Departure

*Boom!!!* Terrifying lightning raged across the void in an instant, seizing a perimeter of five hundred zhang and engulfing everyone within. Li Guanqi licked his split lips; the sweet coppery taste of blood threw him into an unprecedented frenzy of excitement. In an instant, an overwhelming divine sense surged out in all directions, enveloping the entire Sword Prison. Every movement of everyone present became crystal clear in his eyes, as though slowed down countless times. Soaring battle intent erupted with a roar. Red Lotus blossomed, and streaks of bloody light manifested across the sky. For a time, chaotic sword light practically dominated the entire night sky. Primal energy of various colors erupted in succession; all manner of methods and diverse magic treasures revealed themselves one after another. Yet even so, that scarlet, blood-colored sword light remained the most dazzling presence. Every flash of the fierce sword light reaped another life. Yet there were simply too many powerful foes besieging him. Formidable as Li Guanqi was, the wounds upon his body continued to multiply. Li Guanqi's chest heaved violently, the vitality in his body boiling like a cauldron. Every part of his body had become a deadly weapon! Fists, elbows, knees—every strike, every move went straight for vitals! *Shhhk!!* With his left hand, Li Guanqi slashed several sword strikes in rapid succession, instantly dismembering an attractive woman before him!! His right fist hammered into an elder's knee; with a sickening crack, the leg bent at a grotesque angle, the sound of splintering bone echoing clearly! Pivoting around, he unleashed a primal energy barrier to withstand the chaotic attacks, shifting Red Lotus in his grip. Without even turning his head, he slashed out a flurry of backhand strikes to force back the pursuers behind him. At the same time, he spun and drove his knee upward, slamming it violently into the chin of a scar-faced man. The terrifying force directly shattered the man's head on impact. He swept his right elbow across, decapitating another elder on the spot! Forming a blade with his right hand, he thrust his fingers backhanded into a black-robed man's chest, crushing the heart in his bare grip. Lightning erupted all around him as he growled in a low voice, "Spirit Incantation 246: Thunder Spear!" "Spirit Incantation 232: Serpent Binding!" In an instant, dark clouds blanketed the firmament, and torrential rain washed over heaven and earth. As the thunder-attributed spiritual power in the surroundings grew denser, the thunder spears brewing within the dark clouds escalated in power. Not only that, Li Guanqi also employed his sword control technique to wildly conjure lightning swords to aid him. As a result, no more than three cultivators could ever breach his defenses and reach his side at any one time. The rest were running themselves ragged, constantly on guard against the thunder spears cascading from the sky and the lightning sword qi ravaging the surroundings. The spirit incantations erupted!! A deluge of thunder spears fell relentlessly from the cloud cover! *Rumble!! Crack-boom!!* From beneath Li Guanqi's feet, more than a dozen lightning serpents suddenly surged outward, coiling around those nearby! Those ensnared stared in utter horror. They had all seen spirit incantations before. Yet Serpent Binding was clearly only supposed to conjure two serpents!!! "Retreat!!!" The corner of Li Guanqi's mouth curved into a sneer, his gaze casually sweeping toward the peak of the Crane Alliance. Yet it was completely empty; there was no sign of anything unusual. Then Li Guanqi murmured softly, "Leave?" *Shhhk!!* A lightning scabbard suddenly condensed in Li Guanqi's right hand, and Red Lotus snapped into it in an instant. Lowering his stance, a chilling gleam flashed in the depths of Li Guanqi's eyes!! *Swish!!* *BOOM!!!!* "Sword Draw Stance!" *Rumble!!!* A lightning sword beam stretching a full hundred zhang bloomed beneath the night sky!! The circular slash was blindingly fast, flashing like a bolt of lightning. Instantly, every cultivator within a hundred-zhang radius was cleaved in half at the waist!!! Mutilated bodies rained down from the sky like dumplings dropping into boiling water. This single strike slaughtered a full thirteen people!! At this moment, barely ten cultivators remained alive inside the Sword Prison. These ten had long wanted to flee, but no matter what methods they employed, none could tear through this Sword Prison boundary before them. Li Guanqi stood in place, absorbing the spiritual energy from spirit stones. The toll on his divine sense had been immense, leaving his complexion deathly pale. His aura had dropped significantly, making him appear exceedingly weak. Yet even so, not a single person harbored any thought of killing him for the bounty anymore. Li Guanqi had looked just like this earlier!! And yet, relying solely on his overpowering strength, he had brutally slaughtered nearly thirty Nascent Soul cultivators anyway!!! Now they finally understood why the Mo Family had offered such an exorbitant price for Li Guanqi's head. His strength was simply too terrifying. Time and time again, they had believed Li Guanqi had reached his limit. Yet throughout an entire incense stick of time, although he showed signs of exhaustion, killing a few more of them was clearly still well within his power. "No!!! I don't want to die!!! I don't want to die!" One of the black-robed men suffered a complete mental collapse and screamed in terror! "Don't kill me!! I... I'll give you all my wealth! I'm an enshrined elder of the Juque Sect!!" "If you kill me, the Juque Sect will never let you get away with it!!" The others were in no better state. Under the terror of impending death, they fell to their knees in the void, kowtowing repeatedly and begging for mercy. One woman even stripped off her robes, her eyes sultry as she pleaded with seductive words. At this moment, Li Guanqi's vision blurred, and the hand gripping his sword trembled slightly. The Nascent Soul within his body was completely dim and lusterless, yet he still stood tall and proud. Turning a blind eye to their pleas, lightning flickered beneath his feet as he burst forward in an instant!!! Seeing this, the remaining cultivators exchanged glances and unleashed their greatest might, attempting to strike down the visibly weakened Li Guanqi. Yet even weakened to such an extent, Li Guanqi was not someone they could easily kill. Thirty breaths later. Li Guanqi slumped atop a mountain peak. Beneath his feet lay a small mound stacked with dozens of corpses. He wiped the blood blurring his eyes and gazed calmly toward the distant peak of the Crane Alliance, asking in a level voice: "Not going to make a move?" After a long time, there was still no response from the peak of the Crane Alliance. Li Guanqi scoffed coldly, raising his hand to shatter all the spirit stones floating around him. Releasing dozens of lightning chains, he bound the corpses together, tore open the void, and stepped slowly into it. From this day forth, the entire Crane Alliance ceased to exist. Thick blood flowed continuously from the mountain peak all the way down to the base. The peaks of the Crane Alliance had been smashed to pieces, the ground scarred everywhere with signs of explosions and ravines a hundred zhang deep. As he stepped into the void, Li Guanqi looked back toward the mountain peak, casting a deep, searching look at the space above the main hall. He could sense an exceedingly faint, hidden aura there. Moreover, that person's strength was not weak—it had even given him a feeling of trepidation. The moment he stepped into the void, Li Guanqi went limp and murmured softly, "Jiuxiao... take me away..." Jiuxiao, coiled around his wrist, instantly revealed his true form. With a flick of his dragon tail, he bore Li Guanqi up and vanished into the void in the blink of an eye.