Fierce Battle Against Cang Lu!

The sun dipped low, and the twilight of dusk blazed across the firmament like spilled blood. Cross-legged on the mountain peak, Li Guanqi drew no one's attention. High on the solitary mountain, his chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm as wisps of white vapor streamed into his nose and mouth. Three spirit-gathering array disks rested at his side, surrounded by a dusting of fine gray ash that was all that remained of burned-out spirit stones. Suddenly! A crisp crack echoed abruptly inside Li Guanqi's mind. Li Guanqi snapped his eyes open, and two arcs of lightning flared an inch past his pupils! A faint smile surfaced on his face unbidden. He knew the shackles holding him back from breaking into the Void Refining Realm had finally loosened! The ethereal origin spirit within him gave off a gentle, shimmering glow, needing only the baptism of heavenly tribulation to undergo complete metamorphosis! Suddenly! The faint strumming of a zither, thin as a buzzing mosquito, drifted into Li Guanqi's ears. Shhk! Li Guanqi shot to his feet and looked back over his shoulder, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Cang Lu..." Without a doubt, the music belonged to Cang Lu. "Luring me out of the city? What is his game?" The zither notes seemed targeted at him alone, for no one else within the Taixuan Sword Sect showed the slightest reaction. As for how Cang Lu's music could penetrate the protective barrier of the Taixuan Sword Sect's grand array, he could not be bothered to dwell on it. He rose and took a single step forward! When Li Guanqi reappeared, he had already left Zhongzhou's mountain ranges and Yuntian City behind. This was a barren, untamed wilderness—a stretch of lush grassy plains set against a continuous ridge of rolling mountains that almost merged into a single horizon. Shrouded by peaks, the desolate land echoed with the occasional cry of a demon beast. Standing in a mountain hollow, Li Guanqi unleashed his divine sense, which instantly surged out to cover a radius of several thousand zhang. Whoosh! The sword coffin behind him sprang open, and the Red Lotus sword swept into his grip in a flash. Then, like a rampaging beast, Li Guanqi hurled himself toward the depths of the mountains! Wind howled in his ears as trees and hills blurred past in his peripheral vision. Surging with killing intent, he came to an abrupt halt mid-charge and tore through space, shifting laterally more than a dozen zhang! Li Guanqi had barely moved a few inches when the space beside him was violently rent apart by something unseen, severing a lock of hair at his temple. Boom! A hundred zhang behind him, a mountaintop detonated with a thunderous roar, its upper peaks sheared cleanly away by the strike over a span of dozens of zhang! Narrowing his eyes, Li Guanqi slowly turned his gaze toward the canopy of a cypress a hundred zhang ahead. Perched cross-legged atop the verdant crown sat a black-robed youth. Cang Lu sat there with both hands resting lightly on a zither. Looking up to meet his gaze, Cang Lu curled his lips into an uncanny smile and murmured softly, "Long time no see... Brother Li." Boom! Lightning raged around Li Guanqi, and a horrifying pressure erupted in an instant! Within a hundred zhang below him, the mountain looked as though it had been plowed over—the ground trembled, and trees splintered into dust. The Red Lotus sword completed its Apocalypse in the blink of an eye, the four-foot blade firmly in his grasp. The killing intent around Li Guanqi had nearly coalesced into substance, draping him in a thin, blood-red mist. Fire, lightning, and sword intent intertwined, their combined power surging to an absolute peak. As primal energy and qi-blood roared within him, the surrounding space buckled under the unbearable strain, steadily fracturing and collapsing. Half-step Void Refinement! "Cang!! Lu!!!" Li Guanqi ground his teeth, burning to tear the man apart alive. If the Tianji Pavilion had not intervened at the very end, Li Nanting would have died without question! Even though he had been so careful, this bastard had still managed to find an opening to exploit. As the echo faded, Cang Lu’s eyes turned faintly playful. Out of nowhere, he remarked, "Your strength has advanced quite quickly..." In answer, Li Guanqi lashed out with his sword! At this strike, lightning screamed, and the heavens and earth instantly roiled! A sword light merely ten zhang wide obliterated everything in its path. Yet just as the sword light closed to within a dozen zhang of Cang Lu, his right hand violently plucked the strings! Clang! Instantly, blinding golden patterns flared across the ancient zither. A piercing sonic wave curved like a scimitar, shooting out at even greater speed. Dong! Rumble! The two collided, unleashing a terrifying detonation that expanded through midair. The ferocious shockwave flattened the surrounding mountaintops in a clean sweep. Gravity crept between Li Guanqi's brows. For now, he could only vaguely gauge Cang Lu's power. Yet... on that basis alone, he was certain Cang Lu had already stepped into the Void Refining Realm—in cultivation level, the man was definitely higher than him! Cold light flashed in Li Guanqi's eyes. Disregarding the violent shock of the explosion, he relied on his formidable physical body to plunge straight through the blast. Despite the catastrophic shockwave, the mountain within a hundred zhang of Cang Lu remained almost completely unharmed. Cang Lu chuckled softly. "In such a hurry? Won't you even..." Boom, boom, boom! Dozens of sword lights erupted in rapid succession from the center of the blast, cutting him off mid-sentence! Through the fiery glare, a white-robed figure burst forth at ferocious speed. Cang Lu sprang to his feet, lightly tapping the air beneath his feet. "Once I kill you, we can have our talk!" Flying parallel to the sky, Cang Lu retreated over a hundred zhang in a flash. As he withdrew, the ancient zither hovered in midair before him, his hands blurring into afterimages. Clang, clang! Clang-clang-clang! A tight, forceful melody of slaughter suddenly released barrage after barrage of sonic blades! Terrifying attacks tore through the firmament, ripping visible fractures across space. A sharp glint flashed in Li Guanqi's eyes, and the berserk Yinming Profound Flame erupted! "Heart Incineration!" Boom! Inside Cang Lu, who was still rapidly retreating, wisps of pitch-black flame suddenly erupted. The moment the flame's power flared, it began frantically consuming the primal energy within him. In an instant, his primal energy consumption multiplied exponentially. Worse, the flames roasted his meridians; in a single breath, his smaller meridians were scorched, warped, and fused together. Cang Lu's expression shifted drastically as his right hand strummed the strings with manic fury. Sonic blades converged on Li Guanqi from every direction, cutting off all paths of advance in an instant. Forming a seal with his left hand, an inexplicable power surged forward as Cang Lu barked: "Secret Art: Blasphemy!" Boom! Under the surge of that mysterious power, the Yinming Profound Flame was blasted out of his body in a single burst! Dense clusters of pitch-black flames hung suspended, like stars scattered across the night sky. Li Guanqi snapped his wrist and roared, "Jiuxiao! Tear him to pieces!" Roar! A sonorous dragon roar echoed through heaven and earth. A massive dragon nearly thirty zhang long transformed into a streak of thunderous lightning and struck at Cang Lu! "Sword Prison, open!" Li Guanqi's face contorted with ferocious intensity, his eyes burning with pure, murderous intent! Lightning scattered beneath his feet as the space around him twisted violently. Rumble! Boundless thunderous power expanded into the void, a mighty spatial disturbance sweeping over heaven and earth to engulf a radius of three thousand zhang in an instant! At the sight, Cang Lu's pupils constricted slightly. He could distinctly feel Li Guanqi's aura soar the moment the young man unleashed his origin energy domain.