Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way

“You’re finally here,” said Gu Suihan with a laugh as he shut the book in his hand and looked up at the woman who had suddenly appeared in his study.

“I’m here to ask you one last time. What do you want?

The woman who had appeared was the same woman from the Dongfang family. She was Shuang’er’s mother, Dongfang Zhizhu.

“I want…resources, heavenly and earthly treasures, spiritual stones, rare fruit, ancient texts – a lot of it. Would you be able to afford that?” said Gu Suihan quietly.

Dongfang Zhizhu snorted. It was an angry and contemptuous snort. She stared disdainfully at Gu Suihan. “Do you know the sort of standing the Dongfang family has in the 39^th domain?”

Gu Suihan snorted just as contemptuously and said in a domineering voice, “I’m asking for these things precisely because I know your family’s standing here. Why else would I bother wasting time speaking to you?”

His words were very clear, and he didn’t even bother hiding his murderous intentions. In short, if the Dongfang family weren’t the most powerful family in this domain, he would have annihilated them by now.

“You…you have a really tremendous appetite! Aren’t you afraid you’d suffer from indigestion?” Dongfang Zhizhu let out a laugh from how infuriated she was. Her huge and attractive eyes narrowed slightly, and her long and dense eyelashes covered her eyes as well, but it wasn’t enough to block the murderous intent spewing out from them.

“That’s my problem. It’s better to suffer from indigestion than to die of starvation. Besides…it’s not like you can refuse my requests. So, why make things so difficult for yourself?” Gu Suihan got up slowly and strolled to where she was standing. The two of them were now no more than a meter apart, and their eyes seemed to be spewing fire as they stared at one another.

The temperature in the room felt like it had hit subzero. The sound of light breathing could be heard echoing clearly in the room. One could literally see the pot of calligraphy ink turn into a piece of ice while the previously boiling water in the teapot was frosting over.

“Very well, very well. I see that you are very determined.” Dongfang Zhizhu saw that Gu Suihan had no intention of backing off at all, and he had absolutely no respect for her family either. The only thing she saw in her eyes was a lofty disdain, incredible confidence, and an indescribable dominance.

“So, are you going to accede to my requests or not?” Gu Suihan picked up the cup of tea that had turned into ice and blew on it gently. The tea instantly melted and gave off a faint fragrance again.

“Why you!” Dongfang Zhizhu’s ample bosom heaved up and down in anger, causing the air to move wildly as well. She gritted her teeth as she hissed murderously at him, emphasizing every word, “A number. Give me an exact number!”

“Well, that…” Gu Suihan smiled as he lifted a finger, then leaned forward so that he was now no more than three inches away from her. His indifferent voice brimming with fiendish qi rang beside Dongfang Zhizhu’s ear, “I want 10% of everything your family has!”

“That’s not possible!”

This angry voice did not belong to Dongfang Zhizhu. This was the voice of a middle-aged man, a voice that was deep, authoritative, and threatened to crush the world beneath it.

As the more powerful faction in the 39^th domain, what did having 10% of their fortune mean?

It meant that he would have enough resources to groom several Divine Soul cultivators and a few dozen Nascent Change cultivators. He would be able to instantly turn himself into a powerful force that could become the leading faction in a commandery.

This was the difference between the factions that were actually at the top and ordinary well-to-do families. Comparing it to the difference between heaven and Earth wasn’t sufficient to describe the huge gap between these two groups.

“It is highly possible.” Gu Suihan turned his attention to the man who had suddenly appeared by the side and snorted. “I think, compared to the possibility of your entire family getting wiped out, this…is not a very high price to pay.”

“But that depends on whether you are qualified to even ask for something like this in the first place,” said the middle-aged man with a scowl. His expression shifted slightly when he heard what Gu Suihan said.

“I’m not qualified, but neither are you. You’re not any better. If the negotiation fails, I won’t die, but your family is doomed.” Gu Suihan placed his half-drunk tea back on the table, then removed a thin, light purple jade slip from his clothes and said with a knowing smile, “You’re dealing with a marquis after all.”

“News reaches your ears really quickly, huh,” said the middle-aged man in a surly voice as he narrowed his eyes and stared straight at the jade slip in Gu Suihan’s hands.

“Oh no, no, it’s my first time here. How could I possibly have found out something that’s been so well hidden?” Gu Suihan sold Su Yuqing out immediately.

Su Yuqing had not come to look for him even after such a long time and had tried to do him in the last time, so he was sure that Su Yuqing had his own plans. But after finding out that the Lower World had disappeared, Gu Suihan didn’t have the time to slowly make plans in secret anymore.

“Looks like…you have a very good informant,” said Dongfang Zhizhu slowly and sinisterly as her expression changed dramatically.

“Nobody wants to die, am I right?” Gu Suihan placed the jade slip in her hands and chuckled. “And nobody…nobody wants to live a life worse than death.”

“Do you know exactly how much would 10% be? I’m the head of the family, but I couldn’t calculate that for you either.” The middle-aged man, who turned out to be the head of the Dongfang family, softened his tone a little now.

“Then let me change my conditions.” Gu Suihan looked eastward, and a sinister fiendish qi slowly appeared in his eyes. “Help me to…slay gods! And throw in 100,000 spiritual stones.”

The spiritual stones here weren’t the low or mid-grade spiritual stones that those Foundation Establishment and Origin Core cultivators used. These were high-grade spiritual stones he was talking about. One of these stones was worth more than tens of thousands of the low-grade ones.

“Deal!” After pausing to think for a moment, the head of the Dongfang family nodded slightly and agreed to these conditions.

100,000 spiritual stones was not a small amount to even some well-to-do families, but this was peanuts to the Dongfang family. As for the other condition, they didn’t mind working under Gu Suihan since this was a one-off occurrence.

And as for those gods, who cared if they lived or died?

If these deities hadn’t behaved themselves, made sure they didn’t threaten the interests of cultivators, and were useful in keeping the ordinary people in check, they probably wouldn’t exist anymore. These stupid things would have been destroyed by cultivators ages ago.

“Time is running out,” said Gu Suihan. He moved his fingers slightly to carve a forbidden technique and spell onto a jade slip and passed it to the middle-aged man.

“I’ll send the spiritual stones over tomorrow.”

The head of the Dongfang family accepted the jade slip, and his expression was a lot more relaxed now. He even placed a palm over his other fist to greet Gu Suihan politely before leaving.

“Humph! Sorry for the trouble,” said Dongfang Zhizhu with a tense face through gritted teeth. She proceeded to walk away elegantly without giving Gu Suihan any chance to respond.

“I said 10%, but you refused,” murmured Gu Suihan after he was left all alone in the room. He leaned lazily against the large chair and continued, “The next time, I won’t only ask for 10%. I’ll ask for 100%.”

“Get me two side dishes and a bottle of wine,” Li Yu instructed a waiter quietly as he walked into a restaurant.

During this time, he had been busy ambushing others in the outskirts of the city and had finally gotten enough to be no longer considered dirt poor. So, the next step was to start finding a good candidate to rob a spiritual root from.

“This guy’s not bad. He’s actually a rank seven. That’s a high grade,” muttered Li Yu to himself. He had used a secret technique that the Esteemed One had taught him to check out a young man seated nearby and was quite excited.

“Rank seven? Tsk. He can reach Origin Core with that, but there’s no way he’d hit Nascent Change. Besides, he doesn’t match your true self, so getting it is a waste of effort,” the Esteemed One’s voice rang in Li Yu’s head.

“True self?” This was the first time Li Yu had heard of this term.

“What, did you think spiritual roots just came like that? This thing slowly changes according to one’s spirit and will,” the Esteemed One explained. “When one is born, their spiritual root usually has all five elements in it. The rank of giftedness depends on your genetics. But if your will is a temperamental one, then your spiritual root will slowly move toward the element of fire or even turn into the element of lightning. But if your natural personality is peace-loving and calm, your spiritual root will most likely lean toward water or earth. Those who are brave will get a refined gold root, while those who hold up under harsh circumstances will get a geng gold one. Those who are gentle on the outside but resilient on the inside would get a wood one.”

“I see. Why have I never heard of such a thing before?” asked Li Yu puzzledly as he scratched his head.

“Fengyang was just a lousy commandery city. You were considered a piece of trash who couldn’t cultivate too. These are secrets passed down from ancient times, so not everyone would be privy to them,” said the Esteemed One disdainfully.

“So…exactly what level of cultivation are you at?” Li Yu seized this chance to finally ask the question he had always wanted to ask.

“You call me the Esteemed One, a term with the word ‘zun’ in it. You can ask anybody here which level of cultivation would require you to address them as ‘zun’ and you’ll get your answer.” The Esteemed One let out a depressed sigh, as though he was recalling something sad. He sounded a lot less energetic and fell silent again after that flippant reply.

“Zun?” Li Yu repeated the word to himself with a very confused look on his face.

This level of cultivation was really too far a goal for someone like Li Yu. It was like the rainbow in the sky, or the sun and moon. One could only look at it but never get there.

“Su Yuqing! Look at what you’ve done!”

Dongfang Zhizhu took a lower-ranked seat in the Dongfang residence and glowered at the completely confused Su Yuqing as he stood in the middle of the hall.

“What do you mean?” Su Yuqing looked utterly confused, but his heart was uneasy.

“I don’t think you’ve forgotten what this is.” The head of the Dongfang family took that purple jade slip out from his pocket, waved it in front of Su Yuqing, then threw it casually onto the table.

“Damn it, how did that…” Su Yuqing’s expression changed drastically.

Did the family launch an attack and kill him? Su Yuqing’s mind was a mess. But that doesn’t make sense. If they did that, how are they going to cure Shuang’er? They wouldn’t take such a risk.

Then again, that’s hard to say. Maybe…maybe they know some technique that could forcibly retrieve his memories and find a way to heal the girl…

Su Yuqing was really panicking now. He was really scared. Compared to Gu Suihan, he was even better aware of how powerful this family really was. But that was also why he was so afraid of them and so reverent toward them.

That’s why he decided to scheme against Gu Suihan instead of teaming up with Gu Suihan to attack the Dongfang family. But…what the hell was going on now?