The Falling Star Cold Lotus had grown atop the stars, absorbing an unfathomable amount of astral celestial spiritual energy over ten thousand years.
Even in the Realm of Celestial Spirits, there were entire mountain ranges formed from celestial spiritual energy.
Yet this Falling Star Cold Lotus was something Su Xuan had specifically reserved for Li Guanqi to ascend and break through to the Mystic Immortal realm.
Its power was so terrifying that it was already astonishing that Li Guanqi's body had not burst apart instantly.
Su Xuan's body trembled slightly as he stared fixedly at Li Guanqi.
"Hold on. If you cross this hurdle, everything will be easy..."
The time had not yet come, but the old man's body was wound tight like a leopard, poised and ready to intervene at any second.
Li Guanqi's consciousness was almost swallowed whole by the raging force.
He had lost all ability to guide the power within him, let alone comprehend the power of the Falling Star Cold Lotus to seek the Ascension realm.
The situation was perilous beyond measure.
His meridians were completely destroyed, and his sea of consciousness was sealed shut.
If the power of the Falling Star Cold Lotus were left to accumulate inside his dantian without guidance, without circulating a cultivation method to refine it, Li Guanqi's body would hold on for at most five breaths before exploding to his death!
At the same time, the thunderstorm above rotated faster and faster, its gathered might growing increasingly horrifying.
His body fell, crashing onto the shattered earth with a heavy thud.
Li Guanqi twitched violently, his flesh twisting and swelling without pause.
Great bulges rose across his arms, rising and falling in turn—as one swelled, others receded.
It looked hideously grotesque, distorting his features.
Like bubbles in boiling water, they threatened to rupture at any moment.
Yet Li Guanqi still could not feel any power, unable even to control his own body.
He parted his lips, but no sound came out. He screamed with all his might, yet made not a whisper...
*Move! Move!!*
His mind's eye swept across the heavens. The thunder-flashing clouds seemed to sneer at his reckless overestimation of himself.
Cleaving open an immortal path with a sword?
To the laws of the Heavenly Dao, that seemed nothing more than a joke.
After all, not everyone was Su Xuan—the first Human Spirit Immortal since the dawn of the Human Spirit Realm.
And now, Li Guanqi wanted to be the second.
Even with Su Xuan paving the path for him, it was still nine chances of death to one of life.
His connection with Shiwu was completely severed as well.
The power of the Falling Star Cold Lotus was too immense, nearly taking total possession of Li Guanqi's body.
Just as despair rose in Li Guanqi's heart, a woman's sigh softly sounded by his ear.
Li Guanqi's expression drastically shifted, and he roared in his heart:
*No! Don't! You'll be discovered!*
The sword spirit slowly materialized. With her back to the thunderstorm, she gently knelt beside him.
In a tender, soft voice, she said, "Don't worry about me."
Li Guanqi could not project his voice at all, but with a single glance, she understood what he was thinking.
His eyes darted anxiously toward the distance.
He knew Su Xuan was over there.
Su Xuan sighed, glancing back at the sword spirit.
Clutching his scabbard, he took a great stride forward and instantly appeared outside the Seventh Domain.
At that moment, the figure on the other side of the Gate of the Immortal Realm reacted as though confronting a deadly foe!
Without a word of waste, Su Xuan unleashed his full might with an earth-shattering roar.
In an instant, the entire Human Spirit Realm trembled!
The earth shook, mountains swayed, waterfalls ceased their flow, and rivers surged violently.
Su Xuan gripped the scabbard with his left hand while his right hand loosely condensed a spirit sword.
Crouching low, he assumed a drawing stance.
Boom!
A saber arc flashed across the pitch-black night sky!
In an instant, a thousand li of void seemed cleaved apart, carving an impassable chasm between them and the Immortal Realm!
Cracking sounds of fracturing stone echoed from the Gate of the Immortal Realm, shocking the immortals beyond it.
"Not good! The Gate of the Immortal Realm is going to break!"
"Is he... is he coming up?!"
"Quick, call for reinforcements! Su Xuan is coming up!"
"Run! We can't stop him!"
The leading man did not move, his eyes narrowing as he gazed toward Su Xuan.
Their gazes locked across hundreds of li.
Incomparably powerful saber radiance crisscrossed the void, instantly obliterating anything that drew near.
Su Xuan slowly straightened, gripping his scabbard as he said in a chilling voice, "If anyone dares descend within ten days, I will slaughter my way up!"
The man's eyes narrowed. He clearly realized that Su Xuan was veiling the heavenly secrets to conceal something.
And that matter had to be of supreme importance!
Otherwise, Su Xuan—who had previously feigned unhealed heavy injuries—would have had no reason to appear in person and expose his true strength.
Furthermore, an all-out Su Xuan...
His true strength was far greater than what they had estimated over the past ten thousand years!
Throughout ten thousand years of bloody conflict, every time they thought they had tested Su Xuan's limits, they eventually realized it was merely the limit the old man wanted them to see.
Every time, Su Xuan had managed to stall for thousands of years.
Yet this time, the man could clearly sense what cultivation level Su Xuan had truly attained!
The man said coldly, "Su Xuan, do you dare come up?"
Su Xuan sneered, turning toward him with open derision.
"A piece of trash who doesn't even dare descend thinks he's worthy of goading me?
"Killing you... is as easy as slaughtering a dog."
The man clad in navy-blue robes felt a jolt in his chest, the smile on his face stiffening.
He did not argue with the old man. As he turned away, his throat bobbed, and he swallowed hard without realizing it.
*No... I must report this immediately!*
*How could Su Xuan be a mere Mystic Immortal...*
*He is... at least an eighth-tier Heavenly Immortal!*
*A Heavenly Immortal at the peak of the eighth tier...*
The man's pupils constricted, trembling slightly, while his hands inside his wide robes shook uncontrollably.
This was not a Heavenly Immortal within the Immortal Realm...
This was in the Human Spirit Realm!
A Human Spirit Immortal, and not even the lowest-tier Mystic Immortal.
When a Mystic Immortal from the Immortal Realm descended, they could barely maintain the strength of the Mahayana realm.
To remain stable at the Tribulation Transcendence realm required at least a sixth-tier Heavenly Immortal.
Last time, when they ambushed Emperor Chen, Ling Tianchen, at the peak of the Ascension realm, they had dispatched three True Immortals.
The price of having True Immortals descend was by no means low...
Among the three True Immortals sent back then, the weakest had been at the fourth tier.
As for the one dispatched to suppress Su Xuan, leaving him 'heavily injured'...
That was a Golden Immortal they had long schemed to send—the first time in ten thousand years of conflict that a second-tier True Immortal had been deployed.
Yet the strength Su Xuan displayed today...
It would likely take an Immortal Monarch above the Golden Immortal realm to ensure his death.
However, the Golden Immortal realm was already the absolute limit of what the Human Spirit Realm could endure.
If an Immortal Monarch descended from the Immortal Realm...
The mere act of appearing within the Human Spirit Realm would shatter its Heavenly Dao rules, annihilating the entire realm into nonexistence.
Calculated this way, Su Xuan had truly plotted across ten thousand years to place himself in an invincible position!
However...
The man also reasoned that Su Xuan must rarely exert his full power under normal circumstances.
He might even continually seal his own strength to prevent the Heavenly Dao of the Human Spirit Realm from being destabilized.
Suppressing the racing thoughts in his mind, the man feigned composure and said in a heavy voice, "Everyone, stand by where you are. I have urgent matters to report to the lord."
With that, just as he was about to step away, he suddenly paused. Reaching out, he sealed the Gate of the Immortal Realm and warned grimly, "No one is permitted to descend without authorization! Any violator... everything connected to you will cease to exist!"
Chapter 1465