The spear thrust forward, stirring up a flurry of ringing clangs.
Yet what seemed a fierce and tremendously powerful strike was riddled with flaws in his eyes.
Light flashed beneath his feet; in a breath, his figure slipped past the spear and surged straight for Zheng Shaohua's throat!
This strike was swift and lethal, aimed purely to kill!
Zheng Shaohua had thought his own strength was definitely enough to suppress the youth.
Now he finally understood just how vast the gap between them truly was!
Though the youth stood at the same realm, their strength was simply not on the same level.
This strike... he could not block it!!
Right at that moment, however, two overwhelmingly powerful auras suddenly surged on the horizon!!
Zheng Shaohua's eyes widened, and he roared at the top of his lungs, "Father!!! Save me!!!"
Rumble!!!
The void shuddered as a formidable pressure crashed down onto Li Guanqi.
The immense pressure knocked his body off balance, causing the sword strike to merely sever Zheng Shaohua's left arm.
Slash!
Blood sprayed as an arm flew into the air.
A howl of agony tore from Zheng Shaohua's throat!!
"Ahhh!!!!"
"Bastard, you are dead today!!!"
"I will flay your skin and tear out your tendons!"
Hearing this, Li Guanqi remained completely calm, without the slightest ripple in his white eyes.
With a hook of his finger, several thunderclouds gathered in the sky!
In an instant, dozens of thunder spears shot out to block the two approaching figures, and the sword in his hand cleaved down without hesitation!!
Thwack!
A large head flew high into the air!!
The vile curses came to an abrupt halt!!
In that moment, heaven and earth seemed to fall into dead silence.
No one could have imagined Li Guanqi would dare kill someone in broad daylight before the entire city!!
This sight made many gasp in cold air. Damn it all, this was what a true dragon crossing the river looked like!
If the local snake dared rear its head, bite it to death on the spot!
Pity... he did not know Nanze City was the Zheng Clan's domain.
Rumble, rumble!!!
"Hua'er!!! You! Court! Death!!!"
Hummm!
Just as Li Guanqi turned and darted back toward the tower, an ethereal soul slowly drifted out from within that headless corpse!!
Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes. With a hum, his divine sense condensed into a sword and shot forth in an instant!!
Bang!
The soul exploded!!
Though he did not know how Zheng Shaohua, being merely in the Core Formation realm, had managed to project his soul outward, he knew one thing:
Weeds must be pulled up by the roots!!
As for the two incoming figures, one seemed to be only in the early Nascent Soul realm, while the other possessed an aura deep as an abyss, beyond his ability to fathom.
Rushing into Xunfang Tower, Li Guanqi knocked both Song Zhi'ang and her father unconscious and threw them directly into the sword casket space.
This sight caused many onlookers' mouths to drop open!!
They all guessed that he had to be carrying an extremely precious spatial magic treasure!
Yet the strength Li Guanqi had displayed earlier prevented them from harboring any greedy thoughts.
The next breath!
A palm print spanning tens of zhang crashed down toward Xunfang Tower!!!
The patrons still watching the commotion inside scattered in an instant.
"Run!! Zheng Deyuan has lost his mind!!"
In a breath, Xunfang Tower was emptied of people. Having been delayed for a moment, Li Guanqi had nowhere to hide.
Rumble!!!
Crack, smash, crash!!
In an instant, the massive earthen-yellow palm print crushed Xunfang Tower to pieces.
Just when everyone thought Li Guanqi was dead without a doubt—
Clang!!!
A resonant sword chime rang out!!
Along with the chime came an incomparably powerful sword intent!!
Boom!!!
The shriek of thunder was ear-splitting as a violet sword light spanning over ten zhang surged straight up from the ground!!
The terrifying sword light actually cleaved the palm print Zheng Deyuan had unleashed cleanly in two!!!
This sight utterly shocked everyone present.
Even the old man who had arrived alongside Zheng Deyuan narrowed his eyes, gazing beneath the ruins.
Boom!
A white-robed figure suddenly appeared in midair.
Zheng Deyuan had short hair and a rather gaunt face with prominent cheekbones and brow ridges.
Thin eyebrows and triangular eyes gave him an intensely sinister, vicious air.
"Hua'er!! My son!!!"
Clutching the headless corpse, Zheng Deyuan wept bitterly, his dark face filled with murderous malice!!
Boom!!!!
Knowing full well that his son was dead beyond any hope of revival, Zheng Deyuan slowly rose and carefully stowed the body away.
Meanwhile, the old man facing Li Guanqi looked him up and down closely, speaking with a somber expression.
"You should not have killed him."
Li Guanqi shrugged, offering no reply.
Zheng Shaohua had clearly been looking for trouble on purpose; otherwise, he would not have led men straight to Xunfang Tower.
In Li Guanqi's view, once conflict began, weeds had to be pulled by the roots—there was nothing to negotiate.
Even if he showed weakness, the other party would not stop provoking him. It was better to resolve it cleanly and directly.
"Words are pointless."
The old man shook his head, slowly extended his palm toward Li Guanqi, and clenched it tightly!!!
Thump!!
A dull thud sounded, but Li Guanqi had long vanished from the spot.
Having retreated a hundred zhang, Li Guanqi furrowed his brows and murmured inward:
"So this is the spatial power a Nascent Soul cultivator can wield... Truly terrifying!"
Looking at the empty air, Li Guanqi felt lingering dread.
What appeared to be normal empty space had turned into a cage in his perception!
Had he not dodged just now, he would likely have been trapped inside.
Moreover, while he could not quite fathom the old man's aura, he could feel an immense sense of pressure from him.
Looking down at the man who had curbed his grief, Li Guanqi chose without hesitation to break through to the Nascent Soul realm!!
If it were only Zheng Deyuan, he had a seventy percent chance of escaping unscathed and a sixty percent chance of heavily wounding the man.
As for killing him, he had less than a forty percent chance.
After all, Nascent Soul cultivators wielded spatial power; if the man wanted to flee, Li Guanqi could not stop him.
What was more, when a Nascent Soul cultivator faced a Core Formation cultivator, realm suppression aside,
a spatial cage alone was exceedingly difficult to break free from without having stepped into the Nascent Soul realm!
And the old man before him and Zheng Deyuan clearly intended to kill him. Now was no time for overthinking.
Boom!!!
Zheng Deyuan instantly drew a radiant sword glowing with flowing colors, glaring up at Li Guanqi in midair with eyes full of murderous intent!!
"Today, I will make you accompany my son in death!!!"
Boom!!!
A cold sneer curved the corner of Li Guanqi's mouth. Standing in midair, he flung out several dozen high-grade spirit stones!!
Bang, bang, bang!
The spirit stones shattered, turning into streams of exceptionally pure spiritual energy that swirled around him.
As the technique within his body circulated wildly, heavy heavenly tribulation thunderclouds began to gather in the sky!!!
Three hundred zhang, five hundred zhang, one thousand zhang!!!
The enormous tribulation thundercloud nearly enveloped the entire Nanze City.
Once the crowd realized it was a heavenly tribulation thundercloud, they fled outward as if mad!
Rumble, rumble, rumble!!!
Thick arcs of lightning continually darted out from the clouds, forcing Zheng Deyuan and the old man to halt their movements.
Now, should either of them make any move, the heavenly tribulation would interpret it as provocation and drag them into the lightning tribulation as well.
Zheng Deyuan glared resentfully at the figure, his voice vicious:
"I hope you don't die under the heavenly tribulation!! Little mongrel, that would be letting you off far too easy!!"
Hearing this, Li Guanqi let out a sneer.
"You two old bastards had better worry about yourselves first!"
Chapter 274