Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way - Chapter 213: Karma? Retribution?

Gu Suihan was even more puzzled now. This city was grand, vast, and majestic. But that meant nothing to cultivators. Because they could fly.

Besides, any Nascent Change cultivator could create a larger and more resilient city in just the blink of an eye.

“Because…we used the resources given by the empire and put in countless hours and effort to transform this city into a dao weapon.” Xia Yun took a deep breath and pursed her lips before finally spilling the beans on the full plan.

“Good god…” Chamu and Tang Xiaoyun instantly leaped up and stared at the floor in horror, as though a terrifying beast that could gobble them up was hiding beneath them.

“The Order…was very ambitious,” the scholar finally settled for a more neutral description.

“A dao weapon, you said?” Gu Suihan’s eyes shone brightly as he stared at the floor beneath his feet and murmured, “These people took such a long time to carry out the plan. They were ambitious indeed.”

“Just when we were almost done with setting up the teleportation formation, the news was leaked by accident. After that…you know the rest.” Xia Yun had a downcast look on her face as she raised her hand resignedly.

“Hahahaha! Since we can’t survive this…neither will they!” Gu Suihan suddenly burst out laughing, and his laughter was exceptionally frightening. His gentle demeanor seemed to look more and more evil, and even his perfect facial features looked especially scary, making everyone around him feel a chill in their hearts.

“What…what are you thinking of doing?” asked Tang Xiaoyun after taking a big gulp and doing everything he could to stop himself from just running out now.

Gu Suihan’s frosty and darkened gaze made him look like a wild beast that had been pushed into a corner. There was a maniacal tone in his voice as he said, “A dao weapon is a good thing. We can all die together.”

“You’re…you’re crazy!” Xia Yun’s eyes widened as she took several steps away from him with a horrified look on her face. “You…you’re going to explode the dao weapon! Everyone’s going to die if you do that!”

“You mean, if we leave things as they are, we’re not going to die?” Gu Suihan asked her in return.

He noticed an uncertain glimmer in her eye and stopped looking so frightening. He said in an indifferent voice, “So, you do have a trump card after all. A trump card that will ensure you survive.”

“I…” Xia Yun’s face paled. She suddenly stomped her fair little foot against the floor and ran for the exit. Her fragrance trailed behind her slim body, and she moved so quickly, only after images were left where she was earlier.

“Don’t panic, my fellow cultivator!” said the scholar with a chuckle. He waved his folding fan gently, and the temperature immediately dropped. The wind it created whooshed and turned into a light green wall of wind that blocked any exit around them completely.

The moonlight shone down as though it were a sword, piercing through the thick clouds and crashing hard right in front of Xia Yun. It created a slit in the ground that was at least 50 meters wide and too deep to even tell.

“The laws of nature? That’s why you’re one of the four great men of Fengyang, huh,” said Xia Yun as she stopped just millimeters away from the slit. Her expression was frosty as she spun around to stare at the scholar, causing the bells around her ankle to tinkle.

Before the bells stopped ringing, Chamu suddenly looked up and let out an earth-shaking growl, “ROAAAR!”

The soundwaves were like the waves of the ocean as they came rushing out of him.

In that instant, all the furniture inside Fengyuan Bordello turned into a fine dust.

“How dare you!” The impact from having her spell broken halfway drained the color from her face. But she didn’t dare to stop for too long. She grabbed the air, and there was a flash of lightning. The next they knew, Xia Yun already had a curved sword in her hand, and she was running toward Gu Suihan with her sword raised.

“How pointless.” Gu Suihan didn’t even look up. He patted his belt, and his saber hummed loudly. Murderous qi burst forth from it, shaking the entire place as though it was ready to fill the space with all that qi.

In that instant, the howls of vengeful spirits and the shrieks of nasty ghosts resounded, along with the roars of demons and the screams of deities. As though it was ready to massacre the world and cover itself with nothing but blood, the saber moved like a laser beam, cutting through the web Xia Yun had created with her sword before she could respond to his attack with something more than a pale face.

BAM!

“AHH!” Xia Yun let out an ear-piercing shriek. The saber was covered in darkened blood as it pinned her body onto the wall behind her.

In that instant, her fair and supple skin began to wrinkle while the saber actually started producing the clear sound of swallowing.

“Let…let go of me! It’s swallowing my qi, blood, and soul! Pull it out! Pull it out!” Xia Yun snapped out of her earlier shock and started yelling in horror when she realized that she was losing her internal energy to the saber. Her face was as white as a sheet, and she looked so pitiful.

Gu Suihan was in no hurry. He waited until she had nearly dried up completely before finally pulling the saber out of her. The saber whined unhappily as he put it back in its sheath. He then threw a bottle of pills at Xia Yun in a leisurely fashion, even as she had collapsed weakly onto the floor and was barely breathing by this time.

“That’s…what you’re cultivating in?” The scholar had finally snapped out of his daze after being hit by that huge wave of murderous qi. His expression was solemn as he stared at Gu Suihan. Or, more accurately speaking, he was staring at that strange saber hanging from Gu Suihan’s belt.

“The Way of massacres…you could reach an almost deity stage more easily, but you would suffer great karma. It’s extremely powerful, but it comes with great affliction…” Tang Xiaoyun’s lips twitched a little fearfully as he uttered the warning his father once left him.

“Aren’t you afraid of being consumed by karma?” Chamu sat down again slowly, but he was still gripping his huge hammer tightly and dared not let his guard down.

But Gu Suihan asked a question in return, “What is karma? Do you know what it is?”

“It is a cause-and-effect concept, a basic law that governs the entire universe. Everything you do has both cause and effect. The good beget good…” The scholar instinctively started quoting from the classics. But after he noticed Gu Suihan’s disdainful expression, he immediately recalled how Gu Suihan had given him an answer that had helped him understand his cultivation journey better. So, he stopped talking and looked imploringly at Gu Suihan.

“Do you know why ordinary people all believe in karma?” said Gu Suihan. But before any of them could respond, he continued, “Because they don’t have the power to fight it, so they have no choice but to accept it. They have to allow karma to consume them. That’s why the concept of retribution exists.”

“But cultivators are different. Our journey to find the Way starts with entering the Way, understanding it, having control of it, absorbing it, grasping it fully, and finally moving away from it. This process is exactly what makes a cultivator more powerful.”

“Karma is just a law. At best, it can be considered a more powerful law. Cultivators discover their giftedness, gather their three hun and seven po, form their spirit and become immortals. That’s the process of entering the Way.”

“At the same time, one would also have the power to resist, make use of and control the Way. If one is unable to hold up against the effect of what they’ve done, they will be consumed by it. If one can, then karma will just slowly accumulate.”

“As long as you can guarantee that whatever you cause is more powerful than the effect it creates and make sure that the effect can never consume you, then this whole concept of cause and effect is pure gibberish.”

“I can hold up against its attempts to consume me, so it has no choice but to go into hibernation.”

Gu Suihan stopped here. An icy smile quietly spread across his lips as he glanced indifferently at the silent saber hanging from his belt.

If I caused something to happen, it means I’m able to hold up against the effects.

Karma? Retribution? Those are just nonsense that has fooled humans all this time.

Buddha, do you know how many living creatures you’ve harmed because of the scriptures you left behind?

I wonder if you’d be able to hold up against the effect of doing that.

“We’ve learned a lot!”

After a long period of silence, they slowly snapped out of their thoughts and responded to Gu Suihan’s words respectfully.

What Gu Suihan just said was no less than a lecture from a formidable cultivator. What he said was so helpful.

“No problem. This is something that I’ve understood. Whether it’s of benefit to you or not will depend on what you do from now on.”

Gu Suihan waved his hand as he accepted a deep bow from everyone. He then turned his qi into strings that dragged Xia Yun closer to him. She still looked very weak, but at least she wasn’t as pale as before. “You can take what I said as compensation for attacking you earlier. So now, let me ask you one more time. What’s your trump card? Or perhaps, what are you relying on?”

To everyone’s surprise, despite being so badly injured, Xia Yun remained as stubborn as ever. She turned her nose up and said very sarcastically, “Humph! Like you said, it’s my trump card. If I tell someone else about it, can you still call it a trump card?”

“Well, if you don’t want to talk, I have plenty of time to wait for you to do so. It’ll take at least half a month for those Nascent Change cultivators to fight each other until one finally wins,” said Gu Suihan with a chuckle. Then he suddenly asked, “By the way, what do you think of Rou Lingyun’s technique?”

“You…you shameless, despicable pervert! Lecher! You lowlife! You scumbag! You…!” Xia Yun immediately leaped to her feet like a frightened kitten when she heard these words and started hurling insults at him. “You’re an Origin Core cultivator! How could you…”

“I’m also a man,” Gu Suihan cut her off. He gently helped her to straighten out her slightly crumpled dress, then ran a finger from her forehead, down the fair and supple skin of her face and neck, before suddenly stopping just above her full bosom. “And so are they…”