Legacy of a Realm Lord!

The sword spirit slowly stood up, giving Meng Wanshu a deep, searching look before speaking in a calm voice. "Little girl, the legacy of the Bingqi Realm's realm lord is not so easily claimed." With that, under Meng Wanshu's shocked gaze, the sword spirit stepped into the sword coffin and vanished without a trace. Yet her voice continued to echo by Meng Wanshu's ears! Meng Wanshu froze in place, stunned. The sword spirit's cold, haughty voice reverberated through her mind like a chiming bell. Meng Wanshu rarely lost her composure, but right now her eyes quivered with shock as she frowned, staring at the empty space beside Li Guanqi. Jiuxiao sensed the strange shift as well, and his flight speed abruptly dropped. The atmosphere grew solemn and tense. Meng Wanshu was filled with burning questions she desperately wanted answers to. No one knew about the legacy she had inherited—not even Meng Jiangchu!! Who was the owner of that voice just now? How did she know her secret? And... who was the realm lord of the Bingqi Realm? Was that person the owner of the legacy she had received? What did her words mean? What did she mean by "not so easily claimed"? Just how much more did she know?! Question after question surged through her mind. Li Guanqi, having no idea what the sword spirit had said to Meng Wanshu, only saw how she looked, stood up, and frowned with concern. "Wanshu? Wanshu! What is it?" Meng Wanshu snapped back to reality, only then realizing that things were far from as simple as she had imagined!! She drew a deep breath. Her proud chest rose and fell slightly as she exhaled a breath of stale air to calm her turmoil. Sitting down once more to face Li Guanqi, her gaze turned considerably sharper. "Will you speak first, or shall I?" Li Guanqi sat down upon hearing this and said softly, "Let me go first. You can probably guess most of it anyway." Boom! A massive, pitch-black sword coffin appeared beside Li Guanqi. Pointing at the sword coffin, Li Guanqi began, "This sword coffin was given to me by my grandfather. You should already know that from Uncle Meng." The young woman nodded silently; of course she knew this. She also knew that the two peerless swords, Red Lotus and Yanluo, both came from within that sword coffin. Li Guanqi raised a hand slightly. The void shifted, and skies full of lightning converged into a thunder domain boundary. Li Guanqi sent a voice transmission: "Inside the sword coffin rests a sword. What you sensed just now was that sword's spirit." "She comes from the Immortal Realm." Meng Wanshu caught her breath. Even though she had harbored guesses, hearing it confirmed still came as a profound shock. After all, items from the Immortal Realm that found their way down to the Human Spirit Realm were extraordinarily rare. Yet from what she knew, Pengluo also seemed to be an entity from the Immortal Realm, and Jiuxiao was even less likely to belong to the Human Spirit Realm. Meng Wanshu had originally assumed these were mere coincidences. Now, adding the sword coffin and its sword spirit... It seemed nothing was as simple as she had thought. Li Guanqi did not elaborate much further. A sword spirit from the Immortal Realm was enough to explain a great many things. With her experience and knowledge, it was hardly surprising that she knew so many advanced sword techniques and pill recipes. To say nothing of why Su Xuan valued it so heavily! Back in Fulong Village, she had only thought of Su Xuan as an eccentric old man. But after Meng Jiangchu brought her back to the Shenbao Domain, she gradually came to understand just how terrifying Su Xuan's true power was. Meng Wanshu took a deep breath, digesting everything Li Guanqi had told her. Once she realized all of this, Meng Wanshu gave a self-deprecating smile. To think she had actually been jealous of a sword spirit. Her jealousy in that moment had been very real. Yet the other party was merely a sword spirit tied to a physical weapon; no matter what, she was still just a spirit! The anger in her heart gradually subsided, and at the same time, she understood why Li Guanqi had never dared to mention this to anyone. A sword spirit from the Immortal Realm, and one with its own original weapon... If word of this got out, Li Guanqi would become the target of everyone, thrust into the eye of the storm. A tree that stands out in the forest is bound to be buffeted by the wind, not to mention that possessing such a treasure was a crime in itself. When that happened, forget Mahayana realm cultivators—even the old monsters of the Tribulation Transcendence Realm would probably take the field in person to seek a chance at ascension. Meng Wanshu took a deep breath, finally understanding why Li Guanqi had kept it from her. A gentle ripple ran through her beautiful eyes as she asked softly, "Apart from you and me, who else knows about this?" She asked merely to confirm. Li Guanqi shrugged and murmured, "No one else." "Ye Feng and Cao Yan only know bits and pieces, not the whole truth." "Besides, the two of them swore Dao oaths. Oh, right, Pengluo knows." "Though it never talks to me about anything concerning the sword spirit." Meng Wanshu let out a long breath, a faint secret joy stirring within her, feeling that she was still that one and only unique person to him. Li Guanqi also let out a sigh of relief. When Meng Wanshu was angry, she was indeed a bit intimidating. It was the first time he had seen Meng Wanshu experience such intense mood swings, and it had genuinely startled him. Meng Wanshu poured herself a cup of wine and said apologetically as she knelt before him, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have doubted you." Li Guanqi was taken aback and asked in confusion, "Doubted me about what?" Meng Wanshu's face flushed. She rolled her eyes at him in mock annoyance; since he hadn't realized, she would let it drop. Putting on a serious expression, she said, "Then let me tell you my secret." Li Guanqi sat up straight. He had no idea what secret Meng Wanshu was about to share—he had always thought she had nothing to hide from him... Curiosity clawed at his chest like a kitten's paws, itching with anticipation. Meng Wanshu drew a deep breath and said seriously, "Aren't you curious as to why my cultivation realm has always managed to stay slightly ahead of yours?" Li Guanqi frowned slightly. Before Meng Wanshu pointed it out, he hadn't thought much of it. In the past, he had assumed that with Meng Jiangchu backing her and piling on endless resources, it was only natural for Meng Wanshu's realm to be high. Yet hearing her say this now, was there another hidden reason? "Actually, the help my clan provided was limited—it wasn't everything!" "Brother Qi, you were extraordinarily gifted to begin with, blessed with exceptional spiritual root quality, an Ethereal Dao Body, and countless lucky chances accompanying you." "Whereas I... during one of my excursions in the past, I obtained the legacy of a mighty expert!" Li Guanqi's brows knitted tightly upon hearing this, and he asked in a low voice, "What kind of expert's legacy? A remnant soul? Or... a sliver of an obsession's legacy?" Even before his words finished echoing, Li Guanqi had already taken Meng Wanshu's wrist. His divine sense surged forth as he examined her body. This time, he inspected her with painstaking thoroughness, not missing a single corner. But when Li Guanqi sensed Meng Wanshu's spiritual root, he was completely stunned. The pure, chilling aura made him frown slightly. It was the first time he had ever encountered such an immaculate ice-attribute spiritual root. It was even more potent than his own spiritual root!! Meng Wanshu said, "It was only a wisp of spiritual light that entered my body, altering the quality of my spiritual root, accompanied by a great deal of... chaotic, disordered inherited memories." "It was precisely because of this that I grew so much stronger." "Just now..." "The sword spirit you spoke of told me that this legacy likely belonged to the realm lord of some domain realm!" "Yet I've never heard of the 'Bingqi Realm' she mentioned..."