Yet just as Li Guanqi was about to reach out and touch Yu Sui'an...
Perhaps the shockwaves of the battle had shattered much of the seal within her, but a faint trace of primal energy stirred in Yu Sui'an's body, and she found herself able to move once more.
Her red-rimmed eyes opened, and gazing upon Li Guanqi as he threw caution to the wind and charged toward her, she broke into a radiant smile.
Yet she deliberately leaned back, tumbling toward the barrage of incoming ice blades behind her.
Li Guanqi's eyes went wide, and he bellowed, "No—!"
*Thud, thud, thud!*
A flurry of sword light flashed through the air in rapid succession, instantly piercing right through Yu Sui'an's body!
Li Guanqi lunged like a madman. With a single punch, he caved in the skull of an elder, and in a single breath, the Red Lotus in his hand slashed out over a hundred times!
Terrifying arcs of lightning and sword light burst forth like a torrential downpour!
The sword light swallowed the cultivators before him whole, their agonized screams tearing through the heavens!
Countless fragments of flesh and blood burst apart midair.
Li Guanqi cradled Yu Sui'an's rapidly chilling body in his arms. In a panicked frenzy, he tried desperately to stem the bleeding, doing everything humanly possible, yet he still could not halt the relentless ebb of her life force.
"No... No, no, no, no... Don't die..."
"Please don't die! I came too late..."
He pulled out steamer basket after steamer basket of steamed buns. Holding one to her lips, his voice shook violently.
"Look, I remembered. I remembered it all."
"If you die, who's going to eat them?!"
Yet Yu Sui'an had already resolved to die. She severed the circulation of primal energy within her and refused to absorb the vast torrent of energy Li Guanqi poured into her.
She had long wanted to die...
Or rather... if she had ever had the chance, she would have died long ago.
The person she was now had no face to see anyone.
Deep down, she knew that if she returned alive, no one would blame her.
Yet it was precisely everyone's care and affection that made her suffer such unbearable torment within.
In those dark, agonizing six months, Yu Sui'an had lost any reason to live.
That mire of filth felt as though countless hands were dragging her down into the abyss.
If she had never known the light, she could have endured the dark.
If she had sprouted from the mud from the very beginning...
If only...
She did not blame Li Guanqi. She only felt that she had dragged him down far too many times.
Again, and again... and again...
Blood surged up her throat. Yu Sui'an reached out through blurred, tear-filled eyes to touch Li Guanqi's cheek.
She wanted to tell him not to be sad, but the scalding blood choking her throat prevented a single word from escaping...
*Drip.*
The corners of Yu Sui'an's lips curved faintly. Scorching, boiling tears splashed down against her cheek.
Her eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and the frantic cries beside her ears gradually faded into the wind.
Seeing that Yu Sui'an's soul was about to scatter, Li Guanqi held her corpse tightly and let out an agonizing, guttural roar.
"Aaargh!"
The veins on his neck bulged as he howled with every ounce of his being.
The corners of his eyes were deeply lined with wrinkles, and the world before him seemed bathed in an endless sea of blood.
*Boom!*
A terrifying wave of pressure erupted in an instant. Right at the apex of his emotional turmoil, Li Guanqi forcibly broke through to the late Void Refining Realm!
Boundless killing intent threatened to swallow his very sanity whole.
Suddenly!
A fair, slender hand gently rested upon his shoulder. The sword spirit spoke with an icy tone.
"Hand her to me. Her soul has not yet dispersed; I can still preserve all three of her ethereal souls and seven corporeal spirits intact."
"Whether you wait until you ascend to the Immortal Realm to deliver her into the Yellow Springs Realm for reincarnation,"
"Or send her into reincarnation now to live as an ordinary mortal in the bustling world, enjoying a peaceful life—you can decide when the time comes!"
Li Guanqi was jolted awake by the sword spirit's bell-like voice!
Without the slightest hesitation, he nodded in frantic agreement!
He had learned many soul-gathering arts from the sword spirit, but in a dire situation like Yu Sui'an's, he had been utterly helpless...
Hearing her words now was like grasping at a lifeline, and he nodded vigorously.
The crimson hue in his eyes receded somewhat, and the sound of continuous explosions rang in his ears.
Ye Feng and the other two formed a tight protective circle around him. Though peril pressed in on them from all sides and they faced numerous enemies far above their own cultivation realm,
They did not yield a single step, even while gravely wounded!
None of the three spoke, nor did they urge him on.
For they all knew that right now, Li Guanqi was in more pain than anyone.
Li Guanqi watched as the sword spirit formed hand seals, utilizing a profound and miraculous secret technique to gather Yu Sui'an's three ethereal souls and seven corporeal spirits into a blood-red, exquisite pagoda!
Li Guanqi could clearly sense that the source aura of that exquisite pagoda was identical to the sword spirit's own!
Seeing the sword spirit's slightly pale face, Li Guanqi knew.
Doing this had surely cost her immense mental and spiritual effort—defying the heavens to imprison ethereal and corporeal spirits that should have scattered into heaven and earth...
In a hoarse whisper, Li Guanqi murmured, "Can you erase the terrible memories from her mind?"
"Sui'an has suffered so much in this life."
"I thought that by leaving a wisp of sword intent with her, I could keep her safe through her travels..."
"If it can be erased, please erase all of it for her."
The sword spirit nodded silently. The exquisite pagoda shimmered faintly before she stowed it away.
As the sword spirit's figure dissolved into thin air, Li Guanqi slowly rose to his feet.
With his rising, the temperature throughout the Liu clan's domain plunged abruptly.
The hair stood on end across the skin of many Liu clan disciples, and an inexplicable, dreadful pressure filled them with creeping horror.
Tearing open the fabric of space with a gentle motion, Li Guanqi carefully placed Yu Sui'an's body inside.
His hand tightly gripped the Red Lotus sword. Far away in a tavern, the white-haired youth suddenly returned to his room.
A barrier was laid across the room, and he sat in deep meditation like a desiccated skeleton, without the slightest fluctuation of primal energy around him.
This white-haired youth was none other than Li Guanqi's avatar.
As the avatar entered total stillness, Li Guanqi's aura began to skyrocket frantically!
In the blink of an eye, tens of thousands of spirit stones behind him shattered to dust, and a dreadful aura swept across heaven and earth.
Vast, pure spiritual energy was devoured into his body like a whale swallowing the tide. The cultivation method within him operated at its very peak, madly refining the incoming spiritual energy.
Surge after surge of terrifying sealing power erupted instantly!
With a flick of his hand, Li Guanqi unleashed several magnificent, overwhelming sword slashes!
Liu Peiyuan's pupils shrank to pinpricks. He suddenly sensed that the domain Liu Xiaochen had constructed had been completely severed and isolated in that single instant!
At this moment... the Liu clan's domain no longer belonged to Liu Xiaochen.
Liu Xiaochen realized this at the same instant!
Just as he moved to wrestle back control of the domain, Ye Feng and his companions exchanged glances.
In a flash, three tiers of flame barriers crashed down with a deafening roar!
A torrent of raging flames instantly enveloped the three-hundred-li expanse of the Liu clan's domain!
The Great Sky Rosy Flame, the Yinming Profound Flame, and a deep blue fire of primal energy.
The scorching heat surged drastically!
A searing heatwave swept through heaven and earth. Flora withered across the entire domain, and the earth cracked.
Thousands of lightning bolts crashed down like thunderbolts from the heavens, transforming the entire realm into a thunder pool that heralded the end of days!
Over a hundred Liu clan disciples had already perished beneath the lightning.
*Boom!*
With a single sweep of his sword, Li Guanqi flung everyone back. Seizing the exact split second when they were knocked aside, he thrust out a hand and violently clenched the sky!
*Rumble!*
In an instant, the void twisted violently, and over a hundred pale blue, translucent souls were forcibly torn out of nothingness!
In the palm of Li Guanqi's hand, a lightning pagoda materialized rapidly—constructed in imitation of the sword spirit's pagoda.
Yet while the sword spirit's exquisite pagoda was meant to nurture and heal the soul, his own...
Was forged purely for torment!
"Soul Capture!"
Chapter 638