With the breeze gentle and the sun warm, the area before the City Lord's Mansion was dead silent. Even the birds seemed unable to bear the oppressive atmosphere and flew past in flocks.
The moment the four words "Gu Yao" left his mouth, some were puzzled, some terrified, and others unable to believe it. You Su had plainly become the center where all gazes converged.
"Immortal Master Gu, how can you say that?" You Su remained as calm and unconcerned as the breeze.
Gu Yao did not answer. He stared fixedly at the youth, an aggressive force hidden in his gaze.
Seeing this, City Lord Liu hurriedly smoothed his sleeve and stepped between them.
"Senior Brother Gu must have misunderstood... This child has a mild temperament and has always behaved himself. He grew up here in Chuyun City and has barely even left the city gates. How could he have become tainted by an Evil Demon? How about this, Senior Brother Gu... why not confirm it once more?"
At his words, the golden light in Gu Yao's eyes faded away. He cast a sidelong glance at the troubled City Lord Liu, his eyes sharp and disdainful.
"Do you not believe me, or do you not believe the Golden Eyes?"
City Lord Liu gritted his teeth, stepped forward, clasped his hands, and lowered his head.
"I ask that Senior Brother Gu test him once more."
Gu Yao gave a cold snort. He assumed that this fellow junior disciple had been away from the sect for too long and had forgotten about the Evil Cultivators in the divine mountain prisons who had begged for death after being stared at by the Golden Eyes.
At the same time, he felt sorrow for this junior disciple, who was already old and decrepit yet still refused to accept his fate. He naturally understood that if someone corrupted by evil appeared within a City Lord's jurisdiction, the City Lord would bear the greatest responsibility. If this youth truly was tainted by evil, then this junior disciple's wish to break through with the Xuanxiao Sect's stipend was nothing but wishful thinking.
He flicked his sleeve, seemingly wanting City Lord Liu to give up, and said indifferently:
"I had you all come forward one by one just now precisely to accomplish the third thing I came here for: to see which of you had gone mad and become a slave of the Evil God!"
"My Golden Eyes can draw out the anger, infatuation, and wicked thoughts buried in the heart of anyone who meets my gaze. Even the most upright hero will become flustered and unable to bear it when he looks into them. Because so long as a person has yet to ascend as a True Immortal, there will be anger and desire in his heart! That is only human nature. Unless an ordinary cultivator is steeped in wicked thoughts or utterly lacking in self-control, he can at least hold fast to his true nature without losing composure. But if he has been tainted by evil, his wicked thoughts will be magnified without limit. After meeting the Golden Eyes, those wicked thoughts will be like a fire that paper cannot contain, forcing him to reveal his true form beneath the bright and open heavens."
Only then did the cultivators understand. No wonder wicked thoughts had surged in their hearts after meeting Gu Yao's gaze just now, making them afraid to look at him again. They were all secretly grateful that City Lord Liu had governed well, keeping Chuyun City peaceful and free of evil to this day, so they had not made fools of themselves.
"Though the Golden Eyes are formidable, there are two kinds of people who can stand before me without the slightest reaction."
Everyone came back to themselves, their full attention drawn by Gu Yao's words.
"The first kind are those born with hearts clear as mirrors, pure and stainless. Such people are seeds scattered by the Heavenly Dao, projections of the gods in the mortal world. They produce no evil at all; even the deepest darkness in this world cannot stain them in the slightest. In the nearly ten thousand years from ancient times to the present, such people have been few and far between. Yet in our Xuanxiao Sect today! There is one such Goddess!"
Gu Yao's tone was rather proud. Every cultivator present stared with eyes wide open, unable to believe that they lived in the same era as such a legendary figure. They could not help whispering among themselves and speculating about everything concerning this Goddess.
"Junior Brother Liu, are you perhaps trying to tell me that there is still a pearl covered in dust in the Central Yuan Continent, hidden right here in your Chuyun City?"
"This..." City Lord Liu was rendered speechless. He stood frozen in place, glanced at You Su, and secretly shook his head.
"If she is not a pearl covered in dust..." Gu Yao sneered as he walked slowly forward, stopping in front of You Su.
He lowered his head slightly until his face was only a fist's breadth from You Su's. He stared straight into You Su's eyes, his tone cold and dangerous. "Then it can only mean that what is hidden inside that person's body is an evil presence even I cannot see through!"
The moment those words were spoken, everyone's hearts sank halfway to the bottom. Some looked at the thin-backed youth in disbelief.
Only City Lord Liu lowered his head, concealing the corners of his mouth, which had lifted slightly.
At that tense moment, when one could hear a pin drop, You Su suddenly let out a soft laugh. His laughter was clear and bright as the wind, but to the others it sounded chilling and grating. They assumed he had hidden himself too deeply and was now pretending to be calm after being exposed.
Gu Yao laughed as well, his laughter cold and confident.
"What is Immortal Master Gu laughing at?" You Su asked with a smile.
"Naturally, I am laughing at how you hid in the body of an unknown nobody from this nameless place, yet still cannot escape the fate of being purified."
"But that is not what I am laughing at." You Su restrained the smile at the corners of his mouth and said calmly, "I am laughing because even a personage like Immortal Master Gu was deceived by me without my intending it."
Gu Yao raised a thick brow, straightened, and looked down imperiously at the youth, as though waiting for him to continue.
"I think there is a third kind of person who can meet Immortal Master Gu's gaze without reacting."
"Who?"
"A blind man." You Su could no longer suppress his amusement. "From what Immortal Master Gu said just now, meeting one's gaze is the key to activating these Golden Eyes. But I was born blind. My eyes have never seen light since childhood. If even the sun cannot shine into that place, I'm afraid the golden light in your eyes won't work either."
"A blind man?"
Gu Yao's face filled with surprise and doubt as he carefully examined the youth's clear eyes. Sensing his gaze, You Su did not move again, allowing Gu Yao to inspect him.
Only after staring for a long while did Gu Yao confirm that You Su's gaze was indeed empty and unfocused, like two deep, secluded pools that could never overlap.
Gu Yao was not unaware that the Golden Eyes were useless against the blind. It was simply that even in the greatest sect in the Central Yuan Continent, the Xuanxiao Sect, there was not a single blind cultivator. Under the influence of habitual thinking, when he saw a young prodigy at the Spirit Platform Realm behaving no differently from ordinary people, he naturally could not imagine that the other person was blind.
One had to understand that, unlike missing a hand or losing a foot, the eyes were the gateway to the soul. The obstruction caused to cultivation by blindness was far greater than that caused by other physical defects.
For this youth to cultivate to such a realm at his age, who knew how many hardships he had endured?
Gu Yao could only sigh inwardly. He felt none of the embarrassment of having been deceived before a great crowd. He had always been this kind of person: when he saw someone working diligently with their heart set on the Dao, he felt joy; when he saw someone lazy and lax, squandering their talent, he felt outrage.
Gu Yao's cold attitude toward City Lord Liu was not because he was arrogant and looked down on others. Rather, when he was young, Gu Yao had discovered that City Lord Liu always appeared diligent on the surface, while secretly he ate, drank, visited brothels, and gambled, wasting his time. His fellow disciples had all been deceived by his outward appearance and befriended him, giving Liu many miraculous pills and precious treasures. When Gu Yao exposed him, he was instead isolated. Only when his time limit arrived and Liu could no longer break through, forcing him to leave the sect, did he think to beg his master for a position as the lord of a small city so he could cling to the Xuanxiao Sect's stipend. Gu Yao hated people like this most of all, feeling that they sullied the Dao-seeking hearts of every cultivator beneath the heavens.
But Gu Yao was no upright fool. He had already seen through what had happened today: someone had deliberately set out to make him look bad.
He glanced at the open and aboveboard youth, then at the City Lord Liu with his head lowered, and understood everything.
Being blind was the most crucial label attached to this youth. Junior Brother Liu had seemed righteous when he introduced the boy at length, yet had conveniently omitted this key piece of information. There was no other reason than that he wanted to see Gu Yao miscalculate and reveal his unease before everyone.
Gu Yao shook his head, lamenting that he had once thought Junior Brother Liu's sixty years of worldly experience would have firmed his heart toward the Dao. He had never expected him to remain that vengeful and treacherous rat.
Thank you for the tips, thank you for the monthly votes, thank you for the collections, thank you for the comments, thank you for the recommendation votes, and thank you for reading my book~ If anything feels off, please say so. My guiding principle is to take advice!
Before you continue