What Are You Looking At?

In the pitch-black void, a giant dragon wrapped in thunder carried a heavily injured young man on its back. Scales were torn and battered across Jiuxiao's body, bearing numerous wounds left behind by the Jiutian Deer. Yet unlike Li Guanqi's head-on clash with the Three-Tailed Kunwu Wolf, Jiuxiao possessed innate bloodline suppression. Though its battle had been fierce, it was nowhere near as brutal as Li Guanqi's. Jiuxiao shook its massive head, constantly looking back over its shoulder. This was the first time it had ever seen Li Guanqi injured so severely. Forcing his battered body upright, Li Guanqi sat cross-legged on Jiuxiao's back, meditating and circulating his cultivation. Going all out in a fight to the death like today's brought immense benefits. A single battle had elevated his mastery over his physical strength to an entirely new level. Still... his injuries this time truly were severe. Though he had won, the price had been steep. Peril had loomed at every turn; several times, he had nearly died beneath those wolf claws. A rank-six great demon's speed and power—along with its terrifying wind-attribute heavenly astral force—were perilous beyond measure. Within his body, the Primordial Void Refining Art surged madly, steadily mending his shattered internal organs. As gruesome as his surface wounds appeared, they were far less dangerous than his internal trauma. Yet the battle also gave Li Guanqi a clearer assessment of his capabilities. The Void Nether Five Thunders Fist possessed fierce, overbearing power, forged entirely on unstoppable momentum. Moreover, Thunder Guidance, unlocked upon reaching full mastery of the technique's first layer, was extraordinarily formidable. However, it could only be sustained for half a shichen at most! Any longer, and the meridians in his body would no longer be able to bear the strain. Swinging the sword coffin for that final strike had granted him a flash of insight—a heaven-splitting momentum! That unstoppable, sweeping momentum was a state he rarely found himself in. In ordinary battles against enemies, he calculated every move, seldom adopting such a fearless, head-on posture. The corners of Li Guanqi's mouth curled slightly as the flesh on his face squirmed, slowly knitting back together. With a wave of his hand, he tossed out over a hundred mid-grade spirit stones and crushed them into powder. Jiuxiao opened its maw and inhaled the spiritual mist like a whale gulping water. Seeing this, Li Guanqi smiled faintly and crushed another batch of spirit stones with an upturned palm. He retrieved several rank-five healing pills, popped one into his mouth, and tossed a few to Jiuxiao. Pengluo scurried out with an impish smirk, rubbing its hands together as it eyed the pills in Li Guanqi's hand. Its intention was written all over its face. Li Guanqi was not stingy; he tossed it two pills. Seeing this, Pengluo made a grand sweep of its hand and—*snap*—broke off a segment of its own arm, tossing it to Li Guanqi. It declared with grand loyalty, "Rest easy, Master! I'm not the type to reap the benefits without pulling my weight! Eat up!" Li Guanqi shoved it into his mouth and gulped it down. Immediately, Pengluo's arm dissolved into the purest vitality, coursing through and cleansing his entire body. Under the circulation of this energy, his shattered internal organs steadily began to mend. Li Guanqi gestured with a wave, and Jiuxiao opened its maw, spitting out several items. The first was the Jiutian Deer's monster core. The fist-sized core radiated immense pressure, six-colored hazy light swirling within it in a mysterious sheen. The Three-Tailed Kunwu Wolf's monster core was the same, though a size larger than the deer's. As for the Jiutian Deer's carcass... Jiuxiao had devoured it completely. Just then, Jiuxiao abruptly spat out a pair of massive antlers! A gleam flashed across Li Guanqi's eyes. "Tsk, tsk. Now this is good stuff, haha." What the Jiutian Deer had been guarding was a spirit fruit tree bearing rank-six spirit fruits. He didn't know their exact properties. In any case, there were only three fruits in total. Li Guanqi simply ate one himself and split the other two between Pengluo and Jiuxiao. Just then, Li Guanqi's gaze fell upon a small herb. "Immortal Sprout Grass?" Li Guanqi paused in surprise. He hadn't expected the treasure guarded deep within the Three-Tailed Kunwu Wolf's cave to be this very spirit herb! This was the primary immortal herb required to refine the Void Shattering Pill! "Uh... did I just stumble into this by pure luck? Guess dumb luck really is on my side..." Carefully sealing the Immortal Sprout Grass into a jade box, Li Guanqi gave Pengluo and Jiuxiao directions toward Fumu Valley before entering a deep state of cultivation. Three days passed. Pengluo lay sprawled on the ground, rolling its eyes back and foaming at the mouth, both of its arms reduced to half-stumps. It muttered faint curses under its breath: "You... aren't human... just two... lousy pills... I snapped off bits... over... sixty times... You've... gotta pay extra..." By now, the primal energy within Li Guanqi was surging vigorously, his injuries completely healed. His robust physical body made his recuperation remarkably swift. Looking down at Pengluo, Li Guanqi couldn't help letting out an awkward chuckle. "All right, all right. Extra it is." Tossing Pengluo back into the sword coffin's internal space, he crushed several hundred mid-grade spirit stones inside for it and set down over a dozen medicinal pills. Looking up toward the depths of the void, Li Guanqi lightly tapped Jiuxiao's back with his foot. "All right, Jiuxiao. Rest now." Jiuxiao nodded, shrinking into a streak of lightning that slipped into his robes. Li Guanqi lightly traced a hand across the void, rending open a ten-foot spatial rift, and stepped through. Fumu Valley! Though it was high noon, the valley was shrouded in a haze of green mist. Gazing down at the bottomless mire beneath his feet, Li Guanqi grew pensive. An invisible force seemed to lurk within the mire, tugging downward as if trying to drag him in. Suddenly, joyful shouts echoed in Li Guanqi's ears. A burly man with rough features burst out from the swamp, clutching a log of deadwood as thick as a bucket to his chest. The deadwood gleamed with a metallic sheen, visibly extraordinary. "Hahahaha! I didn't make this trip for nothing after all!" Echoing with excited roars, the man craned his neck to look around, only to suddenly catch sight of Li Guanqi in his white robes. Wearing a ferocious scowl, the man glared at Li Guanqi, pointing a finger at him. "What're you lookin' at?" Li Guanqi blinked, blurting out almost instinctively, "Lookin' at you. What of it?" Hearing that, the man flew into an inexplicable rage and leaped straight out of the swamp. Stowing the log of deadwood away, he rolled up his sleeves and pulled out a silver-ringed broadsword. "Well damn, acting like a tough guy, are we? Today, I, Broken-Tail Tiger, am gonna teach you a lesson!" With that, his primal energy erupted as he drew his blade and lunged forward! Three breaths later. The man was on his knees, bruised and swollen from ear to ear, hands resting on his knees as snot and tears ran down his face. "Lord, I swear I've never heard of any Cang Lu... I only came to find some gold-silver driftwood to make some coin!" Li Guanqi sighed and kicked him flying into the distance. "Get lost." With that, he ignored the man and walked straight toward the depths of Fumu Valley. Looking down at a piece of deadwood in his hand, a strange look crossed his eyes. "Could it be... he came looking for driftwood too? Did his zither break?" Lightning flickered beneath Li Guanqi's feet as he surged forward, heading deep into the valley.