Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Buzz!

Spirit light flashed above the array platform, and a fiery-red Qilin jade slip materialized over Peng Luo’s chest.

The sight of it stirred a thought in Li Guanqi’s mind. Could this be the key to passing the trial? The Trial of the True Self... Does it force people to confront their deepest fears?

Buzz!

An even more intense spatial ripple unexpectedly surged through the platform.

The force flung Peng Luo into the air. Nine Heavens hurriedly opened his mouth to catch him, afraid that his claws might injure him. In his panic, he ended up holding Peng Luo inside his mouth…

Meng Wanshu’s eye twitched when she saw one of Peng Luo’s arms dangling from the corner of Nine Heavens’ jaws. “Be careful. Don’t swallow him…”

She then turned toward Li Guanqi, who was gradually being enveloped in red light, and gave him a questioning look. Li Guanqi smiled faintly and reassured her with his eyes.

He slowly exhaled, relaxed his mind, and allowed the mysterious power to surround him, curious about what the trial would make him experience.

The heart demon tribulation he had once faced before his breakthrough had already disappeared. Even the events of his childhood could no longer shake him. He had no idea what kind of scene this so-called Trial of the True Self would conjure.As Li Guanqi wondered what awaited him, the world before his eyes gradually transformed. A figure both familiar and strangely distant appeared before him.

The man stood atop a mountain of corpses surrounded by a sea of blood. Slowly, he turned to look at Li Guanqi. The unfamiliar coldness in his eyes made Li Guanqi’s heart tremble.

His voice shook slightly as he murmured, “Ye… Ye Feng…?”

Ye Feng held an elderly woman by the hair. Blood streamed down her face as she struggled desperately and begged for mercy.

A demonic spirit suddenly spread across half of Ye Feng’s face. Dense demonic qi surged around him as he slowly slid his blade across the woman’s throat.

Slash!

The woman clutched her neck and collapsed, the light fading from her eyes. A pitch-black arm slowly extended, and her soul was instantly wrenched from her body. Then “Ye Feng” opened his mouth and swallowed the illusory soul whole.

Li Guanqi trembled with rage at the sight. He shouted hoarsely, “Ye Feng! Do you even know what you’re doing?”

Standing sideways, Ye Feng slowly turned his head toward Li Guanqi. Something flickered in his eyes, but his thoughts remained impossible to read. “What? Are you going to kill me?”

As he spoke, Ye Feng slowly spread his arms and looked at Li Guanqi with an unreadable expression, as though waiting for his answer. Li Guanqi stared at Ye Feng’s dark-gold hair, finding him almost unrecognizable. Both his appearance and demeanor now possessed a sinister charm that had never been there before.

Ye Feng looked at him with a strange smile and said, “What’s wrong? Can’t bring yourself to do it?”

Li Guanqi remained silent, the words lodged painfully in his throat. It was as though every scene he had imagined over the past several days had suddenly unfolded before his eyes.

Ever since Ye Feng had been taken away, Li Guanqi had imagined countless versions of their eventual reunion. From what he knew of Sha, once Ye Feng fell into his hands, he would certainly use the power of a demonic spirit to control him, forcing him to commit atrocities and slaughter innocent people. No matter how strong Ye Feng’s will was, Sha would do everything possible to make it happen.

Sha excelled at exploiting human nature. Without his deep understanding of it, he could never have orchestrated so many schemes from the shadows.

Ye Feng let out a cold laugh and slowly turned his back. He carelessly stacked the corpses into a pile and then sat on top of them. This sight made him seem utterly alien to Li Guanqi. Even though Li Guanqi knew it was just an illusion, he was still shaken.

Gradually, a trace of death qi appeared between Li Guanqi’s brows.

Peng Luo abruptly sat up inside Nine Heavens’ mouth. After scrambling free, he began shouting at Li Guanqi.

Meng Wanshu’s expression darkened, and her eyes narrowed. An unprecedented amount of frost power surged around her as she flew forward and slashed wildly at the array barrier.

Boom!

“Ultimate Frost Expansion!”

Boom!

Her domain unfolded in an instant. Meng Wanshu exhaled a faint cloud of white mist, and the force behind her sword turned incomparably sharp.

Boom!

Clang!

A dazzling, ice-cold sword strike slashed toward the barrier, but it merely produced a few faint ripples before returning to normal.

Meng Wanshu’s eyes widened. Now that she had struck the barrier herself, she finally understood the terrifying power behind Li Guanqi’s earlier attack.

Nine Heavens raised his head, gathering a violent lightning breath within his mouth. Just as he was about to attack, Peng Luo suddenly stepped in front of him. “Wait a little longer!”

Meng Wanshu did not stop. In her eyes, nothing mattered more than Li Guanqi’s safety. Seeing this, Peng Luo hurriedly explained, “This trial is also a kind of heart demon trial! This “Trial of the True Self” is a special ability of the Qilin race. This array platform forces each of us to confront the scenario we fear most. And we all know how much Ye Feng means to Master. Facing this choice now might not necessarily be a bad thing!”

His explanation made Meng Wanshu pause. She stared at the center of the barrier, where a palm-sized patch had already been covered in frost. If she kept attacking, it wouldn’t be long before she broke through.

She stared at the death qi spreading across Li Guanqi’s brow, and her voice turned cold. “If it spreads past the halfway point, I’m breaking in!”

Silence followed.

Within the vision, Li Guanqi stared blankly at Ye Feng. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Ye Feng scoffed. “I’m no longer the person I used to be. Do you see these hands? They’re covered in blood, the blood of innocent people. I killed and killed until I lost count. Once the number passed ten thousand, I stopped trying to keep track. There were simply too many. I couldn’t even remember them all.”

“Every night, I was haunted by the illusions of the people I had killed. They whispered curses in my ears and tormented me endlessly. But eventually...” Ye Feng slowly raised his head and grinned at Li Guanqi. “The visions stopped. Can you guess why?”

Li Guanqi remained silent.

“Hahahaha! Hahahahahaha! It was because they were afraid I would keep tormenting them even after death! As I killed more and more people, they began to fear me instead of resenting me. Hahahahaha!”

As Ye Feng’s laughter continued, tears welled up in his eyes, blurring his vision. He then threw his head back, clutching his hair in anguish, his gaze piercing through the strands that fell across his face. When he looked at Li Guanqi once more, the man he once was seemed to have returned.

His voice trembled as he whispered, “Boss... you… Do you still recognize me?”

Death qi had already spread across half of Li Guanqi’s body, and his life force was rapidly draining away.

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