The corner of Meng Jiangchu’s mouth twitched. He hadn’t expected a tiny spirit to dare speak to him like that.

Luo Peng frowned, stroked his chin, and muttered, “Why does this withered old man feel a bit like the Mistress? And that fire by him... could it be the Five Yang Ghost Flame?”

Gu Yong smiled faintly and laughed. “This is the spirit that follows Guanqi around. It can break through barriers!”

Meng Jiangchu wasted no words. He tossed the sword in his hand to Peng Luo. The moment Peng Luo touched it, he shivered.

“This sword...!”

“Get in there and help!” Meng Jiangchu said icily.

Peng Luo had no time to ask questions. He dove headfirst into the barrier, only for his backside to get stuck halfway through.

No matter how he struggled, he couldn’t get through.

“Old man! A little help here?”

Gu Yong’s face darkened. He raised his leg and kicked hard.

Thud!

“Oww!”

The moment Peng Luo entered, he sensed an overwhelmingly powerful aura and saw a figure covered in grievous wounds.

Before Peng Luo entered, the last man had dropped all concealment. He had confirmed that Li Guanqi was already at his physical limit.

Everything before had been nothing but a bluff.

Li Guanqi’s lightning sword shattered again and again. From the sword coffin at his back, the Red Lotus Sword clanged as it hurled itself against the lid.

Hardly a patch of intact skin remained on Li Guanqi’s body, and nearly sixty percent of his blood had been devoured.

The blood loss had left his mind a muddled mess, and he could barely fend off the man before him. Within the domain, the enemy faced no suppression, and that overwhelming power drove Li Guanqi to the brink of death again and again.

Buzz!

Li Guanqi’s lightning sword condensed once more, three zhang from the last Mei-ranked enemy.

Behind Li Guanqi, an eight-armed Shura illusion appeared, entirely crimson-purple.

Li Guanqi’s face was covered in blood, his expression ferocious. He called upon every last shred of vital force and poured it frantically into the lightning sword.

The entire demonic qi domain was saturated with crimson.

A chilling, abyssal intent filled the air. In the man’s eyes, a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood took shape. It rose dozens of zhang high, piled with men, women, the elderly, and children alike.

The man stiffened. He couldn’t fathom how many people Li Guanqi had killed to forge such a terrifying illusion. He gritted his teeth. Gripping the sword in both hands, he stood ready as demonic qi surged around him.

He knew that as long as he endured this one strike, Li Guanqi would have nothing left to do but wait for death.

The void beneath Li Guanqi cracked and then shattered. He unleashed his full power and disappeared in an instant. “Shura Sword Slash!”

The lightning sword light condensed into a ten-zhang mass, the once-purple lightning now suffused with a blood-red color.

The man stared at the earth-shattering strike, barely able to believe someone with nearly exhausted vital force had unleashed it. He dared not imagine what the strike would be like if Li Guanqi were at his peak.

“Myriad Demon Massacre!” the man shouted.

Demonic qi churned across the sky as thousands of streaks of sword light erupted, shrieking like ten thousand demons surging toward Li Guanqi.

The Shura illusion’s sword slashed in all eight directions. The blood-colored sword light flew outward, only for the demons to block it.

Li Guanqi’s expression shifted. This strike... it might not be enough to wound him...

Boom!

The Myriad Demon Massacre illusions devoured the Shura illusion. The sword light shattered more than half of them, but the end was drawing near.

An endless wave of demonic shadows surged toward Li Guanqi, ripping and tearing at him.

“Ahhh!!!”

A cry of agony tore from Li Guanqi’s throat, and a towering figure suddenly appeared before him.

The man seized Li Guanqi, and the swarm of demonic shadows transformed into black binding bands that wrapped around Li Guanqi.

“Gotcha! That was no easy feat... I never expected you to be this powerful!”

Li Guanqi’s body was a harrowing sight, ravaged head to toe. His wounds bled freely, deep enough to show bone. His left eye was nearly swollen shut.

The man hoisted him into the air. “Just capturing you cost us two men, and even I am seriously wounded... Li Guanqi, you truly live up to your reputation as the number one youth across the Six Territories!”

Li Guanqi spat a mouthful of blood onto the man’s face, then grabbed his thick arms with both hands.

He aimed for the jaw and drove his knee upward in a violent strike.

Thud!

The man staggered, and Li Guanqi, suspended in midair, suddenly surged with a vast, heavy wave of fist force. “Shattered Skies, Ten Thousand Mountains!”

Boom!

As Li Guanqi threw that punch, every bone in his arm shattered. Yet the crushing strike still connected.

The punch was devastating, draining nearly every last drop of strength he had. It broke through the towering enemy’s defense and landed square on his chest.

Thud!

The man had absorbed Abyssal Demon power and stood a full zhang tall, yet a single punch, its force layered and surging, sent him hurtling thousands of zhang away.

He crashed into the wall of the domain barrier, and he spat a great mouthful of blood. The impact shattered the blood-red mask on his face, revealing an unremarkable face beneath.

Thump!

Li Guanqi’s eyes grew hazy as he stared into the distance. He collapsed to the ground, utterly spent.

A moment later, Li Guanqi sensed that the enemy’s aura was still there, and a bitter expression crossed his face.

“Could it be... that this is truly... as far as I will ever go...”

Suddenly, Li Guanqi sensed an aura both unexpected and familiar.

Peng Luo came flying in and saw Li Guanqi half-kneeling in midair, covered in grievous wounds.

Peng Luo shouted at the top of his lungs, “Master! I’m here! Catch the sword!”

Li Guanqi turned and saw Peng Luo. A flash of joy crossed his eyes. He reached out and caught the four-chi longsword.

Without a word, Peng Luo reached up, yanked a large handful of green leaves from his own head, and tossed them over.

Li Guanqi summoned the last of his strength, lunged forward, caught the leaves, and crammed them into his mouth, swallowing them in famished gulps.

Li Guanqi’s heart surged with emotions he could barely contain. He had never imagined that Peng Luo would be the one to rescue him at his most critical moment.

As the leaves entered his body, the tremendous power of Peng Luo’s true form coursed through every inch of him. The demonic qi running rampant within him was instantly suppressed and expelled.

The shattered bones in his arm, along with the wounds around his waist, were recovering at a speed visible to the eye. Not only that, the vital force in his previously dried-up dantian erupted and surged wildly. His broken meridians were mending too, and Peng Luo snapped off his own arm joints with a series of crackling sounds.

Perched on Li Guanqi’s shoulders, he kept stuffing leaves into his master’s mouth. “Eat, eat, eat! Eat quickly! It’s been a while since I got to snap these off. Feels pretty satisfying. Master, eat up.”

Li Guanqi chewed in great mouthfuls. Peng Luo’s power flowed down his throat and spread warmly through his body.

He looked down at the sword in his hand, and a sharp gleam flashed through his eyes.

In the distance, the man’s expression was grim. He had no idea how that spirit with such a formidable aura had gotten in. Nor could he understand why Li Guanqi’s aura and injuries were recovering so rapidly.

His eyes flickered faintly, and the thought of retreat had already taken root.

This mission... has failed...

But just as he was about to tear through the domain wall, Li Guanqi appeared in his path.