The Power of the Falling Star Cold Lotus!

Li Guanqi felt the aura of death enshrouding him. It was like countless large hands reaching out from a quagmire of vengeful souls, climbing onto his body, trying to drag him down as well. The stench of demise lingered around him, as if someone were whispering bewitching words into his ear. For a fleeting moment, Li Guanqi even contemplated giving up. Perhaps then, he would no longer have to suffer such agonizing pain. Excruciating torment devoured his reason. His bewildered consciousness was like a wandering solitary ghost, adrift in emptiness, helpless and at a total loss. Yet just as his cheeks were about to sink into the mire, an old man's voice suddenly rang in his ear! "Guanqi!" That call carried a soul-shaking force, tolling like a great bronze bell! The sound detonated in his mind, and his consciousness snapped back in an instant! Li Guanqi tore free from the invisible constraints and looked up at the dozens of approaching lightning bolts. "Mirror Flower, Water Moon!" Boom! Crack! Forcibly teleporting, Li Guanqi actually lost his bearings within the chaotic space. The moment he emerged, he discovered to his horror that he was barely a hundred zhang from the eye of the thunderstorm! Though he had forcibly evaded the fatal attack just now, he had nearly plunged straight into the heart of the storm. Li Guanqi's face was deathly pale. Blood seeped from his waist, and the charred wound regenerated at an agonizingly slow pace. The thunderstorm instantly detected his position, and myriad lightning bolts coiled toward him like giant pythons. At this moment, Li Guanqi was on the verge of utter exhaustion; he could only dodge desperately, swinging his sword again and again. Yet the sheer volume of lightning was simply overwhelming. A few breaths later, Li Guanqi stood in the distance, drenched in blood, his flesh torn and lacerated all over. The thunderstorm churned, granting him a fleeting moment to catch his breath. By now, nearly seventy percent of the primal energy in his body was depleted. Yet the storm showed no sign of waning; on the contrary, it grew ever more ferocious. Li Guanqi's heart began to sink bit by bit. Relying solely on his vital blood and primal energy to heal his wounds was no longer keeping pace. Moreover, the might of the lightning grew stronger and stronger; every single bolt demanded that he fight back with all his might. Any stray strike was enough to gravely wound him. Concealed in the shadows, Su Xuan narrowed his eyes as he looked at Li Guanqi, his gaze flickering. "What will you choose?" Li Guanqi gritted his teeth and made a decision in an instant! The wind howled around him, sounding like vengeful souls screaming and roaring in his ears. Collapsed structures on the earth were swept up into the heavens by the howling gale. The thunderous roar was deafening. Hesitating no longer, Li Guanqi turned his palm as a flash of light shimmered, and the Falling Star Cold Lotus appeared in his hand. Possessing formidable power, the Falling Star Cold Lotus spun slowly in his palm, shimmering with a soft, lustrous glow. Li Guanqi swallowed hard. From within this cold lotus, he sensed an unprecedentedly terrifying force. This power was completely unlike any spiritual plant or herb he had ever seen in the Human Spirit Realm. Even the spirit herbs that contained immense power were, at best, on par with Pengluo. Compared to those rare herbs, even Pengluo's dried radish slices were far more efficacious. In his cultivation journey thus far, the occasions when he needed to consume medicinal pills to break through realms or amass primal energy had been exceedingly rare. Thus, he did not possess a deep understanding of the efficacy of spirit herbs. The first time he had truly been surprised was when Kong Ming gifted a pill to Tang Ru. After swallowing it, Tang Ru had naturally broken through to the Mahayana realm. That occurrence had come as quite a surprise to him. Yet now, looking at the Falling Star Cold Lotus in his hand, he felt a truly shocking power emanating from within. This nearly destructive power made his heart palpitate with apprehension and hesitation. Gazing at the dazzling, gorgeous lotus in his hand, Li Guanqi could not help muttering, "If you tossed this thing into the Ethereal Immortal Domain, it could probably blow the domain's entire boundary out of existence..." "Shiwu... are you sure you can refine it?" Originally, Li Guanqi had not intended to ask, but after sensing the Falling Star Cold Lotus's power so clearly, unease seized his heart, and he simply could not resist asking. In his ear, Shiwu's voice slowly resonated. His tone was solemn, tinged with a trace of anxiety. "I will do everything I can. After all... if I can't refine it, we both die!" "Ever since the dawn of heaven and earth, Shiwu can refine all things. Yet this Falling Star Cold Lotus is an object of the Immortal Realm..." "Even I have no absolute certainty!" Shiwu spoke honestly. After all, he and Li Guanqi shared a symbiotic relationship. If he could not refine it and Li Guanqi failed to break through to the Ascension realm, both of them would perish beneath this thunderstorm. Li Guanqi licked the blood from his lips, gritted his teeth, and growled in a low voice, "Let's do it! What is there to fear!" He had already struggled tremendously to withstand this wave of attacks. From this alone, one could see just how horrifying the power of the lightning was in this round. Keep in mind, this was despite having comprehended the power of lightning laws to an extremely profound degree... He naturally possessed an immense affinity for lightning, yet he was still severely wounded by it. Li Guanqi raised his sword and brought it down, forcefully scraping away a whole layer of charred flesh from his waist! The blade scraped along the bone, mercilessly shearing away the mangled, dead flesh. Beads of sweat the size of beans covered his forehead. Li Guanqi gritted his teeth, his eyelids twitching with agony. After clearing away the charred flesh around the wounds on his thigh and shoulder, Li Guanqi barked in a low voice, "Demonic Blood Revival!" Boom! Surging with vital blood, Li Guanqi's wounds healed at a speed visible to the naked eye. Yet at that moment, the slowly swirling thunderstorm overhead seemed to sense something amiss with him. Moreover, dense lightning arcs began to condense around the Falling Star Cold Lotus. As if sensing something, the swirling dark clouds of the thunderstorm accelerated. A ruthless resolve gripped Li Guanqi's heart, his gaze turning razor-sharp. He knew that now, it was a race against time with the thunderstorm. To see who could finish preparing first. Yet Li Guanqi needed to first soothe and repair the meridians in his body. If he could not repair his meridians first, the speed at which he refined the Falling Star Cold Lotus would be drastically reduced. Sitting cross-legged beneath the thunderstorm, Li Guanqi's vital blood roared as he frantically healed his wounds. Yet when his injuries were barely seventy percent healed, Li Guanqi snapped his eyes wide open! A ruthless glint flashed in the depths of his eyes as he stared at the Falling Star Cold Lotus in his hand. Opening his mouth, he swallowed it whole into his belly! The cold lotus gleaming with ethereal radiance instantly transformed into a stream of light, plunging straight down his throat! Like myriad-year ice melting into water, it seeped into the meridians and flesh throughout his entire body. As the cold lotus entered his belly, Li Guanqi's expression twisted violently. His face flushed bright crimson, and an agonized roar tore from his throat. Li Guanqi staggered and fell to his knees in midair, his entire body racked by unspeakable agony. The icy power made his divine soul tremble; frost invaded his body, sending shivers through his soul. Incomparably immense power surged outward in an instant. Every single meridian inside him was torn to shreds by this force in that very instant! All of his previous efforts were instantly undone. The power was so overwhelming that he could not even perceive it, completely losing control over his body. His body gradually began to distort—his head swelled grotesquely large, his limbs twisted, and his abdomen bloated outward like a woman in her tenth month of pregnancy. At this moment, only a single thought remained in Li Guanqi's mind. He was going to die beneath the power of this Falling Star Cold Lotus.