Chapter 91 – Extortion

Time passed by slowly, and before long, everyone had spent more than a month on the back of the zheng. Cultivation took a very long time, so a month was merely the blink of an eye to them.

The disciples who had been chosen for this inter-sect competition were the cream of the crop, so after You Hantian gave them hints from time to time, they slowly began to understand fiendish Qi. This way, they would save themselves time and energy when they were ready to move onto Origin Core.

Gu Suihan remained among them, but he did not ask any questions at all and didn’t bother being patient enough to enlighten himself any further. Besides cultivating, all he did all day was drink tea, and he even pulled out some food he had bought from local restaurants and enjoyed it by himself. Out of all the disciples, only Li Rong was shameless enough to try and get some free food from Gu Suihan. The rest only glared at Gu Suihan hatefully.

The fragrance of the food that Gu Suihan enjoyed made them eat their dry rations even more angrily. But would they ask Gu Suihan for food? No way. They were supposed to be geniuses who only cared for cultivation, so there was no way they were going to put their pride aside and ask Gu Suihan to give them some food. Moreover, even if someone were willing to put their pride aside, Gu Suihan might not let them eat any of his food either.

The world never lacked people who thought too highly of themselves.

For example, this fellow.

“Hey, you! Hand over that magic storage bag of yours, and I, Zhou Wenxiang, will look out for you during the competition. Otherwise, too bad!” A man with beady eyes and thin lips finally couldn’t stand it anymore. He plonked himself down across from Gu Suihan and slammed a palm on the table, causing all the food on it to fly in all directions.

“You’re at Advanced Foundation Establishment, but your foundation in this stage is not stable, and you’ve consumed way too many pills. You don’t have any chance of reaching Origin Core, and you’re just going to die at the inter-sect competition.” Gu Suihan raised his hand and used his spiritual energy to stop any of the food from landing on him. Then he used his spiritual sense to scan the man in front of him without bothering to ask for permission and not even bothering to mince his words.

“You must be tired of living!” Zhou Wenxiang was furious because Gu Suihan had pointed out his weaknesses. He glared at Gu Suihan murderously and seemed ready to kill Gu Suihan whenever.

“You dare to try and kill me?” Gu Suihan glanced quietly at You Hantian, who was seated not too far away with his eyes closed and curled his lips into a disdainful smile.

Zhou Wenxiang noticed that You Hantian did not react, which delighted him and made his murderous intent even more apparent. Nine three-inch daggers appeared in his hands. The sounds of babies crying seemed to be coming from the blades, and a faint black mist was swirling around the sharp side of the blade, sparkling from time to time.

“Heavenly Fiend Mother of Nine.” The surprised look in Gu Suihan’s eye only lasted a second before it faded. This weapon was extremely fatal, and the bad karma it produced was even worse than killing people normally. Also, you needed the lives of a woman whose eight characters were all Yin and her nine children. After refining their hun and removing their po, you needed to quench everything for the next 49 days for this to work. Once successful, you would have full control over all the mothers and their children, and they could make a weapon move as nimbly as a shadow and as quickly as a shooting star. The top of the blades were covered in the Heavenly Fiend Yin poison, which was something that could scorch a person’s spirit beyond hope.

“That’s right! I’d advise you to—”

“Get lost.” Before Zhou Wenxiang could finish his sentence, Gu Suihan calmly spat these two words at the other man, and Questioning Heaven flew out from its sheath. The cold gleam of the sword was as terrifying as a jiaolong emerging from the sea. It drew a faint reddish line in the air before heading straight for the space in between Zhou Wenxiang’s eyes.

“You wouldn’t dare to attack me, I’m sure!” Zhou Wenxiang shouted in horror. The blades in his hands turned into nine beams of light that flew in a circle in the air as they clanged loudly against the sword coming towards his face.

“I not only dare to attack you. I dare to kill you too.” Gu Suihan’s face remained expressionless, and there was a hardened look on his lips. His hand moved the sword nimbly through the air, allowing murderous Qi to surge out and howl loudly as it blocked the attack of the oncoming blades by deflecting them. As Zhou Wenxiang stumbled backward, he took the chance to bring the sword down.

Clang! The sharp blade of Questioning Heaven came down accurately on the seemingly ordinary-looking black bangle around Zhou Wenxiang’s wrist.

“AH!” Zhou Wenxiang’s eyes bulged angrily as he watched the spiritual weapon he had spent so much time and effort on cultivating suffer damage after clashing with Gu Suihan’s sword. A thick cloud of vengeful and hateful spirits flew out rapidly from the hole in the bangle. Their shrill howls and screeching gripped one’s heart like they were sharp claws and struck terror in the hearts of anyone who heard them.

“Cultivators are supposed to comprehend the heart of the heavens, but you’ve killed the innocent for the sake of cultivating your weapon. How wicked! If the elders in the sect see that you have gone down a wicked path like that, they will get rid of you as well. You cannot remain alive.” Gu Suihan spoke as though he were an upright man as he stood proudly, his long sword by his side and his robes flapping without the help of wind, as he glared angrily at the other man with his narrow eyes.

If anyone who didn’t know better were here, they would have started cheering, thinking that Gu Suihan was a righteous young gentleman.

Of course, that is if you ignored that long sword overflowing with murderous Qi in his hand.

“I can’t believe he had the gall to utter such words,” thought Li Rong as his mouth fell open after hearing Gu Suihan’s utterly shameless words.

The three faction leaders felt the same way. They exchanged glances and said quietly in unison, “How shameless!”

The other disciples also looked at Gu Suihan with contempt. The sword in his hand clearly emanated way more violent Qi compared to Zhou Wenxiang’s nine blades put together. How could Gu Suihan even accuse someone else of being wicked?

But none of their accusatory and judgmental stares could make Gu Suihan’s expression flinch. He continued to stand out prominently like a white lotus flower among the large green leaves in the pond. His expression remained one of righteous anger.

Even You Hantian opened his eyes slightly and raised an eyebrow at Gu Suihan when he heard those words. He didn’t know what to say either.

Now that Gu Suihan had made Zhou Wenxiang an evil that had to be rooted out, You Hantian couldn’t interfere anymore. As Gu Suihan put it, Zhou Wenxiang had done something wicked behind the sect’s back, and Gu Suihan was now killing him on behalf of the sect. If You Hantian stepped in now, then that would make it seem like he did know about these evil deeds and deliberately let it go.

“You’re really asking for it now!” Zhou Wenxiang’s eyes were practically spewing fire now. His bangle rang noisily, and the nine blades flew from different directions back toward Gu Suihan as if they had heard a command to do so. Zhou Wenxiang’s other hand suddenly became turned entirely black and gleamed like it was a black piece of metal as he stretched it toward Questioning Heaven.

“Oho, so you think you’re Lu Xiaofeng? I can’t believe you’re using the Lingxi Finger[^note1],” snorted Gu Suihan, saying things that his opponent couldn’t understand at all. His sword suddenly switched directions and moved parallel to Zhou Wenxiang’s chest.

“Nine Children Wind, Transform Into Shapeless Shadows!” shouted Zhou Wenxiang loudly as he flicked his fingers against Gu Suihan’s sword, turned to dodge the blade, and made another hand seal.

The flying blades that had turned into shapeless shadows suddenly stopped to switch directions, howling as they hurtled toward Gu Suihan’s vital body parts.

“Glow of the Sword, Protection from the Sword’s Spirit!” After Gu Suihan let out that shout, a blinding golden glow surrounded his body as if he were a deity descending upon the Earth. The glow of his sword swirled around him and protected him from external attacks, making him seem like a hedgehog.

“Sword Qi Fills the Air!” His sword Qi left his body and deflected all the blades coming his way. It then turned into a wave of sword Qi that surged toward Zhou Wenxiang instead.

“How dare you!” Zhou Wenxiang felt all his hair stand on end as a shiver went down his spine. His eyes bulged as he saw the wave of sword Qi before him. He wanted to dodge the attack, but he could feel Gu Suihan’s sword encircling him like a venomous snake.

If he dodged the sword Qi, he would become severely injured. If he didn’t, he’d die.

Zhou Wenxiang chose the former and got ready to at least stay alive even after getting stabbed by Gu Suihan’s sword.

At that exact moment, there was a flicker in You Hantian’s eyes as he disappeared in an instant. At the same time, Gu Suihan’s attack was completely neutralized.

You Hantian had decided to interfere in the end. He didn’t care if Zhou Wenxiang died at the hands of a disciple belonging to a different sect, but he didn’t want his own sect’s disciples to kill each other before the inter-sect competition even started.

“That’s quite enough.” You Hantian glanced at the two younger men. His expression remained calm, but the authoritativeness in his eyes did not allow for dissent.

Gu Suihan raised an eyebrow but stopped his attacks. His sword returned to its sheath, and he retracted his murderous aura.

Zhou Wenxiang felt assured after the sect leader had intervened and glared fiercely at Gu Suihan, his threatening gaze as sharp as his blades.

He turned to leave when Gu Suihan snorted and said, “You going to leave just like that?”

“What more do you want?” Zhou Wenxiang could feel Gu Suihan’s unfeeling eyes staring at his back, and it sent shivers down his spine, so he couldn’t help but turn around.

“These things cost me quite a number of Spiritual Stones, you know?” Gu Suihan looked at him with disdain and pointed at the food that was all over the floor.

“Tsk! Those are food cooked by ordinary folks, so even one Spiritual Stone would be more than enough to pay for it all. If you want that, you can have one!” Zhou Wenxiang was furious as he threw a Spiritual Stone at Gu Suihan.

“This is the meat of a ferocious beast from ancient times, and the wine is the legendary Spirit Cleansing Soul Nourishing Wine, while the bowl and chopsticks are made from 10,000-year-old ice jade, so everything costs at least 100,000 Spiritual Stones. You think I’m just going to let you walk away?” Gu Suihan didn’t even look at the one Spiritual Stone that had landed on the floor and took a step forward to block Zhou Wenxiang’s way. Questioning Heaven moved half an inch out of its sheath, and tensions between the two men ran high again.

“That’s…you’re spouting nonsense!” Zhou Wenxiang’s face was red from anger, and his eyes bulged as he glared furiously at Gu Suihan.

It’s utter nonsense, alright, thought Gu Suihan. But he merely curled his lips into a disdainful smile and glanced casually at You Hantian.

You Hantian knew what Gu Suihan meant by that and started seething inside. If he didn’t need Gu Suihan for the upcoming competition, he would have crushed the boy by now. But in the end, You Hantian gave Zhou Wenxiang a knowing glance, which made Zhou Wenxiang give in.

“This is all I have,” said Zhou Wenxiang almost inaudibly with his head bowed. He was burning with fury, and his lips nearly bled from how hard he was biting them. He then threw an entire magic storage bag at Gu Suihan.

“3,000 Spiritual Stones? That’s too little,” said Gu Suihan as he scanned the bag with his spiritual sense but accepted it and didn’t bother Zhou Wenxiang any further. He gathered all the food and wine on the floor and threw them off the back of the zheng.

Zhou Wenxiang clenched his fists tightly, and one could even hear the sound of his veins popping on the back of his hand. A few seconds later, he looked up to glare venomously at Gu Suihan, then walked back into the crowd without even turning back.

**The Clacker’s Uncle Snack Drawer**

_Today’s snack recommendation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyoniku_soseji This is a strange little snack that has a somewhat acquired taste. I honestly don’t know why the manufacturers never improve the packaging (it’s really not the best, the perforation doesn’t always work out and the fish sticks to the wrapper or cuts the meat it’s always so weird), but I like it anyway. Umami: —**_

[^note1]: Lu Xiaofeng/Lingxi Finger

A fictional character in the wuxia series by Gu Long about a martial artist who usually uses his bare hands to fight, and one of his well-known skills is the Lingxi Finger, which allows him to catch anything, including swords, between his two fingers.