Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way - Chapter 87

Liu Ming had already become an East Compound disciple. The fact that someone of such poor caliber had made it all the way to this stage was the talk of the external disciples. Many of them were sure that he must have experienced a really amazing chance encounter of sorts. Everyone was trying to find out what it was or get something out of him. So many disciples tried to butter up to him.

However, Liu Ming refused to see any of them. He shut himself up in his residence to cultivate and never went out.

Nobody knew about the changes in Liu Ming’s body. As he advanced in the Extreme Ra-Asu Breach, the bloodthirstiness within him intensified. His previously innocent eyes looked a little reddish now. The two horns on his head could no longer be covered by his hair and were peeking out from beneath.

His body had become even taller and broader, like a tower. The muscles on his body were extremely well-defined, and veins kept popping up on his neck and arms. He looked nothing like the frail and youthful man he once was.

“Who’s that?” Gu Suihan concealed himself and quietly stood in the corner of Liu Ming’s front yard and stared blankly at the man reading a book inside the house.

“That’s Liu Ming,” said the weapon spirit a little exasperatedly. It had no idea how any of this happened at all.

“What did you do?” asked Gu Suihan suddenly after observing Liu Ming very carefully. There was a frosty glint in his eyes now.

Liu Ming seemed to sense something as he sat in the room. He suddenly turned and scanned the front yard carefully but found nothing. He laughed and shook his head at himself, thinking he had merely been too sensitive.

The weapon spirit, on the other hand, could sense a threat in Gu Suihan’s voice. It shuddered and stuttered, “N-no, I…I didn’t do anything…” It started to feel fear inside because it realized that Gu Suihan was beginning to suspect something. shit, it thought, who in the world got this demon to return to the sect? Wasn’t he trying to get away from some impending disaster or something? Why did he come back?

“Oh, I must have been mistaken.” Gu Suihan seemed to have thought of something and suddenly withdrew the murderous aura he exuded just seconds ago. His tone of voice returned to normal again as he said, “There’s nothing odd about this, really. He has a different rank of aptitude from me, so it’s not surprising that his body is unable to hold up against such a domineering cultivation technique. After his cultivation level increases, the changes in his body will slowly disappear too.”

Immediately after he said that Gu Suihan cut off his communication with the weapon spirit and flew out of Liu Ming’s residence.

“So, a weapon spirit has emotions too? What a tragic creature” scoffed Gu Suihan to himself. He looked towards Liu Ming’s residence and was certain that the weapon spirit must have done something along the way to make Liu Ming’s appearance change like this. If Gu Suihan hadn’t sensed that Liu Ming’s soul and spirit seemed normal, he would have thought the weapon spirit was trying to take over Liu Ming’s body.

But it was also true that the weapon spirit had not told Gu Suihan the truth earlier. That proved that the weapon spirit had its own plans regarding Liu Ming. Either way, the weapon spirit had messed up Gu Suihan’s plans and the test he was conducting. This forced Gu Suihan to make the cruel decision to squeeze any value the weapon spirit had left, then wipe it out altogether.

As he passed by Li Rong’s residence, a mysterious smile crossed his lips as he flicked his fingers from beneath his sleeve and shot a jade slip into Li Rong’s place. He turned to glance at where Liu Ming stayed, then smirked and left.

The hustle and bustle of the sect quietened down after the sun had set. Nights in the sect were almost silent.

“Why are you looking for me? And why do we have to meet in the middle of the night?” Li Rong appeared at a small pavilion where Gu Suihan was drinking leisurely by himself.

Gu Suihan didn’t answer him immediately. He looked intently at Li Rong for a while, then said rather sadly, “I’m here to send you on your way.”

“Tsk.” Li Rong’s sullen expression turned into one of annoyance as he snorted and sat down to pour himself a cup of wine.

“You’re the first person I knew from the Seven Kill Sect after all,” said Gu Suihan as he smacked his lips and gave Li Rong a faint smile even as Li Rong gulped down the wine unhappily.

“Since you already know everything, what’s there left to say?” Li Rong ignored Gu Suihan’s slightly saddened tone of voice and stared right into his eyes as he said hatefully, “You know what the situation is like right now. Did you think there would be any way out of this?”

“Even an ant has the will to live. I don’t think you would just sit around and wait to die.”

The two of them continued speaking in such vague terms. If anyone else were to overhear them, they wouldn’t have understood a single thing. Only they knew what each other was actually referring to.

Li Rong raised an eyebrow when he heard Gu Suihan’s confident tone of voice and said, “And what else can I do? He’s a Peak Leader, after all.”

“If you give me the time, the Seven Kill Sect will be no more within the next hundred years. Would you believe me if I say that?” Gu Suihan snorted. He had nothing but disdain for these supposedly high and mighty leaders of the sect, even though the Peak Leaders were at the Origin Core Stage and the Sect Leader was at the Nascent Change stage.

“I believe you, but that would have nothing to do with me,” said Li Rong as he tried to remain calm.

He wasn’t wrong. Even if the sect disappeared entirely in the future, it would be none of Li Rong’s business by then.

“I can help you to survive this. In fact, I can help you to do even more than that.” Gu Suihan looked cryptically into the distance shrouded by the night sky. He was looking in the direction of where Peak Four was, the peak that Xiexin zhenren was the leader of.

“And what price do I have to pay?” Li Rong knew there was no free lunch in the world. Even if there were, accepting it was definitely going to end up killing him.

“The Seven Kill Sect and its allies have to fail the upcoming inter-sect competition.” Gu Suihan had a frightening glint in his eye that could send shivers down one’s spine and shake one’s soul with how murderous it was.

Li Rong was a little scared now. He had no idea what Gu Suihan knew so far and what he intended to do. How would the fall of the Seven Kill Sect benefit either of them?

“Your father and other Peak Leaders intend to split their souls, and you have been chosen to be the vessel for your father’s partial soul.” Gu Suihan laughed mysteriously. “But the Ethereal Court and its allies are a force to be reckoned with too. They might not know exactly what the Seven Kill Sect intends to do, but they will definitely take precautions.”

“In order to avoid detection, the partial souls will have to be stored within a magic weapon or some other item you and the other vessels will carry into the secret realm, then take over your bodies once you have successfully entered the secret realm.”

“The other way would be to hide their partial souls inside your consciousness, then take over your bodies after entering the secret realm.”

“In other words, either way, they can only take over our bodies after we enter the secret realm? How are you so sure that they will do it this way?” Li Rong’s eyes lit up as he realized that there was indeed a chance of surviving this ordeal.

“That’s right. As for why I’m so sure,” Gu Suihan laughed as a glimmer of disdain flashed in his eyes, “it’s because every person’s soul has its own unique frequency that matches the body it belongs to. Anyone who wipes out your consciousness and tries to take over a foreign physical body will go through a period of time where the soul and the body are not in harmony.”

Using this soul-splitting method had even worse results than taking over the body with a full soul, and it was much more dangerous too. Unfortunately, this was the best plan of action that the Peak Leaders could come up with, and in doing so, it gave Gu Suihan a chance to make a counterattack.

“That still doesn’t assure me that I’ll survive this, unlike what you said earlier,” said Li Rong frankly as he looked straight at Gu Suihan.

“You will be able to survive. Trust me.” Gu Suihan flashed his pearly whites as his narrowed eyes shone brightly. But he did not say elaborate or explain any of his plans in detail.

“I can only trust you now. What are you going to do? What do I need to do?” Li Rong laughed bitterly and still looked rather depressed, but there was a slightly more hopeful look in his eyes now.

“Since you’re the son of a Peak Leader, you would know who the best disciples of the other sects are. I need you to tell them what the Seven Kill Sect has planned for the upcoming competition.” Gu Suihan ignored the horrified expression on Li Rong’s face and continued, “And to assure you that I’m serious about this plan, I’m going to give you a chance encounter.”

“Sure.” Li Rong looked very solemn as he considered Gu Suihan’s plan for just a few moments before nodding in agreement. He didn’t have much of a choice anyway. If he didn’t agree and went with his father’s plan, he would definitely die. But if he chose to go with Gu Suihan’s plan, he might survive after all.

Now that the two of them had reached an agreement, the tension in the atmosphere earlier had eased.

Li Rong didn’t ask Gu Suihan what this chance encounter was, thinking that Gu Suihan was just teasing, referencing the reason that Li Rong had given him back then for getting close to him, which was that Xiexin zhenren had sensed that Li Rong would get a chance encounter outside the sect.

“Do you know who Liu Ming is?” said Gu Suihan, seemingly out of nowhere. Li Rong blinked in surprise and had no idea why Gu Suihan had mentioned this name, but his instinct told him that perhaps Gu Suihan wasn’t actually kidding when he talked about giving him a chance encounter.

“Are you talking about that lucky young fellow who apparently stumbled upon an ancient cultivation technique?” Li Rong clearly knew exactly who Gu Suihan was talking about and frowned as he described Liu Ming’s circumstances.

“How do you think he got this opportunity?” Gu Suihan smirked in a contemptuous manner.

“You gave it to him?” It suddenly hit Li Rong, and he stared in horror at Gu Suihan as he asked a second question, “You did it on purpose?”

“I was actually using him to test a particular cultivation technique, but due to some reasons, I have to give up this plan now.” Gu Suihan got up and started walking towards Liu Ming’s residence.