The town remained quiet for a long time. For a good while, not a single sound stirred.
Most of the townsfolk had not slept at all. The bolder among them began pressing against their windows, peering outside.
What they saw was a young boy sitting to the side, cracking melon seeds.
On the ground lay a lifeless corpse.
Houses had collapsed, and the street was riddled with deep craters and sword scars.
*Boom!!*
Earlier, Li Guanqi had gone to Zhang Daniu's home and dredged a skeleton from the well.
It was Li Lanhua's remains.
After burying her properly, he slowly stood up. A dark figure suddenly appeared in the distant sky.
Moments later, Li Nanting leaped down from his flying sword, which circled once before sheathing itself.
Li Nanting flashed to the boy's side. After checking him over, he found that not only was Li Guanqi unharmed, but he had even broken through to the sixth level of Qi Refinement!
Li Guanqi gave a vague, mumbled explanation to brush past it, claiming only that his lightning spiritual root had strongly countered the malevolent spirit, allowing him to barely scrape by with a narrow victory.
In the end, half-believing and half-doubting, the old man did not press further.
He took Li Guanqi onto his flying sword and returned to the Great Xia Sword Sect.
Before leaving, Li Guanqi took a long, deep look at Xingyun Town, thinking once more of Li Lanhua, who had died so unjustly.
He murmured softly, "'Bitterness first, then sweetness,' they say, yet it only brought her bitterness year after year."
Along the way, Li Guanqi recounted what had happened in Xingyun Town.
Li Nanting remained silent for a long time before saying softly, "Guanqi, this is the nature of the human heart."
After a pause, Li Guanqi said quietly, "I know. But every time I witness such things, I still find human nature chilling. I even wonder... if someone had stepped forward back then to speak a single fair word for Li Lanhua, perhaps things wouldn't have turned out like this. Sadly... there are no 'ifs' in this world."
Li Nanting did not speak again.
Many truths and principles required personal experience and reflection before one could truly understand why they existed.
"Uh... Master, could you get me some spirit stones? Earning contribution points is way too hard! How could a perfectly normal rank-one mission run into such a terrifying malevolent spirit?"
Li Nanting's expression turned thoroughly grim. At the thought that his disciple had nearly lost his life over it, fury surged within him. He simply told Li Guanqi not to worry about the matter any further.
Upon returning to the sect, Li Guanqi did not rest. As always, he entered deep meditation to cultivate.
True to her word, the sword spirit refrained from stealing his cultivation origin energy.
Early the next morning, Li Guanqi woke from his cultivation, feeling completely refreshed and clear-minded.
Getting out of bed, he set up the wooden posts he had prepared in advance and ran through dozens of boxing stances.
Thoroughly warmed up, Li Guanqi drew a refined iron sword and began practicing his swordplay with intense focus.
Dawn had not yet broken, but Li Guanqi had already practiced with his sword for two full two-hour periods.
Suddenly, the sword spirit's voice rang in his mind.
"The sword moves with the body; do not let the sword drag you along!"
"Your slashes must be swift—faster!"
"Before you thrust, the gathered momentum must harness the power of your entire body!"
Her words gave Li Guanqi a sudden flash of enlightenment.
With only minor adjustments to his sword movements, a grave look settled between his brows.
*Clang!!*
He thrust his sword forward with explosive force!
As the blade sliced through the air, it let out a piercing sonic boom.
Swift as the wind, the strike struck the waist-thick wooden post, blasting it apart!
*Bang!*
A smile tugged at the corners of Li Guanqi's mouth. He had not expected the sword spirit's eye to be so sharp. There were subtle details that even his master might not notice, yet she could point out his flaws every single time.
After he finished tidying up, the head manager of the outer sect actually came in person to look for him.
"Haha, heroes truly emerge from the young! This time... it was an oversight on the Mission Pavilion's part, so your sect contribution points will be multiplied fivefold! The points have already been stored in your jade slip."
Li Guanqi smiled and said, "Then I am much obliged to Manager Zhou's care. Next time, I'll bring two jars of good wine for Uncle Zhou."
Hearing this, the manager named Zhou beamed with relief. He had been living in fear since yesterday.
Fortunately, Li Guanqi had said to his master, "If you vent your temper on him, won't your disciple suffer for it later? How will I accept missions then?"
Because of that, Li Nanting had merely sent someone with a warning to put Manager Zhou in his place, leading to this very visit.
Li Guanqi understood well that mutual goodwill smoothed every road.
Seeing Manager Zhou treating Li Guanqi with such warmth and smiles, many outer disciples looked on with unmistakable envy.
In the days that followed, Li Guanqi possessed plenty of contribution points, and Li Nanting had also sent him a storage bag containing a full thousand low-grade spirit stones.
Li Guanqi no longer needed to run around taking on missions just to scrape together cultivation resources.
Over the following month, his figure could be seen almost daily upon the sect's Spirit Ascension Platform.
During this month, his strength advanced by leaps and bounds!
In just a single month, he reached the seventh level of Qi Refinement!
Such speed thoroughly astounded everyone, making many realize just how vast the chasm was between themselves and this monster of a talent.
Li Guanqi was like a tireless machine.
Aside from practicing his swordplay every day, he spent nearly all his time cultivating to restore his essence, energy, and spirit.
Whatever time remained, he spent at the sect's training grounds.
For just a single low-grade spirit stone, one could activate a small chamber embedded with formations.
The space inside spanned a full hundred zhang across, and any weapon one desired was provided.
Over this month, his grasp of the Azure Lotus Heavenly Gang Sword had also reached the pinnacle of the late stage.
With each strike, sword hums resonated in all directions, and in a single breath, he could flick out six azure lotus sword blossoms.
Yet when he showed off before the sword spirit once more, she finally could not help but speak.
"Flashy, useless trash."
Li Guanqi scoffed, unconvinced. "Talk is cheap. If you're so capable, why don't you teach me a stronger sword technique?"
The sword spirit could no longer stand watching him practice such superficial swordplay either.
When she manifested, her graceful, alluring figure still caused Li Guanqi to lose his focus for a moment.
Then, with a casual wave of her hand, a sword of spirit energy materialized in her palm.
Her body lowered, and her gaze turned exceedingly sharp. Li Guanqi saw only a flash of sword light streak past and vanish!
The sword spirit said haughtily, "Did you catch that?"
Whenever he emerged from the training ground's chamber with a puzzled expression, Li Guanqi would head straight for the Sword Tower!
The Great Xia Sword Sect's Sword Tower was renowned across every sect within a hundred thousand li.
Pitch-black from top to bottom, the tower had an imposing, solemn presence.
It had thirty-six floors in total, divided into tiers of twelve floors. Cultivators ranging from Qi Refinement all the way to the peak of Core Formation were permitted to enter.
Inside were sword cultivator puppets of varying levels.
The higher one climbed, the more cultivators of the same realm one had to face simultaneously.
Thus, to this day, no Core Formation cultivator had ever managed to face twelve Core Formation sword cultivators at once.
In all the records since the Great Xia Sword Sect's founding, only the first sect master had climbed to the thirty-third floor—the mighty cultivator who had ascended to the Immortal Realm.
This was already Li Guanqi's third visit to the Sword Tower.
Even with monstrous talent like his, he had only reached the sixth floor so far.
Chapter 39