Li Guanqi began studying the circulation methods of every sword art manual here, attempting to understand the inner minds of the people who had created them.
However, when he examined the cultivation methods from the Immortal Realm, his brow furrowed deeply.
He discovered that although these arts appeared formidable, they all fundamentally required immortal primal energy to sustain them.
If executed with ordinary primal energy, their power would be drastically diminished.
Furthermore, the mantras of the Immortal Realm's sword arts and cultivation methods were exceedingly obscure and difficult to decipher.
Even he could understand only a fraction of them.
He had even spent several months delving into one sword art, yet had barely managed to grasp the rudiments, failing to achieve even the initial stage of perfection...
Furrowing his brow, Li Guanqi murmured in disbelief, "Are Immortal Realm techniques truly this profound?"
Li Guanqi set aside his study of the Immortal Realm's sword arts for the time being. Sitting cross-legged in meditation, he began to digest everything he had absorbed recently.
Over the days that followed, Li Guanqi began attempting to create an entire sword art manual of his own.
Yet several months went by, and he remained unsatisfied with the various sword techniques and stances he created.
He found that these sword techniques simply failed to unleash the full might of their wielder; even the degree of amplification they provided was exceedingly limited.
If using a sword art was no better than swinging a sword normally, what was the point of having such manuals in the first place?
Moreover, he always felt that something was missing.
Li Guanqi rubbed his stubble-covered chin, his brow furrowed as he lowered his head in contemplation.
"What... what is missing, exactly...?"
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck his mind, his eyes lighting up as he snapped his head upward!
"Will!"
"That's it—will!"
"The way of sword arts lies, on one hand, in the subtlety and finesse of swordsmanship."
"On the other hand, it lies in will!"
"A sword art must be imbued with the will of its creator—the frame of mind with which the swordsmanship was forged!"
Li Guanqi drew a deep breath. His eyes glinted, and in a flash of teleportation, he appeared a hundred li away.
Condensing a longsword in his left hand, an unyielding will abruptly erupted!
His eyes flickered as memories unbidden flashed through his mind, and the will emanating from him grew fiercer and fiercer.
Lightning surged, and Li Guanqi's figure transformed into a bolt of lightning, slashing forward in a fluid arc!
The trajectory of this strike was ethereal and elusive, shifting unpredictably, impossible to guard against.
A horizontal slash swept across, his enraged gaze seeming to harbor a sky-filling fury.
In his life, Li Guanqi had faced far too many injustices.
His righteous, unyielding will surged straight toward the heavens.
That first slash was only the beginning. Inside him, the flow of primal energy abruptly shifted direction.
Violent power rampaged through his meridians, and Li Guanqi's indomitable momentum surged like a wild beast.
Shifting his footwork as though surrounded by countless imaginary foes, his figure flickered unceasingly, his movement ethereal as he thrust and swept his sword time after time!
Sixteen strikes.
Sixteen condensed sword beams detonated in the void!
Li Guanqi stood in place, sword in hand, his chest heaving violently.
Had the sword spirit been here, she would have certainly recognized that Li Guanqi's sixteen strikes had completely surpassed Heaven-rank sword techniques.
Sixteen strikes, each holding numerous variations—a technique for combat against crowds.
Furthermore, within this sixteen-strike sword art, Li Guanqi's movement techniques and the circulation paths of primal energy through his meridians were entirely distinct for each strike.
This was a true sword art!
Excitement shone unabashed in Li Guanqi's eyes, yet he felt this sword art had not reached perfection; flaws still remained.
And so, Li Guanqi immersed himself in the thrill of creation.
Sixty years later.
Not a whisper of sound disturbed the deathly quiet void.
Across the earth stood thousand-zhang peaks of lightning everywhere.
One mountain of lightning after another, formed purely from primal energy, stood battered and broken.
And in this void, there were a full ten thousand such peaks!
Atop one of the lightning mountains stood a small cabin constructed from lightning primal energy.
Lying atop the peak was an unkempt man with a full beard.
The man stared blankly at the heavens, his eyes hollow.
Occasionally, he turned his head to look at a colossal hourglass resting beside him on the summit.
Inside, only about ten percent of the primal energy sand remained.
He simply stared at the hourglass, motionless.
Sixty years...
Li Guanqi had created countless sword arts and techniques.
Every one of them had been carved into the ten thousand lightning peaks.
Yet as long as one was human, there would always come a point of exhaustion.
During this time, he had broken down...
He had attempted in vain to break out of this place.
Yet in the end, it was all futile.
After so many years, he had nearly forgotten why he existed here.
Only after spending several whole days searching his memories did he recall why he was in this place.
Countless times, he had frantically bombarded the Void Realm or the emerald-green earth.
Yet everything was futile.
A radish sculpted entirely of lightning lay across his chest.
A thunder dragon flew over, nuzzling against his cheek before coiling up beside him, pressing close against his side.
From beginning to end, not a single ripple stirred in the unkempt man's eyes.
This deserted, dead-silent space had driven him nearly mad.
He could only resort to every possible means to ease the madness.
Li Guanqi had even thought of tearing his divine soul apart to create a clone to keep him company.
Yet this... was merely his consciousness body, possessing no true divine soul.
For the final eight years, Li Guanqi simply lay on the ground.
When only a fist-sized portion of sand remained in the hourglass, Li Guanqi stood before it, his eyes bloodshot, filled with desperate urgency and excitement.
"Finally..."
"I'm... going... out..."
The sand trickled away bit by bit. When the final grain dropped, Li Guanqi sprang to his feet and threw his arms wide, the ten thousand peaks beneath his feet erupting in explosions!
"Hahahaha! I'm finally getting out!"
"I finally don't have to endure all this alone!"
"Fuck your mother!"
One breath. Five breaths. Ten breaths...
Li Guanqi's face darkened, turning exceedingly grim.
"What's happening...?"
Yet for all that Li Guanqi had experienced, in the outside world, a mere single breath had passed.
As the second breath came, the thunderstorm across the heavens was already stirring restlessly, but Li Guanqi's aura showed no change whatsoever.
Aside from violently churning primal energy, he showed no sign of opening his eyes.
His head remained tilted back, facing the sky.
Su Xuan's expression changed drastically!
By all accounts, the effects of the Heart-Calming Cloud Rainbow Grass should only last a century!
Why had a breath passed, yet Li Guanqi still showed no sign of awakening?
"Damn it, what went wrong?!"
A dark premonition suddenly crossed Su Xuan's mind.
"Could it be... the Heart-Calming Cloud Rainbow Grass advanced while on the Peak of Stars?"
"Doesn't that mean Guanqi will have to stay inside for another two hundred years?!"
Su Xuan's deduction was spot-on...
Not only was the power of the Falling Star Cold Lotus unexpectedly formidable, but the Heart-Calming Cloud Rainbow Grass had also evolved to a higher grade.
Li Guanqi would have to remain trapped inside for three whole centuries!
Unless Li Guanqi could rely on his own strength to forcibly break free with his consciousness!
In the void world.
Li Guanqi sat slumped on the ground. By now, an entire incense stick of time had passed.
Still, the world remained completely unchanged.
The earth beneath his feet was as solid as ever.
However, its color had noticeably dimmed by a third compared to before.
Chapter 1472