Li Guanqi looked around and said softly, "Go tend to your duties."
Only then did the crowd come back to their senses. Bowing hurriedly, they dispersed to attend to their tasks.
By now, the Great Xia Sword Sect had taken in many people from various clans and sect forces, and these refugees were severely injured.
Over on Pill Peak, Pengluo was busy directing people to construct an enormous medicinal bath.
Even Sun Miao had to admit that when it came to balancing the medicinal properties of various spirit plants and herbs, Pengluo was comparable to the very best alchemists.
Li Guanqi swept his divine sense outward, finding that the situation within the sect was relatively stable for the moment.
After a moment's thought, he stepped forward, tore through the void, and reappeared within Guanyun Pavilion.
The atmosphere inside Guanyun Pavilion was exceptionally tense and suffocating.
Everyone had their heads down, hunched over their desks, working so intensely that no one even noticed Li Guanqi's arrival.
Li Guanqi paid no mind to such trifles. But when he walked into the main hall and saw Ji Yuchuan working alongside as many as a thousand clones, he was stunned.
He finally understood why Ji Yuchuan had been the sole person stationed at the Tianji Pavilion's Blue Tower back then.
Ji Yuchuan alone was worth an army of a million men!
Methodically sorting through the endless influx of information, Ji Yuchuan glanced up at Li Guanqi and waved his hand, conjuring a light screen thirty zhang across.
The screen displayed a map of the entire Qingyun Continent, ablaze with densely packed black flames.
Each flame represented a location where Abyss Demons had appeared, and the number of black flames was still steadily climbing.
Over a hundred purplish-gold specks of light marked the cultivators dispatched by the Great Xia Sword Sect to provide reinforcements.
Yet compared to the sea of black flames, those hundred-odd dots were nothing more than a drop in the ocean!
Palely looking at Li Guanqi, Ji Yuchuan said in a heavy voice, "Pavilion Master... this time... no one can stop them. There are far, far too many!"
Looking at the map before him, Li Guanqi took a deep breath. Even he had never imagined that the world concealed such an immense number of Abyss Sealing Grounds.
Ji Yuchuan continued, "Furthermore, the number of fissures in the Abyss Sealing Grounds is still multiplying. The forces available to suppress them are far too scarce. Nearly thirty percent of the clans and sects have been slaughtered to extinction by the sudden onslaught of Abyss Demons... and those remaining are barely clinging on."
He looked deeply at Li Guanqi's grim face and felt compelled to share his analysis: "This disaster isn't limited to Qingyun Continent. Lingxu Continent and the other five domains are facing the exact same plight. Even powerhouses of Senior Hong Zhi's caliber are helpless against this widespread outbreak."
Li Guanqi's brows furrowed tightly, his expression exceedingly grim.
He had not expected the Abyss Demons' rampage to engulf the entirety of the Six Domains!
Forces capable of immediately countering and suppressing the Abyss Demons were few and far between—pitifully scarce, in fact.
Lu Kangnian sat in a chair up ahead with his eyes closed, directing the team leaders on which sects to reinforce. In his heart, Lu Kangnian bore little calculating ambition now; he did not intentionally slight any faction. Even sects that had clashed repeatedly with the Great Xia Sword Sect in the past had reinforcements sent to their aid.
Suddenly, something occurred to Li Guanqi. Narrowing his eyes, he turned to Ji Yuchuan and asked in a low voice, "What about the Ancient Clan? What are their movements? Has any Ancient Clan reached out to aid the various regions?"
Ji Yuchuan blinked, closed his eyes briefly, and replied with a deeply conflicted expression, "None... not a single one! Not only those who emerged into the world on Qingyun Continent, but not a single Ancient Clan in the other five domains has lifted a finger! Worse, rather than helping, their members have even begun withdrawing into the void to return to their ancestral homes."
A glint of cold light flashed through Li Guanqi's eyes. "What's the situation on the Ancient Clan's side? Have any of their seals broken or Abyss Demons rampaged there?"
Ji Yuchuan said heavily, "There are, but very, very few! At least within the scope of our investigations, only faint wisps of demonic qi occasionally leak into the void across the Six Domains. But those leaks are quickly erased by someone!"
Li Guanqi nodded upon hearing this, then instructed, "Pass the word down: our priority is to preserve ourselves. I leave everything else here in your hands, Brother Ji."
"Are you heading out, Pavilion Master?"
"Mm. Don't worry about me."
With that, lightning flashed beneath Li Guanqi's feet, and he vanished from the spot!
Pulling out a jade pendant, he said in a deep voice, "Father-in-law, how is the situation in Shenbao Domain?"
Before long, Meng Jiangchu's voice sounded from the jade pendant, accompanied by howling winds and the occasional roar of erupting flames.
Gripping the pendant, Meng Jiangchu wiped a fissure completely out of existence with a wave of his hand and said heavily, "Not good. There are too many seals. I'm preparing to make a trip to the Purgatory Abyss right now! You be careful, kid. I have to go."
Putting away the transmission, Li Guanqi then retrieved the Tianji jade pendant with a flick of his wrist.
His eyes glittering sharply, he asked in a deep voice, "Elder Gu, has the Ancient Clan uniformly withdrawn into seclusion?"
"Indeed! The moment the Abyss Demons rampaged, nearly every Ancient Clan across the Six Domains issued recall orders!!"
Putting down the pendant, Li Guanqi sent transmissions to Long Hou and Hong Zhi, but neither responded.
Li Guanqi's gaze flickered, and he spat coldly, "Bastards... the Ancient Clan!! At a time like this, they still want to negotiate terms?!"
Indeed, from all these developments, Li Guanqi had already formed a guess regarding the Ancient Clan's intentions.
This catastrophe likely was not the work of the Ancient Clan.
They certainly did not possess such power; it had to be the handiwork of the Sha organization.
After all, the dharma artifact wielded by that Abyss Demon was forged by Sha.
Yet the Ancient Clan's retreat into their shells was undoubtedly aimed at using this calamity to coerce Grandfather!!
Grandfather had laid down rules for all the Ancient Clans: no cultivator over a hundred years old was permitted to enter the mortal world.
Reasonably speaking, that was already a major concession, but their actions now...
And reality was precisely as Li Guanqi had surmised.
In the mysterious Seventh Domain, Su Xuan's face was dark as thunder.
Inside a solemn hall, Su Xuan sat upright upon a throne.
Behind the old man stood eight figures, led by Long Hou in his golden armor.
Beside Long Hou stood a woman clad in red, her face somewhat pale. Her hands were clasped behind her back, clutching a blood-red saber.
The crisp chime of a bell echoed through the hall, and the others standing beside them hardly dared to breathe as they listened.
Before Su Xuan were nine glowing phantoms radiating terrifying pressure.
All nine bore ancient, heavily weathered faces. The leader among them, an old man with grizzled white hair, slowly lifted his eyes to look at Hong Zhi.
Long Hou's expression changed drastically. He snapped an arm out, interposing himself before the woman!
Bang!!
The bell on Hong Zhi's saber abruptly shattered into pieces!
Boom!!!
An inexplicable pressure descended!
Long Hou's golden armor instantly ruptured into shards!
The flesh and blood of his entire left shoulder exploded, and his body was forced down, on the verge of collapsing to his knees.
Long Hou's eyes turned bloodshot in an instant. With a ferocious snarl, he thrust out a hand and violently coalesced a golden spear!
Then, aiming the spear at his own knee, he thrust it savagely downward!
Thud!!
The spear impaled the floor tiles, forcefully propping his body up and refusing to let him kneel.
The leading elder's gaze did not waver in the slightest. He sneered,
"The bell was far too noisy."
Chapter 764