The dragon's head emerged from the clouds.
Terrifying lightning surged uncontrollably in midair.
Bolts hissed and crackled. Jiuxiao's draconic eyes brimmed with majesty, and dragon might flooded the heavens.
Within a hundred li radius, all demonic beasts and venomous insects fainted on the spot.
Lower-ranking beasts and insects even detonated directly, blown to bits!
Jiuxiao looked down upon all living beings, its colossal body churning amid the cloud layer; only occasional glimpses could be caught of massive dragon claws and a serpentine frame enveloped in thunderbolts.
"A dragon... a true dragon..."
"Wh-what terrifying pressure!"
"The world's only true dragon... belongs to Lord Yanluo Sword Venerable!"
"Could it be that the Sword Venerable has arrived in person?!"
Down below, the cultivators broke into a commotion. In today's world, who didn't know that the only true dragon belonged to Li Guanqi?
Yet who dared utter Li Guanqi's name directly nowadays?
The Great Xia Sword Sect was now the foremost sect of the Great Xia Domain.
Its First Elder, the Yanluo Sword Venerable Li Guanqi, had been absent for a long time. Rumors had it that the Yanluo Sword was in the Seventh Domain.
Moreover, during this recent period of recuperation and peace in the Seventh Domain, many cultivators had traveled outward and returned to their clans.
A few bits of news regarding Li Guanqi's deeds in the Seventh Domain had leaked out as well:
Li Guanqi had single-handedly taken on the Eight Generals, toppling every single one of them!
However, the outside world remained completely in the dark regarding Li Guanqi's current strength and realm.
Just as Jiuxiao lowered its head, everyone looked up at the dragon's head in utter shock!
A figure in white carried a pitch-black stone coffin on his back. With those familiar pure-white eyes, his demeanor was ethereal and transcendent.
A gaze looking down upon mortals swept over the ground below, so commanding that none dared meet his eyes.
Bearing Jiuxiao's dragon might in silence, everyone knelt on the ground, trembling.
A gentle smile appeared on Li Guanqi's face.
As he looked at Chen Xiaotian, who had fought back even with a severed arm, his eyes softened.
"Brat, well done!"
Chen Xiaotian gazed at the man he had looked up to all along standing right before him, momentarily unable to believe his eyes.
Emotions surged within his chest in a tumultuous mix.
His bloodshot eyes instantly reddened, tears welling within them.
Reversing his grip on his wooden sword, he offered a one-handed salute, bowed deeply, and said in a heavy voice,
"Chen Xiaotian greets the Pavilion Master!"
A gentle force lifted him upright. Li Guanqi's voice was warm and soft:
"Back when you were in the pavilion, I was already keeping an eye on you. Very good. You didn't disappoint me."
Chen Xiaotian smiled. That single word of praise from Li Guanqi brought him greater joy than breaking through to the Soul Formation Realm.
Li Guanqi's sudden appearance here might have been a coincidence.
Yet rescuing him right when he was on the brink of death proved that Li Guanqi had surely been watching silently from the shadows for quite some time.
*How wonderful... I didn't let Big Brother Li down.*
Down below, Zhou Xing and Wu Zhengjie were drained of all color, their faces pale as paper.
At this moment, the ancestors of the Wu and Zhou clans broke out of seclusion as well!
The two Void Refining Realm experts could not even manage to fly through the air under the crushing pressure; they could only race along the ground at top speed.
The two old men possessed feeble, withered auras, clearly not long for this world.
Li Guanqi cast a cold glance over them.
"Wu Qingqiu greets Lord Sword Venerable..."
"Zhou Qinian greets Lord Sword Venerable."
Li Guanqi did not even spare them a second glance. His gaze rested gently on Chen Xiaotian.
With a flick of his wrist, he produced a Spirit Fish Clan bone sword and gently sent it floating before him.
"Refine it later. Remain steadfast in your Dao, and keep walking forward!"
Chen Xiaotian was thrilled beyond measure. He knew very well how vital a bone sword like this was to a sword cultivator!
Next, Li Guanqi brought out the golden cicada and casually fed it a small piece of white radish.
The instant the golden cicada ate the radish, golden radiance erupted brilliantly. In the blink of an eye, it grew to half the size of a palm.
The plump golden cicada opened its eyes, golden gleams flashing in its pupils, and tilted its head to look at Li Guanqi.
Its eyes clearly held a spark of sentience—it had awakened its intelligence!
Boom! Boom!
The golden cicada's aura broke through two ranks in succession!
Powerful golden ripples spread in all directions.
Mysterious golden patterns on its wings shimmered with flowing light.
A Treasure-Seeking Cicada—only now could it truly be called a Treasure-Seeking Cicada.
Perhaps only Pengluo could unlock this golden cicada's thin bloodline.
When Li Guanqi handed the Treasure-Seeking Cicada to Chen Xiaotian, the young man was visibly bashful.
Scratching his head, he said shyly, "Pavilion Master, this is too precious... I can't accept it."
Li Guanqi smiled. Guiding with his hand, he drew a drop of blood essence from Chen Xiaotian's fingertip and placed it between the golden cicada's brows.
Instantly, an unusually familiar connection formed between Chen Xiaotian and the golden cicada.
Reluctantly leaving Li Guanqi's palm, the golden cicada flitted over to Chen Xiaotian's shoulder.
Its speed was so blinding that it left only a blurred streak—a golden thread flashing and vanishing.
The plump golden cicada nuzzled Chen Xiaotian's cheek, then settled quietly onto his shoulder to begin refining the power inside its body.
Li Guanqi flicked his finger, sending an overwhelmingly vast power pouring into Chen Xiaotian's body.
After reattaching the severed arm, Li Guanqi finally lowered his gaze to look down at Wu Zhengjie and the others.
He did not even bother offering an explanation. Raising a hand, he hooked his finger slightly.
Boom!
A terrifying pressure instantly pinned everyone in place, rendering them incapable of moving a muscle.
Six spiritual swords—seemingly ordinary in form—descended from the sky.
Purple-black lightning spiritual swords, moving at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye, pierced clean through the skulls of the two clans' experts on the spot!
He loosely clenched his right hand, and the six corpses instantly detonated, disintegrating into ash.
Soul Formation Realm? Void Refining Realm?
In the eyes of the man standing atop the dragon's head, crushing them was no different from stepping on an ant.
Li Guanqi reached out and gathered the remnant souls of Wu Zhengjie and Zhou Xing.
Immediately afterward, thunderclouds churned and gale-force winds howled over the estates of both clans.
Then, a sky full of spiritual swords rained down!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Deafening rumbles reverberated as the very earth beneath Moon Shadow City trembled slightly.
The rumbling lasted for less than two breaths before subsiding.
Yet the manors of the Zhou and Wu clans had already been reduced to ruins.
Li Guanqi spoke in an icy tone:
"Anyone curious about what these two clans have done can go have a look through the rubble."
His expression was cold as frost, his gaze sharp as a blade.
Originally, he had only planned to kill these few individuals and leave it at that.
However...
Having searched their memories, he had discovered that the two clans had committed countless atrocities throughout Moon Shadow City.
Yet what truly spurred his murderous intent was something else entirely.
No sooner had Li Guanqi's words fallen than faint stirrings echoed from deep within the ruins of both clan manors.
Rubble was shifted aside, and boys and girls with hollow, numb gazes crawled out from underground...
Not an inch of unblemished skin remained on them, or toxins had already seeped deep into their very marrow. Emaciated and sallow, their eyes were vigilant yet lifeless.
Li Guanqi did not concern himself with what happened over there, inviting Chen Xiaotian to step onto Jiuxiao's head.
At the sight, the young man tugged at the hem of his robe in awkward unease, looking at the massive Jiuxiao and murmuring timidly,
"Pavilion Master... maybe I shouldn't..."
"A true dragon probably... wouldn't like someone like me standing on its head."
Chapter 1386