Meng Jiangchu stared somberly at the blood-red barrier before him.
He could now be certain that the weapon refiner with such superb craftsmanship was a member of the Sha organization!
This barrier array that drained blood and bound spirit had array patterns identical to those inscribed upon that person's refined dharma artifacts!
Gu Yong was not the only one who recognized the peculiarity of this array; Meng Jiangchu had noticed the signs as well.
Once fully formed, if anyone attempted to breach or tear it open from the outside, everything within the array would be completely destroyed!
Meng Jiangchu took a deep breath. He could not even perceive what was taking place inside the barrier.
"Brother Gu, guard my flanks and protect me. I am going to dismantle this barrier's blood array!"
Hearing this, Gu Yong immediately frowned and said in a grave voice, "Brother Meng, this array is terrifying. The runes forming it number in the hundreds of thousands at least! Dismantling this array in a short time is utterly impossible! How about... we try breaking the array with a dharma artifact?"
Meng Jiangchu rejected the idea outright. Sitting cross-legged in the void, he said coldly, "No, there is no time... This is the only path we can take!"
Gu Yong said no more, taking up a guard position behind Meng Jiangchu to protect him. However, an inscrutable look flickered in the old man's eyes as he glanced back at the blood-red array behind him.
After moving some distance away from Meng Jiangchu, Gu Yong looked at the barrier behind him and murmured to himself, "Perhaps... there is still one thing that can breach the barrier."
A sharp glint flashed in the depths of Meng Jiangchu's eyes, and in an instant, his terrifyingly immense divine sense roared forth like an avalanche tumbling down a snow mountain.
In a flash, it enveloped the massive barrier.
Endless eerie flames flared abruptly, then coalesced into the phantom figures of five fierce ghosts, each occupying one direction.
Meng Jiangchu formed hand seals and abruptly cast out two beams of spiritual light!
"Reveal yourself!"
*Buzz!*
The void trembled as an unimaginably intricate, terrifying blood array revealed itself.
When the man saw the densely packed blood runes, his expression shifted slightly, yet he steeled himself and began dismantling them rune by rune.
Meanwhile, within the cold pool atop Tianshui Peak in the Great Xia Sword Sect, a large white radish suddenly let out a shrill scream.
"Ahhh! Something's gone wrong!"
Pengluo, who had grown noticeably plumper, wore a frantic expression. Without a second word, he raised a hand, tore open the space before him, and sped through the void!
***
Within the blood-red barrier.
*Thud!*
Li Guanqi crashed down from midair, slamming heavily onto the blood array beneath his feet.
*Sizzle!*
An intense burning agony surged through him, and his back instantly turned into mangled, bloody flesh!
*Whoosh! Whoosh!*
Two terrifying sword lights struck right on his heels. Li Guanqi flipped over and slashed twice in rapid succession!
Surging sword beams burst forth, yet Li Guanqi's face abruptly drained of color!
The petals on the Red Lotus's hilt were actually closing up, and an unprecedented wave of exhaustion emanated from within the Red Lotus Sword.
In the next moment... Red Lotus suddenly regressed to a state where it could only maintain Soul Release.
The two assassins caught sight of this as well. In their perception, Li Guanqi's aura plummeted drastically.
Seeing the Red Lotus Sword, realization dawned upon them.
"Strike with everything you've got! He can't maintain his Apocalypse form anymore!"
Though they said so, a lingering terror still gripped the two as they recalled Li Guanqi's breathtaking, apocalyptic strike from moments before.
Consequently, both held back some strength, their nerves stretched taut.
After all, they both knew deep down that with Li Guanqi's power, a desperate counterattack in his dying breaths would inevitably take one of them down with him!
Li Guanqi retreated explosively, relying on his superior speed to open a distance of a hundred zhang in an instant.
Throughout the entire battle, had it not been for his edge in footwork and speed, things would have been countless times harder than they were now.
Watching cracks spread across the Red Lotus petals that had previously healed so much, Li Guanqi felt an ache in his heart.
Yet even so, he could still feel the Red Lotus Sword's unwavering resolve to fight alongside him.
A low sword chime rang persistently in his ear, but Li Guanqi slowly opened his hand.
The sword coffin materialized behind him. Li Guanqi murmured softly, "Go back. For the battle ahead... I am enough on my own!"
Red Lotus circled and darted around Li Guanqi, defying his command for the very first time!
The sword coffin opened, yet Red Lotus refused to return.
With a grim face, Li Guanqi said sternly, "Go back! If you keep fighting like this, you will shatter completely! I'd rather face greater peril myself than watch you shatter in my hands! Go back!"
Red Lotus let out a faint sword chime, as if frustrated and aggrieved over its own inadequacy.
Yet right then, an irresistible force surged from within the sword coffin and dragged it back inside.
Seeing Li Guanqi put away his sword, one of the men could not help sneering, "Who would have thought the Yanluo Sword Venerable was such a softhearted man? He can't even bear to see a mere weapon get damaged! Hahahaha!"
Li Guanqi said nothing. How could people like them ever understand what he felt?
Red Lotus had accompanied him in bloody battles ever since he pointed his sword at Ziyang Palace. Unless driven to the absolute brink, he truly could not bear to see Red Lotus destroyed.
Even though Yanluo in the sword casket was powerful, he still loved Red Lotus!
*Whoosh!*
His left hand condensed a sword of primal energy as spatial power steadily compressed and solidified it.
Just like that, a lightning spirit sword identical in form to Red Lotus took shape in Li Guanqi's grasp.
Only... a sword conjured from primal energy could not bear the abilities of Li Guanqi's Sword Ruins, let alone Soul Release.
Without the enhancement of the Sword Ruins' power, Li Guanqi's strength dropped by at least thirty percent!
*Clang! Clang!*
Sword lights clashed. The three figures shifted positions rapidly in midair, dozens of afterimages shredded by flying sword qi before they could even dissipate.
Their offense was so swift it blurred together, leaving only faint glimpses of flashing cold glints across the battlefield.
Wherever lightning erupted, the pervasive demonic qi was annihilated into billowing plumes of gray mist.
*Spurt!*
A chillingly cold longsword abruptly pierced clean through Li Guanqi's abdomen, and the eyes beneath the assassin's mask flared with a sudden sharp light.
Terrifying demonic qi erupted instantly within Li Guanqi's body!
Yet right after, the assassin realized something was wrong. His sword... couldn't be pulled out!
Snapping his head up, his gaze collided head-on with Li Guanqi's ferocious white eyes.
Li Guanqi's right hand gripped the blade with a vice-like hold, unwavering even as it sliced deep into his palm.
His left hand slowly raised the lightning sword high, and immediately afterward, a phantom of thunder and lightning a full ten zhang tall slowly coalesced behind him.
A terrifying beam of lightning sword light condensed above, glinting with cold menace.
*Whoosh!*
A low, furious growl seemed to squeeze out from Li Guanqi's throat.
"Furious Thunder!!"
*Boom!*
The phantom gripped the sword and slashed straight down at him!
Chapter 717