Pfft!!!
"Thunder Wrath!!"
Rumble!!
The majestic sword light flashed with cold brilliance as the phantom of the God of Thunder slashed down in fury.
Lacking even the slightest ability to resist, the pitch-black crow was instantly obliterated within the sword light.
With the crow's death, a shrill shriek tore from Dark Crow's throat within the seal!!
"Aaaaargh!!!!"
Crack-crash!!
The first layer, the Hundred-Layer Thunder Boundary Wall, shattered inch by inch, followed immediately by the thunderous explosion of the Three-Elephant Jinling Gate!!
The sealing lightning pillars of the Four-Direction Heaven-Reaching Pillars rippled violently, yet Dark Crow's aura plummeted at terrifying speed.
Li Guanqi raised a hand to shield himself from the scattering debris. Though gale winds howled, he remained as unmoving as a mountain.
Sword in hand, he watched the disheveled man inside the sealing lightning pillars with a calm expression.
In the blink of an eye, Dark Crow's aura had collapsed to the initial Mahayana realm—a level that posed little threat to Li Guanqi.
All he needed to do was prevent the man from escaping.
Dark Crow coughed up mouthful after mouthful of blood, his face pale as paper.
His limbs were broken and impaled by the sealing lightning pillars, leaving him completely immobilized.
With his matted hair concealing most of his face, Dark Crow mustered all his remaining strength to slowly look up at Li Guanqi.
Venom filled those eyes, accompanied by an inexplicable trace of bewilderment deep within.
"How... how did you... find out..."
Li Guanqi gave a cold sneer.
"I've long heard that powerful cultivators are terrified of death and keep countless contingency plans."
"Yet never would I have imagined that you would actually sever your own divine soul and place it inside a crow."
"In a place like God Burial Valley, that crow subtly harbored such powerful primal energy fluctuations..."
Indeed, Dark Crow had crafted a complete divine soul avatar, just like Li Congxin.
Except Dark Crow had stuffed his entire separated soul into a crow. He never could have foreseen that Li Guanqi was all too familiar with the aura of severed souls and spirits.
From the moment that crow landed before Jiang Xiaoyu, Li Guanqi had already noticed it.
Dark Crow lowered his head and laughed wild, self-deprecating laughter. "Hahahaha..."
"To think Dark Crow, which I founded, was destroyed by your hands, and in the end, even I myself... will die by your hands..."
Suddenly!
Dark Crow snapped his head up to glare at Li Guanqi, roaring a venomous curse, "It's useless, Li Guanqi!!!"
"You will be trapped here your entire life! You'll never get out!! Hahahaha!! You'll never get out!!!"
With that, knowing Li Guanqi's temperament all too well, Dark Crow actually chose to self-destruct!
The instant his body ballooned rapidly, a hand lunged like an eagle's talon and pierced straight through his abdomen!!!
Li Guanqi pressed close against the man, five fingers erupting with lightning that instantly crushed the man's dantian to pulp!
With a flick of Li Guanqi's fingers, a flying sword swept past. A head rolled away as blood sprayed three feet high.
Having done all this, Li Guanqi maintained an unruffled expression. His oppressive aura remained undiminished as his sharp gaze swept across the surroundings.
The corners of his mouth curved upward slightly, his voice rising neither too loudly nor too softly.
"My name is Li Guanqi. Don't provoke me."
The sound was not loud, yet it was clear enough for the two people hiding in the dark to hear every word.
Jiang Xiaoyu shuddered violently, prostrate inside a ravine, not daring to move a muscle.
A four-foot lightning sword hovered directly before her, less than a finger's width from the center of her brow!!!
Slowly raising both hands, Jiang Xiaoyu knelt half-upright on the ground, swallowed hard, and nodded frantically.
"Yes... yes, yes, yes... I'm leaving right away! I'll leave this instant!!"
The other man reacted the same way. The two of them fled almost simultaneously.
Li Guanqi breathed a quiet sigh of relief. The battle with Dark Crow had not been as easy as it appeared on the surface.
By now, less than thirty percent of the primal energy in his body remained. Dark Crow's strength had been simply too formidable,
to the point where Li Guanqi had to strike with all his might in every clash just to hold his own.
Had he not discovered Dark Crow's weakness and kept up his pretenses for so long, this battle would likely have been far more perilous.
Dark Crow's fatal mistake was failing to decisively sever the connection between himself and his separated soul avatar!
Consequently, when Li Guanqi killed the crow, the backlash Dark Crow suffered was catastrophic.
After looting everything from Dark Crow's corpse, Li Guanqi remained on high alert as he departed the area.
This time, Li Guanqi ventured even deeper into God Burial Valley. He traveled for four full days before finally finding a secluded spot to stop.
Only then did Li Guanqi's mind truly ease. Over the first two days, he had still sensed faint, intermittent presences spying on him.
Following his warning, the watcher had sensibly departed, because over those two days, they had not felt Li Guanqi's aura weaken in the slightest!!
Throughout the journey, Li Guanqi had been forced to maintain his imposing aura through sheer willpower, when in truth, his primal energy was already nearly depleted.
Yet he had not dared take out spirit stones or pills to replenish himself. The moment anyone discovered he could access a storage ring, they would lose all reason and attack!
Li Guanqi hastily brought out a spirit-gathering array disc and swallowed several pills. Then, he took a small pouch, packed a few spirit stones and pills into it, and tied it to his belt.
This period of seclusion lasted nearly half a month.
When Li Guanqi awoke, he noticed a thin layer of dust had settled over his body. With a slight surge of primal energy, he shook it off.
Brilliant light gleamed in his eyes. He realized that over the past two months in God Burial Valley, he had been engaged in high-intensity life-and-death combat almost without pause.
This had greatly aided the advancement of his strength, particularly the clash with the eighth-rank martial artist old man and the lethal brawl with Dark Crow.
The battle against the eighth-rank martial artist had made his application of physical power far more refined and taught him numerous martial combat techniques.
As for Dark Crow...
That had been his first time engaging in close-quarters combat with a top-tier assassin of that caliber.
Li Guanqi looked down, stripped off his upper garment, and felt a lingering dread as he beheld the dozens of dagger scars covering his flesh.
An astonishing attack frequency, with every part of the body capable of serving as a lethal weapon.
The agile, bizarre angles of the daggers had made them nearly impossible to guard against. Li Guanqi repeatedly replayed the battle in his mind, drawing lessons from it.
From the very start, he should never have allowed Dark Crow to close the distance.
Suddenly, Li Guanqi's eyes lit up. He took out all the storage rings he had collected previously.
His sea of consciousness hummed, instantly wiping away the mental imprints on every single storage ring.
Looking at the gleaming pile of spirit stones, spiritual herbs, and numerous healing pills inside, Li Guanqi grinned so broadly his mouth nearly stretched from ear to ear.
However, a primitive beast-hide map inside Dark Crow's storage ring caught his attention.
Judging by the map, the marked location appeared to be toward the eastern reaches of God Burial Valley.
Based on the illustrations and markings, numerous Ancient God Illusory Souls ought to exist there!!
Recalling the immense benefits of Ancient God Illusory Souls, Li Guanqi stowed the map away, intending to head there in a few days.
After all, if he wanted to break through to the Mahayana realm, his spirit comprehension rank had to reach the perfection stage!
Throughout his cultivation journey, his foundation had remained exceptionally solid precisely because he took every step with utmost deliberation.
But before that...
He still had one matter left to handle!
Chapter 1083