Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way

"My aim, you say?" Gu Suihan sighed and said, "It is the same as yours. It's just that you're the one starting the war, and I'm just going to collect some murderous Qi along the way."

"You're cultivating a sword?" The king's gaze shifted from Gu Suihan to the strange sword the young man was carrying and felt his chest tighten.

Using human lives to nourish a sword would make it an extremely aggressive and violent weapon. It would become a cursed item.

"That's right. If you're going to start a war, get the general to carry this sword with him. It will automatically absorb murderous Qi." Gu Suihan waved Questioning Heaven in front of the king as a fire burned in his eyes.

The king furrowed his brows and asked, "And what are you going to do if I decide not to start a war?"

"Then I'll nourish my sword with the lives of the people of Qingguo." Gu Suihan narrowed his eyes, covering the deep disdain in his gaze.

"Why, you!" The king tried to suppress his anger and said through gritted teeth, "It is exactly as I had suspected. This figurine wasn't gotten through legitimate means, right?"

"It's from the country of Fenglin, and it wasn't easy to get it." Gu Suihan glanced at the king and his lips curled into a playful smile.

"Fenglin." The king furrowed his brows even more and he had a grim look in his eyes.

"Exactly how you want to do it, I'll leave that to you. But I don't have a lot of time to wait around here." Gu Suihan stretched his arm and slammed Questioning Heaven on the king's desk, leaving a large dent in it before walking away. He obviously did not think the king would ever get rid of this large dent.

Time passed quietly without stopping, much like the streams running down a mountain. Three years went by just like that.

During these three years, Gu Suihan lived like an ordinary rich man's son, staying at home most of the time and hardly going out. However, the deathly aura that he emanated only grew stronger. He was now like a grim reaper of sorts, killing almost any living thing he touched, including the trees and grass he passed by.

Taohua had already dismissed all the maids that she had bought when they first moved into this luxurious residence. The huge estate was left with only Gu Suihan and Taohua.

"Taohua, you've served me for nearly four years since I brought you back when I first joined the Seven Kill Sect. I've taught you cultivation techniques and I've allowed you to cultivate as well. It looks like something is about to happen in the world of cultivation, and our fate ends here. You may leave."

Gu Suihan looked at the young woman who was staring back at him from a distance with a faint smile on his lips, but his words were cold and distant.

"Young master!" Taohua's eyes brimmed with tears and she looked terribly aggrieved.

Gu Suihan waved his hand as he silently turned to look at the beautiful snowy scenery outside his window.

"Your heart is no longer here. Why should I force you to stay?" said Gu Suihan with a serene smile on his face.

Immediately after he said that the entire estate shook violently and turned into a heap of ash over the course of 15 minutes. After the dust had settled, Gu Suihan was nowhere to be found.

Gu Suihan wasn't the sentimental type or the sort to fall in love either. Over the past few years, there had been enough in this place to attract the heart of his young maid who had never seen the world outside of the sect before.

Shortly after they had left the sect, Gu Suihan had keenly sensed that Taohua was attracted to many things out there. Since that was the case, he didn't see the need to keep her around anymore. She could go elsewhere if she preferred.

And since her heart was no longer focused on being his maid, he did not force her to change. To him, it just meant that their path together had ended. Even if Taohua suddenly died in front of him right now, he would just step over her body without flinching and continue on his way.

"I wonder how things are like back at the Seven Kill Sect." Gu Suihan looked into the distance calmly, his eyes flickering slightly from time to time. But he did not do anything else.

Suddenly, he felt something in his heart. He smiled faintly and made a hand seal. Before long, a beam of violent Qi soared into the sky, making a gigantic hole in the clouds.

After that, a beam of light tore through the air at high speed, making a screeching noise as it flew toward Gu Suihan.

Boom! A large patch of dark clouds swirled in the sky behind the sword. Lightning lit up the sky and thunder rumbled from time to time.

"Not bad, it's able to cause a change in the weather now," commented Gu Suihan calmly. He raised his hand and caught the long sword overflowing with angry and vicious murderous Qi.

"Now!" Gu Suihan gave a low shout and brandished his sword. A black and red sword Qi with a golden glow around it seemed so real as it slashed the huge patch of dark storm clouds in the sky.

BOOM! As if it were sentient, the storm clouds seemed to sense Gu Suihan's attack and formed an even bigger bolt of lightning in the sky, the crackling of the lightning even more piercing than the chirps of a million birds. It crackled without stopping as if it was trying to rupture Gu Suihan's eardrums.

The sword Qi was a few hundred meters wide, large, and violent enough to slice right through the sky. The surroundings were not able to withstand the force and things looked distorted from a distance.

Nature was a formidable force in itself. Lightning and thunder continued to rip and rumble within the cloud. The sword Qi was like a rainbow, except that it was sharp beyond compare. Gu Suihan swung the sword, making the blade glint brightly as it vibrated wildly.

When the sword collided with the clouds, it made several booms in the sky which resonated for miles. The countless bolts of lightning weaved together to become a ferocious dragon-like creature in the sky.

Taohua was still staring at the rubble in front of her in a daze when she heard a terrible noise above her. She snapped out of her daze and looked up at the sky. The clear blue skies had become extremely dark without her realizing it and a frightening storm cloud was sending lightning bolt after lightning bolt towards a human figure standing below.

"What's that?" Taohua asked.

"I don't know. Perhaps some cultivation bigshot is going through their Heavenly Tribulation." A young man dressed in coarse linen stood next to Taohua and looked up at the sky in fear. He tugged at the daze Taohua so that they could find a place to hide.

"That's Young Master." Taohua's eyes widened in shock. She could recognize that familiar figure even from this distance.

The young man next to her paled and gulped when he heard what she said as his mind went into a panic.

Taohua looked at the terrified expression on the young man who had always been so gentle and considerate toward her and felt disappointed with him for some reason.

Meanwhile, the fight between man and cloud continued.

"I will break you!" yelled Gu Suihan. The veins on his hand bulged as he gripped his sword tightly. The tip of his sword trembled slightly and attacked the lightning dragon with more aggression than it ever had.

ROARR! The lightning dragon roared and swooped down on the lowly mortal standing below.

"Now!" The sword Qi tore through the lightning dragon, slicing through every bolt, and stabbed the storm cloud easily as if there was nothing in its way at all. A hole in the sky appeared and the sun could shine through again.

Roar! Gu Suihan could still hear a faint roar in his ear, as if the cloud was still indignant about losing. But there was nothing it could do, so it slowly faded into the distance.

It was as though the violent and destructive storm cloud and the incomparably dark skies that had blotted out the sun earlier and struck terror in the hearts of mankind were nothing but an illusion.

"You're nothing compared to that thing." Gu Suihan smiled frostily as he watched the clouds slowly disappear.

He was someone who had consumed the lives of millions of living creatures for his cultivation back when he was on Earth. Now, he was just using the lives of ordinary folk to nourish his sword. The difference was as great as the difference between heaven and Earth. He had actually managed to survive that terrible attack back then, so there was no way he was going to die from this pathetic attempt by the cloud.

"You're very clever and I hope you stay this way." Gu Suihan looked calmly at the sword he had just placed back in its sheath with a sinister smile on his face. That concentrated and nauseating murderous aura burst from inside him and filled an area spanning a few hundred meters around him. Countless people either died or went insane from getting hit by that aura.

Pfft! The young man standing next to Taohua instantly felt like he had been struck by lightning. He yelped and sprayed a mouthful of blood out. Blood flowed out from his eyes, nose, and ears as his face paled and he collapsed onto the ground.

Gu Suihan had no idea what sort of effect he had on the people below. Or perhaps he knew but didn't care. To him, whether these people lived or died didn't make any difference to him.

He turned to stare at where the Seven Kill Sect was and that bad premonition in his heart only grew stronger. He could sense that a storm was coming. The calm before the storm was almost over.

"A disaster is about to befall, so it's best to be prepared. Even though I intended to hide, I'd better make alternative plans as well, just in case." Gu Suihan looked away, then took a few steps into the sky, disappearing without a trace from this little town that he had practically wiped out earlier.

"Sir, is anything the matter?" Sun Miaozhi hurriedly got Gu Suihan a stool and bowed low before the young man.

"Nothing, really. I'm going to live here from now on, so prepare a room for me," said Gu Suihan lazily as he sat down and picked up the teacup that Sun Miaozhi had offered him.

"Yes, sir, I will get it arranged right now," said Sun Miaozhi before scuttling out again. He wondered, Gu Suihan only comes once a year. Why does he suddenly want to live here now?