Gu Chaoyang secretly drew a breath. Looking at Bai Yang, he bowed and said in a low voice, "Master Bai, must you really go this far? If this is about the price, we can discuss it..."
"Discuss it? What are you, and what qualifications do you have to discuss anything with me?"
Bai Yang replied coldly.
A disciple-like man beside him stepped forward and shouted, "My master told you to call Jiang Dongqu here and give us an explanation. Are you deaf? Can't you understand human speech?"
As he spoke, he kicked toward Gu Chaoyang.
Gu Chaoyang tried to dodge sideways, but Bai Yang's disciple was already at the peak of Gang Condensing. Coupled with the sudden attack, Gu Chaoyang had nowhere to evade. The kick landed squarely on his chest, sending him flying.
"Clang!"
Su Nanxing drew his sword in an instant.
Sword Qi crisscrossed the air.
Almost at the same moment he drew his sword, the three Core Forming cultivators watching him struck as well, shattering his Sword Qi on the spot.
"Stop... stop... Senior Brother Su, I'm fine... Cough, cough..."
Gu Chaoyang hurriedly called out.
Because he had expelled his breath too quickly, his qi and blood clogged up, and he could not help coughing up blood.
"Let's go. We're leaving."
He quickly rushed to Su Nanxing's side, grabbed him, and retreated out of the Heavenly Herb Pavilion.
Seeing the group from the Gu Clan withdraw, another disciple leaned toward Bai Yang and asked, "Master, should we..."
He made a gesture of uprooting the weeds by their roots.
Bai Yang was somewhat tempted.
Originally, he had traded with Gu Jinlai because he had mistakenly believed Gu Jinlai was a member of the Jiang family, so he had not entertained any ulterior motives.
But early that morning, by a stroke of luck, he had obtained a lead from someone in the Jiang family. Gu Jinlai was not only unrelated to the Jiang family, but also a traitor from the Purgatory Demon Sect who had fled Changjun City.
That was something he could not tolerate.
The Heavenly Herb Pavilion was a dignified orthodox sect. How could it cooperate with heretics and evil cultivators?
Wouldn't it be better to act on Heaven's behalf, eliminate the demons, and seize those supplies as spoils of war?
And so, the scene just now had come about.
As for sending people to kill Gu Jinlai...
"Gu Jinlai isn't weak. Although he fell from Spirit Refining after qi deviation and then switched to cultivating as a Celestial Master, leaving him with depleted qi and blood, he went on a killing spree in Changjun City not long ago. Several Core Forming cultivators died by his hand. Unless one is at Spirit Refining, it would be difficult to kill him."
Bai Yang said regretfully, "Unfortunately, the Pavilion Master personally escorted a batch of precious pills to Dragon Sparrow Manor yesterday. Grand Elder Zuo Bu'er is also at a critical stage of cultivation, while the remaining Grand Elder Dong Hanxue needs to protect Grand Elder Zuo and hold down the sect at the same time..."
"He can kill one or two Core Forming cultivators, but can he deal with ten or eight? If we send out everyone..."
"Setting aside whether that would alert him, even if he risked breaking through under the cover of others, we might not be able to stop him. Once he escaped, the consequences would be endless. At the very least, our master-and-disciple pair couldn't withstand his retaliation."
As Bai Yang spoke, he shook his head. "Therefore, either we don't act, or, if we do, we must kill him with a single blow."
Afterward, he glanced at the other disciple with displeasure. "Wu Tong, you were reckless just now."
"This disciple knows his mistake. I was momentarily unable to contain my anger and ruined Master's plan."
Wu Tong hurriedly apologized.
The other disciple said remorsefully, "The Jiang family's information came too late."
By the time they received the news, the precious armor Gu Chaoyang was transporting had already set out. Otherwise, if they had delayed for a few days until the Pavilion Master returned, they could have captured Gu Jinlai alive and imprisoned him in the Heavenly Herb Pavilion, making him forge precious armor for them day and night.
"The Jiang family's information? Perhaps they deliberately chose this moment to reveal it to us."
Bai Yang narrowed his eyes. "Swallowing these ten sets of precious armor is already quite good. Even if the Pavilion Master returned during the critical moment of killing Gu Jinlai, the Jiang family would probably have leaped out as well. They should have the same idea as us."
"Then, if Gu Jinlai goes to the Jiang family..."
"The Jiang family will have to expend considerable effort to resolve the trouble surrounding Gu Jinlai. We can also use this matter to sow discord between the Jiang family and the Demon Refining Hall. If it makes the Purgatory Sect set its sights on the Jiang family as well, all the better."
While Bai Yang of the Heavenly Herb Pavilion was scheming against the Jiang family, Gu Chaoyang, Su Nanxing, and the others had already escaped.
Order still existed in Starfall City. In broad daylight and before the eyes of the public, the Heavenly Herb Pavilion did not dare block the streets and kill people.
"Senior Brother Su, don't say anything. This has nothing to do with you. Let the ancestor decide this matter."
Gu Chaoyang looked at the silent Su Nanxing and tried to comfort him.
Su Nanxing glanced at him and nodded.
Before long, everyone had returned to the courtyard.
By then, Gu Jinlai had already received the news and was sitting in the courtyard waiting for them.
When he saw Gu Chaoyang and the others arrive, he asked, "How bad are your injuries?"
"I dodged the impact of his astral force, and I also had true qi protecting my body. I'll recover in three to five days."
Gu Chaoyang answered.
Gu Jinlai nodded. "Go rest and recuperate. The rest of you may withdraw as well."
"Yes."
Gu Chaoyang acknowledged him.
At that moment, Nian Buwang stepped forward and said solemnly, "Ancestor, the clan head has sent word that the training of three thousand soldiers has already begun to show results..."
"Go take care of Gu Chaoyang."
Gu Jinlai slightly deepened his tone.
"Yes."
Nian Buwang did not dare say anything else and soon withdrew with the others.
Only Su Nanxing remained in the courtyard.
Gu Jinlai looked outside.
The sun was setting over the western hills, and the evening clouds resembled brocade.
Judging by the scenery, the world's natural winds and clouds were almost exactly the same as those of Blue Star.
After a long while, Gu Jinlai finally asked, "Have I been too easygoing?"
Su Nanxing glanced at his master and nodded. "You're much better than before."
"Really?"
"Really."
Su Nanxing nodded. "Master now follows rules."
"Didn't I follow them before?"
"You did. You followed them with people stronger than you."
Su Nanxing said, "But what you emphasized before was that in this world, there were no good people or bad people, no good or evil, no justice, no bullying the weak or oppressing the young. There was only life and death, victory and defeat—the victor was king."
Gu Jinlai seemed to understand something. "Continue."
"So-called benevolence, righteousness, and morality are all merely the strong speaking from one side. In the cultivation world, strength comes first, and true authority is forever held by the strong. You feel that your heart cannot be appeased, that you are bound hand and foot, that you must obey the rules—that is only because you are not strong enough. You cannot shatter every rule, crush every restraint, and sweep away every injustice..."
Su Nanxing spoke while Gu Jinlai listened.
This was the life experience of Ancient Demon Gu.
He was merely an ordinary person who had transmigrated from the peaceful age of Blue Star.
He had been born knowing rules, born obeying rules.
All of Blue Star was filled with laws, shackles, and regulations of every kind.
The rules of officialdom, workplace rules, drinking-table rules, hidden rules, explicit rules, and so on...
But that was Blue Star!
Blue Star in an age of peace!
This world...
What it taught was not living, but survival.
Ancient Demon Gu, who had risen from the grass roots, possessed far more experience in survival. "His" principles of life were what allowed him to live better in this world!
"The essence of the cultivation world is survival of the fittest. What kind of power you possess determines what you do and what level of resources you occupy. Rules are merely a framework established by the strong so they can devour the weak more conveniently. That's all."
Su Nanxing said.
That was the essence of the Underworld Cultivation World.
It was not only the cultivation world. Was Blue Star any different?
A powerful nation attacked a weak nation in the name of humanity and justice.
A weak nation launched a war to protect itself, only to be sanctioned by a powerful nation.
Gu Jinlai glanced at him.
This disciple...
"Then, which do you think is better, the me from before or the me now?"
"Whatever Master says, I will do."
Su Nanxing replied.
"I understand."
Gu Jinlai nodded.
Rules.
"In that world, I obeyed the rules for too long. So, after coming to this world, I followed rules in everything I did. I devoted myself to being a good person, abandoning evil and embracing goodness. But I failed to see what kind of world this was. After coming to this world, I had to do as the locals did."
He thought of the frustration and suffocation he had felt during his ten days of flight after transmigrating to Changjun City.
"Everyone ignores the rules. Everyone bullies those who try to follow them. When the sly old fox and the slick-tongued charlatan become society's mainstream, honest men are simply asking to be bullied."
Gu Jinlai "looked" at the little figure in his spiritual world.
He looked at the red karmic fire swirling around that little figure.
That karmic fire had bound him, frightening him into abandoning evil and embracing goodness the moment he crossed into this world, reforming himself. And the result...
It had brought about the beginning of disaster.
"Honest men deserve to have guns pointed at them."
If he had not obeyed the rules and abandoned evil to embrace goodness right away, Ancient Demon Gu's outward strength and inner weakness would not have been exposed so easily.
If he had not revealed his weakness, the Demon Refining Hall would not have dared swallow his achievements. He would have obtained a satisfactory Spirit Refining cultivation method, and with his field farming and clearing, he could have recovered his Spirit Refining strength before long.
He would still have been a Spirit Refining Giant, an elder of the Purgatory Sect.
Would the Heavenly Herb Pavilion have dared offend him over such a minor matter?
After a long while, Gu Jinlai spoke. "The weak obey rules, while the strong trample them!"
This was not the cultivation world he wanted.
But...
The world had never shifted according to the will of the weak.
Because aside from obeying the rules and placing their hopes in the mercy of those who made them, the weak had no other choice.
"How laughable."
Gu Jinlai twisted his neck, producing a series of crisp cracks.
"I'm an honest man. I obey the rules because I'm afraid. But what use is fear now? Honest men are being shot dead too."
Rules? Reason?
You expect to discuss rules and reason with the underworld?
You expect to discuss human rights and equality with nobles?
You expect to discuss law and benevolence with bandits?
You expect to discuss charity and morality with capitalists?
Would any of it get through?
Was there any need to discuss it?
Rules?
The rules of this world were that there were no rules!
Gu Jinlai slowly rose to his feet.
"Put on my armor. We're going to kill some people!"
Before you continue