Reflections, Return to the Sect!

Hum! Beside the plaza of an immense teleportation array, several men clad in black robes were chatting and laughing with sneering grins. The moment they sensed a fluctuation from the array, they leaped to their feet with a chuckle. "Heh, another job's here, boys." Carrying sabers and wearing swords at their waists, four men swaggered over to the grand array. They watched as several straight-backed men and a woman emerged from within. Four men and one woman. The men were all exceptionally handsome, while the woman made the onlookers swallow nervously the instant she appeared. Meng Wanshu frowned. She pulled out a veil to put it on, but it was already too late. A lustful glint flashed in the eyes of the leading man. Striding quickly toward Meng Wanshu, he reached out to touch her. "Little lady, we need to verify your identity here, you know. No veils allowed." Before his words even finished, a cold flash flickered. The man's hand was severed in an instant! An invisible surge of spatial force clamped around his throat, hoisting him high into the air! Clang! Shing, shing! The men beside him drew their sidearms in a flash, pointing them at the group and barking furiously. "Put him down!" "All of you, get on your knees right now and don't move!" Wu Liang's gaze was as sharp as a blade, brimming with murderous intent. Several disciples reached out and crushed their jade slips. Li Guanqi saw it, but did not stop them. Before long, an old man arrived in haste after receiving word. He wore a black robe embroidered with brocade patterns. His face was covered in deep wrinkles, his lips were dark, his cheekbones sat slightly high, and he had triangular eyes paired with an aquiline nose. With a vicious countenance, he narrowed his eyes and surveyed the newcomers. Judging by Li Guanqi and his companions' attire and their bearing, the old man was instantly alarmed. He could tell that the identities of these people were far from ordinary. Yet they came with such fierce momentum; they were clearly not people to be trifled with! There were five of them, yet he could not perceive the aura of a single one. That meant all five were stronger than him! At the very least, they were five Soul Formation cultivators! Five Soul Formation experts... His own sect master was merely in the mid-stage Soul Formation Realm... The old man stepped cautiously up to them, intending to play polite before getting rough so he could probe their background. "Haha... this old man is—" Bang! The Heavenly Demon Sect disciple was trapped in a mere two feet of space, and his body suddenly detonated! With a muffled boom, flesh and blood splattered everywhere. Before the old man could even finish speaking, he was left frozen in place. A cold sneer curled on Li Guanqi's lips. "The Heavenly Demon Sect... Is Lu Ke still around?" Soul Formation Realm. Hum! Li Guanqi's divine sense surged out like an overwhelming tide, quickly blanketing the entirety of Zhongnantian! Hum! Li Guanqi lightly brushed his finger across the void and reached his hand right in... Inside a grand hall, a man wallowing in decadent luxury was suddenly pinned to the spot by an immensely formidable pressure! Disheveled and unkempt, Lu Ke was dragged into the void by an invisible giant hand. Boom! A bare-chested man crashed violently onto the plaza. Lu Ke knelt on the ground in utter terror, as that horrifying spatial power instantly saturated the surrounding void! Kneeling there, Lu Ke could not even raise his head. His field of vision stretched only far enough to see a man's feet. No matter how desperately he tried to unleash the primal energy within his body, he remained pinned to the ground by that invisible force. Li Guanqi slowly crouched down. He had originally intended to deliver a few harsh warnings, but facing a man who had no power to resist whatsoever, he found himself utterly devoid of interest. With a wave of Li Guanqi's hand, Lu Ke's body abruptly burst into a cloud of blood. His Nascent Soul, which had not yet transformed into an origin spirit, attempted to flee, only to be obliterated by a wisp of flame. Having done all this, Li Guanqi suddenly felt it was quite dull. Turning around, he said, "Let's go. It's time to head back." The others said nothing, simply turning to leave with him. Everyone else remained prostrate on the ground, shivering with fear. In the distance, Chu Menglan, the Palace Master of Xuanfeng Palace, had also rushed over. Alongside her was the sect's holy maiden, Su Qian. However, neither dared approach. All because of an indifferent glance from the woman beside Li Guanqi. That nameless, overwhelming dread kept them from taking a single step further! Within the void, Meng Wanshu spoke with a forced smile. "I didn't expect that after not seeing you for so many years, you'd leave a trail of broken hearts everywhere you went." Hearing this, Li Guanqi immediately began playing dumb. "Huh? What do you mean? I didn't..." "Oh? Still making excuses? That woman who arrived later had such bedroom eyes—she was looking at you like she could melt! And you still deny it?" With her hands on her hips, Meng Wanshu spoke crossly, clearly fuming. Li Guanqi hurriedly changed the subject, pulling her into a room. Yet dull thumps soon rang out from within; evidently, his explanations had failed... Cao Yan could not help but laugh. "Heh, the boss really does have incredible charm with women." Ye Feng was instantly displeased at that. Flipping his hair, he said, "What's that supposed to mean? Is your second brother not handsome enough?" From that day on, no one ever dared to shut down the teleportation corridor again. The cross-domain teleportation array in Zhongnantian also came under the complete management of Xuanfeng Palace starting from that moment. Back then, Qi Rongxuan had dispatched the Tianji Guard to wipe out the Heavenly Demon Sect, only to be halted by an order from higher up. Lu Ke, who had abandoned his sect and fled for several months, heard that Qi Rongxuan had left and the Tianji Guard hadn't arrived, which was why he had sneaked back in secret. To the outside world, he claimed he had experienced a sudden epiphany and gone into secluded cultivation. He never imagined that shortly after returning to lord over others, Li Guanqi would come knocking on his door. Squeak... Sporting a black eye, Li Guanqi stepped out of the room with an unfazed expression. As he walked, he sighed. "How time flies. An enemy once so powerful can now be wiped away with the flick of a finger. It truly brings back memories." Seeing Li Guanqi with blood streaming from his nose and one eye swollen shut, the others struggled to hold back their laughter, not daring to utter a word. People like them didn't have much of a concept when it came to immortality. Their natural talents and spiritual roots were all peerless, monstrous gifts of their generation, and their cultivation realms advanced so quickly that they hardly felt the passage of time. Just as when Li Guanqi saw Li Guilan: even though the woman had not embarked on the great path of immortality, merely twelve years had flown by. As for secluded cultivation lasting a century, that was something they had never even considered. Over the past few days, the group spent their time drinking and chatting. Whenever someone gained an insight, they would pull another aside for a spar. Hum! Screech— A small crack split open in the void, and everyone suddenly appeared outside an unfamiliar teleportation array. As the void fissure trembled violently, Li Guanqi waved his hand to erase its spatial ripples, his primal energy surging to reinforce the teleportation passage. Looking at the terrified guards beside him, he gave a slight nod of apology. "Pardon us. I didn't realize the teleportation passage on this side was so fragile." Just as the disciples hurriedly bowed in return, they looked up only to find that the group had already vanished without a trace. Meng Wanshu gazed around at the lush, vibrant landscape, unable to suppress a sigh of admiration. "The Qingyun Continent is the most comfortable place among all the lands I've walked." Li Guanqi and Ye Feng also felt a wave of relief wash over them, as if... they had finally returned to their own territory. Cao Yan looked left and right, his eyes brimming with curiosity and marvel. Cranes occasionally swept past them, their loud cries echoing in the air. Beneath the parting mist, vast rivers wound gracefully around the mountain ranges. Xiao Chen had rarely seen such a continent either. He muttered under his breath, "Everything's fine, but the spiritual energy here is a bit too thin... Did you two freaks really crawl out of a godforsaken place like this?" Li Guanqi paid him no mind. Instead, he drew a jade slip from his storage ring and spoke softly. "Master, I'm back." At the summit of a mountain range shrouded in immortal mist, a purple-robed elder who had been lecturing his disciples suddenly stood up! Amid the bewildered stares of the disciples below, he vanished in a teleportation, shouting with wild joy. "Sect Master! Guanqi is back!" Boom! Within the council hall of Tianjian Peak, several immensely powerful auras erupted in succession, and one figure after another soared into the air! Brilliant rays of light burst forth across all eight main peaks. A sharp light flashed in Lu Kangnian's eyes as he stepped into the void, laughing boisterously! "Send word to the entire sect! Welcome Guanqi back home!"