Chapter 976: Obtained

Boom!

Under the crushing pressure, Li Guanqi’s body sank slightly, his eyes trembling with shock. He had never expected the Qilin’s full power to be this terrifying. Its strength was comparable to the peak of the Combined Body Realm.

He calculated how much power remained in the fire mark between his brows. As long as he could defeat the Qilin with at least half of the fire mark’s suppressive power intact, the risk should be manageable.

Now that he had obtained the Seven-Colored Glass Flower, the Qilin soul before him was the only thing he still needed to mend his incomplete divine soul.

The fire mark between Li Guanqi’s brows instantly began to burn fiercely.

Meng Wanshu’s brows furrowed tightly.

“This is far too risky,” she said gravely.

Boom!

Li Guanqi launched himself into the air, and the ground within dozens of zhang shattered beneath his feet.

Li Guanqi and the Qilin vanished from sight, moving too fast for the naked eye to follow. With each passing moment, Li Guanqi gained greater control over his power, and his speed continued to rise. The terrifying potential of spirit comprehension was gradually revealing itself.

Li Guanqi felt as though his body had turned into lightning itself, weaving through every corner of space like a lightning bolt. Speed like that demanded an equally powerful body to bear it, or the spatial tearing force alone would have torn him apart.

The sight made Peng Luo swallow hard, his eyes widening. He murmured, “Not bad, not bad. As expected of my master. This level of comprehension would be monstrous even in the Immortal World!”

Beside him, Nine Heavens tilted his head as he observed the abilities displayed by the Lightning Qilin. He then glanced down at his own dragon claws. Lightning flickered ceaselessly across them, and his aura began to subtly change.

Noticing this, Peng Luo immediately jumped down from Nine Heavens’ head and hurried over to Meng Wanshu’s side. “Good heavens, is Brother Nine about to achieve spirit comprehension?”

Meng Wanshu’s eyes flashed. She erected a barrier around Nine Heavens, then took out several spirit stones and arranged a Spirit-Gathering Array. If Nine Heavens achieved spirit comprehension, he would be no weaker than the Qilin. Having someone so powerful at Li Guanqi’s side could only be a good thing.

Meanwhile, in the space atop the stone pillar, Li Guanqi’s body had grown stronger yet again, now comparable to the physique of a peak tier-seven martial cultivator. Every punch and kick he threw carried a force ordinary cultivators could never withstand.

Li Guanqi had no intention of holding back. With the Red Lotus Sword in hand, he became a deity of slaughter, forcing the Qilin back again and again beneath a storm of strikes. The Red Lotus Sword’s divinity made it even deadlier against spirit-type beings like the Qilin.

He had already activated all three abilities of his sword spirit void. In its Heaven-Opening state, the Red Lotus Sword’s blade flickered with a cold, crimson light.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Explosion after explosion reverberated through the area, sending chunks of earth flying in every direction.

The strength and killing power of Li Guanqi kept the Qilin completely suppressed, but he knew it was merely a manifestation of a Qilin’s power, not a true member of the race. A true Qilin would possess far more terrifying physical strength, and its many unknown innate abilities would make it even harder to fight.

Li Guanqi’s sword force suddenly surged. His entire being became incomparably sharp. Violent sword intent soared into the heavens, and a cold killing intent capable of slaughtering the world spread outward. A faint crimson hue permeated the entire domain space, as if endless blood mist were drifting through the air.

Li Guanqi’s vital force erupted, and violent lightning gathered on the Red Lotus Sword, its piercing sound akin to the cries of ten thousand birds. Countless scales shattered across the Qilin’s body, leaving long gashes beneath them.

Not much changed in the Qilin’s dull eyes, but it reacted nonetheless. A much larger Lightning Qilin materialized overhead, treading on lightning. It lowered its massive head, opened its jaws, and unleashed a thick blast of lightning breath.

The void ripped open wherever the blast passed, and the surrounding ground fractured and caved in.

Li Guanqi crouched low as faint traces of lightning leaked from the corners of his mouth. Vital force coursed through his body as he activated his sprint technique. Kicking off with both feet, he transformed into a streak of lightning and streaked forward.

“Heaven-Opening, Red Lotus Dark Moon!”

Boom!

Holding the Red Lotus Sword, Li Guanqi appeared behind the Qilin in an instant. A crimson bolt of sword light flashed and vanished, somehow cleaving the Qilin’s massive blast of lightning breath cleanly in two. At the same moment, the Qilin’s body burst apart.

Li Guanqi’s sword slid slowly back into its lightning sheath. His tattered white robes whipped violently in the wind, but he remained perfectly still.

His vital force surged, then slowly settled.

Meng Wanshu watched him anxiously until his aura finally steadied and subsided. She let out a sigh of relief—the fire mark had suppressed the restless power within him. Otherwise, the consequences would have been dire.

Li Guanqi’s face was slightly pale, and a thin trickle of blood ran from the corner of his mouth. A moment later, color returned to his cheeks, and the tension in his brow eased. The remaining half of the fire mark between his brows gradually faded away.

Li Guanqi opened his eyes. At the sight of the Qiyin spirit light floating before him, he finally smiled. After all that effort, he had finally obtained the Qilin soul he needed.

He could sense that there were still other Qiyin within the stone pillar. However, he could only take one.

As for Meng Wanshu, she had not passed the trial of the Spirit Mist River, so she could not step onto the stone pillar.

As Li Guanqi gazed at the purple Qilin phantom floating before him, no larger than a human head, the weight pressing on his chest finally lifted. With a wave of his hand, he stored away the Qiyin spirit light and flashed to Meng Wanshu’s side.

Seeing that Nine Heavens had entered a state of comprehension, Li Guanqi signaled the others to stay quiet.

Since Peng Luo’s condition had improved somewhat, Li Guanqi reached out and rubbed his head. Peng Luo looked up at Li Guanqi’s pale face and instinctively reached to break off a piece of his own arm.

Li Guanqi reached out to stop him and smiled. “Just a minor injury. No need.”

Peng Luo understood and didn’t argue. He climbed onto Li Guanqi’s shoulders and wrapped his arms around his neck, then scratched his own head with a foolish grin.

This journey through the Qilin ruins had taught Li Guanqi many things.

Li Guanqi looked at Meng Wanshu and said, “Once Nine Heavens wakes up, we’ll go home.”

Meng Wanshu nodded, a faint glimmer passing through her eyes. It was impossible to tell what she was thinking. “Why don’t you take these things back and meet up with Senior Gu and the others? We can always come back later. The conditions for the Trial of the True Self won’t arise again for several hundred years anyway. But you… You disregarded your own safety and forcibly broke the seal earlier. Can you really keep suppressing it?”

Seeing the worry in Meng Wanshu’s eyes, Li Guanqi said, “Don’t worry. I know my limits. Let’s go home, and then we’ll head to the Gu clan. Otherwise, all the chickens, ducks, and livestock I brought for Mother-in-law will have gone to waste, won’t they?”

Meng Wanshu froze for a moment. “When did you buy livestock?”

Li Guanqi shrugged and answered honestly, “There were so many in Qixia City. I just grabbed some along the way.”