By now, a trace of cowardice had begun to creep into Cao Zhennan's heart.
Li Guanqi's strength had far exceeded his imagination.
He had known Li Guanqi was formidable, but never that he would be this formidable.
Boom!
Li Guanqi took a slow step forward. In an instant, lightning spread out from beneath his feet in every direction.
Wielding a sword in each hand, his blades dipped slightly, cutting two long spatial fissures through the void on either side of him.
Cao Zhennan drew a deep breath. Fire flared beneath his feet, and the falling lightning and rain around him were instantly blasted away, leaving a circular void a hundred zhang across.
Lightning flashed beneath Li Guanqi's feet. Surging with rampant, violent pressure, he vanished on the spot!
Boom!
A thunderous roar rang out as a streak of fire and a bolt of lightning collided midair.
Boom!
A terrifying shockwave rippled out in an instant.
Rain within a thousand zhang froze completely in that single moment!
Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes at the man before him. That monstrous force made him realize that Cao Zhennan was not as weak as he made himself out to be!
His face twisting into a snarl, Cao Zhennan glared fixedly at Li Guanqi and said, "Did you really think I earned the title of Southern Heavenly King for nothing?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Li Guanqi blocked the man's sword with Red Lotus in his left hand, and abruptly raised Yanluo in his right!
Lightning surged over the pitch-black Yanluo as it chopped downward with mountain-splitting momentum.
The spectating cultivators were shaken to their souls. It was clearly just a slender sword, yet at this moment, it felt as if a cloud-piercing mountain peak were crashing down!
Cao Zhennan's heart seized at the sight of that strike. His lips moved rapidly, and countless profound flame runes coalesced before him into a barrier of blue fire!
Boom!
The strike, bearing the weight of myriad jun, crashed heavily against the barrier.
Boom!
The horrific impact shattered the void within several hundred zhang in an instant!
Pitch-black spatial turbulence raged wildly through the broken void.
Runes cracked across the barrier, brilliant blue inscriptions shattered one after another, and fissures webbed across its surface—yet it still managed to withstand the blow.
Both Cao Zhennan and Li Guanqi were surprised.
Cao Zhennan's runes had been obtained from an ancient secret realm, capable of easily deflecting attacks from cultivators of the same realm, having never once failed him.
Yet this time, just a single downward strike from his opponent had nearly shattered the barrier to pieces...
Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes, a cold sneer playing at the corners of his lips as he watched Cao Zhennan get knocked back.
If ten thousand jun wasn't enough... then how about... one hundred thousand!
Boom!
The onlookers' vision blurred as Li Guanqi dissolved into afterimages and vanished.
Seeing this, Cao Zhennan shot backward at full speed, slashing several times with his sword in reverse. Runes surged around him, forming an airtight barrier.
Yet the instant Li Guanqi's blade fell once more, Cao Zhennan didn't hesitate to pull out an ancient, golden shield!
Boom! Crack!
The seemingly impenetrable barrier shattered like fragile porcelain the very instant the two collided.
The muscles in Li Guanqi's right arm bunched tautly. Yanluo smashed through the shield's glowing light in an instant, embedding itself deep into the metal.
At the same time, Red Lotus in his left hand flared with brilliant crimson light, thrusting straight toward the man!
Swords clashed, and horrifying force erupted.
Li Guanqi flicked the hilt of Red Lotus with his left hand, sending the blade spinning violently upward around Cao Zhennan's sword.
The edge sliced through two of Cao Zhennan's ribs. Li Guanqi reversed his grip on the hilt and slashed violently upward!
Cao Zhennan slammed a fist into Li Guanqi's chest, using the recoil to retreat frantically, barely avoiding being cleaved open.
Li Guanqi flashed forward, appearing at his side in an instant.
Their swords slashed at each other like a raging tempest!
In an instant, the void around them shattered wherever they moved.
The spectating cultivators could only see a dazzling blur of cold light flashing through the sky.
Every move, every stance was saturated with murderous intent.
Yet everyone realized that even with Cao Zhennan unleashing his full might, he still had no room to fight back against the blind swordsman.
He was even being pushed back step after step.
Cao Zhennan gritted his teeth, reached into his storage ring, and produced an ice-blue pill.
The pill gave off an extraordinary fragrance, covered in inscriptions, with a layer of pale blue flame flickering faintly over its surface.
With a ruthless glint in his eye, Cao Zhennan swallowed the pill in an instant!
Boom!
An inexplicable, formidable pressure erupted with a roar. Then, the man's aura surged dramatically, finally halting at the late Void Refining Realm!
Blown back over a hundred zhang by the force, Li Guanqi watched him with eyes that remained entirely calm.
Ice-blue flame power surged around Cao Zhennan now, slightly warping the surrounding space.
Seeing this, the killing intent in Li Guanqi's heart grew even sharper. With a bone-chilling gaze, he spoke:
"What a Southern Heavenly King you are..."
"Heh, extracting your own nephew's innate Saint Grade mutated spiritual root!"
"Truly worthy of a man who could murder his own sister's family with his bare hands. Vicious to the bone."
The moment those words were spoken, an uproar erupted among the crowd!
Over a decade ago, the previous Southern Heavenly King and his family had vanished without a trace, and Cao Zhennan had taken the throne in their place.
Many had harbored suspicions back then, but without proof, no one had dared speak out.
Besides, Cao Zhennan's ascension to Southern Heavenly King had already been set in stone; no one was foolish enough to oppose him.
Yet today... Li Guanqi and his party of four Void Refining cultivators had pierced the Southern King Realm with their swords and wrecked Cao Zhennan's birthday banquet.
That made matters quite delicate...
Anyone with half a mind could deduce the true purpose of their arrival.
Could that youth whose skin had been flayed earlier be the son of the former Southern Heavenly King?!
Cao Zhennan's expression shifted repeatedly as he narrowed his eyes at Li Guanqi.
"Heh, what proof do you have to make such claims against me?"
"Since you're here, you can all die right where you stand!"
Boom!
Cao Zhennan gave Li Guanqi no further chance to speak, raising his sword and flying forward to attack!
Blood surged like thunder inside Li Guanqi's body as he raised a hand, deflecting the attack in an instant.
Looking at the face less than a foot away, Li Guanqi brought Red Lotus crashing downward, knocking the sword aside.
Planting one hand against the ground, his body whipped around, his right leg sweeping toward the man's head like an axe splitting the heavens!
Bang!
This kick sent the man flying several thousand zhang!
Had he not raised his arm horizontally to guard his flank, this kick would have done far more than merely snap his left arm.
Li Guanqi scoffed, mocking him: "Back then, the Southern Heavenly King and his family trusted you so deeply, yet you repaid their kindness with treachery, scheming to lure the couple away from the Southern King Realm."
"In the end, you used the young son of the Southern Heavenly King, Cao Yan, as a hostage, forcing both of them to surrender without resistance."
"And what did you do? You murdered them both anyway."
"If they hadn't joined forces to send Cao Yan away, he too would have long fallen victim to your vicious hands, wouldn't he?"
With that, Li Guanqi's divine sense surged, instantly laying bare for all to see every scene of how he had first met Cao Yan!
Chapter 558