Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way - Chapter 200: Sealing The Deal

“Go and get 3,000 spiritual coins and give it to the carriage outside the gate,” said Li Xingjian to one of his servants.

After thinking about it, he decided that it was better not to start a feud. The Li family was living well within a commandery, but to put it bluntly, they were not much different from any person on the street. This family only had a couple of cultivators at Foundation Establishment to its name. That was useless.

It was always better to be cautious. It was hard to say if this young man might turn out to hail from some powerful family or have formidable backers and was wandering about pretending to be a weak fellow after being overly inspired by those martial artist stories.

“3,000 spiritual coins…” Li Yu clutched his head as a frosty smile crept over his lips. His things had been worth nearly a hundred thousand spiritual coins, but Gu Suihan had destroyed it all. 3,000 coins? That had to be an insult.

“Young Master, it…it has been fifteen minutes,” whispered Taohua as she timidly bit her lip. She looked at the silent gate to the Li family residence with a tinge of sympathy in her eyes.

As far as she could tell, things weren’t going to end well for this Li family.

“Let’s go!” Gu Suihan suddenly opened his eyes as a frosty air began to gather around him. The invisible fiendish qi he exuded made Taohua and Lihua shudder.

“Let’s go? Where to?” Taohua stared back at him in confusion.

“It’s time to collect on some debts!” Gu Suihan chuckled as he flew out of the carriage and landed beautifully in front of the gate like a feather.

“Who are you?” yelled the guard at the gate with bulging eyes when he saw Gu Suihan get out of the carriage.

“Tell Li Yu to come out. It’s time he repaid his debts,” said Gu Suihan hollowly. His tone was unfriendly, and his expression was as unfeeling and unflinching as a pool of still water.

“Li Yu?” The guard repeated these words to himself and glanced at Gu Suihan. Those indifferent and darkened eyes gave him a bad feeling about this. He cursed inwardly, “Fucking hell, I was wondering why this carriage had parked itself here for so long. So, a creditor was actually waiting for him all this time! It’s one thing to come back to his family, but it’s another to come back with extra trouble!”

But the guard didn’t let any of his irritation show. Instead, he bowed and smiled deferentially, “Sir, please wait here while I go in and report this matter.” He turned and walked into the house.

Just then, the gate opened, and an old man with a wrinkled face came walking out rather quickly with a small box in hand. “Sir, I’m so sorry for the wait. Third Young Master has not seen the head of the family in a long time, so things were a little delayed.”

He then held out the box in his hand respectfully to Gu Suihan.

Gu Suihan didn’t say anything, so his maids didn’t dare to take the box from the old man. Both sides were silent for a moment.

“Do you know what Li Yu owes me?” Gu Suihan broke the silence first with a smirk on his face as he threw the pretty box a glance.

“I…I don’t know.” The old man looked like he wasn’t sure what to do.

“He owes me…two lives!” said Gu Suihan, as if he was out to shock them. He walked around the old man and the guards and sauntered further in as though there was nobody around to stop him.

Bam!

Inside the study, Li Yu and his father were still seated in silence when they suddenly felt the air weigh heavily on them. Immediately after that, the roof of the room disappeared, and a figure that exuded a chilling wind slowly appeared inside the room.

“Who…are you?” Li Xingjian’s face was stiff, and he could barely speak as he tried to calm his slightly startled heart down.

He meant to shout loudly, but he simply couldn’t find the strength to do so. He also meant to fight back, but the internal energy in his body that used to listen to him was like a pool of dead water. No matter how hard he tried, it refused to budge.

“You are his father?” Gu Suihan did not answer the older man’s question and sat down with some interest as he poured himself a cup of tea.

“Yes…” Li Xingjian’s face was a little pale now. If he weren’t seated on a chair, he would have collapsed onto the floor by now.

“He owes me some things.” Gu Suihan glanced at the pale and nervous Li Yu. His gaze remained on Li Yu for a moment and seemed to contain a ton of energy as Li Yu suddenly spewed a mouthful of blood. The chair he was sitting on broke with a loud bam, and he fell heavily on his knees against his will.

“Why, you….this is a commandery…!” Li Xingjian squeezed these words through his teeth as he glared furiously at Gu Suihan.

“Those who owe a debt should repay it. There’s nothing wrong with that,” said Gu Suihan nonchalantly as he pushed the teacup in his hand toward Li Xingjian.

“3,000 spiritual coins isn’t enough?” growled Li Xingjian as though he were a wild beast. At the same time, his brain never stopped thinking about how he could do something to get himself out of this sticky situation. He wasn’t stupid. From the moment Gu Suihan appeared, he knew that this man wasn’t at Foundation Establishment like Li Yu had said. That was clearly a manifestation of the laws of nature, which meant that this young man was at Origin Core.

“Damn it! How dare you lie to me!” Li Xingjian cursed his son in his heart. If looks could kill, this biological son of his would have been chopped up and fed to the dogs by now.

“What did he tell you?” Gu Suihan’s lips curled upwards slightly as he noticed the extreme anger in Li Xingjian’s eyes.

“He said you wanted every book the Li family has!” spat Li Xingjian through clenched teeth, even though he really didn’t want to give these up.

Gu Suihan clicked his tongue, then made the suffocating pressure weighing down on the room disappear in an instant. He chuckled and said, “I’m not interested in things like cultivation techniques and all that, so you just need to give me your ordinary books and any copied abstracts of other books you have. I suppose there was a little misunderstanding over this matter.”

“Indeed. It was a misunderstanding. Definitely a misunderstanding.”

Li Xingjian could become the head of a large family because his priority was human life. He wasn’t dumb. He could tell that Gu Suihan didn’t want to go on a massacre.

Besides, Gu Suihan’s request was such a simple one. It was so simple he could hardly believe his ears. At the same time, he became even more incensed by Li Yu’s deceit.

“I will see to this immediately. Based on my observations, this is probably your first time in the city, right? If you don’t mind, I could give you a house as a show of sincerity.” Li Xingjian quickly agreed to Gu Suihan’s conditions to get into his good books but was still afraid that Gu Suihan might seek revenge in the future, so he decided to spend some money in order to both prevent Gu Suihan from harming him as well as get himself connected to this formidable young man.

“A house wouldn’t be necessary, but I don’t mind a shop. I intend to open a bookstore. The location doesn’t matter.” Gu Suihan intended to turn the offer down, but another thought struck him, and he decided to take it.

“That’s no problem.” Li Xingjian had been more worried that Gu Suihan would reject the offer, so he was delighted that Gu Suihan had agreed to accept something from him. He quickly gave his subordinates instructions, then poured Gu Suihan a nice cup of tea. His expression was apologetic as he said, “My rebellious son doesn’t know how to behave and nearly brought disaster upon my family. But don’t worry, sir, I will not let him off.”

Li Xingjian glared at the nearly unconscious Li Yu kneeling on the floor with a hateful rage in his heart.

A moment later, the same old man from before walked over with a jade box in hand. This old man was probably the butler of the family.

Li Xingjian passed the box to Gu Suihan and said in an eager voice, “This is the title deed. The copied abstracts will take a few more days to be ready. If you don’t have a place to stay, you could rest here for a few days.”

“There’s no need for that. I’ll come back another day. I suppose you’ll be very busy today, so I won’t hold you back any longer.” Gu Suihan took the jade box from the older man and glanced at Li Yu as he spoke, then sauntered off with a smile.

“Throw this bastard into the underground jail. I will deal with him myself.”

Immediately after Gu Suihan had walked out of sight, Li Xingjian’s friendly expression turned into a scowl. He clenched his teeth and glared at Li Yu on the floor, and said icily, “Call for a family meeting tomorrow. I want to announce a few things.”

“Let’s go,” said Gu Suihan after he returned to the carriage and passed the jade box to Taohua.

“Where will we go?” asked Lihua sleepily as she poked her head into the carriage. They had nearly fallen asleep waiting outside the gate.

“Find an inn. We’ll buy a few things tomorrow. We’re going to start a business.” Gu Suihan stared intently at the Li family residence for a moment. A mocking look flashed in his eyes.

“Young Master must be up to no good again,” thought Taohua as she pursed her lips and looked suspiciously at the cheeky smile on Gu Suihan’s face.

“It seems that a number of cultivators have gathered in Fengyang recently. I wonder why.” Gu Suihan suddenly recalled what the guard outside the city gates said earlier that day and took note of it.