Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way - Chapter 185: The Fiendish Spirit…Appears!

“Nine Steps in the Sky – Ascending the Clouds!” Su Yuqing gave a low shout, and his sword began to ring nonstop. The entire sword domain began to ring with nothing but the sound of a blade vibrating. He took one step forward and flew into the sky.

He stood in the air and brandished his sword.

Thousands of swords arose from the ground. A murderous aura overflowed as the glint of all the swords flashed brightly.

“If the lips perish…the teeth freeze.”

Marahu and Gu Suihan exchanged glances and could see the pain in each other’s eyes.

The former was at a high level of cultivation, but because he had been trapped inside the Devil Abyss, a place with nothing to offer him, for so long, he hadn’t learned any amazing techniques or spells.

The latter had attained the Immortal stage before, but he was now only at Origin Core, and even his spirit had healed to Peak Origin Core or so. He knew a million and one god-level techniques, but he didn’t have the body with the ability to execute them. He could only sigh heavily.

“Let’s go!”

Gu Suihan suddenly landed next to Marahu and said via telepathy, “I’ll instruct you, and you’ll do as I say. There’s still hope yet for us.”

Marahu had a very grim expression on his face. He glanced at Gu Suihan, then drew his huge spear, smashing all the swords within a ten-meter radius with one foot. His eyes bulged as he glared straight at the floating Su Yuqing in the distance, the man who could control thousands of swords just like that.

“Sword vessels shall cover 3,000 miles. Use your silver light to blind the devils!”

That’s right. He said sword vessels, not sword qi. (The word for vessels is also pronounced as qi)

In the next moment, Marahu saw a dense layer of swords that looked like a layer of clouds tremble fiercely, shrieking as it gave off copious amounts of murderous qi. The entire layer was charging toward the two of them like falling rain.

“Convert qi, gather them in your body but don’t give off any yet. Hold up your spear at a slant and accumulate your energies!” said Gu Suihan via telepathy. He turned and was standing in front of Marahu in the blink of an eye. His blade was three inches out of its sheath, its shine as deep as an abyss yet as evil as a devil. Runes swirled around it and were covered in a solid layer of fiendish qi.

He had to block this sword attack and create an opportunity for Marahu.

“Triple Source Immortal Slay – Massacre the Heavens, Prove the Way!”

In that moment, when Gu Suihan rotated his blade, he was prepared to die. The indifference that came with his loftiness intensified. A black pillar of qi shot out from his body.

“DIE!!!”

He finally drew his saber entirely out of its sheath in that instant before the thousands of swords pointed at him moved toward him at the same time.

The sky seemed to turn upside down, and the ground cracked. The wind stopped blowing, and the clouds disappeared.

The extremely black and sinister meter-long blade whooshed as it sliced through the air. Everywhere that it went, sword vessels wailed, sword tips shattered, and sword blades were damaged. Fiendish qi filled the air.

Clang! Clang! Clang! The ear-piercing sound of metal against metal rang like the sound of rain, and the soundwaves from the clashes spread outwards, blasting the area around Gu Suihan so hard that there was nothing left around him.

“Now’s your time to strike. Gather fiendish qi in your spear and stab his skull.” A bright blood-red color began to appear on Gu Suihan’s skin.

He was originally at a point where his blood had turned clear. Still, after fighting continuously for so long, his blood couldn’t maintain that state anymore, and it was slowly returning to that metallic-smelling red liquid again.

Pfft! Gu Suihan’s concentration lapsed for a short moment, and a short sword that was no more than sixty centimeters in length instantly broke through and stabbed him hard in the shoulder, causing him to stumble.

One stumble was enough to make him retreat further.

Gu Suihan had no choice but to swing his saber to create a layer of qi between himself and the swords that were enough to give him time to move away from that spot.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Gu Suihan’s arm was painful and sore, and his blood dripped like water. The sword vessels seemed to rain down like a huge ocean waves as though the sky never ran out of them. He swung his saber again and again. But his swing was slower and slower with each swing.

More and more swords rang loudly as they carried heavy amounts of fiendish qi and broke through the spiritual weapons used as a defense, and stabbed their victims’ bodies.

ROAR! Marahu stomped hard on the ground and flew into the air in an instant. His spear looked sinister and gleamed brightly like the moon, its light filling the entire sword domain.

“Humph!” Su Yuqing had an icy smile on his face. He hadn’t used all his strength yet. He had only commanded the sword vessels within the sword domain. This was done in order to force Gu Suihan and Marahu to split up, which would help him find a point of attack.

If he had used all his strength, Gu Suihan would have turned into minced meat in one second.

“DIE!!” roared Marahu angrily. He was like a gigantic dragon in the sky as he thrust his spear toward the older man.

“Gather the fiendish sword qi into the body.” Su Yuqing wasn’t anxious, and the icy smile on his face did not even flinch. To him, a devil who only had a high level of cultivation but no matching level of technique wasn’t going to be difficult to kill.

“Move all your internal energies to your arm and find a chance to make a sneak attack,” said Gu Suihan to Marahu via telepathy when he managed to find a chance to catch his breath and immediately realized what was going on when he turned to look at Marahu’s situation.

He too, knew that Marahu was no match for a cultivator with countless techniques up his sleeve like Su Yuqing. Su Yuqing could torture Marahu to death without much effort.

That was the biggest difference between cultivators. Having good weapons and other resources was one thing, but the most important thing to have were high level secret techniques that could help you defeat enemies or your understanding of the laws of nature. As for the difference in the level of cultivation, that was only of significance if the difference was great enough. For example, Gu Suihan and Su Yuqing’s level of cultivation was almost the same, so their actual level of cultivation meant nothing in a fight with one another.

On the other hand, Marahu looked like he was around Mid Divine Soul and should have been at an advantage in this fight if the level of cultivation mattered. But the laws of nature in that pathetic Devil Abyss were such a mess, so it was impossible to quieten down and slowly understand them. On top of that, the Abyss didn’t contain a single natural treasure. Gu Suihan was actually rather puzzled as to how Marahu managed to make it all the way to Divine Soul in the first place.

As for Gu Suihan, under these circumstances, he just happened to get lucky. The fight between them gave off very violent shockwaves, so if his spirit weren’t steady, the shockwaves alone would have rattled him to death.

“Everything in the world is split into yin and yang, and everything is a matter of life, death, reincarnation and the five elements. Fiendish sword qi…is also a type of fiendish qi, it is made from the element of gold and it is an extremely yin concept. That’s of benefit to me!” thought Gu Suihan as he slowly moved toward the edge of the sword domain and fought off the whooshing sword blades and vessels that kept attacking him while giving Marahu helpful suggestions along the way via telepathy.

“You’ve already become sentient, so let me help you to level up!” Gu Suihan’s sullen expression looked more and more crazed in his darkened surroundings.

Immediately after he said those words, he casually wiped one hand on his body to get some blood on his fingers. His fingertips turned into a dao rune that reeked of blood.

There was a dim reddish glow as the blood had dried slightly.

Gu Suihan had a determined look in his eyes as he gently smacked the dao rune into the area between his brows.

In that instant, he felt something that was more powerful than anything in the world break out from the seal on his forehead, making the symbol branded in between his brows fade. In its place, a strange symbol began to form.

“What…what is that?”

The fight between Marahu and Su Yuqing got more and more intense when they suddenly felt their hearts tell them that something that could threaten their lives was nearby.

“That’s…”

They exchanged glances, then looked down slowly at the hunched over Gu Suihan at the border of the sword domain.

“ROAR!!”

“WAAILL!!!”

“Kill! Kill! Kill!”

“I died such a wrongful death!!”

“I’m going to kill you and take revenge!”

Inside the sword domain, all the sword vessels that had been flying about wildly suddenly trembled and fell to the ground, whining and crying like they had just spotted their natural enemy.

An immense pressure weighed down heavily on the sword domain and its surroundings. Everything seemed to stop moving.

The innumerable and noisy roars and shrieks that resounded in everyone’s ears slowly became one roar that filled the sky, “KILL!!!”

Su Yuqing watched as a gargantuan black shadow slowly appeared from behind Gu Suihan. It had a pair of bloodshot eyes that did not hide the violence, bloodthirstiness, cruelty, vengeful hatred and more in its gaze. The only thing that was missing was innocence…

“This is…a fiendish spirit?” Su Yuqing’s voice suddenly went up by an octave as a look of shock and horror spread across his face. His stomach churned and he had a look of fear and reverence in his eyes.

“And it’s a fiendish spirit consisting of pure massacre qi!” Marahu’s forehead was perspiring profusely as he gulped. His voice trembled as he said, “This fellow…the fiendish qi he revealed earlier is probably not even a hundredth of what he has right now…”

“The fiendish sword qi has been swallowed up,” blurted Su Yuqing bitterly as he felt the sword domain he had created shrink in size.

“The karma of everything is all on me.

Even after massacring thousands, my spirit can hold them down.

I slay souls and swallow lives, only I outlive them.

I question the heavens but not because I want it to give me the Way.

All sorts of illusions exist, but I alone…shall exist forever!“

As Gu Suihan murmured these words, his voice became garbled, and his expression looked more and more threatening. His gentle and perfect facial features slowly became twisted. The blood-red color of his pupils reddened further. His consciousness had turned into a boundless sea of blood that enveloped his spirit that was covered in cracks and wounds.

He cultivated in the Way, he understood the Way, he knew how to use the Way, and he asked about the Way.

But he would never beg for the Way.

This was Gu Suihan’s obsession, his heart for the Way, and his…paranoia¹.

Only my motivations shall outlive everything that has managed to survive the ages. I might go round the world and desire answers about the Way, but I will never bow to it!

1. TL/N: as in like paranoid personality disorder type of paranoia – a delusive and self-obsessed/absorbed sort ️