Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way - Chapter 80

“Time to die!” Gu Suihan had a faint smile on his face as Questioning Heaven struck the saber that seemed to weigh a ton at an angle. The golden dragon roared as it flew towards the soldier, while Gu Suihan suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind the soldier. A strange and mysterious cloud of miasma shot out from Gu Suihan’s finger as he silently pointed it at the soldier’s head.

“All creatures are nothing but ants,” he murmured as his finger went over the back of the soldier’s head without leaving a trace. He stomped the ground suddenly and immediately moved 300 meters away from the soldier again at top speed.

Craaack! The horrifying sound of bones cracking resounded through the battlefield. Gu Suihan watched leisurely from a distance as the soldier turned around in one good piece.

Gu Suihan murmured, “One.”

Boom! A muffled sound came from the soldier as his starry armor slowly darkened like it had been struck by lightning. The patterns on it faded and rotted away, and rust even appeared on the edges. It was as though it had been left in the open for thousands of years.

“Two.”

Pfft! The light in the soldier’s eyes dimmed as blood spurted out from numerous wounds on his body. He was covered in blood in no time and even his armor was dyed a bloody red. It was such a tragic sight to behold.

“Die!” Immediately after Gu Suihan said that, the saber in the soldier’s hands clattered loudly as it shattered and the shards fell onto the ground. The soldier suddenly exploded and became nothing but a pile of flesh and blood.

The Three Fingers of Yama was a three-step technique – Ask Creation, Spatial Supernormal Knowledge, and the Ten Thousand Year Finger. It hadn’t been easy for Gu Suihan to use it either. He looked perfectly fine now, but it was because he had taken more than 10 pills before using the technique. Right now, he had nothing left in his dantian. Not even a wisp of Qi. Even his previously youthful countenance looked more mature now.

The process of gaining supernormal knowledge was something that literally took years off one’s life. Pointing his finger at the soldier had made Gu Suihan lose ten years of his life.

And because Gu Suihan had this supernormal knowledge, the soldier started decomposing before finally exploding and disappearing permanently. This soldier’s death was not like the other soldiers’ Gu Suihan had killed when he first entered the formation. Those soldiers turned into stardust and the formation would use that to form new soldiers.

Now that the formation had suddenly lost so much energy, it could not really hold up anymore. Gu Suihan watched as the endless crowd of soldiers slowly turned into nothingness. The starry sky dimmed and the stars did not shine brightly like before.

“What’s going on?” Wang Mingzhi was panting heavily as he kept his little mirror away. He had felt the place shake suddenly and the sense of imminent danger had faded significantly, which made him wonder what happened. He quickly retreated into a far corner and pulled out his formation compass to see what the situation was.

“I’ve got nine of them!” Xi Ran had felt the shaking and was puzzled too, but he decided to report his numbers anyway.

“I’ve got eight!” yelled Zhou Xing hoarsely. He actually sounded a little excited.

“I got 11 of them,” shouted Wang Mingzhi rather unhappily. He didn’t expect himself to be so unfortunate as to be attacked by more formation eyes than the rest. But at the very least, he didn’t have to deal with the main one, so that made him feel better.

“I got eight. The main formation eye was here, but it’s already dead.” Gu Suihan’s weak voice made everyone’s eyes widen.

“Mr. Gu, do you still have enough energy to help us with breaking the formation?” Wang Mingzhi was worried when he heard Gu Suihan’s genuinely weak voice. He wasn’t really concerned about Gu Suihan’s health. Rather, he needed all four of them to work together to break the formation, so if Gu Suihan was too weak to do so, all of them would end up dying inside here.

“Yes, I do. Each of you can just compensate me with 500 Spiritual Stones once we get out of here,” said Gu Suihan in a pained voice. The other three balked at Gu Suihan’s demand.

“Fine! Now, everyone, time to break the formation!” Wang Mingzhi had to make a decision quickly because he saw that new formation eyes were forming again, so he agreed even though he didn’t really want to. He threw a round object out and ran as far away as he could after that.

After hearing Wang Mingzhi give the command, Xi Ran’s expression became serious. He bit his tongue so that it started bleeding, then made several hand seals in quick succession as his ghost-controlling flag floated in the air in front of him. The hand seals quickly turned into runes that were coated with his blood and struck the flag. He then yelled with all his might, “A banquet for all ghosts! Devour everything!”

Innumerable vengeful spirits and ghosts flew out like they had been given the command to do so, shrieking at an ear-deafening volume as they gushed towards the newly created formation eyes in the middle.

Zhou Xing blocked a weapon from hitting him and he stared back at the relentless formation eyes coming for him. A threatening smile spread across his lips as he said, “You’re all nothing but trash. Time to die!”

His fingernails suddenly grew another 30 centimeters longer and it looked like he had grown knives and swords on his fingers, especially since they made metallic clanging sounds when they touched each other. He let out a shout and pounced towards the formation eyes.

“All of you should die too.” Gu Suihan looked at the formation eyes that looked a little afraid to approach him and smiled. Then he suddenly dashed towards the soldiers to wipe them out once and for all.

“Senior Brother, I know it was the Peak Leader who gave orders to bring that Gu Suihan back. But he’s just a young fellow at Beginner Foundation Establishment. Does this task seriously need three people to get it done?” said a young man with a disdainful look on his face as he stood on a flying beast that was thousands of miles from Qingguo.

The man whom the young man called “Senior Brother” was much older. He said in a calm and quiet voice, “According to our investigations, this Gu Suihan killed Chuan Xin, Hang Chulong, and half of the East Compound disciples who came in at the same time as him. You should not underestimate him.”

The arrogant young man made a face. “He just killed two useless bums and a pile of trash, that’s all.”

“You idiot,” said the other young man on the ground who hadn’t spoken thus far. He hugged his sword and glanced at the first young man in contempt. “Gu Suihan killed Chuan Xin when he hadn’t even reached the Foundation Establishment stage. He killed Hang Chulong when he was being attacked by others like Mo Yuluo and Li Rong. Are you saying that Mo Yuluo and the rest are useless bums as well?”

“I…I didn’t say that!” the arrogant young man retorted in a trembling voice. His face paled when he heard Mo Yuluo’s name.

“Then just shut up, Wu Hao. So, you think you’re invincible just because you’ve made it to Mid Foundation Establishment? Mo Yuluo could beat you to a pulp even though she’s still at Beginner Foundation Establishment,” said the second young man with a sneer. The contemptuous look on his face made Wu Hao furious.

“That’s quite enough. Zhu Lingjian, stop making things worse. This mission is no simple one and we might have to fight the young fellow.” After the older man stopped their squabbling, he turned to look into the distance with many questions in his heart. This was a very strange mission because the Peak Leader had not given them any details when he instructed them to bring Gu Suihan back, and the reward for bringing the boy back was way more than he had expected. These two things made him really puzzled.

“According to the information we have, that fellow should still be at the mine. Let’s head for the mine directly. We might even be able to gain something for ourselves,” said Wu Hao with a greedy look on his face.

The Disciplinary Court was the one department of the sect that no one dared to go against or even offend, so the disciples of Peak Two were the wealthiest. They just needed to threaten or frighten the disciples they caught and they would get a thing or two from those disciples.

The other two smirked as well. They knew their place as members of the Disciplinary Court better than they knew about Gu Suihan.

Back inside the formation, the stars had dimmed and were on the verge of going out. The 36 stars in the sky were nowhere near the same brightness they were when they first entered. The four men had pale faces as they sat in their own space to meditate and recuperate.

After a long time, Zhou Xing recovered first. He stood up and said, “Let’s go see what items await us.”

“Good idea.” The four of them nodded at each other and walked to the other end where a podium stood.

They immediately exchanged glances when they saw the items on the podium.

There were three items on the podium. The first was a jade slip. The carvings on it were probably a cultivation technique or a magic spell. The second item was a ceramic bottle which probably contained a pill, while the third item was a tiny tri-colored flower. It had nine petals, so three petals were black, three were white and the last three were gray. Unfortunately, the flower was no longer attached to its original plant and was kept inside a magic storage bag.

“That’s a Three Lives Spirit Recovering flower!” exclaimed Wang Mingzhi, Xi Ran, and Zhou Xing as they stared intently at the little flower.

This flower could help to stabilize the spirit and nourish the soul, and it could also strengthen one’s spiritual sense. This was a very valuable item.

“That’s mine.” Gu Suihan smiled and kept the flower in his own magic storage bag before the rest realized what he had just don.

The three of them exchanged glances, then Zhou Xing cleared his throat and said, “Mr. Gu, I don’t think it’s appropriate for you to do that, right?”

“I agree. Mr. Gu, out of the three items available, this one is the rarest. We’ve agreed to share any cultivation techniques and spells like the one on the jade slip, so by doing this, you’d get two items instead of one. Don’t you think you’ve gone overboard?” Wang Mingzhi took a step back as the smile on his face faded.

“Not happy about that? Fight me then.” Gu Suihan looked coldly at the other three men who had quietly shifted themselves such that they formed a circle around him. A disdainful smile crept across his lips.