A longsword woven of pure spiritual light floated before Li Guanqi, radiating suffocating demonic energy.
Swaying on his feet, Li Guanqi looked at the spiritual sword before him and slowly reached out to touch it.
Yet his fingers passed straight through the blade.
A hoarse whisper slowly arose.
"Thy essence blood can claim its allegiance."
Only then did Li Guanqi notice the sword spirit kneeling on the ground with his back turned to him.
Paying no mind to the spiritual sword, Li Guanqi walked slowly toward the sword spirit.
By now, the sword spirit's aura was exceedingly faint, and the entire conscious space trembled violently, gradually starting to crumble.
Watching the world shatter, Li Guanqi slowly bent down and crouched before him.
"Can you... stay?"
"With my power, I can keep you alive."
Xue Ming slowly raised his head, a satisfied smile gracing his face as he looked at Li Guanqi.
He simply gazed at Li Guanqi and shook his head.
"My wish is fulfilled; nothing in this mortal realm holds me back.
"Lingering on in this world serves no purpose.
"This is my Dao, my obsession...
"I ask you, my lord... to let me depart."
Saying this, the withered Xue Ming sword spirit bowed low in prostration, palms turned upward.
Within his palms, that spiritual sword manifested once more.
Rumble!!
The world collapsed. Bowing in the sea of blood, Xue Ming spoke softly.
"The Six Paths of Buddhism are vast and profound.
"The Purgatory Path and the Asura Path are rife with slaughter, karmic hindrances, and remorse.
"May your immortal path... be vast and unobstructed!"
Li Guanqi spoke no more and slowly retracted the power of Spirit Absolution.
With his current strength, he could easily keep the sword spirit from dying.
Yet... this was the spirit's Dao.
From antiquity to the present, he had sought someone who could kill him.
Li Guanqi saw liberation in his eyes.
It was as though he had completed his sworn mission.
Li Guanqi cut his fingertip, letting a drop of essence blood fall onto the spiritual sword.
Buzz!!!
As the blood rippled, countless streams of information flooded into Li Guanqi's mind.
Before he could examine any of it, Xue Ming's body had already begun to shatter, scattering into motes of spiritual light.
The man rose, clasped his hands, and bowed deeply to Li Guanqi, a warm, gentle smile on his face.
In this moment, it was as if he were no longer that demonic sword, but simply Xue Ming.
Looking into his eyes, Li Guanqi said softly, "Rest assured, I will not disgrace Xue Ming's name."
The man said nothing, only smiling.
Perhaps to the sword spirit, whether its renown was upheld no longer mattered.
The obsession in his heart was fulfilled.
Though Li Guanqi still harbored many questions, there would be no chance to ask them.
For instance...
How could a mere sword spirit know of the power of the Ruins!
Buzz!!! Bang!!
Xue Ming vanished completely from this world.
The collapse of the conscious space accelerated abruptly.
Li Guanqi bowed solemnly in the direction where Xue Ming had stood.
Boom!!!!
With a resounding roar, Li Guanqi's consciousness instantly returned to his body.
The moment he opened his eyes, he saw the two before him, faces filled with worry.
Li Guanqi felt his cheeks tighten. He parted his lips, but no sound came out.
Looking down at his body, he was startled.
Half of his body had shriveled terribly, resembling a dried corpse.
"He's awake! He's awake!! You scared me half to death!"
Qisha frowned slightly, pulling Lin Wujiu back a step.
Li Guanqi took a deep breath, clutching the sword hilt tightly with his withered palm.
"Haaah!!!"
With a fierce shout, the longsword was drawn slowly out from the stone pillar.
Rumble!! Clatter, clatter!
Crack, snap!
The sealing stone pillar slowly shattered, and the longsword was finally drawn out entirely.
A scabbard of fractured, jagged white bone bore ferocious bone spurs along its surface.
The purple hilt was mottled with the dark stains of soaked blood.
The scabbard was piercingly cold to the touch. Li Guanqi slowly drew the blade.
Clang!!
A crisp, resonant sword ring echoed straight into the sky.
The blade was extraordinarily slender, only half the thickness of Red Lotus.
Yet a radiant gleam flowed across the blade, slightly warping the surrounding void—sharp beyond measure!
Clang!!!
Red Lotus manifested on its own, its tip erupting with a brilliant crimson radiance.
Skreeee!!!
A shrill, ear-splitting sword cry sounded; Red Lotus bristled with clear hostility.
Yet immediately after, Red Lotus wavered, showing hints of puzzlement.
The Red Lotus sword spirit could not sense the slightest presence of any spirit within this blade!
Qisha looked at Li Guanqi with envious eyes and asked softly, "Did you win?"
Li Guanqi gave a slight nod and said softly, "Yes, I won...
"But the sword spirit chose his own demise. That was his Dao."
Hearing this, both Qisha and Lin Wujiu were taken aback.
They had witnessed firsthand how terrifyingly powerful that spirit was.
Yet for the sword spirit to end his own life was truly something they had never imagined.
Red Lotus circled the Xue Ming Sword once, turned its tip toward Li Guanqi for a lingering look, and only then vanished back.
Seeing how the Red Lotus Sword acted, Lin Wujiu couldn't help but chuckle. "Hahaha, Brother Li, could your sword spirit be a woman?"
Li Guanqi rubbed his nose and said nothing.
Qisha looked at Li Guanqi, his eyes filled with envy.
Standing on the altar, he cast a glance around, his gaze turning exceedingly complex.
"The Asura Path is also a road steeped in blood.
"And the Purgatory Path... even more so.
"There should be a method within this sword allowing you to enter the path."
Li Guanqi nodded slightly. He had indeed felt it.
Otherwise, he truly would have had no way to learn the *Purgatory Asura Sword* technique contained within the Rakshasa Ghost Mask.
Li Guanqi was not stingy either, splitting the immortal ores he had obtained into three equal portions and handing two over to them.
Qisha felt a bit embarrassed, but Lin Wujiu accepted the storage ring generously.
"Tch, then our trip wasn't completely in vain."
With that, he turned to Qisha with a grin. "If you don't want it, I'll take it all."
Hearing that, Qisha snatched the storage ring. Sweeping his divine sense inside, he was immediately stunned and glanced up at Li Guanqi.
Li Guanqi had truly divided it without shortchanging them; his own share was even slightly smaller.
Qisha looked at the two beside him, complex feelings stirring within his heart for a moment.
This was the first time he had ever met people like Li Guanqi and Lin Wujiu.
Rumors held that Lin Wujiu was cold-blooded, arrogant, and prideful beyond measure.
Yet meeting him in person, he showed genuine character.
Lin Wujiu looked at Qisha and asked softly, "I'm Lin Wujiu. What's your name?"
Qisha hesitated before squeezing out a reply. "Just call me Qisha..."
"What kind of terrible name is that? Don't you even have a surname?"
Qisha replied calmly, "I am an orphan, fatherless and motherless. I don't know what my surname is."
Hearing that, Lin Wujiu looked thoroughly awkward, giving a couple of light coughs to cover his embarrassment.
Then Qisha looked around at the world on the verge of collapse and said softly, "Brother Li, what do you plan to do?"
Li Guanqi shrugged. "Do about what? You mean the people from the Tianhua Sword Sect?"
At those words, the atmosphere turned heavy.
"Every disciple of the Tianhua Sword Sect has perished; Chen Tianhua outside likely already knows.
"Right now, the Tianhua Sword Sect outside the pocket realm has surely prepared to seize everyone who emerges.
"Brother Lin has nothing to fear—after all, as the eldest young master of the Lin family, they wouldn't dare lay a finger on him.
"But... the same cannot be said for you and me."
Chapter 1616