Yet in the end, thinking back on it, Liu Nansheng still felt lingering dread.
Because in his perception, that stranger had been exceptionally strong...
The sword strike he had unleashed with all his might had been deflected with just a casual flick of the other's hand.
With such power, if the stranger's goal had not been the spiritual herb and they had clashed head-on in a fight to the death...
the four of them would likely have died right there.
Liu Nansheng took a deep breath, burying the matter deep in his heart.
It also served as a wake-up call to himself: he had to prepare contingency plans for every turn of events and never let down his guard.
The elder beside him spoke softly. "Let us return to the sect. That demon fox has surely gone into hiding."
The group took to the sky and departed.
Hundreds of li away, inside a dark cave.
Within the Sumeru Treasure Hall, Li Guanqi sat cross-legged on a prayer mat.
Floating before him was a radiant spiritual herb, shimmering with light and imbued with a profound Dao rhythm as well as potent immortal primal energy.
The corners of Li Guanqi's mouth curved slightly. He had never expected that merely ducking out of the rain would yield such an unexpected windfall.
As for the Cloudwing Demon Fox...
He hadn't really taken her to heart.
Whether it was because of Pengluo or something else, his urge to slaughter fox-type great demons was far weaker than usual.
At the thought of Pengluo, a pang of worry inevitably stirred in Li Guanqi's chest.
Not just for Pengluo, but for Jiuxiao as well.
He wondered how the two of them were doing...
Pengluo was relatively safe; even though its strength was modest, it possessed plenty of life-saving tricks, so Li Guanqi wasn't overly concerned.
Jiuxiao, on the other hand, had a fierce, unyielding temperament and would inevitably draw covetous eyes.
An ascended great demon, and of the dragon race at that...
Li Guanqi's gaze grew cold. No matter who was responsible, if anything happened to either of them... he would go on an absolute rampage.
Yet Li Guanqi also felt a sense of helplessness; the Immortal Realm was vast, and everyone had ended up scattered after ascending.
"Phoo..."
Exhaling a breath of turbid air, he knew that all he could do for now was look after himself and use every possible means to raise his cultivation realm as quickly as possible.
In the Immortal Realm, absolute strength was the only hard truth.
Once he had enough strength, finding his companions would become much simpler.
And then there was renown!
If his name could resound across the ten lands of the Immortal Realm, they would surely hear of it...
Pushing down the restless turmoil in his heart, Li Guanqi looked up at the ceiling, his chest rising and falling slightly before he slowly closed his eyes.
A blazing flame enveloped the immortal herb before him, melting it into a sphere of emerald-green spirit liquid.
Li Guanqi parted his lips slowly, letting the spirit liquid flow into his mouth.
His whole body jolted as an immense power, surging like a fire dragon, rushed down his throat and into his belly.
A scorching heat immediately overwhelmed his body, and the staggering energy within the immortal herb's spirit liquid drove the Lei Ji Divine Art into motion on its own.
The Primordial Spirit thunder seed erupted with dazzling purple brilliance, arcs of lightning leaping incessantly around his Primordial Spirit.
Boom!!
A colossal bell seemed to detonate in Li Guanqi's mind, bringing a surge of lucid clarity.
The aura pressure of a seventh-level Mystic Immortal erupted with a roar, and his aura continued to surge rapidly.
Even Shiwu's refining speed could barely keep up with the incoming immortal primal energy.
The formidable immortal primal energy contained in the spirit liquid was force-fed into his dantian like grain into a duck.
Waves of swelling pressure immediately radiated from the immortal primal energy packed into his dantian.
Li Guanqi gritted his teeth, circulating his cultivation technique and channeling Shiwu's power to madly refine the immortal primal energy within him.
At the same time, the spirit mark of the Spirit-Devouring Dao Physique between his brows flashed continuously, pulling his consciousness into an unfathomably profound comprehension.
Crack! Crack, crack, crack, crack!!
Around the spirit-gathering array disc, immortal crystals shattered one after another; over a hundred of them were consumed in the blink of an eye.
The shattered immortal crystals released dense celestial spiritual energy, coalescing around Li Guanqi into a milky-white, sacred mist.
With every breath he took, two white rainbow-like streams trailed from his nose and mouth.
This state persisted for an entire two hours.
Boom!!!
Along with a muffled rumble, dust kicked up from the floor around Li Guanqi as ripples of lightning expanded outward in every direction.
Li Guanqi slowly opened his eyes, and an arc of lightning flashed deep within them before shooting outward.
A large crater blasted into the blue flagstones on the floor.
The aura pressure enveloping Li Guanqi slowly receded, and the power within him gradually settled into tranquility.
Eighth-level Mystic Immortal!!!
Eleven months.
Moreover, when Li Guanqi broke through to the eighth-level Mystic Immortal realm, the ribbons of celestial resonance around him surged to three!
The three ribbons of celestial resonance manifested externally, drifting gently and making him look like an immortal descended to earth.
Li Guanqi stood up and clenched his fists. Sensing the surging power within his body, the corners of his lips curled up.
With a flip of his wrist, an ethereal soul nurtured by potent immortal primal energy and divine sense appeared, gently cradled in his grasp.
A gentle look entered Li Guanqi's eyes as he murmured softly,
"Master, wait just a little longer... It won't be long now."
Storing Li Nanting's soul away, Li Guanqi felt an added sense of urgency in his heart.
Li Nanting's divine soul was already far too fragile; even with the numerous natural treasures Li Guanqi had used to nourish it, it was still not enough.
Li Guanqi took a deep breath. It seemed he truly had to make a trip to the Lin family this time!
With that thought, Li Guanqi put away the Sumeru Treasure Hall. A faint smile on his lips, he took out a jade slip and spoke softly into it:
"Where are you?"
"I'm heading to Qinzhou City to look for Lin Wujiu. Do you want to come along?"
"I can return the Sumeru Treasure Hall to you while we're at it."
Before long, Qisha's voice emerged from the jade slip, though it was mixed with the roars of great demons and booming crashes.
"You're done... dealing with things?"
"Alright! I can make it there in half a month!"
Li Guanqi smiled, pocketed the jade slip, and flew straight toward Qinzhou City.
After an unknown amount of time, Li Guanqi finally drew near Qinzhou City.
Gradually, clans and sects grew numerous, and cities large and small became densely clustered across the landscape.
Across the sky, one could frequently spot cultivators soaring through the air.
Some rode atop great demons, while cloud boats and carriage chariots were just as plentiful.
Li Guanqi murmured, "The Immortal Realm certainly has quite a few beast-taming methods."
He even saw someone lying on a gigantic green-jade lotus leaf drifting through the sky.
Others carried an arm-length jade ruyi strapped to their backs.
Li Guanqi found it all novel, suddenly feeling that while flying on a sword was dashing, it lacked some of the carefree ease exhibited by others.
Still, Li Guanqi didn't dwell on such trifles, merely laughing it off.
Little did he know that many cultivators flying past instinctively slowed their pace the moment they laid eyes on him.
After all...
when had they ever seen a Mystic Immortal possessing three ribbons of celestial resonance?
They had never witnessed anything like it in their lives!!!
Unaware of the stir he was causing, Li Guanqi simply put it out of his mind.
Several more hours passed before Li Guanqi finally laid eyes on Qinzhou City.
Vast! Immensely vast!!
A metropolis spanning nearly two hundred li across!!
At a rough estimate, it was a colossal city with a population exceeding ten million!
Overlooking the grand sprawl of Qinzhou City, Li Guanqi immediately spotted a massive estate covering nearly ten thousand zhang.
Curling his lip, Li Guanqi murmured,
"Tsk, is that the Lin family?"
"Impressive indeed..."
Qinzhou City had nine city gates in each of the four cardinal directions—east, south, west, and north.
In other words... there were thirty-six gates leading into the city alone.
The plaza in the central city was extraordinarily vast, clearly visible at a glance even from high in the sky.
Dense rows of teleportation channels saw people constantly coming and going.
Chapter 1639