*Hum!!*
The dragon egg trembled faintly, and Li Guanqi could even clearly sense that a little life brimming with immense vitality was brewing inside!
The dragon egg also sensed Li Guanqi's aura, radiating its joy with deep affection.
Li Guanqi pondered for a moment, then, with great heartache, retrieved a full thirty high-grade spirit stones and embedded them into the altar.
*Boom!!*
In an instant, the interior of the entire altar was flooded with boundless, dense spiritual energy!
The dragon egg quivered slightly, beginning to madly absorb the surrounding spiritual energy.
Yet that was all. The scale-like cracks on the dragon egg merely multiplied a bit; it seemed it would still be some time before it could break out of its shell.
Still, this finally gave him hope. Turning toward the sword spirit beside him, he smiled and asked, "Sister Sword Spirit, how much longer do you think it will take?"
To his surprise, the sword spirit curled her lip, her expression turning slightly grave as she spoke. "You will probably need to give it an extra push at the very end."
"If it truly manages to break out of the shell, it will be at least a peak fourth-rank great demon!"
Li Guanqi was taken aback, then asked with some excitement, "Peak fourth-rank? Wouldn't that make it equivalent to a cultivator at the peak of the Nascent Soul realm?"
"It's that fierce right at birth?"
The sword spirit nodded slightly and replied softly, "And that is only because it missed out on many of the dragon race's baptisms. For a dragon, fourth-rank is already quite weak."
"Some powerful branches within the dragon race are born comparable to peak fifth-rank, or even sixth-rank great demons."
Li Guanqi curled his lip and muttered, "So it's actually suffering hardships by staying with me."
The sword spirit smiled faintly and chuckled. "It certainly is."
Then the sword spirit looked at Li Guanqi and said with a gentle smile, "You can slow down a bit on your cultivation lately. Keeping yourself wound up all the time isn't a good thing."
Li Guanqi nodded in silence; he had indeed felt somewhat fatigued recently.
Yet the tempering of his flesh had forged his mind as well—his heart remained firm as a boulder, unshakable and steadfast!
Though he harbored great ambitions and wished to tread upon the highest heavens,
the Dao was long and fraught with obstacles; keep walking, and one would eventually arrive!
With his resolve reaffirmed, Li Guanqi stepped out of the sword casket space.
For Li Guanqi now, he focused most of his energy on the Sword Prison.
He had discovered there was simply too much he could do within this domain.
Just unleashing lightning within the Sword Prison held enough terrifying destructive force to instantly obliterate a Nascent Soul realm cultivator.
Not to mention how frightening Li Guanqi's own strength became within the Sword Prison.
Yet he found that his sword intent had not advanced for a long time. To this, the sword spirit had merely said offhandedly:
"Comprehension is found in battles between life and death."
Hearing that, he could only shrug helplessly. After all, one couldn't go around actively courting death every single day.
Checking his bearings, Li Guanqi stepped forward, his teleportation instantly carrying him several hundred zhang away.
Meanwhile, Li Guanqi quietly slipped more spirit stones into the Tianji jade pendant.
As for what question he asked, probably only he knew.
However, Li Guanqi paid a full two high-grade spirit stones for this information.
Having done all this, a sharp glint flickered in Li Guanqi's eyes as he casually sped into the distance.
Before long, he saw mountain ranges connected one after another.
From afar, the firmament was baked into warped distortions by scorching waves of heat.
It seemed the distant mountains were Blazing Flame Valley; the temperature there reached several hundred degrees.
Li Guanqi could not help but chuckle. "The place certainly lives up to its name."
He raised his head to survey the surroundings, finding the area extraordinarily desolate. Across a thousand li, almost no vegetation could be seen.
The earth was cracked and parched; no ordinary folk lived here at all.
The soil could not even grow crops, so how could anyone reside here?
Moreover, the heat was far too intense; without the protective primal energy of a cultivator, one could not approach in the slightest.
Yellow sand whipped up from the ground, blotting out the sky and the sun. When the wild wind swept past like scorching waves of fire, even breathing became extremely difficult.
Yet upon this barren land, a moderately sized town existed.
A somewhat weathered banner fluttered in the wind.
"Blazing Flame Town"
The three large characters fluttered relentlessly in the air along with the banner.
Even from thousands of zhang away, Li Guanqi could still sense the auras of numerous experts in the small town!
He counted no fewer than a dozen Nascent Soul realm cultivators alone!
This made him frown slightly. He didn't know why so many experts would gather in a minor place like Blazing Flame Valley for no apparent reason.
"Could it be that I'm not the only one who has the jade pendant's map?"
This time, Li Guanqi did not spend money to purchase intelligence from the Tianji Pavilion. Instead, he lightly tapped the empty air.
Primal energy surged, and an immense map of spiritual light immediately appeared before him.
When he shifted his gaze to Blazing Flame Valley, he finally spotted a tiny point of light labeled "Blazing Flame Town."
Beside the location of Blazing Flame Valley, several lines of small text were annotated:
"Blazing Flame Valley: Year-round, it appears as though scorched by fire, with extraordinarily high temperatures."
"Spirits of fire occasionally appear within the valley. Slaying them may yield a unique type of fire essence, which is of immense value and wide utility."
Li Guanqi nodded silently, murmuring to himself, *So that's why.*
With that, Li Guanqi's divine sense stirred, and his facial features contorted slightly, eventually morphing into the appearance of a burly man.
Now Li Guanqi had the full look of a bearded brute, with a crisscross of scars across his face and an ordinary sword slung casually at his waist.
Dressed in coarse hemp robes and wearing a bamboo hat, Li Guanqi had thoroughly transformed into a rogue cultivator swordsman.
*Swish!!*
Li Guanqi's figure abruptly appeared in the town. He restrained his aura to roughly early Nascent Soul, exuding a faint, subtle pressure.
The moment he appeared, he immediately drew the attention of quite a few people!
At this time, there were only several dozen cultivators in the town in total. The town had only two tavern-like inns, while the rest were small shops.
Though small, the town lacked nothing, and a few cultivators had even set up stalls along the street.
Li Guanqi wiped the corner of his mouth, spat, and cursed under his breath, "Damn this wretched place, the wind and sand are bloody awful!"
His voice was rough and booming, as if he were afraid others wouldn't hear him.
Several cultivators in the roadside tavern turned to look at him. Li Guanqi immediately glared, pointed at them, and barked, "What the fuck are you looking at? Keep staring and I'll gouge your eyeballs out!"
With that, he spat on the ground again, tugged at his veil, and strode toward the inn.
The cultivators merely chuckled at this. With people like him, one either avoided provoking them and stepped aside,
or slaughtered them outright!
However, the formidable pressure emanating from him deterred them from entertaining any reckless ideas.
In the blink of an eye, he had arrived before the inn. Looking up, he saw a few characters written carelessly on the signboard above:
"Yellow Sand Inn."
Li Guanqi smiled faintly at the inn's name; he could already sense the auras of many experts inside.
*Creak!!*
A harsh creak sounded as the door opened. Behind his veil, Li Guanqi's gaze swept across the entire ground floor.
And his entrance drew the eyes of everyone within.
Chapter 327