Slaying an Immortal!

Boom! A dazzle of sword light, a flash of lightning. Severed limbs flew through the air, and corpse after corpse plummeted from the sky. Two breaths... In merely two breaths, Li Guanqi had slaughtered every pursuing disciple of the Sanyuan Sect. Sun Kui fell back in violent retreat. The stench of blood washing over him and the sword qi slicing through his robes sent a chill straight down his spine. The old man's pupils shrank, his eyelids quivering. "This fellow... what terrifying strength!!" A shiver crawled up his back. His throat bobbed, and he actually took half a step backward. Blood rained down around Li Guanqi, and he naturally noticed Sun Kui retreating. Yet he had no intention of letting this snitch escape. His perception told him that the cultivators in the distance were rapidly closing in. Li Guanqi was unwilling to forfeit this chance to take Sun Kui down. Primal energy surged through his body, and in an instant, he shot toward the old man like an arrow! Sun Kui realized it as well. Terrified of dying, he did not even dare attempt to exchange blows with Li Guanqi. He wheeled around and fled toward Zhao He and his squad! Yet the moment he turned, a violent detonation erupted behind him. Thump! The space beneath Li Guanqi's feet warped slightly as his body shot forward like a cannonball. After all this time, Li Guanqi had finally adapted completely to the spatial oppression of the Immortal Realm. He blurred with astonishing speed as he hurtled toward the old man. Red Lotus trembled faintly in his grasp, and a layer of fine dragon scales surfaced across his arm. Cold killing intent flickered in his eyes, sharp as a blade. Sun Kui's heart seized as though squeezed tight by an invisible fist. With no time to think, he whipped his sword around in a reverse slash behind him! Yet at that exact instant, Sun Kui discovered to his horror that Li Guanqi had appeared right at his flank, barely a foot away. "Too slow." Before the words had faded, a throat-slitting Instant Slash whipped out! Clang! Sun Kui barely managed to parry the strike with his sword hilt. The blade sliced through his skin half a finger-depth deep, and blood streamed down. The old man kicked out at Li Guanqi. Crack! Li Guanqi was faster still, smashing a fist directly into his knee. Instantly, his entire right kneecap shattered, his lower leg bending back at a grotesque angle. "Aaagh!" Sun Kui twisted his head and screamed, "Commander Zhao, save me!" Even as the cry left his mouth, a thin line of blood split open from both corners of the old man's lips! Sun Kui's left hand clamped onto the blade with a death grip. This slash had nearly cleaved his head open from the mouth! Blood seeped from his palm; his tongue could even feel the ice-cold steel. Boom! A formidable burst of power surged from within the old man in an attempt to blast Li Guanqi back. Yet Li Guanqi's terrifying physical might shrugged the power off completely, letting wave after wave of immortal primal energy wash harmlessly against him. Twisting his right wrist, Sun Kui drove his sword like a dagger toward Li Guanqi's head. Li Guanqi's right hand shot out like lightning, claw-like fingers digging deep into the old man's wrist. The jade bones inside the old man's body could not withstand such force and were crushed to splinters! The limp wrist was ripped away clean! Li Guanqi's chilling voice rang softly in the old man's ear. "You should never have given in to greed." Before his words even finished, he tore the old man's arm straight off. Spurt! From beginning to end, Li Guanqi's gaze was as still as stagnant water, void of the slightest ripple of emotion. In utter panic, Sun Kui shrieked, "I saved you! Don't kill me!" Watching the old man scurry like a rat, Li Guanqi stayed hot on his heels. "You did save me, true. But of all things, you should never... have plotted to kill me!" With those words, frigid sword light sealed off every route of escape. Clang! Clang! Clang! Sun Kui fought back with everything he had, but all sensation had vanished from his arm. His palm was drenched in blood, the skin at the web of his hand torn open. He couldn't understand. Li Guanqi was clearly only in the Ascension realm—why did he possess such monstrous strength? And what was more... Immortal primal energy! The greatest distinction between an immortal and a mortal was immortal primal energy! The purity of immortal primal energy was something primal energy could never match. It was also the greatest reliance of the Mystic Immortal realm. Yet the immortal primal energy within Li Guanqi was even purer than his own! Waves of numbness and searing heat washed over him, rendering his protective energy practically nonexistent. Li Guanqi glanced back toward the distance, resolving to execute Sun Kui as quickly as possible. With that thought, Li Guanqi circulated his cultivation method furiously, and in an instant, his aura surged yet higher! Seeing this, Sun Kui turned and ran without the slightest hesitation. Terrifying!! This fellow doesn't feel an ounce of guilt! In the lower realm, he must have crawled his way out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood as well!! Suddenly! The old man froze stiff, the hair all over his body standing on end. An afterimage materialized before his eyes in an instant, and a sword light blurred with sheer speed flickered past! The blade was draped in a terrifying mantle of thunder-fire immortal primal energy. Li Guanqi's chilling voice drifted slowly through the air. "Red Lotus: Dao Fall!" Boom! Clang! Crack! The sword in Sun Kui's grip shattered into countless shards. Even parrying across his chest could not stop Li Guanqi's lightning-fast strike. Blood spouted from his neck—a single stroke slit his throat! Terrifying immortal primal energy detonated inside him, instantly shredding his origin spirit and meridians to pieces. Boom! Crash! The old man's body blew apart like a burst balloon, erupting into a mist of blood. Li Guanqi exhaled a breath of turbid air. Without a second's hesitation, he snatched the old man's storage ring at top speed, turned, and bolted! Though he hadn't been injured killing Sun Kui, the turbulent energy roiling inside his body demanded constant suppression. Facing Zhao He and the others right now would put him at an extreme disadvantage. Moreover, he had fought Zhao He before; the man's strength was by no means to be underestimated. Otherwise, he could never have become the vice commander of the Tianshu Ascension Hall. Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Piercing whistles shredded the air as Zhao He and his squad bore down at blinding speed. In the blink of an eye, the distance between them shrank to three thousand zhang. Li Guanqi pushed his movement technique to its limit, yet found he could not widen the gap. Movement techniques in the Immortal Realm were simply too fast—far beyond anything he could match. Li Guanqi kept his head down and sprinted, the wind howling past his ears as the mountain landscape blurred and receded behind him. Pulling out immortal crystals, Li Guanqi crushed them in his grip, rapidly absorbing and refining the spiritual energy within. At the same time, Spirit Absolution blood threads spilled from his palm! Wave after wave of his formidable divine sense hammered against the spiritual imprint on Sun Kui's storage ring. The silver storage ring gleamed with spiritual light as a golden spiritual imprint fractured and crumbled away piece by piece. Li Guanqi muttered under his breath, "Faster!! Faster!!!" By now, he was certain that the contents of the Record of Immortal Induction were sound. The problem had been the jade slip itself. Now that the incantations of the Record of Immortal Induction were committed to memory, all he lacked was a cultivation technique capable of refining immortal primal energy! Back in the Immortal Burial Pavilion of the Seventh Domain, there had been plenty of immortal sword arts and secret manuals from the Immortal Realm. Yet there hadn't been a single cultivation method among them—whether the immortals had done so intentionally or not, he could not say. Still, from what that youth had said earlier, one could deduce a few things. Cultivation methods in the Immortal Realm were exceedingly rare; otherwise, the youth wouldn't have spent all that time waiting for Sun Kui to teach him one.