Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way

Gu Suihan’s face was deathly pale and his swaying body looked like it might collapse if the wind blew too hard. His eyes had lit up when he realized that Li Xianlong had clearly been affected by the illusions.

But just a few moments later, he watched in horror as Li Xianlong gathered every ounce of energy he had and flung his entire sword at Gu Suihan. Gu Suihan had no choice but to abandon the already broken dagger in his hand as a maniacal look spread across his face.

“Unravelling the Extreme, Rebirth of Rakshasa and Asura.”

The silence was deafening.

The heavy sword had been flung out with such force and the great ball of light around it had crashed onto the metal arena, yet neither produced any noise.

Everyone saw nothing but a bright flash of white before them. They couldn’t see nor hear anything else.

Almost half a minute later, the crowd slowly realized that the bright flash was fading.

Several moments later, their eyes didn’t hurt anymore. But their jaws dropped when they saw the scene before them.

The gigantic fighting arena had become nothing but a puddle of liquid. The barriers around it were the only remaining indicators that this was once a fighting arena.

“Where…where are they?” someone asked in a trembling voice.

He wasn’t the only one trembling in fear after what he just witnessed. Everyone was still in shock. Even the referee was still too stunned to say anything. Li Xianlong’s last move had been terrifying, but Gu Suihan’s earlier slash had also been too much for the referee to handle.

At the same time, while Li Xianlong’s last move had been really powerful, it had its own drawbacks. The referee would have chosen to quickly kill Li Xianlong while he was still confused by the illusions and voices in his mind.

“I th-think…I think they’re both…dead?” someone stammered as he gulped.

“Li Xianlong’s over here!” another person cried out.

Everyone looked over immediately and found that Li Xianlong was lying motionless on the floor.

The referee’s expression was grim as he quickly walked over to where Li Xianlong was and used his Spiritual Sense to check his condition. A few moments later, his expression dimmed as he shook his head. “He’s dead. He died from exhaustion. Also, because he forced his dantian to control such a tremendous amount of power even though it was only in its beginning stages, his soul couldn’t take it and has shattered beyond repair.”

“Oh no…” Several gasps filled the air.

“Does that mean I won?” a hoarse voice called out.

Everyone had assumed that both parties had died, so when they heard a familiar voice, they snapped out of their shock and ran over to where the voice was coming from.

“You didn’t die?” The referee’s lips twitched as he stared at Gu Suihan lying on the ground, his clothes all tattered and his breathing as shallow as a spark that was about to be snuffed out.

“I saw a lot of things in this duel.” Miss Mo slowly recovered from the upheaval in her emotions and sounded a little tired.

Li Rong folded his hands behind his back and stared blankly at Gu Suihan as the referee led him away and murmured, “And I learned a lot of things too.”

They looked at each other and saw the same frostiness and grimness in each other’s eyes.

…

Five days later.

“Young Master, I’ve brought back your allowance for the month!” Taohua pushed the door open and skipped in.

Gu Suihan nodded with a faint smile. He took the things from her and motioned for them to leave his room.

After the two maids had left, Gu Suihan stopped forcing himself to look pale and color instantly returned to his cheeks. His injuries had actually already healed a couple of days ago. He had the body of an Asura, which meant that his recuperation rate depended on how strong his physical body was.

Even though Gu Suihan looked like he was in terrible shape that day, a large majority of his injuries were superficial. His soul was embedded deep within his subconscious and protected by his Spiritual Sense, so it didn’t get hurt very badly. But even with the damage being limited, the time it was going to take for his soul to recuperate was extended, which made Gu Suihan sigh inwardly.

As for why he was pretending that he hadn’t recovered from his injuries yet, it was because he wanted everyone to think that he was so badly injured that he would take at least a month to recover. This extra time would help him with his plans.

“Lihua, from today onwards, both of you are not to come anywhere near this area unless I give you permission to do so. I have gained some insight from the duel that day and I will be in seclusion starting today. I might take a few days, or I might take up to a month before coming out again.”

“Yes, Young Master.” The two maids happily left him alone. After all, that meant that they had at least a few days of freedom. Everyone on the mountain knew that these two girls were Gu Suihan’s maids and were falling over each other to get close to them, so nobody would make things difficult for them even if Gu Suihan shut himself in.

Inside his room, Gu Suihan smirked at the bottle in front of him. Someone wanted to teach him a lesson before he had even done anything.

The bottle contained a Core Healing Pill. As the name suggests, it was a pill that was meant for recuperation. But there was one catch – this pill must not come into contact with white nephrite jade¹, or else it would become a Spiritual Declining Pill. If one took that pill, you would be able to heal quickly from your injuries, but would also damage your Spiritual Root at the same time.

The world held a million and one possibilities, so such a strange occurrence wasn’t particularly surprising either. There were stranger things than this.

For example, there was the Heart of Heaven Pill that was meant to heal injuries to one’s mind. If the alchemist placed just one additional stalk of green chiretta during the pill refining process, it would become a Mind Declining Pill, which was a pill that even immortals didn’t dare to consume.

Also, if one killed an Origin Core stage cultivator and took his dantian out, then washed it with Holy Soul Water before giving it to a cultivator at a lower cultivation level, the cultivator could refine it and his own dantian would reach a very early Origin Core stage.

“Who could be behind this?” murmured Gu Suihan as he observed the white nephrite jade bottle and the reddish pill inside closely.

Several possibilities appeared in his mind, but he eliminated them one by one.

Nan Xingyuan? She wasn’t that bold and didn’t have the resources nor the connections needed to plant such a thing within Fortune Court.

The Way Seekers Alliance? Miss Mo?

Gu Suihan frowned. This was possible, but not very likely. If she wanted to make things difficult for him, she wouldn’t stoop so low. She had plenty of disciples at her beck and call anyway. She could have easily found herself another Li Xianlong.

He wasn’t like the main character of a game who went around finding trouble for himself all day, making the gods angry, offending all the humans, and viewing the world as his enemy. In fact, Gu Suihan had joined the Seven Kill Sect for less than six months and the only people he had offended were the Way Seekers Alliance. To be more specific, he had only offended one Nan Xingyuan.

As for the rest…he really hadn’t actually offended them.

“Disciplinarian Zhang.” This name suddenly popped up in his mind. But he quickly threw that thought out as well. Disciplinarian Zhang could have summoned him directly and dealt with him in any way he wanted. Why bother going through the trouble of doing something so stupid?

Since he couldn’t figure it out, he decided to put this matter aside for the time being.

He flung the bottle into his magic storage bag, then looked at the broken knife he had taken out of the secret realm back when he first joined the sect.

This thing had been with him for a long time, but he hadn’t seen anything else in it, so he had just left it aside all this time. He had even forgotten about the spirit inside it.

“Squeak or something,” snapped Gu Suihan impatiently as he slammed the knife against the floor a few times.

“Squeeeak!” The poor knife was rudely awakened and quickly did as his evil owner instructed.

Gu Suihan didn’t do anything even after the knife had squeaked in reply.

The room remained silent for a long time.

When the spirit was on the verge of a nervous breakdown from waiting for a response, Gu Suihan suddenly said, “Do you want to become a human? I’m talking about becoming a real human.”

“Wh-what do you mean?” The spirit was a bit confused. It understood what Gu Suihan’s first question meant, but what was the second statement about? What did he mean by “a real human”?

Gu Suihan smiled mysteriously. “A real human – an ordinary person with desires, emotions, friends, family, love, joy, and sadness. But on one condition. That is, I will wipe out all your memories.” He paused, then emphasized his main point, “I will wipe out everything. You won’t just lose them.”

“What do you want to do?” The Spirit tried to find out what Gu Suihan’s plans were before making a decision.

Gu Suihan didn’t respond to that question either and went on to the second option the spirit had, “The other way to become a real human is to replace the soul of an existing person with you. But you’re just the spirit of a non-living thing, which means that your soul is made from only one component, unlike a human soul that has three Hun and seven Po. In that case, I’ll have to separate your soul into ten parts and insert you piece by piece into the body. It’s not a very dangerous process, but it’ll hurt.”

“Separate…my soul…?!” The spirit’s voice began to tremble and stutter when he heard what Gu Suihan said.

“Well, there’s one more option.” Gu Suihan clicked his tongue and said a little reluctantly, “I can draw you out from this broken knife and cut your ties to it completely. But that way, you’d become a wandering spirit and you won’t be able to become a human anymore.”

“I’ll think about it,” said the spirit quietly after some time.

Gu Suihan glanced at the broken knife on the floor for a moment, then went on to do other things.

He had good reasons why he wanted to remove the spirit from inside the knife.

After that duel with Li Xianlong, all his weapons were broken and he needed a new one.

This broken knife had been made from Dragon-Marked Gold. It no longer carried any spiritual power and the magic formation runes carved into it were almost beyond repair, but it was a very suitable weapon right now, given Gu Suihan’s current level of cultivation.

The Clacker’s Hipster Hideout

Today’s snack recommendation: Salted Egg Potato Chips. So expensive, but so tasssstyy. Also, heart attack in a bag. I warned you. MSG: *****

1. White Nephrite Jade.

   White nephrite jade is more common and has a slightly waxy, somewhat oily appearance (therefore, the Chinese name for it is 羊脂白玉, which literally means ‘mutton fat jade’) whereas jadeite is rarer, more dense and harder with a more vivid, translucent quality.

   The antique white jade mined in China for thousands of years is white nephrite jade – white jadeite wasn’t known in China until the 18th century when it was introduced from Burma – now Myanmar.

   So, the next time you read about those ‘jade beauties’ with ‘white jade skin’ or ‘white jade arms’…honestly, this is what they had in mind.*Clacker cackle*