Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Li Guanqi looked down at the enormous stone pillar beneath him. After briefly hesitating, he stepped onto it.

Buzz!

Flames began to burn along the carved patterns on the pillar, which was more than twenty zhang wide.

Roar!

The six Qilin holograms roared as one, their eyes snapping open at the same moment. Li Guanqi frowned. Their deep, resounding roars were like those of lions reigning over the mountains.

Then an ancient voice suddenly echoed through the vast void. “Challenger, defeat our kind, and you shall be granted the Qiyin. Do you accept the trial?”

Li Guanqi smiled, sensing that the final trial would be simpler than the previous ones. It seemed straightforward and brutal.

As soon as the voice faded, Li Guanqi answered solemnly, “I accept the trial!”

Boom!

Space shifted around them. To Meng Wanshu, Li Guanqi was still standing on the platform, but the world before his eyes had completely changed. The stone pillar beneath his feet stretched endlessly into the distance. Then a Lightning Qilin nearly one hundred zhang long appeared before him.Standing before the Qilin’s enormous illusory form, Li Guanqi felt impossibly small, as though he stood at the foot of a towering mountain, gazing up at its summit. His brow furrowed as he studied the remarkably solid Qilin, whose body crackled with the power of lightning. A powerful sense of danger radiated from it, and the pressure it exerted surpassed anything Li Guanqi had ever felt, even from Nine Heavens.

Li Guanqi took a deep breath and narrowed his eyes, his entire body tensing in preparation.

The Qilin suddenly shrank until it was only ten zhang long, yet the pressure it gave off became even stronger. Li Guanqi frowned, sensing a power that was remarkably familiar.

“Spirit comprehension?”

Boom!

The Qilin launched itself forward with all four limbs. Li Guanqi saw only a flash of lightning before instinctively bringing the Red Lotus Sword up to block.

Bang!

The Qilin’s claw crashed into the blade. The terrifying force of the blow sent Li Guanqi flying backward, and both his arms went completely numb. If he had not tempered his body beneath the waterfall, his injuries would have been far worse. His expression grew even more solemn.

Before he could recover, a piercing whistle suddenly came from behind him. Li Guanqi thrust his sword backward, then spun around and unleashed a fully charged punch. The force of his fist erupted as violent lightning-element power surged outward.

The Red Lotus Sword collided with the Qilin’s claw while his punch struck it squarely in the chest. This time, the impact sent them both flying several hundred zhang backward.

After steadying himself, Li Guanqi looked down at his torn and bloody right fist, his brow furrowing. He slowly exhaled as he stared at the distant Qilin, then spread his divine consciousness outward. He perceived a flash of purple lightning in the pitch-black void.

Li Guanqi struggled to defend himself. The Qilin was simply too fast. Even with his divine consciousness extending three thousand zhang, he could not keep up with its movements.

Roar!

The Qilin opened its jaws and unleashed a blast of lightning breath. Li Guanqi did not dare meet it head-on. After being knocked away, he quickly twisted his body to regain control.

Before he could even touch the ground, the Qilin was already upon him again. It raised a massive claw and brought it crashing down toward his back.

Bang!

Li Guanqi slammed heavily into the ground, the impact sending his entire body bouncing back up. The Qilin’s claw had torn his back into a bloody mess. The shock ruptured his internal organs and snapped several of his meridians.

Suddenly, Li Guanqi pushed off with tremendous force and shot sideways across the ground, covering several dozen zhang in an instant. Blood runes surged across his skin beneath his torn Daoist robes, and his eyes gleamed. In that brief moment, he began to understand the Qilin’s extraordinary speed.

Li Guanqi frowned, but he still had no intention of using his sword. With his current strength, every sword strike carried the force of lightning. Even against this Qilin, he was confident he could suppress it.

Until now, though, he had only ever been slightly faster than his opponents. This was the first time he had encountered speed so overwhelming that it completely outclassed his own.

If Li Guanqi mastered the same ability, no one at his cultivation level would be able to match his speed. In a battle between equals, being even one step faster could decide life and death, and this speed went far beyond that.

Boom!

As Li Guanqi’s blood and qi surged, the muscles throughout his body swelled. Peng Luo stared with his mouth hanging open, so shocked that the spirit herbs he had been chewing fell from his mouth.

Li Guanqi suddenly whirled around and flung out both hands, catching the Qilin’s descending claws with his bare hands. Their strength was evenly matched, and neither could force the other back. Beneath them, the ground fractured into a web of cracks.

Boom!

Lightning erupted around the Qilin as its violent power bore down on Li Guanqi. Within moments, his feet sank deep into the ground, and his arms were forced lower and lower. Veins bulged across his neck, while his face turned red from the strain.

A layer of Lightning Armor enveloped his body, boosting his strength. His arms trembled violently, but he slowly began to rise, forcing the Qilin upward.

With his head lowered, Li Guanqi roared through clenched teeth, “You think you can crush me?!”

Boom!

The roars of dragons and elephants seemed to thunder from within Li Guanqi’s body. With sheer brute force, he hurled the Qilin several hundred zhang away.

Li Guanqi remained where he was, gasping for breath. The struggle had pushed both his body and mind to their limits. His hands were mangled, charred, and covered in blood, yet his eyes shone brighter than ever.

After clashing with the Qilin at such close quarters, Li Guanqi grasped the secret behind its incredible speed.

Buzz!

Arcs of lightning flickered across the surface of Li Guanqi’s body. Then, without warning—

Whoosh!

Li Guanqi shot forward and appeared beside the Qilin while it was still flying backward. Lightning flashed around him as he brought his foot down like a descending mountain, stomping hard on the Qilin’s head.

Boom!

The force of the stomp slammed the Qilin’s head deep into the ground. Its enormous body flipped into the air before crashing down heavily.

Everything happened so quickly that no one had time to react.

Li Guanqi stood at the edge of the crater, a thoughtful gleam in his eyes. He had been trying to decipher the secret of the Qilin’s speed from the moment he first sensed it.

Now, he had finally grasped the answer. Spirit comprehension allowed a cultivator to gain a deeper understanding of the fundamental nature of their spiritual lineage, and Li Guanqi possessed extraordinary powers of comprehension: as long as he caught even the faintest spark of insight, he could unravel the truth behind it.

That was it. After achieving spirit comprehension, Li Guanqi had focused solely on lightning’s destructive power. He had completely overlooked its speed.

An enigmatic smile touched his lips. Gripping the Red Lotus Sword in his left hand, he murmured, “Come. Show me what else you can do!”

The Qilin truly deserved its reputation as an auspicious divine beast. Its scales gleamed with an icy light, and in the next instant, endless lightning erupted around it, engulfing the entire surrounding space.