Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way - Chapter 172: A Pawn’s Usefulness

Several hours later, Han Heng looked frightened as Gu Suihan removed a black and gold little snake that looked perfectly harmless from the inside of his cloak and placed it in Han Heng’s lap.

“You…this…” Han Heng’s expression fell as he felt the slippery and somewhat sinister creature cling to him. He had no choice but to put his little schemes aside and lead Gu Suihan to the weapon refinery room.

His face was stiff as he forced himself to smile at the other people working in the Weapons Refinery Court. Once he had gotten past them, he opened the door to the room and ran in. He looked so pathetic.

Gu Suihan slowly reverted to his real looks and slammed a palm on the large cauldron. A metallic clang resounded, and the soundwaves from that clang echoed continuously in the room that was actually a cave.

After he did that, the patches of rust fell off the cauldron. A bright golden light could be seen through the cracks on its surface.

“You’re about to die, but you’re still pretending to be mysterious and fancy,” said Gu Suihan with a snort. He withdrew his sword, drawing a bloody arc in the air and bringing it down on the cauldron without hesitation.

The large cauldron gave off a muffled buzzing sound like it was a giant beast that had been rudely awakened from its slumber. The laws of nature within a 20-meter radius solidified into runes, which weaved together to create a brilliant gold shield.

A loud clang resounded, and the gold shield was like a candle in the wind. Its brightness flickered unsteadily, and a nasty howl rang continuously.

Just then, the shield fell apart, and the runes faded. The cauldron was a greenish black without all that rust, and the runes on it kept swirling about its surface as though they were alive.

The cauldron seemed to sense Gu Suihan’s impatient and murderous aura. It suddenly trembled, slowly rose into the air, and spun. As it spun, it shrank and turned into a tiny and intricate wine flask that was no larger than a palm.

Gu Suihan grabbed hold of the struggling cauldron and flung it into his storage ring. Then he turned to look at Han Heng, who was trembling in fear and anger but was too scared to even make a single sound.

“To make sure that everything you’ve told me is real, I think it’s better that you sacrifice yourself,” said Gu Suihan flatly. Murderous qi exploded from his saber as he swung it at Han Heng.

“Why, you!” Han Heng’s eyes bulged in anger, and he roared as he produced purple flames from his body. The temperature in the room increased to a terrifying degree, causing any metals in the room to liquefy on the spot and gather between the two of them.

“It’s too late!” Gu Suihan took one step out and flew toward the door.

“Damn it!” Han Heng looked at Gu Suihan’s indifferent gaze, then suddenly looked down to grab hold of the little snake that was stuck to his clothes.

Unfortunately, he had been caught off guard by Gu Suihan’s sudden and extremely aggressive saber attack just now, so he was just that bit too slow to react.

That tiny delay in his reaction was enough for the Black Killer Snake to sink its teeth into Han Heng’s skin and allow its venom to seep into the old man’s veins.

“You!!” Wisps of blackened qi instantly rose from Han Heng’s face. Smelly, purplish-black blood filled with toxins slowly flowed out of every orifice. He grabbed at his throat in vain, his eyes wide as he tried to speak, but the blood that kept bubbling out from his throat prevented any words from coming out.

“Time to take your soul!” Gu Suihan returned his saber to its sheath, flew toward Han Heng, and sent his qi out in strands that sliced Han Heng’s head off as he collapsed. Gu Suihan’s fingertips were blackened as he grabbed hold of Han Heng’s head and smashed it. He forcibly sucked Han Heng’s core out even as it struggled without stopping and frantically tried to attack Gu Suihan. The laws of nature solidified and turned into several lines of runes, which firmly sealed this core that was now only the size of a marble.

Gu Suihan held it in his hand, then waved his hand. A black figure shot out from beneath Han Heng’s dead body and obediently brought Han Heng’s storage ring to Gu Suihan. It placed the ring in Gu Suihan’s hand, then coiled itself tightly around the saber hanging from Gu Suihan’s waist.

“The inter-sect exchange isn’t the most important. The most important thing right now is to find the Seven Kill Sect’s secret realm.” Gu Suihan turned back into the curvaceous Hua Ling. He looked at Han Heng’s body on the floor, then flicked a spark out with his fingers, turned the body to ash, and walked out leisurely.

According to Han Heng, the Qin emperor was also rather interested in the legacy of the races from ancient times, so he gathered as much information about those races as he could at any cost.

Han Heng knew a lot about the nether world mostly because he had found this information in the secret database kept by the empire. The secret realm he had refined for Disciplinarian Zhang had merely been a replica based on a drawing from the Upper World.

As for this large cauldron, he had discovered it in the storehouse of a small family he had wiped out while working for the empire. He happened to sense something from the cauldron, so he secretly kept it for himself.

Han Heng had come to this lower world because his luck was really poor. One of his long-time enemies had the opportunity to reach Advanced Origin Core and became a rank higher than him. In order to avoid a situation where this enemy could backstab him or lay a trap for him, he decided to ask You Hantian to bring him along when he left the Upper World.

“Why are you so interested in ancient times?” Gu Suihan stepped out of the Weapons Refinery Court and kept thinking about these things on his way back. “Or perhaps…you have a piece of animal hide too?”

If one just tried to speculate on such matters, the possibilities were endless. Gu Suihan could only boldly put forth this hypothesis.

Because that was the only way to explain certain things.

For example, perhaps the Qin emperor had somehow gotten his hands on a piece of animal hide and understood some of the words on it. That’s why he decided to accumulate all the money in the world, gather the energy of every living thing and sacrifice millions of lives, waiting for his chance to escape…

Gu Suihan slowly calmed his conflicted feelings down. He looked into the distance and happened to see Yan Hua disguised as himself, chatting merrily to Jingjing, who was accompanied by a pouting and very unhappy-looking Shuang’er.

“What a fool,” muttered Gu Suihan with a snort and a disdainful smile as he quickly walked into his room before the group spotted him.

Even though Yan Hua looked exactly like Gu Suihan, he didn’t have the indifferent aura that Gu Suihan carried, and neither did he have that lofty air. Also, the symbol between Yan Hua’s brows looked so ordinary. It didn’t look special at all. It was nowhere near the symbol between Gu Suihan’s brows, which looked like it was alive.

It wasn’t something that most people would notice, but this stupid Yan Hua actually decided to get close to Jingjing and Shuang’er. Shuang’er was someone who was in close and frequent contact with Gu Suihan, so she was bound to notice something amiss sooner or later. Once she did, Yan Hua was definitely doomed.

“Then again, that’s not a bad thing either. I hope you’d be a useful pawn and reach your maximum potential as one.”

Gu Suihan calmly looked out of the window at Jingjing, who was smiling and responding to Yan Hua but also looked a little suspicious at the same time. A brilliant smile spread across his face, which was now the same as Hua Ling’s.

The Huangquan Evil Ghost looked at the tall and sharp mountain peak in the distance and smacked its lips. It had a creepy smile as it slowly hid in the shadows.

The guards around the mountain suddenly felt their world turn upside down. They knew something was wrong, but it was too late. A mouthful of blood spewed from their mouths as they breathed their last.

Immediately after they fell to the ground with a thud, these dead disciples had turned into nothing but skin and bones.

The Evil Ghost had clearly taken away their blood, flesh, and soul without leaving anything behind.

After leaving Gu Suihan, it felt like the dark clouds that were constantly looming over its head had slowly disappeared. This time, it could finally go on a killing spree without worrying about anything. At most, it could just set up the formation and leave this world. Even the will of this world that failed to even kill a disciple barely done with Foundation Establishment like Gu Suihan wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

Pfft! Thud! The Huangquan Evil Ghost passed through the entire place without running into any obstacles. Not a single thing within its line of sight remained alive for long.

It bared its nasty claws and sent dark and murderous qi flying everywhere.

The flesh and blood of the cultivators belonging to the Youthful Clarity Sect kept making the Evil Ghost stronger and stronger.

“The storehouse!” The Evil Ghost was very excited about being able to kill so many people, but it didn’t let this excitement get to its head, and it remembered why it had come to this place.

Suddenly, an earth-shattering sword will burst forth from the peak of the mountain. Gold dagger-axe murderous qi filled the air and turned into fiendish wind sword qi. The Evil Ghost was unable to dodge the rush of qi and felt everything turn black, followed by the sound of explosions all over its body.

The fiendish wind was like countless incredibly sharp swords.

The sword will was like a dragon as it roared and bellowed angrily.

In just a few seconds, the Huangquan Evil Ghost had lost one layer of flesh and blood.

ROAR!! The terrible pain triggered the vicious side of the Evil Ghost. It let out a roar like thunder and the soundwaves shook everything so violently that any Youthful Clarity Sect disciples in its way trembled like they had been struck by lightning before they started bleeding from every orifice, then exploded on the spot.

“It’s just a sword formation.” The Evil Ghost’s features were twisted and violence was written all over its sullen expression. It now stood at over three meters in height. As it roared, it created a suction power that sucked in all the broken pieces of flesh and qi around it like a whale sucking in water.

Its ten odd claws became even shinier and its body kept getting bigger and stronger. It became twice as large as before within seconds. It was now like a giant as it stared at the mountain peak that gave off a sword glow that killed everything in sight, disregarding whether you were on its side or not.

The Huangquan Evil Ghost then started taking large strides toward it!

Author’s note at the end of the chapter:

I took a look at some of the comments on the book. Some of you complained about how the MC had already reached immortal stage, but he was still as useless as a dog.

What else did you expect? Anybody else with a normal IQ arriving in a different world for the first time, who had snuck in and was heavily injured no less, would definitely take their time to recuperate and slowly make plans along the way. How could he have the ability to fight ten or a hundred people on his own in an instant? And even if he did, would he dare to use that ability?

That can’t be a good sign.

Besides, Gu Suihan has to worry about the Upper World, the other major sects, other factions, the will of the world, etc.

For example, let’s say Gu Suihan is like an ocean who has run dry. He has to get his body together and cultivate all over again, as though there’s now only one basin of water in the dried up ocean. No matter how formidable he is, he couldn’t possibly turn a basin of water into a rushing river from nowhere, right?

Besides, I think that since the beginning till now, Gu Suihan hasn’t gone all out yet. I really don’t agree with those who think he’s only at the same level as his opponents.

Gu Suihan does not kill for the sake of killing. He has a motive for every person he kills. Those who kill for no reason or kill even though they don’t get anything out of it are psychopaths, not cultivators.

Alright then, I’ll stop talking now. I hope everyone can take the time to think a little more deeply.