Chapter 422: Selling Corpses

Mo Hua and the other two exchanged glances, each filled with shock.

Kill people and sell their corpses?

"Who did you sell them to?" Mo Hua asked.

Wang Lai stammered, "A gray-robed masked cultivator… I don't know who he is…"

"You never saw his face?"

"I only care about the spirit stones; I don't care what he looks like…"

"And then?" Mo Hua's gaze sharpened.

Wang Lai looked startled. "What else?"

Mo Hua said, "How did you meet him? How did you arrange the meetings? How did you conduct the transactions? How did you kill them? How did you sell the corpses? Tell me everything, step by step."

Wang Lai tugged at the corner of his mouth.

Mo Hua kicked him, snarling:

"Don't even think of lying to me—your petty schemes won't fool me. If I find out you've deceived me, I'll make you regret it."

But his delicate, painterly face lost all menace when he scowled.

Yet Wang Lai dared not refuse to speak.

This brat looked adorable, but his actions were anything but.

Especially those eyes—innocent yet deeply piercing, as if they could see straight through his soul…

Besides, the situation had gone too far to hide anything now.

Either he stayed silent, or once he started speaking, nothing was off-limits:

"I met that gray-robed cultivator at a brothel on Jin Hua Street…"

"He's of average height, slender build, masked, face hidden—his true appearance can't be seen, even by spiritual sense."

"He always carried a faint odd odor. At first I didn't know what it was, but after dealing with him, making transactions, I realized—it was the smell of death, a cold, decaying stench."

"My first 'transaction' happened because I had no spirit stones left."

"I gambled all night the day before and lost everything. The debt collectors threatened to chop off my hands if I didn't pay."

"Desperate, he asked me, 'Want to do business?'"

"I laughed. These days, legitimate business doesn't earn spirit stones."

"He said it wasn't legitimate."

"I got curious and asked what kind of business. He asked if I'd ever killed anyone. I said yes. He said, 'It's just like killing people—but now, after you kill them, you hand over the corpse.'"

"I thought it was bad luck, but I had no spirit stones, no food, no drink—I was worse off than stray dogs on the street."

"Poverty is more terrifying than death."

"Besides, they were strangers, not my kin—I agreed."

"My first job for him: I killed a passing cultivator. After killing him, I hacked him several more times before handing over the body. He frowned and said, 'No wounds except the heart meridian—too many cuts mean deductions.'"

"I was annoyed—killing one person, and he's got so many damn rules—but I had no spirit stones, so I had to listen."

"He then explained the rules in detail…"

"One healthy adult cultivator corpse: one hundred and fifty spirit stones;"

"One elderly cultivator corpse: eighty spirit stones;"

"Gender irrelevant."

"No wounds allowed on limbs or flesh, except the heart meridian."

"If there are wounds, deductions of ten to fifty spirit stones, depending on severity…"

"…"

"After a few deals, I realized this business wouldn't last."

"Killing one or two, the Dao Ting Si lazybones might not care—but if you kill too many, even fools can trace you."

"At that point, the gray-robed cultivator suggested I kill mining cultivators."

"I hesitated at first—after all, my father was a mining cultivator; I was half one too. Though I never did good deeds, we saw each other often—we had some ties."

"But he paid so much—I couldn't refuse…"

"For cultivators, spirit stones are real; ties are illusions."

"Killing one mining cultivator nets about a hundred spirit stones."

"There are so many mining cultivators in Nan Yue City—how many spirit stones could I make if I kept going? I couldn't even imagine…"

"Besides, mining cultivators breed mining cultivators—endless generations to kill."

"Even if I didn't kill them, they'd die of old age, exhaustion, mining poison, oppression, or accidents in the mines…"

"If they're going to die anyway, why not let me profit from it?"

"And killing mining cultivators is easy to hide."

"Mining cultivators live hard—just say you can earn spirit stones, and they'll follow you willingly."

"At night, the mines are quiet, no one comes, perfect for killing."

"After killing, fake them as missing—no one finds them. Flawless."

"But we still worried someone might discover us."

"So we went to the families of the dead mining cultivators and said we'd help them claim compensation."

"First, to divert suspicion—we claim compensation for them, so they won't suspect we killed their kin."

"Second, once we get the compensation, we split extra spirit stones."

"Killing one mining cultivator earns us two payments of spirit stones…"

Lao Yu's eyes turned bloodshot—he wanted to devour Wang Lai whole.

Mo Hua's expression was ice-cold to the extreme. "The five mine cultivators who went missing before—you killed them too?"

Wang Lai hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

Mo Hua's gaze sharpened slightly. "Then how did they end up dying so horribly in the mine shaft?"

A trace of fear surfaced on Wang Lai's face. "I... I don't know either."

"I only killed them, but after killing them, I saw there seemed to be some movement in the mine shaft..."

"I thought of the rumors about the mine shaft and got a little scared, so I hid them in a corner first, covered them with rubble, and then found a chance to secretly haul the corpses out of the mine shaft."

Wang Lai swallowed. "But... but when I went back to look the next day, the five corpses were gone..."

Mo Hua's eyes gleamed coldly. "You don't know about the matter with the Lu family mine shaft?"

The five corpses seemed to have been dragged into the mine shaft by something and then eaten...

Wang Lai looked utterly confused. "What mine shaft?"

Mo Hua released his divine sense, spying on the fluctuations of Wang Lai's divine sense, and found that he was not lying.

Wang Lai... truly didn't know...

"How many years have you been running this trade?" Mo Hua asked again.

"Thirty or forty years..."

Mo Hua's face was expressionless. "In other words, you've been killing mine cultivators for thirty or forty years, and selling their corpses for thirty or forty years as well?"

Wang Lai swallowed again. "Y-yes..."

Bai Zisheng couldn't help but say, "How about we just kill him..."

Wang Lai was greatly alarmed. "You promised to let me go!"

Mo Hua's gaze gradually grew cold; his expression showed neither joy nor anger, and no one knew what he was thinking.

A chill crept into Wang Lai's heart.

Just then, Mo Hua's expression suddenly shifted in shock, and he looked toward the mine shaft behind him.

The death qi permeating the mine shaft abruptly thickened.

It seemed as though something was slowly waking up.

Moisture condensed into water droplets, pattering down; the sound of dripping water echoed throughout the mine shaft, eerie and ghastly.

Faint, strange sounds also came from the stone walls all around.

Mo Hua's expression changed drastically, and he said urgently:

"Run!"

Bai Zixi and Bai Zisheng also sensed something was wrong and nodded one after another.

Mo Hua glanced at Wang Er and Tang Wu lying on the ground and said to Old Yutou, "Wake them up."

Old Yutou's expression was panicked.

He had also sensed the abnormality in the mine shaft.

It was the very dead of night—the most dangerous time inside the mine shaft.

Something unknown had come alive...

Old Yutou's legs went weak. He stood up shakily, walked over to Wang Er and Tang Wu, and slapped each of them once. "Get up!"

The two had only been knocked unconscious. After taking Mo Hua's pill, their injuries had gradually healed; and now, slapped awake by Old Yutou and hearing his shouts, they slowly opened their eyes.

The scene before them felt very unfamiliar.

The thugs were spitting blood, collapsed on the ground; Wang Lai was a pitiful sight, curled up in a corner.

In front of Wang Lai stood three young cultivators of extraordinary bearing.

The two were momentarily dumbfounded. "Old Yutou... this..."

Old Yutou said, "Don't ask now—run for your lives!"

Only then did Wang Er and Tang Wu react, scrambling to get up in a hurry.

"Go!" Mo Hua said decisively.

The moment they were about to run, Wang Lai begged:

"Save me! I don't want to die here!"

Mo Hua's gaze flickered slightly. He said to Bai Zisheng, "Take him with us."

Bai Zisheng was somewhat reluctant.

Mo Hua said, "He's still useful."

"Fine."

Bai Zisheng nodded, locked Wang Lai up with chains, and dragged him along as he ran outward.

As for the remaining thugs, Mo Hua couldn't be bothered with them.

With the mine shaft in upheaval, if they survived, it was because their fate was great; if they died, they deserved it—paying with their lives for the mine cultivators who had died at their hands.

And so, Bai Zisheng dragged Wang Lai along like a mangy dog, his speed undiminished, as they ran out of the mine shaft.

Mo Hua employed his movement technique and followed Bai Zisheng.

Bai Zixi's steps were light and graceful as she followed beside Mo Hua.

Behind them, Old Yutou, Wang Er, and Tang Wu sprinted for their lives—perhaps because danger was upon them, they weren't actually running slow.

The atmosphere within the mine shaft grew increasingly ghastly, with death qi gradually spreading into every corner.

Fortunately, Mo Hua had noticed early, and their retreat was still reasonably timely.

So when a muffled, half-human, half-beast roar came from within the mine shaft, Mo Hua and the others had already escaped out of it.

Still uneasy, Mo Hua led everyone through the hidden door, out of the Lu family mine shaft, and only stopped once they reached the edge of the mine.

Wang Lai, dragged until he was covered in wounds, had fainted.

Wang Er and Tang Wu had also barely steadied their shaken souls, gasping for breath.

Bai Zisheng and Bai Zi Xi's expressions were also somewhat startled and doubtful.

Mo Hua turned his head, looked toward the mine, and his pupils trembled.

At this moment, the mine had actually erupted with a terrifying aura, composed of numerous ghastly auras.

From within the mine shaft came a faint, ear-piercing, heart-tearing sound, as if some ghostly creature were scratching at something with its hands.

It was also as if dead mine cultivators were digging at the ore.

And mingled within the rotting death Qi, the sinister aura of that forbidden formation that Mo Hua had once sensed had grown even more intense.

Mo Hua's brow furrowed even tighter.

Who exactly had laid this forbidden formation, and what kind was it?

And what on earth was hidden within this ghastly mine…

(End of this chapter)