Chapter 86 – Honest Conversation

“I could always quit the Seven Kill Sect, then wait until the fight between the sects is over and join the winning sect under a different identity.” Gu Suihan looked mockingly at Xiexin zhenren. His words made it clear that he had never viewed himself as a disciple of the Seven Kill Sect, so he also did not intend to stick with this sect all the way either.

Xiexin zhenren cursed inwardly. He knew this sort of logic that wandering cultivators had. These wandering cultivators would not work for nothing. In fact, he figured that Gu Suihan was already like this a long time ago. He believed that was why Gu Suihan had suddenly decided to lose in such a terrible fashion and back out of the internal disciple selection three years ago and run as far as he could from the sect.

“And what if the Seven Kill Sect ends up being the winner? There won’t be anywhere in this world who will take you in then. And I don’t think it’s so easy to find a body that has this much aptitude, right?” said Xiexin zhenren calmly.

Xiexin zhenren spoke in a flippant manner, but that was Gu Suihan’s biggest problem. It was true that finding a body of this caliber was extremely difficult. Gu Suihan had used his spiritual sense to scan more than a hundred households before finally finding this one. Therefore, if the Seven Kill Sect ended up becoming the winner, it was true that he wouldn’t be able to sneak back into the sect.

“What are your plans?” Gu Suihan paused to think for a moment before finally giving up on the idea of finding a second body to take over. There was only one reason for that. His soul was already in shambles, and it really couldn’t take any more damage.

“You’ve made the right decision, my fellow cultivator.” Xiexin zhenren smiled faintly when he realized that he had managed to convince Gu Suihan. “We plan to get three of the Peak Leaders to split their soul, plant one part into the body of a disciple who will be going for the competition, then wipe out all the disciples belonging to the Ethereal Court alliance inside the secret realm. That way, the alliance would not be left with enough people to fight us, and it will fall apart by itself, thereby ending our crisis.”

“Split their souls?” Gu Suihan’s eyes widened as he looked in shock at the unfazed Xiexin zhenren.

Xiexin zhenren knew why Gu Suihan was so shocked. His reaction was honest as he sighed deeply and said, “I don’t suppose you know, but some of the Peak Leaders don’t have much longer to live. The sect is in trouble now, and we owe our level of cultivation to the sect, so we ought to repay the sect and do our best for it. It’s the natural cycle of things. We can’t avoid it at all.”

Gu Suihan thought about what happened in the past and was suddenly enlightened. “In other words, the last internal disciple selection was done so messily because you needed the disciples you wanted to get in?”

Xiexin zhenren looked at Gu Suihan with a conflicted look in his eye. “That’s right. That’s exactly what happened. I’ll be honest with you – you were one of my choices. But soul splitting comes with its own problems. It would certainly be a little too difficult to take control of your body forcibly. So, all of us had a discussion and decided to get through this crisis with your help instead.”

“So, who’s your current choice?” Gu Suihan narrowed his eyes, but he wasn’t angry about being initially selected for this purpose. Things had turned out to be quite different from his initial guess, but the ending was going to be the same. Whoever had to allow a split soul to take over their body would definitely end up suffering so badly that they’d rather die.

“Li Rong,” said Xiexin zhenren with an indifferent smile.

Gu Suihan scoffed quietly. “That makes sense. It is indeed best to do this to someone related to you.”

He did not ask Xiexin zhenren superficial questions like why he had chosen to do such a thing and whether he felt guilty for doing this to his own son.

Cultivators were selfish people, after all, and they had a very poor concept of emotions. It was too hard to decipher the Way and its rules if one were too emotional.

“Who are the rest?” asked Gu Suihan curiously.

Xiexin zhenren fell silent for a few moments, then said, “Besides myself, there’s Wan Fentian and Yun Lianyi, the Peak Leaders of Peak Two and Peak Three, respectively. The three of us will be doing this.”

“How do you select who goes for the competition that’s happening soon? Will the sect be holding another competition for that?” Gu Suihan frowned and asked for more details about the upcoming competition.

Xiexin zhenren refilled his tea, then smiled sinisterly as he said, “Not long after you left the sect for the mine, the oldest elder of Wonderful Sound Sect, Qingyin, passed away. And because that old hag died, the sect used it as an excuse to postpone the inter-sect competition that was supposed to happen. We thought that these other sects were going to swallow us up bit by bit. I didn’t expect them to do it in such a big way.”

“What do you mean?”

The older man snorted as if he had thought of something hilarious. His gaze was filled with disdain as he said, “They decided that we should choose a hundred disciples from the Beginner, Mid, and Advanced Foundation Establishment stages to enter a secret realm at the same time. Inside there, they will be allowed to take any treasures they want and kill each other. The winner would be the one with the most number of survivors at the end of it, and those disciples will get to head to the Upper World.”

“In other words, the competition this time will affect the power dynamics of the entire world of cultivation?”

“That is correct,” said Xiexin zhenren with a nod.

Gu Suihan closed his eyes and thought about these things for a long time before finally saying, “In that case, I need something to increase my capabilities.”

Xiexin zhenren looked like he was already expecting this. He glanced at Gu Suihan’s sword and asked, “I see that you have already switched to sword cultivation, and this sword should be a spirit weapon too. I can’t think of what else you might need. Even if I give you another spirit weapon or some other magic item, I don’t think it’ll be of much use to you.”

“Pills. I want pills that can heal injuries to the soul. You know very well why I want them.” Gu Suihan tapped his fingers on the table and stared straight at Xiexin zhenren, determined to get those pills out of him.

Xiexin zhenren’s expression fell. If this hadn’t happened, he would be willing to give Gu Suihan these pills. But now, the Peak Leaders undergoing the soul-splitting process would need to take large amounts of these pills in order to heal the damage done to their souls. By asking for these pills now, Gu Suihan was clearly insisting on getting some first if the sect wanted his help, so they had to give him the pills.

“Fine, I’ll give you three bottles of soul healing pills. No more than that,” said Xiexin zhenren in a low and steady voice even though he was seething inside.

Before Gu Suihan could say anything, Xiexin zhenren waved his sleeve over the table, and three white jade bottles appeared. He then finished the rest of his tea and did not speak anymore, clearly giving the signal that the meeting was over and he was ready to see Gu Suihan out.

“I see. Thanks for the pills then,” said Gu Suihan with a smug smile. He kept the pills away and flew off right away. He didn’t want to stay either.

His smile slowly faded as he flew out of Peak Four. He narrowed his eyes as he turned to look at the majestic mountain he had just left and scoffed inwardly.

How could these people possibly think they could get him to do them a favor without offering him anything in return? The Peak Leaders had been too optimistic. These three bottles were only the beginning. Since he had agreed to become part of this, he was going to get as much as he could.

As for that upcoming competition, he had other plans. Agreeing to help them in the way they wanted him to was just for show. To him, it didn’t matter whether he was part of the Ethereal Court’s alliance or on the Seven Kill Sect’s side. He would go wherever he felt would benefit him the most.

Now that he had let Taohua go, he didn’t have a maid to get things done for him, which annoyed him slightly. Even though he now carried an internal disciple’s token, he was too lazy to find a new place. He took his share of Spiritual Stones and other items from the Fortune Court before swiftly returning to the residence where he used to live. He put up the sign to indicate that he was going into seclusion, then walked into his meditation room. He was going to try getting the last part of the Geng Gold Sword Mantra cultivation technique.

To his surprise, when he was about to start, he suddenly received a message via telepathy. The weapon spirit inside that broken knife was trying to contact him.

“Gu Suihan! What is this cultivation technique you made Liu Ming practice? Why is it so strange, and why did he turn out so differently from you?” A demanding voice rang in his head, which made Gu Suihan frown immediately. He didn’t even know what was going on with Liu Ming. He could sense the urgency in the weapon spirit’s voice, so he got up again and headed for where the weapon spirit was.