Lu Kangnian, Late Body Integration?

Yet another altar like this... Li Guanqi's eyes flickered. The moment he laid eyes on the altar, his vigilance surged to its peak. Whenever some bizarre altar appeared, it was never a good sign! Back-to-back with Li Guanqi, Pengluo kept a wary watch, his sharp gaze sweeping over their surroundings. "I don't sense anyone else's presence!" Li Guanqi gave a slight nod, noticing that atop the altar, Lu Kangnian's aura remained relatively stable. Yet in the next instant, Li Guanqi couldn't help but furrow his brow. He realized that after just a few short years apart, Lu Kangnian had actually stepped into the Body Integration Realm—and his cultivation was far from low. Late Body Integration Realm... Such a rate of progress was beyond anything attainable through ordinary cultivation. It seemed Lu Kangnian had encountered considerable fortune over the past few years. However... to advance to the late Body Integration Realm within such a short time was beyond what ordinary fortune could achieve! Lu Kangnian sat cross-legged at the center of the altar, with wisps of misty vapor drifting through the void around him. This vapor was invisible to the naked eye. Had Li Guanqi not possessed the Ethereal Dao Body, he would never have detected the ambient presence at all. The ethereal vapor formed tendrils of golden smoke that snaked their way into Lu Kangnian's nostrils. Li Guanqi frowned and slowly closed his eyes. Under the power of the Ethereal Dao Body, he quickly sensed that something was amiss! Though the aura here constantly augmented Lu Kangnian's strength, it was simultaneously plundering his vitality—and even transforming him! Li Guanqi suddenly recalled the broken, collapsed divine statues lying on the floor of the shrine before he had entered! And the aura of the barrier encircling the shrine's perimeter was precisely this ethereal vapor drifting here! Countless thoughts flashed through Li Guanqi's mind in an instant. *Something's wrong...* *The aura here... feels like the incense of worship!* *It seems this sect previously had ancestors who ascended to the Immortal Realm, and so incense was offered to them continuously.* *Yet after the sect fell into ruin, the shrine collapsed, and the divine statues shattered, the remaining power of incense was entirely absorbed by the sect master!* Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes. Was the incense power here trying to transform Lu Kangnian into a divine statue? If this continued, Lu Kangnian's divine soul would very likely dissipate without a sound... However... Li Guanqi's eyes flickered. Clearly, the incense power had been used as bait to lure Lu Kangnian here. Yet if he could seize the incense power here, Lu Kangnian would receive an astronomical windfall! Li Guanqi sensed the remaining incense power around them. If Lu Kangnian could absorb all of it, it might allow him to break through to the Mahayana realm! To put it plainly, the incense power here was already akin to the power of immortals. It was only due to the Human-Immortal Realm Barrier that the incense power here had never been absorbed by immortals in the upper realm. While Pengluo was still warily scanning the surroundings, Li Guanqi strode boldly toward the altar! At the same time, Pengluo began silently tearing through space, guarding against the possibility of the area being sealed off. *Tap! Tap!* Li Guanqi's footsteps echoed through the empty void as he approached the altar. Sword in his left hand, Li Guanqi slowly walked up before Lu Kangnian. Just then, however, Li Guanqi's expression shifted slightly. His raised foot could not step down no matter what. *Buzz!* A strange spatial ripple surged. A fist-sized, azure bead slowly emerged, hovering directly above Lu Kangnian's head. Li Guanqi frowned slightly, took a deep breath, and looked calmly around the void. "Still not going to show yourself?" The silent void remained as eternal and still as ever; no one responded. Li Guanqi let out a cold sneer. Raising his hand, the Red Lotus sword unleashed a tremendous burst of power as he slashed directly at the bead! *Boom!* The void trembled, and the massive altar shuddered slightly as blade met bead. A colossal force hurled Li Guanqi backward dozens of zhang. Li Guanqi flew back, retreating rapidly, his left hand tingling with numbness. Yet the bead burst into radiant brilliance, completely undamaged. Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes, his heart sinking. At the same time, Lu Kangnian's face suddenly contorted in agony, his vitality draining away at a visible rate. The bead was frantically devouring the life force within Lu Kangnian. Li Guanqi's expression turned grim. The other party was forcing him to use the sword spirit's power to shatter the bead! Pengluo's anxious voice sounded beside Li Guanqi's ear: "This bead possesses divinity too—even greater than the divinity in Red Lotus!" Li Guanqi's chest heaved violently. To think the culprit was still hiding in the shadows even now! An open conspiracy... a blatant, unavoidable trap... If Li Guanqi did not draw on the sword spirit's power, he could not shatter the bead, and it would relentlessly drain Lu Kangnian's life force until he died! *Buzz!* Stirred by this external stimulation, Lu Kangnian slowly opened his eyes. His pupils gradually focused. When he took in his surroundings, his face remained somewhat blank. "Sect Master!" An anxious shout rang in his ears. Lu Kangnian slowly turned his head to the side, a flicker of bewildered light in his eyes, disbelief written across his face. "Guanqi?" "Why are you here?!" Lu Kangnian's wits gradually returned, thoroughly puzzled as to why Li Guanqi would appear here. Frowning, he looked down and muttered, "Could this be an illusion? Am I hallucinating?" "How did I... reach late Body Integration?" Lu Kangnian's voice was filled with shock. He didn't even know how long he had been in meditation. He vaguely remembered that when he first entered, he had only just broken through to the Body Integration Realm. To think his cultivation had already reached the late Body Integration Realm. Soon, however, he realized the bead hovering above his head was devouring his life force. Li Guanqi explained the current situation to him in the simplest terms. Gritting his teeth, Li Guanqi weighed his options before suddenly roaring at Pengluo, "Do it!" Before the words had even faded, a silver-white inscribed talisman in Li Guanqi's hand burst into furious flames! In an instant, silver spatial ripples blanketed several hundred zhang around them, and a terrifyingly potent spatial power swept outward. Over a dozen spatial tears roughly a zhang wide gradually formed. Li Guanqi swept his hand, aiming to pull Lu Kangnian into his domain space. As long as he took Lu Kangnian away, he could free him inside the sword coffin space later! And as for the mastermind behind all this... he refused to believe this person was stronger than the Dragon King! *Whoosh!* Just as the spatial power Li Guanqi unleashed was about to touch Lu Kangnian, a fair-skinned hand suddenly reached out from the pitch-black void!