Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Night descended.

Li Guanqi found himself in the midst of a vast mountain range. The mountains echoed with the continuous roars of beasts, reminding the young man about the dangers of demonic beasts outside the sect. For the current Li Guanqi, encountering a first-tier demonic beast would be manageable, but he would be hard-pressed if he met a second-tier demonic beast.

A second-tier demonic beast was already on par with the Foundation Establishment stage among human cultivators. Fortunately, at this moment, he spotted a ruined temple on a distant mountaintop. Li Guanqi finally breathed a sigh of relief. At the very least, he had a place to rest for the night. Glancing at the map in his jade slip, he realized that it would take until tomorrow night to reach Xingyun Town.

The temple’s signboard had long faded, and the desolate state of the entrance indicated that it had been abandoned for quite some time.

Creak…

The sound of a young man pushing open the door was particularly grating in the quiet night. However, Li Guanqi had long adapted to living in the dark, and he didn’t mind the eerie atmosphere.

The courtyard was covered in dry leaves and cobwebs. He used the scabbard of his sword to sweep away the cobwebs, and he entered the temple.

Creak! Creak!

Stepping on the dried leaves, Li Guanqi walked into the temple with an expression of indifference. Taking a look around, he saw several Buddha statues that were badly damaged, with half of their bodies missing. The golden lacquer on these statues had been scraped off cleanly by looters a long time ago.

While Li Guanqi didn’t believe in deities and Buddhas, he still bowed and chanted a Buddhist mantra as he sought refuge here.

He picked up some dry branches from the surroundings and returned to the temple. In the courtyard, he kindled a small fire, took out dried meat and water from his bag of holding, and had a meal.

After eating and drinking his fill, Li Guanqi placed the broken incense table at the entrance and lay down on it to sleep. In the quiet temple, there was only the crackling sound of the flames.

Just as Li Guanqi closed his eyes, he suddenly felt a cold wind blowing outside the door. He tried to activate his spiritual senses, but to his surprise, he couldn’t see the outside world, no matter how hard he tried! He had only closed his eyes for less than ten breaths of time.

Crackle!

The sound of dry wood burning continued to echo clearly in his ears. He tried to get up, but found that he couldn’t move at all!

Cold sweat instantly drenched his back, and the cold wind made his hair stand on end involuntarily.

“What’s going on…”

At this moment, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of panic.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t open his eyelids. He was perfectly awake and could sense the cold wind by his side, the crackling of the fire, and even the scent of burning incense. But he couldn’t move a muscle!

Suddenly!

As Li Guanqi lay on his side, he could hear something scuttling in front of him! The sudden appearance of this creature sent chills down Li Guanqi’s spine, and he shivered, with goosebumps covering his entire body. It moved slowly, as if it were studying his paralyzed body.

Gradually, he could hear the creature slowly stand up. It climbed onto the incense table, pressing its entire body against him. From the feeling of the creature’s silhouette, Li Guanqi realized that it was a human woman!

The woman’s body felt as light as a feather, but it pressed down on Li Guanqi’s heart like a heavy burden, making it even harder for him to breathe. He could even smell a strange scent from the woman’s hair.

His body, which was already immobile, became even heavier. As he lay on his side, Li Guanqi couldn’t move at all, and he could only feel as the woman climbed up.

Swish!

The woman’s hair brushed against Li Guanqi’s neck, and the sensation of her hair brushing against his face was bloodcurling.

“This feeling… it’s too strange… what’s going on!”

Suddenly, before Li Guanqi could react, he felt something pressing against his neck.

“A tongue… a tongue!”

The soft sensation lacked any warmth and even felt somewhat cold. The woman’s tongue was unusually long, almost as long as an adult’s palm. However, it resembled the tongue of a wild cat, with tiny barbs.

Her tongue traced along Li Guanqi’s neck until it reached his earlobe! The sensation almost made him cry out from the chill.

“Move! Come on, move!”

“Move, damn it!”

With a thunderous sound, driven by Li Guanqi’s strong burst of will, the Nine Revolutions Thunder Scripture in his body suddenly sprang to life. The lightning element in his dantian surged throughout his entire body.

A subtle sound reverberated in Li Guanqi’s mind, as if breaking some sort of seal. Li Guanqi’s right hand glowed with a layer of purple thunderous light.

He swiftly smacked the table with his left hand and, in an instant, flipped over. His right hand shot out like lightning, gripping the woman’s neck and pinning her beneath him! The incense table shattered with a loud bang, and the spirit of the female ghost was firmly held down by the young man!

“Ah!”

In the empty, ancient temple, the ghost’s scream echoed! Li Guanqi’s produced a yellow talisman in left hand, which, as he channeled his spiritual energy, burst into a blue flame. This fire also contained a hint of thunderous power.

“Manifest, talisman!”

Swoosh!

The blue flame instantly entered the ghost’s body, gradually transforming her from an ethereal form to a solid one under the talisman’s influence.

Li Guanqi furrowed his brow, and the thunderous energy in his right hand surged as he spoke in a deep voice, “Where did you come from, ghost? How dare you try to steal my vitality?”

At this point, the disheveled woman’s hair fell, revealing an incredibly beautiful face. However, this face was somewhat paler than usual. The woman’s head was tilted, and her eyes were filled with embarrassment and indignation as she glanced at the young man.

Li Guanqi on top, straddling her chest, and the effect of the talisman made her take on a physical form, making this posture rather awkward for both of them.

Cough, cough…

After standing up, Li Guanqi still didn’t release his grip with his right hand.

Swoosh!

“Spirit Binding Talisman!”

The talisman, once burnt, turned into a golden rope that tightly bound the woman. One end of the rope was coiled around Li Guanqi’s wrist. As long as there was still spiritual energy within him, this rope wouldn’t be easily broken.

At this point, Li Guanqi looked at the woman and asked in a deep voice, “There have been numerous murders in Xingyun Town recently. Are you related to them?”

The woman knelt on the ground, her eyes filled with fear as she spoke in an ethereal voice, “Immortal… No, it wasn’t me. Please believe me!”

“I… At most, I’ve been waiting here in this ruined temple, absorbing a bit of human vitality to maintain my soul. I’ve never killed anyone. Please, Immortal, spare me.”

“I haven’t left this mountain for the past twenty years.”

Li Guanqi frowned. With the return of his spiritual senses, he noticed that the woman showed no emotional fluctuations while she pleaded. It seemed she wasn’t lying to him.

“And how can I believe that you’re telling the truth?”

Hearing this, the woman’s face twisted in indecision. However, as a surge of thunderous spiritual energy passed through the rope, she hesitated for a moment and then whispered, “Because… my bones are here in the mountains.”

“I… I can’t leave a radius of thirty meters of my bones. Otherwise my soul will scatter.”

Li Guanqi hesitated for a moment and then said, “Take me to them.”