Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way

“You’d better not harbor any hopes. The difference in status between the two of you is too great, and even comparing mud to clouds isn’t enough to fully describe the difference. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

The middle-aged man thought about the reaction that Rou Lingyun had when speaking to him as well as the odd look on Li Yu’s face, and put two and two together quite quickly.

A deep unhappiness appeared on his face, and he sent this message to Li Yu via telepathy. It was clearly a threat.

To him, Li Yu and Rou Lingyun belonged to two completely different worlds. If his daughter was really romantically linked to this man, then…just the thought of the rules that the Equal Spirit Order had made his heart grow cold.

Why had he never let anybody else know how he and Rou Lingyun were related?

That was because…Rou Lingyun’s mother was no ordinary person. His secret communication with her was already an act that might get him killed. Unexpectedly, she ended up getting pregnant with Rou Lingyun. She was afraid that this matter would be exposed, so she gave him a lot of resources and made him leave.

But after Rou Lingyun was born, this matter was exposed after a series of unfortunate coincidences. And so, Rou Lingyun’s mother ended up dying. He swapped Rou Lingyun for a different baby to save her and told her the truth after that.

However, Rou Lingyun refused to let him take care of her but ended up in the Equal Spirit Order by chance. She was more talented than her peers, and she worked very hard at cultivation, plus she was supposedly an orphan. That was how she ended up becoming one of the three saintesses of the Order.

All of this sounds rather complicated, but basically, two people had a secret romance, but they weren’t careful, so she got knocked up, and the secret was exposed.

But that was also why Rou Lingyun was so confident that she could steal the credit from Xia Yun. After all, her biological father was actually part of the Equal Spirit Order.

“I…I will definitely make sure you regret this!” Li Yu’s first reaction to the older man’s words was fury and indignation. Her father had condemned him at first sight. That made him feel unfairly judged and angry.

“Humph! Regret? If not for the fact that you saved Yun’er and killing you would make me look bad, did you think you’d have lived till now?” Rou Lingyun’s father glanced disdainfully at Li Yu and didn’t bother to hide the mocking look in his eyes.

Just when Li Yu was about to yell back at the older man, the ring on his finger sent a coldness through his body, and his anger disappeared instantly. He was still a little puzzled when Gu Suihan’s wisp of spiritual sense suddenly rang in his head, speaking in that frail and elderly voice, “Do not anger this man. He is a monster at Nascent Change.”

This calm warning instantly snapped Li Yu out of his earlier angry state. He cursed inwardly, “This old fogey is such a scheming fellow. He tried to make me so angry that I’d lose my cool and offend him. That way, he’d have a good reason to kill me right now. No wonder he decided to speak via telepathy instead of speaking out loud. He was trying to trap me!”

“Hmm? He’s got a fairly strong heart, huh.”

Rou Lingyun’s father watched as Li Yu’s expression calmed back down, then bowed respectfully at him. Li Yu didn’t look affected by his words at all. He was a little disappointed, but he also felt a little admiration for the young man.

“Father, what did you say to him?” Rou Lingyun was not stupid. She looked at both of them with her large, pretty eyes and could guess what must have happened. She couldn’t help but feel a little angry inside.

“I just said a few things that ought to be said,” replied the middle-aged man calmly. He gave the command in his mind, and the thick layer of clouds in front of them moved aside. A few dozen people with the ability to crush anything within a million miles and a majestic presence slowly came into full view.

He glanced at Rou Lingyun, then said, “We’re here. You can speak to them now.”

Compared to Rou Lingyun’s calm demeanor, Li Yu felt like he was about to be crushed to pieces. His blood was flowing the wrong way, and his bones made cracking noises. Because of the malfunctioning of his insides, blood started seeping out of his pores, and his gaze became unfocused as he nearly fainted.

Thankfully, the middle-aged man realized that this might kill Li Yu and make Rou Lingyun unhappy, so he helped to shield Li Yu from the powerful auras emanating from the crowd below. Otherwise, Li Yu was going to turn into minced meat in no time.

“Greetings, seniors. I am Rou Lingyun, saintess of the Equal Spirit Order.”

Rou Lingyun had a calm expression on her face, but she was actually feeling very nervous inside.

After all, if the initial plan had worked out, 99% of the people in Fengyang would have to die. She had no choice but to tell them exactly who she was now since nobody would care about or believe anything a pathetic Origin Core cultivator said if she didn’t do that. Her words would only sound like boastful, ambitious talk that didn’t mean anything.

“Old man Li said that you’ve got a way to get us out of here alive. Tell us about it,” said an old man among them slowly as he stroked his gray beard. He wore a long robe with red clouds embroidered on it and had a genial demeanor, but he also had an eerie-looking tattoo on his face.

“I am but an ant to all of you, and I wouldn’t dare to hide the truth from anyone here. What happened earlier was the doing of another saintess from the Order, Xia Yun, and has nothing to do with me. I happened to get the chance to kill her and obtained the method this way,” said Rou Lingyun as she adjusted her stance and spoke in a very humble manner.

“Well, this situation is the doing of the Equal Spirit Order in the first place. If the situation hadn’t suddenly taken a different turn, we’d probably have died unjust deaths and turned into vengeful ghosts by now. Enough of this useless chatter. Tell us the plan so that we can consider it,” said a young man rather impatiently. He wore a purple robe with clouds on it and had long white hair.

“Continue with the original plan.” Rou Lingyun took a deep breath as she took the Positioning Stone out. Her tone was resolute and unshakeable.

“What?!”

Not only did her own father raise an eyebrow at her words, but all the powerful cultivators listening to her went into an uproar.

But these were cultivators who had survived for more than a thousand years, so there was little that could really throw their hearts into turmoil. A moment later, everyone shut their mouths. They quietened down and prepared themselves to listen to Rou Lingyun’s plan.

“The original plan was to sacrifice a million cultivators in Fengyang in order to make a hole in the void, but we could do it in a different way now.” Rou Lingyun pursed her lips together. Saying these things in her sweet and cute voice made this scene look even weirder than it already was. “We can massacre a large number of low-level cultivators, then add on resources to make up the difference.”

“Resources?” The first old man in the red robe was a little confused.

“Spiritual stones, spiritual herbs, heavenly and earthly treasures, hun and po, bodies, spiritual weapons, magic items, and so on. Anything with qi in it is considered a resource.”

Rou Lingyun’s pretty eyes remained emotionless. Her equally emotionless face did not seem affected by anything she was saying.

“The whole of Fengyang is only left with a few hundred thousand cultivators. In that case…how many resources do we need to make up the difference?” Another Nascent Change cultivator had a nasty look on his face.

Rou Lingyun frowned slightly and thought about it for a while before responding in a grave voice, “The city of Fengyang has 27 powerful factions. According to my estimates, they…will probably have to hand over everything they have. Plus, everything those pathetic cultivators have, we’d probably just have enough.”

“But why?” asked the same cultivator indignantly. Making any cultivator surrender everything he had was as good as roasting him over a fire in hell for a thousand years.

“Because…of him!” Rou Lingyun raised her head to look at the thin, translucent layer of light in the sky covered in countless sparkling, mysterious runes.

Who was the “him” she was referring to?

Everyone knew exactly who she was talking about. Who else could it be besides that powerful tyrant who could rule over thousands of worlds and remain invincible within his empire?

In order to break through the protective layer around the Qin empire, one needed to sacrifice the lives of millions of living creatures. But now, Ying Zheng had also used a god-level technique to watch what was happening in Fengyang. The obstacles they faced were even greater than before. This was like trying to take a chestnut out from the roasting fire with your bare hands.

“And what happens after we make it into the void?” someone else finally asked after a long period of silence.

These words were as sharp as a needle, piercing open the loophole that Rou Lingyun could have gotten away with a more vague explanation.

The real question behind that question was simple. So what if everyone gave up all their resources and made it through the layers in the way? What happens then? Were they going to end up floating about in the void and dying anyway?

He didn’t think a plan that the Equal Spirit Order had spent decades planning and executing would have overlooked such an important aspect.

“Once that happens, I will use the Positioning Stone within the void to call for the elders of the Order to receive us. They will lead us to the land we have prepared and all of you can leave via a teleportation formation after that.” Rou Lingyun realized that she couldn’t get away with a vague explanation and had no choice but to speak the truth.

“What? They’ll receive us and lead us into your territory? And we can leave after that? Is this a joke?” The white haired young man in purple snorted loudly. His gaze was like lightning as it exerted an extremely sinister pressure on Rou Lingyun’s head, causing it to bend. He was clearly angry now.