Chen Zhi!!

Li Guanqi stood rooted to the spot, his face frigid as ice, glaring with furious eyes at the black-robed figure before him. Rage mingled with self-blame, uncontrollably ravaging his sanity!! Never had he imagined that a woman he had only met once in passing would die because of him!!! They had met only once!! Just that single time!! Why?!! Shrouded entirely in black robes, the figure merely stood in silence, uttering not a word. Yet the more silent the figure remained, the more the fury in Li Guanqi's heart blazed!! Clang!!!!! Boom!!!! A terrifying pressure surged around Li Guanqi as a frightful flash of sword light flared and vanished past his side!!! The black-robed person retreated hundreds of zhang in a flash, yet her chest was still wounded by the sword light. Blood trickled slowly down her chest. Li Guanqi took a sudden step forward and barked in rage: "Speak!!!" "Why was no one protecting her?!!" After a long silence, a woman's chilly voice came from beneath the black robes. "Members of Tianji Pavilion do not expose their identities lightly." Hearing this, the fire of rage in Li Guanqi's heart was kindled anew! "Do not expose identities? Even if it means death?!!" "She risked her life serving your Tianji Pavilion, yet in the end, she couldn't even keep her own life." "What a joke!!! A monumental joke!" Thunder and flames surged around Li Guanqi, his terrifying aura suffocating the woman. The face hidden beneath the black robes was fraught with tension, dreading that Li Guanqi might lose control and strike her down. By now, Li Guanqi's loathing for Tianji Pavilion had reached its absolute peak! A jade pendant instantly appeared before him. With a cold snort, the Tianji Pavilion jade pendant shattered into powder! Li Guanqi slowly turned around, his eyes turning arctic and piercing. "Tell me: who killed her?" Hearing his question, the woman visibly hesitated. Boom!!!! The terrifying pressure spiked once more in an instant, forcibly slamming the woman—who was in the same Soul Formation realm—flat against the ground! Bang!!! Her body smashed a deep crater straight into the earth. Beneath the black robes, blood leaked from her seven apertures, her eyes drowning in terror. She bit her lips tightly, blood seeping from the corners of her mouth, and growled in a low voice: "Tianji Pavilion will handle this matter ourselves!" Killing intent erupted in Li Guanqi's eyes!!! Gritting his teeth, he ground out each word: "TELL! ME!!!" Boom! Boom! Boom! Three words, three successive surges of aura. The woman's body sank three times deeper into the crater! The continuous cracking of fracturing bones echoed incessantly. "Urgh!! Cough, cough!! Aaargh!!" Screams rang out. Most of the bones across her entire body were shattered. Terror filled her eyes, her wildly constricted pupils trembling uncontrollably. She was utterly convinced that if she didn't talk, he would not hesitate to kill her, even if doing so meant making an enemy of Tianji Pavilion!! "Chen Zhi!! It was Chen Zhi!!!" Without a word, Li Guanqi turned and walked away. Walking between heaven and earth, Li Guanqi suddenly seemed drained of vitality and spirit. With hollow eyes, he drifted amidst the mountains and rivers. He looked down at the lifeless woman in his arms, his eyes instantly reddening. Lifting his head toward the heavens, he murmured with raw grief: "In this whole world... how could there be a woman so foolish..." "We... we only met once!! Just once..." "If someone wanted to kill me, you could have just told them." His reddened eyes were laden with guilt. "Doing this... you'll make me remember you for a lifetime..." That night, Li Guanqi crossed countless mountains and rivers, finally finding a scenic peak. Below wound a meandering river; at the mountain summit blossomed a grove of peach blossoms. With reddened eyes, Li Guanqi leaned against a stone monument, drinking wine. Beside his feet lay an abundance of offerings and burning landscape incense. The epitaph read: "Ning Xiu. Inscribed by Li Guanqi." A few simple words, saying nothing of what kind of person Ning Xiu was, nor what relationship existed between them. He had wanted to write more... but paused when putting brush to stone. Because he did not know Ning Xiu that well. Li Guanqi drank mouthful after mouthful of wine, as though only the scorching liquor in his hand could drown the suffocating grief in his chest. He sat there until morning, when sunlight spilled over the land and the winding river below shimmered in all directions. As a gentle breeze brushed past, rustling whispers drifted from the peach grove behind him. Li Guanqi said softly, "How about it? Not a bad eye for a resting place, right?" Lighting more landscape incense and planting it into the ground, Li Guanqi poured wine from the gourd onto the earth. "Take this as us having shared a drink together." "There's still some left in the gourd. I'll save it for you." "Next time I come, I will bring Chen Zhi's head with me." Li Guanqi tied the vermilion wine gourd to his waist; half a gourd of wine remained inside. This was saved for Ning Xiu. Cold glints flashed in Li Guanqi's eyes, killing intent surging wildly!! Ning Xiu's death... filled his heart with boundless guilt. This was already the second time he had experienced something like this. Back during the battle at Ziyang Palace, fellow sect disciples had also died because of him, but the nature of the two incidents was different. Ning Xiu... had virtually no relationship with him, not even close enough to be called acquaintances. It was merely a chance encounter, a single passing meeting. And it was precisely because of this that he felt Ning Xiu had died on his account. "Chen Zhi... who is that?" "To kill Ning Xiu... Miao Rongchang's people? Unlikely... If Miao Rongchang had someone by his side who could overpower Ning Xiu, that person would have to be at least at the Soul Formation stage." "Could it be someone from the Mo Family?" "No! The Mo Family couldn't touch her!" Suddenly! A flash of inspiration struck Li Guanqi's mind, and the cawing of a pitch-black crow echoed persistently in his thoughts. Perhaps back then, his slightly intimate interaction with Ning Xiu beside the stone cliff in Blazing Flame Valley had been spotted by someone. The Dark Crow organization might have caught wind of this news, which was why they moved against Ning Xiu. "Yet... why now, when so much time has passed, would they kill Ning Xiu at this moment?" "It defies all reason and logic!!" At this moment, Li Guanqi's thoughts were a tangled mess. He had considered everyone who might have a motive to kill Ning Xiu. Yet even the most likely culprit, the Dark Crow organization, had no reason whatsoever to strike at this particular time. It made no sense at all... One name surfaced in his mind. "Chen Zhi." Perhaps only he knew the truth behind Ning Xiu's death. Li Guanqi reached for the gourd, but let his hand drop. Exhaling a long breath of turbid air, he looked back at the solitary stone monument and said softly, "Trust me. I won't make you wait long." Taking a step into midair, he waved his hand, sending dozens of thunderous sword lights to envelop the mountain summit! The sword lights hovered in the sky, their power sufficient to linger undissipated for three years. He did not want anyone disturbing the person resting at the summit. She had lived an exhausting life under assumed names; in death, let her have some peace. As for what Ning Xiu's real name actually was, he did not care in the slightest.