Six years later.
A bare-chested man walked through the thick mist. His hair was disheveled and unkempt, and a full beard covered his hollow face.
His skin-and-bones frame was dark, and his pure white eyes held a terrifying gaze.
Every movement he made carried an overwhelming sense of oppression.
Suddenly!
Gripping the broken sword tightly in his left hand, the man slashed violently to his side!
A single sword strike cleaving out tore a deep trench spanning a hundred zhang into the earth!
A solid illusory figure had barely materialized before it shattered instantly, condensing into a bead that dropped to the ground.
Expressionless, Li Guanqi shoved the bead into the pack on his back, but the moment he forced one in, a cluster spilled out.
He did not even look down to retrieve them, letting those priceless Ancient God Beads scatter across the ground.
He had exhausted his spirit stones three years ago.
Six full years.
For six years, he had slaughtered without rest, enduring thousands of perilous battles, both great and small!
His spirit comprehension rank had long since reached its peak; he could even clearly feel that barrier.
Glancing at his pack full of Ancient God Beads, the strength of his sea of consciousness was now not in the least inferior to that of a mid-Mahayana realm cultivator!
Absorbing the Ancient God Beads with such madness had already expanded his sea of consciousness by nearly double.
The Ancient God Illusory Souls that struck terror into hearts across God Burial Ridge no longer posed any threat to him.
Yet even so, he had searched for an exit for three full years.
Three years had passed without him finding a way out of God Burial Ridge. He had even begun to suspect that this place was an independent domain of its own, or that some terrifying labyrinth lay here.
Marks of fierce battles covered God Burial Ridge, and Li Guanqi felt the powerless exhaustion of having his primal energy completely depleted.
If not for the Ancient God Beads helping him replenish his divine sense, he would not have known how to persevere.
His storage ring was now entirely empty. Li Guanqi parted his lips, wanting to mutter a few words to himself.
Yet he discovered that he could make no sound at all, just like those cultivators he had encountered when he first entered God Burial Valley...
The bloodshot veins in Li Guanqi's eyes had never faded. He came to an abrupt halt.
Slowly closing his eyes, he murmured in his heart, *I want... to leave...*
*Boom!*
The instant the thought fell, a terrifying pressure swept across the entire expanse of God Burial Ridge!
Under this dreadful spiritual shock, surging divine sense struck like crashing waves against the shore, overwhelming everything within a hundred li!
Covered in wounds, Li Guanqi slowly opened his arms. A blood-red hue abruptly suffused the heavens and the earth.
Across a hundred li, the clouds surged and winds violently howled, thinning the dense mist.
Even the aura of decay shrank back before the immense majesty of heaven and earth.
Li Guanqi raised his head, looking up at the heavenly tribulation thunderclouds that blotted out the sun and sky. A long-absent trace of a smile finally surfaced on his expressionless face.
He, Li Guanqi, had finally waited for this day. A faint smile touched his exhausted countenance.
The Mahayana Realm...
*Boom!*
The firmament cracked, and a heaven-shaking pressure erupted around Li Guanqi.
The torn mist finally allowed a trace of spiritual energy to seep through. Li Guanqi circulated his cultivation technique madly, greedily devouring and refining the spiritual energy like a great whale.
As primal energy replenished his origin spirit, his emaciated body gradually filled out once more, his lean physique swelling with explosive power.
At the same time, the blood-red pattern on his spine—now only three finger-widths long—erupted with an eerie crimson radiance.
Holding the broken sword, Li Guanqi slowly soared into the void.
He looked down upon the earth, finding the sensation of gazing from above remarkably unfamiliar.
*Rumble!*
The pitch-black clouds brought the sensation of true night to God Burial Valley for the first time.
Hundreds of cultivators within God Burial Valley looked up toward the direction of God Burial Ridge.
Every single one of them felt an inexplicable sense of oppression!
Sensing this aura, many could not help but shake to their very souls.
"The blind man in God Burial Valley!"
"He's not dead! That direction... God Burial Ridge!"
"Six years... He disappeared for six whole years. Did he stay inside God Burial Ridge for six full years?!"
None of the cultivators could comprehend such madness, an act no different from seeking death.
Yet the truth was that in a mere six years, Li Guanqi had brought forth his Mahayana Realm heavenly tribulation!
The pitch-black thunderclouds were heavy beyond measure, presenting an oppressive dread like an overturned mountain pressing down.
Feeling the power gradually swelling within him, Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes toward the thunderclouds.
"Come on... What are you... waiting for..."
A hoarse, strange rasp squeezed out from Li Guanqi's throat.
Thunder rolled, and the dense heavenly tribulation thunderclouds churned incessantly like boiling water.
In an instant, several bolts of dark crimson lightning crashed down toward Li Guanqi!
Watching the descending heavenly tribulation thunderclouds, Li Guanqi wore a bizarre smile. Opening his arms, he moved to meet those three waist-thick bolts of tribulation lightning with his bare flesh!
*Rumble!*
*Thud! Thud, thud!*
The earth trembled, the mountains shook, and more than half of the dense mist within God Burial Ridge vanished instantly.
Boulders tumbled, and several scorched craters spanning hundreds of zhang opened upon the ground!
Clouds of blood mist burst from Li Guanqi's body, and terrifying arcs of stray lightning coursed through him.
Yet he stood high in the firmament, laughing with wild abandon!
"Hahahahaha! Come! Again!"
Li Guanqi roared. The cultivation technique within him ran madly, pure primal energy surging and howling through his meridians.
He craved the pure power within the heavenly thunder; relying solely on worldly spiritual energy was completely insufficient for his needs now.
Absorbing the three lightning bolts filled his origin spirit and primal energy to nearly seventy percent.
With a wave of his hand, lightning armor enveloped his form. Holding his broken sword, Li Guanqi stood tall with his head held high.
With a flick of his sleeve, he absorbed all the stray lightning scattered across the ground.
The scorched wounds across his skin healed in the blink of an eye, the blackened char shedding like an outer shell.
The blood pattern on Li Guanqi's back flared with dazzling crimson light before gradually fading away.
A sharp glint flashed in Li Guanqi's eyes. Facing the descending celestial thunder, he soared up against the heavens!
Countless cultivators rushed to the vicinity of God Burial Ridge, looking up in shock at the sword-wielding figure defying the heavens.
Li Guanqi raised his hand and slashed, instantly shattering the six descending lightning bolts into pieces!
A terrifying purplish-black lightning sword light crushed through the tribulation lightning with absolute dominance.
Though Li Guanqi had slain several mid-Mahayana realm cultivators in God Burial Valley, he had never truly believed he could kill someone of that realm with only a half-step Mahayana Realm cultivation.
At the Mahayana realm, one could create divine abilities and techniques, drawing upon the power of heaven and earth against an enemy.
A so-called domain was like clay chickens and pottery dogs before them, easily broken through.
The only reason he had been able to kill them was that even Mahayana cultivators could not employ divine sense within God Burial Valley.
Furthermore, the primal energy inside those people had been feeble, allowing them to muster less than seventy or eighty percent of their peak strength.
Yet now...
Li Guanqi looked upon the heavenly thunder with disdain, feeling the boundless power churning within him, entirely fearless!
Today, he would break through to the Mahayana Realm!
If the heavens refused, then he would slay the heavens!
Chapter 1086