Breakthrough! Slaughter!

Terrifying sound waves eroded Li Guanqi's mind without pause. Those frenzied voices were thick with endless malice and resentment, as though eager to tear his sea of consciousness to shreds and drag him down to become one of them. Li Guanqi frowned slightly. The Dao platform within his sea of consciousness hummed, and vast divine sense enveloped his entire body. Immediately, the wailing, mournful shrieks in his ears subsided considerably. Gradually, Li Guanqi even expanded his divine sense across a hundred zhang around him. To his surprise, he discovered numerous spirit herbs tinged with ghostly qi within the valley. He plucked them with a jade knife and stowed them into his storage ring. Things like these were rare treasures back on the Qingyun Continent; taking any single one back would fetch a handsome price. As he ventured deeper into Yinming Valley, many mindless spirits began appearing in the surroundings. From the look of it, these were what common folk referred to as lonely wandering ghosts—possessing neither refuge nor sanity. Like hollow husks, they drifted aimlessly through the valley. Whenever they crossed paths, an instinct-driven slaughter ensued. Li Guanqi strode deeper into the valley with a calm, indifferent expression. The wandering souls he encountered gradually took on the semblance of ghost cultivators, their auras growing progressively stronger. Deeper in, he came across quite a few ghost cultivators already in the Nascent Soul realm, and one who could even be considered half-step Soul Formation. Yet the moment these ghost cultivators sensed Li Guanqi's aura, every one of them turned and fled. Li Guanqi shrugged. Why were the ghost cultivators here more cowardly than the last? When he had stepped out of the teleportation array onto the plaza, the ghost cultivator there had possessed plenty of nerve. Suddenly, Li Guanqi jerked his head up toward the depths of the valley! A terrifying vortex spanning a hundred zhang across surged straight into the heavens! Pitch-black yin-nether qi swept up toward the sky above the valley in an instant, and the surrounding space trembled violently, on the verge of berserk collapse. Out of nowhere, an eerie flame power abruptly flared inside Li Guanqi's body! A cold jolt seized his heart. Primal energy surged within him, and his blood involuntarily ran hot. The Dragon Elephant Prison-Suppressing Art also began circulating uncontrollably. Yet the moment that bizarre black flame brushed against his primal energy and vital blood, it was as if it had received fresh sustenance. It began madly devouring the primal energy inside him, swelling rapidly. Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes and let out a cold snort. Immediately afterward, a monstrous wave of fire swept through the meridians across his body. In the blink of an eye, that bizarre flame was instantly snuffed out by the Purple Dragon Thunder Flame. *Bang! Bang, bang, bang!* A continuous barrage of explosive bursts suddenly rang out by his ears. Amidst the black mist, illusory figures burst one after another into fragments, their agonizing shrieks echoing without end. *Hum!* The sword coffin on Li Guanqi's back trembled faintly, and a longsword gleaming with scarlet radiance shot forth with explosive speed! *Clang!* Li Guanqi gripped the blade and slashed downward with fury! *Boom!* A long rift tore across the earth to his right as his terrifying sword intent climbed to its peak in an instant. He pushed off with his feet. With a thunderous boom, the ground beneath where he had stood collapsed into a terrifying crater spanning dozens of zhang. When he reappeared, a long-haired man in green robes stood in the void before him. The man was enveloped in eerie black flames, with disheveled hair draped over his forehead, obscuring his features. Yet the terrifying pressure radiating from his body was impossible to underestimate. The man snapped his head around to face Li Guanqi. The eyes beneath his bangs were pitch-black, forming a stark contrast with Li Guanqi's pure-white eyes. The man had sharp features, though his cheeks were slightly sunken, and his narrow single-lidded eyes were paired with thin lips. The overall impression was one of sinister cruelty. He licked his lips. Black flames ignited beneath his feet as his gaze shifted peculiarly between the sword in Li Guanqi's hand and the pitch-black sword casket on his back. Suddenly, a raspy voice drifted forth. "Qingyun... Li Guanqi?" Li Guanqi's killing intent surged wildly, his voice bone-chilling. "Chen Zhi?" Chen Zhi laughed. He threw his head back and laughed uproariously for a long time. Suddenly opening his right hand, a piercing sword cry rang out from the depths of the valley! *Skre-e-ek!* A three-foot sword, pitch-black from hilt to tip, tore through the void and snapped into Chen Zhi's grasp. Chen Zhi's entire aura shifted drastically. Raising his arm, he leveled the sword at Li Guanqi and rasped coldly, "Is the Purple Dragon Thunder Flame in your possession?" Li Guanqi's heart churned at the words, yet his gaze remained placid as he spoke slowly. "Did you... kill Ning Xiu?" Chen Zhi raised his sword and rubbed the hilt against his chin, rolling his eyes upward in thought for a moment. "You mean that woman in Blazing Flame Valley who refused to divulge your whereabouts to the bitter end?" The moment Chen Zhi finished speaking, he sensed killing intent radiating from Li Guanqi so intense it was nearly tangible. Seeing this, Chen Zhi sneered even more brazenly. "Hahaha! Yes, I killed her. Who knew there could be someone so foolish in this world..." *Boom!* A terrifying arc of sword qi slashed straight toward his face! The strike came like lightning, severing several strands of hair that drifted past his eyes. Had his instincts not prompted him to take half a step back, the blow would have landed square upon him. Chen Zhi's expression hardened, inwardly shaken. *What a fast blade!* *Boom!* Chen Zhi flicked his tongue over the corner of his lips, a sick grin creeping across his face. "Come to avenge your little lover? Hahahaha! I love it!" *Boom!* Chen Zhi stepped forward, his spiritual pressure instantly surging to its zenith! A terrifying might bordering on half-step Void Refinement stirred the winds and clouds, throwing the sky above Yinming Valley into turmoil as nether winds howled. "Since you came all this way, I'll gladly accept the flame inside you as well!" "Hahahahaha! To think I searched high and low only to find it right before my eyes!" "A mere peak early-Soul Formation dares seek me out on his own initiative!" Meanwhile, the powerful ghost cultivators lurking in the shadows of Yinxing Prefecture watched this sudden battle from the surrounding void. Chen Zhi had come to Yinxing Prefecture seeking the legendary Yinming Profound Flame, ranked twenty-ninth among the heavenly flames. He had already slaughtered countless ghost cultivators in the valley, yet none had dared to stop him. After all, his strength was simply overwhelming. Even though Chen Zhi was already over eighty years old, he still retained the visage of a young man. As for the black-robed youth confronting him, they only learned his identity from Chen Zhi's words. To their shock, the black-clad figure bearing the sword casket was none other than the third-ranked cultivator on the Great Xia Domain's Tianji Rankings—Li Guanqi! "How could Li Guanqi be here? Did he cross prefectures to get here?" "Hmph, I hope the two of them beat each other half to death. Once there's only one left, we can tear him apart and feast on him together." "Is this Li Guanqi an idiot? Chen Zhi is half-step Void Refinement. Isn't this just seeking death?" A brilliant light flashed in Li Guanqi's eyes, and he took a sudden step forward! *Boom!* The aura within Li Guanqi began to climb frantically! In the blink of an eye, it shattered the barrier into the mid-Soul Formation realm, and the surge showed no sign of stopping. Within breaths, it reached the very cusp of peak mid-Soul Formation! Before Chen Zhi's astounded gaze, Li Guanqi shifted the Red Lotus sword to his left hand, and then vanished from his sight. An inexplicable dread flooded Chen Zhi's heart. His ears twitched, and he reversed his grip, thrusting his sword behind him with explosive fury!