Space rippled faintly beside Li Guanqi.
Meng Wanshu stepped out from the void, her hair slightly disheveled, and arrived at his side in an instant.
Li Guanqi frowned the moment he saw her injuries. "You're hurt?"
Meng Wanshu pressed her lips together and said nothing.
With her current strength, slaying that woman would not have required much effort.
Yet Li Guanqi had caused far too massive a commotion outside...
Even within the domain they had fashioned, the tremors from the outer world could be felt.
Thus, in her haste to cut down her opponent, Meng Wanshu had sustained a few injuries.
Hum! Swish!
Ye Feng walked out bare-chested and drenched in blood, his vitality surging like a tidal wave.
In his left hand, he still gripped the severed head of that wretched little dwarf.
Ye Feng could not help frowning as he looked at Li Guanqi.
Turning his head, he caught sight of the long, pitch-black fissure across the sky.
Even deep within the void, that thousand-zhang rift still crackled with terrifying lightning energy, lingering long without healing.
Because Ye Feng also possessed a Geng Gold spiritual root, his perception of the battle's tremors was far keener.
And when he took in Li Guanqi's present state, turbulent waves surged in his heart.
It was hard to imagine what kind of adversary could have driven Li Guanqi to such an extreme!
Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes toward the western void and said in a heavy voice, "Don't mind me for now. Go check on Cao Yan's side. The guy over there seems tough to deal with too, or it wouldn't have taken them this long."
Ye Feng nodded. With Meng Wanshu here, there was no need for him to worry.
Just as he was about to leave, Gu Li and Tang Ru happened to return.
Glancing back, they saw Cao Yan and Xiao Chen looking thoroughly battered.
Cao Yan's fists were a bloody pulp, the exposed pale bone particularly ghastly to behold.
Even so, neither was critically injured; Xiao Chen bore only external wounds, none fatal.
Yet both wore grim expressions, and even Gu Li's face was clouded with gloom.
When they arrived beside Li Guanqi, he frowned and asked, "What is it? Did something happen?"
Gu Li shook his head and said in a low voice, "Nothing. It's all resolved. The shattered domain entrances between the Second and Third Domains have been temporarily sealed as well."
Li Guanqi's brow remained furrowed. Looking at their demoralized demeanor, he pressed in a heavy voice, "Then what is wrong with you all?"
Cao Yan and Xiao Chen exchanged a glance before speaking gravely:
"We... realized the gap between ourselves and truly top-tier experts."
"And... the methods of Immortal Realm cultivators are endless. We... still underestimated the enemy a bit."
Li Guanqi nodded upon hearing this. To say nothing of Cao Yan and Xiao Chen, hadn't he himself just witnessed the power of Immortal Realm Gu insects for the first time?
Had the sword spirit not warned him about the nature of Gu insects, he likely would never have anticipated that the scarred-face man would seize the moment to use the eight blood eyes to shatter his sea of consciousness.
Nor would he have been prepared in advance for Jiuxiao to counterattack!
The methods of the descended immortals truly were endless...
They simply had too little experience.
With that in mind, he turned to Gu Li and asked with a frown, "What about you? Why are you sulking?"
A flicker of self-reproach flashed across Gu Li's eyes. Lowering his head, he spoke in a muted voice:
"If only... I had more suppression and sealing inscribed talismans..."
"I was too self-absorbed in the past. The inscribed talismans I drew and took an interest in were always just whatever caught my fancy."
"Yet today I found that many Immortal Realm cultivators possessed those kinds of talismans to restrict us!"
Li Guanqi could hardly fault him. Just as he was about to offer some words of comfort—after all, Gu Li had changed drastically and played an immense role; without his amplifying inscribed talismans, the casualties among the Seventh Domain cultivators would have been far higher, and it was precisely his talismans and Tang Ru's command that had kept losses to a minimum—before Li Guanqi could speak, Gu Li suddenly snapped his head up!
His bloodshot eyes locked onto Li Guanqi, his gaze resolute as he proclaimed in a deep voice, "I, Gu Li, will definitely create more inscribed talismans suited for battle! I definitely will!!"
Li Guanqi sighed softly and said, "Don't put too much pressure on yourself. Just follow your heart."
Throughout their conversation, Meng Wanshu continued to support Li Guanqi, channeling her pure primal energy to soothe his internal wounds.
By now, the battle across the Second Domain was drawing to an end. Under everyone's encirclement, the remaining remnants were swiftly wiped out.
Yet this battle... cost the Second Domain eight cultivators...
Eight... Before Li Guanqi and his companions arrived, only nineteen cultivators had been desperately holding the line in the Second Domain.
The defense had nearly been broken, threatening an advance into the First Domain!
Were that not the case, Li Guanqi would never have come under attack the moment he crossed the light curtain.
Had those enemies reached the First Domain, the Realm of Celestial Spirits would have suffered a devastating catastrophe!
Not only would the celestial spiritual energy be plundered, but the families and children of every cultivator in the town would have faced certain death...
Thus, Li Guanqi and his six companions had truly turned the tide and averted the worst possible outcome.
Had they not held off four half-step Tribulation Transcendence experts, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
Every cultivator participating in the Second Domain battlefield would likely have perished here.
Supported by Meng Wanshu, Li Guanqi walked toward the crowd.
Looking at the gray-haired, severely wounded elders, mixed emotions welled within him.
Gathering the fragmented remains together, everyone walked toward the Sword Stele of the Second Domain.
Name after name appeared upon the Sword Stele.
A heavy solemnity settled over everyone's hearts.
Those names, unfamiliar to them, had belonged to living, breathing people only a short while ago.
People who had dedicated their entire lives to the Seventh Domain...
Buzz!
Spatial fluctuations rippled out as the light curtain connecting the Second and Third Domains expanded, and numerous heavily injured cultivators stepped down from it.
Likewise...
Many carried corpses upon their backs.
Over thirty in total!
Li Guanqi was deeply moved. These were all Mahayana realm cultivators!
At such a cultivation level, any one of them would have been a titan or overlord in the outside world.
They had cast aside fame and fortune, abandoned lives of luxury and comfort to come here, only to end up as names carved into a sword stele through relentless battles.
Every cultivator who raised a brush to inscribe their names wore a countenance of profound sorrow.
Suddenly, a figure Li Guanqi had never expected carried a corpse forward and gently placed it upon the high platform!
Ye Mohan!
And that corpse... was Song Bin, the sole remaining member of his former circle!
Song Bin's limbs were severed, and a bloody cavity marred his chest where his heart had clearly been blasted apart by a single punch. Half of his face had caved in.
Ye Mohan's eyes were numb as he watched Song Bin's corpse dissolve into specks of spiritual light.
Holding the brush, he stood rooted in a daze.
No one spoke, though many began to depart.
They were exhausted; some were critically injured and urgently needed healing.
Li Guanqi and his group did not leave...
Because he could empathize, to some degree, with what Ye Mohan was feeling.
Perhaps to others, Song Bin was merely an obnoxious nuisance, or just another name.
Yet to Ye Mohan, he was a brother—his last surviving brother...
Li Guanqi did not know what had transpired on the battlefield of the Third Domain.
After hesitating for a long time, Ye Mohan's hand trembled faintly as his bloodshot eyes blurred with tears, writing a line of words:
"Song Bin, an outstanding man in this life; may you... be ordinary in the next."
"Your useless elder brother... Ye Mohan."
Ye Mohan set down the brush and closed his eyes in agony as two streams of bloody tears rolled down his cheeks.
His lips trembled faintly, biting down hard as muffled sobs escaped his throat.
Suddenly!
Sandalwood incense was lit. Li Guanqi led his brothers forward to place the burning sticks into the censer beside him.
Ye Mohan opened his eyes, vision blurred with tears.
Yet behind him, he saw only solemn faces—without the slightest hint of mockery or gloating.
Li Guanqi handed him three sticks of incense and a jar of wine.
Pale and soaked in blood, bearing ghastly wounds, Li Guanqi patted Ye Mohan on the shoulder and said in a low voice,
"My condolences."
With that, Li Guanqi turned and led everyone away.
Chapter 1237