Episode 109

“And why didn’t you do anything?” asked Gu Suihan in a teasing voice after he had finished consuming the souls of the two disciples he had killed in seconds.

The last Seven Kill Sect disciple standing shrugged. “I’m no match for you.”

“I don’t think that’s the case. You should have been able to see through the coincidences that led to this.” Gu Suihan kept the corpse of the Chilly Soul away and placed his sword back in its place on his belt.

Gu Suihan had seemingly slaughtered the two men with ease, but half of it was possible because the circumstances had allowed for this to happen.

The disciple with the Ghost Controlling Flag thought that with the oath in place, Gu Suihan would not attack, so he did not do anything to defend himself when he tried to take the Chilly Soul’s corpse for himself. At the same time, when Gu Suihan thrust his sword toward the Vast Sky Sect disciple, that disciple didn’t think that Gu Suihan was serious about killing him either.

Thanks to that mentality, the Ghost Controlling Flag disciple was killed by Gu Suihan before he even knew what hit him. As for the other disciple, he was no higher in cultivation level than Gu Suihan, so he was no match for the craftier Gu Suihan. On top of that, the other Seven Kill Sect disciple didn’t try to help either, so it made sense that those two disciples ended up getting killed.

“My name is Zhou Xingwen, and senior brother Feng Ran is a good friend of mine,” said the last Seven Kill Sect disciples quietly as he bowed. “Senior brother said that if I even run into you, I must not make any attack, or it will be hard to say if I would survive.”

“Feng Ran?” Gu Suihan looked Zhou Xingwen up and down, then chuckled quietly.

He knew that Feng Ran wouldn’t have said it like that. He figured that Feng Ran would have told Zhou Xingwen just to run if he ever came across Gu Suihan by himself. Just run and don’t bother to plead for mercy, or don’t offend Gu Suihan. It would have been something along those lines.

“But I do want to know – why did you not keep to the oath you made? Are you really not afraid that demons will creep into your heart?” Zhou Xingwen asked the question he had been thinking about and stared intensely at Gu Suihan.

“Do you know what swearing by the Way really means?” Gu Suihan did not answer his question and returned a question instead. “What is the Way?”

Zhou Xingwen frowned and fell deep into thought. He knew that Gu Suihan wasn’t asking for the sake of asking. After thinking for some time, he said cautiously, “The Way is the rules that govern Heaven and Earth. Swearing by the Way means to use one’s heart of the Way to make an oath. So, if one does not follow the contents of the oath, the deeds and intentions will be misaligned and introduce demons into the heart. This will make it extra difficult to get through any tribulations. Eventually, your body will die, lose sight of the Way, and your cultivation will disappear altogether.”

“That is correct. But the difficulty in getting through tribulations and the appearance of demons in the heart is a matter for your heart for the Way. Those two things occur because your own heart was not resolute enough. That has nothing to do with swearing by the Way. If your deeds and intentions are aligned, then even if you’ve killed a million people, it won’t affect your heart. Why would any demons be able to creep in? Swearing by the Way is just a terrible lie that some weaklings came up with.”

Gu Suihan spoke rather flatly, but there was no mistaking the disdain in his expression.

Zhou Xingwen was mortified and gasped. “Are you saying that you decide right from wrong and good from evil, and it isn’t affected by any external factors?” Gu Suihan’s argument had completely overturned the worldview he had held for the past few decades.

“That is exactly what it is. Did you really think that the so-called ‘Great Way’ was some mysterious thing? It’s just the rules that govern the universe. Cultivation of the Way is to comprehend the rules. Attaining the Way is to assimilate into the rules. Get it?”

Gu Suihan did not continue this conversation and turned to look at the dim cave that appeared before him after the formation had shattered. He touched the cold and wet rock walls around him, then suddenly stretched his finger out to take aim at a fairly dark section of the cave roof.

An ear-piercing screech suddenly resounded in the quiet cave. A black creature suddenly fell from the cave roof, and the wave of freezing air instantly caused the air to turn to frost.

Zhou Xingwen gave a low shout, and a spark flashed for one second in the cave. Gu Suihan’s sword flew out of its sheath as the Icy Po shrieked. The stench of blood instantly filled the air as though they were standing in the midst of a bloody battlefield. The sword Qi that Questioning Heaven emanated caused Zhou Xingwen to move aside as it came crashing down on the creature.

Immediately after Gu Suihan made his attack, his gaze was attracted to the thin silvery needle floating in Zhou Xingwen’s palm. “That’s a Magnetic Spirit Needle.”

“You really know a lot!” exclaimed Zhou Xingwen in surprise. The silver needle was shiny and glowed brightly in the dim cave. It silently shot a formation out and trapped the creature. The tip of the needle had a greenish gleam as it flew toward the Icy Po.

The creature screeched in pain, exuding dark blue waves of freezing murderous qi as it glared at Zhou Xingwen with its bloodshot eyes. That silver needle had clearly brought it great pain.

“Be quiet!” Gu Suihan frowned as he held his sword less than half an inch from the creature’s eyes.

The Icy Po ignored Gu Suihan and continued to shriek and howl furiously as it tried to break free from the silver needle’s formation.

There was a flash of red as Questioning Heaven flew out and chopped off the wings and limbs of the Icy Po in an instant, turning it into a mere cylinder of a body.

When the Icy Po opened its mouth to shriek, Gu Suihan thrust the tip of the sword into its mouth, rotated his wrist, and pulled it back out. There was now a light blue piece of flesh on the sword.

“This is a creature that has been cultivating for at least 500 years, but definitely less than 1,000 years. Otherwise, it would have been able to form a skeleton and speak like a human,” concluded Gu Suihan as he used his spiritual energy to cast an enlightening spell to observe this terrifying yet tragic-looking creature.

“This is for you.” Gu Suihan threw the storage ring of the dead Seven Kill Sect disciple to Zhou Xingwen. His intentions were clear – he wanted this creature for himself, so as compensation, the Zhou Xingwen could have everything in this storage ring.

Zhou Xingwen was happy to accept the storage ring. An Icy Po was hard to come by, but this storage ring carried everything that Seven Kill Sect disciple ever owned. That was equally valuable.

Gu Suihan did not wait any longer and stabbed his sword into the skull of the Icy Po to suck its powerful soul out. The iciness from the creature’s soul entered his body, and the frostiness made Gu Suihan exhale deeply with pleasure.

“Junior brother, is it a good time to talk about what you said to the Wonderful Sound Sect disciple earlier on?” asked Zhou Xingwen with a smile.

“So, you’re also a chess pawn meant to be sacrificed,” said Gu Suihan with a chuckle as he sensed how his spirit was slowly healing.

“The Seven Kill Sect is going to make some major moves. I see from the emblem on your sleeve that you’re from the Way Seekers Alliance. Go ask Mo Yuluo about it.”

Gu Suihan did not intend to explain anything to him, so after saying that, he walked further into the cave.

“It looks like the formation at the entrance of the cave was not left behind by the cultivator who died here. Otherwise, it couldn’t have been full of weaknesses, and it wouldn’t have been so easily broken.” Gu Suihan looked down at a pile of dried bones on the ground and came to this realization.

Zhou Xingwen was an intelligent man as well, so his eyes widened after he heard Gu Suihan’s analysis as he said, “Are you saying that the Chilly Soul and Icy Po were the ones who put up the formation themselves?”

“I suppose that’s what happened. Look at these bones. These are the bones belonging to the Icy Po. I think the cultivator refined the Icy Po and Chilly Soul to become his personal spiritual beast, which is why the Icy Po eventually awakened its sentience by chance after the cultivator died. Its instinct was to protect its owner, so it set up this formation. Unfortunately, the formation turned out to be filled with weaknesses, and the Chilly Soul did not reach Heavenly Fiend level. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been so easy for us to shatter this formation.” Gu Suihan looked around the cave in hope of finding something valuable.

Zhou Xingwen squatted down and picked up a storage ring covered in dust from among the dry bones on the ground. He scanned it with his spiritual sense and was disappointed. There were only a few bottles of pills that had already gone bad, as well as some clothing that had rotted away. Besides those, there were a few magic weapons, but they were also covered with dust, and their runes faded after so many years had passed. They were even worse off than some of the best weapons that non-cultivators made.

“Don’t bother holding out any hopes. There should be a jade slip with a cultivation technique in there, and the rest of the items are probably worthless,” said Gu Suihan without even looking up as he continued feeling his way around the dusty platform made from rocks.

“What are you looking for?” Zhou Xingwen was puzzled by Gu Suihan’s actions.

“I’m looking for his last words.” Gu Suihan cast a floating dust spell, which made the thick dust in the cave float into the air and compressed itself into a hardened piece of clay that was the size of a fist.

“It’s here.” Gu Suihan’s eyes lit up as he kicked away the rotting straw cushion. He took several steps forward, not caring that his feet were crushing the dry bones of the dead cultivator that had flown off the cushion and now were strewn all over the floor of the cave.

With the cushion out of the way, a large number of bloodied words on the platform were revealed.

Zhou Xingwen looked at Gu Suihan with some admiration as he wondered, “How is it that doing such things is like second nature to this young man?” He shivered in fear, and he felt uncomfortable inside.

“This place is a cultivator’s domain, and the rules follow the way the five elements both attract and repel each other. I have spent several years and found that this place contains the legacy left behind by the owner of the domain. The secret realm opens once every hundred years, and each time it opens, there is a possibility of obtaining this legacy. Unfortunately, the secret keys required for activating this legacy have not all surfaced yet. I tried my best, and I only got one secret key. Unfortunately, out of the nine secret keys, only eight have surfaced. What a tragedy. I was injured by an enemy and was unable to recover from these severe wounds, so I had no choice but to sit here and meditate until I die. If a fellow cultivator finds my bones, please send my remains to the Song family in the south. I will be very grateful if you do that.”

“Hoho.” Gu Suihan looked at the dried-up words written in blood on the platform and snorted.