Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way - Chapter 177: Do You Dare To?
The demonic figure roared angrily, its ink-colored shadow howling as it engulfed Gu Suihan and charged at the sky.
It, or rather, they had finally made their decision.
They had unanimously decided that whatever the will of this world had shown itself to be capable of was nowhere enough to kill this murderous, violent, asura-like cultivator named Gu Suihan.
That was because they had seen even more powerful things on Earth…
“Blue Blood Dyes the Sky!”
Everything that the saber pointed at disappeared. The wind and thunder trembled silently in fear, and the clouds dissipated.
The sky…had fallen apart.
This four-foot-long saber was like a needle laced with poison as it stabbed itself deeply into the sky. The murderous qi on the blade kept spreading and went right into the deepest part of the whirlpool without any attempt to conceal itself. In the blink of an eye, it had corroded a large patch.
Kaboom! The lightning and thunder occurred more and more frequently.
The wind and rain threatened to come and qi was surging wildly.
Gu Suihan swung his saber up and blocked the attack from the laws of nature that had turned itself into a natural disaster. He took the chance to then quickly pull his saber back and fly toward the pavilion without hesitation.
After being attacked like this, again and again, the will of this world adjusted its assessment of Gu Suihan again. This young man was way more formidable than it had initially imagined.
In an instant, the wind and rain stopped.
The boundless sea of blood that was surging beneath Gu Suihan’s feet looked like it was going through low tide. The laws governing that sea fell apart and slowly went back into the ground. It left behind nothing but a pool of blood that was no larger than ten meters in diameter.
Even so, the pool of blood was still slowly but surely evaporating and spreading itself out in an attempt to escape Gu Suihan’s control.
“Use strength to oppress the other!” Gu Suihan’s expression finally shifted from a relaxed one to a much more solemn one. His half-closed eyes had turned a mesmerizing and deep wine red. Runes swirled on their surface, making his eyes look like two black holes.
He was now less than 300 meters from the pavilion.
Before this, he would have been able to reach it in one step.
But now, it felt more like he was trying to reach the heavens.
Gu Suihan slowly landed on the ground, then looked up at the extremely thick layer of dark clouds that had quietly gathered in the sky. The sounds of thunder and flashes of lightning went on continuously around him and felt very imposing. The ground beneath his feet kept rising and falling like water, creating large muddy wave after muddy wave.
The laws of nature collapsed, turning the area around Gu Suihan into a vacuum. He was not able to control anything beyond a three-meter radius. The pressurizing aura of the world was almost real as it weighed heavily on his shoulders. The heaving of the ground tried to make him lose his balance. The laws of nature peeled away and dissipated, so there was no more qi for him to absorb.
“Cutting off the laws of nature…not bad!” Gu Suihan pursed his lips. He put his saber back into its sheath and began to accumulate his energies when a look of madness suddenly spread across his face.
“You can cut off the laws, but what about…karma?”
He let out a terrible cry, and the soundwaves from his mouth instantly drowned out the sound of the rolling thunder and howling winds. His mocking laughter continued to echo.
Gu Suihan stomped his foot heavily on the ground, creating a huge crater that measured more than ten meters in radius. His long robe flapped in the wind, and his clothes were drenched. His black hair resembled a dragon and his expression was sinister. The demonic figure roared as it suddenly shrank and merged into his saber. A clanging sound resounded loudly, like the war drums of a mighty army going into battle. It was a very deep rumble that caused eardrums to tremble violently and so nauseating it made one feel like vomiting blood.
All of a sudden, a clear voice rang out in this place. It was filled with emotion, as though it was telling a story.
“The world and its desires may seem like a beautiful dream, but it is like the crescent moon reflected in the pond, the pretty yellow flowers in the mirror. Having feelings is lesser than feeling deeply. Feeling deeply is lesser than being infatuated, and being infatuated is lesser than feeling indifferent. Cut off worldly desires, and be no longer bound to the karmic cycle. Enough, enough, enough. All troubles of the world shall disappear in the wind. I will look down at all living creatures from a position of indifference…”
The sky was dark and the laws of nature stopped everything it was doing. In that lonely silence, only that heartbreaking voice filled with grief and hate echoed slowly.
“I have added the karma of everything onto myself. The millions I have massacred are now one body. Do you dare to slice through a level of karma such as this?”
Gu Suihan looked up calmly at the six-inch blade in the sky formed by the laws of nature that emanated a golden glow. He didn’t care about the sinister aura that could slice through everything that the other party possessed. His lips curled upwards slightly into a mocking smile.
“Six Slashes of Mara – Breaking the Skies!”
He drew his saber, an attack he had been quietly preparing. As he pulled it out of its sheath, a thick layer of murderous intent turned into a real, black mist that spewed from the mouth of the sheath and attached itself to the blade. That blade contained so much energy and it looked ready to slice through the sky.
The blackened blade was filled with Gu Suihan’s seemingly endless fiendish qi. It covered a 300-meter radius around him, carrying his obsessed will as it made a powerful attack.
On the contrary, the little knife made by the laws of nature was slow. But it cut through the thick layer of fiendish qi and just missed the top of Gu Suihan’s head. It then seemed to have used up all its energy as it turned into mere sparkles that were blown away by the wind.
DOONG! In that instant, a deep ringing like a morning gong, or the bells of the temple, rang through the entire place.
The dark whirlwind in the skies suddenly darkened. At that moment, heaven and earth seemed to pause.
It was as though it had been severely injured. The pressure it had exerted rolled back like a receding tide and it was not as imposing as before.
Just then, Gu Suihan’s saber stabbed itself into the heart of the whirlwind like it was a shooting star.
Once he managed to get his saber in, he pushed further and changed his attack. The blade started to tremble and gave off a dull buzzing sound.
“Six Slashes of Mara – Cutting Off Samsara!”
The laws of nature gathered, and the demonic qi rose like a wave.
Vengeful souls howled, and aggressive ghosts wailed.
It brandished its knife again without holding back, as though it was about to cut through every wave of the sea.
“I don’t intend to break the Devil Abyss open. I will only do that if I don’t have a choice,” Gu Suihan called out as he did his best to retreat and fly into the sky.
To slap someone, then offer them candy was something that always worked.
After exploring so many different paths, his tremendous experience over the centuries told him never to push his enemy into a corner. Otherwise, one would often end up facing unexpected and unnecessary drama.
The whirlwind in the sky rotated slowly until, finally, a giant eye filled with indifference began to appear. The thunder seemed to roar every time it blinked, while the movement of its pupil was like the swing of a pendulum, creating waves in the air.
“I…am just hoping to get some things. After that, I will leave,” said Gu Suihan after taking some time to choose his words. He looked back at that giant eye without fear.
“You…settle this properly.”
A shocking thing happened next. That eye froze, then its pupil constricted as it stared at Gu Suihan for a while. Then, it slowly faded into the whirlpool and the laws of nature shook violently. Another powerful force calmed it down before the entire thing shrank and disappeared.
These changes didn’t escape Gu Suihan’s eyes. His thoughts flowed like a river, ideas raining down on his mind. He slowly pieced together all the different clues he had.
“The Huangquan Evil Ghost…”
Gu Suihan’s eyes flew open after a few moments and a strange smile slowly spread across his face.
You’re very timely, indeed.
While Gu Suihan was fighting the will of this world…
“Evil Ghost! Die now!” Zhou Lingfeng had a nasty expression as he dashed out from the crack in spacetime. When he saw how the mountain belonging to his sect was covered entirely in blood, he became even angrier and yelled loudly as he drew his sword.
“Who’s that?” The Evil Ghost had been on a gleeful killing spree, but slowed down when he heard that voice behind it. It turned around to find Zhou Lingfeng, who had bent his body to bring his destructive sword attack down on it.
“Fuck!” cursed the Evil Ghost immediately after it noticed the crack behind Zhou Lingfeng that was clearly a crack in the spacetime. It wasn’t stupid, so it figured things out quickly. It flung the corpse in its hands away and turned to run.
“You’re not going anywhere!” Zhou Lingfeng’s eyes bulged furiously, capillaries bursting in a frightening fashion. He added more energy to his sword attack and it came down as quickly as lightning.
“Void Sky Space Shaking Shield!”
The Huangquan Evil Ghost turned around for a split second and nearly peed itself. Its claws were like the wind as it made a hand seal quickly. Its body immediately began to turn transparent and looked like it was about to disappear into thin air.
“Come out!” A humph tinged with some glee rang out from behind it. The Evil Ghost felt the qi around it suddenly become very strange. The qi had turned into a claw that had managed to grab onto it even though it had almost turned transparent. The qi grabbed hold of the Evil Ghost and pulled it back.
“You’re at Nascent Change…”
The Evil Ghost instantly sensed that tremendous, unstoppable power and shuddered on the spot. Its eyes were as red as blood and it clawed like crazy, the sounds of its sharp claws tearing through the air resounding loudly. It ignored the pain that made it feel like its bones were getting crushed and struggled to get out of the grip of that giant qi hand.
“Still trying to run?” You Hantian had an indifferent expression on his face, but there was a tinge of mockery in his eyes. He thrust a hand seal out and the giant hand shook violently, shaking the senses out of the Evil Ghost. Its qi turned into threads that wound themselves tightly around the Evil Ghost in the blink of an eye.
The Evil Ghost took some time to recover from its dizziness. By the time it was finally well enough to see Zhou Lingfeng, You Hantian had already tied it up. It couldn’t help but think back on what happened.
“A teleportation formation that will send you back to the Upper World is on this jade slip…”
It recalled what Gu Suihan had said, as well as that fleeting iciness in his expression while speaking. Also, the fact that Yan Hua had gone in shortly after that…
The Evil Ghost suddenly understood everything.
“GU…SUI…HAN!! HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME!!!” The Evil Ghost looked into the sky and howled as it let out a terrifying and hateful roar.
“Gu Suihan?”
“Gu Suihan?”
The aggrieved roar of the Evil Ghost made Zhou Lingfeng and You Hantian pale.
But while one looked shocked upon hearing this name, the other one had an expression filled with anger and hate.
Author Note
PS: What did the Huangquan Evil Ghost understand?
Also, two readers would like to be featured in the book.
One wants to be flirtatious, suave, and bloodthirsty.
One wants to be calm, elegant, graceful, smart, and gentlemanly.
Once I start writing about the Upper World, I’ll find a way to insert these characters into the story…