Slaying the Giant Ape!

Li Guanqi raised his hand and released a jolt of lightning to numb both his arms. *Phoo...* With every rise and fall of his chest, agony racked him as though countless blades were carving through his flesh. Yet immediately afterward, he slowly closed his eyes. His right hand loosely clasped empty air as he murmured under his breath: "Demon Shadow Slash: Dark Night!" *Boom!!!* A formidable pressure erupted instantly as a scarlet longsword darted into his palm in the blink of an eye. Trailing an overwhelmingly powerful aura, the giant ape lunged at Li Guanqi in an instant!! Suddenly!! The sky all around plummeted into abrupt darkness!!! Amidst the shrill hiss of lightning, a terrifying sword beam over ten zhang long burst forth!! In that breath, a heavy, indescribably profound pressure erupted with a roar!! And that very aura emanated directly from within the sword radiance. A sudden premonition of mortal danger gripped the giant ape, yet it had nowhere to dodge. And this was precisely the opportunity Li Guanqi had been waiting for! The giant ape was exceptionally clever; more often than not, the moment he brought out Seven Fiends, it would dart away. Its agile movements combined with immense defensive resilience had troubled Li Guanqi to no end. Furthermore, the ape was extremely cautious, never committing its full power lightly. Only right now!!! With a furious roar from Li Guanqi, the sword radiance descended in an instant, carrying the destructive might of lightning!!! Even though the giant ape had pushed its strength to the absolute peak, it was still powerless to withstand this terrifying strike!! Its massive body was cleaved cleanly in two by the sword light! As the residual sword light tore into the Purgatory Mountain Range, the thunderous impact gouged a chasm dozens of zhang across! Both the corpse of the Colossal Strength Vajra and Li Guanqi plummeted from the sky at the same time! This was the first time he had ever unleashed this sword strike at full power! He had to admit, such killing power was truly horrifying. Yet the toll of this strike was just as frightening—this single slash had virtually drained his dantian of all its primal energy!! *Crash, rustle, snap!!* His body crashed through the canopy of a massive tree, branches rustling and snapping in his ears. With a heavy thud, he hit the ground. Forcing down the overwhelming weakness wracking his body, Li Guanqi quickly stowed the Colossal Strength Vajra's corpse. His sharp senses registered the ground trembling faintly. Other demonic beasts had clearly caught the scent of blood and were already rushing toward him. He hurriedly pulled out a high-grade spirit stone and clenched it in his palm, stuffing several more into his robes. Steeling himself, he quickly slipped into the depths of the forest. One had to admit, the spiritual energy within high-grade spirit stones was exceptionally pure, requiring almost no refinement to be absorbed directly. A sliver of primal energy finally returned to his empty core. Without time to think, he fled like mad toward the outer perimeter! In his current condition, crossing paths with any other demonic beast would almost certainly spell disaster! Heaven, however, refused to grant his wish. Before long, he discovered that a fourth-rank Nether Venomous Scorpion had locked onto him!! Two hundred zhang away, the pitch-black scorpion—a full fifteen zhang long—was hot on his heels!! Bloodthirsty murderous intent gleamed in the scorpion's compound eyes, and its jet-black carapace glinted with a chill luster. Anxiety gnawed at Li Guanqi. Scorpions and serpent-type demonic beasts were all the same—extremely sensitive to scents and warmth. Stained with blood, shaking it off would be nearly impossible. Besides, such a massive commotion was bound to draw the attention of yet more beasts. Burning with anxiety, Li Guanqi could think of no other way out. Extending his divine sense, he quickly detected a cold pool ahead!! A flash of joy surged through him, and without a second thought, he darted madly toward the cold pool!! The earth rumbled as the scorpion behind him moved faster and faster! Its gigantic body smashed through everything in its path. Countless towering ancient trees were shattered to splinters, and the crashing grew closer and closer by the second. Yet misfortunes never came singly—in the sky above, two fourth-rank griffins had also set their sights on him! Meanwhile, beastly roars and calls continuously rang out from all sides. Li Guanqi swallowed hard. He hadn't expected his battle to disturb the entire domain of fourth-rank demonic beasts. "Faster! Faster, faster!!!" It was a pity his Wind Thunder Wings were damaged; otherwise, they would have been perfect for compensating for his depleted primal energy. Running his cultivation technique with everything he had, he rapidly refined the spiritual energy from the spirit stone. Just then, the sword spirit's voice rang in his ear! "Throw spirit stones out!!" Without thinking, Li Guanqi raised his hand and flung out several dozen spirit stones. Yet the beasts were completely unmoved. Heart aching, Li Guanqi cried out: "I threw them, but it didn't work!!" The sword spirit's figure appeared beside him, cursing with an ashen face: "Throw high-grade ones!! What good is throwing low-grade spirit stones?!" Li Guanqi twitched his mouth. Throwing high-grade ones broke his heart!! A single one was worth ten thousand low-grade spirit stones! Yet this was clearly no time to be stingy. Li Guanqi gritted his teeth and hurled three whole high-grade spirit stones behind him in an instant!! The spirit stones, brimming with dense spiritual energy, quickly caught the demonic beasts' attention. Li Guanqi tossed out all the spirit stones in his robes, leaving only the one in his hand. After a brief hesitation, he ended up throwing that one too! The primal energy in his body had recovered to twenty percent, which was more than enough if he was merely fleeing. Once the spirit stones were thrown, the scorpion paused slightly, opening its wide maw to swallow a stone whole. Then, without looking back, it scuttled away with its prize. Seeing that no spirit stones were left, the other demonic beasts continued chasing after him. Seeing this, Li Guanqi couldn't help but curse, "Beasts!! Absolute beasts!!!" Even as he said so, he kept cursing while throwing more spirit stones. Yet the moment the second spirit stone was thrown, one of the griffins overhead swooped down and snatched it away in its beak. And it was only three to five zhang away from Li Guanqi. The speed, fast enough to leave afterimages, made Li Guanqi's heart leap in terror, and he ran all the faster. At the same time, he threw spirit stones at an even greater pace. Yet even though he threw spirit stones to save his life, he couldn't stop more and more beasts from joining the chase. In the end, tears welled in Li Guanqi's eyes as he pleaded, "Can I stop throwing them... It hurts so much!" Seeing him like this, the sword spirit was practically fuming. Sensing the location of the mountain ravine's cold pool, it barked in a low voice, "Run faster if you don't want to die!!" Hearing that he didn't need to throw any more spirit stones, Li Guanqi ran at breakneck speed. The sword spirit thought silently to itself: once this matter was over, it would definitely have to teach him a suitable top-tier movement technique!! Otherwise, this kid wouldn't even know how he died. *Swish!!!* The mountain ravine, only a single person's width across, held back the horde of demonic beasts. With a splash, Li Guanqi leaped into the cold pool, instantly feeling a wave of refreshing relief. A little surprised, he looked down at the pool water and murmured, "This pool water..." The sword spirit glanced down and said, "The bottom of the pool is full of Ice Crystal Sprout Algae. It has healing properties." "You might as well recover from your injuries here." Hearing this, Li Guanqi chuckled slyly, thinking, *Heh-heh, perfect. Saves me medicinal pills.* Naturally hearing his inner thoughts, the sword spirit cursed under its breath with an ashen face, *Why is he still such an incurable penny-pincher?!* Immersing himself in cultivation, Li Guanqi also discovered that after this battle, he had gained new insights into sword techniques and sword momentum. Furthermore, the shackles within him had loosened slightly, and his previously unsteady cultivation realm had solidified considerably. He couldn't help but sigh with emotion: *Truly, only between life and death can one comprehend and break through faster!*