Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way

“Hoho,” Gu Suihan chuckled and grinned at the old man’s rather nasty expression. “So what if I’m trying to do that and so what if I’m not? In any case, this thing is with me.” He waved the gleaming jade slip in his hand at the old man gleefully.

“I…I don’t believe you! I don’t think you would have known this would happen! I’m sure…I’m sure that jade slip doesn’t have anything in it!” yelled the old man furiously as he suddenly slammed the table and leaned towards Gu Suihan.

But the slight tremble in his voice revealed the fact that he wasn’t really all that sure.

“Well, of course, you could take a gamble,” said Gu Suihan as his smile faded in an instant. “You could bet that there’s something in here and I’d report it to the Disciplinary Court. Or you could bet that there’s nothing inside and refuse to accept my order.”

“Why you…” The old man unleashed a pressurizing force and it filled the entire room. A three-legged Mixed Elements Cauldron appeared in the old man’s hand. “Are you not afraid that you might not make it out of this room?”

“Of course I’m scared!” Gu Suihan’s voice sounded really frightened, but his expression was still just as emotionless. “I’m soooooo scared.”

The old man was a little relieved to hear these words, but before he could even crack a smile, Gu Suihan continued, “If someone who isn’t even at Foundation Establishment stage like myself can cause an Origin Core weapon refiner to die with me in a fight, then I think it’s still worth it.”

Gu Suihan stood up, ignored the cauldron in the old man’s hand that was still increasing the pressure in the room, and patted the old man on the shoulder as he whispered, “Don’t you think so?”

The room fell deathly silent except for the sound of the old man breathing heavily in anger.

“Fine. What do you want? I’ll try my best to give it to you. But you must give me the jade slip after that.” The old man sat down dejectedly and slumped back in his chair.

He decided to give in. Gu Suihan was right – he couldn’t afford to take this gamble. He knew that there was no hope for him to advance any further in his cultivation, but if he took care of himself, he might live for a few more decades. So all he wanted was to live the rest of his life peacefully.

“It’s not as if this thing can be eaten anyway,” scoffed Gu Suihan. “Do a good job of what you’re supposed to do and I’ll give it to you. You don’t have to worry about that.”

“So, what do you want me to make?”

“Like I said, I just want a customized weapon base,” said Gu Suihan with a frown.

The old man was still confused by Gu Suihan’s request but decided not to ask about Gu Suihan’s intentions. “Do you have any special requests?”

Gu Suihan started smiling again when he saw that the weapon refiner was turning cooperative. He took a piece of paper out from his storage ring and gave it to the weapon refiner. “There are detailed measurements on this paper. The measurements must be followed perfectly. I can’t afford any part to be even one millimeter off, do you understand?”

“Got it. What materials do you need?” asked the old man quietly as he slowly calmed himself down.

“For this part, use Demon Meteorite. For this part, use Dragon Tooth Blood Ore. For this part, use Blazing Sun Gold,” said Gu Suihan as he pointed to the different oddly shaped parts on the paper. Finally, he pointed to the largest and longest part and said, “For this part, use Mara Ore¹.”

The old man followed Gu Suihan’s finger as he pointed to the various parts and couldn’t help but gasp inwardly.

He still had no idea exactly what Gu Suihan was ultimately trying to create since they looked like nothing but a bunch of spare parts to him now. But the last part looked like a blade of sorts.

“There are many parts but they aren’t difficult to make. There’s no need to carve any Dao or formation runes, so I’ll add in some Heavenly Spiritual Ore, so the weapon can have some sentience. It won’t make much of a difference in terms of time or cost,” said the old man as he frowned and thought hard. He decided that he had to throw in something valuable, or else Gu Suihan might not give him that jade slip.

“Okay. Also, add some Soul Breaking Grass to the blade,” added Gu Suihan calmly.

“I should be able to get this done in ten hours. You can wait here.” The old man’s expression was still nasty as he picked up his beloved zisha teapot and walked out again.

“I really have to thank you.” Gu Suihan looked fairly relaxed now.

Who was he thanking? Of course, he was thanking the one who made the sect rules.

If the sect rules weren’t so strict and specific, he wouldn’t have been able to extort Mo Yuluo the moment he joined the sect or stall for time with Disciplinarian Zhang. He most certainly wouldn’t have gone ahead to offend an Origin Core cultivator like this either.

And if the sect rules weren’t so harsh, the leaders of the three major factions of power wouldn’t have had to craft such a lousy plan to find an excuse to get Gu Suihan and the rest out of the sect grounds in order to assassinate them.

In Gu Suihan’s opinion, Seven Kill Sect was considered a rather fair organization. The strict sect rules ensured that the sort of unhealthy competition and conflict that would have normally occurred between disciples was completely avoided. If you wanted to fight or kill someone, you had to pick someone at your own level. You could challenge someone of a higher level than yourself, but you were not allowed to bully anybody at a lower level than yourself.

The other thing that kept everyone in their own place was the formation of the Seven Peaks. The entire sect was split into seven divisions and each one took charge of one area.

Peak One was in charge of teaching techniques, Peak Two was in charge of disciplinary matters, and Peak Three was in charge of sect missions.

Peak Four was in charge of all the older disciples who couldn’t advance any further in their cultivation, so most of them were deacons and elders. They were also in charge of the Main Library.

Peak Five was in charge of weapon refining and treasures, Peak Six was in charge of growing ingredients for making pills and other such items and Peak Seven was in charge of human resources and other administrative matters.

What was the most important thing to a sect? Techniques? Spells? Treasures? Weapons? Spiritual Meridians? Spiritual Herb plantations?

None of those were the most important. The most important thing to a sect was a secret realm or a separate self-contained world. That was the most basic yet important way for the sect to protect anything important to the sect, or anything that the sect needed to pass on to their disciples.

If the sect was ever in danger, they could seek shelter in this self-contained world and shut off access altogether. That way, unless you were someone who was willing to ignore the rules and had the ability to break worlds and shatter space, there was no way you could get in.

If you wanted a technique or something like that, you could snatch or steal it from someone else. But a self-contained world was a precious and irreplaceable safe haven for the sect.

So, regardless of how many factions existed within a sect and how hard they fought each other, they would become united if the sect were threatened. That was what made a sect stand strong throughout millennia.

Some of the novels in Gu Suihan’s previous life liked to write about factions of power that killed others for no reason, schemed against others all day long, and were never fair in their treatment of others. But in reality, such an organization would end up doing themselves in before long. That was no way to start a sect of any kind.

Also, if one had a faction to fall back on, then at least you had something to cling onto or rely on for additional support. If you didn’t belong to something like that, you were doomed for sure.

Those stories about some wandering cultivator who didn’t belong anywhere, killing random people at will and hatching clever plans against others, were absolute garbage. Major factions of power had control over most resources, so there was almost nothing left for anyone else. How could someone become powerful like that?

Gu Suihan had suffered too much like this in his previous life. That was why he decided to find a way to join Seven Kill Sect. At least he would have something to fall back on while he was still weak.

As he continued thinking about recent events, he suddenly remembered how one of his maids had brought back those poisonous pills from Fortune Court the day before he had left for that fake mission. His expression grew grim.

“It wasn’t done by one of the three factions. If they did that, they wouldn’t have given me that Spiritual Multiplier Pill before the fake mission started,” murmured Gu Suihan as he ran a finger around the rim of the cup. “It’s not Disciplinarian Zhang either. But I don’t know a lot of people and these are the only ones I have a feud with so far. If it’s not them, then the one who did it isn’t an enemy.”

He narrowed his eyes and quietly tapped the rim of his teacup.

“Is it him?” Gu Suihan suddenly thought of someone. “But why?”

After thinking about it for a long time, he decided to just give up. He didn’t have enough clues to be sure, but he was sure that whoever did it, definitely had a motive in mind.

All Gu Suihan had to do now was to slowly wait for this person’s motive to be revealed. In fact, that was all he could do.

Next, he started thinking about the secret realm that Feng Ran had talked about. There were several issues at hand.

The first problem was how Feng Ran didn’t have a lot of details and just mentioned this in passing before keeping quiet again.

Feng Ran didn’t even say where this secret realm was and just went on to say that the three major factions were going to let their new disciples go in and gain experience. If that were the case, the sect needed to arrange for some sect members to receive these disciples and lead them into the secret realm.

Once one left the sect grounds, you could run into disciples from anywhere, including those who didn’t belong to any sect. If the secret realm wasn’t somewhere hidden, there would definitely be a lot of such wandering cultivators hoping to sneak in along with those new disciples. What did Feng Ran intend to do if that happened?

When disciples went out as a group to a specific venue in order to gain experience, the sect would send out one or two deacons to follow them. These deacons could ensure their safety as well as gain something along the way.

So, there was no reason why there would be an exception this time around. In fact, the three factions would probably send one deacon each or even an internal disciple from their own faction.

In the Seven Kill Sect hierarchy, internal disciples were pretty much on the same level as deacons and elders, since there was no official distinction in their status. Internal disciples were usually formidable fighters who hadn’t reached their full potential yet, while deacons and elders were usually already at the Origin Core stage, but they were either suffering from some illness or weren’t left with very long to live. So, they could be considered to be at a similar level.

All the new disciples would leave the sect as one group, so it would be impossible to do anything then.

After all the new disciples entered the secret realm, their chaperones would remain outside to stand guard. Gu Suihan and the rest weren’t even at the Foundation Establishment stage yet, so they wouldn’t be able to fight the chaperones and force their way in.

But once the new disciples completed their run inside the secret realm and returned to the sect, they wouldn’t be able to do anything either.

There was only one way to do this. They had to find a way to get themselves into the secret realm.

Gu Suihan lowered his head to hide the frosty glint in his eyes.

They had to muddy the waters to catch a fish!

He wondered what the rest were planning.

1. Mara