Li Guanqi gently held the woman's soft, tender hand in his. Meng Wanshu covered her mouth and giggled.
"What's wrong? Why are you so nervous?"
"Your hand is all sweaty."
Li Guanqi only then came to his senses and hurriedly tried to let go to wipe off the sweat.
Yet she caught his hand firmly and smiled tenderly.
"No need to wipe it. It's nice..."
"It's the first time I've ever felt you this nervous. It's quite amusing."
The corners of Li Guanqi's lips curled up slightly, and their fingers intertwined.
Holding Meng Wanshu's hand, Li Guanqi felt his heart gradually settle.
Standing beside him, Meng Wanshu tilted her head slightly to look at his profile, her eyes glimmering.
She felt... Li Guanqi seemed to have changed.
The gaze he turned upon her was incomparably gentle...
As the thought crossed her mind, Meng Wanshu's lower lip suddenly trembled, and her eyes rimmed with red.
Noticing this, Li Guanqi stopped in his tracks at once. Looking at the woman covering her face with her sleeve, he was thrown into a slight fluster.
"What's wrong? What happened?"
"Why are you crying...?"
Tear-streaked like pear blossoms in the rain, Meng Wanshu looked up at Li Guanqi. Pursing her lips, she said nothing, merely shaking her head gently.
After collecting herself, Meng Wanshu sniffled and broke into a radiant smile.
"I'm fine. Let's go. We're going home."
With that, the smile on her face did not fade again.
She held her head high with that dazzling smile, giving Li Guanqi's hand an affectionate squeeze.
Soon, the two arrived at the rebuilt Celestial Spirit Town.
The buildings in the town looked mostly the same as before.
After Li Guanqi reconstructed the Realm of Celestial Spirits, everyone else had simply brought out dharma artifact palaces for convenience.
Only Meng Jiangchu, a top-tier powerhouse, had actually gone out to fell timber...
He had stubbornly built an entire house and courtyard from scratch for Li Guilan.
The little courtyard was virtually indistinguishable from before. When the two reached the town, they saw smoke curling lazily from the chimney.
Li Guanqi couldn't help but chuckle.
"Looks like the old hens in the yard are in trouble again."
Meng Wanshu rolled her eyes playfully at him, suppressing a giggle.
"Aren't all those chickens and ducks raised for us anyway? They're meant to be eaten whenever we're hungry."
Li Guanqi smiled, then suddenly froze in his tracks!
His brow furrowed slightly as Meng Wanshu's words echoed in his mind.
*To the Immortal Realm, aren't we just like chickens and ducks raised in captivity?*
Meng Wanshu noticed his reaction.
"What is it?"
Collecting his thoughts, Li Guanqi smiled.
"Nothing. My mind was just wandering, and a thought popped into my head."
Li Guanqi walked up to the entrance, but just as he raised his hand to knock, the front door was abruptly pulled open from inside.
"What did you call me back so urgently for?"
Meng Jiangchu opened the door with an irritated scowl, but the moment his eyes landed on Meng Wanshu, his face lit up in a broad smile.
"Aiya, Wanshu, you broke through?"
With that, he hurriedly pulled Meng Wanshu inside. After carefully examining her aura and finding her cultivation realm completely stable, he was overjoyed.
Watching the man's night-and-day difference in attitude, Li Guanqi's lips twitched.
Judging by Meng Jiangchu's aura, however, it was no wonder he had been annoyed.
It turned out that while they were in the Second Domain and Li Guanqi was rebuilding the Realm of Celestial Spirits, Meng Jiangchu had actually broken through to the Tribulation Transcendence Realm!
His aura was still unstable, meaning he must have been in secluded cultivation trying to consolidate his foundation.
"Guanqi, don't just stand there! Come in and help!"
Wearing an apron and holding a spatula, Li Guilan greeted him with a warm smile.
Li Guanqi rolled up his sleeves and grinned.
"Coming!"
Stepping into the courtyard, Li Guanqi greeted him with a smile. "Uncle Meng, congratulations on breaking through to Tribulation Transcendence."
Meng Jiangchu sighed in wonder upon hearing that. "Tribulation Transcendence... Even I didn't expect it to happen so fast. But... Uncle Meng should congratulate you as well. To think you've already broken through to the Ascension Realm."
Li Guanqi smiled. With a slight lift of his hand, a wisp of immortal essence channeled into the man's body.
Instantly, a potent power helped him stabilize his cultivation base.
In merely a few breaths, Meng Jiangchu's realm had completely settled!
Beneath the man's stunned gaze, Li Guanqi walked into the kitchen and began busying himself.
Snapping back to his senses, Meng Jiangchu looked at Meng Wanshu and asked in a low voice, "Why did you two come back? Did something happen?"
Meng Wanshu smiled and shook her head. "Nothing really. Guanqi just asked me to come back with him to visit you two."
Hearing this, a flash of disappointment crossed the man's eyes.
He slumped irritably back into his chair with his arms crossed, his gaze continually darting toward the kitchen.
*That little bastard... No, I have to give him a piece of my mind over dinner!*
As Li Guanqi bustled about the kitchen, various thoughts drifted through his mind.
Now that all the enemies in the Human Spirit Realm had been wiped out, a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
Furthermore...
With the immortal gate above the Seven Domains shattered, no immortals would descend for at least a century, unless the Immortal Realm was willing to pay a tremendous price to rebuild the passage.
Which meant...
The Seventh Domain would be free from foreign incursions for a long time.
However, Li Guanqi shared the same view as Su Xuan on this matter.
Both had decided to keep it secret.
Once the cultivators in the Seventh Domain learned the truth, unnecessary complications would inevitably arise.
Without external pressure and existential danger, internal strife would easily take root.
If those cultivators were to leave the Seventh Domain and return to the outside world, it could very well plunge everything into turmoil.
The weakest among them were at the Mahayana realm; letting them loose into the world would not be a good thing.
It was just uncertain how long the secret could be kept.
As for when Su Xuan would depart and when Li Guanqi and the others would ascend, the young man and the elder had yet to discuss it in detail.
Su Xuan would surely arrange everything before leaving.
"Guanqi, I heard a lot of big things happened with you all recently!"
"All that rumbling before ended up getting us moved all the way over to that Second Domain."
"And when we came back, this whole place was completely different."
"What on earth was that all about?"
Looking at the busy woman, Li Guanqi couldn't help telling a little white lie.
"Mother-in-law, it was nothing serious."
"My comprehension earlier caused a bit of a commotion. Fearing you might get hurt, I had everyone relocated to the Second Domain for a bit."
"Oh, right, I reconstructed this world myself. Pretty impressive, huh?"
The woman's eyes lit up, and she gasped theatrically.
"Aiya, you made this entire place? That's incredible!"
"I'll definitely have to brag about this to Old Zhang's wife later."
"She's always boasting to me about how amazing her husband is in the Fourth Domain."
As her words trailed off, she opened her mouth as if to say something more, but stopped herself and said nothing.
Li Guanqi chuckled inwardly. It seemed his future parents-in-law were growing anxious after all.
And who could blame them?
Li Guanqi was now an Ascension Realm cultivator, and countless people were eager to introduce their daughters and granddaughters to him.
His cultivation base was currently at the absolute pinnacle of this world.
His status was revered beyond measure...
No wonder his future father-in-law felt a sense of crisis.
Those old geezers in the King of Weapons Pagoda spent every day scheming ways for their granddaughters to happen upon Li Guanqi by "chance."
Every time Meng Jiangchu heard about it, he couldn't resist going over and cursing them out just to feel better.
Chapter 1501