Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way - Chapter 63

“Yun Lianyi!” Wan Fentian’s eye twitched, and his teeth gnashed when he heard what Yun Lianyi said, “You have a Water Spiritual Root while the boy is an Eight Geng Gold, so your eight characters1 don’t match. Besides, he’s such a good fighter, so it’s only right for him to become a member of the Disciplinary Court in Peak Two. Your Peak Three is just in charge of assigning missions. Don’t you think it’s a waste to place a talent like him in backend operations?”

Yun Lianyi pouted, and her face was frosty as she sneered at Wan Fentian. Then she turned to look at You Hantian with her most adorable expression and tugged at the Sect Leader’s sleeve as if she were his daughter. “Gold and Water have always been an excellent match, I don’t know what he’s talking about. Besides, everyone in the Disciplinary Court always gets so badly injured or they die. This young man is highly talented and he’s very resilient, so I don’t think he’ll have a problem reaching Origin Core and he might even make it to Nascent Change.” She turned to Wan Fentian and said, “What if something bad happens to him? Would be able to bear that sort of responsibility?”

“Why, you!” Wan Fentian felt like smoke was rising from his head as he glared furiously at Yun Lianyi and couldn’t find the words to say for a long time.

“Settle down!” Xiexin zhenren looked up and said in a slow voice, “We can just leave it to him to choose. Trying to force him will not work.”

“Shut your damned mouth!” Wan Fentian leaped up and yelled at Xiexin zhenren. “You think I’m completely clueless? Your son is on good terms with that boy and you’ve been trying to use him all this time! Ha! Did you think you concealed those motives of yours well?”

“I…” Xiexin zhenren’s eye twitched violently when Wan Fentian exposed him so blatantly.

“Xiexin is right.” You Hantian looked exasperated as he glanced over at the quarrelsome Wan Fentian and the coquettish Yun Lianyi. “We’ll leave it to the boy to choose. All of you know what happened to the external disciples this time, so weigh the pros and cons carefully. This boy is capable of more than he lets on.”

All of them exchanged glances and fell silent.

Of course, they knew what had happened. They were Peak Leaders who seemed far removed from the external disciples and appeared to not care about the life or death of the external disciples. But in reality, they all kept close tabs on all the promising disciples in the East Compound.

Gu Suihan had attracted a lot of attention from the start because of his involvement with the robbery of the tax ship. Initially, the Peak Leaders just checked in on him from time to time. However, after he managed to kill Chuan Xin and so many disciples in the secret realm, they all began to sit up.

“We’ll go with that then.” The few of them exchanged glances and nodded.

Gu Suihan’s Spiritual Meridians had suffered slight damage, but thankfully, his cultivation in the Extreme Ra-Asu Breach had given him a hardy body that had managed to keep most of the injuries superficial. On the outside, he looked terrible, covered in gaping wounds, but it was much easier to recover from those.

He was also glad that You Hantian had stopped the battle early. Otherwise, he was already contemplating if he should just crush his jade token and admit defeat. Most of his attackers were only at Qi Activation, and the rest who were at Foundation Establishment hadn’t stabilized themselves at that stage yet, so if he had to fight them on a smaller scale, he wouldn’t be worried for his life. But when so many of them came together to attack him, there was no way he could defeat them all. Someone else in his shoes might have fared even worse.

Of course, he had also gotten lucky. If those external disciples had been sober and not blinded by the murderous air seeping into their bodies, they would have attacked Gu Suihan while he was putting that dragon together. If that had happened, there would be no hope for Gu Suihan to survive their combined attack.

“Tomorrow will be a one-on-one duel, so that would probably be less taxing,” thought Gu Suihan. He looked up at the blurry seats in the sky, which were blocked by the clouds, and his lips curled into a strange smile.

“Gu Suihan!” Fang Suyu marched up to Gu Suihan with a nasty expression on his face. His heart nearly broke when he saw all the badly hurt disciples from the Nobles Clan.

“Don’t blame me. There’s something wrong with this formation.” Gu Suihan glanced at Fang Suyu and pointed at the chaos around him in the arena that was still swirling with the pungent stench of blood.

Mo Yuluo chimed in, “This is a Heavenly Stars Spirit Swallowing Formation. You know what sort of formation it is.”

“I’m not blaming you, and none of us knew that so many disciples would be participating in this selection either, but…” said Wang Aolin at Gu Suihan with a knowing look as he patted Fang Suyu to console him.

“I know what to do. But I hope you realize what happened earlier. You’d better make sure your people don’t suddenly get out of hand again, otherwise, I won’t be able to guarantee that there will be no casualties.” Gu Suihan glared at the three faction leaders, then turned around and left.

“This fellow…” Fang Suyu clenched his teeth. He was still seething.

“You should know that the higher ups will keep very close tabs on him now. Besides, after this round, that place is probably going to be opened up as well and all the sects are going to fight each other. It’s better to have a powerful fighter like him on our side than for him to join an opposing side,” said Mo Yuluo in a cryptic manner as a conflicted look flashed in her charming eyes.

Gu Suihan had risen through the ranks too quickly as if everything was already in place and was just waiting for his arrival. If they hadn’t dismissed him as someone harmless in the beginning, or if they hadn’t failed in their early attempts to kill him, then he wouldn’t have been able to put them in a situation where they had to negotiate with him and allow him to use them to climb even higher. If they had gotten rid of him or suppressed him earlier, he wouldn’t have made it so far so quickly.

Whether it was the time Gu Suihan had gotten more resources after killing Chuan Xin or the time he got his revenge on the three leaders by massacring their best in the secret realm, they had unknowingly aided him in achieving these goals.

This was a hard pill to swallow, but there was nothing they could do. Gu Suihan was now at the center of attention, so they couldn’t secretly send someone to assassinate or lay traps for him.

But more importantly, they were merely Foundation Establishment cultivators. They had powerful backers, but that was an authority that didn’t belong to them, so they couldn’t wield it any way they liked. They could only sigh sadly at their situation, try to make up for everything they did to him in the past and hope that he wouldn’t hold it against them.

“You need to talk to me about something?” Gu Suihan arrived back at his residence to see Feng Ran and Wang Xianxian waiting outside for him.

Feng Ran smiled. “Of course. Do you have time for a little chat?”

“Taohua, get us some wine,” Gu Suihan shouted into the residence after nodding.

The three of them sat around the stone table in the yard and looked at each for a long time without saying anything.

Feng Ran broke his silence first. “Brother Gu, do you know what’s going to happen after the internal disciple selection is over?”

“No, I don’t,” said Gu Suihan simply before taking another mouthful of wine.

“Hoho,” Feng Ran laughed bitterly and said, “After this selection, each Peak Leader will choose three Beginner Foundation Establishment disciples to enter into a fight to the death with the other sects.”

Wang Xianxian’s eyes were half-closed, and it sounded like he was sleep talking as he quietly said, “Apparently, it’s because the Ethereal Court has formed an alliance with the Vast Sky Sect, the Falling Star Sect, the Wonderful Sound Sect and the Youthful Clarity Sect.”

“Why?”

“You do know about the existence of the Upper World above us, right?” said Feng Ran cautiously, as he pointed upwards furtively. “It’s said that this world we’re in is only one of the thousands of worlds that exist. Some worlds are insanely powerful, while some are rather weak. We’re not the worst, but we’re in the weaker half of the lot.”

“The powerful worlds will keep trying to attack the weaker ones, so some weaker ones rely on the slightly more powerful worlds to keep themselves safe. The seven sects in this world are merely a mark left behind by a sect from the Upper World.”

Gu Suihan was dumbstruck, not by what he had just heard, but because he knew that if one did not reach the Immortal stage, it was impossible to move freely across dimensions and get into this other world. You Hantian was only at Nascent Change, so he was still far from the Immortal stage.

The stage after Nascent Change was Divine Soul. After that, one’s soul would have to solidify and combine with the spirit, break free of the karmic cycle, and get through three disasters before attaining Immortality.

All of this took more than one or two hundred years to achieve. One needed a very high rank of aptitude, the courage to get through all sorts of dangers, an obsession with attaining enlightenment, and luck even to stand a chance.

“If these sects are just a mark left behind by someone else, then it means that the sect from the Upper World is looking for the best of the best,” Gu Suihan analyzed the situation in a deep voice as he massaged the area between his eyebrows.

“That’s right.” Wang Xianxian glanced at Gu Suihan with a rather impressed look and said, “They treat this world as a place to groom the cream of the crop. But there are parameters to follow as well. Ethereal Court is a group that was left here by the sect from the Upper World to communicate with them as well as watch our world. Previously, the seven sects stood an equal chance. This time, however, Ethereal Court has decided on their own that they want to replace the War Demon Sect, the Seven Kill Sect and the Yin Principle Sect, and so every talent they send to the Upper World will be one of theirs. I don’t know what they’re trying to do, but it’s definitely bad news for us.”

“Do you think it’s because the sect from the Upper World is facing some problems up there and has no time to keep tabs on anything else, so it’s given a subordinate a chance to do something like this?” asked Gu Suihan as he tapped his chopsticks against the plate in front of him.

Feng Ran wasn’t sure either. “Perhaps. Logically speaking, this is not something that has anything to do with low ranking disciples like us. But I received news that the Seven Kill Sect, the War Demon Sect and the Yin Principle Sect are joining hands to deal the other party a heavy blow somewhere.”

“If my guess is right, the cream of the crop they’ve been sending to the Upper World are all the direct disciples we’ve only heard about but never seen,” murmured Gu Suihan after pausing to think for a long time.

The Clacker’s Comfort Food Booth

Today’s snack recommendation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_egg For my egg feasting Editor-san. The spices are too strong for some but I absolutely love the smell of these eggs cooking. Umami: *****