Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way - Chapter 104

“This old fogey,” You Hantian snorted as he, too, shifted a few hundred meters backward, calmly eying the old man in the middle. He didn’t look like he was going to help at all.

“Humph!” The old man’s expression darkened when he saw that the leaders of sects like the Seven Kill Sect and the War Demon Sect had moved away instead of helping, but he did not say anything. He continued to unleash more and more qi from within his body at high speed, filling up the green pillar that resembled a tree trunk.

“I’ll help you.” A man who looked like an elder from the Vast Sky Sect took a step forward. A white glowing surge of energy containing righteous qi shot out from his body and entered the tree trunk.

The loud sound of something ripping suddenly came from within the blood-colored whirlpool, as though something had stabbed a hole in it.

“Heavenly Illusion Stabilizing Technique!” The old man from the Ethereal Court had turned pale, and there was blood seeping out from every orifice. His already graying hair had turned entirely white as his body emanated the unmistakable air of rot and decay.

The huge pillar creaked noisily as if it couldn’t take the pressure of the energy from the two men. Cracks appeared all over the pillar and quickly spread across its entire surface. It looked like it was going to fall apart at any moment.

But instead of looking disappointed, the old man looked even more excited. His robes flapped wildly from the surge of energy in the air, and his face was deathly pale, but his eyes shone with a brilliant look of determination as well as a crazed willingness to do anything to make this attempt succeed.

Bam! The pillar finally couldn’t hold up anymore. One piece of the pillar’s surface fell off, and that seemed to give the cue for the rest to follow. Everyone watched as the pillar creaked more and more loudly as countless pieces rained down from the sky.

Before long, the very surface of the pillar had been completely worn off the pillar, revealing a transparent core that gleamed colorfully like a crystal. It emanated an air of long-suffering and misery, which made everyone turn away instinctively.

“Here are your jade tokens. Everyone gets two of them. Smear one drop of blood on each token. The token will crumble once you die. Once there are no more than 500 people left inside, the way to the exit will appear on the token. Bring one with you, and give the other one to me.”

The deacons of the various sects got the command from their leaders and quickly retrieved a pile of jade tokens from their storage rings and bags to hand them out to their disciples.

The jade tokens that the Seven Kill Sect disciples got were red in color and only carried the words “Seven Kill Sect” on them. There was no name or number on them at all. It was clear that who lived and who died did not matter to the higher-ups of the sect.

Gu Suihan looked at the thin pieces of red jade in his hand, and there was a flicker in his eye. He made sure nobody was looking before retrieving a small bottle from his storage ring. He removed the cork, wiped his index finger over the mouth of the bottle, then used the same finger to wipe a bit of blood on his jade token. He put the bottle away after that.

“Here,” Gu Suihan held out his jade token to the deacon without any expression on his face.

The deacon just collected it from Gu Suihan without taking a look at it. There were a few hundred of them, after all. Nobody had the patience to inspect each piece carefully to see if anybody had done anything to the token.

“Enter the realm,” said You Hantian calmly after he turned to look at the disciples.

After getting the go-ahead from their leader, the disciples hesitated for a few moments with different expressions on their faces. Some were indifferent, some looked angry, and some were fearful. But once they caught sight of You Hantian’s emotionless face, they quickly flew toward the pillar that was now transparent.

Gu Suihan took his time and seemed to be trying to stall for time as he watched more and more disciples grit their teeth and head into the secret realm. He didn’t seem anxious at all and didn’t even bother looking at the old man glaring furiously at him.

“Are you thinking of running away?” Disciplinarian Zhang mocked Gu Suihan with a nasty look on his face when he noticed that Gu Suihan was still moving along at the same speed as an ordinary human.

Gu Suihan turned to glance at Disciplinarian Zhang, then chuckled and smiled mysteriously. Instead of walking faster, he started walking even more slowly than before.

“Humph! Let me give you a hand.” Disciplinarian Zhang sniggered, then waved his arm. A typhoon suddenly appeared, wrapping itself around Gu Suihan and carrying him toward the pillar.

As more and more people entered the secret realm, the huge pillar that looked incredibly strong was slowly dimming, and its surface was no longer as transparent as before. It looked like it was going to revert back to being that wooden trunk with a green glow in no time.

The typhoon carrying Gu Suihan helped him to cover a few kilometers in no time. It was now already getting very close to the pillar, and Gu Suihan did not try to fight back at all, as though he had already resigned himself to his fate.

When he was only ten meters away from the pillar, the typhoon instantly fell apart to reveal a completely unhurt Gu Suihan.

Before Disciplinarian Zhang could get over his shock at how Gu Suihan managed to remain unscathed, Gu Suihan took a deep breath and shouted very loudly, “These jade slips contain the plans that the Seven Kill Sect has. If the Ethereal Court and its allies don’t want to fail this competition, get one of these!”

Immediately after saying that, Gu Suihan scattered a few thousand gleaming jade slips into the air, then stepped into the secret realm and disappeared while everyone was still trying to wrap their heads around what just happened.

“Their plans?” Those from other sects were puzzled, but they were not slow in acting. Before You Hantian could do anything, they quickly made hand seals in order to grab one of those jade slips before they hit the ground.

“How dare you!” You Hantian’s eyes bulged angrily as his usually calm and collected expression turned into one of fury. He covered an area of 30,000 meters with a murderous aura, then waved his hand to send out a few thousand beams of energy toward the jade slips in the air.

“Why are you getting so jittery?” some from the Ethereal Court let out a merry laugh as they shattered the aura trapping them and used a variety of methods to get their hands on one of those jade slips.

“It’s a mess outside, and I think it must be a mess inside, too,” murmured Gu Suihan to himself with a snort as he recovered from the dizziness that always came with being teleported.

Before he had the time to observe his surroundings, he felt a fierce sword qi attempt to kill him, accompanied by a loud shout, “Disciple of the Seven Kill Sect, prepare to die!” A disciple dressed in the uniform of the Youthful Clarity Sect ran toward Gu Suihan with his sword raised.

“What an idiot,” spat Gu Suihan with a smile. He touched his belt, and Questioning Heaven leaped out of its sheath, its blade releasing a bloody mist that filled the entire space.

The blade sliced the neck of the Youthful Clarity Sect disciple even as the disciple screamed in horror and disbelief. Blood spurted from his neck as his head was now balancing on the tip of Questioning Heaven.

Now that he didn’t have to observe the many rules of the world he was in or the pressure from cultivators more powerful than himself, Gu Suihan felt so much more relaxed. It felt like the dark clouds that had been over his head all this time had cleared.

“Swallow the soul to repair the spirit!” Without the pressure from powerful cultivators like You Hantian, the bloodthirstiness in Gu Suihan’s bones could finally be unleashed. His instantly recognizable calm expression now looked somewhat evil when matched with his murderous gaze.

He grabbed the young man’s head with his left hand. His five fingers glowed a bloody red as they stabbed themselves into the skull as though it was merely made from tofu. A faint gray mist was instantly absorbed by his hand, and he had a pleased smile on his face as if he was enjoying this very much.

“If you add up all the disciples from the various sects and factions, there must be a few thousand people in here. This many souls should be enough to restore me to Origin Core.” Gu Suihan flung the dried-up head aside. He flicked his finger and used his spiritual energy to take the storage ring from the headless corpse for himself.

The sword returned to its sheath, and the terrifying atmosphere in the air instantly disappeared. But the strange blood-colored symbol in his eyes grew brighter. A glow covered his body as the ordinary brocade robe of the Seven Kill Sect internal disciples transformed into a black cloak, covering his entire body like the pitch black night sky. There were several strange patterns on the cloak, and bloodied qi emanated from its hems, making Gu Suihan’s aura even more grim and sinister.

“This really brings back memories,” said Gu Suihan as he looked down at his clothing. The tinge of wickedness in the smile on his pale face could really send shivers down one’s spine.

He was in the midst of a forest, but it was strewn with bones and flesh of corpses. No birds could be heard, and there wasn’t even the sound of crickets or other small insects like that. The whole place was silent, and the dead trees made the atmosphere even colder and lonelier.

“This entire place is dead.” Gu Suihan wasn’t affected and strolled through this eerie forest, taking his time to observe his surroundings as though he wasn’t worried about any dangers that might be lurking in the darkness.

Gu Suihan suddenly stopped walking and looked at the dead and empty area behind him as he called out in a calm voice, “Come out!”

Nobody answered him except for the cold breeze blowing through, which sounded like the wailing of ghosts, as well as the remaining echoes of Gu Suihan’s voice.

“You can die then,” said Gu Suihan as if he were talking to himself. He pointed his finger at the empty space as if it were a sword, creating a glow of sword qi that measured several meters wide, which carried murderous qi as it surged wildly toward that area.