“Screeeech! Screeeech!” The Chilly Soul seemed to be able to sense the greediness in Gu Suihan’s seemingly indifferent gaze and started shrieking even more wildly as it desperately struggled to break free from the clutches of the red and black lines surrounding it.
“You’re sentient, which means you’re also afraid to die. You have two choices. Either you lead us to the Icy Po in the formation eye, and I’ll let you off, or we’ll search your soul and…I believe you know what will happen after that.”
Gu Suihan squatted down and ran his long and slim finger across its body. He made a slit in its body, removed a tiny piece of its flesh, and flung it aside with an evil smile on his face, as though he were a demon.
The way Gu Suihan made his threats so gently and nonchalantly terrified the Chilly Soul. The pain from the wounds covering its body caused by the lines told it that there was no way this young man would keep his promise. Even if it cooperated and told Gu Suihan where the Icy Po was, Gu Suihan was still going to kill it.
But…maybe Gu Suihan might let it off. What if that happened? That tiny bit of hope that Gu Suihan would keep his promise slowly grew bigger and stronger until it completely filled its brain.
“You can use your spiritual sense to communicate with me via telepathy. You don’t need to know my language,” said Gu Suihan with a chuckle as he flicked the blood off his hand and watched the panicky Chilly Soul squeak and gesticulate.
“It’s…in the sky, at the entrance to the cave,” squeaked the Chilly Soul, disregarding the wounds that the lines made on its body as it continued to struggle.
“In the sky, at the entrance to the cave?” Gu Suihan suddenly looked up at the sun outside that had been there since the beginning of time. His lips curled into a frosty smile. “The Icy Po is in the sun. That’s the formation eye.”
“Let’s go!” The rest exchanged glances, then leaped up to fly toward the sun that looked like it was tens of thousands of miles away.
As they ascended, they were soon covered in frostbites as the temperature plummeted. The spiritual energy surging through their bodies was not as active as before, and their surroundings were quickly covered in a thick layer of snow as the temperature continued to fall.
“What else?” Gu Suihan asked the creature after the rest had flown into the sky.
“What…what else?” stuttered the Chilly Po. Unfortunately, it was a bad actor. Its gaze was shifty, and it obviously had not told the full truth.
“Forget it.” Gu Suihan calmly stretched his left hand toward it and stabbed his fingers into the Chilly Po even as it screeched in horror.
Blood spurted all over the white snow as it struggled. The bright red drops looked terrifying. In just a few moments, the Chilly Po’s movements grew weaker and weaker. It finally convulsed one last time and stopped moving altogether.
Gu Suihan had a look of enjoyment on his face as his weakened dantian absorbed the frosty spirit inside the Chilly Soul’s consciousness greedily. There was a marked improvement in its condition after that.
“It was lying.” The other three landed and stood in front of Gu Suihan with gloomy looks on their faces.
“There’s a formation in the sky. All of you are too impatient. If you had looked more carefully, you would have noticed it. It’s not that complicated.”
Gu Suihan turned to keep the corpse on the ground that was slowly turning into ice in his magic ring. This was good stuff and rare to come by, so he wasn’t going to just leave it here.
“Don’t you think you’ve gone too far?” When the Vast Sky Sect disciple saw what Gu Suihan was about to do, he took a step forward and stabbed his sword into the corpse that Gu Suihan was about to take for himself.
“I caught this thing, so it’s mine to keep. What are you trying to do?” Gu Suihan slowly raised his head to look up at the angry young man in front of him.
“It was a combined effort. We ought to split it evenly.” The Vast Sky Sect disciple looked at the other two and decided that it was best that all of them team up to fight Gu Suihan and get some benefits from him.
“Our fellow cultivating friend is correct. Even if you’ve contributed the most, we should still get something,” said the disciple with the Ghost Controlling Flag. He moved swiftly across the snow and prevented Gu Suihan from moving backward.
“You idiot, he’s already sworn by the Way. Would the two of you rather end up being consumed by the demons in your heart and lose all your cultivation?” The last disciple seemed unwilling to cooperate at all as his darkened gaze stared back at the other two extremely greedy-looking disciples. He took a step back to show that he did not want to be part of this.
“The oath we made is slightly different in content from his. Did you notice?” said the Seven Kill Sect disciple with the Ghost Controlling Flag smugly as he ignored Gu Suihan and made a grab for the corpse of the Chilly Soul on the ground.
“Do you know what demons of the heart are?” Gu Suihan smirked contemptuously as though he were a lofty deity looking down at mortal ants. Everyone’s eyes widened as Questioning Heaven flew out of its sheath to fill the entire cave with a bloodied mist, blowing away much of the frost and melting the snow. The bloodied mist was like a dragon as it flew threateningly toward the disciple that was merely inches away.
Alarm bells rang in the Vast Sky Sect disciple’s head, and there was a bright glow as a long spear appeared in his hands. He retreated when the bloody dragon flew toward him, hid the spear in his belt, and turned slightly before flinging the spear like the tongue of a venomous snake toward Gu Suihan from under his arm.
There was no time to cast any spells now. The only way to force Gu Suihan to retreat was to attack, even if he was going to get injured in the process.
“You’d rather both of us get hurt?” Gu Suihan raised an eyebrow as he fixed his sharp eyes on his opponent, unleashing a sinister frostiness from his bloodshot eyes that suddenly lit up.
“Three Fingers of Yama – Shocking the Deities!” The dead qi hiding in his sleeve gathered around his fingertip and turned black. Gu Suihan shot the qi out, making it slice through the air and punching in between the brows of the Seven Kill Sect disciple with a Ghost Controlling Flag just as he was about to gleefully keep the Chilly Soul’s corpse for himself.
Pfft! Before the Seven Kill Sect disciple realized what just happened to him, his head exploded like a rotten watermelon. A thick blackish gray smoke rose from his head, and Gu Suihan grabbed hold of it and stuffed it into his mouth. At the same time, he held up his sword horizontally so that the tip of the spear coming for him hit the blade of the sword instead.
Clang! Brilliant sparks accompanied the ear-piercing sound of metal against metal.
The impact caused Gu Suihan to pale slightly and stumble backward, making two deep troughs in the snow.
“Pretending to attack me when you were actually attacking the other fellow? What a good move.” The Vast Sky Sect disciple looked gravely at Gu Suihan as he caught sight of the headless and lifeless body next to him from the corner of his eye.
“What kind words.” Gu Suihan’s ruby-like eyes twinkled as color returned to his face. The wounds made by the Chilly Soul earlier on burst open after he used so much energy to block the spear. Blood seeped out from his wounds, and the ripped parts of his clothing flapped in the cold wind.
“Haha! You made the first move, and you’ve broken your vow. When you reach Origin Core, demons are going to enter your heart. I look forward to that,” said the other disciple with a cackle, the tip of his spear gleaming sinisterly.
“What a pathetic young man! What a narrow worldview!” Gu Suihan snorted. His sword buzzed quietly as it absorbed the murderous qi around it and turned into a dark red blade with golden sparkles. He thrust it toward the Vast Sky Sect disciple like a shooting star.
“Humph!” The Vast Sky Sect disciple was getting really angry now. The young man before him was only at Mid Foundation Establishment, which was the same level of cultivation as himself. Yet, Gu Suihan kept looking down on him. This made murderous thoughts brew inside his heart.
Even though Questioning Heaven was coming for him, he did not panic. His spear was like a coiled snake that could not be seen, the sound of it flicking its tongue sending chills down one’s spine.
“The Coiled Dragon Stretches Its Neck! Slaughtering Dragon Kill – Snap all Tendons!”
Gu Suihan looked at the spear filled with murderous qi that was coming at him with the energy of a ferocious beast and merely scoffed. The memories he had accumulated over centuries included countless formidable techniques. In the blink of an eye, he switched the direction of his sword, raising the murderous weapon suddenly. The sword carried a huge wave of murderous qi and crashed down hard on the back of the other disciple’s dragon-like spear.
“The Coiled Dragon – Swim Mode!” The other disciple had received quite a shock, and he exerted strength in both arms. The spear whooshed loudly and as it kept swimming round and round the disciple. The disciple was the most important person to it, so it kept him well-protected in the center.
Dragons supposedly had a weak scale that grew in the opposite direction on their throats, and anyone who went near it would incur the dragon’s wrath. In the same way, the disciple was like this weak scale that the spear wanted to protect.
Gu Suihan had a disdainful smile when he realized that this spear was behaving like a dragon that was protecting the weakest part of its body. But what was a dragon? To put it bluntly, it was just a ferocious animal that was part of history. It wasn’t even a demon of any kind. In prehistoric times, dragons and phoenixes were in the middle of the food chain.
“I’m piercing through this scale,” thought Gu Suihan. His bloodshot eyes shone brightly as he sensed the weakness in the spear swimming around the other disciple. The runes on his sword flowed around the blade, unleashing a huge amount of violent qi and creating waves of bloodied mist as it was thrust toward the other disciple.
The other disciple felt like the area between his brows had been pierced. His mind was shaken, and the spear paused for a while even though it had been swimming about so smoothly earlier. Before he knew it, the sword that was ten meters away from him just a moment ago was now very near him.
“The Coiled Dragon – Slay the Spirit!” He had no choice but to hold up the spear diagonally and step forward, resulting in several cracks forming in the ground. He shouted loudly as rocks flew in all directions, his spear moving confidently like an ancient dragon. The tip of the spear shone with a murderous gleam. The roaring of the dragon seemed too much for this Chilly Soul and Icy Po formation to take. It shook, and dust rained from above.
“How dare you try and slay me?” shouted Gu Suihan. He moved like an apparition as if he could teleport himself, covering the distance between them in the blink of an eye as his sword buzzed loudly.
“Let’s die together then!” roared the other disciple spitefully with a determined look in his eyes. The spear in his hand spewed fire in all directions, and the sound of a dragon roaring and a phoenix cawing could be heard faintly as the spear was swung at Gu Suihan.
Bam! The formation could no longer hold up against the impact of the fight so close to it. The sound of glass smashing echoed in the cave, and the winter wonderland in front of the three of them suddenly changed. The cave suddenly became dark, and the abrupt dimness confused the other disciple for a moment.
That one second of confusion was all Gu Suihan needed. The other disciple immediately felt uneasy, but before he could react, he felt a sharp pain in between his brows. Everything in front of him went dark, and he soon breathed his last.