Qisha... Devoid of Ruins!

"Good, good, good!!" Lin Jinting's face lit up with delight at those words, but upon second thought, he frowned, looked at Li Guanqi, and asked in a low voice, "Are you certain this won't cause you any harm?" Li Guanqi pondered for a moment. If he constructed the array using materials from the Immortal Realm, it wouldn't cause him any actual harm. The only thing was... he would need to leave behind a trace of the sword spirit's Spirit Absolution power. Moreover, maintaining that wisp of power would consume a tremendous amount of resources from the Lin family. Li Guanqi had already made up his mind. The power he would leave behind would be roughly the same as what he had left in the Spirit Realm. Considering the unique nature of the Immortal Realm, he would expand the cultivation limit up to the Core Formation realm. And if it was only targeted at the Core Formation realm and below, the power he left behind would be minuscule. Even if someone with ulterior motives discovered it, they wouldn't suspect anything. Li Guanqi gave a slight nod, then explained his thoughts to Lin Jinting. Lin Jinting slapped the armrest and shot to his feet, a sharp gleam flashing in his tiger-like eyes. "Then it's settled! If you need anything later, just tell your Uncle Lin directly." With that, Lin Jinting actually tossed Li Guanqi a private jade slip. A sharp glint flickered across the depths of Lin Wujiu's eyes; he had clearly guessed something. Qisha, on the other hand, was rather baffled as he transmitted his voice, "Brother Lin, what happened?" Lin Wujiu glanced at Li Guanqi and raised an eyebrow. Li Guanqi gave a helpless shrug. "Together, then." Hearing this, Lin Wujiu's eyes sparkled immediately. With an enigmatic smirk playing at the corner of his mouth, he looked at Qisha and asked in a low voice, "Brother Qisha, can you take a beating?" Qisha froze slightly, having no idea what Lin Wujiu meant by that question. Lin Jinting smiled faintly and went so far as to bow slightly toward Li Guanqi, his eyes filled with gratitude. Lin Jinting had no idea what kind of price Li Guanqi had to pay. Yet in his eyes, possessing such a heaven-defying ability surely came with a considerable toll! Compared to that unfathomable ability to open ruins, the value of a single herb garden was a mere drop in the ocean. He could already envision how, relying on this method of ruin opening, the Lin family would secure a prominent place across the entire Fuyu Lands thousands of years from now! Lin Jinting stood up and said, "I'll go make some preparations first. Keep the noise down later." With those words, Lin Jinting turned and left, while Li Guanqi transmitted his voice to Pengluo. "If we refine a Ruin-Opening Spirit Array using Immortal Realm materials, what will we need?" Pengluo frowned in thought for a moment before rattling off a long list of materials, even going so far as to engrave the ruin-opening array directly into a jade slip. Pengluo looked at Li Guanqi and frowned. "Are you sure you want to help their family?" Li Guanqi nodded slightly and said softly, "I'll explain some things to you later. How have you been this past year? Did you run into anyone else after ascending?" Hearing that, Pengluo burst into tears and snot, wailing about how difficult this past year had been. The reason it had come to Qinzhou in the first place was due to the subtle connection through their master-servant contract. Li Guanqi felt a bit embarrassed. Over the past year, he had hardly rested at all and hadn't paid any attention to that mysterious bond of the master-servant contract. Still... Pengluo went on to mention what happened after its ascension. It had disguised itself as a highly venomous ginseng monster, only to be cast aside in disgust by someone... Li Guanqi found it rather amusing. Pengluo truly lived up to having hundreds of tricks up its sleeve to have actually thought of such a tactic. All in all, it hadn't suffered much this past year. Relying on its ability to forage for spiritual treasures and tear through barriers, it had lived quite comfortably, eating until it grew fair and plump. Li Guanqi transcribed the materials Pengluo had listed into a jade slip and handed it to Lin Jinting. After returning to the room, Lin Wujiu rubbed his hands together eagerly and said, "Let's go, let's go. I want to see Qisha get beaten up." Qisha was completely in the dark, but Li Guanqi merely smiled. "A little sparring will do you good." Li Guanqi did not mention what kind of price and effort it would take to help him open his ruins. He merely framed it as sparring that would benefit him. Qisha did not refuse either, and so everything Lin Wujiu had previously endured was reenacted upon him... Lin Wujiu stood in a distant corner of the Dao platform, grimacing as he watched Qisha being mercilessly battered. "Tsk, that killing intent... If someone told me Brother Li was trying to skin him alive, I'd believe it..." After a long while, Qisha was battered to the point of exhausting his very last drop of strength. Li Guanqi abruptly stepped on his wrist and, without a word, drove his sword straight through his glabella!! Lin Wujiu's heart skipped a beat. "Hiss... At least he asked me first! Even if resisting was useless, he still asked beforehand. He didn't even bother asking this time?!" *Buzz—!!!!* A powerful, enigmatic aura rippled outward, and Lin Wujiu's expression gradually grew solemn. This kind of power was simply beyond his comprehension. Just as Li Guanqi had said, he merely served as a guide. Whether one could awaken a ruins artifact depended entirely on the cultivator's true heart. Li Guanqi stood to the side, his eyes fixed on Qisha, who hovered midair drenched in blood. By his estimate, if Qisha were to awaken a saber-soul ruins artifact, its grade would surely not be low. Yet as time ticked by, despite Li Guanqi's guidance, there was still no movement within Qisha's ruins realm. Inside that vast, empty ruins realm, not a single artifact of any sort appeared!!! Seeing this, Li Guanqi fell silent. Even Lin Wujiu walked over from the distance and asked in a low voice, "Did something go wrong?" Li Guanqi's eyes flickered. He had a few thoughts in mind, but he wasn't quite certain. After a while, Li Guanqi drew back the Red Lotus Sword, retrieved two medicinal pills, and stuffed them into Qisha's mouth. A moment later, Qisha slowly woke up. When he opened his eyes and saw Li Guanqi and Lin Wujiu, he looked utterly bewildered. "What on earth... was that for?" Li Guanqi said nothing. He simply closed his eyes and unleashed the power of his Sword Ruins. In an instant, Red Lotus underwent two successive transformations, and a tremendous aura erupted from the blade alone. Lin Wujiu also slowly released the power of his Sword Ruins. When the ruins artifact merged into his immortal essence spirit sword, its sword radiance flared intensely, spitting out several inches of sharp light!! Li Guanqi said softly, "This is the 'spirit ruins.'" "This one is mine, and that one is his..." "Yet... why is there no artifact inside your ruins realm?" Li Guanqi furrowed his brows tightly. A saber cultivator who had cultivated saber intent at the Po realm ought to be incomparably devoted to the saber in his heart!! "Inside the ruins realm, what is reflected is the artifact lying deepest within a cultivator's heart—a ruins artifact." "The power of the ruins can enhance the strength of your accompanying blade." "Yet... why is your ruins realm completely empty?" After hearing Li Guanqi's explanation, Qisha's face filled with bitterness. He now understood Li Guanqi's painstaking intentions. Qisha set down his saber, raised a hand to condense a longsword of immortal essence, and slashed out repeatedly!! Sword qi swept across, carrying impressive power! Next came a short blade, a dagger, a spear, a halberd... He wielded every single one with seamless mastery, looking not in the least like someone using them for the first time.