Flying through the sky, Li Guanqi scanned his surroundings with his divine sense, his brow furrowing slightly.
The spiritual energy of Lingxu Continent was noticeably denser than that of Qingyun Continent, yet it was also exceptionally chaotic and mixed.
Not only was the spiritual energy dense, but even the chilly resentful qi was astonishingly thick.
Perhaps that was one of the reasons humans, demons, and ghosts could coexist across Lingxu Continent.
Li Guanqi’s sea of consciousness hummed, and a colossal map of Lingxu Continent materialized in his mind.
After checking his current location, lightning flashed beneath his feet, and he vanished from the spot in an instant.
Seven days remained before the secret realm was due to emerge, so there was no rush.
Right now, all he wanted was to find Chen Zhi!
He would flay him, rip out his sinews, grind his bones to powder, and scatter his ashes to the wind!
Yinxing Prefecture lay merely ten thousand li from his current position.
Li Guanqi tore open the void, paying little heed to the local scenery of Lingxu Continent.
As he shuttled through the nothingness, his expression was ice-cold, the primal energy around him surging violently.
Chen Zhi, a ruthless rogue swordsman, was regarded as the foremost cultivator among the younger generation of Lingxu Continent.
"Yinxing Prefecture..." Li Guanqi murmured softly, hurtling forward swift as lightning before disappearing in the blink of an eye.
***
After an unknown amount of time had passed, night descended over Yinxing Prefecture. Lights were sparse, and human habitation was scarce.
An eerie gray mist drifted ceaselessly in the air, which felt as though it were laced with crushed ice, making every breath deeply uncomfortable.
The entire prefecture was blanketed by a bizarre nether yin energy. The glowing spots scattered across the land were all unmarked graves, one after another.
Rumor had it that Yinxing Prefecture brimmed with yin energy, and being buried here granted a chance of becoming a ghost cultivator wandering between heaven and earth.
Ghost cultivators of formidable strength could even walk beneath the sun.
*Buzz!*
Clad in a black robe, Li Guanqi emerged abruptly from the void.
Yinxing Prefecture spanned a vast territory, yet signs of life were rare.
Yin winds howled around him, and from beneath his feet, countless pairs of unseen eyes seemed to fixate on him in the dark.
An ordinary person would have long had their sanity corroded by this nether yin power, reduced to a witless husk.
Yet the nether yin qi around Li Guanqi could not even approach within a hundred zhang of him.
Looking at the rolling mounds in the distance and the eerie, flickering ghost fires, Li Guanqi could not help but frown.
"Chen Zhi would be in a place like this?"
His suspicion was only natural. This was clearly a gathering ground for ghost cultivators.
Chen Zhi was no ghost cultivator, so what was he doing here?
Li Guanqi took a slow step forward and appeared instantly upon the street of a dilapidated city.
The city had evidently been abandoned for ages, soaked through with the stench of rot.
As the yin wind blew past, many broken doors and windows creaked and groaned, sounding exceptionally shrill in the utter stillness of the night.
"*Jie-jie-jie!*"
Suddenly, bursts of bizarre, sinister laughter rang out right beside Li Guanqi's ear.
Had it been someone faint of heart, such an abrupt, ghostly cackle would have scared their wits away.
Yet the corners of Li Guanqi's mouth curved slightly. With a flick of his hand, a bolt of lightning erupted from his fingertip, transforming into a lightning greatsword that shot forward in an instant!
The purple lightning greatsword let out a sharp shriek as it darted down the distant street.
Halfway there, the spiritual blade abruptly split into five!
"*Aaargh!*"
A shrill, terrified shriek tore through the air as a spectral figure steeped in death qi was pierced through by the lightning swords and nailed to the ground with a resounding thud.
The ghostly figure writhed frantically, the dense death qi cloaking him shredded violently by the lightning swords.
This ghost cultivator was not weak, possessing strength comparable to the mid Nascent Soul realm.
Yet in Li Guanqi's eyes, he was as frail as an ant.
*Swish!*
The ghost cultivator had delicate features, looking less like a ghost cultivator and more like an attractive scholar.
However, the death qi clinging to him was exceedingly thick.
Looking up at the black-robed Li Guanqi, the young man endured the agonizing pain and kowtowed wildly, pleading desperately, "My lord! Spare me, my lord... I was blind to offend you!
"I am willing to disperse all my cultivation to make amends! I only beg for your great mercy, my lord—please stay your hand and let me live...
"I will pay any price you ask!"
The young man possessed formidable willpower; even as the five spiritual swords ran rampant through his body and left him trembling all over, he kept pleading with rapid-fire speed.
Li Guanqi stood in place, his gaze beneath the black robe cold and detached.
"Where is Chen Zhi?"
The young man's pupils quivered, and he blurted out hurriedly, "You mean... that sword cultivator Chen Zhi?"
Seeing that Li Guanqi remained silent, he rushed to add, "Chen Zhi is deep within Yinming Valley! It's said he's looking for some kind of Yinming Profound Flame!"
Hearing this, Li Guanqi's pupils constricted sharply!
He seemed to suddenly understand something, yet he could not be entirely certain.
Raising his hand, the lightning swords detonated with a deafening blast as the terrifying power of penal lightning ravaged every direction.
The horrific destructive force wiped out all structures within a hundred-zhang radius.
Even the dense nether yin qi was blasted open, leaving a massive empty void.
The ghost cultivators lurking in the shadows all widened their eyes in terror, keeping their mouths tightly clamped.
They were terrified that a single glance in their direction would prompt a sword strike, and in their panic, they even forgot that they had no breath to hold in the first place.
Li Guanqi's eyes flickered, his gaze merely sweeping across the surroundings.
That casual glance sent the lurking ghost cultivators fleeing in utter disarray, cursing that they had not grown a few extra legs.
*Whoosh!*
Li Guanqi strode forward into the depths of Yinxing Prefecture.
Along the way, he witnessed many bizarre and fantastical sights.
A female ghost clad in a red bridal gown sat weeping at a doorway, her cries shrill and mournful.
An old crone leaning on a walking stick turned toward Li Guanqi, her torn mouth splitting into a sinister chuckle.
Seeing this, Li Guanqi chuckled right back, letting a trace of lightning flicker around him. The fright caused the old crone's false teeth to drop straight to the ground.
Along the road, Li Guanqi also encountered mischievous little imps and a procession of ghost cultivators carrying a coffin.
Yet upon seeing Li Guanqi, every single one of them quietly cleared a path.
Li Guanqi even seized one of them to inquire about the exact location of Yinming Valley.
In this Yinxing Prefecture where eerie wails rose on every side, ghost cultivators were everywhere.
Yet through such a place, a figure carrying a massive sword casket walked down the streets with leisurely, unhurried steps.
Before long, word spread among many ghost cultivators across the prefecture, and they retreated into their cultivation abodes one after another, not daring to step outside.
After all, with a Soul Formation powerhouse possessing a lightning spiritual root walking in their midst, no one dared to court disaster.
Even the formidable ghost cultivators of Yinxing Prefecture refrained from acting rashly.
Since he was not slaughtering indiscriminately, they had no wish to provoke an all-out confrontation with Li Guanqi.
Before long, lightning flashed beneath Li Guanqi's feet, and he arrived before a bizarre valley where yin winds howled.
Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes as he looked toward the valley. The gray mist overhead was exceedingly dark, almost turned completely black.
The dense nether yin power had nearly condensed into solid substance!
Gusts of yin wind cut across heaven and earth, slightly warping the space and occasionally revealing fine, hairline cracks.
"What a gathering ground of nether yin."
Taking a step forward into the valley, bursts of shrill ghostly shrieks instantly rang in his ears.
Chapter 417