Yet a blindingly fast sword light answered his furious roar only.

Sun Tianqi gripped his sword and burst forward with a sprint technique. With his Double Metal-Lightning Spirit Root, he moved so fast that Li Guanqi only felt space ripple before Sun Tianqi vanished.

Li Guanqi’s divine consciousness swept outward across a thousand zhang, pinpointing his opponent’s position. He spun and thrust his sword backward.

Clang!

The strike drove straight for Sun Tianqi’s eye socket—a hit would pierce clean through his skull.

Sun Tianqi abandoned his own attack, throwing his sword up in a desperate horizontal block in front of his eyes. The ancient runes on his arm blazed with light, and raw force poured through his blade.

Boom!

Sun Tianqi swung hard, and the force hurled Li Guanqi back over a thousand zhang. Li Guanqi shattered a mountaintop along the way, shooting backward like a cannonball.

As he spun through the air, cold light flashed in his eyes. The vast web of divine consciousness around him compressed into several divine consciousness swords.

Every hair on Sun Tianqi’s body stood on end. He vanished from where he stood and appeared before Li Guanqi in the next breath.

Clang!

Another sword strike, powerful enough to rival mountains and rivers.

Bam!

Li Guanqi shot backward again. The divine consciousness swords he’d just formed shattered and dispersed on impact.

Li Guanqi’s arm trembled. Brilliant light flashed in his eyes. His combat instincts are terrifying.

The divine consciousness swords had been hovering a thousand zhang away, well concealed. Li Guanqi was certain Sun Tianqi hadn’t sensed them since his divine consciousness was far weaker. That left only one explanation: Sun Tianqi was feeling the danger on instinct alone, honed by raw experience.

Fighting spirit surged in Li Guanqi's eyes. Even across the Six Territories, opponents like this are rare.

That talisman Sun Tianqi had pressed to his chest was no simple thing. And the pill he’d swallowed didn’t seem ordinary either. Its surface had been etched with complex, mysterious patterns. Those were the pill marks only legendary “perfect” pills bore.

Wind howled past Li Guanqi’s ears as he suddenly leaned backward. A blade glinting with cold light swept past the tip of his nose. In the same motion, Li Guanqi slashed, the strike seemingly carrying a dragon’s roar.

Bam!

The impact sent Sun Tianqi flying nearly a thousand zhang backward through the air.

Sun Tianqi’s right hand trembled. The Qiongqi ancient runes on his arm flashed wildly, and the holographic beast above them roared without pause. The beast soul seemed to have crude intelligence of its own. After sensing that force, its roar took on an edge of fear.

Sun Tianqi looked up. In the distance, Li Guanqi slowly removed his outer robes. Beneath the white fabric, his lean upper body was bare, densely laced with gruesome scars that twisted like dragons across his skin. His frame was well-proportioned, but Sun Tianqi could sense the terrifying power hidden beneath it.

Li Guanqi’s ears thundered with the roars of dragons and elephants. This was one of the rare times he’d pushed the Dragon-Elephant Subduing Sutra to its limit. He glanced down at the lightning sword, which kept breaking. He opened the sword coffin, retrieved the sword Sun Zhen had given him, and casually tied his scattered hair back. Gripping the long sword, he said softly, “For the sake of your ‘useless brother,’ I’ll spare your life.”

Boom!

The moment Li Guanqi gripped the sword, his power surged to its peak. A torrent of pressure surged outward in waves, each heavier than the last, battering Sun Tianqi’s senses.

Sun Tianqi stared at him, eyes full of disbelief. Why would a monster like this appear in the Six Territories? He’d thought only ancient clans with deep foundations could produce such talent.

He tightened his grip on his sword and fixed Li Guanqi with a hard stare. “My life is right here. If you have the ability... come take it.”

Boom!

As his words faded, he unleashed the power of his ancient runes and charged at Li Guanqi. A distance of several hundred zhang was a single step for powerhouses at their level.

Clang clang clang!

Their swords collided, and cold light erupted through the void. In a single breath, both swung hundreds of times, and the surrounding space was torn apart entirely. Immense force compressed into a tiny space.

Li Guanqi’s sword spirit void buzzed. “Soul Dissolution, activate!”

Buzz! Crack!

Red light flashed, and Li Guanqi’s sword exploded. Several cold gleams streaked across his arm, but his eyes blazed as he dodged, weaving like a spirit snake. Vital force surged, and the blade fragments, wrapped in lightning, shot toward Sun Tianqi like hidden weapons.

Swish swish swish!

Clink clink! Clang clang! Clang clang!!

The barrage forced Sun Tianqi back over ten zhang, swinging repeatedly to deflect the fragments. But two still managed to pierce him.

Both of them retreated over a hundred zhang. Light flashed in Li Guanqi’s hand as he produced another long sword, but his expression was grim. The previous sword was an ancient treasure-tier weapon, but even then, it couldn’t withstand his sword spirit void’s power. Soul Dissolution alone had shattered it. The Red Lotus Sword really is something else.

Meanwhile, Sun Tianqi’s face darkened further. His original tier-eight sword had been inexplicably stolen, so his spirit void was now empty.

Qi and blood surged through Li Guanqi, using vital force to rapidly heal his arm’s wounds. Sun Tianqi was probably the strongest cultivator of his generation he’d ever encountered. Li Guanqi’s left hand trembled, blood from his torn skin staining the hilt red. The mysterious markings on Sun Tianqi’s arm boosted his physical strength enormously.

The two fought from sky to ground, every strike aimed at the other’s vitals.

Rumble!

Boom!

Sword qi tore the corner of Li Guanqi’s eye, and violent vital force fluctuations surged through his blade.

Sun Tianqi sensed it and flew backward. He knew Li Guanqi wanted to end the fight, and he felt the same. Dragging things out served neither of them. Li Guanqi’s strength far exceeded his imagination. His vital force was as deep and powerful as a flowing river, and his physical power was staggering. All of it was his own, unlike Sun Tianqi’s, which relied on external objects.