Crushing Power!

Mu Congyi felt an unprecedented sense of oppression radiating from Li Guanqi! Such oppression... he had only ever felt it from Ye Feng. Yet the power Li Guanqi now displayed was equal to that, if not greater! A fierce fighting spirit erupted from the depths of his heart, and Mu Congyi turned a crazed gaze upon Li Guanqi. He licked his pale lips, his tongue vivid crimson as if it had just tasted human blood. The sword in his hand trembled slightly, letting out a series of soft hums. "You are worthy of seeing me unleash the black sword!" *Hum! Clang!* In an instant, an utterly terrifying pressure radiated from the pitch-black longsword. Demonic flames surged heavenward. The jet-black fire seemed capable of incinerating the void itself, its ferocity no weaker than a lower-ranked heavenly flame! Yet such a flame had never appeared on any list of heavenly flames. Immediately after, the black markings on Mu Congyi burst with subtle, dark light. His aura forcefully climbed from the early stages of the mid Mahayana realm all the way to the peak of the mid Mahayana realm. Such a terrifying boost was difficult to achieve even with medicinal pills; it was clearly tied to the bizarre markings across his body. Li Guanqi also felt a faint sense of threat from his opponent, but he paid it no heed. Suddenly! A bolt of lightning cracked between them, striking the grand hall beneath their feet. As if by mutual agreement, both shot toward each other. Clouds churned across the firmament as countless streaks of sword qi rained down from above. In an instant, the grand hall and structures across the entire peak were blown into rubble and ruins. As for those lower-realm cultivators, they were directly crushed into bursting corpses by the spatial pressure! Before absolute strength, numbers... were nothing more than a joke! Puffs of blood mist detonated around them, yet Mu Congyi, having brought his blade down against Red Lotus, only laughed maniacally. Blood splattered over him—scalding and sticky. Yet he did not care in the slightest. It was merely the deaths of a few people. Even if every last one perished, he would not mind. On the contrary. If he could capture or kill Li Guanqi, that would be a supreme accomplishment! *Clang! Bang!* An irresistible, colossal force surged down the blade, and Mu Congyi's expression changed drastically. The sword was knocked from his grasp. Just as Li Guanqi was about to shift his technique into a horizontal slash, the youth kicked Li Guanqi's wrist, using the recoil to vault backward several hundred zhang. Spinning in midair to diffuse the impact, he caught his sword and fixed a wary gaze on Li Guanqi. In merely a single clash, he had suffered a setback. He had not anticipated Li Guanqi's physical strength to be so terrifying. Such brute strength was not inferior in the least to an eighth-rank great demon—or even an eighth-rank martial artist. Mu Congyi immediately altered his tactics, refusing to clash head-on against Li Guanqi. Relying on the agility of his movement technique, he darted and shifted continuously around Li Guanqi. Yet cold sweat began to seep from Mu Congyi's brow. Because to his eyes, the sword-bearing man standing before him was covered in flaws from head to toe. Yet in his mind, he rehearsed countless scenarios, and every single one ended in his own death! Fear—the sheer power radiating from within the man filled him with involuntary fear. Even though his current cultivation level surpassed his opponent's, and even with the boost from the Heavenly Demon Divine Markings. He was still terrified. It was instinct... something beyond his control. Mu Congyi gritted his teeth so hard they cracked; this inexplicable sense of powerlessness infuriated him. From his debut until now, he had never tasted defeat! No matter what blessed pride of heaven or monstrous genius had crossed his path, all had yielded beneath his feet. Li Guanqi's patience steadily ran out. Watching Mu Congyi constantly dart around him, he sneered. "Where has your earlier arrogance gone?" "Circling me like a pesky rat now, refusing to strike?" With that, Li Guanqi let out another cold laugh. "Since you won't strike... then I shall!" Li Guanqi snapped his sword up, unleashing several consecutive slashes to his flank! The moment his sword moved, the afterimages circling him vanished in large swaths. Pitch-black sword rays of demonic qi abruptly erupted. Dozens of sword rays intersected and collided in midair, yet several bone-deep cuts appeared across Mu Congyi's body. Vaulting backward in retreat, the residual lightning power clinging to his wounds tunneled inside, frantically ravaging his meridians. Grasping his longsword, Mu Congyi stared warily at the man not far away, his voice trembling slightly. "The Thunder Lord?" Looking down at his blackened, turned-out wounds, the thought in his mind grew all the more certain! Such domineering lightning could likely belong only to the Thunder Lord, who possessed a divine-grade spiritual root. Lightning endowed with the power to suppress evil and dispel demons countered him terribly. Before Li Guanqi, he could exert eighty percent of his strength at most! Before he could even react, Li Guanqi's face suddenly appeared right before him! Cold eyes glared right into him, moving at a speed so blinding he hadn't even registered it. "Your speed is a joke before me." *Whoosh!* *Clang! Clang! Clang!* Two silhouettes flickered wildly through midair, the clashing of blades ringing out dense as rain. Terrifying force shattered the void, and amidst the crisscrossing sword qi, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth turned utterly chaotic, as if running rampant. Demonic flames surged to the sky; thunder roared and screeched. Wherever the two passed, the earth fractured and peaks collapsed. Within a single breath, they exchanged over a hundred moves. The sword dao attainment Li Guanqi displayed was nothing short of overwhelming. In merely several breaths, Mu Congyi had fallen completely into the disadvantage. His face was grave beyond measure, and regret had begun to creep into his heart. Yet now, he couldn't even manage to pull away to send a voice transmission, for his opponent wouldn't give him the slightest opening. Suddenly! Li Guanqi closed the distance, opening with a Coiling Sword Form as his blade traced an erratic, unpredictable trajectory. Mu Congyi had no time to think, instinctively slashing upward with his sword! Yet Li Guanqi thrust his right hand—clad in dragon scales—straight toward the blade, clamping down on it! *Squelch! Crack!* The dragon scales fractured, yet that terrifying sword strike only cut half an inch into Li Guanqi's palm. Primal energy enveloped his palm; his mighty, resilient physique, combined with the formidable defense of Dragon Transformation— He had caught a bare blade with his naked hand! Mu Congyi's expression changed drastically. He wrenched his sword back at once, seeking to sever Li Guanqi's hand with the slicing force. Yet no matter how much force he exerted, the sword remained locked in place as if clamped in an iron vise, unable to budge. The frigid, blood-red blade came slashing down directly toward his shoulder! In desperation, Mu Congyi tried to copy Li Guanqi and catch the blade barehanded. A sneer curled the corner of Li Guanqi's mouth; the blade sliced into Mu Congyi's palm without slowing its downward momentum in the least. The shoulder blade instantly shattered, and as the blade sank three inches into his body, it was enveloped by terrifying demonic flames. Almost simultaneously, both raised a knee to kick at the other, but Li Guanqi altered his strike mid-motion, driving his kick into Mu Congyi's knee. *Crack!* The bone shattered. The erupting demonic flames forced Li Guanqi back tens of zhang, granting Mu Congyi a fleeting moment to catch his breath. "Hah... hah..." *He's so strong! It's... absurd!* *How can his strength be so monstrous? Hasn't he been missing for three years?* *No, if this continues... I will really die!* An inexplicable terror welled up from the depths of his heart. Through the course of their clash, he had truly felt the scent of death! From the very beginning, his opponent had intended to kill him!