Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Tap, tap, tap!

Urgent footsteps drew closer. Li Guanqi frowned.

The man outside the door had a vicious look in his eyes. His long coat appeared to be made from the hide of a fox or some other demonic beast, and the glossy black fur around its collar was still bloody and matted.

His features were rugged, and his braided hair was tied back. A gold-ringed broadsword hung at his waist, and a necklace of beast fangs rested against his chest. Three twisted scars marred his gaunt, dark-skinned face. His eyes were sharp.

He headed straight for the second suite as soon as he reached the top of the stairs. His suppressed aura seeped outward. Without a word, his vital force surged as he prepared to kick the door.

Li Guanqi’s eyes narrowed. Meng Wanshu was still in the bath, and this man intended to kick the door down without so much as speaking first?

“Hmph!”

Whoosh!

Li Guanqi teleported to the other side of the door. The man saw a handsome, scholarly-looking young man standing before him, yet he didn’t pull back his kick.

The commotion had already drawn the attention of many patrons throughout the tavern. They gasped when they saw what was happening.

“Oh no. That young man’s in trouble.”

“If that kick lands, even if it doesn’t kill him, he’ll spend the rest of his life bedridden.”

A cold gleam flashed through Li Guanqi’s eyes. His right hand shot forward, two fingers forming a sword that sliced through the air.

Squelch!

Crack!

Thunder shrieked. Most onlookers didn’t even see what had happened before the man’s leg was severed clean off.

The man’s expression changed drastically. Searing pain struck, and terror flooded his heart.

Boom!

An overwhelming pressure bore down on the man. Before he could even scream, he was forced to his knees.

Crack!

His head smashed through the stone floor tiles, leaving his face a bloody mess. Li Guanqi stood with his hands behind his back, gazing down at him. “Don’t provoke me.”

He withdrew his aura and vanished back into the room.

The man’s face was deathly pale, his dilated pupils quivering wildly. He kept his head buried in the shattered tiles, not daring to move an inch. Right up until Li Guanqi’s aura faded, he did nothing but hold his breath. When he finally spoke, his whole body was shaking. “Th-thank you, Senior, for sparing my life… I’ll leave right now… I’m going right now…”

With his forehead still pressed to the floor, the man edged backward and reached for his severed leg.

Whoosh!

A razor-sharp sword light wreathed in lightning flashed past. It severed his hand cleanly at the wrist and carved a deep gash into the floor of the corridor.

Li Guanqi’s icy voice drifted out. “Did I say you could take it?”

Terror gripped the man. Despite the agony of his severed hand and leg, he dragged himself backward until he reached the staircase, then continued all the way down from the sixth floor to the first, leaving a trail of blood behind him. He didn’t dare to stand up.

Only after the man was gone did the patrons begin to whisper about what had just happened. Without exception, every one of them was dying to know the identity of the guest in the second suite.

The manager was shaken to her core. She didn’t dare disturb the guest, much less suggest a room change.

Inside the room, Meng Wanshu laughed. “Why so angry?”

Li Guanqi clicked his tongue. “I didn’t like the look of him. You were taking a bath, and he had the nerve to try kicking down the door!”

Meng Wanshu smiled. When she thought about it, she realized he had a point. The fact that he hadn’t killed the man outright already showed remarkable restraint. After all, Ye Feng’s situation was still weighing heavily on Li Guanqi’s mind. Anyone who came looking for trouble was lucky to make it out alive.

Li Guanqi didn’t give it another thought. If the man wanted revenge…

He looked out the window. The man and his entourage were leaving in a hurry, and the man didn’t dare to glance up at the building even once. Li Guanqi let out a cold snort, thinking that if the man returned for revenge, he wouldn’t mind letting off some steam.

Pan Yi’s expression was grim. He hadn’t expected a small place like Qixia City to harbor such a powerful expert. He’d picked a fight with the wrong person.

“Boss, what happened to you?”

Pan Yi had only gone upstairs for a moment before crawling back out of the tavern on his knees, missing a hand and a leg. Everyone was stunned.

Pan Yi’s voice was cold. “There’s a powerful expert up there. I failed to realize who I was dealing with.”

He sighed bitterly. “The man was actually holding back. I’m lucky to be alive.”

Pan Yi’s face darkened. “Find another tavern and settle in. Go to the city lord’s manor yourself. Tell him something urgent came up and I’ll be there in two hours.”

He couldn’t very well meet Qixia City’s city lord in his current state, having lost a hand and a leg.

After the group left, Li Guanqi sat at the desk, lost in thought for a while. At last, he took out a plain jade slip and spoke softly. “Grandpa, I’m thinking of having a few of my brothers apprentice under the Eight Generals. What do you think?”

The jade slip lit up shortly after, and Su Xuan’s voice came through.

Behind the screen, Meng Wanshu held her breath and listened.

—That’s fine. You can reach out to Long Hou privately. Whether they’ll accept, though, I can’t guarantee.

Li Guanqi froze. He hadn’t expected the old man to say something like that, not after he’d already made the boast. “Grandpa, my own dear grandpa… I already told them the Eight Generals would take them on.”

—Hah! Taking on disciples is no small matter. The Eight Generals will have their own opinions about it. It all comes down to whether those brothers of yours have the talent. I’ll pass the word along.

Li Guanqi exhaled in relief. At least it wasn’t a flat rejection.

He was about to put the jade slip away when Su Xuan’s voice rang out again, this time graver.

—Guanqi, the Eight Generals likely won’t be appearing in the outside world for quite some time. That means I will have fewer and fewer ways to protect you. You’ll have to rely on yourself.

Li Guanqi frowned. It was as though a boulder had dropped into the calm lake of his heart, sending ripples across the surface. He didn’t care that the Eight Generals wouldn’t be watching over him. What worried him was that something had happened on his grandfather’s end that required the Eight Generals to go back and help.

“Did something happen?”

Su Xuan waved it off with a carefree laugh.

—With me around, what could possibly happen? Just a bit more trouble than usual. That’s why I need to call them all back. As for the apprenticeship, you’ll have to contact Long Hou and see.

Li Guanqi took a deep breath. “Understood.”

He set the jade slip down. Meng Wanshu frowned behind the screen. “Is Grandpa Su dealing with something that troublesome?”

Li Guanqi shook his head with a wry smile. “If he says it’s fine, then it’s fine. At least it hasn’t reached the point where even he finds it troublesome.”

He stood up and murmured, “Looks like getting them apprenticed won’t be as straightforward as I thought.”

Despite himself, Li Guanqi laughed. “Well, of course. They’re the Eight Generals. Taking on disciples was never going to be simple.”

A thought occurred to him, and he mused, “If I remember correctly, there are a few other candidates, including Qin Wushang, lined up to succeed the Eight Generals…”

Qin Wushang was Nangong Xuandu’s chosen successor for the position of Sword Commandant. Li Guanqi was also deeply curious just how strong Dugu Lingxiao really was.