. He roared inwardly, Heavenly Destruction, Immortal-Slaying Slash!

Pfft!

The strike was impossibly fast. Crimson sword light flashed across Cizhi’s vision and vanished in an instant.

Shing!

Cizhi’s sword arm went spinning into the air. Li Guanqi seized the opening and closed the distance.

Cizhi’s heart lurched. He hadn’t even perceived the strike.

Terrifying power surged around Li Guanqi. Nearly a quarter of the mark on his forehead had burned away, and his vital force churned violently. Gripping his sword in one hand, he spoke in an icy voice. “Red Lotus, Thunder Wrath!”

Boom!

An enormous phantom of a thunder god, a hundred zhang tall, materialized out of thin air. A terrifying sword light descended from the heavens.

Li Guanqi murmured under his breath at the same time.

“Spell ninety-nine, Lightning Armor!”

“Spell seventy-eight, Four Heavenly Pillars!”

“Spell two hundred sixty-eight, Earthly Precipice!”

Li Guanqi’s power skyrocketed by more than thirty percent.

Four massive sealing pillars slammed down from four directions, locking Cizhi in place.

Nine Heavens had kept Cizhi’s demonic beast pinned down throughout the fight, leaving it no chance to escape his crushing grip, much less rescue its master.

Peng Luo tore through the void and appeared beside Li Guanqi. He pressed both hands against Li Guanqi’s back and poured pure, refined energy into him without regard for the cost.

Li Guanqi’s aura instantly surged to its peak.

Sword Spirit’s voice echoed calmly through his mind. “Watch closely. This move is called Dark Moon.”