Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way - Chapter 107

The last three disciples standing consisted of two Seven Kill Sect disciples and one Vast Sky Sect disciple.

“Gu Suihan, you cruelly killed a fellow disciple, and your sneaky attacks are so vicious! Aren’t you afraid that you might be banished to the Demon Abyss?” yelled one of them in a rather shaky voice. As he spoke, he summoned several ghosts to surround him tightly to prevent Gu Suihan from making a sneak attack.

The Vast Sky Sect disciple spat hatefully, “If you dare to attack us, the three of us will not go down without a fight. At worst, we’ll all die together.”

The three who had been fighting each other just moments ago had suddenly united as one against Gu Suihan’s cruel methods.

“Don’t worry. There are only four of us left now. Why should we keep fighting? Why don’t we explore the place you have found and split the treasures we find inside equally?” said Gu Suihan with a smile as he clasped a palm over his other fist politely. The ruthlessness he displayed earlier had disappeared completely.

“And you think we’d believe you?” The three of them snorted at Gu Suihan’s shameless behaviour.

“I can swear by the Way,” said Gu Suihan with some exasperation.

The three faltered and exchanged glances.

One of them finally made a decision. “Swear by the Way then. Swear not to make a sneak attack on us and not to take more than your fair share of the treasures in here. We will split everything equally.”

“Hoho,” Gu Suihan just scoffed and stared at them intensely, the contempt on his lips clear for all to see.

They felt a little embarrassed by the way he stared an accusation at them, and they laughed awkwardly as they said, “We’ll swear by the Way not to attack you too, so don’t worry about that.”

After both sides had reached an agreement and watched each other take their oaths, the tension between them instantly eased. The three disciples instinctively glanced at each other and breathed a sigh of relief.

They were not afraid of a fight since all of them had yet to reveal their trump cards. But they were not stupid either. Nobody knew what Gu Suihan would do if he suddenly turned violent. None of them wanted to die. They were forced to be on the same side, but they were still a little wary and were ready to fight if necessary.

“Let’s go.” Questioning Heaven gleamed brightly and was covered in a bloodied mist, which made it look exceptionally creepy against Gu Suihan’s fitting clothes.

He entered the sinister-looking cave first and did not seem worried that the three behind him would pull any funny tricks.

Once they entered the cave, everything went dark, and they felt a chill deep inside, which made them all shiver. Cultivators were neither afraid of the cold nor of the heat and usually wore one or two light layers of clothing. Their bodies never reacted so strongly to a change in temperature.

“This is a Chilly Soul and Icy Po formation,” murmured Gu Suihan to himself. The bloodshot symbol in his eyes glinted as he looked at his surroundings.

“What a wily old fox,” cursed Gu Suihan inwardly as he raised an eyebrow. The cultivator who left this behind meant business and had actually set up this formation just a meter from the entrance of the cave.

The cave was very dark, and even cultivators would take time to get used to the dimness inside, so most would instantly unleash some spiritual energy to form a protective layer around themselves to prevent any sneak attacks. But spiritual energy was exactly what activated this formation.

It was so cold that they could see a white cloud whenever they exhaled. Gu Suihan frowned as he looked at the thin layer of frost on his shoulders, and his heart grew heavy.

“This is a Chilly Soul and Icy Po formation. Look out for anything that might suddenly attack you from nowhere and search for the formation eye. The formation eye of this formation is a dead one,” Gu Suihan warned the other three.

“Where’s that Chilly Soul? Hurry up and show yourself.” Gu Suihan’s eyes glowed as he looked around, trying to locate the Chilly Soul of the formation.

Chilly Souls were good stuff. They were intelligent creatures that grew in extremely cold places. To Gu Suihan, this thing spent many years in very cold places like glaciers, so its sentience had been well-refined by the harsh temperatures. It was very good for healing the wounds in his spirit.

A biting wind blew, causing snow and frost to fill the air. The temperature instantly fell significantly again.

“It’s snowing?!” The Vast Sky Sect disciple felt something cold on his nose and wiped it off with his hand before looking up to see snow falling from above. His heart began to sink.

He knew that this was a result of that formation in front of them, and it was probably still terribly warm outside. But even though he knew the formation caused this, he had no idea how to break the formation. His first instinct was to look toward the young man in a black cloak standing as straight as a sword in front of him.

“Where’s the formation eye?” thought Gu Suihan, possibilities running through his mind as quickly as lightning as his eyes exuded a bloodied glow. His spiritual sense scanned the grounds as if he had a thousand hands, checking his surroundings and inspecting every inch.

Formations worked by a particular philosophy, which was to reverse the positions and switch yin and yang.

No matter what kind of formation it was, all of them aimed to confuse a person before killing them.

But as long as one did not step into the formation, then it could not cause any harm, no matter how impressive its name was.

Every formation requires a formation eye to maintain and control the formation. It was not something that cultivators could do by themselves.

While Gu Suihan was thinking about these things with a frown on his face, he heard a long howl from afar.

Heavy footsteps came toward them, and the four of them instantly turned to look before gasping.

It wasn’t that their enemy was too terrifying, but that it was too shocking.

As far as Gu Suihan could remember, Chilly Souls had to be at least three meters tall in order to be enslaved by a formation and provide the formation with sufficient power.

But the thing coming their way looked more like an ice sculpture of a human. It had all the facial features of a human, but its body was translucent, and one could see a light blue skeleton inside.

It was as though a human had their flesh and blood removed, leaving only the skin and skeleton. There were no veins, internal organs, or hair.

One of the Seven Kill Sect disciples couldn’t help but gulp nervously. Looking at this thing gave him the creeps.

“This is a Chilly Soul!” Gu Suihan’s eyes lit up. He suddenly turned around and said, “This formation has been here for many years. According to the records, setting up this formation requires a Heavenly Fiend Chilly Soul to guard it. While an Icy Po is the main guard of the formation eye, which allows it to adjust the temperature while the Chilly Soul kills the enemy. But for some reason, only the Chilly Soul is left. Or perhaps the Icy Po still exists. If we don’t act quickly, we’re doomed.”

Immediately after he said that he raised his sword to attack the Chilly Soul without waiting for the rest to respond.

“This thing is at least at Peak Foundation Establishment, and the Icy Po is definitely even more terrifying! Attacking it first will help us gain the upper hand! Attack it now!”

They exchanged glances and saw a tinge of viciousness in each other’s eyes.

Gu Suihan brandished his sword, but it was as if it were merely slicing through the air. The blade did not face any resistance as it went right through the Chilly Soul to land on the frozen rock behind it.

“Keke!” A sound that resembled mocking laughter suddenly echoed in the cold cave.

“shit! This thing can even conceal itself?!” Gu Suihan’s eyes widened. He had never come across a Chilly Soul that could conceal itself.

“It can conceal itself, so watch your surroundings.”

This was not the time to be guarded against each other, so they stood with their backs together and looked around warily.

“Ahh!” The Vast Sky Sect disciple was the first one to cry out. Everyone looked at him, only to see that one sleeve was torn, and there were three cuts on his arm that measured half a foot long. The blood could not flow out because the wound was frozen solid. The frostiness had also damaged the Spiritual Meridians inside his arm.

Gu Suihan suddenly noticed something moving from the corner of his eye and yelled at one of the Seven Kill Sect disciples, “Watch out!”

Unfortunately, he was a split second too late. This time, the disciple was stabbed in the chest. The wound was so deep that his bone was exposed, and he nearly lost his heart.

“My spiritual sense can’t sense it, and talismans are useless against it.” Gu Suihan narrowed his eyes, and his heart remained perfectly calm as he quickly analyzed the situation. “Using the five elements is useless on this Chilly Soul. At the same time, the Chilly Soul keeps making sneak attacks, which means it’s not powerful enough to take us down head-on. It might only be at the same level as us.”

“Hmm? The temperature seems like it isn’t dropping anymore.” Gu Suihan could keenly sense that the temperature had risen. “Is it because it uses up too much energy making those attacks, so it doesn’t have enough energy to sustain the snowy weather we’re facing here?”

“Ghost Wave!” The Seven Kill Sect disciple smeared medicine on his wound, and there was hatred in his eyes. He slammed the Ghost Controlling Flag made from human bones in his hand to the ground suddenly, causing countless wicked ghosts and vengeful spirits to rush out from the flag made from human skin. The black murderous qi formed a thick cloud of mist that filled the entire space as the ghosts howled and the spirits wailed.

The disciple was going to fill up the entire area, which measured about 300 meters across, with those ghosts and spirits in order to reveal where the Chilly Soul was hiding. It was a fairly primitive method, but it worked.

“It’s over there.” The young man closed his eyes for a long time, then suddenly stretched his claws out as he flew to make a grab for an area on his left where a group of ghosts had disappeared.

“No, not there.” Gu Suihan had a grim look in his eyes when he saw where the other disciple was headed. Instead of moving forward, he took three steps backward as his bloodshot eyes stared straight at the ceiling that had never changed at all this whole time.

“That’s where you’re really hiding.” Gu Suihan chuckled and drew his sword, the bloodied mist around it expanding and intensifying in the wind. Once it had gotten the snow and frost out of the way, Gu Suihan sent out the murderous qi from his sword to attack the seemingly empty space above like an angry dragon.

An ear-piercing screech resounded, and it seemed a little frantic. There was a ripple in the air as something seemed to flash past very quickly.

“You can’t run away.” Gu Suihan’s eyes burned greedily as he swung his sword mightily at that thing, as though the sky was collapsing on it.

That screech resounded again, this time with a more aggressive and decisive sound. Gu Suihan felt a gust of wind before three cuts appeared on his chest.

“I said, you can’t run away!” The murderous qi inside Gu Suihan surged out of his body as he moved as swiftly and quietly as a shadow. He stuck a finger on his left hand out like it was a sword. A thin black line that emanated a bloody-colored glow swirled around his finger, and he flung it to the front.

The black and red line became longer as it flew through the air, encircling the empty space above. In no time, the line had tied up a creature that measured about seven feet.

“I see; you’ve changed your looks a little,” snickered Gu Suihan as he noticed two large wings through the black and red line around it.

The creature wailed pitifully as if it was pleading with Gu Suihan to let it off.

“Where is the Icy Po?” asked Gu Suihan in an emotionless voice.

“Why do you bother asking it? It doesn’t speak our language. Why don’t I try using a soul searching technique on it?” asked the ghost cultivator with a glimmer in his eye.

“Move aside.” Gu Suihan glanced at the other disciple and ignored the disciple’s darkened expression. He grabbed the creature’s head with one hand.