Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way - Chapter 194: Forty-nine Regions, Hundred Schools Of Thought

“Po Solidifying and Nascent Gathering technique. Body Abandoning Deity Transformation technique.” Gu Suihan smiled as he placed both jade slips on the table and looked intensely at everyone. “Till we meet again!”

He was already standing as he said these words and stepped into the teleportation formation on the left. A bright glow filled the place, and qi shook violently. As the laws of nature turned into sparkly ripples, Gu Suihan’s body slowly disappeared as You Hantian and the rest watched on.

They looked like someone had just died.

That’s a strange way to put it, yet that was exactly what this scene looked like.

“We…will meet again.” You Hantian had a strange smile on his face.

Would they?

Nobody knew.

But You Hantian had a feeling that this mysterious young man would definitely head for the capital of the empire – Xianyang!

Of the three teleportation formations, the middle one was linked to one of the empire’s secret organizations. The left one was one he had secretly created, which led to his home. The one on the right…was a trap. It was a trap that led straight to a crack in the void.

“If you want the plan to succeed, then you need to get a cultivator and prepare all the fake stuff,” said the Huangquan Evil Ghost quietly as it looked at the golden glimmering jade slip in its hands.

“That’s not a problem.” You Hantian waved his sleeve and a disciple hidden in some corner of the sect came flying from nowhere.

If Gu Suihan saw this person, he would have found him familiar. That was because this disciple was actually an old acquaintance who had suddenly disappeared without a trace – Feng Ran.

“So, this is the Upper World, huh.” Once the formation diagram around him had faded, Gu Suihan could feel the rather thick swathes of qi in the air. His lips couldn’t help but curl into a faint and creepy smile.

He walked out of the room he had arrived in and the guards at the door spotted him immediately. They held up their weapons and shouted, “Who are you?”

“This is You Hantian’s token, he allowed me to use his teleportation formation.”

Gu Suihan wasn’t bothered by their reactions and threw a token made from purple gold and shaped in a wolf crying to the moon at them. The words “You Hantian” were inscribed on the front and the back featured a very eerie looking bird creature.

In no time, You Hantian’s servants politely saw him out and even gave him some money in case he needed it.

“Xianyang City, 49 regions, buddhists, demons, ghosts, and philosophers all fighting – what a lively place!”

Gu Suihan flung a thick book into his storage ring and mumbled to himself as he looked around at the busy street that was constantly filled with people, chuckling as he continued walking…

This place was made from forcibly combining a few large worlds. How big was it, exactly?

If you took Earth as Suihan once knew it as an example, then the entire continent of Europe would only be one tiny county among the 49 regions.

Xianyang was the capital of the Qin Empire and it was said that it spanned tens of thousands of miles. Just the wall around the city was 300 meters high.

Even though nobody knew for sure if this was true, this estimate probably wasn’t too far from reality.

This was a peaceful and developed place to lowly creatures like ordinary humans, but it was a suitable place for living to cultivators.

If you wanted to become successful, you had to conquer regions outside the capital and build your own business. If you wanted to live without worries, you just had to follow the law of the land. But if you wanted to become the king over part of this land, then…too bad, your head would roll in less than a day after you declare your intentions.

Any sense of superiority that cultivators felt, or any level of cultivation and strength that might have allowed them to ignore any rules elsewhere were killed off and oppressed cruelly by someone even more powerful.

That person’s name was…Ying Zheng.

Legalism, agriculturalism, Mohism, Confucianism – the Hundred Schools of Thought fought each other.

Buddhists, Taoists, ghosts, demons and devils – they were filled with turmoil and undercurrents.

Cultivators in spells, or weapons, or the body, or martial arts – you name it, they had it.

This was a very exciting and varied world, but it was also a cruel world.

“I wonder how faraway the capital city Xianyang is from here. But I’ve got plenty of time. I’ll check out the situation first before making any plans.”

After leaving You Hantian’s home, he paused to think for a moment. Once he had decided which direction he wanted to take, he found a place to buy a carriage, then decided to use this opportunity to pick two maids carefully.

One was lively and energetic, the other was docile and quiet.

The former was named Lihua, while the latter…was named Taohua.

The two maids continued the same destiny that their seniors of the same name had. They respectfully served the young man who was as lazy as a wealthy wastrel and as gorgeous as the stars and moon in the sky.

“Young Master, we will arrive at the prefecture seat of Qingyang Commandery in three days,” said Taohua quietly as she massaged the shoulders of the young man in front of her with just enough strength.

“Noted. It’s getting dark, so find a village and we’ll rest there for the night,” said Gu Suihan distractedly as he continued reading the book in his hands.

Taohua’s lips twitched a little and felt like rolling her eyes as she responded obediently. She pulled the thick curtains of the carriage aside and passed on the instructions to Lihua.

Gu Suihan was reading some famous person’s travel logs, and it was the sort that had colored drawings included.

Taohua had asked Gu Suihan why he loved reading such a random assortment of literature. It was random alright – some were famous classics, while some were accounts from wandering martial artists. Some were even tabloids. But Gu Suihan never despised any genre and was able to read each one seriously.

And when Taohua asked him about it, he merely smiled back and did not explain himself.

“Young Master…” Lihua’s slightly panicky voice rang in his ears before he felt a fragrant wind on his face, and everything went dark for a moment. Lihua’s small and supple body had landed in his arms.

“What’s happened?” Gu Suihan’s expression did not flinch as he looked at the frantic expression on the maid clutching his sleeve desperately. He used his finger to transfer a qi that exuded a gentle and warm aura to Lihua’s body, which calmed her down after it had circulated inside her.

“Outside…there’s a dead body outside…someone’s…someone’s died…” stuttered Lihua in a trembling and frightened voice.

“Oh! Well, if they’re dead, they’re dead,” Gu Suihan responded flatly.

Immediately after he said that, the curtain floated aside as though someone was physically drawing it back. The wildebeest pulling the carriage was whinnying a little fearfully as it kept raising its thick hooves and landing them back in the same spot again. It hesitated and refused to budge, no matter how Taohua tried to get it to move.

More than ten bodies were strewn all over the road in front. A horse carriage was in shambles and there were broken pieces everywhere. It was clear that a fierce fight had just occurred here.

“Interesting.” Gu Suihan narrowed his long, slanted eyes slightly as he called out in a frosty voice, “You have three seconds. Show yourselves now.”

Woooo! A cold wind blew. The dense trees planted by the side of the main road looked especially scary in the slowly darkening sky.

“Sir, please, save me…” A desperate wail cried out from the trees on one side, followed by some muffled sounds, as though someone were squeezing that person’s throat.

“Sir, so sorry about this!” A gruff voice rang out next, and a muscular man with messy hair, bloodstains all over himself came running out from the trees with a large blade in hand. He bowed respectfully to Gu Suihan.

“A robbery case, huh? How pitiful.” Gu Suihan’s spiritual sense instantly covered dozens of miles, so he knew even the slightest movement of the grass in the wind.

It only took him an instant to figure out what happened. He flicked a finger out and his qi was like a whip made out of water as it drove away the coldness around his carriage. It also pushed aside all the debris that was blocking the road.

“Carry on with whatever you were doing.” Gu Suihan glanced at the muscular man, then got back into his carriage and drew the curtains.

Nobody was driving the carriage, but the wildebeest seemed sentient as it neighed and continued pulling the carriage forward.

Standing up for the unjustly treated?

Saving the damsel in distress?

Gu Suihan had interest in none of these things. There were way too many injustices in the world to care about and way too many people died every day. He didn’t care what happened to strangers.

“Boss, those two young ladies look so sweet. And looking at that young man…” Another man stood next to the muscular man and watched the carriage leave with great reluctance. He started wondering if they ought to attack that carriage too.

But unfortunately for him, he hadn’t even finished his sentence when his head suddenly exploded like a watermelon. The insides of his head spurted out and blood spewed everywhere. The muscular man and his other subordinates immediately shuddered in fear.

The muscular man gulped and said in a trembling voice, “Cl-clear the place up, we…we’d better go…”

It was at this point when the cringiest thing in the world happened.

Like a scene taken from one of those dumbass romance dramas on Earth.

One of the subordinates was shaking so hard that he loosened his grip, allowing the woman who yelled for help earlier to get away. And get away…she did.

Gu Suihan’s carriage was still no more than 50 meters away, so…it didn’t take a genius to figure out what was going to happen next.

The woman seemed to suddenly have superpowers, as though she had been possessed by Liu Xiang or as though she were Usain Bolt with additional speed points. She suddenly moved at an unbelievable speed, breaking free of the hooligans around her, and sprinted toward Gu Suihan’s carriage.

As she ran, she kept yelling, “Sir! Please, help me! I can offer great rewards from the family!”