Gu Li's expression was exceedingly dark. He had never imagined that the all-out effort he made after gaining enlightenment would drop the ball at such a critical moment!
*Smack, smack, smack!*
Gu Li slapped himself repeatedly. His eyes were bloodshot, and his cheeks swelled up at a visible rate.
He roared in remorse, "I should have left more inscribed talismans on him! If only I had left more talismans, this wouldn't have happened! What on earth was I doing?!"
Ye Xuan said in a deep voice, "Stop blaming yourself. This wasn't something you could control. Besides... it isn't just the runes you placed on him that failed. The jade slips we all imprinted haven't shown any reaction either."
Nangong Xuandu suddenly produced a jade slip engraved with the character 'Yu' and said solemnly, "Yu Shan, can you locate Li Guanqi? He disappeared after entering an Abyss Demon fissure."
In the pitch-black void, Ji Yuchuan stared at the Tianji Chart before him, silent for a long time.
Chankongzi's eyes narrowed slightly. The storage ring on his finger emitted a faint fluctuation, completely unnoticeable amid the chaotic void storm. As he probed, his gaze drifted casually toward the man hopping along with his hands clasped behind his back—Youming.
He then sent a voice transmission: "It can't be him. He's right by my side—he's been here the entire time!"
Ji Yuchuan's chest rose and fell slightly. He let out a long sigh, furrowing his brow as he said coldly, "It really isn't him... If it were him, he wouldn't have stepped in last time to stop the Lu clan and even killed a Mahayana ocular technique cultivator! A person like that, after demonizing, would be a Liang-rank powerhouse at the very least. Sha couldn't possibly be that foolish. Could Youming truly be innocent?"
Among the group advancing through the storm, Youming, dressed in lavish purple robes, suddenly turned his head to look at the assassin behind him cloaked in black.
"Wu Mian, why do you keep staring at me? Aiya, don't tell me you want to kill me?"
The grim-faced man glanced at him and didn't even bother to deny it, merely shrugging. "I've always found you an eyesore. When you cultivate, you'd better have your two eyes take turns on watch duty, hear me?"
Youming gave a cheeky, obnoxious grin. Runes manifested around his fingers as he pouted and said, "Little Mianmian, why are you being so mean to me now? I'm so scared!"
A cold glint flashed at Wu Mian's wrist. Youming's index finger, along with the array runes upon it, was severed in an instant. Not only that, a bloody gash abruptly opened across Youming's neck!
Wu Mian toyed with the dagger in his grip and said with a humorless smile, "Don't disgust me."
The corner of Youming's mouth twitched. Wiping the blood from his neck, he suddenly flopped down into the void storm...
Swept along by the tempest, his body was hurled several hundred li away.
Hong Zhi's face turned icy as she snapped, "Youming! What kind of nonsense are you pulling now?!"
Youming merely spread his limbs wide into an X, letting his limp body exert no strength at all as he spun in circles with the storm.
He hollered, "I'm not playing anymore! I quit! I'm leaving the Eight Generals! I'm done—whoever wants this seat can take it! You all suspect me, right? Fine! Go on without me! I'm not going! What does it matter to me whether Li Guanqi lives or dies?!"
Chankongzi folded his arms to enjoy the spectacle, pulling out a handful of melon seeds from who knew where. Cracking them open, he laughed, "Oho, someone's throwing a temper! Hahaha, look at that backbone! Second Sister, I might be a bit erratic normally, but I'm reliable. This Youming is clearly defying you to your face. See, he wouldn't dare act like this if Brother Long were around."
*Shing!*
A four-foot red blade abruptly appeared in Hong Zhi's hand.
*Jingle-jangle!*
Golden bells chimed. Youming scrambled and crawled his way out of the storm, straightened his robes, and said with an utterly solemn expression, "I've been in a bad mood these past few days. Please don't take offense, Second Sister."
*Weng!*
Within the light barrier, Li Guanqi was entirely at Sha's mercy, as though he had lost all control over his body!
*Thud! Thud, thud!*
Sha's brows arched high, his eyes flashing with a frenzied thrill. With a wave of his hand, more than a dozen pitch-black chains instantly impaled Li Guanqi's body!
Sha turned to glance at the dying Tang Ru. A glint of killing intent flashed in his eyes, and he clenched an empty hand.
*Crack! Crack, crack, crack!*
"Ugh!"
Tang Ru's body broke at a grotesque angle. Seeing the soul lamp in his hand abruptly fracture with cracks, Tang Ru's eyes turned bloodshot!
"Stop!"
Li Guanqi's chest heaved violently. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, and his eyes drilled into the eyeholes of the mask as he grated out, "Whatever your purpose is in capturing me, if you kill him... I will self-destruct on the spot! When that happens, you won't get anything!"
At the same time, Li Guanqi cried out frantically to the sword spirit in his mind.
Yet the sword spirit merely watched everything with cold detachment. Only after two full breaths did she speak with tranquil eyes:
"The time has not yet come."
Cold sweat broke out on Li Guanqi's forehead, but he dared not show any sign of abnormality right now.
Since the sword spirit herself had said the time had not yet come, he had to take her word for it. She couldn't possibly stand by and watch him die like this.
Yet on second thought, Li Guanqi felt something was strange.
Because her voice seemed... a bit aloof?
Or rather... her voice and attitude toward him now felt more like when they had first met.
Aloof, haughty, looking down on all living beings!
As if nothing in this world mattered to her except herself.
Thoughts raced through Li Guanqi's mind as tension gripped his heart, his eyes glued to that mask!
The man's hand still hovered clenched over the void beside him; Tang Ru's body had reached the brink of total collapse.
A cold light flashed in the depths of Li Guanqi's eyes. Immediately after, a piercing agony surged from his dantian, and his belly swelled up at a visible rate!
Li Guanqi snarled in a crazed voice, "If you don't want to talk, then none of us will!"
The primal energy in Li Guanqi's body went utterly berserk at this moment. Though he could not control the primal energy in his dantian, he could still self-destruct!
*Weng!*
Li Guanqi's skin cracked like parched earth.
Beneath the cracked skin, arcs of lightning seemed to surge. The skin on his face split open in an instant, his entire body swelling like an ox pumped full of water.
This sight terrified Sha, and panic flashed in the eyes beneath his mask!
"Hey, hey, hey! Stop, stop, stop! I'll let him go!"
Sha raised his hand, releasing Tang Ru, and even infused a wisp of spiritual light to stabilize Tang Ru's violently shaken divine soul.
However, Li Guanqi was already unable to suppress the rampant power inside him.
Sha had no choice but to flick his finger onto the center of Li Guanqi's brow, sending in a colossal power that instantly suppressed the surging forces.
The instant Li Guanqi sensed the other's power coursing through his body, he asked coldly,
"Is he him?"
The sword spirit gave a soft hum of affirmation. Sha then reached out, tore open the void, and tossed Tang Ru out.
Watching the unconscious Tang Ru depart with his own eyes, Li Guanqi finally let out a sigh of relief.
A cold light flashed in his eyes. "Do it!"
Chapter 917