Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way

“Tsk, letting go?”

The scholar looked up and immediately felt his rage rising when he saw the expensive clothes and fur shawl that Gu Suihan wore. He rode on the remainder of his drunkenness and started yelling angrily while pointing a finger at the sky, “If you tell a wicked man to let go, he just has to let go of the weapon he uses to kill. But if you tell a good man to let go, he ends up having to go through all sorts of trials and difficulties. Letting go isn’t easy!”

“When a wicked man lets go, he has to go through all sorts of trials and difficulties. But when a good man lets go, he no longer has to go through those tough decisions that torment his soul.” Gu Suihan was no bothered by the scholar’s words and simply responded with the true meaning behind these words in Buddhist scriptures.

“I see, I see.” The scholar had a rather conflicted look on his face. He got up and swayed from side to side as he plonked himself down across the table from Gu Suihan. His voice was still indignant as he said, “Since it’s said that all people are equal, why are some born in lofty circumstances while others are born slaves?”

“The Buddhist scriptures get some things right, and they get some things wrong. The idea that all people are equal is ridiculous in the first place. These words are based on the perspective of the one who is strong and not the one who is weak,” replied Gu Suihan. “To the strong one, whether you’re a rich merchant or a poor man on the streets, whether you’re a woman or a child, they are all equal to the strong one because the strong one is able to control the fates of these people.”

“At the end of the day, it’s still the survival of the fittest. All that talk about respecting deities, rulers, your elders, and all that about having manners, formality, morals, and ethics – it’s all bullshit,” snorted the scholar in a mocking and extremely disgruntled voice.

“That’s exactly it. So why are you still so hung up about it?” the elderly owner of the eatery cut in.

“Just because I get it doesn’t mean I accept it,” retorted the scholar, but his voice was much quieter now.

“Once you’re used to it, you will accept it.” Gu Suihan drank the last of his soup and pursed his lips. A quiet and peaceful smile spread across his face.

“Indeed, once you’re used to it…” said the owner with a sigh.

The scholar was silent for a while, as though he was pondering the meaning of “getting used to it”. He took a mouthful of the hot soup and sobered up a little, but part of his mind was still a little fuzzy He stared at Gu Suihan’s fair, flawless, and almost perfect face with gentle features and blurted out, “Has anyone told you before that your smile looks very fake?”

“Is that so?” Gu Suihan’s smile slowly faded, and he became expressionless again. His voice slowly calmed down, and was unaffected. It carried no emotion at all.

“That’s right. Your smile…doesn’t match your eyes.” The scholar looked at him and said, “I suddenly realize that you’re much more pitiful than me.”

“Why do you say that?” asked Gu Suihan.

“I understand misery, celebration, meeting people, and separating from them. I go through happiness, anger, grief, and joy. But you…don’t have anything,” said the scholar with a sigh as he found the reason. He thought to himself, it turns out someone like him isn’t perfect either.

“Someone who isn’t affected by glory or humiliation and watches the flowers in the yard bloom and fade. Someone who doesn’t care about where he stays or where he goes and prefers watching the billowing clouds in the sky,” said Gu Suihan quietly. “Why do you not think I’m this sort of person instead?”

“That’s because you don’t have desires, you don’t have emotions, you don’t have anything. So, you can’t possibly be left with the resigned feeling after going through the vicissitudes of life.” The scholar sobered up a little more, and his eyes shone like the stars in the sky. They flickered with an intelligent sparkle now.

“Perhaps…”

Gu Suihan looked at him, then placed a few spiritual coins on the oily table.

When I have a thought, it doesn’t change for years. When I lose that thought, everything changes dramatically.

A faint, clear but indifferent voice slowly filled the air. Gu Suihan’s body disappeared in the autumn winds, leaving only those spiritual coins that still felt a little warm to the touch.

“When I have a thought, it doesn’t change for years. When I lose that thought, everything changes dramatically,” the scholar repeated what seemed to still be echoing in his ears. He suddenly realized what it meant. “So…he’s that sort of person.”

Internal energy rushed through Gu Suihan’s body as it nourished and strengthened his frail physical body. Countless spiritual stones were emptied by him and turned into transparent rocks that resembled glass. They were piled up in one corner like a little mountain of their own. He took a huge number of pills as well. The scattered bottled strewn everywhere showed just how much he really needed.

The scholar left and even thanked the owner of the eatery before leaving.

Several hours later, the sky began to light up and the morning sun rose again. The elderly owner of the eatery was still standing next to his stall, but his body had grown cold and showed no signs of life.

“Getting used to something…is really frightening,” murmured Gu Suihan to himself. The runes on his spirit appeared and glowed with a bright red. Beams of energy from the laws of nature rippled continuously in his consciousness. For some strange reason, he felt like his body seemed a lot more relaxed than before.

He didn’t really know when it started, but to stay alive, he had put on a coat of hypocrisy and plastered a friendly smile on his face. As time went by, these deliberate actions had become habits, something he was used to doing. This had made his spirit dull, like it was covered in dust. His heart was no longer as indifferent as before too.

That scholar had been an ordinary human, a man without Gu Suihan’s sort of ability and a man who had to go through the ups and downs of ordinary life. Yet he had been able to see clearly what was hidden behind Gu Suihan’s smile.

“Times have changed…”

The smile on Gu Suihan’s face disappeared completely. His expression was not an aggressive one, yet despite looking indifferent, he still had sufficient malice in his expression to keep others at arm’s length. His gaze grew brighter and his irises grew darker, as though a boundless universe resided within.

The maids in the house who served Gu Suihan could clearly sense the change in Gu Suihan. He was no longer the peaceful and elegant man who did not take the world seriously. Now, he was indifferent and emotionless. He was like the most beautiful flower in the world that bloomed at the top of the highest mountain. A flower that could be seen but could not be reached.

That was the stance that belonged to someone of high standing. The indifference that belonged to the one who stood at the top of the pyramid and looked down at the rest of the world.

Dongfang Bubai did not die. After Li Yu took his spiritual root, he left him alive so that the powerful cultivators in the Dongfang family wouldn’t notice and start hunting him down. He trapped Dongfang Bubai in the deep mountains where he couldn’t see the sun at all.

In accordance with the Esteemed One’s suggestion, Li Yu dressed up as Dongfang Bubai and returned to the city. But he was afraid that the family would see through his disguise, so he continued to travel and refused to return home.

The Four Great Young Masters sounded like a group of invincible people, but it referred more to the factions that they relied on and not their own prowess. If that weren’t the case, these four Foundation Establishment youngsters would have been slapped to death by some other cultivator by now.

What Li Yu didn’t know was that after he had done this thing, a flying ship departed from a faction based miles away from him.

“Young Mistress, why are you going to the 39^th domain? Do you seriously believe those crazy rumors?” asked a maid a little unhappily as she sent a freshly peeled spiritual fruit into the mouth of a beautiful young woman.

“Humph, it’s better to assume it’s real.” The young woman’s expression was frosty as she chewed the fruit angrily. Her huge, pretty eyes were filled with rage.

“Even so…you could have taken the teleportation formation. Why did you change your mind and insist on going in secret?” The maid sighed. Her head was starting to hurt.

“If I take the teleportation formation, that fellow would definitely make sure he covers his tracks. I’ve decided to take a completely different route, and it’d be best if I manage to catch this fellow red-handed. That way, I’ll have a reason to annul this engagement and I don’t have to be a sacrificial item for the family anymore.” The young woman cupped her face in her hands and her voice grew icier and icier. But behind her eyelashes, her watery eyes flickered with a little helplessness.

Nobody liked having someone else arrange their life for them all the time and everyone wanted freedom of choice. But as someone born into a large, influential family, there were many things in life that she could not choose. In return for enjoying the protection that her family afforded, she had to take on a corresponding amount of responsibility.

“I’m fine with marrying someone I don’t like. We’re all cultivators, and since both families are pretty much on par, life won’t be too difficult. But the Dongfang family cultivates in the dual cultivation method. If I marry that man, I’d have to be his human cauldron. How do you expect me to take that lying down?” Anger and hatred kept growing inside her heart and her will to kill continued to intensify.

“Esteemed sir, the set up is about 80 or 90 percent complete.”

That was the message from the god from earlier on.

In the blink of an eye, several months flew by. Gu Suihan sat in front of his desk and stared at a jade slip. He paused to think for a while, then inscribed a message on it and sent it out.

“There are some things that ought to be settled as soon as possible. Otherwise…people’s memories get poorer over time,” murmured Gu Suihan. He gathered some runes with the flick of his finger, drew a rainbow in the air and disappeared.

The front part was already settled. But before moving on, he had to get rid of the unpredictable variables before he could quieten his heart and continue what he needed to do. And the most unpredictable variable in this city, the ones that were outside of the scope cultivators, were those gods.

“They’re here.” Murong Yun’s eye twitched a little as she silently watched the flying ship in the sky slowly land. The rune hidden in her sleeve glowed for a moment, then disappeared.

Over at the Dongfang family residence, Dongfang Zhizhu’s palm glowed brilliantly as she grabbed hold of a jade slip. She used her spiritual sense to read the message and a frosty smile spread across her fair and flawless face. “You’re really in a hurry, aren’t you?”

She got up and disappeared with the swish of her dress, reappearing in the study of the head of the family. “Gu Suihan has sent a message. He wants us to act now.”

“Shuang’er has not fully recovered so we have to stay on high alert. Upon receiving the news, that person suddenly felt the urge to come and visit his future partner and is already on the way here. See if you can stall Gu Suihan’s matter for a while more.” There was a gloomy look on the head of the family’s face. He wasn’t in a good mood.

Gu Suihan was a very capable and intelligent man, after all. What he had given the head of the family was indeed a way of getting rid of the seal over Shuang’er, but she still needed some time to recuperate. That immediately made it impossible for them to carry out their original plan of getting what they wanted out of Gu Suihan and then fall out with him.

And now, all these troublesome matters kept coming one after another, as though everyone had agreed on it together. Undercurrents were moving beneath the calm façade of this peaceful and quiet city. It was like the calm before a storm and it made one very anxious.

“That girl is apparently on the way here too,” said Dongfang Zhizhu quietly as she pushed away the hair in front of her eyes.

“Is this an inauspicious year or what? Such a ridiculous rumor about Dongfang Bubai has just started going around and she’s already heard about it? It sounds a little…too coincidental,” said the head of the family as he raised an eyebrow. He could sense that there was a pair of large hands controlling everything that was happening, but he couldn’t figure out who could be doing this at all.