Rumble!
A celestial anomaly suddenly manifested in the sky!
The heavy, pitch-black heavenly tribulation thunderclouds unexpectedly turned blood-red!
A terrifying, oppressive aura of heaven and earth permeated the void, pricking at the skin of everyone present like sharp blades.
The sky across hundreds of li resembled fiery sunset clouds, and a violent tempest suddenly whipped through the blood-red expanse!
Cultivators throughout the Northern Region of the Qingyun Continent were struck speechless with shock.
Many took to the sky on their flights, eager to see what had happened.
An elderly cultivator muttered softly, "Such an anomaly of heaven and earth... Could a supreme treasure have emerged into the world?"
The gloomy sky was thoroughly dyed red.
Seeing this, the disciples of the Great Xia Sword Sect were terrified, and panic began to spread in their hearts.
Even Li Guanqi himself had not anticipated that his avatar's tribulation would evoke such a spectacle!
With a solemn expression, Li Guanqi looked up at the sky. If such an anomaly persisted, it would inevitably invite speculation from those with ulterior motives.
Making a swift decision, Li Guanqi said in a deep voice, "I'll take my avatar away from here to face the thunder tribulation."
Without another word, he led his avatar and tore open the void, plunging into the boundless emptiness!
The sky full of bloody radiance vanished, and the two sped through the void.
Traveling continuously through the void, they soon arrived at an uninhabited stretch of land in the Eastern Domain of the Qingyun Continent.
Above a barren desert spanning thousands of li without a soul in sight, two long rifts tore open across the firmament.
Immediately afterward, two figures—one in black and one in white—darted out of the void.
The instant the two appeared, wind surged and clouds gathered over the skies for hundreds of li.
A tempest of wild sand whipped across the desolate wasteland. Blood-red thunderclouds converged in the sky, and crimson lightning repeatedly darted out from the cloud bank.
An irresistible force pushed Li Guanqi back by three thousand zhang!
Li Guanqi smiled faintly and simply sat down cross-legged at the edge of the thunder tribulation.
The wind and sand across several hundred zhang could not trouble him in the slightest. Looking at the "other self" in the distance, the corners of Li Guanqi's mouth curved upward.
He murmured softly, "What name should I give you?"
Suddenly, as if something occurred to him, a smile spread across his face.
Sword qi crisscrossed between heaven and earth. His avatar, wreathed in surging pitch-black lightning, stood gripping a sword and gazing up at the firmament.
The primal energy surging around it was exceptionally intense. Although it fell slightly short of his own when he had stepped into Void Refinement, the difference was not significant.
Li Guanqi did not intervene in the avatar's tribulation because it had to undergo the baptism of heavenly tribulation.
Only then could that half of the origin spirit fully merge into the body.
Rumble!
Terrifyingly thin lightning instantly descended, and Li Guanqi's eyes lit up.
"This is... the Foundation Establishment realm's heavenly tribulation."
The thin, blood-colored lightning was only as thick as a thumb. The avatar opened its arms wide and welcomed the strike of heavenly thunder.
The coursing power of the thunder nurtured the fleshly body and the origin spirit, drawing them into an even closer bond.
Yet as the lightning continued to fall, Li Guanqi looked down in surprise at his own palm.
A fine trace of blood-red lightning flickered there for a split second before vanishing.
Sensing the subtle change in his body, the corners of Li Guanqi's mouth curled upward.
He had never expected that whatever the avatar experienced could feed back into his main body from afar!
No wonder so many Void Refining cultivators crazily chose to craft avatars.
Even if the power of those avatars was quite frail, as long as there were enough of them, they would encounter more fortuitous opportunities.
In the end, the power feeding back into the cultivator would be that much greater.
Upon reaching the Body Integration Realm, hundreds of avatars would return to the main body together, shattering the shackles and bottlenecks in a single burst of energy.
Ten thousand bodies united as one to break through to Body Integration.
Even so, Li Guanqi did not believe there was anything wrong with his own choice.
Ever since he had severed his origin spirit to forge this avatar, he had felt intangible threads snapping away from his body.
Once he had thoroughly succeeded in forging the avatar, he suddenly felt completely light and unburdened.
It was as though he had been a marionette whose strings were abruptly cut.
That sensation was difficult to put into words, yet it made Li Guanqi understand the sword spirit's painstaking intentions.
From now on, under the vast sky and over the boundless waters, he would attain true freedom and liberation!
Looking at the avatar undergoing its tribulation in the distance, Li Guanqi murmured, "Let's call you Li Congxin, then."
Suddenly, the corners of his mouth twitched, and he chuckled to himself, "Or maybe Li Song works too, hahaha."
The sky rumbled incessantly, and the descending thunderbolts grew increasingly powerful.
Yet the avatar's physical body seemed just as formidable. After all, the heavenly treasures used to forge it were all of the highest caliber.
With its powerful body, it weathered the heavenly tribulation lightning all the way through the Soul Formation Realm through sheer endurance.
Wisps of lightning shredded the avatar's robes to pieces.
Rumble!
Li Guanqi looked at the impending Void Refining Realm heavenly tribulation about to descend, stood up, and tore through the void, preparing to return.
Taking a deep look at his distant avatar, Li Congxin, a meaningful smile appeared on Li Guanqi's lips.
Sensing his gaze, Li Congxin turned to Li Guanqi, grinned, and said softly,
"From now on, let me do all the things you wish to do at your heart's whim."
Boom!
Ten thousand bolts of thunder gathered into the Yanluo sword, and a strike of Immortal Slayer was slashed out!
In an instant, blood-colored lightning poured down in succession as the sword glow surged toward the heavens, cleanly cleaving the thunderclouds that blanketed dozens of li in two right down the center!
The desert spanning thousands of li trembled faintly. A terrifying sword glow forcibly gouged an immense chasm into the earth—a thousand zhang long and a hundred zhang deep!
The rock faces on either side of the chasm were scorched black, and amid the lingering sword intent, wisps of pitch-black lightning occasionally darted out!
Two figures, one in black and one in white, turned their backs on each other and drifted further apart.
From this day forth, beneath the Six Domains, there was an additional swordsman named Li Congxin, nicknamed Li Song.
Before leaving, Li Guanqi looked down at the wine gourd at his waist, and with a wave of his hand, a flash of light shone.
A vermilion wine gourd suddenly appeared at the waist of the white-haired, black-robed avatar.
With a faint smirk, the avatar took down the wine gourd, tilted his head back, and gulped down the strong liquor. Letting out three hearty laughs, his figure vanished into the horizon.
It was an extraordinarily wondrous sensation.
He was clearly himself, yet not merely himself.
He was him, and he was also more than just him.
Li Guanqi was him, and he was Li Guanqi, yet he seemed even more like his own person.
As Li Guanqi walked forward through the void, it felt as though a boundless gift of heaven and earth was being bestowed upon him!
With every step he took, Li Guanqi crossed a distance of dozens of li.
The pressure radiating from him grew stronger with each passing stride.
Under this blessing of heaven and earth, the origin spirit within his dantian steadily grew more robust.
His aura was also far more solid and grounded than right after he had broken through seclusion.
Li Guanqi's eyes now gleamed sharply, devoid of the slightest trace of instability.
Having relinquished the Purple Dragon Thunder Flame, Li Guanqi had become a pure lightning sword cultivator!
The voice of the sword spirit softly sounded in his ear.
"Handle your mundane affairs over the next couple of days. I will begin instructing you in your sword dao cultivation."
Li Guanqi nodded with a smile. Then, he suddenly remembered that when he had emerged from seclusion, he had not sensed the auras of Meng Wanshu or Xiao Chen...
Chapter 611