Questioning Heaven, Desiring the Way

f one of the wandering cultivators.
Everyone watched in horror as the corpse sank its fangs deep into the cultivator’s body, and the cultivator’s body instantly dried up.

With such a powerful creature on their side, the Seven Kill Sect disciples felt as if their prayers had been answered and loudly cheered as they ran towards the remaining wandering cultivators.

At the same time, they made sure to keep their distance from this bronze corpse since it did not distinguish disciple from wandering cultivator.
A female disciple from the Nobles Clan got in the way of the bronze corpse earlier, and it stepped right through her.
They could still hear the echoes of the last scream she let out.

“Get it!” yelled Mo Yuluo as she moved past everyone else swiftly.
She held two fingers out and used them to slice through the neck of a Qi Activation wandering cultivator that came too close to her, separating his head from the rest of his body soundlessly.

Yan Wuheng let out a roar, and his breathing was as loud as thunder.
His heavy sword was covered with many cultivators' flesh and internal organs, and the stench of rotting flesh emanated from its blade.

“Got it!” Hang Chulong ran like the wind and flashed past everyone like a bolt of lightning.
He punched a fist right through the abdomen of a wandering cultivator in his way and used that bloodied hand to pull the Blood Jade Fig tree out of the lake, including the rock under it that weighed a few thousand kilograms.
He flung it back towards Mu Tian without even turning toward Mu Tian.

He brandished his sword to block the attack of a heavy ax that was about to strike him and stumbled backward from the impact.

“That’s my chance!” Gu Suihan’s eyes lit up.
He flung the sword in his hand aside, then kicked his opponent so hard that his chest caved in, and blood spurted from every orifice.
Gu Suihan used the opponent’s body as a springboard and used his other hand to withdraw Red Dust.
Its blade cut through the air and gleamed with a dark green glow.

“Help me!” Hang Chulong knew when he needed to fight and when he needed to retreat, and he intended to withdraw after he had barely managed to dodge that heavy ax.
But he suddenly felt all his hair stand on end as he saw that the burly man with the heavy ax was swinging it at him again.
Hang Chulong fell to the ground and rolled to the side without thinking.

PAK! Hang Chulong looked up just in time to see the ax barely miss his face.
But the sharp blade of the ax had also broken through his Steel Strength Talisman and shattered it.

“Hang Chulong! Watch out!” Mu Tian had caught a dark green gleam from the corner of his eye, and his heart sank.

“What?” Hang Chulong instinctively turned around and saw an aloof pair of eyes staring straight at him.
He felt something strike his neck, and then he died.

At the Foundation Establishment stage, a cultivator was powerful but still merely a human.
Those who managed to gather Three Huas into the dantian could separate the soul from the body.
So, even if spells or weapons attacked the body, the soul could still escape the body.
The soul might face issues like finding a suitable body to take over or losing some cultivation progress, but at least the soul was still alive.

While cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage had all their Spiritual Meridians open and linked up and could thus gather spiritual energy and use spiritual sense, this stage was only the starting point for any cultivator.
Severe damage to vital organs could heal over time, but if the dantian or Spiritual Root were destroyed, or if their head was chopped off, the cultivator would still die.

Gu Suihan rotated the tip of his blade to chop off Hang Chulong’s middle finger so that he could pick the storage ring right off it.
Then he put away Hang Chulong’s severed head inside his magic storage bag.
The look of horror was still on Hang Chulong’s lifeless head.

His next step was to turn to smile faintly at Nan Xingyuan, who was hiding in Mu Tian’s embrace like a fearful little chick seeking shelter under its mother’s wings.

“Yin Yang Rotation! The Way of Mutual Joy!” Mu Tian’s expression was solemn as he rotated the bell in his hand rapidly and held a handful of the pink poisonous powder that could break one’s soul.
He continued to chant incantations that nobody could understand to the beat of the bell’s clapper.

Gu Suihan felt as though he had entered a dream.
There were rare treasures all around him and pretty women in all directions.
The sound of faint laughter echoed in his ears, and he could feel a wild surge of energy within him as if he were an animal on the prowl.

“Everything is an illusion, all these are mere delusions.
Everything I see, the good and the bad, are as transient as the reflection of flowers in the mirror, or the moon in the river, a dream that bursts as easily as a bubble.”

Gu Suihan didn’t panic at all.
He held Red Dust gently as he made hand seals with his left hand.
His expression was serious, yet peaceful.
He resembled a monk who had spent decades meditating in a secluded temple.

Mu Tian was too shocked to do anything as he watched Gu Suihan shatter the illusionary world around him in a matter of seconds before vomiting a mouthful of blood.

DANG! Gu Suihan swung his sword to the back to block Yan Wuheng’s swift and vicious attack from the other direction.
He used the impact of the collision to fly up into the air and run toward Mu Tian, who was still in a daze.

It was hard to say if he was aiming for the Blood Jade Fig tree next to Mu Tian or Mu Tian himself, or maybe even the woman still hiding in his embrace.

Editor: Tenterhooks are the hooks meant to tie clothes to a tenter, wooden frame meant to air dry clothes while also preventing shrinkage.
In this context, it means someone is nervously waiting for something to happen.↩