Rumble! Rumble!
The heavenly tribulation's thunder and lightning virtually blanketed the entirety of Nanze City.
Everyone began fleeing outward as if driven mad.
They all knew that once the heavenly tribulation formed and began to fall, anyone who had not managed to escape would also be treated as a target undergoing the tribulation.
Yet beneath that terrifying lightning tribulation, a faint smile curled on Li Guanqi's lips.
He did not take the power of the heavenly tribulation overhead seriously in the slightest.
Off to the side, Zheng Deyuan and the elder also watched all this with cold eyes.
Even so, they had no choice but to wait until Li Guanqi finished crossing his tribulation.
This heavenly tribulation did not care about personal grudges; as long as someone remained within its boundary, they would be regarded as undergoing it.
Buzz!
Wondrous, profound auras drifted through the world, and resplendent heavenly majesty crashed down upon Nanze City!
Countless powerhouses stood suspended in midair, their eyes brimming with shock as they looked up at the tribulation above.
It was not as if they had never seen a Nascent Soul realm heavenly tribulation before, but none of them had ever seen one that spanned nearly a thousand zhang!
Even for an absurdly powerful Core Formation cultivator, a purple core could at most summon a tribulation cloud spanning eight hundred zhang.
Yet the scope of the tribulation before them had clearly exceeded eight hundred zhang.
Many swallowed hard and muttered, "Just what quality is that guy's core?!"
No one could accurately guess the quality of Li Guanqi's core.
Yet they all knew that without exception, someone like this was a heaven-blessed prodigy with sky-high talent!
And the youth before them was easily among the top ten in the Great Xia Domain!
The looks in the crowd's eyes shifted continuously.
By now, however, Zheng Deyuan's mind was clouded with hatred. Only one thought remained in his heart: kill him!
When that terrifying heavenly pressure descended, Li Guanqi's eyelids suddenly grew exceedingly heavy.
Gradually, he found himself powerless to resist the urge to sleep, and he slowly closed his eyes.
In an instant, lightning rampaged across heaven and earth, forming countless pillars of lightning that crashed down and completely engulfed Nanze City.
Beneath the heavenly tribulation remained only a single youth who had fallen into a deep slumber.
The eyes of the elder beside Zheng Deyuan narrowed slightly, and he said in a low voice, "The heart demon tribulation has arrived!"
Coils of black, hazy vapor enveloped Li Guanqi entirely.
Without knowing what was happening, his dazed consciousness somehow returned once more to that snowy night!
Creak—
The gates of Zhao Manor opened, and a sliver of light fell across his face.
Li Guanqi shivered, his body stiffening as he slowly turned his head.
Darkness stretched before him, yet a faint foreboding stirred in his heart.
A little girl wearing a worn floral padded jacket was holding an oilpaper bundle, looking at him with a grin.
Seeing how thinly dressed he was, she hastily unbuttoned her jacket and pulled him into her embrace.
"Little brother, why are you so silly?"
"Why did you come to meet me in such cold weather?"
Hearing that voice—one so familiar it could not be any more so—Li Guanqi could not help but shudder all over!
A sudden, splitting headache struck!
A feeling arose within him that the voice beside his ear belonged to the person he had longed for day and night!
Feeling the warmth radiating from Li Cuiwei, Li Guanqi could not tell for a moment whether this was an illusion or a dream.
His voice trembled as he whispered, "Sister..."
He hugged the person before him with all his might, reaching out to touch the little girl's chin.
"Scar..."
Li Cuiwei turned around and waved with a smile toward the figure behind her.
In a clear, crisp voice, she said, "Thank you for today, Brother Qing, for saving so much food for me."
The young man addressed as Brother Qing waved his hand with a broad smile and replied, "No need to thank me, it's nothing.
"Hurry up and take your brother home. It's dark, so be careful on the road."
With that, the man nodded at him with a smile, then closed the manor gates.
Li Guanqi felt the man's voice sounded familiar, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not recall why it struck a chord.
He also vaguely remembered a scar on his sister's chin.
Yet he could not recall anything clearly now; only fragmented, blurry memories flashed ceaselessly through his mind.
Seeing his dazed look, Li Cuiwei assumed he was frozen stiff, and she instinctively wrapped her padded jacket tighter around him.
With a smile on her face, she said, "Guanqi, you have no idea, Brother Qing is so nice.
"He saved all the leftover roast duck from the manor for me today. Our family of four can have a wonderful meal tonight."
Huddled in the little girl's embrace, Li Guanqi suddenly stiffened, a tempest churning in his heart!
He clearly remembered that they were a family of three. Since when were they four?!
The little girl held his hand, terrified he might slip on the deep snow.
Braving the wind and snow, the two soon returned to the small courtyard in his memories.
Li Guanqi paused at the entrance, his hand touching the wooden gate, a sudden strangeness gripping his heart.
In his memory, the gate of his home had been battered and broken, yet the one before him was entirely intact.
Yet the harder he thought, the more his head throbbed.
Just then, a woman's gentle voice broke through his thoughts.
"Cuiwei, Guanqi, hurry inside! Why are you standing silly at the gate?"
Hearing his mother's resonant voice, Li Guanqi somehow began to weep.
His mother's loving face surfaced in his mind.
As emotions surged inside him, tears rolled down uncontrollably. But right after, a man's mellow, steady voice rang out by his ear.
"Silly boy, on such a cold day, why didn't you put on more clothes before going to fetch Cuiwei?"
Crunch, crunch.
It was the sound of a man walking over the snow.
Li Guanqi instinctively took a step back, but then felt a pair of warm, powerful hands wrap around him.
His feet lifted off the ground. The man draped his own coat over him, tucking it in snugly for fear that the chilling wind might reach him.
The man's residual warmth lingered on the fabric. The sudden affection left Li Guanqi at a loss.
He did not even know who the man before him was, but going by his words...
He had to be his father.
"Father?"
The word was entirely foreign to him. Instinctively, he reached out to feel the man's features.
Lean, sharp facial contours, large eyes, slightly thin lips.
That was his first impression—very handsome!
The features bore at least an eighty percent resemblance to his own.
Perhaps amused by this gesture, the man laughed, turning to the woman who was busy lighting the stove and cooking in the room.
"Hahaha, Wanrong, look at this! Our son is feeling my face!"
Song Wanrong watched the scene with a smile, while Li Cuiwei was busy placing the roast duck she had brought back into the pot.
"Heehee, little brother was so good today, coming to meet me in such heavy snow."
Song Wanrong sat beside the hearth stoking the fire, the corners of her mouth curving upward as she said with a smile, "All right, all right, go wash your hands quickly. I've boiled some noodles today; they'll go perfectly with the roast duck in a bit."
The family was warm and bustling. The man scooped up Li Cuiwei with his other arm as well.
With one child in each arm, he ran toward the inner room, calling out, "Here we go! Time to wash hands and eat!"
Resting in the man's arms, Li Guanqi felt utterly dazed and lost.
Chapter 275