Chapter 268: Chapter 268

Li Guanqi had no idea what Sword Spirit was thinking.

The fierce battles of the past few days had worn him down, yet they had also sharpened him. His strength had risen at an astonishing pace, enough that he could crush the version of himself from just half a month earlier.

Sword Spirit was an inexhaustible trove of knowledge. There seemed to be nothing she did not know. No matter the obstacles he faced in cultivation, she could always identify the problem with uncanny precision and tell him how to fix it.

Fighting opponents at the same cultivation level no longer brought him any gains. From the start, he had set his sights on the tier-four demonic beasts of the Hell Mountains.

Tier-four beasts were fast, powerful, and just beginning to develop true intelligence. making them worthy opponents. The difference in cultivation meant Li Guanqi had to tread carefully every time he faced one.

In only five days, he had encountered twelve such beasts and killed three tier-four beasts as strong as an early Nascent Soul Realm cultivator. Almost every day, he came back bloodied and covered in wounds. But the high-risk approach pushed his swordsmanship to new heights.

He was beginning to master the early stages of the sprint technique Sword Spirit had taught him. He was currently thirty percent faster, the equivalent of wearing the Thunder Wings. Once he reached the mid-stage, he would be fifty percent faster.

This time, it took him three full days to recover from his injuries.

When he woke up, he found Sword Spirit looking at him, her face so close it was but a finger’s breadth away. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭•𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦•𝘯𝘦𝘵

Startled, Li Guanqi sank to the bottom of the pool, his heart pounding. Even with his eyes closed, he could still picture her beautiful gaze fixed on him.

He shook his head, then leaped out of the water.

Sword Spirit gazed at him and said, “This time, I shall teach you a second sword technique—a set of sword moves. After that, I'll also teach you a lightning spirit spell, numbered ninety-nine.”

Li Guanqi was already overjoyed at the prospect of learning another spell. When he heard it was in the top one hundred, he hugged her excitedly and exclaimed, “Really? That’s incredible! Hahaha!”

A powerful blast sent him flying dozens of meters, and his back slammed hard into a stone wall. The impact caused web-like cracks to spread across the thick stone.

Sword Spirit turned away so he could not see her expression. A moment later, she dissolved into a ray of light and vanished.

Li Guanqi, still not fully healed, nearly blacked out from the impact. By the time he managed to sit upright, Sword Spirit had already returned to the sword box.

Sitting on the ground, he recalled the sensations…

Her breasts had felt real to the touch. Soft, but without warmth. Her shoulders were delicate, and her waist so slender his arms could circle it with ease.

Shaken by what happened, he rubbed his nose awkwardly. He realized he probably deserved that punch.

He was still the only person who could see the Sword Spirit. But now, he could actually touch her.

As he mulled over the matter, a cold voice pierced his mind. “If you dwell on that… I’ll… I’ll go into deep sleep forever!”

Li Guanqi’s guilt pricked at him. “I’m sorry. I was too excited when you said you’d teach me a top-hundred spell… I couldn’t control ‌myself.”

However, Sword Spirit remained furious and unconvinced. “You couldn’t control yourself? Heh. Do you expect me to believe that?”

Li Guanqi shrugged helplessly. He’d told her the truth, and whether she chose to believe him was beyond his control.

Sword Spirit considered his words and felt that he wasn’t lying. But she didn’t want to talk to him, so she ignored him.

“Sigh... Must you be so sensitive? It was just a hug. Fine, I’ll take the short end of the stick. Hug me twice as payback! Do what you want. Sully my innocence, torture me, squeeze me until I'm dead…”

Inside the sword box, Sword Spirit’s face grew darker and darker. She had forgotten that besides being obsessed with money, he was also utterly shameless.

When Li Guanqi realized she had no intention of replying, boredom set in. He prepared to leave for training. He'd need to find new hunting grounds since he’d already fought every tier-four beast within a hundred li.

Of course, he had been beaten plenty of times himself, and there were several beasts he still could not defeat.

As time went by, the tension between him and Sword Spirit gradually eased. Eventually, she taught him another sword technique: the Heavenly Destruction Sword Sutra. It consisted of only three moves, but each was many times stronger than the last.

She explained that if he mastered all three while still in the Nascent Soul Realm, he’d be able to kill anyone beneath the Divine Transformation Realm. Li Guanqi pursed his lips, doubtful that such a claim could be true.

But he was struggling with even the basics. He still hadn't understood the first move, called Crouching Demon.

Soon, three months had slipped by in the Hell Mountains.

The firewood crackled loudly, the sound stark in the dead of night. Though the Hell Mountains teemed with demonic beasts, none came near him, a strangely safe situation.

The reason lay nearby: the carcass of a tier-four Ink Lion.

Li Guanqi chewed on roasted lion meat as he stared into the fire, replaying the killing strike in his mind.

The Crouching Demon is such a powerful move! It’s as powerful as the Shadow Demon Slash.

Suddenly, a noisy rustling came from the forest. A hunting party came into view, two women and a man.

The man and one woman bore visible injuries, while the third woman appeared relatively unharmed, though she seemed the weakest of the group. Her clothes were very tattered as well.

Li Guanqi put down the lion meat, then extinguished the fire. He stared at them coldly with his pure white eyes.

The tall, thin man in beast hide hurriedly bowed. “Senior, we strayed here by accident. Could you protect us for one night? I have five hundred spirit stones!”

The two women also bowed at once, trembling fearfully as though grasping at their last hope.

But Li Guanqi rose and said flatly, “Stay away from me.”

The man’s face went pale. The women fell to their knees, kowtowing desperately.

They knew that without his protection, they probably wouldn’t survive the night.

Li Guanqi, however, remained unmoved. He put away the Ink Lion’s carcass and turned to leave.

It was not cold-bloodedness. He simply had no ties to the trio.

How had three early Golden Core Realm cultivators wandered so deep into the forest? Whatever the reason, it was not his concern.

He glanced at the sky, saw that it was time, and departed swiftly.