Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way - Chapter 136

ROAARR! The Huangquan Evil Ghost’s furious eyes had a look of pain in them now. Its claws flailed about as it tried to chase this ant in front of it away.

Unfortunately, Gu Suihan’s palm was like a magnet that stuck itself firmly on the ghost’s forehead. In fact, his five fingers were actually trying to pull the skin of its forehead apart so that his palm could enter.

Ever since this ghost had gained sentience, it had only suffered such humiliation once before, and that was when it had been suppressed here by the designer of this domain. It immediately took a deep breath, then let out a huge roar. The soundwaves were powerful enough to shake one’s soul, making the person who heard it feel giddy, nauseous, as well as giving them trouble seeing and hearing.

“Calm the Heart! Focus the Spirit!” Gu Suihan’s face was as pale as a sheet. Blood trickled out from his ears, nose, and mouth to form several meandering little snakes of blood. His right hand did not have enough energy to hold onto his sword and he let it clang loudly onto the floor.

Even so, his gaze remained indifferent and the bloodied whirlpool in his eyes seemed to churn faster as an excited smile actually spread across his lips.

The ghost continued to claw at Gu Suihan, but unfortunately for it, Gu Suihan was no longer wearing his ordinary clothes but the spiritual weapon cloak he got from the jade and gold box earlier on.

Its claws kept getting repelled, while Gu Suihan’s body was like a snake that had gone stiff. His pale face suddenly turned unnaturally red before he sprayed a mouthful of blood out at the ghost’s head.

“As long as I’ve got the secret key on me, you can’t kill me. I’ve guessed it right,” muttered Gu Suihan to himself excitedly as he kept his murderous eyes fixed on the increasingly frustrated Huangquan Evil Ghost. The palm he kept on its forehead suddenly unleashed a powerful suction force and he sucked in its slightly cool soul energy even as the look in the ghost’s eyes turned to one of horror.

This time, the ghost really started panicking. The power it had accumulated and refined over countless years exploded in that instant, making it seem like a storm had just hit the hall. The warring puppets in the distance had a flicker in their eyes and the redness had dimmed significantly. They were clearly not holding up well.

Wan Xin and the rest had long lost their consciousness during this battle of energies and lay helplessly on the floor. Xi Ran and the Seven Kill Sect Peak Leader were conscious, but their faces were pale, so they did their best to meditate and concentrate on keeping their soul together in order to keep themselves from harm.

“You can’t kill me!” yelled Gu Suihan ferociously as a bloodthirsty look appeared on his face. Blood began to seep from his pores and he was quickly covered in blood all over. That and his already bleeding orifices made him look like a demon himself.

ROARRR! The ghost was getting angry now. It could feel that it was getting hungrier and hungrier, while it was becoming weaker and weaker. It wanted to get rid of this ant on its face, but its body refused to listen, leaving Gu Suihan hanging on his face.

One line, two lines, three lines…countless crack lines on Old Suihan’s1 spirit slowly healed up and it began to glow faintly as if it had come back to life. Gu Suihan could feel that the dull ache that had been bothering him all this time was slowly being washed away and weakened by the cool soul energy from the ghost.

“But it’s too bad, you won’t die.” Gu Suihan looked at the Huangquan Evil Ghost who had shrunk in size but still looked as threatening as ever and sighed with regret written all over his face. He reluctantly let go of it, then flung it aside. The redness in his eyes continued to glow brightly as he quietly turned to look at the rest who were all trying their best to meditate and heal their bodies.

After a short while, Gu Suihan sadly gave up on the tempting idea of killing them all. He spun around to put one foot on the Huangquan Evil Ghost, then sent his spiritual sense into the other party’s consciousness. “What is going on in here?”

“If you’re so capable, you can go ahead and kill me! I’m not going to tell you anything!” the grating voice of the ghost rang in his head. It didn’t bother to hide any of its vengefulness toward Gu Suihan.

“Of course, I’m not powerful enough to kill you. But have you thought about what those warring puppets would do to you once we’re gone?” Gu Suihan glanced casually at the warring puppets that were coming closer and closer as he slowly picked Questioning Heaven up and smiled frostily at the ghost.

“Humph! At worst, I’ll just go back down there. I’m sure they can’t get in.” The ghost looked at the warring puppets with its snake-like eyes and didn’t seem bothered by Gu Suihan’s threat.

“What’s your job here then?” said Gu Suihan all of a sudden. He chuckled and added, “I suppose that fellow didn’t expect you to misbehave like this.”

“Why, you…” The ghost shuddered when it heard Gu Suihan’s words. “He’s dead…he’s been dead for many, many years…”

Its muttering was filled with fear and terror, as well as a deep hatred.

“Back then, he just wanted me to collect the secret keys, throw anybody who got here into this old well, then place the keys in the slots around the well. Then I could go back to sleep after that.”

“Old well?” Gu Suihan’s eyes widened slightly. He turned to see a hole as dark as a bottomless pit, as well as the nine slots around it that had several complicated carvings on their border.

“He wants to refine souls in order to be reincarnated?” Gu Suihan’s long history of experience allowed him to immediately arrive at this possibility.

“The dead things outside the door, the warring puppets with warring spirits inside the hall, and a Huangquan Evil Ghost filled with soul energy. All for the sake of accomplishing this?” Gu Suihan raised an eyebrow and his gaze flickered.

“But one could argue that this is a pointless method. You need to use spiritual blood to drench the body in order to keep it fresh. After that, you need to keep absorbing souls in order to make sure the consciousness doesn’t fall apart by waiting patiently for greedy cultivators thinking they’re here to obtain a legacy. They’d end up killing one another or getting killed, leaving the strongest ones to enter this formation.”

“Only then can you refine your blood, raise your body up, gather your soul and revive your spirit. You can put yourself together all over again, which means that not only will you recover from your wounds, but you could even form the legendary perfect Dao body by making up for the flaws during your previous cultivation journey. You could reach perfection.”

“Hoho! What a scheming fellow,” said Gu Suihan with a snort as he turned to look at the Huangquan Evil Ghost.

Now he knew why the ghost said that it could just go back inside the rock platform and the warring puppets wouldn’t dare to enter.

The physical body of the designer of this place was lying inside this well. He was at Divine Soul, so even if he were physically dead and lost what he had cultivated, his remains would still be able to emanate a powerful aura.

These warring puppets were made by this fellow and they knew what this fellow was made of. They were filled with a warring spirit and were sentient to a certain extent, but they still fell short of ordinary humans. Having a spirit just made them a little more nimble.

“Excellent! Since this junior of mine is so kind, then I don’t have to be so polite anymore.” Gu Suihan’s eyes were blazing excitedly as they stared at the old well. Inside was the soul and consciousness of a powerful Divine Soul cultivator that was now in deep sleep, as well as a body that was about to transform into a Dao body.

“If my guess is right, that fellow used some evil technique to trap you here, right? Otherwise, I’m pretty sure that one Divine Soul cultivator would only be at par with you at your peak,” Gu Suihan said to the ghost via telepathy with a faint smile. His eyes twinkled a little as he squatted on the floor and looked at the ghost.

“Back then, that old fellow had considered the possibility that you might not have any powers left, so he planted these warring puppets here so that once you were awake, you could have something to eat, replenish your energy and carry out his plan.”

“But sometimes things don’t go according to plan. Nobody would have expected the cultivators to ultimately stumble their way here to be a bunch of Foundation Establishment cultivators, with just two at Origin Core. Of which, one of them had not stabilized his current stage while the other one has only part of his soul in his body. That means we’re not enough to make up a sacrifice to that fellow. So…now, there is what could possibly be your best chance at getting out of here.”

The eyes of the Huangquan Evil Ghost lit up as it stared unblinkingly at Gu Suihan. It seemed to realize what Gu Suihan was thinking about as it stared at that meaningful smile on the young man’s face. “You want me to help you kill him? That’s not possible! He’s at Divine Soul, after all. Even if you’re born with the best aptitude for cultivation, you’re still only at Foundation Establishment. It’s impossible to do that.”

“If I were merely a Foundation Establishment cultivator, how was I able to hold up against that storm you created with your soul?” Gu Suihan returned the question with a faint smile.

“Well, that’s because…” The ghost was stumped for a moment before it glanced up at Gu Suihan and seemed to have suddenly thought of something. It flailed frantically and retreated rapidly as it asked in a trembling voice, “You…you’re also a Divine Soul cultivator?”

Old Suihan is referring to the soul of the original Suihan, the one which had crossed over from a different world. ↩️