Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way

“Hoho! A million warring souls! I can’t believe you can bear to part with these!” Duanmu laughed heartily without even turning back. With just a thought, spells targeting the white-haired young man hurtled toward him continuously.

“Humph! Return them to me right now, or I’ll slaughter your entire clan!” The white-haired man suddenly stopped running. His snake-like eyes reflected maniacal violence.

“Humph! Try if you dare!” Duanmu’s heart skipped a beat in fear when he heard the young man’s threat, but didn’t show any of it on his face, as though he didn’t care about his family at all.

“The heavens and earth are governed by the Way, and the Way is made from the laws of nature. Spells depend on one’s technique, while curses depend on the will of heaven,” said the young man calmly, even as he continued smiling mirthlessly. He proceeded to take out a small and intricate altar. An ugly and simple straw figure was on it. Several stray strands stuck out from it, and it was bound with tattered strands of hemp. Yet, it exuded a creepy aura that could make one’s heart tremble in fear.

“You…you’re prepared for both of us to be hurt?” Duanmu’s expression finally shifted when he saw that item. He seemed rather familiar with its function. He looked angry as he gritted his teeth and said, “Activating this thing will cost you at least a hundred years of your own life. Is it worth losing a hundred years over these warring souls?”

The white-haired young man glared steely at the other man as he used his nail to cut one of his fingers. He flicked his finger, and ruby-like drops of blood splattered onto the straw figure before letting out a snigger. “Of course, it isn’t worth it. But I refuse to take this lying down.”

“Excellent! You think I’d be afraid of you? Let me tell you something - I’ve never had to spit out what I’ve eaten before.” Duanmu was so angry that he let out a hearty laugh. He waved his hand, and the weather immediately darkened. Qi billowed violently in the roaring of thunder and flashes of lightning in the sky, turning into a dragon made from lightning. It moved its 300-meter-long body up and down, growling and roaring as it surrounded Duanmu to protect him.

“This is a curse, not a spell. What a blockhead,” the white-haired man couldn’t help but mock the older man when he saw how Duanmu had gone into a defensive stance as though he was expecting a major attack. He sneered loudly, then bit into the tip of his tongue, spraying out a stream of blood that emanated a golden glow onto the altar. The straw figure immediately came alive, and the laws of nature were altered to turn the straw figure into one that looked exactly like Duanmu. It was also in a long robe, and a dragon made from lightning was also flying around it.

“Of course, I know that. But if I kill you before it takes effect, its effect will cease!” said Duanmu loudly. He gave the order in his mind, causing the lightning dragon to roar as it flew into the sky and rushed at the white-haired young man with its highly electrically charged body.

“The laws of heaven and earth will protect me. The nine rotations of heavenly demons will be completed in heaven!”

The young man didn’t seem panicky at all as he raised a finger. A golden light filled the air, and thunder resounded as he stabbed it into the area between the straw figure’s brows. At the same time, he slammed his chest violently to force his body to spray out several mouthfuls of blood, which dyed the altar a beautiful yet creepy dark red color.

The golden glow around his finger crumbled, but Duanmu stumbled backward dramatically like he had been struck by lightning. His face paled as he sprayed a mouthful of blood out. A look of determination flashed in his eyes as he raised a finger and used his blood as ink to draw hundreds of runes in the air. His sleeve flapped wildly as the runes turned into a long rainbow that whooshed into the lightning dragon.

“The emperor has sealed this place off, and anything that requires the laws of space don’t work anymore. I’m going to see how you dodge this!” He let out several cackles as he stared at his opponent with a vicious look on his face.

“White Skeleton Heavenly Demon Flag! Explode NOW!!!”

The white-haired young man seemed to have lost his mind. The lightning dragon was right in front of him, yet he chose to advance instead of retreat. His flag appeared in his hand as he raised it and thrust a spell out, glaring maniacally at Duanmu as he did so.

“You’re a vicious one!” Duanmu felt a shudder, and his eyes twitched as he instinctively turned to run. It was clear that this young man was so agitated that he was no longer thinking rationally. The young man had actually decided to destroy a spiritual weapon he had been honing for a few centuries in order to kill him.

“Did you think you could get away?” The young man thrust spell after spell out. A red glow filled the air, and the world seemed to spin as the altar suddenly burst with a violent aura. Duanmu wasn’t able to react in time at all. He flew tens of meters backward like a kite with a broken string, spewing mouthful after mouthful of blood as though he had a never-ending supply of it. His robe was dyed a dark red from all that blood.

In just a short period of time, he had been severely injured without even getting the chance to fight back.

“You’re asking for it!” Duanmu glanced at the young man, and his eyes bulged angrily when he saw that the straw figure on the altar had been turned to ashes. He swallowed a few dozen pills immediately and flew into the air without taking the time to readjust his breathing, even raising his palm and bringing it down again.

The laws governing smoke and clouds gathered to become a dark whirlwind, and lightning began to appear. The whirlwind expanded, and before long, it turned into a gigantic hand that looked like it was powerful enough to destroy the entire world.

“Break!!!” The white-haired young man looked up at the palm that kept growing in size above him and quickly summoned the qi in his body. It coursed through all his meridians and acupoints to transform into a mysterious energy that flew out from his fingertips.

KABOOM!

The smoke cleared, and the clouds parted.

The area within a 300-meter radius was cleared of anything previously on it and turned into a hole that was at least 100 meters deep. Only the white-haired young man stood where he was, completely unharmed, like one lonely boat in the midst of the vast ocean.

“Let’s call it quits, shall we?”

The young man stared down at Duanmu, and Duanmu stared back at him from inside the hole for a while before Duanmu made this suggestion with a pale face and a weakened voice.

You could say that Duanmu had admitted defeat. After all, while Duanmu was indeed powerful, his opponent was a vicious and completely insane fellow who clearly did not care for his own life.

“My spiritual weapon has been destroyed, and I’ve lost my warring souls.” The white-haired young man was panting a little too. That attack had been hard on him as well.

“I’ll give them back to you.” Duanmu’s expression kept switching between one of dismay and one of exhaustion, which made him look rather comical. He scowled as he threw a spiritual item he used to contain the warring souls at the young man, then scoffed before walking away without even turning back.

If they continued fighting, his body was going to disintegrate, and he would be left with only his nascent soul. The young man was probably also only at 20% strength now.

Given the current circumstances, it wasn’t difficult to imagine what would happen to two severely injured Nascent Change cultivators if they didn’t take the time to recuperate.

If they were to be killed and thrown into the formation, they would be worth as much as the souls of tens of thousands of low-level cultivators.

The white-haired young man was a lunatic, but he wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t going to sacrifice himself and benefit others he didn’t care about just like that. Only an idiot would do that.

And so…the two men agreed to stop fighting and walk away in peace without having to talk it out. Of course, at the same time, both parties had suffered equal amounts of losses.

Duanmu’s lifeblood was damaged, and he was severely injured. He had also lost a powerful spiritual item.

The white-haired young man not only lost the straw figure on the altar, but he had also lost a few hundred years of his life in the process. The spiritual item given to him by Duanmu was barely enough to cover the loss of his flag.

At the end of it, the white-haired young man had lost a little more than Duanmu…

Just as the white-haired young man floated into the air to recuperate, a deep and dizzying sound resonated from the skies.

Four blood red pillars of light shot into the sky from four different parts of Fengyang. A vast aura suddenly spread through the city, as though it was going to make a hole right through the sky and the ground.

“Four? Nothing’s happening with the last one. What’s happening?”

All the Nascent Change cultivators used their spiritual sense to scan all of Fengyang and their expressions fell.

It was clear what was going on.

“You lied to us?” one of the Nascent Change cultivators broke the silence with a nasty look on his face. The rest moved swiftly to appear next to Rou Lingyun and old man Li almost instantly.

The gathering of such energetic and threatening auras changed the weather within Fengyang and caused rare phenomena to occur. Internal energies exuding violence and aggression shook the entire place.

The tremendous pressure made Rou Lingyun spray a mouthful of blood out immediately. Her entire body shook and she was about to collapse, but she managed to grit her teeth and uttered her guess, “Perhaps there aren’t enough sacrifices yet.”

“Not enough? Then…we’ve got to add to it!” said old man Li. He waved his arm to put up a protective barrier between the cultivators and Rou Lingyun, then looked toward the north of the city with a determined look in his eye.

“You’d better not be lying to us. Otherwise…” said the white-haired young man frostily. The spiritual item in his hand shook violently and a million warring souls rushed out, roaring and howling as they flew speedily toward the formation eye in the north of the city.

Without a flag that had gone through several centuries of refining, these warring souls weren’t very useful to him. So, instead of keeping them as a backup, he felt it was more worth it to make a worthy contribution that would make all these cultivators owe him a favor.

“A million warring souls! That’s very generous,” uttered some of the cultivators in a surprised yet thoughtful voice. They nodded unnoticeably in response, which was an acknowledgment of how they now owed this young man a favor.

Some of them, however, had an odd look on their faces because they noticed that the spiritual item the young man had used resembled the one that belonged to Duanmu.

They turned and noticed how pale Duanmu was, so they quickly put two and two together, and became additionally wary of this white-haired young man.