A Contest of Wits?

Li Guanqi's eyes flickered. Though his tongue remained sharp, inwardly he was on high alert against the man before him. The reason was simple: Duan Xian and Xun Tian were cut from the same cloth. Without absolute certainty, he never would have shown himself in person. Since he was confident enough to appear here... *Boom!!!* With lightning speed, Li Guanqi shot forward like a thunderbolt!! His massive wings of thunder beat violently, his figure moving far too fast for the naked eye to track. Yet Duan Xian spun around in that very instant and slashed with his sword!! A crimson sword-light surged forward, carrying a nauseating stench of blood straight at him. The strike Li Guanqi unleashed was actually parried by his opponent with effortless ease. The powerful sword-light shattered before Li Guanqi, yet the dissipating bloody glow made him furrow his brows. The lingering shockwave lashing against his body made Li Guanqi intensely uncomfortable; his blood and qi grew obstructed, feeling as if it were congealing into solid clumps. And that was merely the aftershock of a single exchange of sword-light. The black-robed man narrowed his eyes and reached up to touch the bloody mark along his neck, lingering dread gripping his heart. *Fast... Far too fast...* Both Li Guanqi's movement speed and his sword speed had vastly exceeded his expectations!! His opponent was a blur of pure speed, and his sword struck like lightning. Without a second thought, Duan Xian turned and fled. With a sweep of one hand, an endless river of blood flooded the void, his body instantly vanishing within it. Seeing this, Li Guanqi let out a cold sneer, his left hand gripping his sword as power surged through his fingers. In the next breath, Li Guanqi's body transformed, his burly frame radiating an inscrutable oppressive aura that filled the void with crushing weight. The river of blood churned violently; the heavens turned turbulent as howling gales screamed and thunder erupted!! *Boom!!* More than a dozen hundred-zhang thunder gates descended from the sky! Li Guanqi murmured softly, "Seal!" *Buzz!!!* A mysterious spatial vibration instantly rippled across the void. Layer upon layer of thunder sealing power actually encompassed the surrounding ten li! "Spirit Incantation: Hundred Realms Four Directions Barrier!" This scene shocked everyone. No one had anticipated that Li Guanqi would use a sealing spirit incantation to lock both of them inside together! *Crash!!* The churning blood river reared up into hundred-zhang monstrous waves, violently slamming against the sealing barrier. *Crack, crack, crack!!* In merely a single breath, more than twenty layers of barriers shattered! A cold sneer tugged at the corner of Li Guanqi's lips. How could a barrier he set up be that simple? Before long, the broken barriers reformed anew! Within the river of blood, Duan Xian's eyes flickered; clearly, he realized he had miscalculated. He had not expected Li Guanqi to possess such staggering strength! *Damn it, didn't he just break through not long ago? How could his power of laws be so formidable?* Indeed, the spirit incantation Li Guanqi wielded held an incomparably potent power of laws. Not only that, but as the Thunder Lord, his power over the laws was even more overwhelming! Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes. With a wave of his hand, black flames suffused the void. Immediately after, an enigmatic vibration spread out. Li Guanqi unleashed the special ability of the Demon King Physique: Dark Concealment! *Whoosh!* His entire body vanished from where he stood like a wisp of smoke. *Boom!!!* The blood river surged, and a terrifying thunder sword-light detonated instantly!!! *Spurt!!!* The river of blood was forcefully cleaved in two by this single slash. Hidden within the river of blood, Duan Xian's face went stark white, severely wounded as his aura was violently severed. Thunder hissed and roared as monstrous lightning erupted, vaporizing the blood river the moment it made contact. Such was the power of thunder! It held an inherent suppression and countering effect against all evil in the world. Duan Xian's eyes shifted erratically. His sole purpose on this trip had been to meet Li Guanqi face-to-face; he had no desire to throw his life away here! With that thought, the blood river expanded drastically, blanketing a thousand zhang around them in the blink of an eye. Li Guanqi's figure flickered, but he was forcibly hurled backward by the surge of power. Shooting back through the air, Li Guanqi's eyes flickered with intense thought. In his perception, the opponent's blood river was far more than mere blood!! This power... was actually devouring his primal energy during their clash. Moreover, it could hold its ground against the power of thunder; it was definitely no ordinary fiendish aura or blood qi! Suddenly!!! The churning blood river condensed into countless blood-red spikes that shot forth violently!! What was more, another power lay concealed within those spikes. *Crack, crack, crack, crack!!* A dense volley of cracking sounds echoed as the blood river surged, and wherever it swept, Li Guanqi's barriers dissolved instantly!!! Space warped, and the blood river boiled violently. The sea of blood broke through the barrier and plunged straight into the void!! By the time Li Guanqi recovered his wits, the other had already fled far into the distance. Li Guanqi furrowed his brows tightly and reached out to touch the residual spatial ripples. *Sizzle!!* The skin on his fingertip was scorched away. Li Guanqi's eyes flickered; closing his eyes, he sensed the lingering energy and muttered, "The power of fire?" "What a terrifying fellow. He actually held back a hidden trump card!" Li Guanqi reached out and drew more than a dozen half-burnt inscribed talismans from the void. His gaze grew increasingly grave. These inscribed talismans were potent ones left to him by Gu Li—not the sort meant to suppress enemies through sheer volume. Yet his opponent had forcibly blasted through the talisman seal hidden within the void interlayer. Not only that, but Li Guanqi turned to look at the colossal thunder gates beside him, corroded beyond recognition, and narrowed his eyes. "This fellow is troublesome..." "Did he really show up this time just to see me?" Li Guanqi felt this matter was far from so simple. Slowly closing his eyes, his divine sense spread outward in all directions like a tidal wave. Aside from the spatial ripples lingering in the void, he found nothing. The man's techniques for concealment and evasion were top-tier. In all his years of life-and-death slaughter, Li Guanqi had never seen anyone better at escaping. *Whoosh!!* Lu Kangnian looked at Li Guanqi with knit brows, surveying their surroundings with a solemn expression, lingering dread evident in his eyes. "Guanqi, he got away?" Li Guanqi nodded slightly, gazing vigilantly at their surroundings. "He's even more difficult to deal with than I imagined." Though it was only a brief clash, the opponent's disposition was exceedingly cautious. The moment Li Guanqi displayed even a hint of ability to suppress him, the man chose to flee immediately and bide his time. He would never allow himself to be trapped in peril. "What's more... his talent and aptitude aren't extraordinary; in fact, they're quite ordinary..." "Yet with his current mastery of blood arts and secret techniques, he must have stumbled upon quite an extraordinary fortuitous encounter." Having said that, Li Guanqi turned to Lu Kangnian and said in a heavy voice, "Let's go, Sect Master. We should head back first." "He'll definitely come again. At least now we know he's scheming something." Lu Kangnian gave a solemn nod and replied gravely, "Right! Let's return first and talk there." With those words spoken, Li Guanqi and Lu Kangnian exchanged an almost imperceptible glance before swiftly looking away.