Chapter 115 – Familiar Faces

Gu Suihan inspected his slightly cracked bones and sighed quietly. He had to get to Nascent Change as quickly as possible, then re-sculpt his body. It was small, but there was still a gap between his own spirit and this physical body that he had taken over.

This gap didn’t seem like much, but it was enough to prevent him from being able to really use it the way he wanted to.

“There are so many cultivators inside here. If I take down one-third of them and get my hands on some rare natural treasures, I should be able to heal my spirit by at least a half, maybe even more,” thought Gu Suihan to himself.

Woong! Gu Suihan received a shock and pulled the crescent-shaped secret key from his pocket. The key was trembling slightly and several dim golden lines were now swirling around and through the translucent key.

Craaack! The secret key suddenly floated into the air and a few bits on its surface crumbled and fell off. A beautiful green light glowed prettily in the sunlight.

Then, as if it had completed its metamorphosis, the secret key shrank to half its size and looked even more delicate now. A pillar of green light suddenly shot out from the key into the sky, releasing a powerful presence into the air.

At the same time, several similar pillars of light in varying colors shot into the air, as though they had been summoned. The colorful lights overlapped in the sky and the mesmerizing sight overhead was too dazzling to be ignored.

This went on for slightly over five minutes. The key suddenly trembled, then retracted the light and fell back into Gu Suihan’s hand as though it was an ordinary item.

“It’s excellent for making me a target, huh,” mumbled Gu Suihan. He put it away and put a hand on his sword’s hilt as he walked on. Someone was coming his way.

“Gu Suihan, I’ve finally found you!” a nasty sneer resounded from behind Gu Suihan. There was a rustling sound as several people surrounded him silently. He scoffed when he saw who had come.

Ever since Zhou Wenxiang entered the secret realm, he had been on the search for Gu Suihan in hope of taking revenge after Gu Suihan had humiliated him so badly on the flying ship. He thought that Gu Suihan was a sword cultivator and that he had lost only because he hadn’t been prepared for a fight. Also, his uncle, Disciplinarian Zhang, had given him more information and a promise, so he was now very motivated and confident. Gu Suihan was now like a delicious cake that he was ready to trample underfoot.

The others with him were Seven Kill Sect disciples that Disciplinarian Zhang had gathered to help him. Zhou Wenxiang did not like having them around because he didn’t want to split any spoils with them, but after Disciplinarian Zhang warned him very sternly about Gu Suihan, he agreed to bring them along.

“You useless little ants,” spat Gu Suihan before letting out a loud laugh. Questioning Heaven leaped out of its sheath and sliced through the air, heading straight for the pretty woman on his right with double metal rings in her hands.

Zhou Wenxiang and the rest paled in horror. They didn’t expect Gu Suihan to forgo any attempt to negotiate and launch an attack immediately. They quickly retreated a little frantically.

This was a big difference between disciples from a sect and wandering cultivators. Sect disciples often placed importance on reputation and formality, so they would usually state their name and the feud they were having before making any attack. Wandering cultivators, on the other hand, couldn’t be bothered to go through any of this nonsense. They did anything that ensured maximum profits.

“How childish.”

Their retreat had helped them to dodge Gu Suihan’s first attack, but it also meant that there were gaps created in their previously tight encirclement. Gu Suihan rotated his sword to create sword qi that measured more than 30 meters wide and brought it down toward Zhou Wenxiang and his companions before scooting off like a ghost in between one of the gaps.

“Get him!” shouted one of them as he flung the bat made from bones at Gu Suihan’s back.

Gu Suihan stopped himself and switched directions suddenly like a school of sardines in the ocean, successfully dodging the bat. He didn’t intend to fight them at all.

Zhou Wenxiang’s face turned red in anger as he glared fiercely at Gu Suihan. He made dust rise up and turn into a huge net that looked like the sky was falling on Gu Suihan.

“Inches Away – Ends of the World!” Gu Suihan also dodged the net nimbly and his next step sent him kilometers away into the distance. He had escaped Zhou Wenxiang and his companions in an instant.

He wasn’t stupid enough to stick around and fight these people. As the saying goes, many ants can bite an elephant to death. He was no elephant and the other party did have a lot of ants. Fighting them head-on was clearly suicidal. But Gu Suihan was someone who loved his life very dearly. Of course, he wasn’t going to endanger his own life for nothing.

“Damn it! I will hunt you down one day, Gu Suihan!!” Zhou Wenxiang’s eyes were bloodshot and the terrifying hatefulness in his gaze threatened to burst right out of his eyeballs.

A gentle breeze blew and Zhou Wenxiang’s clothing swayed a little, to reveal a purplish-gold gleam beneath.

He also had a secret key.

Gu Suihan ate a few pills to calm his agitated qi and blood, rested for a while, then continued on his way. If he noticed anybody along the way, he would ambush them and slaughter them so that he could consume their souls to heal his own.

“Hmm?” Gu Suihan was now resting in the branches of a tree. He had just killed a martial artist from some country, but that fellow was probably a prince or something. He had a lot of powerful weapons on hand and managed to muster up enough energy right before dying to severely injure Gu Suihan. Gu Suihan had no choice but to hide and take some time to heal before moving on.

He made a surprised noise because he had noticed a familiar face.

“Senior brother, when will that place with the legacy be opened? What secrets does this secret realm hold?”

The sweet and gentle voice that just spoke belonged to a woman dressed in all white. She had a white chiffon shawl around her shoulders and a long red belt around her waist. Her collar was slightly open, revealing a small patch of skin as fair as the clouds. She had light makeup on and her gorgeous face seemed to have moved completely past its immature state to reveal an attractive womanly charm. Her watery eyes shone brightly like the stars in the night sky.

This woman was none other than the Wonderful Sound Sect disciple that Gu Suihan had captured the last time, Wan Xin. But now, she no longer had that icy, elegant, and aloof air around her. If Gu Suihan hadn’t recognized the frequency of her spiritual sense, he would have mistaken her for someone else.

He looked down at who else was with her and saw that it was a group comprising of disciples from the Wonderful Sound Sect, the Ethereal Court, and the Vast Sky Sect. They had also captured a few Seven Kill Sect disciples.

Wan Xin gazed infatuatedly at the man in the Ethereal Court’s uniform and never took her eyes off him. The adoring emotion in those eyes was probably passionate enough to melt a glacier.

“This fellow must be an idiot. Wan Xin is no ordinary disciple since she has an elder at the Origin Core stage backing her. You actually tried to use a Mutual Joy spell on her to hypnotize her in the hope of turning her into your human cauldron so that you can make it to the next stage of cultivation? You’re seriously beyond hope,” thought Gu Suihan to himself as he stared at the man with thin lips and beady eyes.

He didn’t think someone like Wan Xin would take a fancy to such a stupid man. This fellow was only at Mid Foundation Establishment level and he was so frail and skinny, that he looked like he would be blown away if the wind was just a little too strong. If this man lived on modern-day Earth, he would look like someone who was often found at drug rehabilitation centers.

Even though there were always dumbasses who claim that it’s the inside that counts, that was really just a way of consoling themselves. If you were ugly, nobody in their right mind would even pay you any attention, much less fall in love with you. In Gu Suihan’s opinion, this fellow could forget about actually attracting Wan Xin. There were only a few exceptions – either this fellow was backed by some extraordinary people and she wanted to be protected by them, or he was holding onto some treasure of sorts, so she was purposely trying to get close to him in order to take it from him.

Cultivators absorbed lots of qi, plundered the world for its treasures, and practiced cultivation techniques meant to turn them into higher beings, so while not everyone was extraordinarily good-looking, most of them were on the better side and had nice facial features.

But there were always exceptions. This man, in particular, cultivated techniques that took energy from others. He looked starved and was clearly deficient in qi. His foundation was damaged and he hadn’t bothered to take care of it, taking pills to force himself to move up in cultivation level instead. He was probably going to have trouble even moving beyond the Foundation Establishment stage.

“Ha! This is no secret realm. This is a domain left behind by a powerful cultivator. There are boundaries that show it’s a little world that formed after the cultivator meditated till he passed away. The cultivator’s legacy is inside that domain. The Ethereal Court has owned this place for hundreds of years and the legacy can only be activated once every hundred years, but we always fail to gather sufficient secret keys to do so and end up returning empty-handed. This time, however, one of the zhenrens in the Ethereal Court has prophesized that all the secret keys will be found and the legacy will definitely be activated. That’s why I insisted on coming in despite the danger.”

The man smirked as he took out a dark green stone that resembled a cat’s eye gemstone and had gold runes swirling about inside it. Upon closer look, it seemed like there were three very fine lines intersecting each other inside that gave off a gentle glow.

“That’s a secret key too?” thought Gu Suihan as he raised an eyebrow and stared at the stone intently.

Wan Xin’s heart trembled when she saw the secret key and there was a glint in her eyes for just one second before she continued looking infatuated with the Ethereal Court disciple.

“It’s so pretty,” murmured Wan Xin as she reached for the key in his hands as though she couldn’t help herself.

The man looked like he was in a difficult position and his instinct was to keep the key, but when he thought about how much effort he had put into bewitching Wan Xin, he hesitated. This moment of hesitation was enough for Wan Xin to take the key away from him. Her eyes gleamed brightly as she stared at the shiny object in her hands.

When he took a whiff of the faint fragrance coming from the young lady beside him, the man was relieved and silently stretched his arm out to wrap it around her snatched waist.