Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way - Chapter 27

 27: Trump Card

“Are you still good to fight?” A mocking look flashed in Chuan Xin’s eyes as he glanced calmly at Gu Suihan as if he wasn’t the one who rained attacks on Gu Suihan just moments ago.

Gu Suihan, on the other hand, was standing with his clothes in tatters, revealing his muscular body. The hand he used to hold his sword was trembling nonstop, and the occasional flash of lightning illuminated his pale face.

“Hoo…” Gu Suihan could taste some blood as he exhaled deeply and suppressed the outflow of his Qi and blood that was moving wildly within his body.

“Still good to go,” said Gu Suihan as he licked his dry lips and focused his eyes on his enemy like a wolf hunting down its prey.

A drop of rain fell onto the tip of Chuan Xin’s spear.

“Then let’s do this for real.” Chuan Xin had a faint smile on his face, but his half-closed eyes helped cover the increased cautiousness in his eyes.

“The Wind Gathers the Storm Clouds!”

The gloomy clouds in the sky immediately started circling Chuan Xin, gathering a mighty wind that roared furiously through the surrounding trees and making their branches crackle as they bent from the increasing pressure.

It looked like the world was about to end.

Gu Suihan coughed quietly, then slowly raised his sword to stare at the modest-looking young man standing just meters away from him with a grave expression on his face.

“The Thunder Dragon Peeks Through the Clouds!” A thick and brilliant bolt of lightning suddenly shot out from the whirlwind of dark clouds, roaring furiously like a dragon in the air as it circled Chuan Xin indignantly.

Compared to that lightning dragon that could definitely kill him, Gu Suihan looked so small and frail as he stood in front of it.

His sword buzzed quietly as its runes began to flash continuously, covering the entire blade in a golden glow. The magic energy from within his body continued to surge into the sword, and his quenched and refined meridian channels even started throbbing loudly inside him.

Another drop of rain fell as if to give the two men one last warning before heavy rains poured down on them like a river flowing from the sky.

And as if the rain was their signal, both shouted at the same time:

“The Thunder Dragon Shocks the World!”

“Fall of the Immortal!”

Once Chuan Xin completed his incantation, the angry giant dragon circling him finally rushed into his trembling spear, and Chuan Xin thrust it towards Gu Suihan with a hand covered in bulging veins.

DANNNNGGG!

An ear-deafening blast filled the air, turning everything around it into ashes. Countless trees and other forestation instantly turned to dust.

Time seemed to stop once more as the entire place fell silent again.

It lasted for mere moments but felt like an eternity.

The sound of bones breaking broke the silence as Gu Suihan flew a few hundred meters backward, leaving a faint trail of blood in the air as it sprayed from his mouth.

His sword rang loudly as it spun in the air for some time before silently returning to its sheath.

Chuan Xin was still standing where he was. His face was a little pale, but his clothes looked just like they did when he first caught up with Gu Suihan, except they were all drenched by the rain now.

He frowned as he felt the damage done to his subconscious. Gu Suihan wasn’t even at Foundation Establishment yet, so how did he have a skill that could attack another person’s subconscious like that?

As the rain continued to pour down, he felt a dull ache on the side of his face. He reached up to touch his cheek and realized that it was a cut that was bleeding slightly, but it was merely an inch long or so.

“You are not bad at all.” Chuan Xin could still feel the pain from the cut as he walked toward Gu Suihan, who had struggled to get up and was now leaning against a burnt tree.

“If someone other than myself was sent after you, you might have made it back to the sect alive.” Chuan Xin chuckled as he disregarded the dirt on the ground and sat down, casually stabbing his spear into the charred soil next to him.

“Tell me, why the hurry?” Gu Suihan’s head was bent, and his weak voice remained as calm as ever.

There was no context to his question, and it would have sounded random to anyone else but not Chuan Xin.

Gu Suihan had a feud with the Way Seekers Alliance, and there was no way a new disciple like him could possibly go up against an entire faction of power. For as long as they wanted to, the Alliance could use any other permitted method to get rid of him. Doing that would have both gotten rid of Gu Suihan while increasing their own prestige. So, Gu Suihan couldn’t understand why the Alliance would resort to doing something that was against the rules like this.

Seven Kill Sect’s rules were stringent, and the very first one disallowed disciples to kill another at a lower level of cultivation. You could only do it at a place where it was allowed, and you had to have a proper reason for doing so.

For example, nobody cared if the external disciples got into a huge fight and a few dozen of them died. The sect wouldn’t even ask about it because they were all at the same cultivation level, and killing each other was allowed.

But if an internal disciple decided to step in and kill an external disciple, that internal disciple would face a minimum punishment of five years at Demon Abyss. In fact, it would be a miracle if that disciple’s life was even spared.

This plan to wipe out the five of them seemed quite elaborate, but there were still too many loopholes. If any one of them managed to return to the sect alive and reported it, then it didn’t matter who was backing these internal disciples. Once they were identified, they were probably doomed to die.

Chuan Xin frowned as he remembered what the burly man had said before they embarked on this mission. He remained silent for a few moments before saying in a low voice, “Things have changed. We received news that the number of vacancies for the next round of internal disciple selection has increased by twofold.”

He felt that a worthy opponent like Gu Suihan deserved an honest answer and did not deserve to die miserably with regrets.

After saying that, he didn’t say anymore.

Gu Suihan got it now. It was only two more months before the internal disciple selection. Besides those disciples who were utterly hopeless, the rest who stood a chance mostly belonged to the three major factions of power, and even those who didn’t were on friendly terms with them.

As a result, any external disciple who was formidable and had a feud with any of the three factions instantly became a target. On top of that, since all their targets were not on some mission outside of the sect, the three faction leaders came together to form this hasty plan.

“Since you already know the reason, you can go ahead and pull your trump card out.” Chuan Xin got up and pulled his gleaming spear out from the ground. He knew that Gu Suihan was stalling for time because he had one last move up his sleeve.

But Chuan Xin wasn’t afraid of anything Gu Suihan could possibly do to him. Their difference in cultivation level was too significant, so any attack from Gu Suihan would just feel like a tickle to him.

“Hoho. I’m sure you already know by now that I have a habit of smearing poison on skin.” Gu Suihan looked straight at Chuan Xin’s calm expression and glanced at the small cut on Chuan Xin’s cheek.

“That’s why I was sent to come after you,” said Chuan Xin disdainfully. “I have a special sort of Spiritual Root, a Jia Wood type that corresponds to thunder, so my body naturally repels any evil, poison, and vile spirits. I’ve already broken down the poison you applied to me into harmless substances. If that’s your trump card, then prepare to die.”

“Why do you have to put yourself through such misery?” Gu Suihan sighed heavily before slowly raising his head.

Chuan Xin wasn’t sure why, but he suddenly felt a terrible uneasiness in his heart and thrust his spear towards Gu Suihan’s chest immediately.

“You’re too late.” Gu Suihan wasn’t bothered by this attack at all. He quietly opened his eyes to reveal a strange pair of eyes.

Chuan Xin felt his heart sink in the next moment before everything went black.

A Spiritual Sense that seemed as vast as the sky and as heavy as the Earth suddenly came crashing on him from above.

“How…how can this be?!” Chuan Xin’s eyes were filled with indignation and terror at the same time as his once straight and tall body instantly collapsed to the ground limply like a marionette without strings.

The spear he had thrust towards Gu Suihan stopped just two inches short of Gu Suihan’s chest and wasn’t able to advance any further.

As if it could feel the death of its owner, the spear suddenly let out a sad wail and fell lifelessly onto the ground.

“COUGH!” Gu Suihan suddenly coughed violently and spat out a large blood clot. He laughed bitterly at himself and muttered, “This body is seriously too weak. I’d only used one-tenth of my Spiritual Sense, and my body couldn’t even bear it for long.”

Gu Suihan had chosen to forcibly wipe Chuan Xin out because he didn’t really have a choice. If he allowed Chuan Xin to kill this body, he would have to find another body to take over and start this process all over again.

He quietly retracted his Spiritual Sense and sealed it off again before letting out a massive sigh of relief.

He had chosen against doing this right from the start because he didn’t expect Chuan Xin to be someone with such a unique Spiritual Root, and worse still, the thunderstorm was a perfect match for his Spiritual Root type. On top of that, it took time to break the seal on his Spiritual Sense, and there was no time to do that while they were fighting.

If Chuan Xin hadn’t been so complacent and allowed him to stall for time, he would probably be dead by now.

After pausing to think for a while, a slightly murderous smile slowly crept across Gu Suihan’s lips. The Way Seekers Alliance? The three major factions of power?

All of them had to die.

Anybody with even the slightest connection to them had to go too. Every single one of them.

Whoever blocked his way had to die too.

Nobody in the forest witnessed the faint reddish glow that quietly surrounded Gu Suihan. It was the glow of Murderous Qi that could strike terror in the hearts of man, an aura of pure violence formed after massacring countless living creatures.

“You! You shall not live either!” Gu Suihan fixed his gaze upon the sect’s highest and most majestic peak.

That was where You Hantian, the Sect Leader of the Seven Kill Sect and Peak Leader of Peak One, resided.