Sun Tianqi appeared unscathed as he raised his sword and unleashed dozens of strikes.

Terrifying sword light sealed Li Guanqi within a narrow space, exploding with sword intent that split the heavens. The sky cracked open across hundreds of zhang, and the earth trembled for dozens of li amidst powerful explosions.

Sun Tianqi’s sword spirit void ability was unique. His spirit void weapon was neither fully sword nor illusion, always half-illusory. Before reaching the Illusory Refinement Realm, it had never manifested, and he could never use it. But once he broke through, its true power emerged.

“Illusory Form” meant piercing through falsehood to strike a single point of truth. With minimal effort, he could shatter an opponent’s attack.

Sun Tianqi stood pale, blood on his lips. In his sea of consciousness, a golden bell cracked. He had gone to great lengths to convince his clan to give him the bell to protect his sea of consciousness, yet it was on the verge of shattering after a single strike.

“Such terrifying strength...” he muttered, gazing at the deep sword wound across his chest, so deep it exposed bone.

He no longer sensed Li Guanqi’s aura. He assumed Li Guanqi was dead, consumed by the sword light.

As far as Sun Tianqi knew, the Daxia Sword Sect’s vast wealth was coveted by many ancient clans. The only deterrent had been Li Guanqi, whose vicious destruction of the Liu clan had kept the others watching from the shadows. Now that he had killed Li Guanqi, the Sun clan would rise as the greatest victor.

The Baizhang Sect hardly factored into any of it.

But as Sun Tianqi turned, a blood-soaked figure appeared before him. Li Guanqi’s face was half-hidden behind disheveled hair, his flesh carved open to the bone by countless wounds.

Whoosh!

Li Guanqi’s hand shot out, clawing for Sun Tianqi’s throat like an eagle’s talons.

Sun Tianqi reacted fast, but not fast enough. Flesh tore from his neck, blood spraying. He doubled over, coughing up blood.

Li Guanqi glanced at the bloody chunk of flesh in his hand and tossed it aside. He was covered in charred, gruesome sword cuts.

Sun Tianqi retreated swiftly, eyes flying wide in horror. His pupils trembled. “Impossible! No one can survive the Binding Sword, not at the Heaven-Opening Tier! Is he a monster?!”

Li Guanqi’s head snapped up. His gaze locked onto Sun Tianqi, and every hair on Sun Tianqi’s body stood on end.

Boom!

Sun Tianqi’s robe burst apart, revealing his right arm glowing with purple-gold light. He sliced his palm, blood dripping onto the glow and forming intricate patterns that spread across his arm.

“Ancient Runes, manifest!”

Sun Tianqi’s aura surged, not in cultivation but in raw strength. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Li Guanqi’s eyes twitched. What the hell are those runes?

Sun Tianqi’s feet tore two rifts in the air. The muscles of his right arm bulged, his knuckles white around the hilt. He’d sensed great danger from Li Guanqi, so he used his trump card without hesitation. With the Ancient Runes now activated, he was more assured.

But Li Guanqi stood unmoving, the broken red sword in his spirit void trembling slightly. His lips curled into a strange smile, eyes fixed on Sun Tianqi.

“Weapon-Snatching,” he murmured.

Boom!

A powerful aura erupted across the sky, and the ground shook. Blood-red threads burst from his brow, streaking across the night.

Sun Tianqi’s heart froze. The chilling sensation he felt had to be from Li Guanqi’s technique. The threads closed the distance in a blink. At the last moment, Sun Tianqi chose not to retreat.

With a tight grimace, Sun Tianqi gripped his sword in both hands and turned. The patterns on his right arm flashed, and a qilin-like demonic beast hologram emerged from it, jaws wide, roaring at the oncoming threads.

The deafening roar shattered the void. Blood seeped from Li Guanqi’s ears, but the attack did nothing to impede the threads. They drove straight into Sun Tianqi’s brow.

He fired sword lights wildly, eyes wide with horror, but every one passed harmlessly through the threads.

“Ahhh! What are these?! Why won’t they break?!”

Nothing he did worked. His sword lights merely passed through the threads.

The blood-colored threads vanished as quickly as they had come, leaving the pale Sun Tianqi standing in a daze. He stared at his weapon, now dull and lifeless.

“My... my sword spirit void... it’s gone?”

Li Guanqi’s smile turned wicked. His eyes flashed brightly.

His lightning sword pulsed with new power. If it were the Red Lotus Sword, its appearance would have changed.

“Destruction, Blade Breaker, Spirit Pardon... and now, Illusory Form!”

He licked his lips. At his current level, he could wield six abilities at most. None of the spirit void abilities he’d encountered before, Liu Yunxuan’s included, had been worth taking. But Sun Tianqi had walked right up to him with one that was. Even Li Guanqi had been forced to fight all-out.

Boom!

An explosion tore through the air. Only an afterimage remained where Li Guanqi had stood.

Bam!

Li Guanqi’s strike sent Sun Tianqi flying a thousand zhang, his grip faltering as the skin on his hand split.

But Sun Tianqi’s will was iron. Even stripped of his sword spirit void, he rallied, a prodigy of an ancient clan to his core. His eyes burned with killing intent. He could feel the terrifying power radiating from Li Guanqi.

He slapped a purple talisman to his chest. “Righteous Stele Talisman! Ancient Rune, Qiongqi! Dungeon Ghoul Pill!”

Sun Tianqi’s aura surged to the half-step Combined Body Realm. His jade hair ornament shattered, and his hair whipped loose.

“I am Sun Tianqi of the Sun clan!” he roared, pointing his sword at Li Guanqi. “Do you really think you can defeat me?!”