Two hours later.
Once Li Guanqi could circulate the cultivation technique smoothly on his own, Li Nanting quietly stepped out of the cultivation chamber.
The hardest hurdle was behind him; the rest required no further fussing on his part.
As soon as Li Nanting left, Li Guanqi, who had seemingly been engrossed in cultivation, snapped his eyes open.
He turned his head to look at the sword casket resting beside his feet.
Li Guanqi stood the casket upright, his eyes scouring it with keen interest.
He had never seen any of the bizarre monsters and demonic beasts carved across its surface.
He had not even heard of them.
He had asked Li Nanting before whether he recognized the carved beasts.
Yet Li Nanting had told him plainly that such beasts did not exist at all and were mere figments of imagination.
Aside from the four divine beasts engraved upon it, virtually none of the other beasts matched anything recorded in the sect's Register of Myriad Demons.
Li Guanqi stood in silence for a long time. Suddenly, he dropped to his knees and kowtowed to the sword casket.
Yet after waiting for a good while, nothing stirred. The boy got to his feet, muttering in bewilderment, "Is that really not how it works?"
"Didn't those old travelogues say that things like this usually have an old master's spirit inside?"
Li Guanqi scratched his head, feeling quite vexed.
He had noticed early on that there was something unusual about this sword casket.
Back when he chose his spiritual root, no one knew what had transpired inside the boundary Lu Kangnian had erected.
Yet Li Guanqi knew perfectly well why he had picked a lightning spiritual root.
At that moment, an inexplicable resonance had stirred within his heart, and possessed by some strange impulse, he had made that choice.
Even earlier in the Scripture Pavilion, he could have chosen a different technique.
Yet once again, subtle fluctuations from the sword casket had steered him toward this incomplete scripture.
Li Guanqi pondered for a moment before another thought struck him. Biting down on his fingertip, he let a drop of blood fall onto the sword casket.
Yet the casket remained entirely unchanged.
"It's not blood binding either?"
"That can't be..."
"I heard that artifacts and treasures all require blood binding..."
Suddenly, a look of sudden realization dawned on the boy's face.
"I definitely haven't given it enough blood!"
Without hesitation, Li Guanqi sliced open his wrist, letting his blood pour onto the sword casket like a stream.
Time slipped by unnoticed. When Li Nanting returned to the quiet chamber to check on Li Guanqi's progress, he was greeted by a shocking sight.
The boy lay unconscious on the ground, his face pale as paper. The blood on his wrist had long since dried, and the sword casket was completely smeared with crimson.
Li Nanting's expression shifted drastically. Panic flared in his eyes as he rushed to the boy's side to examine him.
"What on earth happened?!" he stammered in distress. "Why would you do something so foolish and slit your wrists to kill yourself?!"
"Oh, my silly disciple, what could possibly have driven you to this?"
"Good heavens... just how much blood did you lose?!"
Li Nanting hastily stemmed the bleeding. Reaching into his storage ring, he produced a red jade bottle, shook out a crimson medicinal pill, broke off half, and fed it to the boy.
He channeled a strand of spiritual energy to help dissolve the pill.
Early the next morning, Li Guanqi groggily opened his eyes, his head still feeling heavy and dull.
The moment he sat up, he saw the old man sitting beside his bed, wearing an exceptionally gentle expression.
Li Nanting rubbed his cheeks, making an effort to look even more kind and approachable.
Seeing the youth wake, he quickly handed him a cup of water and smiled warmly. "Here, drink some water first."
Li Guanqi took the cup, feeling somewhat flattered and overwhelmed, and took a cautious sip.
Then he asked in confusion, "Uh... Master, why are you here?"
Li Nanting pondered for a moment before settling onto the stool by the bedside. "Guanqi, though your master is merely at Core Formation, if you ever run into trouble, you must tell me!"
"Setting aside other matters, within the Great Xia Sword Sect, if anyone other than the Sect Master wrongs you, your master can demand justice for you!"
"So... you must never despair and do something rash."
"The road of cultivation before you is wide and bright. Why would you ever think of throwing your life away?"
"Come, tell Master, what actually drove you to this?"
Listening to the old man's gentle, earnest voice, warmth spread through Li Guanqi's chest.
Yet right now, he felt utterly mortified to reveal the truth...
Was he supposed to tell his master that he suspected his sword casket was extraordinary, tried to bind it with blood, and ended up passing out from blood loss?
Seeing the youth's deeply conflicted face, Li Nanting assumed that whoever had wronged him possessed immense power and an intimidating background.
In an instant, fury surged within him like a roaring flame.
*Boom!*
The old man sprang up from his stool, his expression chilling as he barked in a deep voice, "Don't be afraid! Speak!"
"I want to see who dares bully a disciple of mine, Li Nanting!"
A short while later.
When the old man stepped out the front door, his eyes were clamped shut, torn between laughter and tears...
Seeing his master fly into a rage, Li Guanqi had ultimately confessed the truth.
In the days that followed, an extra little girl frequently came to freeload meals in Li Guanqi's courtyard.
Ever since Yu Sui'an—who had two cracked ribs—learned why Li Guanqi had passed out, she endured the sharp pain just to run down the mountain every day to mock him.
"Hahahaha, little blind boy is even dumber than me!"
"So dumb! You actually fainted from losing too much blood! How embarrassing!"
Li Guanqi turned a deaf ear to her teasing, continuing his routine of striking the punching post as always.
This was already the third wooden post he had gone through.
Later, Li Guanqi paid another visit to the Scripture Pavilion and casually picked a sword technique.
It was called the Azure Lotus Heavenly Gang Sword.
The refined iron sword in his hand had been collected for him by Li Nanting from the Artifact Hall.
It was standard-issue equipment distributed to all sect disciples.
Although the Great Xia Sword Sect was primarily a sword sect with most disciples walking the path of the sword, that did not mean everyone was suited for it.
Many within the sect also chose to train with other weapons.
Over the course of those two days, Li Guanqi thoroughly consolidated his foundation at the first layer of Qi Refinement.
The spiritual cyclone inside him expanded at a rapid pace. Li Nanting came by to check on him several times in between; only after confirming that he was no longer feeding his blood to the sword casket did he finally rest easy.
During those days, Li Guanqi hardly stepped out of his courtyard, practicing with his sword every day.
Yet what he practiced was not the Azure Lotus Heavenly Gang Sword, but the repeated drills of basic sword stances.
Just like that, a month passed since Li Guanqi had joined the sect.
And throughout that month, his speed of breakthroughs was heralded as unprecedented in the history of the Great Xia Sword Sect!
In a single month, he surged from the first layer of Qi Refinement all the way to the fifth layer!
Such speed was truly without precedent and likely never to be matched.
Yet Li Guanqi was not the only standout. Ye Feng of Tianjin Peak had also broken through to the fourth layer of Qi Refinement not long ago.
Lin Dong of Tiantu Peak had reached the third layer and was close to breaking through to the fourth.
Even so, Li Guanqi consistently stayed one step ahead of both of them.
This blind youth was addressed as Eldest Senior Brother by every disciple of his generation.
For he was the undisputed number one among them!
Every time he went to the dining hall, the crowd would part of their own accord to make way for him.
Wherever he went, he was treated like the moon surrounded by stars, greeted with utmost respect and courtesy by everyone.
And yet...
Chapter 28