Ye Feng's Sword!

Li Guanqi did not yet realize that his state of mind had quietly begun to change. The longsword that had once remained hidden in its scabbard was finally about to reveal its sharp edge! The resolve to become truly strong was sprouting deep within his heart. Night fell. The auras of both Li Guanqi and Ye Feng gradually stabilized. Li Guanqi's aura was particularly profound now that he had stepped into the late Core Formation realm. He felt his entire body brimming with power, and the sword techniques that had once seemed obscure and difficult to grasp were steadily becoming clearer. Within his sea of consciousness, his divine sense surged incessantly, beginning to deduce the remaining strikes of the Seven Fiends! Gradually, the sword forms he had previously struggled to comprehend came under his mastery. He slowly rose and drifted through the air to the summit. His hand curled loosely around the empty air, yet it was as if he held a real blade. Sword moving with body, Li Guanqi's figure instantly stirred up wild gales across the mountain peak! Li Guanqi grew faster and faster, his footwork and sword art fusing together into something seemingly seamless and natural. At last, Li Guanqi snapped his eyes open! His loosely gripped right hand struck out like a nimble viper! Thud! A clap like rolling thunder suddenly detonated in midair! Even space itself showed faint signs of warping! Li Guanqi slowly opened his hand and closed his eyes once more, savoring every insight from that moment. Below, Ye Feng, who had been sitting cross-legged atop a boulder all this while, had reached an epiphany of his own. Golden light surged around him, and the boulder beneath him split abruptly in two! It was cleanly severed, as if sliced through horizontally by an unseen edge! When Ye Feng opened his eyes, a glint of golden light flashed across his gaze. His entire being was razor-sharp, like a prized sword unsheathed! His eyes keen, Ye Feng clenched his fists, looked up toward the direction where Cao Yan had fled, and murmured softly, "Don't worry, Big Head." "When I see you next, your Second Brother will definitely stand in front of you!" Li Guanqi opened his eyes and looked down at Ye Feng, thinking to himself, "It seems this ordeal hit him hard as well." Ye Feng leaped onto the summit, letting the rays of the rising sun wash over his face. Without turning around, he stared toward the sun and asked softly, "Boss, do you think we'll ever reach the top of the mountain one day?" Li Guanqi grinned at the question. Putting an arm around Ye Feng's shoulder, he pointed up at the sky. With absolute certainty in his voice, he said, "The top of the mountain? Too small. We're going to shatter the vault of heaven and ascend above the nine heavens!" Hearing this, Ye Feng's eyes brightened. He murmured softly, "Above the nine heavens? Sounds pretty good!" As he spoke, Ye Feng turned to Li Guanqi with a wide grin. "Boss, how about a spar? I had an insight just now and created a sword strike of my own." Li Guanqi blinked in surprise. No wonder the kid's aura had been surging so restlessly. "Sure! Bring it on!" With that, Li Guanqi drew the Red Lotus sword, took up his stance, and waited for Ye Feng. Ye Feng drew his own longsword as well. A gentle breeze drifted past, rolling a small pebble along the ground. Boom! Two afterimages instantly collided, sword light flashing before them as their blades swept through the air. Li Guanqi suppressed his cultivation to the middle stage. Holding nothing back, he unleashed dozens of slashes in rapid succession with his left hand! Clang! Clang! Almost the instant Li Guanqi struck, Ye Feng felt an overwhelmingly immense pressure bearing down upon him! Clang, clang, clang! Within a few breaths, the two had already exchanged hundreds of blows! While Ye Feng's face was dead serious, Li Guanqi moved with effortless ease. Yet Li Guanqi was surprised to find that Ye Feng's strength had advanced rapidly; the speed of Ye Feng's sword strikes was nearly a match for his own left-handed swordplay. Ye Feng might not have possessed talent quite on par with Cao Yan's, but he had tenacity to spare and worked exceptionally hard. Once upon a time, Ye Feng had relied on his innate gifts to slack off, sleeping in every single day. The corner of Li Guanqi's mouth curved upward. His sword momentum grew swifter and far trickier. Their figures darted and shifted across the hundred-zhang summit. Even pinned under relentless pressure, Ye Feng steadily gained ground. Completely suppressed, Ye Feng offered a helpless inward smile and drew a deep breath. In an instant, the primal energy within him surged and roared like a wild beast, bursting forth in a wave of formidable pressure. Having knocked Li Guanqi back with a fierce strike, he roared, "Watch out, Boss! Here it comes!" Boom! Radiant golden primal energy churned violently, accompanied by the ferocious roars of a tiger! Ye Feng gripped his sword with both hands, crouching low like a tiger on the hunt, the edge of his blade serving as its fangs. Thud! A crater a zhang deep blew open on the summit as Ye Feng's body skimmed the dirt, shooting forward in a flash. "Tiger's Roar, Mountain Splitter!" Boom! When Ye Feng closed to within a zhang of Li Guanqi, he took a heavy step forward and pounced like a lunging tiger, his sword momentum overwhelming! Li Guanqi hesitated not a moment to release his suppressed cultivation, twisting his wrist to slash down with thunderous force! Boom! A tremendous explosion rang out, shaking the mountain and sending massive boulders tumbling down! Hovering in midair with the web of his thumb split open, Li Guanqi was genuinely taken aback. He hadn't expected Ye Feng's strike to be this powerful. Ye Feng hurried over to him, smug and beaming with pride. "Boss, how was that strike of mine?" Li Guanqi twitched his lips, sheathing his sword as he landed. "Not bad. Plentiful momentum, ferocious killing power! If an ordinary late Core Formation cultivator took that hit, they'd definitely suffer." Receiving Li Guanqi's praise, Ye Feng scratched his head, feeling a bit bashful. As for why he hadn't asked if Li Guanqi was hurt, there was no need. In his eyes, no matter how many techniques he comprehended on his own, none could truly hurt Li Guanqi. This was one of the reasons Ye Feng was so willing to follow him as a younger brother: it was entirely due to Li Guanqi's immense strength and charismatic personality. As for Li Guanqi himself, he too had gleaned some insights while studying the Seven Fiends the day before, though he hadn't yet had time to ponder them properly. The commotion from their fight attracted no outside attention. Looking out toward the rising morning sun, Li Guanqi whispered softly, "I hope Cao Yan will be like this rising sun, reborn anew." In the midst of a swamp, a youth hiding submerged beneath the muck was covered in sword wounds, yet he had placed bloodsucking leeches over the cuts! Peering through dead grass and fallen leaves, exposing only a single eye, Cao Yan clenched his fists with all his might. His knuckles turned white, his eyes bloodshot! He dared not breathe, terrified of being discovered. Even now, that pursuer had not given up the hunt. He had reached his wit's end, having exhausted every single trump card. Seeing a ray of sunlight shine over the marshland, his eyes misted over. The sight reminded him of the words Li Guanqi had spoken to him back then: "Even when trapped in the depths of an abyss, you must reach out your hand again and again! Exhaust every means to climb out of that abyss!" "Don't worry, I won't die... I will definitely stand before you alive! Reclaim everything that belongs to me! Just you wait!"