“Hahahahahaha! Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!”

Sun Tianqi fully unleashed his aura, his entire demeanor like a drawn blade. His eyes brimmed with arrogance as he gazed down at Zhou Shiyu. “I could have killed you that day, but I spared your life and merely broke your leg. I never imagined a stray dog would return to bite me after finding itself a leash.”

A faint smile curved Sun Tianqi’s lips. “In that case... Today, I shall shatter your sea of consciousness and cripple your primordial soul!”

With that, a powerful aura erupted. The pressure from both cultivators sent everyone within a thousand zhang flying, including Li Guanqi.

Boom!

A terrifying, muffled sound rang out. The earth trembled as Zhou Shiyu stepped forward, broadsword in hand. His crippled leg didn’t seem to slow him at all, and the muscles in his right arm bulged. He swept the broadsword in an arc like a battle axe, hacking toward Sun Tianqi’s head.

Li Guanqi saw Sun Tianqi’s eyes widen at the strike. Sun Tianqi’s feet shifted slightly as he raised his own blade to strike the spine of the broadsword.

Clang!

Sparks flew, but the broadsword’s path did not waver. Sun Tianqi’s expression shifted. He hurriedly used his sprint technique and narrowly dodged the blade.

Sun Tianqi flew back several dozen zhang, his cheek burning with pain. When he reached up to touch it, his fingers came away bloody. Zhou Shiyu’s sword qi had scraped a large patch of flesh from his face.

"You... Something's wrong..."

Sun Tianqi’s eyes narrowed. His cultivation has risen so fast... What is that chain piercing his heart?

Even Li Guanqi’s eyelids twitched at the scene. Zhou Shiyu’s strength nearly matched his when he pushed the Dragon-Elephant Subduing Sutra to its peak. On top of that, he was extremely fast. Without Li Guanqi’s own mastery of sprint techniques, he would be the slower of the two. And Zhou Shiyu’s aura, heavy as a mountain, lent him a formidable presence.

Zhou Shiyu’s aura was far, far stronger than when Li Guanqi had first encountered him.

Li Guanqi’s eyes narrowed, gazing at the chain piercing through Zhou Shiyu’s heart. Li Guanqi murmured, “A spirit treasure? But such power... what price did he pay for it?”

He couldn’t fathom what drove Zhou Shiyu to pay such an enormous price. Li Guanqi could sense the pain the youth was enduring. Zhou Shiyu’s muscles contorted involuntarily, trembling, his skin glazed with a sheen of fine blood droplets. His meridians were rupturing under the pressure. Though his complexion appeared ruddy, his power was on the verge of collapse.

Zhou Shiyu slowly raised his head to gaze at the mountain gate of the Six Gates Holy Sect. “All of this... I lost it all myself... So... I shall personally... Take! It! Back!”

Rumble!

Violent pressure erupted outward in waves. The stone tiles beneath Zhou Shiyu’s feet crumbled layer by layer.

Sun Tianqi’s gaze turned grave. The oppression rolling off his opponent was immense. The cripple whose leg he had broken now nearly matched him in strength and cultivation.

Sun Tianqi narrowed his eyes, a cold smile curving his lips. The ancestral mark at his brow flickered, and he chanted under his breath. A moment later, a golden pillar of light descended from the heavens.

His aura surged to the tenth stage of the Illusory Refinement Realm, a half-step into the Combined Body Realm. He stood on the precipice of that threshold, yet it was an insurmountable chasm. Relying solely on external forces, he would never break through that barrier.

Sand and stones swept across the land as the sky and earth shook without pause. Wild gales rose as the void between the two shattered and collapsed, their violent domains grinding against each other.

Swoosh!

Both figures vanished in an instant. Violent sword light shot across the land. Terrifying qi waves blew outward, forcing the onlookers to shut their eyes. Under the pressure, no one could stay airborne. They all dropped onto the mountain peaks to watch.

Only Li Guanqi stood still, hands clasped behind his back. The terrifying sword qi dissipated within ten zhang of him, though the waves still sent his white robes fluttering wildly.

The other two clashed across the field, sword lights colliding madly. Zhou Shiyu wielded his broadsword with tremendous force, each sweeping strike seeming to split mountains and cleave heavens. Sun Tianqi’s sword light was agile and swift, yet his right hand had long since gone completely numb. The split in his palm had spread all the way to his wrist. Still, his overwhelming vital force kept Zhou Shiyu suppressed.

Li Guanqi’s brow slowly furrowed. Sun Tianqi had invoked an immortal through his ancestral mark, which boosted his strength and gradually put Zhou Shiyu at a disadvantage. Zhou Shiyu’s wounds multiplied as his stamina waned.

Then, countless figures rose into the air from within the Six Gates Holy Sect, disciples and white-haired elders alike.

They all watched Zhou Shiyu with burning eyes.

Boom!

Zhou Shiyu sent Sun Tianqi flying with a single strike, and the disciples’ faces lit up with excitement, eyes bright as they stared at him. The powerful elders, however, could tell Zhou Shiyu had already exhausted his strength.

Li Guanqi’s gaze settled on the white-haired elder at the forefront. The elder’s turbid, yellowed eyes were full of heartache. His withered hands clenched beneath his sleeves, and a glint of grim determination flashed in his eyes. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Li Guanqi’s heart jumped. A faint veil of death qi clung to this elder. He was plainly at the end of his life. The man was in the early Combined Body Realm.

At his cultivation level... why hasn’t he stepped in to stop the Sun clan? Or... has someone from the Sun family warned the Six Gates Holy Sect?

As Li Guanqi’s thoughts raced, Zhou Shiyu shot backward.

Boom! Crash!

He slammed into a distant mountain peak, spitting out a mouthful of fresh blood. He had reached his limit. His skin erupted in a spray of blood mist, and all his muscles seemed to split open, tearing into countless wounds.

The purple-robed elder closed his eyes in pain, his voice trembling as he murmured, “Shiyu... Enough... Stop...”

Zhou Shiyu lay paralyzed in the deep crater, his disheveled hair covering his face. Blood spilled from his mouth, yet his voice held a strange resolve when he spoke.

“M-Master... this life of mine... was given by the Six Gates Holy Sect. Yet I let the sect fall into another’s hands... Hahaha...”

As he spoke, Zhou Shiyu suddenly raised his head.