Chapter 13 – Killing Zhao Yuanlin

Li Guanqi watched the situation unfold through his heart’s eye. At that moment, it felt as if Lu Kangnian was the only person who remained in the world.

Lu Kangnian approached, standing on the colors of the sunset like an immortal and exuding the utmost sophistication. A person like that did not need to do anything for people to naturally look at them.

“Greetings, Sect Master!”

“Greetings, Sect Master!”

At once, all elders and disciples stopped what they were doing and bowed to the figure in the sky.

Lu Kangnian’s eyes swept across the whole plaza. “You’re all great elders of your respective peaks, yet here you are, squabbling like children! What a lack of discipline! Three months of allowance will be deducted from every elder!”

The elders sulked bitterly when they heard him. Three months of allowance!

Still, against the sect master, they could only swallow their grievances and nod.

Lan He glared at Lu Kangnian resentfully and muttered, “I won’t be able to afford my face powder for the next few months!”

Lu Kangnian turned to her, his expression unmoved. “Lan He is fined an extra month for insubordination against the sect master. And you’ll be giving ten additional lectures to the outer sect this month.”

𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

He turned away, ignoring her murderous glare.

Conversely, Li Guanqi found the dynamics at play quite compelling.

The sect's culture is

not bad at all.

Even the Heavenly Water Peak’s elder could joke around with the sect master. It was just one month’s allowance—nothing to an elder.

Furthermore, the sect master punished her by assigning extra lectures, which benefited the outer sect disciples.

Li Guanqi muttered, “Perhaps... this sect is a suitable place for me to stay.”

Lu Kangnian gently descended upon the dais, his gaze drawn to the beautiful colors painting the sky. His eyes met Li Guanqi's as he offered a friendly smile. “I am Lu Kangnian, the thirty-eighth sect master of the Daxia Sword Sect. What is your name?”

Although Li Guanqi’s clothing did not look aristocratic, it was still clean and neat.

Straightening his collar, he offered an accurate, aristocratic salute. His composure, unwavering since the moment of his arrival, drew an approving glint in Lu Kangnian’s eyes.

Zhao Yuanlin rose from the ground with great difficulty. He hurt all over, and it felt like he was being burned in a fire. However, his pain was nothing compared to his hatred.

He glared at Lu Kangnian onstage, then turned to leave.

Li Guanqi took a long look at Zhao Yuanlin and narrowed his eyes. “Don’t move.”

Then, he turned around and saluted Lu Kangnian with one hand over his other fist. He asked solemnly, “May I settle a personal matter here?”

Lu Kangnian’s eyes twinkled, and he gave a slight nod.

Li Guanqi turned to look at Zhao Yuanlin. Unrestrained killing intent radiated from him. “Since you tried to tarnish my reputation, I’m afraid you’re not going anywhere.”

Zhao Yuanlin’s eyes filled with panic as he cradled his injured arm. “What... what do you want?! I won’t join the Daxia Sword Sect anymore. I’m going down the mountain now...”

Li Guanqi shot off and stood in front of him, blocking his retreat. “You and me. Death duel. Death is permissible in a death duel!”

Zhao Yuanlin had long wanted to surrender. He did not dare look into Li Guanqi’s eyes. Hanging his head, he was about to refuse when an icy voice rang in his ear.

“Prepare for a death duel! If you survive this, you will not be punished,” Lu Kangnian said, looking at Zhao Yuanlin.

Lu Kangnian did not think a mere Heavenly Spirit Root was precious. The Daxia Sword Sect would never take in a disciple with such terrible character.

His words were a death sentence to Zhao Yuanlin. There was a flash of gratitude in Li Guanqi’s eyes.

The disciples backed away to form a space with a thirty-zhang radius.

Zhao Yuanlin’s pale face betrayed his realization that there was no way out. All he could do was fight for his life...

He clenched his teeth and looked at Lu Kangnian. “If I win, let me leave!”

Lu Kangnian reappeared on a throne onstage in a flash. He smirked. “Of course. Even if you stay, the Daxia Sword Sect won’t want you.”

Zhao Yuanlin took a deep breath and stood before Li Guanqi, glaring venomously. He would have joined the inner sect if it hadn’t been for Li Guanqi.

Disciplinarian Qin Xian personally refereed the death duel.

“All techniques are allowed in this death duel. It will end when one person dies! Begin!”

Li Guanqi shot out like an arrow, the sword coffin still strapped to his back.

The disciples only saw a blurry silhouette due to his incredible speed, even losing track of his location.

When the elders saw this, they nodded with approval. It was rare to see someone achieve such speed through pure physical strength.

Zhao Yuanlin reacted with a punch but missed the mark.

A murderous intent gradually filled Li Guanqi’s eyes. Now crouching, he threw a fist at Zhao Yuanlin’s jaw.

Crack!

Zhao Yuanlin’s jaw shattered. Blood flowed, and his teeth fell as he was thrown back into the air.

Li Guanqi grabbed Zhao Yuanlin’s ankle and slammed him into the ground.

Slam!

Blood splattered on the ground, and Zhao Yuanlin cried out in agony, bouncing off the ground from the impact. Cracks appeared on the stone tiles.

His internal organs had been either shattered or displaced by the powerful force.

Zhao Yuanlin swept his leg at Li Guanqi, who then let go of his ankle. The tip of Zhao Yuanlin’s foot brushed past the tip of Li Guanqi’s nose.

Zhao Yuanlin stabilized himself in the air and then vomited a mouthful of blood. His eyes were covered in blood spots, and his vision was so blurry he could not see what was in front of him.

A mass of shadows swept past him. Zhao Yuanlin’s features contorted as he roared and threw the strongest punch he could.

Li Guanqi’s expression had not changed since the beginning. He braced himself, leaped sideways, and punched.

Thud! Crack!

Zhao Yuanlin’s left arm snapped.

Li Guanqi straightened his fingers in a knife-like gesture and roared, “Die!”

His five fingers had pierced through Zhao Yuanlin’s chest, puncturing his heart.

Thud.

Zhao Yuanlin fell to his knees, his eyes lifeless.

Li Guanqi pulled out his right hand, and blood dripped down his fingers onto the ground. He stood motionless with his eyes closed.

Tears pooled in the corners of his eyes as he muttered hoarsely, “Elder Sister... I have finally avenged you.”

The disciples in the plaza, who had witnessed the whole incident, were too frightened to make a sound.

On the other hand, the peak elders were smiling and nodding. Li Guanqi was able to kill decisively. Lu Kangnian’s eyes lit up and his smile widened.

The peak elders whispered to each other using Divine Consciousness Voice Transmission.

“Did you see that? Old Lu definitely came here to snatch him away!”

“Tsk tsk. He said he had ‘closed his doors’

[1]

after taking in Wu Bing, but now he’s opening them back up!”

“Lu Kangnian is so shameless! How could he change his mind so casually?”

Lu Kangnian swept his gaze nonchalantly across the group, and they fell silent.

“Li Guanqi, is this your first time testing out your spirit root?”

Li Guanqi calmed his nerves and nodded as he watched Zhao Yuanlin’s body being carried away. “Well, my grandfather always smiled and kept quiet whenever I asked him about it. I didn’t know what spirit root I had either.”

Lu Kangnian had just examined Li Guanqi’s bones and tendons and found them to be of superior quality. Despite only being in the Body Tempering Realm, Li Guanqi had extremely hardy internal organs, as well as strong meridians, tendons, and bones. He was anything but ordinary.

“Would it be alright for you to tell me your grandfather’s name?”

“Su Xuan.”

“Su Xuan... I’ve never heard of any Nascent Soul Realm cultivator with this name... It doesn’t matter. In that case, let me explain why this is called an Empty Spirit Root.”

Li Guanqi nodded. Lu Kangnian explained to the crowd, “The most valuable part of having an Empty Spirit Root is that the cultivator can choose any of the Eight Lineages as his own spirit root!”

The candidates all drew in a sharp breath. They looked at Li Guanqi with admiration and respect.

“Furthermore, the element he picks will have a purity level far surpassing a Heavenly Spirit Root! Imagine if a Triple Lineage Spirit Root’s cultivation speed is equivalent to using one bucket to fill up a water tank. Then, a Double Lineage True Spirit Root is the same as using four buckets, the Generating True Spirit Root six buckets, and a Single Heavenly Spirit Root ten buckets!” Lu Kangnian said.

Lu Kangnian turned to look at Li Guanqi and continued gently, “The King Spirit Root is fifteen, then Saint Spirit Root is... twenty!”

The power of the spirit roots amazed the crowd. As the countless masters of this world often said, a cultivator’s upper limit was determined by their natural talent.

A person with lesser talent could only close part of the gap through personal effort when compared to someone with more talent. Sometimes, hard, bitter work was useless. This was brutal, but it was also the reality of embarking on the journey of cultivation.

Sometimes, people experienced extraordinary events that completely changed their physical structure, remade their spirit roots, and turned them into powerful masters. However, it was unheard of for a person with a Triple Spirit Root to progress beyond the Nascent Soul Realm.

Li Guanqi asked, “Are there more levels above the Saint Spirit Root?”

Lu Kangnian looked at the knowledge-hungry expressions of the youths offstage and smirked. “Yes!”

“Wow! There are more powerful spirit roots beyond the Heavenly Spirit Root!”

“Good heavens... Now I see why all sects want to test our spirit roots and check our natural-born talent! This is...

Sigh!”

Lu Kangnian said gently, “A person with a Heavenly Spirit Root is a prodigy. King Spirit Roots are even rarer—only one in ten thousand. Those with King Spirit Roots are known as Children of the Heavens.

“The Saint Spirit Root all depends on one’s karma—it is so rare that only one appears every thousand years. People with such spirit roots are borderline inhuman prodigies.

“Above the Saint Spirit Root is the Divine Spirit Root. People with this spirit root are those with extreme luck, and its quality is extremely high. Its cultivation speed is the equivalent of... thirty buckets of water.

“Rumor has it that in one of the Six Territories, the daughter of the Divine Treasure territorial lord recently awakened her Ice Saint Spirit Root.”

Then, he smiled and said, “Alright, I won’t go too deep into matters about other territories. I only talked about it to expand your horizons a little. Even a King Spirit Root is very rare in the Daxia Territory, let alone the Azure Cloud Continent.

“To have a disciple with a Saint Spirit Root is enough to make a sect prosper for generations. It will make the Daxia Sword Sect strong and powerful! It is a cause for celebration!

“Today, any candidates with at least a Triple Spirit Root may join our sect! You will be initially assigned to the outer sect!”

The crowd erupted in cheers. Those candidates who were initially not chosen because they had False Spirit Roots cheered even more.

“So, Li Guanqi... Which lineage will you pick?” Lu Kangnian asked.

Every peak elder and peak master waited for Li Guanqi’s answer with bated breath. Lu Kangnian had an Earth Spirit Root. As long as Li Guanqi did not pick the Earth Lineage, they all stood a chance.

Li Guanqi was also a swordsman. Swordsmen could unleash maximum destructive force through a Metal Spirit Root.

Suddenly, he was plunged into a strange, profound state. He seemed to be standing in a white, misty world. Eight floating light spheres approached him.

An unexpected sensation washed over him as he reached out to touch the golden sphere.

He turned to look to the side.

1. ”Closed his doors” means he had decided to stop taking in disciples. ☜