The Sword's Name, Red Lotus!

The Red Lotus sword was three chi and one cun long, nearly identical to the sword in his spirit ruins if it possessed a tip! The instant he gripped the longsword in his hand, a sense of crystalline clarity swept through his spiritual terrace and throughout his whole body! The longsword within his spirit ruins erupted with waves of an exceedingly bewitching crimson radiance. Li Guanqi's heart gave a violent thump as origin power surged frantically into the Red Lotus sword. In his heart, he roared in a low voice, "Soul Release! Red Lotus!!!" In an instant, the edge of the Red Lotus sword turned an eerie, bewitching red!! Meanwhile, the sword's central spine took on an uncanny black hue. As though dyed with fresh blood, the blade exuded an ominous aura. Moreover, the Red Lotus sword as a whole was extraordinarily heavy, weighing perhaps a thousand jun. Had Li Guanqi's physical body not been exceptionally strong, even swinging it might have proved difficult. At that moment, the circular guard at the hilt transformed into a red lotus shimmering with crimson light. Its petals extended like tentacles, wrapping tightly around the base of the blade. Boom!! With a subtle shift of his feet, Li Guanqi transformed into an afterimage, shooting toward Zhao Beichen! Amidst flickering purple lightning, Li Guanqi's entire demeanor changed drastically! That indomitable, unmatched sword momentum burst forth unrestrained! And the Red Lotus sword's ability was pure slaughter! It possessed no other supplementary powers—only that. Boom!!! Clang! Bang!!! From merely swinging a single strike, a faint mist of blood suddenly burst from Li Guanqi's entire left arm!! As for Zhao Beichen, after taking this sword strike head-on, he was blasted backward tens of zhang!! Tumbling through the air, Zhao Beichen barely managed to steady himself. His entire arm was trembling uncontrollably. Looking down, he found the tiger's mouth of his right hand torn open, his thumb bent at an impossibly grotesque angle. Staring at the bloodshot eyes of Li Guanqi, Zhao Beichen's heart began to thud uncontrollably!! "What kind of sword is that?!" His opponent was clearly just one person, yet that single strike just now had made him feel as though he were looking upon an illusion of mountains of corpses and seas of blood!! In the span of receiving Li Guanqi's single blow, he felt as if he had been trampled by thousands of horses and ten thousand troops. That frigid murderous aura, almost tangible, invaded his spiritual terrace. Had he not used the impact to widen the distance between them, his consciousness might have been swallowed whole by that chilling bloodlust. Li Guanqi was having a rough time as well. He had never imagined that deploying the sword casket at the half-step Core Formation realm would carry such severe repercussions! Channeling the power of the Red Lotus sword for just one strike had consumed an appalling amount of origin energy in his body. Furthermore, his current physical body could not withstand the Red Lotus sword's power. After swinging just a single strike, a spray of blood mist had burst from his entire left arm! When both men raised their heads again, they coincidentally chose to break through their realms!! Li Guanqi chose to break through because without doing so, he could not wield the Red Lotus sword with full strength. Zhao Beichen chose to break through because he feared death! He believed that if Li Guanqi could swing that sword with full strength, he would be dead within a hundred moves! Boom!! Boom!! In nearly a breath, both their auras surged to their peaks!! The falling wind and snow around them seemed to slow as their presences soared proudly! At this moment, a vortex of storms spanning a radius of a hundred zhang formed around them. Both took out all the spirit stones in their possession. Yet right then, Zhao Beichen's expression shifted slightly. He had never anticipated that when breaking through to Core Formation and absorbing heaven-and-earth spiritual energy, he would actually be outmatched by his opponent. One had to know that he possessed a king-grade spiritual root!! "Just what grade is his spiritual root?! Could it be... s-saint-grade?!" A flash of jealousy crossed Zhao Beichen's eyes as he frantically absorbed the spirit stones in his hands. Gradually, both of them began frantically absorbing spiritual energy, sitting cross-legged high in the sky. Li Guanqi possessed a saint-grade spiritual root, and he had broken through to Foundation Establishment from the unprecedented thirteenth layer of Qi Refinement. At the time of his breakthrough, he had also opened up thirty-six extra meridians! Comparing absorption speed? He had truly never feared anyone! Inside him, origin power rumbled, gradually converging toward the center of his Dao platform. Flowing like a great river, the origin power slowly concentrated at the core. Without the slightest hesitation, Li Guanqi muttered inwardly, "Shatter!" Bang!! The illusory image of the Dao platform within his dantian abruptly shattered, and immediately after, his aura began to climb wildly! The river of origin power in his body began to be compressed! Veins bulged violently across his forehead, throbbing in waves. A hundred zhang away, Zhao Beichen was equally unwilling to show weakness. Having shattered the Dao platform in his dantian, he also began frantically condensing the origin power within his body. At the same time. Lu Kangnian and his group, currently hurrying toward Mount Tianyu, suddenly received a transmission from Qin Xian!! In an instant, an incomparably terrifying pressure erupted from Lu Kangnian's body!! Bang! In his fury, he directly crushed the jade slip in his hand. Beside him, Shen Lan furrowed her brows, immediately sensing something was amiss, and softly inquired, "Sect Master, what happened?" Lu Kangnian's face darkened as he growled in a low voice, "Hmph! Ziyang Palace has gone too far! Their disciples actually beat the girl Sui'an until she was critically injured and on the brink of death!!" Hearing this, the elders of the other peaks also knitted their brows, and Xu Zhengjie's face turned especially grim as he said in a chilling tone, "It seems those bastards were disgruntled that our Great Xia Sword Sect would face them in the final tournament! But even so, they shouldn't have vented their wrath on the girl Sui'an!!" No one else said much. Everyone in the sect knew that the two old men of Tianlei Peak treated Yu Sui'an like their own granddaughter. With something like this happening, who knew how Li Nanting would react? Lu Kangnian had clearly thought of this as well. He took out Li Nanting's jade slip and was just about to transmit a message when everyone saw the purple jade slip begin to flash frantically. Lu Kangnian's expression changed slightly, and he hurriedly channeled a wisp of origin power into it. Buzz!! "Sect Master! Li Guanqi broke into Ziyang Palace's compound in the night, and in his fury, killed two Ziyang Palace disciples!" "Li Guanqi and the remaining eight disciples of Ziyang Palace all plunged into the Fuyou Mountain Range!" "Sect Master... of the Ziyang Palace disciples, only Zhao Beichen and Li Hua are left! Word is that Li Hua is the son of Li Wenqi, the Third Elder of the Tianxiao Sect." "The Ziyang Palace elders are currently on their way back. Sect Master... come quickly!" Putting down the jade slip, Lu Kangnian pondered for a long time. A moment later, he took out a jade slip and said in a calm voice, "All elders and disciples of the Great Xia Sword Sect, hear my command!" "Raise swords at Mount Tianyu!!" Hearing these words, the faces of everyone behind him turned solemn! 'Raise swords at Mount Tianyu!' These words were tantamount to declaring that the Great Xia Sword Sect would face Ziyang Palace head-on! Lu Kangnian turned his head and said softly, "Prepare for whatever comes. Go!" Rumble!! Tearing open space, Lu Kangnian led the group as they rapidly closed in on Qin Xian and Tu Kui. Meanwhile, Qin Xian had received word as well. His expression shifted drastically as he placed Yu Sui'an into Tu Kui's hands, telling him to keep searching for Lu Kangnian. He himself tore through the void, shooting frantically toward Mount Tianyu! "Li Guanqi, what folly!!" "I hope those fellows from Ziyang Palace haven't returned yet. Fast!! Faster!!"