Chapter 644 - Avoidance

Chapter 644 - Avoidance

Everyone remained silent, staring at Li Guanqi.

“Let’s go. Let’s give Boss some alone time,” Ye Feng said through voice transmission.

Cao Yan and Xiao Chen nodded. They were badly injured and needed treatment fast. Nine Heavens and Peng Luo exchanged glances, then withdrew from the realm with the others.

The entire Liu family realm was deathly silent. Everything within had been destroyed. Only mountains of corpses remained, exuding a foul stench of blood.

When Ye Feng and the others emerged, they froze in place. An enormous siege crossbow floated in the void. It was fifteen zhang wide, its mounted spear gleaming with cold, eerie runes.

More than ten figures stood in the surrounding void, their eyes brimming with tears. Li Nanting stepped forward and stopped before Ye Feng, clutching a shattered soul lamp with trembling hands.

He locked eyes with Ye Feng. His voice quivered. “Sui’an... how is she?”

Ye Feng opened his mouth, but no words came out. He didn’t even know how the sect master and the elders had crossed territories to meet them.

Li Guanqi sensed the people outside. His eyes flickered, and he felt the urge to run away. He didn’t know how to face his master or the others.

Buzz!

The void trembled. Everyone turned and gawked behind them.

Li Guanqi and the entire territory vanished into the void.

Cao Yan sighed softly, his eyes full of sorrow. As far as he remembered, Li Guanqi had always been calm and steady. Li Guanqi’s heart was strong, but Cao Yan knew he took relationships very seriously. That was both his strength and his weakness.

Ye Feng spoke gently. “Elder Li, Sect Master... let’s head back to the sect. Let’s not bother Boss for the moment.”

Li Guanqi left the Liu family realm in the void, its entrance still open. Then he wandered aimlessly. For the first time, he felt the urge to run. He didn’t know how to face the many people who cared for Yu Sui’an.

He had aged greatly, like an elder in his twilight years. His hair, dry as hay, hung in disarray over his shoulders.

He walked on and on. Eventually, a heavy realm barrier appeared before him. Li Guanqi stared at it in a daze. This barrier did not belong to the Divine Treasure Territory or the Black Sect Territory.

“The Falling Sunset Territory... Perhaps it’s better to go somewhere no one knows me.”

He pressed his withered hand against the barrier, tearing open a gap and stepping inside.

Li Guanqi severed all ties with the outside world.

Meng Jiangchu watched the distant crack fade, sighing softly. “This prison of the heart... only you can decide when to let go and break free. The cultivation world has always been cruel, never worth longing for.”

With that, Meng Jiangchu turned and left.

At the Daxia Sword Sect, the atmosphere was heavy. In the sect’s tombs, a new cenotaph[1] stood among the others. Before the tombstone lay flowers and buns.

Meanwhile, in an unremarkable mountain range in the Falling Sunset Territory, a white-haired elder staggered as he built a wooden hut next to a stream. Beside the hut stretched a bamboo forest spanning dozens of li.

Ten li away, along the path to the hut, a pitch-black stone stele jutted from the earth, half-buried.

At sunset, Li Guanqi groped along the wall and slowly stepped outside. He nudged a chair over with his foot, lifted the wine jar at his feet, and took a long swig.

The liquor burned from throat to stomach, scorching and addictive. For three days, he had kept himself busy, afraid that if he stopped, the thoughts would come.

Now, he resembled a weary old man of the mortal world.

Sword Spirit’s strike had been powerful, though not enough to drain him completely. His lifespan still exceeded a thousand years, yet he chose to stay as he was, refusing to recover. He even closed his heart’s eye, returning to his days of blindness.

Li Guanqi drank quietly, seated on the chair.

Suddenly, a powerful gust of wind swept through the sky. The bamboo forest rustled violently.

Several cultivators sped through the sky.

At the front, a stern-faced youth flew on, drenched in blood. His left arm dangled uselessly, yet he held his sword firm with his right, never lowering his guard. Two fierce-looking cultivators chased behind him, blades drawn.

Li Guanqi frowned as they neared the bamboo forest.

Boom!

A terrifying aura erupted from him, vast as heavenly might, freezing the approaching cultivators in place.

A thunderous sword light appeared outside the bamboo forest, suspended in the sky.

“Anyone who steps into the bamboo forest shall die.”

An elderly voice echoed in their minds. The aura defied comprehension. None of them could fathom how strong the person inside was.

The two pursuers turned pale. In the face of such power, even their Divine Transformation Realm cultivation was nothing.

One of them swallowed hard. “How did such a powerful cultivator end up in this bamboo forest?”

“We must not enter! To step inside is certain death!”

Only the youth’s face remained solemn.

The aura faded, but the two men hesitated, afraid to act. They didn’t know if attacking would offend the person inside. They exchanged glances, sheathed their weapons, and retreated several hundred zhang. Before leaving, they bowed respectfully toward the bamboo forest.

Still, they refused to let the youth escape. Their eyes remained fixed on him.

The youth exhaled in relief and turned to look toward the bamboo forest, then back at the two men.

He looked up at the hundred-zhang sword light hovering above, gritted his teeth, and stepped into the bamboo forest.

Li Guanqi frowned. He lifted his wine jar, and the sword light fell.

The duo sneered.

“This brat is courting death! He thinks he can enter just like that.”

“

Hmph

, he’s going to get himself killed.”

The sword light tore through space, descending swiftly. The youth’s lips curved in a bitter smile.

The sword light halted one chi above his head. Li Guanqi’s brows furrowed when he sensed the youth’s aura, murmuring softly.

“Li Shenzhi?”

The youth’s eyes sprang open. He frowned, pondering, unable to recognize the voice.

Two rays of lightning sword light shot past him, cutting down all the bamboo in their path.

Boom! Boom!

The duo exploded into a mist of blood.

1. A cenotaph is an “empty tomb.” It is a monument built to honor individuals buried elsewhere or who have no identified remains. ☜