Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way - Chapter 117

Wan Xin continued to chase after Gu Suihan and was clearly not going to give up or let him off. Her slim fingers tapped on the air in front of her and sent out sparkly streams of talismans.

“Young lady! I said! I didn’t kill you the last time, so that’s as good as saving your life! Why are you eager to kill me?!” yelled Gu Suihan as he bent his body nimbly and drew an arc in the air as he dodged more talismans.

Wan Xin pursed her thin lips and her expression looked as ominous as storm clouds. It would have been better if Gu Suihan hadn’t mentioned this incident. Any mention of what happened the last time filled her with absolute rage. Besides being given a fierce dressing down by her master, she was even locked in a cold and dark cell underground for several months. That was not something that most people could endure.

“Stop running if you dare!” spat Wan Xin furiously. Her pretty feet stepped on the air like a fairy, creating faint ripples in the air as she increased her speed to chase Gu Suihan down.

Gu Suihan could sense that Wan Xin was getting closer to him and felt a sense of dismay. If he wasn’t still recovering from injuries, including cracks in his bones, he would have been able to fight an Advanced Foundation Establishment cultivator like Wan Xin head-on. He wouldn’t have to scramble for his life like this.

The chase went on and it didn’t take long for them to cover a few hundred miles. The scenery around them slowly changed. The vast and dense forest slowly became more and more sparse, replaced by a barren desert. The entire place was filled with nothing but sand and there wasn’t a single person in sight.

“And you think I really don’t have the guts to fight back?” Gu Suihan’s instinct told him that there was something special about this place. He stopped running right at the border of the forest and turned to glare hatefully at the determined Wan Xin.

“Fight me then!” Wan Xin didn’t give Gu Suihan a chance to speak again. She flicked her small hand in front of her and retrieved a seven-stringed zither that had dragons and phoenixes carved into its body from her storage ring. Her finger plucked the strings and sent out strong winds made from blades of sound. A beautiful melody slowly filled the air, each note touching the heart, bypassing Gu Suihan’s ears to echo inside his head.

“What trauma has this woman suffered? She’s actually able to play such mesmerizing sounds!” The spirit inside Gu Suihan’s consciousness spun and gave off a bright glow that covered his entire consciousness and kept the intrusive sound of the zither out.

“Soul Burying Pentatonic Scale – the End of Youth!” Wan Xin stared at the unaffected Gu Suihan and clenched her teeth. She changed the way she plucked the strings and the gentle melody of the zither that previously sounded like the sweet murmuring of a lover suddenly changed. It now became depressive and empty, like one lamenting the fleeting nature of youth. A deep sadness slowly filled the surroundings. The tree branches swayed and the grass rustled, as though they had become sentient and were accompanying Wan Xin’s zither.

Gu Suihan placed his right hand on the hilt of his sword. His face was a little pale and he was beginning to sweat as well. The sounds of the zither were clearly taking their toll on him. The blood-colored symbol in his shining eyes glowed even more brightly than before, as though he was accumulating more and more murderous hatred. His lips, however, had a grave look that was barely noticeable. He realized that he actually didn’t quite want to draw his sword.

“Swirling Red Spider Lily Seal – Severing Emotions!”

Gu Suihan knew he couldn’t hesitate any longer. He bit the tip of his tongue hard and seized that short moment of alertness to use his hands to form a seal. He unleashed his qi and a red complex and odd-smelling magic seal formed in front of him.

In that instant, his expression was peaceful, as though he were a buddha looking down on Earth, unfazed by the immorality flashing past him, like a venerable monk who was no longer tempted by worldly desires. He launched the seal toward the bloody red flowers coming toward him, the seal expanding as it approached the whirlwind of flowers. It had turned into a gigantic net by the time it crossed the 100-meter mark and came close to Wan Xin.

“Soul Burying Pentatonic Scale – Lamenting Worldly Desires!” Wan Xin’s expression faltered as she stared in shock and horror at Gu Suihan. She couldn’t figure out how a demon who had killed countless people could possibly unleash a seal that contained so much love and mercy for the world.

The wind howled as it blew past her, making her smooth black hair fly and revealing her stern fair face. Her white dress billowed gently and the sun shining on her made the dark red lotus flower on her fair arm look especially striking.

The sound of her zither changed again. The sad tune suddenly increased in pitch, making the strings tremble. The music was now like wandering poets sighing about how transient the world was and how everything was fleeting as smoke.

The whirlwind of red spider lilies shattered the seal from Gu Suihan and Wan Xin gained the upper hand once more.

“Swirling Red Spider Lily Seal – Stop Lustful Desires!”

Gu Suihan’s face became paler and the glint in his eyes grew brighter as he thrust a seal out. It was a seal that seemed to be made from the energies of nature that could break all lustful desires and shatter the people befuddled by the ways of the world.

Just when both of them were fighting with everything they had.

A roar that seemed to resound through the entire universe suddenly came from somewhere in the vast, barren desert.

The roar was so loud, that it stirred up sand and stones nearly a hundred meters into the air.

“A wild beast?” Gu Suihan had a bitter look on his face. He was now literally sandwiched between two ferocious monsters. It was hard to decide what to do now.

“If you continue fighting, we’re both going to die here,” said Gu Suihan when he felt the huge wave of sand and stones behind him.

Wan Xin glared hatefully at the elegant and mature man with graying sideburns in front of her and scoffed indignantly as she kept her zither, then turned to leave. However, she kept her spiritual sense locked on him as if she was not going to let him off even though they agreed to stop fighting for the moment.

Of course, Gu Suihan could sense the mildly murderous spiritual sense locked on him and cursed inwardly, but this was not the time to get annoyed with such things. He turned around to see a shadow behind the wave of sand and stones that stood at more than 20 meters in height. His eye twitched and he started running immediately.

But when he stole a glance at Wan Xin who was still keeping a close distance from him at all times, he really became annoyed and tried suggesting to her, “Why don’t we split ways? That way, we’d both have a 50-50 chance of escaping.” At the same time, he retrieved a packet of demon-attracting powder from his storage ring and hid it in his hand.

“Dream on! I will not let you off!” Wan Xin held up her zither again and glared fiercely at Gu Suihan.

“shit!” Gu Suihan spat and tried to run faster in hope of losing Wan Xin. But the fight earlier on had already consumed a lot of his energy, plus he was one level lower in cultivation compared to Wan Xin, so he didn’t have as much spiritual energy either. So, despite his efforts to accelerate, Wan Xin continued to keep up with him and kept the same distance as before.

Craaack! Trees were uprooted and the shrubs were shredded as the wave of sand and stone rose to more than 60 meters high.

The usually soft fine sand was now more like throwing stars as they rained down noisily on the forcefield the two of them had put up around them. The sand came down so hard, that it created ripples in the forcefield and almost shattered the forcefield several times.

“Didn’t the Wonderful Sound Sect form an alliance with the Ethereal Court? Did they tell you anything about this secret realm?” asked Gu Suihan as he avoided falling trees, sand, and rocks while wiping away the blood dribbling from his lips.

Wan Xin’s white dress was now a sandy brown. Her hair was a mess and her clothes were torn. There were also several dirt streaks on her fair face, which made her look a little playful. As she continued running, she spat out a mouthful of sand without caring about how uncouth she looked and ignored Gu Suihan’s strange eyes as she pretended to be calm and said, “No, they didn’t!”

After that, there was no other sound besides the sound of the skies tearing and the sand rolling, as both of them concentrated on running. The beast behind them seemed to have its eye on them and refused to stop chasing after them.

Gu Suihan was still only at Mid Foundation Establishment, after all, so he was getting paler and paler, while his speed was getting slower and slower. The spiritual energy forcefield around him kept flickering and it finally made a snapping noise before shattering completely.

The forcefield had shattered too suddenly and he hadn’t had the time to dodge anything, so a large rock hit him from behind, causing him to stumble and spray blood out from his mouth.

“shit! You’re just a bloody animal! You think I can’t handle you?”

Gu Suihan seemed to become agitated after spewing blood, so he suddenly stopped running and turned to face the barely visible beast hiding behind the huge wave of sand and rocks.

“You can leave. Consider our feud settled.” Gu Suihan looked at Wan Xin, who was slightly pale in the face and still trying to catch her breath. He took a step forward to stand in front of her. His sword flew out of its sheath and murderous qi that seemed enough to devastate the world exploded from his body. Questioning Heaven was now like a bloodthirsty demon revealing its ferocious bloodied fangs.

“You…” Wan Xin stared at the man in front of her who was protecting her from the beast and was stunned for a moment. She was confused for a few seconds, but that was it. She realized what was going on. This was Gu Suihan’s desperate attempt to get out of this deadly situation alive. By doing this, if he defeated the beast, he would have also gotten rid of her. If he couldn’t defeat the beast, he was still going to die. At least it was a 50 percent chance.

She opened her mouth but didn’t know what to say as she just stared at him in silence. Finally, she whispered, “Good luck!” before leaving without even turning back.

Even though she didn’t want to give up trying to kill him, she knew she had to. This was Gu Suihan’s chance to survive and it was also her chance to survive.

The reality of the situation was not like the way romance stories made things out to be. Cultivators did not make bad choices like those brainless female leads like insisting on dying together or something like that.

At the same time, there was also no way Gu Suihan would have suddenly become a hero who wanted to save a damsel in distress either.

Gu Suihan remained standing where he was without moving, like a skerry in the ocean. The blood-red symbol in his eyes rotated rapidly as he narrowed his eyes slightly. Nebulas being destroyed, the sun and moon being put out and other magnificent scenes like those slowly appeared in his eyes, then quickly absorbed again by the whirlpool created by the spinning symbol.

Every tiny bit of spiritual energy in his body was now being used. His ivory-like skeleton gleamed as brightly as a gem and that was being twisted together unnaturally giving off a groan as if it had been placed under too much pressure.

Line after line of gold markings began to slowly appear on the quiet and heavy sword that Gu Suihan held in his hand. The murderous qi around him that seemed thick enough to solidify was absorbed entirely by the blade.

The sound of ghosts howling, deities shrieking and spirits wailing suddenly filled the air.

Gu Suihan watched as the beast hidden behind the sand and stone came closer and closer to him. He stared straight at the red eyes of the beast that exuded nothing but violence and suddenly burst into a strange smile.

“Nine Swords of Destruction – Destroying the Stars!”