Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way

Mo Yuluo had already arranged for all the disciples belonging to the three factions to huddle together and stay put in a hidden corner. A disciple would come by from time to time and attempt to kill them, but these intruders would be killed off quickly by the group.

Gu Suihan had secretly hidden behind this group and had taken a pill to recuperate.

The formation around the disciples started to give off a faint reddish air but this fog was barely visible among the bloodied limbs that lay over the ground. But this reddish fog was spreading across the arena and being absorbed by the disciples as they breathed.

Less than a third of the participants were left, but there was still time left to go before it fell to 200.

The disciples from the three factions were initially very silent and calm, but when they looked at each other now, they realized that their eyes were bloodshot and looked murderous now. However, they were still able to hold their urges back.

That was until someone accidentally stepped on the foot of another disciple. The two disciples suddenly flew into an explosive rage and it didn't take long for one of them to be hacked to death. The friend of the one who died was furious and drew his sword. After that, the peaceful and united crowd started fighting each other for very petty reasons. Their eyes were bloodshot and they stared at each other as ruthlessly as an animal eyeing its prey, even though many of them were friends before this.

Before long, spells were cast and weapons were withdrawn. Yet another major battle began within the arena.

"This is really exciting!" Wan Fentian looked down at all the corpses in the arena and the bloodthirsty look in his eyes became more intense.

You Hantian turned to look at the seemingly unhinged Wan Fentian and said in a stern voice, "Your heart has been affected."

"Has it?" Wan Fentian glanced at You Hantian with reddened eyes.

"It has!" Yun Lianyi's beautiful face had a nasty look on it, as though she wasn't used to the strong stench of blood. She turned her face away from the battle below that was only getting more and more brutal.

Xiexin zhenren glanced at Wan Fentian and said, "You're getting more and more affected. Wan Fentian, I suggest you take some time to quietly cultivate, otherwise you might succumb to your inner demons."

"The tree might want peace and quiet but the wind blows anyway. I don't always have a choice in these things," said Wan Fentian with a sigh after he shut his eyes to adjust his Qi and calmed his agitated heart down.

You Hantian and the rest had grim looks on their faces when they heard what he had said.

"Something's not right," thought Gu Suihan as he leaned against one of the stone pillars that formed part of the formation around the arena and felt the heat it gave off. His heart started palpitating as he watched the others, consumed by a frenzy, murder each other.

The slightly sweet bloody smell in the air made Gu Suihan realize that there was a problem as he quickly pasted a Heart Calming Talisman on himself. There was a fierce glint in his eye as he watched the external disciples at each other's throats. He had no idea what was wrong with the air around them, but he too, slowly began to feel the urge to kill something rise up within him.

He swung his sword to defend himself against another disciple's sword, then thrust his left hand out suddenly, stabbing the other party in the abdomen, going through the dantian, and coming out from the other side with a few fragments of the spinal cord in hand. That ended the other person's life instantly.

"I need to make this battle end as soon as possible." He flicked his wrist and took out another talisman. Sword Qi surged into his hand and the talisman began to glow as the strange words on it also started glowing. An almost unnoticeable wind was slowly gaining speed around him.

"Sword Qi Storm!" Once the talisman was glowing at its brightest, Gu Suihan pasted the talisman onto the sword in his hand. He ran his index finger across the blade to make a cut and then allowed his blood to color both the sword and the talisman on it red. He thrust the sword out and it gave off a glow that was a foot long, and countless tiny cracks appeared all over it.

A bright golden flash appeared as the cracked glow of the sword tore through the air with an ear-piercing sound, and hacked everything in front of it into pieces.

The sound of metal clanging immediately filled the air, but every defense mechanism that talismans could create like mud walls and ice walls was no match for the sharp sword Qi. It pierced through everything and finally turned the disciples into mush as they looked on in despair.

"I'm going to break this down!" A young man shouted loudly as he swung his squarish sword that glowed crimson from the spiritual energy in it at Gu Suihan's sword.

A huge amount of spiritual energy surrounded the squarish sword and turned into a roaring beast as he swung it and burst out from the sword.

Blade shards as small as fingernails scratched against the squarish sword and sent ripples through the air as the two weapons collided. The powerful shockwave from the collision sent the fighting disciples around them flying and a large crater that measured more than 10 meters across appeared on the ground.

Gu Suihan threw away his sword since it was only left with its hilt. He quickly made several hand seals casting spells that were filled with spiritual energy while retreating backward at a high speed, treading over several bloodied corpses and random pieces of flesh along the way.

"Fire Dragon! Turmoil in the Skies!"

A gigantic dragon made from flames crossed the diameter of the huge crater, roaring furiously as it came towards the horrified-looking Gu Suihan like a cyclone.

"Brilliant Wall of Stars!"

The warm outburst coming from behind Gu Suihan told him that he had nowhere else to run to, so he had no choice but to stop his series of hand seals and create a hemispherical barrier that glowed brightly.

"Heavenly Spirits! Destroy the Darkness!"

The young man with the squarish sword took a mighty leap and waved his sword in a peculiar way before swinging it at Gu Suihan.

"Too late! Inches Away – Ends of the World!"

Gu Suihan could see the squarish sword coming for him through the barrier that was already covered with cracks and was about to collapse anytime. A confident smile spread across his lips.

He took a step forward and created several ripples in the air before disappearing into a different space right in front of the shocked young man, his chest just scraping past the squarish sword that was coming for him.

In that instant, he was able to move to the other side of the arena, covering a few kilometers in the process.

Pfft! Gu Suihan's face was slightly pale and there was blood trickling from his lips. He looked down expressionlessly at his chest, where a chunk of flesh was missing and his ribs had nearly been exposed. The wound looked terrifying.

He quickly retrieved several pills, crushed them in his hand, and applied the powder evenly across his chest. The intense pain made him frown, but he continued to swallow a few pills and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He proceeded to retrieve a magic spear from his storage ring and looked solemnly at all the external disciples who were slowly coming towards him, glaring at him with their bloodshot eyes as though he was their greatest enemy.

"Kill him!!"

As if that were a command from an army general, all the external disciples started making hand seals or raising their weapons as they swarmed toward Gu Suihan.

"Heavenly Dragon – to the Moon!"

Gu Suihan tensed up and he finally lost control of the murderous intent in his heart. The entire place instantly turned blood red, and the bloodied pieces of flesh on the ground were attracted to this thick layer of murderous air that filled the arena. The bloody flesh wriggled towards each other like worms, joining themselves up to form a dragon in an instant, a dragon made from the remains of the external disciples who had died earlier.

Gu Suihan raised his spear and the bloody dragon howled loudly, surrounding Gu Suihan safely in its midst. The dragon raised its head to let out a long roar, then flew into the air with Gu Suihan. It started twirling itself around Gu Suihan's spear and Gu Suihan gave a loud shout, sending the spear and the bloody dragon around it crashing onto the external disciples trying to attack him.

BOOOOOM!

The entire place bloomed like a bloody rose as blood spurted as high as a hundred meters into the air and an ear-deafening blast echoed in the arena.

Shrieks of horror and helpless wails, torn talismans, and broken weapons became all part of this blooming bloody rose.

Craaack! Wang Aolin looked up with a start and floated in the air to stare straight at a tiny crack in the formation around the arena. He was flabbergasted.

This formation was one that could hold up even against an Advanced Foundation Establishment cultivator's most powerful strike. Yet, Gu Suihan had managed to make a crack in it. The crack mended itself in no more than 10 seconds, but the fact that there was even a crack was already shocking to the internal disciples.

You Hantian and the other Peak Leaders were surprised for just a moment, then You Hantian realized he had to stop this.

"Great Hand of Hades!" He waved his sleeve aside and tapped the air in front of him, allowing him to reach a hand into the formation, which turned into more than a hundred large hands that each caught one disciple.

"The first round has ended. All survivors will make it to the next round."

Immediately after he said that Wan Fentian flew to You Hantian and said with an excited look on his face, "Sect Leader, I think that fellow should join my Peak. I definitely need someone who doesn't care about killing fellow disciples as this boy does.

"Move aside!" Yun Lianyi glared fiercely at Wan Fentian.

She looked down at Gu Suihan, whose face was pale as he sat cross-legged on the ground to recuperate. Then she looked pitifully at You Hantian and whined sadly, "My dear Sect Leader! I only have female disciples in my Peak and we always get bullied by other Peaks. Why don't you let this young man join mine? He could help protect us!"