The expected sight of a severed head rolling across the floor never came to pass.
The great hall was deathly silent. Everyone stared in stunned disbelief at the two figures standing in the center.
In Li Guanqi's hand, the lightning sword hummed softly. Fine strands of hair drifted to the floor.
Tu Kui's shorn white hair lay scattered across the ground around him. He opened his eyes in sheer disbelief.
His lips trembled. He looked up at Li Guanqi before him and parted his lips, but not a single word would come out.
Instead, he saw Li Guanqi's solemn expression as the youth spoke in a deep voice.
"Today, I cut your hair in place of your head to expiate your guilt! You are stripped of your post as peak master!
"In view of your sincere repentance, and that you exercised restraint and harmed no one, you are sentenced to sweep the Scripture Pavilion on Tianzhu Peak for a hundred years!
"Do you accept this punishment?!"
Tears blurred his vision as Tu Kui's shoulders trembled slightly.
Now bearing shorn, short hair, Tu Kui wept on his knees, his voice quivering as he cried out, "I accept... I accept!!
"Tu Kui knows his fault... Tu Kui... accepts the punishment!!"
At this moment, everyone let out a collective breath of relief.
The Great Xia Sword Sect remained, after all, a place that held onto warmth and humanity.
Justice was tempered with discretion: a transgression was punished, yet hearts were not left chilled.
And as for why Li Guanqi had done this...
On one hand, Tu Kui truly repented; on the other, Tu Kui had harmed no one.
To the very end, he had only gone to Tianji Pavilion because Shen Feng abducted him.
And lastly...
Li Guanqi did not want to kill Ye Feng's master with his own hands. That was the most vital reason of all.
From then on, the Scripture Pavilion on Tianzhu Peak gained a sweeper.
Tu Kui slowly rose, neatly folded his peak master's token and peak master robes, and set them tidily before him on the floor.
Bracing his hands on his knees, he pushed himself upright. Suddenly, a ruthless glint flashed in his eyes, and he raised a hand to strike his own dantian!!
Smack!
A large hand caught his wrist in an iron grip. The man looked up into the youth's white eyes, sighing with reddened rims, "With only this punishment, how can my conscience ever rest?!"
Li Guanqi shook his head. This time, it was he who patted the man's shoulder, murmuring softly, "It is enough.
"From now on, so long as your heart remains with the sect, there is no need for this.
"To tell you the truth, I was there the very first time Shen Feng came looking for you."
At those words, Tu Kui froze entirely, staring at Li Guanqi in utter disbelief.
"The time... in the cultivation chamber?"
Li Guanqi nodded. After a moment of hesitation, he decided to lay it bare.
"Yes, that time.
"When I saw you agree to Shen Feng... frankly speaking, I wanted to strike you down then and there.
"But at the time, I lacked a pawn—a piece that could be planted into Tianji Pavilion—so I held my hand.
"I saw everything that followed, and your resolute decision to sever your own vitality rather than be used as their hostage surprised me greatly."
Tu Kui pressed his lips together, gazing at Li Guanqi with tear-filled eyes as he murmured from the bottom of his heart, "Yet my conscience still gives me no peace!!
"Once desire takes hold, even after achieving a moment of satisfaction, my heart knew no joy—only dread and anxiety.
"I have spent my whole life on Tianjin Peak, devoted my entire life to the sect... yet in the end, I still went astray."
Li Guanqi raised a hand to stop Tu Kui from continuing, wary of letting the man drown in self-reproach.
Bending down, Li Guanqi picked up a strand of withered white hair and said softly, "Let what is past remain in the past.
"Let a new beginning begin.
"Your sentence has been passed. All that remains... is for you to reflect upon yourself."
Tu Kui nodded, cupping his hands and bowing deeply toward all four directions of the hall in gratitude.
At this moment, the pride and prestige he had once held as peak master of Tianjin Peak were entirely gone from his face.
With his back slightly hunched, the man slowly turned and walked out of the hall, looking back with every few steps.
Yet by the time he reached the main threshold, a quiet relief seemed to wash over him. His expression grew calm, and he stepped over the high wooden sill.
Turning back toward the hall, he bowed deeply one last time.
With the matter settled, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Li Guanqi looked back at Wu Bing, cupping his fist with a bow, and murmured softly, "I overstepped my bounds today."
Wu Bing gave a wry smile. "Do not say that, Elder Li. You already had the authority to do so. What is more..."
Pausing, Wu Bing glanced down at the shorn hair strewn across the floor and murmured, "Had it been me... I could never have handled this matter so well."
The outcome today was truly the best conceivable resolution.
Fortunately, Tu Kui had harmed no one. Had even a single disciple died, this matter could never have ended peacefully.
Li Guanqi turned to the crowd, bowing with hands clasped. "Now that this is settled, I must take my leave. I entrust the affairs of the sect to all of you."
Wu Bing smiled and nodded. "Rest assured."
After a brief hesitation, Li Guanqi added, "Regarding the cultivation of the Fire-Eyed Demon Foxes and the Spirit Fish Clan..."
Wu Bing chimed in, "All arrangements with both clans have already been finalized. Furthermore, trials and expeditions outside for our sect disciples are being organized as well.
"Our sect flourishes now. Those who dare make trouble for us are few and far between."
Li Guanqi breathed a sigh of relief, cupped his fists in farewell, and walked out of the sect's main hall.
Rumble!!
The moment Li Guanqi stepped outside, everyone sensed an earth-shattering force coalescing above the seven peaks of the Great Xia Sword Sect!
Exchanging glances, they all rose and hurried out to the sound of rumbling thunder.
Looking up, they saw heavy thunderclouds spanning ten thousand zhang gathering across the firmament, blotting out the sky as arcs of lightning leaped and surged within.
Gales whipped up. Midair stood the youth in white, his robes snapping fiercely in the wind.
His hair, bound in a jade crown, whipped wildly through the air. In an instant, seven terrifying beams of sword light—each a hundred zhang tall, looming like towering mountains—stood erect atop the peaks!
The terrifying sword intent within Li Guanqi poured out unstintingly, surging into the lightning swords.
Disciples of the Great Xia Sword Sect took to the air one after another, staring up at the spectacle in awe, their mouths agape with shock.
In an instant, the wild winds reversed, spiraling upward toward the heavens!
Li Guanqi raised both hands as though lifting the firmament itself, veins bulging along his neck as he let out a resounding roar.
Immediately, tens of thousands of lightning bolts plunged from the thunderclouds straight into the seven lightning swords!
Rumble!
Rumble!!
Dull crashes of thunder boomed like war drums, and this world-shaking spectacle could be seen for a hundred li around.
Heaven and earth's lightning was channeled into the thunder swords as torrential rain poured down, yet through it all, that white-robed figure stood erect as a blade suspended midair.
Wu Bing stared blankly at the scene, forced to admit that Li Guanqi's talent and power far surpassed his own.
Li Guanqi himself did not notice that beneath his white robes, the blood runes tracing his spine were now glimmering with faint light.
Boom!!
Violent lightning ravaged heaven and earth, rending space itself into jagged, vicious fissures.
In that instant, divine radiance burst across the world, purple light suffusing the entire sky.
The dread sword intent and destructive might struck terror into countless onlookers, but with eyes closed, Li Guanqi felt an inner epiphany stir within his heart.
A faint smile curled Li Guanqi's lips as an explosive surge of power erupted from his body.
Lightning rippled outward like waves of water, rolling out in every direction.
"Spirit Comprehension Stage Six!"
With the seven swords forged, Li Guanqi flashed through the air to appear before Yuhu Peak.
Looking at the stone pillar of a peak that propped up the sky, Li Guanqi took a deep breath, raised his hand to condense a sword, and slashed freely across the rock, leaving behind a hundred sword techniques!
Every strike held Li Guanqi's personal insights into the Dao of the Sword.
Amid the crisscrossing sword scars, sword intent seemed to surge, while fine arcs of purplish-black lightning crackled continuously.
Ling Daoyan and the other sect elders watched the scene with profound gratification.
Having done all this, Li Guanqi laughed heartily toward the heavens, stepped forward, and vanished from the Great Xia Sword Sect.
Wu Bing led all the elders, peak masters, and disciples of the Great Xia Sword Sect, bowing deeply in the direction Li Guanqi had departed!
Everyone knew how much Li Guanqi had sacrificed for the sect. Had he not been tied down by sect bonds, he would have soared higher and farther still.
Yet they did not know that in Li Guanqi's heart, had there been no Great Xia Sword Sect, the man he was today would never have existed.
Perhaps he might still have flown high, but he would never have stood so grounded, so rich with flesh, blood, and heart.
Chapter 1070