Trust

Having closed his eyes in cultivation to stabilize his realm, Li Guanqi finally felt he could breathe a sigh of relief. His heart had seized when Red Lotus snapped, but now the stone weighing on his chest was finally put to rest. The sword spirit's cool, indifferent voice rang beside his ear. "If Red Lotus is to grow even stronger, it may still require some materials." Li Guanqi nodded silently. As long as Red Lotus could be fully restored, let alone lacking a few materials, he would even hunt down a Tier 7 great demon for its essence blood. With his realm stabilizing, the sword spirit also sat cross-legged in the sword coffin space to begin cultivating. Bestowing divinity upon Red Lotus meant that from now on, it would forever follow by Li Guanqi's side. And divinity... meant that Red Lotus now possessed the capacity to set foot in the Immortal Realm! That was precisely why Red Lotus had been so overwhelmed with emotion. As his realm gradually stabilized, Li Guanqi also noticed the flaw in his divine soul. Just as Nangong Xuandu had said, on the surface his strength seemed entirely unaffected. Yet if his divine soul was incomplete, any hope of breaking through the shackles to reach the Tribulation Transcendence Realm in the future was likely nonexistent. The corner of Li Guanqi's mouth curved slightly; he had no regrets about his choice. He had promised Li Congxin that he would let him live. And Li Congxin, to ensure Li Guanqi could break through smoothly, had cultivated like mad without holding anything back, keeping his word at the final fusion by opening his mind without the slightest hesitation or resentment for Li Guanqi to merge. However, what Li Guanqi still could not put out of his mind were Jiuxiao and Pengluo. The two of them were injured too severely. For now, the medicinal pool could only help them recover a bit of primal energy, offering very little effect in healing their wounds. Li Guanqi had not been heavily injured, so after three days he slowly woke. During this time, he had stabilized his realm, and his wounds were mostly healed. *Splash!* Standing up and looking at the others still cultivating, Li Guanqi could not help but smile knowingly. This battle had truly put his brothers through the wringer. *Hum!* A mysterious, powerful aura slowly rippled outward. Ye Feng snapped his eyes open, two beams of golden light shooting abruptly from his gaze. *Whoosh! Whoosh!* The beams struck the ground, blasting out two deep craters. Ye Feng grinned at Li Guanqi, exhaling a breath of turbid air as he slowly rose. "Boss." Looking at Ye Feng's foolish grin, Li Guanqi could not resist punching his shoulder. "You alright?" Ye Feng grinned and raised his arm with a chuckle. "All good, pretty much back on my feet." Looking at Cao Yan and Xiao Chen, who still had not awakened, Ye Feng narrowed his eyes and snorted coldly. "Hmph! Those damned Lus really stopped at nothing to win!" Li Guanqi glanced at him, then recounted everything about Lu Wuhen's scheming. Hearing the full story sent a chill down Ye Feng's spine; he had never imagined Lu Wuhen's mind could be so terrifying. Seeing his expression, Li Guanqi could not help but laugh. "Aren't you going to ask if I won?" Ye Feng shrugged as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "Of course you won." Ye Feng curled his lip and continued on his own, "When I stepped onto the stage, I had only one thought in mind." Li Guanqi smiled. "What thought?" Ye Feng chuckled sheepishly and scratched his head. "I was thinking, I can't lose. "As long as I won, the Great Xia Sword Sect would win. "Because I knew, Big Brother, you wouldn't lose—no matter who the opponent was, no matter how strong they were." Li Guanqi looked at him, for a moment not knowing what to say. It seemed Ye Feng had always been like this—finding it easier to trust Li Guanqi than to trust himself. Even if he only trusted himself eighty percent, he would trust Li Guanqi a hundred percent! Li Guanqi patted his shoulder and smiled. "You need to work hard on your cultivation too. Do you want to come outside with me now and let your father and the elders know you're safe?" Ye Feng shrugged. "Not just yet. I'm still a bit worried with Third and Fourth not awake. "Though that fellow really made me see him in a new light." Ye Feng gestured with his chin, clearly referring to Zhou Shiyu. Looking at Zhou Shiyu, who was healing with eyes closed, Li Guanqi's lips also curved slightly as he said softly, "Zhou Shiyu is the type who doesn't make promises lightly. But once he agrees to something, he will give it everything he has." Ye Feng nodded slightly, though his attitude toward Zhou Shiyu remained just that. Compared to Xiao Chen, he was still somewhat distant toward Zhou Shiyu. It was not just him; the other two felt the same way. Even so, Zhou Shiyu's performance this time had given all of them a new perception of him. "Boss, go ahead and attend to your business. Leave things here to me. "Just let my family know for me. Once they wake up, I'll head back." Li Guanqi nodded and, without another word, took a step forward, flickering out to the outside world. Ye Feng, on the other hand, sat cross-legged by the edge of the medicinal pool, his gaze deepening as he looked at Li Congxin lying within. He was not in the least surprised to see Li Congxin here. With how well he knew Li Guanqi, even if it meant failing to enter Body Integration, Li Guanqi would still have kept Li Congxin alive! The corners of Ye Feng's mouth curved upward slightly, an involuntary smile gracing his face. For this was the boss he knew—if he weren't like this, he wouldn't be Li Guanqi. Red Lotus's rebirth through fire would likely take some time, but Li Guanqi was in no rush. Inside the sword coffin, Yanluo was burning with anxiety, yet it could only prostrate on the ground, not daring to act out in the slightest. Toward the sword spirit, its fear was instinctual. Looking at its cowardly appearance, the corners of the sword spirit's mouth twitched. After a brief thought, she tossed Yanluo directly into the heavenly flame as well. She parted with a little molten metal to mend its flaws, though Yanluo was not granted divinity by the sword spirit. When Li Guanqi stepped out of the Purple Spirit Grotto-Heaven, he was completely stunned by the scene before him. The entire Great Xia Sword Sect was shrouded in dense mist, an ethereal vapor so rich that a casual brush would dampen one's sleeves. Such dense world spiritual energy had practically reached liquefaction; looking ahead, one could not even see what lay ten zhang away. Everywhere across the Great Xia Sword Sect, mountains of all kinds of heavenly treasures and earthly materials were piled high. The gleaming light of over a dozen massive teleportation array gates barely stopped flickering as countless cultivators dashed out from within, hands laden with transported goods. Meanwhile, disciples standing beside the teleportation array daises recorded everything into registers, smiles beaming on every face. Standing beside a teleportation array dais, Qin Xian suddenly sensed Li Guanqi's aura. Setting aside his work, he turned to look into the air and actually bowed to Li Guanqi, booming with a hearty laugh: "Greetings, Elder Li!" With Qin Xian taking the lead, many others spotted Li Guanqi in his white robes. Every disciple bowed with excitement written across their faces. Li Guanqi's prestige in the Great Xia Sword Sect was at its zenith—the sect's sole Body Integration Realm cultivator at present! This was the Body Integration Realm! In the past, the Great Xia Sword Sect had been driven to wit's end by a single Soul Formation Realm cultivator from Ziyang Palace. Now, the Great Xia Sword Sect had nearly ten Void Refining Realm cultivators alone! The sect flourished to the absolute extreme; across the entire Qingyun Continent, the Great Xia Sword Sect was already counted among the pinnacle sects, with almost none able to stand as its peer. Li Guanqi cupped his hands with a smile to those around him, quickly descending to help Qin Xian up, and could not help saying in a low voice, "Old Senior, isn't this doing me far too much honor?" Hearing this, Qin Xian laughed heartily, feeling not the slightest impropriety in what he had done. If Li Guanqi were to say the word today that he wanted to be sect master, Lu Kangnian would happily scramble to abdicate, eager beyond measure for him to take over. Unfortunately, everyone knew that Li Guanqi's ambitions did not lie here. "Elder Qin, please carry on. I'll go find the Sect Master."