Rumble!
Li Guanqi looked down as a thousand-zhang expanse of ruins collapsed beneath him with a thunderous roar.
Yet amidst the billowing dust and debris, three cultivators with ruthless glares suddenly burst forth!
Li Guanqi swept his gaze over them and muttered under his breath, "Two at the third tier, one at the fifth!"
When he caught sight of the gaunt man among them, an ominous feeling crept into his heart.
This fifth-tier cultivator was one of the six who had initially entered.
He wielded a pair of short blades with consummate mastery, had triangular eyes and a collapsed nose bridge, and was clad in a long black robe.
Back then, this man had left a deep impression on Li Guanqi.
Dual blades, and short blades at that—when he killed, his methods were vicious, unbound by formality, and full of underhanded tricks.
The three dashed out from the cloud of dust.
The fifth-tier cultivator still held a shard of crushed ore in his hand.
It seemed he already knew what Li Guanqi had obtained.
Narrowing his eyes, the man barked in a low voice, "Leave behind what you took, and I'll spare your life."
A sneer rose on Li Guanqi's face. He would be a fool to believe such words.
Still, he had no desire to become entangled with this opponent.
Facing a fifth-tier cultivator, even fighting with everything he had would make victory extremely difficult at his current level of strength.
Immortal primal energy roared within Li Guanqi's body. Moving so fast his silhouette blurred into a streak, he bolted straight toward the Xuanming Sect's inner grounds.
The man's eyes narrowed to slits. With a flick of his wrists, two dark green short blades, each a foot long, materialized in his hands.
His figure flickered, vanishing instantly from where he stood.
Yet in the very next breath...
Slash, slash!
The man's dual short blades crossed in a vicious sweep!
Shick!
One of the other black-robed men was instantly paralyzed, unable to move a muscle. His severed head rolled away as his corpse plummeted from midair.
Seeing this, the remaining man spun around to flee without the slightest hesitation.
Yet the gaunt man had no intention of letting him escape. Transforming into a wisp of azure smoke, he vanished on the spot.
When he reappeared, he was already behind the fleeing cultivator.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
A flurry of metallic clashes rang out as blade lights and sword silhouettes flashed without pause.
Immediately after, a surge of dark green immortal primal energy erupted from the gaunt man's body. The viscous energy wrapped around the fleeing cultivator like liquid.
It slithered into the black-robed man's seven facial orifices.
"Aaaaargh! Don't kill me!"
"Aaaah!"
A shrill, agonizing scream pierced the heavens. Blood poured from the black-robed man's seven orifices, and in the blink of an eye, he melted into a puddle of bloody water.
The sight sent a chill down Li Guanqi's spine.
Fixing his gaze on that dark green immortal primal energy, he murmured, "A poison cultivator?"
*Fall back—it's unwise to prolong this fight!*
With that thought, Li Guanqi channeled his movement technique while the man was finishing off the other two.
Immortal primal energy surged through all the meridians of his body. Li Guanqi's form vanished like mist, moving at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye.
The gaunt man frowned. By the time he turned his head, there was no trace of Li Guanqi to be seen.
Knit-browed, he let out a cold snort.
Collecting the storage rings of the two dead cultivators, he glanced down at the rubble beneath his feet, his brow furrowing slightly.
Pinching several fragments of crushed stone in his palm, he muttered under his breath, "Golden Radiance Divine Iron, Scarlet Flame Cinnabar, Star Sand Gold..."
"The lowest among them are tier-two immortal ores, and Star Sand Gold is a tier-three material... He must have plenty more treasures on him!"
With a flick of his wrist, the man stowed away the broken ore. Narrowing his eyes, he let out a sinister chuckle.
"Nothing Yin Zisheng sets his sights on has ever slipped through my fingers!"
As the words fell, Yin Zisheng's figure swayed and vanished from the spot.
Almost the instant he disappeared, Li Guanqi felt a sudden premonition. Employing the concealment power of his Demon King Physique, he melted into the sea of ruins.
Hiding inside a dilapidated chamber, Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes.
Then his expression shifted abruptly—he discovered that the other man's aura was rapidly closing in on him!
Without time to ponder why, Li Guanqi shifted his position again and sped deeper into the ruins.
Half an incense stick later, cold sweat beaded on Li Guanqi's forehead. He could not understand it.
It was as if the enemy knew exactly where he was. No matter how many times he changed direction, the man came straight at him.
*No! Did he plant something on me?*
His sea of consciousness trembled as his vast divine sense began sweeping through his own body.
Yet he found nothing inside him.
Shiwu's flame power circulated through his meridians, but it likewise yielded no results.
Just as Li Guanqi was growing perplexed, he caught sight of a stray drop of blood staining the lower hem of his robe.
And that drop of blood was clearly not his opponent's...
Sifting through his memories, he confirmed that this droplet had splattered onto him earlier when the man cut down the two cultivators with his dual blades!
Li Guanqi coated his palm in flames, sliced off the corner of his hem, and enveloped it in fire!
Sure enough, the droplet of blood sizzled as it burned, emitting a foul stench and flickering with immortal spiritual light.
Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes, a wave of lingering fear washing over him.
*What a cunning, insidious trick!*
At that moment, Yin Zisheng was barely three hundred zhang away, yet he suddenly lost all trace of Li Guanqi.
He too was baffled, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper.
Every time he was on the verge of capturing the kid, the brat slipped away like an eel.
When the soul mark he had left behind vanished, Yin Zisheng finally realized what was happening.
Surging with immortal primal energy, he inspected every inch of his own body.
At last...
With a darkened face, he plucked out a clump of his own hair.
Enveloping it in immortal primal energy, an ordinary inscribed talisman revealed itself.
Yet when he peeled the talisman away, he was stunned.
This single inscribed talisman actually had four layers!
Which meant...
This talisman of common materials was actually a four-in-one construct?
Yin Zisheng licked the corner of his mouth. Glancing down at the ruined mountain gate beneath him, he let out a cold snort and swept his sleeve, turning away.
Li Guanqi finally let out a breath of relief.
A blast of chilly wind swept past.
The hairs on the back of Li Guanqi's neck suddenly stood on end!
Only then did he turn to look at his surroundings.
Judging by the layout, Li Guanqi deduced that this must have been the private residence of an elder from the original sect.
An inexplicable throb stirred in his heart.
It felt as though something were summoning him.
A faint buzzing like a swarm of mosquitoes lingered incessantly in his mind.
Li Guanqi knit his brows, his gaze hardening. After pondering for a moment, he decided to follow the sensation and investigate.
He knew not how much time had passed.
Li Guanqi walked for a long time down a gloomy passage.
Rounding a corner, an ominous black stone door radiating a sinister aura appeared before him!
Inscribed across the door were grotesque talismans and relief carvings.
They looked just like vicious fiends!
Eyes closed, Li Guanqi's brow furrowed tightly.
He had not opened his mind's eye, yet the image of that massive door surfaced abruptly in his heart.
From the seams of the door, wisps of strange black qi seemed to drift outward.
The unexplainable summons in his heart grew intensely overpowering at this moment.
*Push... open... the door!*
*Open the door!*
*Push it open!!*
*Push it open!!*
Li Guanqi's face turned pale. He felt a bewitching urge far more terrifying than even the Heavenly Demon Heart Tribulation!
He stumbled back three paces.
With immortal primal energy shielding his body, Li Guanqi stepped back as Shiwu coalesced into a spiritual body to bar the way before him.
Boom!
Boundless flames flooded the entire passage, yet that bewitching power did not diminish in the slightest—it only grew more suffocatingly intense!
Behind his mask, Shiwu's pupils slowly began to dilate...
Chapter 1603