Seeing how certain it was, Li Guanqi could not help but ask, "You can see it?"
Pengluo curled its lip and retorted, "I helped the Seven Treasures Pavilion breed these things in the first place. How could I not recognize them?
"Let me show you all what this thing really looks like..."
As it spoke, purple patterns reappeared across Pengluo's body, and profound, mysterious energy rippled around it.
Muttering incantations under its breath, Pengluo formed intricate hand seals.
A milky-white radiance enveloped the three clusters of spiritual light in Li Guanqi's hand. In an instant, countless pure-white worms suddenly materialized within the light!
The creatures looked utterly hideous. Their mouthparts were ringed with jagged teeth, they had no eyes, and their slender bodies resembled centipedes.
They had no legs under their bellies and were soft-bodied and stark white all over.
Perhaps sensing danger, the three worms writhed frantically as though craving something.
Looking at the hair-thin worms, Meng Wanshu felt her scalp tingle with revulsion. She could hardly believe that the surge in her strength moments ago had been caused by creatures like this!
Just thinking about it made her sick.
Looking at the light in his hand, a chill ran down Li Guanqi's spine as well.
Inside the spiritual light extracted from the few of them, there were over a thousand such worms!
If these worms had truly been allowed to gnaw away at their souls, the consequences would have been unthinkable.
Pengluo shrugged and said softly, "This is only the initial form of these faith gu. As time passes, their bodies will become more solid, and they'll grow human faces.
"The gu will begin to devour and slaughter one another until only the last one remains. That final one will directly seize your divine soul and become a new you.
"Moreover, any cultivator controlled by this gu will be compelled to revere the gu's master for the rest of their days, unable to disobey a single command!"
With lingering fear, Li Guanqi stared at the worms in his hand and asked, "Why do people in the Immortal Realm need these things?"
Pengluo hesitated, but in the end, it gritted its teeth and answered, "The power of faith!
"As cultivators of the Immortal Realm reach higher realms of strength, they need the faith of the mortal masses even more.
"A big reason why the Seven Treasures Pavilion chose Qixia City is that descending to the lower realm costs them an enormous price!
"The price required for an 'immortal blessing' like this is hard even for the Seven Treasures Pavilion to bear."
At this point, Pengluo said with some confusion, "Still, by all logic, with the Human Spirit Realm boasting a population of tens of billions, cultivators from the Immortal Realm should be eyeing this massive prize greedily.
"Why have we only seen people from the Seven Treasures Pavilion come down? Isn't that a bit... strange?"
The sword spirit's voice suddenly rang in Pengluo's ear.
"Shut up."
Pengluo clamped its mouth shut at once. Then, the sword spirit's calm voice echoed beside it.
"Do not speak so freely about certain matters. Before long, you will understand why the people of the Immortal Realm cannot descend."
Pengluo's small mouth seemed sealed tight, and it kept completely silent.
Seeing this, Li Guanqi did not dwell on it. After pondering for a moment, he looked around.
Some unlucky cultivators had been killed outright by the stray sword qi Han Cizhi had released. Li Guanqi felt helpless about that; in a battle of that scale, he could only do his best to minimize innocent casualties.
At that time, Meng Wanshu had not even had the chance to pull some of those cultivators into her domain. After all, she had needed to look after the entire populace of the city.
Standing aloft in midair, Li Guanqi transmitted his voice softly to the dozens of cultivators in the distance.
"All of you, come over. Otherwise, you won't even know how you die later on."
Hearing this, the expressions of the cultivators changed drastically. Earlier, when Li Guanqi had drawn out the power of the immortal blessing from several people, they had seen it clearly with their own eyes.
However, because of the distance, they had not seen what was inside the spiritual light.
Now, upon hearing Li Guanqi's words, they flew over one after another. Dozens of cultivators stood about a zhang away from him, their faces filled with utmost reverence.
"We pay our respects to the Yanluo Sword Venerable."
Li Guanqi raised his hand, and a gentle force lifted them up.
"No need for such ceremony.
"You saw what happened today. By now, you must realize that the immortal blessing was nothing but a trap.
"The explosion of power inside you right now is merely an illusion. In truth, that mass of spiritual light contains gu worms invisible to the naked eye!"
After his brief explanation, panic flashed across the faces of every cultivator present.
Seeing the writhing, grotesque gu worms inside the spiritual light in Li Guanqi's hand, their complexions turned ghastly pale, their eyes filled with terror.
"We beg the Sword Venerable to save us... We do not wish to die!"
Rustle!
The cultivators fell to their knees in unison. In this moment, Li Guanqi was truly their savior.
Li Guanqi did not refuse. With a wave of his hand, he released dozens of red threads that sank into their foreheads.
Before long, he drew out every last gu worm from their bodies.
Although these things were gu worms, the energy shrouding them was, after all, immortal power. By doing this, Li Guanqi was also gathering strength for the sword spirit.
Once it was done, the power of several cultivators dropped significantly.
Yet far from being angry, they were ecstatic.
Li Guanqi also had Pengluo act so each of them could clearly see the appearance of the gu worms within the light.
There were not many worms inside their bodies—only a handful each—but those few were more than enough to claim their lives.
The power that had blanketed heaven and earth had long since vanished. Seeing this, the cultivators took their leave from Li Guanqi and departed.
As they left, every one of them held a single thought: if the Great Xia Sword Sect ever faced trouble in the future, they would certainly lend a helping hand!
Meng Wanshu opened her domain and thawed all the frozen people.
Upon waking, some of the ignorant citizens began to furiously denounce Li Guanqi. Their noisy clamor nearly shook the sky.
Li Guanqi hovered in midair with a cold, indifferent expression, listening to these oblivious people angrily accuse him of ruining their immortal blessing.
A sky full of red threads burst forth, extracting the spiritual light from their bodies without giving them a say.
Pengluo snorted, and with an eruption of its power, all the gu worms were instantly revealed in their true forms!
Li Guanqi sneered, "Curse! Go ahead, keep cursing!
"This is the truth behind your so-called immortal blessing!
"Does anyone else still want it? I can stuff it right back inside you right now."
In an instant, the entire domain fell deathly silent. No one doubted that Li Guanqi would actually do it.
Li Guanqi glanced at City Lord Xue Gui, who was lying unconscious among the crowd. Xue Gui had only just broken through to the late Soul Formation Realm before being knocked out by Han Cizhi's aura. Fortunately, Meng Wanshu had moved him into her domain as well.
Li Guanqi snorted softly, then turned to Meng Wanshu and murmured, "Send them all out. Don't worry about the cultivators either."
Whoosh!
Once Xue Gui regained consciousness, he hurried over to Li Guanqi's side, completely unaware of what had transpired while he was out.
Li Guanqi said softly, "Let's go. Take us to your city lord estate. As for the aftermath, get in touch with Guanyun Pavilion.
"Qianqiusui will speak with you personally about the damaged buildings."
With that, Li Guanqi led the group toward the city lord estate.
After all, he needed to properly question Xue Gui regarding Xuan Lin. At present, the flame seal inside Li Guanqi had burned away nearly a third. Time was running out, and whether he could find news of the Qilin Soul through Xuan Lin was of utmost importance!
***
Ethereal Immortal Domain.
Inside the ancient ancestral hall of a certain clan, the life-bound jade slip belonging to Pan Yi suddenly shattered with a loud crack!
The disciple on guard turned pale with shock!
He hastily took out a shadow-casting stone to record the scene. From the shattered life-bound jade slip, the perspective of Pan Yi in his final moments abruptly appeared.
In the projection, a terrifying lightning spear was shooting straight toward his head.
Yet before dying, Pan Yi's eyes had been fixed with murderous intensity upon Li Guanqi, dressed in white in the distance!
After recording the entire scene, the pale-faced disciple sprinted toward the main hall.
"Disaster! The young master is dead!
"The killer is Li Guanqi!"
Chapter 955