Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Two hours later, once Li Guanqi could skillfully guide spirit qi through his body, Li Nanting quietly stepped out of the cultivation room.

The hardest part was over. There was no need to worry about the rest.

Left alone to cultivate, Li Guanqi slowly opened his eyes and turned to look at the sword box at his feet.

He lifted it upright and examined it closely. Before receiving this sword box, he had never seen anything like the strange creatures carved into it—he had never even heard of them.

He had asked Li Nanting if he recognized the demonic beasts etched into the stone sword box, but he had replied with certainty: those beasts did not exist and were figments of the carver’s imagination.

Aside from the four great divine beasts, none of the other beasts appeared in the sect’s Myriad Demon Book.

Li Guanqi remained silent for a long time, then suddenly kneeled and kowtowed to the sword box.

He waited for a while, but nothing happened.

Getting up, he muttered in confusion, “Was I not supposed to do that? Don’t ancient legends talk about old men who live inside objects like this?”

Li Guanqi scratched his head in frustration. He had long suspected that this was no ordinary sword box.On his first day here, Lu Kangnian had set up a barrier, preventing anyone from seeing what happened when he chose his spirit root. He alone knew why he had picked Lightning—it had been a strange pull in the depths of his heart, an inexplicable sensation.

The same thing had happened at the Scripture Pavilion. He could have chosen any technique, but the sword box had stirred ever so slightly, guiding him toward the incomplete scripture.

He thought for a moment before having another idea. He bit his finger and dripped his blood onto the sword box.

Nothing happened.

“So it’s not blood-activated? But it should have worked... I heard magical weapons and treasures become bound to their masters through blood...”

Suddenly, he perked up with realization. “I didn’t give it enough blood!”

He quickly sliced his wrist open, and blood flowed like a small stream onto the sword box.

Not long after, Li Nanting returned to check on Li Guanqi’s cultivation progress. To his horror, Li Guanqi lay unconscious and pale-faced on the ground. Dried blood stained his wrist and the sword box.

Li Nanting turned pale, and a flash of panic filled his eyes as he hurried over to the youth’s side to inspect his condition.

“What happened?! What drove you to suicide?!” Li Nanting muttered. “Oh, my foolish disciple... What obstacles did you encounter? Oh my goodness... How much blood did you lose?!”

Quickly stopping the bleeding, he retrieved a red jade vial from his storage ring, shook out a pill, and snapped it in half before feeding it to Li Guanqi.

Using a wisp of spirit qi, he helped disperse the pill within Li Guanqi’s body.

***

On the second morning, Li Guanqi woke up bleary-eyed. His head felt like lead.

As his vision cleared, he found Li Nanting sitting by his bedside, watching him with gentle concern. Li Nanting massaged his cheeks to make himself look friendlier.

When he saw Li Guanqi wake up, he quickly passed him a cup of water with a smile and said gently, “Come, drink some water.”

Surprised by the kind treatment, Li Guanqi took a careful sip from the cup. “Uh... Master, why are you here?”

Li Nanting was silent for a moment. Then, he sat on the stool next to the bed. “Guanqi... I may only be at the Golden Core Realm, but if you ever have a problem, you must tell me! If anyone in the Daxia Sword Sect dares mistreat you—other than the sect master—I will stand up for you!

“What I mean is... don’t resort to extreme measures. Your cultivation path has been smooth so far. Why did you seek death? Tell me... what happened?”

Li Guanqi’s heart warmed as he listened to his master’s comforting words.

But he was too embarrassed to tell him the truth...

After all, the explanation would be, “I thought my sword box was special, so I tried dripping blood on it to make myself its master... but I fainted because I lost too much blood.”

As Li Nanting watched his hesitation, he assumed the worst. His disciple must have offended someone with a powerful background.

Boom!

He shot to his feet, his voice thunderous. “Don’t be afraid! Tell me! Who dares to bully my disciple?!”

A while later, Li Nanting walked out of the room, rubbing his temples. He shut his eyes for a moment, then let out a long sigh. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Faced with his master’s outrage, Li Guanqi had no choice but to tell the truth.

***

After that incident, he gained a freeloading little girl in his courtyard.

Yu Sui’an had broken two ribs when the sword box fell on her. But the moment she found out how Li Guanqi had fainted, she ignored the pain in her ribs and ran down the mountain to laugh at him.

“Hahahaha! Turns out you’re dumber than I am! You’re so dumb! You fainted because you lost too much blood! That’s so embarrassing...!”

Li Guanqi ignored her and continued practicing his punches on a wooden pole. This was already his third one.

Sometime later, he revisited the Scripture Pavilion and randomly selected a sword technique: the Azure Lotus Sword Technique.

Li Nanting had obtained a pig iron sword for him from the Artifact Hall, the standard assigned to all disciples.

While the Daxia Sword Sect primarily consisted of sword cultivators, not every disciple was suited to cultivate sword techniques. Many disciples chose to train with other weapons.

Li Guanqi also stabilized the first level of his Qi Refinement cultivation during the past two days. The whirlpool in his body was growing rapidly.

Li Nanting checked on him several times, and only after confirming that his disciple had not attempted another blood ritual did he finally stop worrying.

Li Guanqi almost never left his courtyard, spending his days practicing swordsmanship. He was not practicing the Azure Lotus Sword Technique, but rather the basic sword forms. Over and over again.

And just like that, a month passed since he had entered the sect.

In that time, he became the fastest disciple in the history of the Daxia Sword Sect to advance through the cultivation levels. He had progressed from the first level of the Qi Refinement Realm to the fifth level in just one month. His speed was absolutely unheard of.

But Li Guanqi wasn’t the only one making waves.

Ye Feng of the Heavenly Metal Peak broke through to the fourth level soon after.

Lin Dong of the Heavenly Earth Peak reached the third level and was about to reach the fourth.

Even so, Li Guanqi remained ahead of them.

As a result, the blind youth became known by his peers as the Eldest Senior Brother, an acknowledgement of his undeniable dominance.

Whenever he entered the dining hall, people would automatically make way for him. In the sect, they treated him like the moon and stars—always respectful, always polite.

But...