Is It Worth It? Yes!

The instant that thought crossed his mind, Li Guanqi clearly sensed a violent wave of emotion surge through Li Congxin! Li Guanqi's expression shifted slightly. Forcing down the pain wracking his body, he started to speak words of comfort, only to find Li Congxin's emotions suddenly calming back down. In his perception, the expression on Li Congxin's divine soul phantom suddenly turned peaceful and resigned, and a faint murmur drifted softly into his mind. "I shouldn't have existed in the first place. Even if I vanish, what do I have to regret...?" "Since I never truly possessed anything, why fear losing it?" As those words faded, Li Guanqi could no longer sense any resistance from Li Congxin. Which meant... If Li Guanqi chose to completely integrate Li Congxin right now, he could naturally pass this heavenly tribulation with ease. Yet... Li Guanqi smiled faintly. A surge of sealing power arose within him, sealing away Li Congxin's consciousness along with that sliver of his divine soul. With that, Li Congxin's consciousness fell into a deep coma. No matter what happened next, he would remain completely unaware. Boom!!!! The speed of Li Guanqi's Void Spirit fusion increased dramatically, and the thunder roiling overhead looked ready to crash down once more. Meanwhile, a thousand zhang away, Lu Wuhen was in far better shape than Li Guanqi. Swinging the Dengxian Sword, he unleashed a crimson glow—the blade's very tip could actually cleave the thunder apart. Even so, the scattering lightning power remained impossible to fully fend off, leaving numerous puncture wounds from the lightning all across his body. Lu Wuhen shoved medicinal pills into his mouth by the handful, using plenty of defensive magic treasures and talismans without skimping on a single one. Li Guanqi smiled, raising a hand to slap over a hundred talismans onto himself, then pulled several pills from his robes and swallowed them. Feeling the vast medicinal power disperse through his body, his slightly unsteady dantian felt considerably better. "Hahahaha, Li Guanqi! You truly are a fool! It's just a Void Spirit—why care about it?" "Indecisive like this, how do you expect to step into the heavens and claim immortality?" The thunderclouds above both of them were churning with even greater might. Not to mention that Li Guanqi's tribulation was the most terrifying of all—an obliteration tribulation. The only reason such a blood-red heavenly tribulation had appeared was that heaven and earth deemed someone like Li Guanqi too great a threat, unwilling to let him successfully transcend. Its power was at least thirty percent greater than an ordinary heavenly tribulation! Li Guanqi had no mind to banter with Lu Wuhen right now; his entire focus was fixed upon his own heavenly tribulation. Rumble!!! Three terrifying bolts of thunder, each two zhang thick, crashed down in succession! Feeling the shackles inside him on the verge of shattering, Li Guanqi gritted his teeth and soared into the air! This time, he could endure at most two bolts! Whether his Dragon Elephant Prison-Suppressing Art broke through its shackles or not, he could not take the third bolt head-on! Yet the three bolts fell too fast, almost simultaneously. Li Guanqi gritted his teeth, a sharp glint flashing across his eyes as sword light surged from Yanluo and Red Lotus. A purple-black lightning sword light erupted straight up from the ground! The spectators watching from afar were left in a daze, wondering why this heavenly tribulation seemed to be striking from the ground upward. Even Lu Wuhen felt his heart shudder at that terrifying sword light. Squinting his deep eyes at Li Guanqi, he muttered silently to himself, "He really did have hidden cards left; he wasn't using his full strength at all!" "What frightening mental fortitude—to still hold back in a fight like that earlier..." "Just what has he endured to be able to show such restraint until now?" Indeed, Lu Wuhen was absolutely certain that Li Guanqi hadn't used his full strength during their earlier clash! He had held back simply because he wasn't sure if Lu Wuhen was going all out, or if Lu Wuhen had other hidden cards. At that thought, Lu Wuhen actually felt as though the two of them were of the same kind. Never reveal your final trump card. Even when others believe you have exhausted all your options, never easily expose your full hand. Rumble!!! Faster than thought, Li Guanqi used both swords to cleave through one massive bolt of thunder, then threw his arms wide, allowing the other two bolts to blast him straight into the ground! The lightning struck his body, slamming him like an artillery shell onto the battered Dao platform below. Boom! Crash!!! Not only that, Li Guanqi's body smashed the Dao platform to pieces, and the lightning pierced straight through the barrier from top to bottom! Seeing this, everyone rose to their feet in shock! Nangong Xuandu narrowed his eyes at the thundercloud overhead, hesitating over whether he should step in to shatter this patch of heavenly tribulation clouds. Doing so would undoubtedly sever Li Guanqi's path to immortality, but at least it would save his life! Drifting in and out of consciousness, Pengluo forced its eyes open to look at Li Guanqi. By now, its body could no longer even self-heal, the lower half continuously oozing juice. Given its usual temperament, it would have gathered the juice and shoved it into its own mouth long ago. Yet now, it took everything it had just to keep its eyes open. Roar!!!! Weak as it was, Jiuxiao manifested its true form once more, carrying Pengluo as it charged straight toward the tribulation! Pengluo cursed weakly, "You... you dog bastard... Are you... trying to get me killed... brother...?" Indeed, Jiuxiao's thought was very simple: deliver Pengluo directly to Li Guanqi. "My life... is a life too... Brother... Brother Jiu..." Rumble!!! The thunderclouds churned, enraged by this creature daring to intrude recklessly into the tribulation's domain. Over a hundred blood-red lightning bolts struck down viciously toward Jiuxiao! Jiuxiao shrank its body to barely a zhang in length, dodging like a startled swan among the lightning crashing from above. Yet the lightning was simply too dense. Several bolts struck Jiuxiao in succession, immediately tearing its flesh open! Purple scales shattered, flesh and blood flying. Blood vessels webbed Jiuxiao's draconic eyes, but with a lash of its tail, it lunged toward Li Guanqi once more! Spattering blood from head to tail, Jiuxiao stared with resolute eyes at the figure plummeting through the air. On its back, Pengluo looked at the dark-gold blood spraying beside it, its eyes glowing green with greed. Opening its mouth, it sucked in all the blood, its body recovering rapidly. "Suck!! Quick, suck it up!!!" "Not once in ten thousand years... do you get... a chance like this!!!" "Amazing! Brother Jiu... waste is waste... you might as well give it to me..." Nangong Xuandu did not stop them, and by now, the members of the Lu clan had ceased their protests as well. After all, nobody wanted to die, and they could all guess that Nangong Xuandu would only say: if you have the guts, go in yourselves... Lu Wuhen could only watch helplessly as Jiuxiao rushed in carrying Pengluo. He didn't dare make a move on Li Guanqi right now. The moment he attacked, his aura would draw the heavenly tribulation to mark him as a provocateur, and facing two heavenly tribulations at once would mean certain death. Meanwhile, Li Guanqi's condition was precarious in the extreme. Those three tribulation bolts had nearly torn his divine soul apart, and his flesh was shredded into a gruesome mess. Jiuxiao arrived at his side and lifted him up, while Pengluo straddled Li Guanqi's neck and began squeezing out its juices... As it squeezed out juice, it kept sticking out its tongue to lick the blood oozing from Jiuxiao. Disgusted to no end, Jiuxiao simply directed all the leaking blood to it. Li Guanqi's body trembled faintly without consciousness, and the sword spirit's voice echoed in his ears. "If this goes on, your Body Integration will be perilous. Is it worth it?" Li Guanqi knew full well what the sword spirit was asking. His consciousness drifting, he gave only a firm answer: "Yes!"