Chapter 110.1
The vicious beasts sensed Bu Tianhan’s resistance and increased the force of their grip, and as the two sides struggled, a blue-white light suddenly appeared in the water not far away and spread throughout at a very fast speed. The light carried a strong, pure, and clear energy, which the beasts feared. The moment the energy spread, all the things that had been restraining Bu Tianhan were shaken back, and they scurried back into the darkness.
The light blossomed for a very short time, but it cleared the air of the entire polluted swamp forest.
Bu Tianhan did not move immediately after he was released but stared blankly at the purple hook jade that had been lifted from the water by a spiritual force. The jade hook faced him calmly, as if it had a pair of eyes. He stretched out his hand to take it back to his side, but before he could even touch it, he saw the jade disintegrate into dust particles, and when the wind blew, they simply disappeared from his sight.
The forest returned to its original darkness, and the drenched Bu Tianhan remained on his knees in the water, the only light left in his eyes seemingly shattered along with the dissipation of the hook jade.
There was no doubt that Gu Xiyu had put a lot of thought into that jade. It was probably reserved as a backup to prevent unforeseen circumstances, so that if it were triggered, it could save his life as much as possible, but the jade would also be destroyed after use.
At this moment, Bu Tianhan felt his sky was falling, and for the first time, he felt helpless and scared.
Gu Xiyu had left without a word; how would he find him without the jade? He wasn’t even answering the system—was he already gone?
He stared at the black water that had submerged half of his body, his expression was not reflected in it, but he could imagine how miserable it was. In the silence, a light ripple appeared on the surface of the water before him, as if a wind had gently ruffled it from nowhere.
What followed was a reflection of light and shadow on the water.
Bu Tianhan looked at the hem of clothes that had suddenly appeared in his line of sight. He looked up in astonishment and saw the person he had been thinking about day and night, looking down at him with a calm expression. The white clothes on his body were as lifelike as his person, but Bu Tianhan could see through the figure and the trees behind him.
This time, there was no need to even use a hook jade to conjure a fenshen, Gu Xiyu could do it with just his mind.
This was perhaps the power and aura of a cultivator in the Great Transformation realm.
Gu Xiyu’s eyes were still as calm as he remembered, without any excess emotion, and even when he saw his present appearance, he never gave a hint of sympathy or pity. However, Bu Tianhan’s eyes reddened indisputably, and for a moment, the scenery before his eyes became blurred.
He had a lot of questions and things he wanted to say, but the moment he saw Gu Xiyu, he opened his mouth, but he couldn’t utter a single sound.
In the end, he only heard Gu Xiyu let out a soft sigh and say, in his usual calm and indulgent tone, “You’re still so capable of making trouble.”
Bu Tianhan could not hold back and got up to retort, “Who is causing trouble?!”
He subconsciously reached out to grab the person, but his palm went through the illusion made by Gu Xiyu’s divine thought.
Gu Xiyu gave him a look and said, “The spiritual power on the hook jade only lasts for one incense stick, this is not a good place, you should leave quickly.”
“Leave?” The current Bu Tianhan was extra sensitive to this word, his red eyes glared straight at him as he asked, “And then what? Will I still be able to find you? Just how long are you going to hide from me?”
“Gu Xiyu, you win. I’m really hurt now. Can I admit defeat?” The final tone had a tremble and a plea.
“Then let it be at the mountain where you and I made the agreement.”
“Let’s meet there in seven days at the Shen hour.”
Gu Xiyu was about to leave when Bu Tianhan hurriedly called him back. He turned around with a questioning look, and the other party pursed his lips, saying, “Will that jade hook jade…be available in the future?”
Gu Xiyu stared at him for a moment before answering in a light voice: “No.”
“Mine is gone as well.”
Bu Tianhan raised his eyes in surprise and heard Gu Xiyu say, “They were originally a pair, and they are incomplete without each other, so when one of them is broken, the other will be damaged along with it.”
By the time Bu Tianhan returned to his senses, Gu Xiyu had already disappeared from his sight.
No matter what, at least his heart, which had been hanging for so many days, had finally dropped a little.
Gu Xiyu must be busy with some other things, but they would still be able to meet in seven days. When the time came, any problems and words would be spread out and made clear.
Unfortunately, Bu Tianhan’s happiness did not last long. Because Gu Xiyu, who had disappeared for a long time, returned to the Tiansu Immortal Sect, and the people there seemed to know that the two of them had agreed to meet again. He didn’t know what Gu Xiyu told them, but the words came out as “Lord Tai Ling and Bu Tianhan have agreed to fight to the death on such and such a day at such and such a time at such and such a place!”
Bu Tianhan was so angry that he almost exploded.
He wasn’t going to fight Gu Xiyu, and Gu Xiyu certainly wasn’t going to kill him!
—–
Tiansu Immortal Sect, Tai Ling’s Immortal Peak.
“Master, you want to break off the master-disciple relationship with me ……?” Lu Cheng looked at the white-clothed man in front of him with a stunned expression, profoundly suspecting that he had just misheard what the other party said.
“Mm.” Then Gu Xiyu’s reconfirmation became the boulder that crushed him.
It happened so suddenly that Lu Cheng was a little overwhelmed: “Master, did I do something wrong? Or is it because I failed to keep an eye on Bu Tianhan during those days when you were in seclusion and let him cause all those big and small troubles ……”
“No, it has nothing to do with you.” Gu Xiyu patted his shoulder soothingly, his attitude no different from usual. “Perhaps I will do something very serious and deviant in the future. If that day does come, I hope I can leave you out of it, I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Besides, you and I had a shallow destiny as master and disciple, and to have this destiny was an accident. I cultivate the path of emotionlessness, and there is nothing I can do to guide you on your future path.”
“The Second Elder of the Immortal Sect, Yuanming, is not bad. I have already explained this to him, so you can join him in your future training. He has deep experience and extensive knowledge, and there is more he can teach you.”
This incident was a great blow to Lu Cheng, and he did not understand what Gu Xiyu could do that would bring him down. Even if there was, he would not be afraid. But Gu Xiyu’s character had always been decisive and resolute, and what he had set out to do would not change even if it overturned the sea and moved mountains.
Gu Xiyu gave him almost everything he could give him, and Lu Cheng took it with even more panic, asking tentatively, “Master, you have given me everything, so you……?”
“It’s okay, I don’t need it anymore.” Gu Xiyu’s reply was quite straightforward.
Lu Cheng inexplicably had a vague sense of foreboding. Thinking of the increasingly outrageous rumors outside, he asked, “Master, you don’t really plan to fight with Bu Tianhan to the death, would you?”
He didn’t expect Gu Xiyu to be silent for a while before answering with a chuckle, “It’s possible.”
Lu Cheng: “……” In all fairness, he certainly did not want this to happen.
Although Lu Cheng would soon go to Second Elder Yuannming, he asked Gu Xiyu if he could still come back to the Immortal Peak in the future. Gu Xiyu agreed quite quickly, saying that he would never be restricted from the Immortal Peak and that he could come back whenever he wanted.
Lu Cheng listened with even greater unease. His master’s words sounded weird, but he couldn’t figure out why. According to the situation, even if his master fought with Bu Tianhan, with his current cultivation, the worst he could do was draw, so he wouldn’t die.
It seems that Gu Xiyu came back to the Tiansu Immortal Sect simply to make arrangements for Lu Cheng, and after giving this explanation, he went out once again, and no one knew where he went.
During this time, all the major sects in the immortal realm have been busy.
The reason for this was that in the past few days, a lunatic came from nowhere and started attacking people one after another. From the elders of the great sects down to the lower-ranking cultivators. Although the other party did not kill them, the people who were attacked were all quite miserable; their meridians were destroyed, and they would never have the chance to cultivate ever again.
The proud cultivators cared about their cultivation path the most, and this was even more unacceptable than taking their lives.
“This ruthless tactic is particularly similar to that of that demon, Bu Tianhan, is he displeased that our Lord Tai Ling is going to deal with him, but he can’t fight Lord Tai Ling, so he’s using these little tricks to get back at us?”
So the various large and small Immortal sects could only step in to help with the aftermath and also to strengthen everyone’s defenses. Perhaps the perpetrator was careful, or he was simply too powerful, but none of those who suffered remembered or saw who had done it.
With the precedents, the first target suspects were naturally the demon cultivators from the Demon realm.
It was not until Lu Cheng was sent with a large group to a small sect that had been attacked to help pacify the people there and to make amends that they gradually realized that the culprit had specific targets. Even if the victims came from the same clan, not everyone suffered.
Some of those who had had their meridians and dantians destroyed were left with short notes around them, and the content was different.
‘Changming Mountain.’
‘Taiqing Rockland.’
‘Qinling Mountain.’
………
The orthodox cultivators collected them and found that each of the places mentioned in the notes happened to be places where Bu Tianhan had been heavily robbed or ‘killed’!
At first, people did not know the power of Bu Tianhan’s Demon seed, nor did they know that he could always be reborn after death, so they would join forces to set up formations or ambush him. There were times when Bu Tianhan relied on his ability to escape, and there were also times when he was killed on the spot. In some serious cases, he was beaten to death.
Some were not left with any notes around them, but after unified scrutiny and questioning, it was discovered that they were all people who had once bullied Bu Tianhan when he was not yet strong.
“This must be Bu Tianhan’s move!”
“Is he worried that he will be buried under Lord Tai Ling’s hands and intends to settle the scores from all these years in one go?”
Lu Cheng stood by and listened to the conversation between the senior brothers and also felt that it made sense. Moreover, the attacks didn’t end with killing, which was very much in line with Bu Tianhan’s current style.
As he was thinking this, a middle-aged man who had also been injured in this incident slowly woke up. He looked weak and spoke breathlessly, but he tried very hard to express something.
Lu Cheng moved closer and listened to him say in a breathy voice: “No, it wasn’t Bu Tianhan… I, I saw it, it was ……”
Lu Cheng was startled at his words, “You know who it was that attacked you?”
The man nodded his head vigorously and used his best efforts to say his answer. The moment he heard the two names, Lu Cheng remained frozen in place, his eyes full of shock and bewilderment, and he didn’t know how to react.
“Lord Tai Ling.”
“It’s Lord Tai Ling!”
———–
While several waves of people were out dealing with the chaos on the continent, something was happening at the Tiansu Immortal Sect.
Several disciples gathered outside the main hall on the main peak, all of them looking towards the closed doors of the hall with anxious expressions.
The one closest to the door was Lin Qianyue, who was wearing an aqua-green dress. She was a little panicked as she tapped on the doors, her voice soft as she pleaded, “Lord Tai Ling, we can talk properly about any misunderstanding; you don’t have to be impulsive ……”
A few people behind her were frowning and talking, “Is Lord Tai Ling crazy? How dare he hold the sect master hostage?”
“How can you call that holding someone hostage? I saw him bring the disciplinary whip with him; this is detention plus lynching!”
“No, that’s not true, that’s the sect master ……”
The noise outside the hall was completely isolated, and the only people in the spacious hall were the white-clothed Daoist standing with the whip in his hand and Lin Wuhen, who was lying in front of him after having received many lashes.
Lin Wuhen looked at Gu Xiyu with eyes wide with anger: “You, who are you to do this to me?
Gu Xiyu looked down at him with an expressionless face, his eyes so cold that it looked like a thin layer of frost had formed.
“I don’t mind if you don’t like my methods of punishment.” Gu Xiyu said, taking a step closer to the man he had beaten to the floor, “But denying your sins and trying to throw dirty water on Bu Tianhan time and again, steering the wind of public opinion so that everyone will once again misunderstand and attack him, makes me quite unhappy.”
If Lin Wuhen was attentive, or if he was more familiar with Tai Ling, he would have noticed that the tone of his speech now was somewhat different from his previous one.
However, Lin Wuhen was now filled with the hatred of being humiliated by a subordinate and would not bother to think that carefully; instead, he even mocked, “Unexpectedly, a self-proclaimed cultivator of the emotionless dao like you, who is supposed to be emotionless and loveless, has fallen into the hands of a great demon!”
“It’s not bad.” Gu Xiyu followed suit and gently pulled the corners of his lips, “You’re the sect master of an immortal sect, but aren’t you only able to meekly lie on the ground and bear my humiliation?”
These words seemed to have hit a sore spot in Lin Wuhen’s heart, as he glared at him with hatred and said angrily, “Why are you doing this? Besides, has he ever suffered a loss? He can still be reborn even if he dies a thousand times, what is there to pity and sympathize with such a person?”
Gu Xiyu curbed the smile on his lips, and the hand holding the whip tightened unconsciously.
“Is that so?” With those words, he struck Lin Wuhen expressionlessly; the whip landed on Lin Wuhen’s face and almost deformed his mouth and face, causing him to swear in pain.
He turned his cold eyes to Lin Wuhen, “Does it pain? It turns out that you can also feel pain.”
“Then I suppose every time Bu Tianhan died, the moments he was cut to pieces or beaten were more painful than this.” It was obvious that what he was saying made him angry and sad, yet he still managed to say it in a calm tone.
“Besides, weren’t you so-called orthodox cultivators the ones who pushed him into an abyss from which there was no turning back?” His voice was soft yet clear, and Lin Wuhen suddenly felt dread as he looked at his indifferent face.
Gu Xiyu slightly bent his eyes and said something Lin Wuhen did not quite understand, “I have been in charge of prisoners in the time-space fortress before, I know how this whip has to be …… applied to achieve the best effect.”