Su Xuan continued playing dumb. "The sword coffin, the sword spirit, the sword..."
Li Guanqi snatched the pipe right out of his hand and snapped testily, "Of course!
"I'm asking you about the sword spirit!"
The smirk gradually faded from Su Xuan's face, and his tone turned calm. "I can't tell you.
"Even once you go up, I still won't be able to tell you."
A dark brown scabbard appeared in the old man's hand, and he used it to scratch his head. "Don't ask anymore. If I say I can't tell you, I really can't.
"It... involves matters far too vast. The Human Spirit Realm can't bear the weight of it."
With that, Su Xuan smacked his lips. "That strike sure was fierce..."
Hearing this, Li Guanqi muttered under his breath, "Nonsense, how could it not be... I'm already in the Mahayana realm, yet that single strike sucked away five thousand years of my lifespan, not to mention tearing the meridians in my body to utter ruins."
Su Xuan chuckled. "You'll understand in the future. A price like that... she probably wasn't even able to unleash a ten-thousandth of her true power."
As soon as he spoke, Su Xuan reached out his hand, and the sword coffin suddenly sprang open. The fracture-covered Red Lotus flew directly into the old man's grip.
His withered finger lightly tapped the blade, causing a crimson fragment to drift out.
The moment the fragment emerged, Li Guanqi clearly sensed a palpable wave of relief wash through Red Lotus.
Raising his hand, Su Xuan tapped the fragment into the center of Li Guanqi's forehead and said softly, "Use this thing... as little as possible.
"For now, the sword spirit's power isn't something you can control."
Li Guanqi nodded slightly. The memory of the sword spirit unleashing that strike—a strike that brought desolate ruin to the eight wildernesses—had been even more staggering than the day Long Hou leveled Mingchuan with a single spear strike...
Above all was lingering fear.
The sword spirit's power was simply too terrifying.
Looking at Su Xuan with a hint of curiosity, Li Guanqi asked in a low voice, "Grandpa, what realm are you actually in?"
Su Xuan curled his lip, tilted his head in thought for a long while, and scratched his head. "I don't know either.
"Anyway... pretty strong.
"Yeah... very strong. The kind nobody can beat."
The corners of Li Guanqi's mouth twitched. Though he had heard a few things about his grandfather's cultivation realm from the sword spirit, hearing the old man boast about it so shamelessly still felt rather brazen.
Even Su Xuan ended up chuckling at his own answer.
After a brief silence, Li Guanqi asked his first real question.
Looking at Su Xuan with a solemn expression, he said in a heavy voice, "Why me?
"Just because of my Ethereal Dao Body?"
Faced with this abrupt question, Su Xuan fell quiet as well.
Yet his silence was not an attempt to dodge the question; he was thinking carefully about how he could explain it in a way he was allowed to share.
The old man set down the pipe in his hand and looked at Li Guanqi with equal gravity. "Because the person I was looking for was you, and it could only ever be you."
Li Guanqi evidently did not fully comprehend this answer.
He asked a second question. "Before me, did you look for anyone else?"
The old man went back to packing tobacco into his pipe, smacked his lips, and answered, "I did.
"Not only did I look for others, I handed the sword coffin over to those people as well."
Hearing that, Li Guanqi immediately felt a pang of sullen discomfort...
So before him, Grandpa had indeed sought out other candidates.
Yet Su Xuan followed up, "However... you are the only little fellow I cared for using my true form and appearance.
"You were also the first person to call me 'Grandpa.'
"And... the first person to earn the sword spirit's approval."
A faint smile slowly surfaced on Li Guanqi's face. He knew firsthand how proud and aloof that sword spirit was.
To think he was also the first person the sword spirit had ever met...
Before reuniting with his grandfather, he had also wondered whether Grandpa would be like Ji Yuchuan.
Could his original body and his clone have completely different appearances?
If that had been the case, Li Guanqi would never have been able to sit beside him so casually and unreservedly as he did now.
It was just like with Yu Shan. Even though Li Guanqi knew him well and knew he was Ji Yuchuan's original body, he still felt far more familiar with Ji Yuchuan.
From beginning to end, Li Guanqi had spoken very little with Yu Shan.
Because Yu Shan was not Ji Yuchuan, the friend who had weathered life and death alongside him.
Li Guanqi breathed a sigh of relief. In truth, whatever the answers to those two questions had been, he would not have dwelled on them.
Yet a knot would have lingered in his heart, leaving him feeling unsettled.
That sensation was like learning he had never been the first choice.
Anyone would feel a twinge of disappointment over such a thing, even Li Guanqi!
Su Xuan tapped Li Guanqi on the head with his pipe, his expression tender as he spoke softly. "Don't overthink things. Your grandpa... is willing to give everything for you."
With that, Su Xuan set down the pipe, tucked his hands into his sleeves, and looked out at the brilliant sea of stars, his voice laced with wistful emotion. "Your old grandpa... has been waiting for you to appear all along.
"Even I couldn't divine when you would finally arrive."
As he went on, a touch of heartache seeped into the old man's murmur. "For a full ten thousand years, I searched... and searched... and searched.
"Then one day, on a night of heavy snowfall, I saw you, utterly hopeless."
The old man looked at Li Guanqi with gentle eyes.
Li Guanqi's heart quaked. He had never imagined that his grandfather had been watching from the very beginning.
"Actually, the very first glance I laid on you, I decided to take you with me.
"Even if it meant bringing you along while I looked for the one I needed.
"Yet on the second glance, I realized that you were the very vessel of the Ethereal Dao Body I had been searching for!
"Still, I was afraid your talent was too monstrous, that you would advance too quickly and your foundation would become unstable.
"That's why, year after year, I drew that seal upon you to suppress your monstrous natural gifts."
Li Guanqi remained silent, pursing his lips as mixed emotions flooded his chest.
*So... whether I was that destined person or not, Grandpa had already decided to take me with him.*
Su Xuan's voice sounded again.
"Your mother... such was her fate. Even I could not defy heaven."
Li Guanqi closed his eyes in pain and retrieved a copper coin from his storage ring.
No one in the world knew about this copper coin except Su Xuan!!
Because this coin was one of the coins from the ten strings of copper coins paid as compensation when his elder sister, Li Cuiwei, died!!
After all these years, Li Guanqi had quietly kept it safe as a keepsake.
Su Xuan extended a warm palm to wipe away Li Guanqi's tears, scolding him with a fond chuckle, "You're already one of the apex powerhouses of the mortal realm. Why are you crying?"
With a slight tremor in his voice, Li Guanqi murmured, "Grandpa... when there's time, I want to go back and visit."
Su Xuan nodded gently and said with a soft smile, "It really is time you went back for a visit."
Li Guanqi took a deep breath. The gloom in his heart gradually dispersed, and every lingering knot unraveled in this moment.
Finally, Li Guanqi posed one last question—one that had puzzled him for a very long time.
"Grandpa..."
"Hm?"
"What kind of place is the Seventh Domain, really?"
Chapter 1173