Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Li Guanqi’s expression turned grave as he looked to Peng Luo. “Go help Nine Heavens.”

Peng Luo nodded. His body rapidly expanded as purple patterns spread across his skin, and an enormous hammer materialized in his hands. His eyes shining with excitement, he charged forward and shouted, “Brother Nine, I’m coming!”

Whoosh!

Bang!

The Qilin knocked Peng Luo away with a single swipe of its claws. As he flew backward, Peng Luo shouted, “Brother Nine, I’m leaving again!”

A vicious glint flashed through Nine Heavens’ eyes. He had no time to pay attention to Peng Luo.

Nine Heavens did not dare cross the boundary and leave the mountains. Beyond them, the Qilin hologram would possess strength comparable to a Mahayana Realm cultivator. Nine Heavens could hold his own only because the boundary was suppressing the Qilin’s power.

Flames began gathering inside the Qilin’s mouth.

Roar!

It unleashed a scorching blast of breath toward Meng Wanshu on the array platform.A cold light flashed in Peng Luo’s eyes. He instantly moved several hundred zhang sideways and brought his massive hammer down with tremendous force.

Boom! Bang!

Peng Luo was sent flying once again, engulfed in flames.

Li Guanqi caught him. “Are you all right?”

Peng Luo hurriedly patted out the flames and cursed irritably, “Damn that thing! I swear I’m smashing it apart today!”

With that, he charged back into the battle.

Li Guanqi paid them no further attention. If anything happened to Meng Wanshu, he would be the only one capable of breaking open the array barrier.

Buzz!

The images above Meng Wanshu’s head continued to change. Li Guanqi looked over, then stared in astonishment.

In the vision, Aunt Li had grown extremely old. Her hair was white, her eyes had turned cloudy, and her back was hunched. Nothing remained of her present dignified, prosperous bearing.

A tear suddenly slipped from the corner of Meng Wanshu’s eye. Li Guilan reached out with trembling hands and clasped her daughter’s hands in her own. Her thin lips quivered, and every line of her wrinkled face betrayed her reluctance to part.

“Wanshu…” Li Guilan murmured. “Your mother… has reached the end of her life. I was born a mortal. Defying Heaven to cultivate already went against the natural order. In the end, I could never compare to the rest of you.”

Meng Wanshu bent down slightly, her eyes reddening. She could not remember when it had happened, but her mother now seemed much shorter than she remembered.

Even Li Guanqi was moved by the sight. Since becoming a cultivator, he had been surrounded almost entirely by others who walked the same path. Time rarely left any obvious marks on them.

For the first time, he came face-to-face with the toll of age. Time was a force no one could resist, making all things seem painfully fragile. Even the mightiest cultivators feared its relentless passage and the slow fading of their life force.

Suddenly, a look of determination flashed across Meng Wanshu’s eyes.

Li Guanqi’s heart jolted. Something was wrong.

“Wanshu! Don’t!”

Buzz!

Death qi suddenly appeared between Meng Wanshu’s brows, and her life force began to drain away at a terrifying rate. In the blink of an eye, wrinkles had already formed around her eyes.

Meanwhile, Li Guilan’s appearance within the illusion grew younger. The wrinkles on her face faded, and her hunched back gradually straightened.

Tears glistened in Meng Wanshu’s eyes, but she smiled gently at her mother. “Mother... as long as I’m here, I won’t let you die.”

As she spoke, Meng Wanshu held Li Guilan’s hands and poured vast streams of life force into her body.

Li Guilan shook her head desperately and struggled with all her strength. Tears filled her eyes as she pleaded, “No! You can’t! You’re sacrificing your own lifespan! I... I would rather die! Hurry, take it back! I’m already content with the life I’ve lived. My only regret is that I never got to see you marry and have children.”

Li Guanqi’s expression turned grim. The array’s insight into human nature sent a chill through his heart. It had forced Peng Luo to relive the most terrifying part of his past, confronted Li Guanqi with Ye Feng, and now placed Meng Wanshu before her dying mother. Each scene was like a nail driven straight into the heart. Moving forward was unbearable, but retreat offered no escape.

Li Guanqi’s face darkened. He couldn’t grasp the true purpose of the Trial of the True Self, only that the illusions presented scenarios they might encounter in reality someday.

According to Peng Luo, the Qilin race possessed an innate ability to briefly glimpse what lay ahead.

As he watched Meng Wanshu’s life force continue to drain away, Li Guanqi tightened his grip on the Red Lotus Sword. He was prepared to break through the array by force.

Another question troubled him as well. Why did the Qilin hologram harbor such intense hostility toward Meng Wanshu? Was it because of the frost power within her?

Since ancient times, ice and fire were inherently opposed, and the Qilin race possessed a powerful natural affinity for fire. Meng Wanshu’s frost power was exceptionally pure, which might explain why the Qilin hologram had reacted so violently to her.

Rumble!

The earth shook, and the surrounding mountains trembled without end. Enormous boulders came crashing down, but Li Guanqi blocked all of them before they could reach the platform.

He narrowed his eyes at Meng Wanshu and sighed. Just as he was about to intervene, however, his own figure suddenly appeared within the illusion. The illusory Li Guanqi took Meng Wanshu’s place, pouring an equally vast amount of life force into Li Guilan. He even used his power to help her break through to a higher cultivation realm.

Meng Wanshu gazed at the Li Guanqi in the illusion, her beautiful eyes soft with tenderness.

Li Guanqi’s divine soul trembled. “Wanshu...”

At some point, the bond between them had grown into something far deeper than before.

Even while trapped inside the illusion, Meng Wanshu believed with absolute certainty that, should such a situation ever occur, Li Guanqi would never leave her to face it alone.

Gradually, the illusion faded, and a cluster of fiery-red spirit light slowly gathered and condensed into a jade slip.

Seeing this, Li Guanqi finally breathed a sigh of relief. Meng Wanshu’s conviction was far stronger than he had imagined.

Perhaps he had grown too accustomed to acting alone, believing he could handle everything himself. He did not know exactly when it had begun, perhaps after Meng Wanshu’s breakthrough. Meng Wanshu might have grown tired of watching him take such risks, and now she always wanted to remain by his side.

A faint smile appeared on Li Guanqi’s lips. In a sense, this trial had helped all three of them overcome their inner demons. Should they truly encounter the same situations in the future, perhaps they would be able to face them calmly, their convictions even stronger than before.

When Peng Luo returned to the Immortal World and confronted the immortals of the Seven Treasures Pavilion, perhaps he would stand with his hands on his hips and proudly look at his companions.

Meng Wanshu would likely spend more time with Li Guilan after returning home and pay closer attention to her mother’s cultivation.

And when Li Guanqi met Ye Feng again...

When Meng Wanshu opened her eyes, Li Guanqi flew onto the platform, wrapped an arm around her slender waist, and lowered his head to kiss her.

Tears still lingered in her eyes. She stared at the man before her in surprise, then passionately returned his kiss.

A moment later, Peng Luo crashed to the ground beside the platform with a loud thud. He turned his head and immediately saw them kissing. Then he glanced back at Nine Heavens, who was still locked in a furious battle with the Qilin hologram. Suddenly, he felt the fight was no longer particularly necessary.

“Um… are we still fighting?” Peng Luo said.

Li Guanqi was thick-skinned enough to act as though nothing had happened.

“There’s no need to fight anymore,” Li Guanqi said calmly. “We can cross the valley and enter the next region now.”

With that, the group took their tokens and climbed to the summit.

Nine Heavens sent the Qilin hologram flying several hundred zhang with a sweep of his tail. The Qilin was about to retaliate when it sensed the tokens in their possession. Its aggression faded, and it turned aside with its head lowered.

Even when Nine Heavens passed beside it, the Qilin did not dare raise its gaze.

Buzz!

After entering the ruins, one of the members of the Pan clan said, “What is this place? Why is everything so dilapidated? The stench of decay is overwhelming. There isn’t even the slightest trace of spirit qi left in this forest.”

Roar!

A skeletal leopard suddenly sprang from the trees, only to be casually crushed to death by the white-haired elder leading the group.

“Move! They must be somewhere inside. We’ll investigate once we enter.”

“These might even be the ruins of a holy land connected to the Qilin race!”

“Hahaha! It seems fortune truly favors us!”

Having already crossed the valley, Li Guanqi gave a cold laugh. “It seems someone has followed us inside.”

He suddenly turned toward Peng Luo and saw him pushing a massive stone into a spatial crack. “What did you take this time?”

Peng Luo chuckled. “The stone stele from the entrance of the Illusory Forest, the one with the warning carved into it.”