Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way - Chapter 187

And so, as a cultivator with a brain, Gu Suihan didn’t even look back as he immediately ran at full speed, like a flash of lightning or an electrical spark. He ran so fast he left behind hundreds of after images with differing but realistic expressions.

You Hantian’s eye twitched when he saw how Gu Suihan was running with all his life and his lips curled into an icy smile. He hooked a finger and flicked it, mixing his internal energy with the dao runes of the laws of nature together and turning it into a gigantic net instantly that whooshed toward the younger man.

“Ghostly Shadow Seven Stars – Move Along the Ground!”

Gu Suihan froze and dodged the net as easily as a fish in water. He immediately lay flat on the ground and moved just under the net as he made his way swiftly toward the opening of the well that looked like an inky black whirlpool.

“You’re asking for it!” You Hantian was furious and brandished his sword. The blade gleamed coldly and created an equally cold wind as You Hantian swung it at Gu Suihan’s back.

Pfft! Gu Suihan couldn’t help but spray a mouthful of bloodied mist out as he weakly allowed the force from the attack to push him into the whirlpool, and he slowly disappeared.

“Humph! That old thing is still down there, so I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to get away.” You Hantian did not run after him and merely stood with his hands folded behind him as though he were here for a walk. He stood next to the whirlpool, his blade coming down repeatedly like rain and his qi strong enough to shatter the air. He spread his qi so that any devils that he spotted trying to escape would be instantly turned into minced meat.

Woong! A ripple slowly spread through the place.

You Hantian looked up to see that the eye of the will of this world that had been watching all this time in the sky constricted its pupil. Then, a long crack in spacetime slowly appeared.

“Amitabh!” A majestic Buddhist chant filled with a deep sense of peace resounded. Dozens of monks dressed in linen robes walked out with their eyes lowered while holding onto prayer beads.

“Pure Land Temple…” You Hantian’s expression fell, and his lips twitched. He looked up with a start at the will of the world that was slowly moving in the sky with a nasty glint in his eye.

“Right now…the various factions have suffered too much damage, and they are no longer sufficient to hold the Devil Abyss down.” The will of the world could sense You Hantian glaring at it. Its pupil constricted slightly, revealing an almost unnoticeable hatred as well as fear in its eye.

“Humph!” You Hantian scoffed at these words. He scanned the group of monks floating in the air, and he opened his mouth a few times to speak but didn’t say anything in the end.

“Buha is compassionate and kind. But now, the evil devils have the upper hand, and demonic beasts roam the earth. Don’t you know that every creature with a soul is equal? Why don’t you put your weapons aside and come with us to head for nirvana? Wouldn’t that bring you so much joy?”

An elderly monk with a face as shriveled and wrinkled as old tree bark slowly landed on the ground, disregarding the chunks of flesh strewn everywhere and the filthy pavements made from corpses. His expression was peaceful, and he spoke with ease as he looked at the devils that kept coming out from the well. His voice echoed loudly like the bell in a Buddhist temple.

Sanskrit mantras, sutras in the laws of nature – all sorts of strange phenomena appeared one after another.

The sound of chanting was like someone murmuring into your ear as it resounded continuously into the ears of every living thing. In that moment, the weather changed, and golden lotuses covered the ground. A peaceful aura filled the air.

“…there’s some more??!” Gu Suihan had just landed, and before he could catch his breath, he instinctively somersaulted a good 50 meters before gulping as he stared in horror at the spot where he landed, which was now a huge hole in the ground.

“Save me!” The Huangquan Evil Ghost’s wailing was like an erhu with a broken string, hoarse and painful on the ears. Its cry made Gu Suihan frown and turn its way.

“My fellow cultivator! What a coincidence!” Great Elder Lu had a friendly, peaceful, and calm smile as he greeted Gu Suihan. In that instant, dozens of beams of internal energy became like soldiers. They were so imposing it was impossible to ignore them. They immediately came lunging for Gu Suihan in great numbers.

“This is not a coincidence! I’m very busy now see ya next timeeeee!” yelled Gu Suihan after he barely dodged the attack and ran for it.

But what about the howling Huangquan Evil Ghost crying for help on the ground? Or the devils that were now nothing more than corpses strewn in all directions? They were none of his business. He was in danger of getting killed himself, so why should he care about them? That would be ridiculous.

I mean, don’t compare this moment with the time when Gu Suihan spoke so coolly to all these Nascent Change old men and even challenged them to a fight. At that time, they were afraid that a fight would cause the seal over the Devil Abyss that was just behind Gu Suihan to break, since it was already very weak. So, of course they wouldn’t go all out in a fight with him.

But now, they couldn’t wait to tear Gu Suihan to pieces. There was no way they were going to hold themselves back anymore.

Thankfully, they were in the Devil Abyss where the laws of nature had collapsed and were a complete mess. It was impossible for the Great Elder Lu to fully display what he was capable of and actually had to watch his actions. That was how Gu Suihan got a chance to escape his attacks.

“You little motherfucker…” cursed the Evil Ghost furiously as smoke came out through every orifice when he saw how Gu Suihan only cared about himself. But tensing up aggravated its wounds and it couldn’t help but yelp in pain. It looked so pathetic.

“You’d better behave yourself.” Great Elder Lu kicked the Evil Ghost without any compassion for the creature. He grabbed it by the neck and was practically flying as he ran after Gu Suihan.

“Hey, you know…you don’t have to see me out! I’ll come and visit you another time!” Gu Suihan could see that the gap was closing and started sweating profusely as he ducked and dodged the tons of spells raining on him. He yelled, “We don’t really have any bad blood with one another, anyway! Your mission was just to capture that Evil Ghost and you’ve caught it. So, to avoid any unforeseen circumstances, I suggest you return right away!”

“Fuck you!” bellowed the Evil Ghost as it flew into a rage and cursed Gu Suihan a million times in its heart.

“My fellow cultivator, that Evil Ghost is incredibly scheming and it knows a lot of supreme-ruler level techniques to help it escape that you would never even think of! Those aren’t spells, by the way! Those are supreme-ruler level techniques tied to its existence! To avoid a situation where it ends up escaping and your hard work goes down the drain, you’d better go back now!”

Gu Suihan bent his head and felt something cool sweep above his head. The jade accessory that held his hair together was cut cleanly in half and his long hair cascaded down his back.

Roar!! Along the way, he kept seeing devils running in the same direction, forming groups as they all ran toward the exit of the Devil Abyss.

When they saw Gu Suihan’s bloodstained face and how he emanated nothing but demonic qi, they all thought he was just a devil that looked a little different from them and weren’t too bothered by him. After all, in a crazy place like the Devil Abyss, all sorts of creatures existed…

“Save me…there are human cultivators trying to kill us! Countless fellow devils have already been slaughtered and they have died terribly!”

Gu Suihan sent his spiritual sense out to use telepathy to speak to the devil leading the way. That devil looked very strong and could possibly be the leader of the entire race. Immediately after speaking, he leaped into the middle of the running devils. In the blink of an eye, he changed into a devil with a skinny body, horns on his head and visible fangs on his ugly face.

Before the leader of the devils could figure out who just spoke to him, he saw a huge cloud of dust and smoke. An old man with a furious expression on his face was running toward them, carrying a skinny ugly creature that resembled a devil.

When they saw each other, their faces froze and they stared at one another wordlessly for a moment.

“Hurry up and start wailing! Make some noise! Sound as tragic as you can! Put on your best act!” Gu Suihan immediately spoke to the Evil Ghost via telepathy when he saw what was happening as he hid among the devils.

The Huangquan Evil Ghost’s lips twitched and was about to curse at Gu Suihan again when it realized what Gu Suihan was trying to do. To save its own skin, it clenched its teeth and secretly clawed itself, then let out an unintelligible wail of pain, “#!#*%!%#$”

“&%$@#2!$%&#! *&82^#@!”

The leader of the devils growled and bellowed a few equally unintelligible things as well. When Great Elder Lu did not respond at all, the leader thought that Great Elder Lu was trying to embarrass him. He let out a mighty roar and brandished a huge and heavy ax at Great Elder Lu.

Great Elder Lu really felt like crying now. Gu Suihan had disappeared, and in his anger, he had actually walked into this sort of trap. This really cringy, run off the mill situation where two groups were going to face off for almost no reason whatsoever.

But when he saw how the giant ax was coming at him with such power, he didn’t dare to take the situation lightly. He immediately cast several spells, then slapped his belt. A delicate and tiny carved green seal flew up and grew in size. The golden phoenix on top of it screeched and the flood dragon howled as the formation runes on it spun and glowed brightly. It came crashing down like it weighed a ton.

ROAR! The leader roared and swung its ax upwards to collide with the seal.

Sand and rocks flew everywhere and the ground split. As the dust settled, the seal let out a whimper and flew right back into Great Elder Lu’s hand.

When he saw the glaringly obvious cut in the seal, Great Elder Lu’s entire face twitched and he had a pained expression on his face. He was so distracted that his grip on the Evil Ghost actually loosened a little.

“%&*#*!” Now that the leader had the upper hand, he continued his attack. He covered a few hundred meters with just one step and got to Great Elder Lu in an instant. He swung his ax with enough force to slice through the sky.

Honestly, Great Elder Lu was really in a pickle. He knew countless spells and techniques, but most of them were formations and illusionary stunts that were meant to tire his opponent out.

The worst part was that this leader was more than three meters tall and wielded a heavy ax very easily. He didn’t know any special techniques or spells, but he was strong enough to fight ten men by himself, so he was actually a threat to Great Elder Lu.

“Chessboard of Heaven and Earth!” Great Elder Lu had no choice but to cast the Evil Ghost aside as he put his two hands together to form a seal and recreate the chessboard that he trapped Gu Suihan with earlier.

“What a great chance!” The Evil Ghost immediately broke into a smile. It used both its hands and legs to bravely escape at a speed equal to Gu Suihan’s despite its severe injuries.

“Over here!” Gu Suihan secretly signaled to the Evil Ghost as he hid among the devils. The two were finally reunited.

“What do we do now? That big fellow can’t hold up for long,” said the Evil Ghost anxiously as it quickly swallowed all the pills that Gu Suihan secretly passed to it and did its best to recuperate.

“We’ll do the opposite of what he would have done…that old thing would never think that we’d actually go back the exact way we came…”

Gu Suihan’s new devil face had a sly smile on his face as he grabbed hold of the Evil Ghost and they sneaked away from the large group of devils. Once they felt strong enough, they started running in the same direction they came from.