Li Guanqi Strikes in Fury!

As her words fell, Meng Wanshu's eyes were filled with solemnity. Her ice-blue gown was now soaked with large patches of blood. Across her snow-white skin ran several ghastly wounds. Even Jiuxiao's dragon scales were shattered, its defenses cleaved through by the man's brute strength. Yet at the very instant Pan Ji was fantasizing about how he would suck the blood from the two of them, his body suddenly froze. A mangled, bloodied hand clamped viciously over his face. Like a demon from hell, Li Guanqi was now a mangled mess of blood and torn flesh from head to toe. Massive bruises gave his entire frame a dark, purplish-black cast. With disheveled hair, Li Guanqi's cheeks twitched uncontrollably. His left hand struck out like lightning!! Spreading his fingers like eagle talons, he dug them into Pan Ji's right arm and exerted his strength in an instant!! He tore the man's shoulder clean off through sheer brute force!! The severed arm flew into the air, Pan Ji's eyes filled with utter disbelief. Pan Ji grabbed Li Guanqi's wrist with his left hand and snapped it by force, while a large chunk of flesh was torn from his own face as well. Li Guanqi tried to snatch Pengluo back, but Pan Ji reacted in time and drove a fist straight toward him!! Malevolence flared in the depths of Li Guanqi's eyes. Clenching his left hand into a fist, he hurled a ferocious punch forward!! The strike carried immense momentum. In an instant, wind surged and clouds roiled, accompanied by the piercing shrieks of incessant thunder. The clouds between heaven and earth churned in reverse. Li Guanqi's voice turned chillingly cold: "Fist Shatters... the Firmament!!" Boom!!!!! This punch was infused with the monstrous wrath roaring in Li Guanqi's heart. Pan Ji seemed to sense the terrifying power behind it as well. Bracing his focus, his arm swelled thicker by a full circle as he roared and unleashed a punch of his own!! As the punch flew, the surrounding space shattered inch by inch like an expanding shockwave. Boom!!!! A deafening explosion rang out as their fists collided. The terrifying shockwave made the earth shake and the mountains tremble. Li Guanqi shot backward several hundred zhang, his feet tracing two purple streaks of lightning across the air. The bone of his left arm had pierced through the skin, leaving the limb dangling limply. Yet Pan Ji was in no better state—the terrifying power unleashed by Li Guanqi's punch had blown his entire left arm apart! Both were knocked back hundreds of zhang, but Li Guanqi seized the initiative once more. Flashing with thunder, he vanished from the spot in an instant!! Rumble!!! His speed was like lightning tearing across the firmament, closing the distance in the blink of an eye!! Raising the Red Lotus sword high in his right hand, his eyes narrowed as he growled coldly, "World Annihilation!!!" Rumble!!!!! A sword light of brilliant crimson, intermingled with thunder, cleaved downward in full force!!! Clad in lightning armor, Li Guanqi descended from above, this sword strike brimming with sky-piercing malevolence! Fear flashed in Pan Ji's eyes. Both his arms were crippled. Gritting his teeth, he opened his mouth and lunged to bite Pengluo. Seeing this, Li Guanqi's eyes nearly split with rage. His figure actually caught up with his own flying sword light as he roared: "You dare???" "I will torment you for a thousand years!!!" "Red Lotus Heavenly Dance!!!" "Sword Draw Stance!!!" "Dark Moon!!!" "Thunder Wrath!!!" Meng Wanshu watched the scene in shock. With his long hair dancing wildly in the wind, Li Guanqi looked like the God of Slaughter descending upon the mortal realm!! Every single sword technique was one Li Guanqi had previously unleashed with full strength only against formidable foes. Yet now he threw them all at an injured Pan Ji alone. The reason? Meng Wanshu's gaze flickered as she looked at Pengluo, whose eyes were filled with hot tears. She felt that in this moment, the little creature's look seemed to say it was willing to die for Li Guanqi at any time... Looking at the multiple sword lights bearing down on him, Pan Ji was frozen where he stood. The bloody aura he intended to use for an escape technique was obliterated in an instant by the sword qi. "No!!!!" "Aaargh!!!" Just as Pengluo was about to be obliterated along with the man inside the sword coffin, suddenly! Within the tempest of wild sword qi, an imposing figure appeared before Pengluo. Opening his arms, he gathered Pengluo's frail body into his embrace, allowing the violent sword qi he had unleashed himself to ravage his surroundings. A muffled groan escaped him, yet he said nothing, only shielding Pengluo fiercely against his chest. Suddenly! Li Guanqi noticed the chaotic sword qi crisscrossing around them weaken drastically, followed by the slow clang of ringing metal. Jiuxiao's massive body curled and coiled around them, shielding both Li Guanqi and Pengluo inside. And around Jiuxiao stood layer upon layer of towering frost walls, barring everything outside. Right then, a cold glint flashed in Li Guanqi's eyes. Reaching out, he placed the halved Pengluo onto his shoulder. Gritting his teeth, his nose wrinkled slightly and his brows tightly furrowed, he raised a hand and clenched down firmly toward the void outside!! "Soul Gathering!" Hummm!!!! The void trembled as waves of invisible, intimidating power rippled out, followed immediately by an awe-inspiring cohesive force!! The shattered soul fragments were slowly gathered back together, forming an illusory silhouette. Li Guanqi reached out, seized Pan Ji's spectral head, and hoisted him up before his face. Pan Ji, whose consciousness had already dispersed, looked at Li Guanqi in front of him and began to tremble in sheer terror. Shaking like a sieve, Pan Ji even felt a surge of deep regret bloom within his heart. Staring at the illusory soul before him, Li Guanqi ground his teeth and muttered in a low voice, "Of all the mistakes you could have made, you shouldn't have laid a finger on Pengluo..." Bang!!! With a squeeze of his five fingers, the man's soul instantly blew apart!! Then, like the whisper of a demon, Li Guanqi's voice echoed slowly: "Soul Gathering!" Bang!! "Soul Gathering!!" Bang!!! "..." This repeated over a hundred times, until Pan Ji began pleading the moment his soul reassembled, his eyes filled with a desperate longing for death. He knew that if he could only die, that would be the best fate he could hope for. Yet looking at Pan Ji's nearly translucent soul, Li Guanqi merely sneered. A vast wave of soul power surged into the soul's form, making it much more solid once again—an influx of power Pan Ji had no say in refusing. Despair deepened in Pan Ji's eyes. He knew... his very existence was no longer his own to command. Li Guanqi's gaze was sharp as a blade. Turning his hand, he tossed the soul into a small pagoda. Li Guanqi called this pagoda the Punishment Tower!! Pengluo could only stare wide-eyed at the scene. Countless words stuck like a bone in its throat; it opened its mouth, but could not utter a single sentence. It could only bury everything deep inside its heart, after which its eyes rolled back, and it fainted dead away. Li Guanqi let out a long sigh and patted Jiuxiao beside him. Jiuxiao transformed and coiled itself around Li Guanqi's wrist. Meng Wanshu sighed and asked softly, "Did you get the Seven-Colored Glazed Flower?" The moment she spoke, Meng Wanshu frowned and looked at Li Guanqi, murmuring in slight puzzlement, "Your physical body... has grown stronger again?" Li Guanqi shrugged without confirming whether he had obtained the Seven-Colored Glazed Flower. Instead, he said softly, "It's just that even I could barely withstand that body-tempering method." "Still... I did figure out how to pass this second trial." With that, Li Guanqi led Meng Wanshu onto the surface of the lake and tapped his foot lightly. Ripples spread across the water, and their figures slowly sank into the depths of the lake.