Chapter 89 – Soul Fire

Swallowing souls and wiping out the consciousness of other living creatures was also a quick way to heal severe injuries. Unfortunately, Gui Suihan’s level of cultivation was very low, and there were still some difficulties associated with handling low-level souls. The effects of which were so minimal it wasn’t worth the effort. That’s why Gu Suihan had his eye on cultivators who were at least at Origin Core. Cultivators like Xiexin zhenren.

Just as Gu Suihan was musing about idle things like this, Li Rong’s somewhat exhausted voice resounded from outside the door, “Let’s go.”

After scanning the room and finding nothing else of interest, Gu Suihan calmly opened the door and looked at Li Rong, “Done?”

“Done,” Li Rong’s smile looked exhausted, but he also seemed to be very pleased with himself.

Liu Ming was now standing, but his eyes were glazed over, and there was no emotion in them at all, like a pool of stagnant water. He wore a black cloak around himself and stood behind Li Rong as if he were in a daze.

“You’ve turned him into a living corpse?” Gu Suihan frowned after scanning Liu Ming with his spiritual sense. “Aren’t you afraid he’d fight back? This fellow has pretty strong willpower.”

“Someone at his level?” Li Rong scoffed without any change in his expression. He was confident that Liu Ming couldn’t possibly do anything to him.

Since Li Rong was so sure, Gu Suihan didn’t say anymore. He stepped lightly on the ground, and the entire residence turned into nothing but a pile of rubble in an instant. It looked as though it had been left to rot for decades, and the entire place was in shambles. The craziest part was how the whole house had fallen apart without making a single sound.

“Did he do that to purposely strike terror in the hearts of others?” thought Li Rong as he glanced at the rubble. His heart trembled when he looked at Gu Suihan’s calm expression from the corner of his eye.

Several people had kept their eye on Liu Ming because he had advanced very quickly only recently. But regardless of why they were interested in Liu Ming, none of it mattered anymore. The next day, someone discovered the rubble that was once Liu Ming’s residence and was terribly shocked. The first thing they did was to report this to the Disciplinary Court.

But the disciples from the Disciplinary Court merely looked around and did not seem interested in investigating what happened to Liu Ming. They didn’t even ask about where the young man could have gone.

Just like that, Liu Ming seemed to have vanished from the Seven Kill Sect without even raising any panic or commotion.

Some of those who could guess what might have happened remained silent about it, while the Disciplinary Court often warned those who openly discussed this matter. After the higher-ups suppressed the mention of this incident for some time, talk of this matter died out, and everyone just buried it in their hearts.

It was getting closer and closer to the day of the competition. At this juncture, the Seven Kill Sect gave the Wonderful Sound Sect a tight slap in the face.

After Wan Xin and Ling’er had been confirmed to be who they said they were, Xiexin zhenren sent news to Qingrou zhenren of the Wonderful Sect, but nobody knew what agreement the two masters reached.

The story going around the sect of how the two ladies ended up captured was not what really happened at that time either. The version everyone heard was that the Youthful Clarity Sect and the Wonderful Sound Sect had both sent disciples to kill disciples from the Seven Kill Sect, which was a really outrageous thing to do. Unfortunately, the Youthful Clarity disciples were no match for the Seven Kill disciples and ran for it because they were too afraid to fight. The Wonderful Sound disciples didn’t run, but they were also no match for the Seven Kill disciples, so they were taken as prisoners.

“It’s a poor attempt at driving a wedge between the two sects, but it’s a plan that creates trouble for our enemies without causing any damage to ourselves.” After Li Rong told Gu Suihan about these things, Gu Suihan merely smiled faintly and did not explain what really happened.

“Thanks to this incident, a rift will quietly start forming between the Youthful Clarity and Wonderful Sound sects. It’s a cheap shot, but it was bound to happen.” Gu Suihan smirked before downing the light green wine in his cup.

Li Rong nodded slightly, then changed the topic, “The list of disciples going for the competition is out. The leaders of the three major factions are a part of it.”

“I expected that,” replied Gu Suihan.

“How did you know? Did Xiexin zhenren tell you?” Li Rong didn’t even bother addressing him as “Father” anymore. The two of them were on the verge of falling out now.

“If my guess is right, every single person who became an internal disciple over the past few years are all on that list.” Gu Suihan chortled, “The Seven Kill Sect had heard wind of some things several years ago, so they began making preparations since then.”

“Why else did you think the sect would just allow a bunch of youngsters to set up factions like the Way Seekers Alliance and become so powerful within the sect? The Peak Leaders had quietly allowed these factions to form. The aim was to shortlist all the disciples that could become cannon fodder when the war actually came around.”

“Hoho.” Li Rong fell into deep thought and said, “I’m sure the faction leaders know what’s going on. I just don’t know what plans they have.”

“Their plans are useless in the face of absolute power. Besides, I think you’ve forgotten that internal disciples have to leave their soul fire with the sect,” said Gu Suihan. His expression turned frosty when he talked about the soul fire part.

Xiexin zhenren was afraid that Gu Suihan would go back on his word, so he half-invited and half-threatened Gu Suihan into leaving his soul fire in the sect. On the surface, it was to keep tabs on Gu Suihan in case something bad happened to him. But of course, everyone knew the real reason why the sect wanted to keep tabs on him. Gu Suihan didn’t want to do this, but he wasn’t powerful enough to fight the higher-ups, so he complied.

“Are you saying that the sect is going to use the fact that they have our soul fire to threaten us into doing their bidding?” Li Rong’s expression instantly became murderous.

“There’s nothing surprising about that. Since they’ve got our soul fire, they can do whatever they want to us.” The icy glint in Gu Suihan’s eyes was like the stars in the night sky.

“I’m sure you have a way to counter this. Otherwise, our plan isn’t going to work.” Li Rong’s anxious heart calmed down a little when he noticed that Gu Suihan remained unfazed even in this situation.

Gu Suihan’s lips curled upwards very slightly, but he didn’t say anything and just looked up at the blue skies above.

“You do have a way,” said Li Rong with a smile. He didn’t worry about this matter anymore.

It was nearly the end of the year. Snow fell heavily onto the Seven Kill Sect, and the wintry winds sliced through the snow-covered lands like knives.

The main peak of the Seven Kill Sect was covered in a thick layer of snow, turning it into a winter wonderland.

You Hantian sat expressionlessly in the clouds in front of the entrance to the sect and looked down at the 300 disciples that had been carefully selected. His expression was one of nonchalance, but many things were going through his mind.

If they failed this time, the Seven Kill and War Demon sects would be forced to hide themselves in their ultimate safe place, which for them was the little world that Peak One had control over. They had to hide there to rest and recuperate for the next century. The Yin Principle Sect would definitely end up being obliterated.

Even if they won, both sides would still suffer tremendous damage, and that would already be the best-case scenario. They could rest for a few decades, but they would still have to fight again after that. That was why the Peak Leaders had come up with this plan to secretly wipe out their opponents’ younger disciples and make sure it was impossible for them to stage a comeback.

“This time, I will personally bring all of you to where the competition will be held. Remember this: if you run into someone from the War Demon Sect or the Yin Principle Sect, you can form your own alliances to fight against the disciples from the Ethereal Court’s alliance. Once inside the secret realm, the most important thing is to survive. All those valuable herbs and treasures are not important. After all, if you’re dead, then there’s no point in keeping these things.”

You Hantian looked down at the disciples; his voice resounded in their ears as loud and clear as the hourly gong, “Those who survive this realm will get the chance to move to the Upper World. However, the total number of vacancies for all the sects is only 500. The other sect leaders and I will be watching the realm from outside, so we will only activate the exit once the number of survivors becomes 500.”

The disciples burst into an uproar after he said these things,

“What?! That’s as good as sending us to die!”

“That’s why we’ve got to form our own alliances. Why don’t we go in as a group? We can look out for one another that way.”

“So, we’re like infantry on the frontlines. The first ones to die. How tragic.”

“There’s nothing we can do about that. The sect holds so much power over us.”

The disciples were either murmuring among themselves quietly or were exclaiming and protesting loudly. Either way, most of them now had angry but helpless looks on their faces.

They were angry that the Peak Leaders were basically sending them to their deaths. At the same time, they had no choice but to obey because the sect was keeping watch over their soul fire. If they disobeyed, the sect could snuff it out right now.

“Besides that, the various sects will come up with a list of items. Each disciple entering the secret realm will carry a jade token as proof of who you are. These tokens will come in different colors, one for each sect. Each token will be worth one portion of the items on the list, which will include a variety of high-grade rare herbs, pills, weapons and other similar treasures. You can exchange for as many items as you have jade tokens. This is a good chance for all of you, so make full use of it.”

These words caused another uproar among the disciples. The items on this list were the very things that they lacked the most, so providing these things made them feel better about this competition, and it also awakened the greed within each person.

“So, first a whip, then a candy, huh,” murmured Gu Suihan to himself as he quietly stood by the side and watched everything with an indifferent look on his face.