The Path Toward Heaven

You Siluo and Jian Ruyun eyed each other, wondering what was in that case.

You Siluo had been behind closed doors all these years, so he didn’t know what was going on; Jian Ruyun didn’t know the whole plan, even though he was involved in the event at Muddy River.

Gu Han cut his own finger with a sword and dropped a blood on the stamp of the case.

Zap!!! Zap!!!

The stamp, made of the golden clay, had gradually melted with the blood.

People were even more interested in knowing what was in the case now.

Gu Han opened the case and took out a glowing pearl the size of a fist that exuded a faint spiritual energy in all the directions.

This was an Energy Pearl of high quality, but why would the Gu family handle it so cautiously?

Gu Han picked up the Energy Pearl and slammed it on the stone table without hesitation.

The crowd was truly startled.

Pah!!!

The Energy Pearl was broken into pieces, exposing what was hidden inside.

It was a smaller and round glowing pearl, the size of a chicken egg, exuding a faint green glow; it was an unknown treasure.

Guo Nanshan and Gu Han were the only ones who knew the true function of the pearl; even Ma Hua didn’t know it. Of course, the Cultivation colleagues of the Center Sect knew it.

Guo Nanshan reached out his hand and picked up the glowing pearl, afterwards reciting a paragraph of a script in his mind silently.

A dozen lights suddenly shot out from inside of the glowing pearl and landed on the cliff wall of the manor cave; those lights turned into a blurry scene that eventually became a clear image

The image was of Liu Shisui’s face.

He was still a youth at the time. His face was a little dark, and his eyes were full of curiosity and nervousness. The image should have been recorded when Liu Shisui was looking at this glowing pearl.

Seeing this image, Gu Han gave a grin.

Guo Nanshan smiled as well. They hadn’t seen this face for a long time.

Then, his smile faded away.

The former youth had become someone he must kill.

Why did he send back this glowing pearl?

As he was thinking about these matters, the glowing pearl had projected many new scenes on the cliff wall, which changed as time progressed.

In those scenes, one saw the blue sky, a corner of the Stone Forest on Tianguang Peak, and a few green bamboos in front of the manor cave of the elder Bai Rujing.

These scenes should have been after Liu Shisui returned to the Green Mountain from the Muddy River.

The picture suddenly became darker, this being because the stone room was dark and had no natural light coming in.

It was unknown whether this was in the Sword Jail on Shangde Peak or in the forgotten cliff cave at the foot of Tianguang Peak.

The dark pictures on the cliff wall continued for a long time. Guo Nanshan and others were speechless while thinking of what kind of life Liu Shisui lived then.

Gu Han sighed, “Let’s fast forward this part then.”

Guo Nanshan waved his hand in agreement. The changes of the pictures on the cliff wall sped up; the darkness was replaced by bright light that looked like a burning wildfire.

Seeing this scene, the expression changed a bit on Jian Ruyun’s face as he recalled what happened at the time.

It happened at the Sword Trial on Green Mountain, where Liu Shisui had displayed his Bloody Demon Style for the first time.

The scene had quickly changed on the wall, now showing a small village where a water-filled rice field reflected the blue sky and white clouds.

In the next scene, Liu Shisui arrived at a place by the ocean and looked at an old and broken Sea-God statue in the Sea-God Temple.

The scenes inside the Sea-God Temple lasted a while.

The expressions displayed by Guo Nanshan and others became solemn.

The glow from the pearl suddenly turned dimmer, and the picture on the cliff wall became white and stayed that way for awhile.

“This is the Cloud Platform,” Gu Han claimed.

Guo Nanshan remained silent while watching the picture.

The scene on the wall was a quiet room now.

There was a window in the room, with a patch of starry ocean surface outside the window.

There was a desk in the room.

The files and scrolls often appeared on a desk.

There was a lot of classified information in the files.

There were many names in the scrolls.

At one time, a patch of chaotic rocks could be seen in the picture, the ocean water turning into countless flowers.

At another time, the peaceful ocean appeared in the picture, reflecting the blue sky and white clouds, but the true tranquil atmosphere back in the small village couldn’t be found there.

The pages of the scrolls in the pictures turned very fast, so it was hard to see the names in it. Guo Nanshan obviously did it on purpose.

He put the glowing pearl away before finishing all the pictures.

The manor cave was lit up again after a brief moment of darkness.

Yet, the quietness lasted a long time in the cave.

Guo Nanshan remained silent.

Gu Han lowered his head.

Jian Ruyun and others realized what that glowing pearl was and understood what was going on, shocked speechless.

“What was going on here?” Ma Hua murmured.

Gu Han lifted his head and said, “He has done it.”

Ma Hua wondered, “Were we wrong to doubt him?”

Jian Ruyun’s voice suddenly bellowed out.

“What if this is the trap of the Old Ones?”

“What do you mean?” Gu Han asked while staring at him.

“What I mean is very simple,” said Jian Ruyun. “Since Liu Shisui has already betrayed us and joined the enemy, how can we still trust him? The pictures are true, but the contents in the pictures are probably false, such as the names in the scrolls. How can we know the names are truly the moles placed by the Old Ones in various sects, rather than the targets framed by the Old Ones? If we act based on this, we might harm many innocent people; and even worse, the chaos might prevail in the Cultivation world.”

It was quiet again in the manor cave.

What Jian Ruyun said was quite sensible.

If Liu Shisui were a genuine follower of the Old Ones, he could use Liangwang Peak in his scheme to cause a chaos in the Cultivation world…that is, if Liangwang Peak still trusted him.

“I trust him,” Gu Han proclaimed suddenly.

Jian Ruyun said tersely, “Don’t forget how Cultivationist Luo Huainan died!”

Guo Nanshan remained reticent.

“Have you thought about it? It is because Liu Shisui killed Luo Huainan so that he gained the trust from the Old Ones of high level, he could get his hands on so much important information.”

Ma Hua narrowed his eyes.

Jian Ruyun said, “So he used that scheme to kill Luo Huainan without letting any of us know. Are you insane? We are talking about Luo Huainan here!”

“Stop this squabbling at once! We are not qualified to judge this matter.”

Guo Nanshan continued, “I’m going to Tianguang Peak right away. You people stay put, and go nowhere. Anyone who disobeys this order will be cut to down.”

He said this with a peaceful tone, but the listeners were apprehensive.

When facing such a significant matter, it would take some time either to make a decision or to prepare for action; caution was absolutely necessary.

If the news were leaked now, Liu Shisui, who was in Haizhou, would be killed for sure, and the scheme that had been going on over ten years would be in vain.

Jian Ruyun and others totally understood his intention, so they nodded in agreement.

Gu Han said, “I need to know when the attack will begin at the earliest time; otherwise, I won’t have enough time to inform him to leave.”

At the moment, Liu Shisui couldn’t leave Haizhou City yet, because to do so would alarm the Old Ones.

The hardest part of purging the Old Ones was that it was almost impossible to kill and capture all of their members.

Yet, if the orthodox Cultivation sects had already started their actions and Liu Shisui were still there, it would be difficult for him to leave.

“Like I said, we are not qualified to consider the matter.”

Guo Nanshan patted Gu Han’s shoulder before turning around and leaving the manor cave.

Gu Han’s face was quite ashen.

If the Sect Master thought that sacrificing someone was worth it, what should they do?

Ma Hua sighed, “Maybe Young Brother Liu realizes that his death is the best outcome; otherwise, how would he explain the death of Cultivationist Luo Huainan when he gets back?”

He had already believed in Gu Han’s judgment.

Liu Shisui had really accomplished the task.

In order to gain the trust of the Old Ones, he even chose to kill Luo Huainan. Ma Hua felt it admirable, and meanwhile felt uneasy about his relentlessness.