Why Is She Looking for Me?

The young man was handsome, his face fair as jade. Having drunk some wine, his cheeks were faintly flushed, his eyes hazy and distant. Suddenly! A gruff voice rang out beside him. "Kid, beat it! Don't you know this seat belongs to your granddaddy?" The youth acted as though he had heard nothing, continuing to drink on his own. Bang!! A sheathed longsword slammed heavily onto his table, jolting the liquor from the cups. "Didn't you hear me talking to you?!" Clang!!! Li Congxin cast a hazy glance at the burly man. To the onlookers, it seemed as if a flash of cold light had suddenly gleamed before their eyes. With a flick of Li Congxin's wrist, the sword on the table had already left its scabbard and returned to it. Thud! An arm dropped to the floor. Only then did the man realize what had happened. Clutching the stump of his severed arm, he did not dare utter a sound. For he saw the white-haired youth raise a finger to his lips, while his gaze casually drifted across the man's throat. Terrified by this sight, everyone in the restaurant fell as silent as cicadas in winter. In an instant, many scurried out of the tavern. Even the maiden dancing gracefully upon the stage was terrified, her face drained of color, her movements thrown completely out of rhythm. Finding it rather dull, Li Congxin curled his lip and drunkenly rose with his wine flagon in hand. Rising to his feet, he patted down his clothes, only to suddenly realize he had no money on him... "Boss, put it on my tab!" An old man behind the counter looked trembling at the handsome youth, the brush in his hand quivering faintly. Li Congxin smiled and said, "Don't be afraid, old sir. It's not like I eat people." Taking the old man's hand, he wrote in the ledger: 'Li Congxin, three liang of Green Bamboo wine on tab.' Biting his finger, he pressed his thumbprint onto the page, then smiled at the stunned elder. "If I get the chance, I'll definitely come back to pay you." Swaying slightly, he strolled out of the restaurant, stepped past the entrance, and, beneath the shocked gazes of everyone present, took to the air! Whoosh!! Drunken, he rode the wind into the clouds, turning to gaze down at the mortal moon. Li Congxin wandered the world without an aim, doing whatever pleased his heart. Today he might listen to tunes in pleasure houses and run up a tab; tomorrow he might travel hundreds of millions of li in a day just to fish for a single black carp by a lake. Or perhaps, craving roasted eggs, he might sneak into a beast taming sect to steal a beast egg they had painstakingly nurtured. In short, Li Congxin's actions knew no right or wrong, good or evil; he acted purely on whim, following his heart wherever it led. *** On his way back to his sect, the sword strike Sun Tianqi had unleashed kept flashing through Li Guanqi's mind. It had to be said, that strike had been truly breathtaking! As Li Guanqi pondered it, he seemed to slip into a trance, standing stock-still where he was. The scene of Sun Tianqi executing 'Thunder Wrath' replayed continuously in his mind. Li Guanqi simply stood there with his head slightly tilted back. After who knew how long, Li Guanqi's left hand loosely curled into a fist, and lightning obediently diffused from behind him across a radius of a hundred zhang. The purple-black lightning gradually coalesced into a humanoid silhouette tens of zhang tall. Immediately following that, the Sword Ruins trembled faintly as the power of the Illusory Form was unleashed. Li Guanqi's mind shuddered, and he instantly felt a subtle shift in the world before him. The scene of Thunder Wrath crashing down gradually dissipated before his eyes, leaving behind only the most primal essence of that sword technique. Suddenly!! Li Guanqi swung his left arm fiercely in a sword slash!! This strike was incomparably swift, and almost in the blink of an eye, a terrifying fissure nearly a thousand zhang long was torn across the void!!! And behind Li Guanqi, a sky-cleaving greatsword seemed to fall from the hands of that phantom silhouette at the same time. Though the glaring phantom had blurred features, it did not prevent anyone from sensing a towering fury. Li Guanqi's comprehension of the essence of this strike was much like how he had grasped the origins of spirit incantations back then. He was trying to understand what kind of mindset the genius who created this sword strike had possessed all those years ago. Opening his eyes, Li Guanqi beamed with delight. "Thunder Wrath... what a terrifying sword strike!" "The person who created such a strike was truly a peerless sword cultivator..." Stirred by this thought, Li Guanqi sighed with admiration. "How wonderful it would have been to share an era with someone like that." Hum!! Somewhat surprised, Li Guanqi took out a jade slip, a look of bewilderment on his face. "Palace Master Qian, why are you looking for me so soon? What's the matter?" At that moment, Qianqiusui sat inside the pavilion of an ornate domain-crossing cloud boat, looking at the two figures before her with an odd expression as she spoke. "Two members of the Sun clan want to join Guanyun Pavilion. What should we do?" Qianqiusui truly didn't know what to do at this point; Guanyun Pavilion was only in the preparatory stages, and she hadn't even returned to the Great Xia Domain yet. Yet Sun Zhen and the heavily injured Sun Tianqi had tracked her down and bluntly said they wanted to join Guanyun Pavilion. "Sun Zhen and Sun Tianqi?" "That's right..." "Hand the jade slip to them." "Uh... Brother Li, you wouldn't reject us, would you?" A faint, unreadable sneer tugged at the corner of Li Guanqi's mouth. He really hadn't expected those two to go looking for Qianqiusui. "Stop joking with me. If you two work under me, won't your Sun clan be thrown into an uproar?" Two Void Refining Realm powerhouses... Li Guanqi's eyes flickered slightly. Soon, Sun Tianqi's voice came through the jade slip. "You know both of us want to break free from our family's shackles!" "After you left, my younger brother said a lot to me..." "In short, from now on, I no longer want to sacrifice or compromise for the clan." Li Guanqi's brow furrowed, and he still did not yield. "Then joining Guanyun Pavilion... don't you feel you'd merely be escaping one pair of shackles only to step into another?" "What if one day I need you to sacrifice many things to help me?" "If you two Void Refinement figures just up and leave, the Sun clan will surely go mad... Head back for now." With that, Li Guanqi lowered the jade slip, not bothering to listen to whatever followed. A cold gleam flickered deep in his eyes as he murmured softly, "Two Void Refinements... quite tempting indeed. However..." "Sun Tianqi... cannot be trusted." "Don't go seeking your own death..." Thinking of how he had tasked Qianqiusui with establishing an intelligence network gave him a headache. Qianqiusui had talked with him about founding Guanyun Pavilion, and he had felt it was a good idea. As he pondered, Li Guanqi said with some distress, "Nurturing talent takes so many resources... Sigh..." "I can't very well use Tianji Pavilion's money to sustain Guanyun Pavilion." Buzz!!! Another spatial fluctuation rippled out, making Li Guanqi mutter with a strange expression, "Why are there so many things happening today?" Light flickered faintly on his storage ring, and he took out a glowing jade slip from within. Looking at the jade slip in his hand, the image of a woman with a graceful figure immediately flashed through his mind. "Song Yunshu? What does she want with me?" Sending primal energy into it, Song Yunshu's sweet voice drifted out. "Young Master Li, where are you right now? I've come to deliver something to you." A bright light flashed in Li Guanqi's eyes. It seemed the Tianji Chart was finally being returned? "I'm at the Meng clan in the Shenbao Domain. I'll have to trouble you to bring it over."