Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way

Over the next month or so, Gu Suihan successfully converted all the spiritual Qi within his body into Geng Gold Sword Qi. Wisps of vicious sword Qi were now roaming his Spiritual meridians. Each time they made one round, they would also strengthen and fortify his blood, flesh, and bones slightly. His twisted skeleton made from bones that crisscrossed each other unnaturally like a demon began to gleam from being polished daily, and now shone like ivory.

After the higher-ups announced the prize for becoming an internal disciple, Gu Suihan gave up his plan to make a spiritual weapon. If he made it to the top few spots, he would receive a high-grade spiritual weapon, so there was no point in wasting so many Spiritual Stones to get one made.

For now, he was going to just use Hang Chulong's high-grade magic weapon. He had already discussed everything with the three faction leaders and agreed that the prizes that the top few spots win would be given to him and the other formidable external disciples like Feng Ran.

That was what really went on behind the scenes. All the fixing and shady deals.

A few days earlier, Li Rong had come looking for Gu Suihan to tell him about a piece of big news he had heard.

There were going to be some changes in the process to select the top 36 external disciples. The seven sects had come together to recruit external disciples this time, so the higher-ups of the sect hoped to see something different in the way the disciples competed.

But they hadn't released details of what they were going to do yet. Then again, in this world of cultivators where only the fittest survived, the only way to compete was by literally fighting one another.

And because the number of vacancies had increased this year, a lot of people wanted to try their luck. After all, if they somehow managed to become an internal disciple, they would be treated infinitely better than before. Also, even if they couldn't become one, they might still get some perks.

"Come on, Brother Gu, we'd better hurry and register our names before it's too late!" Li Rong yelled out excitedly from outside.

"Why is he suddenly being so friendly? He must be up to no good." Gu Suihan's gaze flickered. Li Rong's unpredictable behavior made him warier of Li Rong. Even though he had made some guesses about what the real situation with Li Rong was, they were still guesses and he had no idea if it was true, so he just had to watch his step.

"Let's go." Gu Suihan told Taohua to stay in the room and cultivate, then left with Li Rong to register their names for the internal disciple selection.

It didn't take long for them to hear the noise of a huge crowd. It was so noisy, that it sounded like they had come to a marketplace. Li Rong was also rather surprised by how crowded it was. All he could see were the heads of many others, standing so close to one another that he could hardly even see any empty space.

"Over there." Gu Suihan looked around, then pointed his chin in one direction. He weaved through the crowd so quickly that all anyone could see was a blur, and arrived at the front of the line in an instant.

The middle-aged man taking down names didn't even bother looking up. He sensed that there was someone in front of him, so he asked, "Your name and Compound."

"Hey! How could you cut in line?" an annoyed voice called out from behind Gu Suihan.

"Shush! That's Gu Suihan! Would you rather die?" hissed the first disciple's friend after glancing at Gu Suihan.

Gu Suihan smiled brightly as he stared at the disciple behind him who was still angry but dared not say anything. Then he said to the middle-aged man, "Gu Suihan. East Compound disciple."

"Oh?" The middle-aged man raised his head to look at Gu Suihan a little curiously, then said, "Not bad."

The middle-aged man took a jade token and wrote the number 128 on one side and Gu Suihan's name on the other side. Gu Suihan took one look at the token, threw it into his storage ring, bowed politely to the middle-aged man, and sauntered off after that. The whole process had taken him less than half a minute.

"What number are you?" Li Rong waved his jade token that had the number 110 on it.

"128."

"You two are around as well? Have you registered yet?" A pleasant voice rang out from behind Gu Suihan and the owner of the voice appeared before them immediately after she finished her questions. It was Mo Yuluo.

Gu Suihan smiled and seemed to have thought of something as he asked Mo Yuluo, "I want to ask about the secret realm we were in. Do you know what was inside there previously? Did anybody make any discoveries?"

"Previously?" Mo Yuluo's pretty porcelain face looked a little puzzled. "It's been a few hundred years since the secret realm was first discovered. The first person to find it was a Peak Leader who used a lot of magic power to determine its exact location, hoping to refine it into a magic weapon. Unfortunately, there seemed to be something inside that not only made him fail in turning it into a magic weapon, but it injured him severely and he died just after a few years."

"After that, the sect opened up this secret realm and used it as a training ground for direct and internal disciples. It was opened once every 100 years or so, but it only took about two or three rounds for the disciples to empty it of any treasures. The laws governing the realm are also a mess now. That's why they finally allowed the external disciples to enter it this time."

"Did anybody find teachings or techniques or something along those lines inside?" asked Gu Suihan.

Li Rong interjected, "I'm sure they must have. According to legend, besides those forests and mountains, there were also some ancient buildings inside the secret realm. But the disciples who went in first fought each other too hard over the treasures that they found, so the buildings collapsed from the fighting and there aren't even traces of them left. Those disciples that managed to snatch those treasures from either fighting or even killing another disciple wouldn't want anybody to know about what they did, so even if they found anything, they wouldn't talk about it."

"I see." Gu Suihan's gaze flickered as he thought about the piece he had found in the stone pool that contained the Blood Jade Fig tree.

But he smiled and said, "I was just wondering how could a secret realm not seem to have any treasures at all."

After the two of them left, Gu Suihan immediately returned to his own place and took out the piece he got from the secret realm to take a closer look at it.

The piece was barely half an inch thick, still felt a little warm and it was completely red in color. The words on it were strange and twisted, yet seemed to give off such a mysterious aura.

"…killing me…human race…cricket…rebellion…head… failure…indignation…"

Out of the dozens of words on the small piece, Gu Suihan could only read a few. Also, the side was cut off, so part of it was illegible. He had no idea what this was all about.

The only conclusion he could arrive at was that this secret realm had existed for a fairly long time now, and could be traced back to ancient history. Perhaps it was a piece that had broken off from the time of the Great Flood¹, then floated about in the nothingness, slowly getting worn down bit by bit until it was left with just this piece. Someone found it and turned it into a secret realm.

"I'm in no hurry. This universe has traces of demons. I'm sure I'll eventually find a way to decode this ancient demonic script." Gu Suihan kept it away, then sat as still as a sculpture with an obstinate look in his eyes.

As his Geng Gold Sword Mantra slowly circulated within his body, he continued to absorb Qi unceasingly so that his Spiritual Root could convert it into the purest of sword Qi. Each time it completed one round, it would bring about an improvement that he could barely even detect.

Progress was slow, but Gu Suihan was happy with that. He swallowed some pills and used Spiritual Stones to aid his cultivation process. At this rate, he would need four to five years to reach Mid-stage, and this was only because he had a Rank Eight Spiritual Root. If his Spiritual Root were any poorer in rank, he would probably have to take more than ten years to reach Mid Foundation Establishment.

Getting through the Foundation Establishment stage was like the process of milling flour. It was like building a house from scratch – you had to lay one brick at a time. It was impossible to finish building it all at once. If you could get your hands on pills like an Ancient Divine Pill, a Nine Iteration Gold Pill, or a Space Creating Pill, you might be able to move up in level rapidly. Unfortunately, nobody knew how to make these pills anymore.

He took out Hang Chulong's sword, which was named the Dragon Beheader. He withdrew it from its sheath and brandished it. A glow covered the sword and the gleam of the blade was incredibly brilliant. It made a silvery-white line in the air as he brought the sword down and it gave off an ear-piercing whoosh.

"Not too bad." Gu Suihan put it back into its sheath and threw it to one side. Then he finally went to pick up the broken knife he had abandoned in a dark corner for ages.

"You haven't bothered about me in so long! Lying in that dark place for so long almost drove me insane!" the broken knife immediately started complaining loudly to Gu Suihan.

"Oops, sorry. I forgot about you."

"You forgot about me?" The broken knife paused for a moment, then started shrieking again, "You FORGOT ABOUT ME?! How could you have forgotten about me?! I'm the spirit of a weapon! A weapon spirit from ancient times! I have an incomparable amount of teaching experience! I also have…"

"So, you've finally decided to tell me the truth?" Gu Suihan stared at the knife that had suddenly stopped squeaking and sniggered. "Didn't you say you were a newly formed spirit? How did you become a weapon spirit from ancient times now?"

"I, uh…" The weapon spirit made the broken knife clatter about on the floor. "Did I say that? I don't know anything about that."

"Let me ask you a question." Gu Suihan's tone of voice suddenly became low and sinister. "Do you want to live or do you want to die?"

"I…I…I want to live," stammered the weapon spirit after hesitating.

"Do you want to be an old grandpa?" Gu Suihan suddenly thought of an idea. He tried to tempt the knife, "Old grandpas are those who get to teach those beginners that start off with low levels of aptitude, but manage to rise to the top despite being downright dumb."

"But…but you're not a beginner, and you're not downright dumb either." The broken knife trembled as the weapon spirit got excited. But it quickly stopped when it saw Gu Suihan's expression.

"Fuck, I'm not talking about myself!" Gu Suihan glared furiously at the broken knife. He cleared his throat and went on, "If you're willing, I'll take you out later and we can find the dumbest and most naïve disciple out there and take him in."

"And then?" The weapon spirit was getting interested now.

"Then…I'll teach you a cultivation technique and you can teach that fellow. Then he can become that weak to strong protagonist who defeats all those rich scions, a useless fellow who defies the will of heaven to…"

"Wait, what?! What in the world are you talking about?" The weapon spirit was utterly confused but it sort of understood what Gu Suihan was driving at. "You just want to find a test subject, don't you? I just knew you couldn't be so kind as to take me outside for fun," it spat indignantly.

"Don't put it like that. Making him test out a cultivation technique is a bonus. The main point is for both of us to have some fun," said Gu Suihan patiently in order to coax the weapon spirit into playing along.

It didn't take Gu Suihan long to confuse the weapon spirit so much that it finally agreed to it.

The Clacker's Flaky Pastry Club

Today's snack recommendation: https://zhangcatherine.com/pastel-de-nata/ There is no MSG in this one but but but hot take I prefer these to the traditional Hong Kong ones. I NEED TO GET SOME NAO. NAAAOOOOO. Sugar: *****

1. The Great Floodhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_Mythology_of_ChinaHonestly, there are so many differing myths about a flood that destroys the world followed by two relatives repopulating the world I don't know which one the author is referring to. ️