“Yes, Pavilion Master!”

Whoosh whoosh!

The two figures vanished. Neither had left the Heavenly Intelligence Realm in a long time.

Once they were gone, Gu Yong appeared behind Li Guanqi, hands clasped behind his back. He smiled. “You ran things for a month, and all four towers of my Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion were destroyed. Three tower masters dead, one taken away...”

Li Guanqi said somewhat awkwardly, “Desperate times call for drastic measures!”

“Yes,” Gu Yong echoed wistfully. “Desperate times call for drastic measures.”

Li Guanqi looked as if he wanted to say something but hesitated. Gu Yong waved him off. “Don’t worry. I’ll have people look into Tu Yongsi’s connection to the Sha organization. That organization... probably won’t last much longer anyway.”

Li Guanqi frowned. He reckoned the Sha organization was as powerful as any major faction, even surpassing the Heavenly Intelligence Pavilion. “Could it be... Uncle Long has made his move?”

Gu Yong only smiled, turning his back to Li Guanqi. “Alright, go do what you need to. I’ll contact Ji Yuchuan on my end.”

The old man paused, then asked curiously, “The hundred-year agreement... won’t you regret it?”

Li Guanqi gave a carefree smile. “In a hundred years, I’ll shatter the Nine Heavens with my sword and ascend in broad daylight. Do you think I’ll still need to bind those two by then?”

As he spoke, his entire being seemed to radiate light, brimming with overwhelming confidence.

Gu Yong’s aged face creased with a few more wrinkles. He raised his palm, and three sword-shaped spirit lights appeared before Li Guanqi.

“My master’s artifact spirits. Take them to nourish your sword.”

Li Guanqi looked at the spirits eagerly. Even ordinary ancient treasure-tier swords didn’t always have these; the three alone were probably worth more than the ancient sprint technique Gu Yong had left him.

He grinned, and the space behind him twisted as his sword coffin appeared. He grasped at the void, drawing the three artifact spirits into the coffin. The Red Lotus Sword inside cried out, trembling as it exuded powerful sword might, intent on devouring them.

Inside the sword coffin’s realm, Sword Spirit leaned against a stone wall, her eyes bright with pride. Li Guanqi clearly cherished his sword. He could have given the three artifact spirits to Meng Jiangchu and significantly improved the quality of the sword being forged for him, but he was giving all three to the Red Lotus Sword.

But just then, Li Guanqi’s divine soul hologram appeared inside the sword coffin’s realm. He grabbed the three spirit lights and slapped the Red Lotus Sword in irritation. “Can’t you tell who’s the boss here? You want to eat everything. How about I find you some spirit swords later to repair that little crack of yours?”

The Red Lotus Sword circled Li Guanqi a few times in dissatisfaction, but it didn’t protest further.

Li Guanqi approached Sword Spirit and grinned, holding the three artifact spirits. “Can you use these things?”

Sword Spirit’s eyes curved like crescent moons. She sat up, gently lifting her red dress as she flew down. The tall, slender Sword Spirit bent down to look into Li Guanqi’s eyes, lips parting slightly. “Why give them to me?”

Li Guanqi said matter-of-factly, “You said you were injured. If that’s the case, these things should be useful to you.”

Sword Spirit just stared at him. After a long pause, she smiled. She glanced at Li Guanqi and said softly, “These things are useless to me. If you want to help heal my injuries...” 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

She raised her jade finger and pointed upward. “At the very least, you’ll have to go up there first. Spirit World weapons have no divinity. Absorbing them would just be a waste.”

Li Guanqi frowned. He hadn’t expected the spirits to be useless to her. He casually tossed them to the Red Lotus Sword, an apologetic smile on his face. “Ahem... then I’ll give them to Red Lotus. After all, it has worked hard and fought through life and death with me.”

Red Lotus trembled, its sword cry urgent. With a flash of its blade, it swatted the three artifact spirits away.

Li Guanqi looked at Sword Spirit and said awkwardly, “I think it’s cursing me out pretty hard...”

Sword Spirit burst into laughter, completely abandoning her usually aloof demeanor. She glanced sideways at the Red Lotus Sword, smiling softly. “If you don’t want them, I’ll give them to the Yanluo Sword.”

Whoosh!

Li Guanqi’s vision blurred as the Red Lotus Sword shot past him, emanating overwhelming pressure. Like stringing candied hawthorns, the sharp blade skewered all three artifact spirits.

Li Guanqi smiled and slowly opened his eyes. Surveying the devastated Heavenly Intelligence Realm, he cupped his fists in salute, then vanished, his form flowing like a swimming dragon.

Atop the White Tower, Gu Yong shook his head with a bitter smile. “Good heavens, this level of comprehension... Truly monstrous!”

After leaving the Heavenly Intelligence Realm, Li Guanqi didn’t hurry off. He drifted through the air without direction. He hadn’t cultivated properly in some time. His vital force was growing slowly, and his cultivation still hadn’t fully stabilized.

Li Guanqi closed his eyes and soared through the sky like an eagle, the wind whistling in his ears, his mind calm as still water. He took up his fist stance and practiced the Shattered Skies Fist Technique over and over, each step spanning a hundred zhang. With each repetition, he gained new insights, all the while turning over how to perfect those two sword techniques in his heart.

Then a roar, like that of a demonic beast, came from a jagged mountain peak beneath the clouds.

Li Guanqi looked down. On that mountain peak, a crippled youth lay on the ground, roaring furiously. The youth was bare-chested, with a black broadsword placed beside him. A single glance at the sword conveyed its weight. He spared it only that one look, sighing inwardly. How could such a monstrous genius fall to this?

He took out the map of the Daochan Territory.

Li Guanqi didn’t want to leave so quickly because he wanted to visit a few holy sites of enlightenment first. Since he was already in the Daochan Territory, he couldn’t just go back without taking advantage of its enlightenment sites. Two flashes of inspiration lingered in his mind, but no matter how he tried, he couldn’t grasp them. He wanted to try his luck in places where the divine essence of heaven and earth was relatively rich.

One spot on the map stood out as a particularly prominent holy site. Li Guanqi looked at it and murmured, “The Six Gates Holy Sect... the most powerful sect on the Wuding River. A sect with a Combined Body Realm ancestor... It also houses the Hundred-Zhang Enlightenment Platform. I wonder what it feels like up there.”

His lips curved up slightly. His vital force rumbled, dragon roars seeming to fill the surroundings as he pushed his sprint technique to its peak. His figure had already shot out over a thousand zhang before the afterimage at his original position dissipated.

His speed now rivaled that of some early Combined Body Realm great cultivators.