Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way - Chapter 248: Explosion

After one thing happened, the entire city finally fell into complete chaos.

It was as though the fuse leading to a barrel of dynamite had been lit by a spark that nobody had even noticed. Many families and factions held their breath and were on high alert. While they secretly made their own plans, they also kept their eye on the Dongfang family. They wanted to know how the family that had kept its high position in the city for more than a thousand years was going to react.

This whole thing didn’t make any sense, yet it created a storm in the city within days. The saintess of the temple was dead. She had died at the hands of Dongfang Bubai, and worse still, she had been raped to death.

Was this a big matter?

Before this, it wasn’t worth shit.

A saintess, simply put, was just an ant hoping to get the protection of some deity. Any cultivator with some level of prowess wouldn’t care about such a person at all.

Most people couldn’t afford to offend the gods since these things were based in the same place for thousands of years and virtually unshakable. The divine power they had accumulated and the amount of luck and faith they had gathered were fairly significant. So, even though nobody liked the gods, they still treated them with some respect.

These gods had been here longer, after all. Besides, the gods’ target was the ordinary folks and not cultivators. Most of the time, everyone behaved themselves and minded their own business. They never crossed the line unnecessarily.

But now, this was clearly a slap in the face.

The gods knew that the cultivators disliked them, but they just kept quiet and stuck to their lane. There was no need for a cultivator to violate them like this. Besides, the existence of gods was allowed mostly to keep peace among the ordinary citizens of the empire. You could say that they worked for the government.

Why did the Dongfang family agree to Gu Suihan’s demands so easily back then?

The reason is simple. Nobody was stupid. Since Gu Suihan wanted to kill these gods, he must have had some reason that made him confident that the empire would not intervene. And if that was the case, then the Dongfang family didn’t mind helping him kill once.

But just when they were hoping to delay this matter, this happened before they could even send any messages out.

Since they had been attacked first, the gods weren’t going to take this lying down. They immediately caught Dongfang Bubai, who was only at Foundation Establishment, and locked him up so that they could demand an explanation from the Dongfang family.

But who were the Dongfangs? They were a family that had held the top spot in the 39^th domain for years. They were way more powerful than these stupid gods. So, without even batting an eye, they kicked the god that had come to them with this message right out and even threatened the god aggressively, saying that if anything untoward happened to Dongfang Bubai while he was in captivity, the gods were going to get it from them.

The gods were instantly enraged. This matter was started by a member of the Dongfang family, and now the family was threatening them? Did they really have no regard for the gods of the city? Did they really think the gods were powerless?

And so, one night, when the moon was high in the sky, one of the smaller gods relied on his natal technique to infiltrate the Dongfang family and find a chance to make trouble for the family. He wanted to teach the family a lesson. He wanted them to know that the gods were not weaklings who could be pushed around like that.

Very, very unfortunately, he landed in Shuang’er’s courtyard. And even more unfortunately, Dongfang Zhizhu had caught a whiff of his presence. That made agitated her, and the spell in her hands wavered.

Shuang’er, who was about to fully recover, immediately started bleeding from every orifice. Her breathing became shallow, and she slipped into a coma.

Shit hit the fan.

The small god hadn’t even had the chance to let out a fart before a furious Dongfang Zhizhu crushed him to death. Once he heard about what happened, the Immortal cultivator within the family became so angry he raised a mighty hand that blotted out the sun, spanned thousands of miles, and covered the world below like dark clouds as it came crashing down on the temple.

A war inevitably broke out.

This was a war to the death. There was no recourse.

The most powerful characters of both parties entered the space above the sky and fought all day and all night amidst the strong winds. They didn’t stop to rest at all.

On the ground, those at Foundation Establishment and Origin Core levels drew their swords and fought each other like their lives didn’t matter.

“Shifu, are you going to just let the city remain in chaos?”

Qingyuan zhenjun looked up at the violent movement in the sky worriedly. His expression was filled with reverence as he observed the deep cracks in the void above.

“The emperor has said that the empire is not allowed to intervene. Anyone who tries will die,” said the old man calmly as he blinked a few times and got rid of the dust around them.

“Then…the ordinary folks who have been caught up in the fight, the innocent who have been hurt or killed…the karma involved here is just too much.” Some compassion filled Qingyuan zhenjun’s eyes. The hands he folded behind his back were clenched into fists, and his veins bulged and wriggled like earthworms.

“It’s just a domain. It has nothing to do with you,” Hunming zun opened his eyes wide suddenly and warned his disciple very sternly.

“It’s…just a domain? Just?” Qingyuan zhenjun stood up with a start. He looked a little worked up as he said, “There are hundreds of millions of creatures in this domain. We’re talking about the lives of hundreds of millions.”

“Qingyuan. Do you know what is the most important thing in this vast universe?” There was a glint in Hunming zun’s eyes. The air suddenly became heavier and weighed down so heavily on Qingyuan zhenjun that he couldn’t move at all.

“Life,” growled Qingyuan zhenjun indignantly as he stared resolutely as his own shifu.

“Whose life?” Hunming zun continued to ask as though he hadn’t noticed the way Qingyuan zhenjun was glaring at him.

“All lives…are equal!” Qingyuan zhenjun gritted his teeth and argued with the shifu he respected so much for the first time.

In his opinion, everything that lived in the world, regardless of whether you were a demon, a god, a ghost, or a human, every creature’s life was equally important and equally priceless.

“Ridiculous…” Hunming zun finally flew into a rage, and it showed on his face. He raised his voice suddenly and snorted, “The most valuable of all is your own life. The priceless ones are the lives of others.”

“You say their lives are priceless too…”

“What I mean is, there is literally no price to speak of. Those lives are not worth anything.”

“Our opinions differ…”

“Are you already decided?” Hunming zun seemed to have grown a lot older. His back that was usually as straight as a pine tree along the coast was a little bent now. He waved his hand weakly as though he were thoroughly exhausted. “In that case, go then.”

“Thank you shifu…for granting my wish.”

Qingyuan zhenjun felt the pressure on his shoulders disappear suddenly. He fell to his knees and kowtowed deeply toward his shifu. Then, he grabbed his sword with a tense look on his face and left without even turning back.

“A pawn that doesn’t listen to instructions? That’s what makes things interesting.”

In that instant as Qingyuan zhenjun walked out, Gu Suihan’s expression shifted as he stood still in his courtyard. A murderous look appeared on his indifferent face.

“Esteemed One, why? Why are you doing this?”

Inside an underground cell, Li Yu’s handsome features were now as twisted as a vengeful ghost’s. His gaze was empty as he repeated these words to himself.

“Because…there is no free lunch in this world. Since you have enjoyed the power that comes with being a cultivator, it’s only natural that you face the consequences that come with it,” said the Esteemed One slowly. His voice was cold and distant, like a frozen lake or a dry well. It was completely void of any emotion.

Immediately after those words were said, Li Yu’s body started convulsing violently. A few moments later, dark red blood slowly seeped out from his orifices and there was no life left in him.

All that was left was his numbed look of disbelief, as well as that empty and despairing gaze in his eyes. One tear slowly rolled out from the corner of one eye, showing his last shred of indignation.

Two seconds later, the old fashioned and ordinary looking ring around his finger suddenly sent ripples through the air as Gu Suihan slowly appeared. He looked down at the corpse whose face was no longer twisted in anger. He looked intently at it for a moment, then suddenly pointed a finger at it. A red beam of light shot out and red mist flew everywhere. A light blue spark that emanated a strange aura was pulled out of the body and was caught by his hand.

With one thought, Li Yu’s corpse fell apart and turned to nothing. But immediately after that, another person appeared. It was the one whom Li Yu had hidden deep inside the mountains – Dongfang Bubai.

The head of the Dongfang family sat in the main hall of the family residence. The other core family members seated in the same hall had equally solemn looks on their faces as they sat there in silence.

All of a sudden, a black mist arose from between the brows of the head of the family. His expression changed drastically as he stared toward the temple with a mix of shock and anger in his eyes. He gnashed his teeth and growled, “How dare you…”

“What’s happened?” asked one of the elders immediately when he saw the reaction of the head of the family.

“Dongfang Bubai…is dead,” replied the head of the family. His face was tense and his eyes were bloodshot. He looked as terrifying as a vengeful ghost.

“How dare they! The audacity!”

Everyone else in the hall became worked up and their expressions were as fearsome as a shura’s.

“All of you…are asking to get killed!” The head of the family squeezed these words out from his throat, then waved his arm. A silver beam appeared and the laws of nature sparkled like stars as they slowly formed a long spear that resembled a silver dragon. He got up without saying anymore and marched out.

Honestly, if this hadn’t happened, the conflict between the two sides would still remain within a certain boundary.

Shuang’er was badly injured, but she wasn’t dead.

Dongfang Bubai had been captured, but he was still alive and hadn’t been incapacitated.

Basically, the two Immortals fighting in the sky were fighting because of Shuang’er. The ones fighting below were all Origin Core and below. The main core of the family, the Nascent Change and Divine Soul cultivators, had remained at home. The Dongfang family hadn’t sent a single one out.

But now, things had changed. Dongfang Bubai had died and he had died inside the cell under the temple.

That meant that one of the marriages the family had arranged was not going to happen anymore. The loss the Dongfang family was going to suffer as a result was too much to be counted.

“After today, there will be no gods within the 39^th domain!” declared the head of the Dongfang family as he narrowed his venomous snake-like eyes and looked down at the hundreds of cultivators below.