Chapter 733: Trading Souls (National Day monthly ticket bonus completed!)

At the bottom of the well were narrow stone steps. The two followed the stone steps to an underground karst cave.

The underground karst cave was not large, with many stalactites hanging from the top, and some moss emitting a faint light hanging upside down, making it look even more gloomy.

There were a few sparse figures, either standing in the shadows of the corners or sitting on randomly placed stone stools, far apart from each other, whispering, their voices sounding particularly blurry in this underground space.

The karst cave was dim, light and shadow swayed, casting shadows on the craggy stone walls, like ghosts in a shadow play.

Yu Heya led Sun Lingtong straight to a corner of the karst cave.

There, a figure wearing a wide gray robe, with a hood almost covering his entire face, sat cross-legged on a flat boulder. There was no stall in front of him, sitting withered, like a stone statue.

Yu Heya and Sun Lingtong stood still in front of him.

Yu Heya whispered: "Do you have goods?"

The gray-robed cultivator did not nod, the surrounding space twisted slightly, revealing several floating gray-white clay pots.

"The goods are all here," he said.

Yu Heya turned his head slightly and glanced at Sun Lingtong beside him.

Sun Lingtong had naturally disguised himself, his height and build no different from an adult.

He immediately mobilized his spiritual sense and probed into the gray pots.

There was at least one soul in each gray pot.

The Qi Refining-level souls were in the hundreds, gathered in a gray pot with the smallest volume. Most of these souls were just blurry humanoid light clusters, dim in color, like gray mist, squirming and colliding unconsciously in the container, making silent screams, their faces distorted, full of instinctive fear and pain.

In most of the gray pots, Foundation Establishment-stage souls were sealed.

Their forms were much more solid than those in the Qi Refining stage, and one could clearly identify their facial features and even the characteristics of their clothing before death.

The colors were mostly pale or light blue, and their expressions were either angry, desperate, or numb.

They hit the container wall more frequently, their soul bodies fluctuated violently, leaving afterimages in the container. Some seemed to retain weak consciousness, their eyes looking hollowly outside the container.

There was only one Golden Core-stage soul.

It was sealed in the largest gray pot, its soul body almost solidified into substance, emitting a weak but clear spiritual pressure. It was as red as fire, obviously having practiced some kind of fire-attribute cultivation technique before death.

The resentment contained in the Golden Core-level soul body was extremely rich, which made Sun Lingtong secretly startled.

It was almost motionless, secretly accumulating strength, obviously also trying to break through the cage and regain freedom. It was just more strategic and more patient than the Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining-level souls.

Sun Lingtong observed for a moment and nodded with satisfaction: "Good, I want all of these."

The gray-robed cultivator was slightly stunned.

Yu Heya beside him was also surprised, not expecting this transaction to be much larger than he had imagined.

Gray-robed cultivator: "Are you sure?"

Sun Lingtong directly took out a Ghost Dao Golden Core and handed it to the other party: "You verify it, return the surplus and make up the deficiency."

Sun Lingtong put on a posture of being rich and powerful.

The gray-robed cultivator gasped in his heart, feeling suspicious: "What is this person’s background? I only sell the souls of Golden Core cultivators. As a result, this person actually took out a Golden Core directly!"

He slowly reached out, took the Ghost Dao Golden Core, verified it, confirmed it was correct, and looked at Sun Lingtong again, his attitude had changed greatly compared to before.

He cupped his fists: "May I ask your name?"

Sun Lingtong smiled slightly: "You can call me Sun Lao."

Sun Lingtong’s disguised appearance was that of a middle-aged man, even if someone saw through his stealing disguise and saw his true body was a child, they would still be puzzled. After all, this image was very different from the title "Sun Lao."

This was Sun Lingtong’s cunning style—false and true, making people unable to figure out his path.

The gray-robed cultivator then respectfully called: "Sun Lao."

Sun Lingtong nodded slightly, his brows furrowed, and asked directly: "Are these souls... really all people who committed heinous crimes and deserved to die?"

The gray-robed cultivator laughed: "Sun Lao is overthinking. If they weren't characters who deserved to die and whose souls should be scattered, we wouldn't dare to collect or sell them."

"The Myriad Manifestations Sect is a famous righteous sect. If we sell innocent souls here, it’s simply looking for death!"

"Doing this little business, only getting this little profit, but if you have to bear the risk of being beheaded, only a fool would do it!"

Sun Lingtong was silent for a while, accepted this statement, and his gaze wandered over the struggling soul containers. He suddenly asked: "Are there... Confucian cultivator souls?"

"Confucian cultivator?" The eyebrows under the gray-robed cultivator’s hood seemed to twitch, and his gaze lingered on Sun Lingtong for a moment. He was silent for a few breaths, as if recalling his inventory.

He hesitated, and finally spat out a word: "Yes."

Then he said: "And... the quality is excellent."

"Oh?" Sun Lingtong’s eyes lit up.

Confucian cultivators who turned to the demonic path were relatively rare. Because the school of Confucianism naturally carried the shaping of thoughts and values.

Confucian cultivators emphasize benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faith, and the number of people who switch to the demonic path is far less than that of Taoism and Buddhism.

Sun Lingtong came for Ning Zhuo, carrying Ning Zhuo’s wishes.

Ning Zhuo is now diligently practicing Confucian spells, and his learning power has skyrocketed. He knows how important learning power is for him to learn from others and finally refine mechanism arts. Naturally, he has a stronger demand for Confucian cultivator souls.

But both Sun and Ning knew that demonic Confucian cultivators were indeed relatively rare. Therefore, the expectations of the two were very low.

So, after Sun Lingtong received the positive response from the gray-robed cultivator, he couldn't help but feel a little surprised.

"What is the price?" Sun Lingtong asked immediately.

He had already made up his mind that even if the other party’s premium was quite high, he would take it down.

Sun Lingtong knew Ning Zhuo’s cultivation status extremely well. The two never hid this from each other. So, Sun Lingtong knew very well that the Confucian cultivator soul was of great significance and help to Ning Zhuo!

The gray-robed cultivator was silent for a while before saying: "This person... is a bit special. I am not sure yet if I can get this person’s soul and then take it out to sell to you."

Sun Lingtong frowned: "What is the reason?"

Speaking of this, he added another sentence: "The price is negotiable."

The gray-robed cultivator did not respond to the price immediately, but cast his gaze toward Yu Heya on the side: "Actually, if you really want to say it, many fellow disciples of the Myriad Manifestations Sect know. This person’s name is not small. His name is... Qin De."

"Qin De?!" Yu Heya obviously knew this name, his face showing realization and a trace of fear, "It’s him! That disgrace of Confucianism."

Sun Lingtong was full of doubts this time.

Yu Heya whispered: "This person committed a taboo, which caused a big stir back then, but the upper levels have been suppressing it with all their might. The intelligence that normal people can buy is naturally censored and will not record this person."

Sun Lingtong felt curious and asked carefully about this person’s background.

"《Saint’s Great Thief Scripture》?" He heard it for the first time, especially when he heard the name of the demonic Confucian cultivation technique, his heart actually accelerated a few times, triggering spiritual inspiration, making him shudder. Sun Lingtong inexplicably realized: "This cultivation technique seems extremely important to me?!"

He covered up his strange expression and quickly reviewed Qin De’s information in his mind.

Qin De was originally a young Confucian cultivator with a bright future, well-versed in various Confucian classics, very knowledgeable, and talented.

But perhaps it was because he had read too many classics that he actually created a cultivation technique himself, named 《Saint’s Great Thief Scripture》.

This cultivation technique linked saints and great thieves together; the higher the individual’s character and merit, the more powerful their stealing technique would be, and they could get a massive boost!

This cultivation technique was too evil, simply trying to lead all Confucian cultivators to become thieves.

And the thoughts about Qin De projected from the 《Saint’s Great Thief Scripture》 made the Confucian group led by Duanmu Zhang convinced—Qin De had fallen, his thoughts were twisted, he had read too many books and had become demonic!

Therefore, after means such as admonition, persuasion, and coercion failed, Duanmu Zhang and others could only explain to the sect, defeat Qin De, and lock him up.

Qin De had been locked up in the Cloud Prison for more than thirty years.

The gray-robed cultivator recounted that after Qin De created the cultivation technique, he committed several major theft cases. This person was indeed full of sin.

But Sun Lingtong had new worries: "In the Myriad Manifestations Sect, there are many Confucian cultivators who are very united. What do they think of Qin De?"

The gray-robed cultivator laughed: "You can rest assured about this. Qin De has become deeply demonic and is hopeless. The Confucian group gave up on him completely more than ten years ago."

"They even proposed many times to destroy Qin De to nip this evil thought in the bud and prevent it from polluting Confucian orthodoxy."

"If you can eliminate Qin De, I think it will instead trigger the gratitude of the Confucian cultivators."

Speaking of this, the gray-robed cultivator had already considered it properly and officially quoted the price: "According to the market price, a Golden Core peak soul sells for 300,000 medium-grade spirit stones."

"Confucian characteristics, rare and hard to come by, rarely seen in the market, add 100,000 medium-grade spirit stones."

"Plus this cultivator is locked in the Cloud Prison, and it costs a lot to clear the way before and after. I will charge you a total of 400,000 medium-grade spirit stones."

Yu Heya’s pupils shrank.

He was also a Golden Core cultivator, and this amount was undoubtedly too much for him.

If it were him, he would definitely not take out such a large sum of spirit stones just to buy a Golden Core-level soul.

But Sun Lingtong smiled lightly: "Bought. This is the deposit."

He took out another Ghost Dao Golden Core.

The gray-robed cultivator felt awe, thinking in his heart: "Two Golden Cores in a row, this person is reminding me that he is not easy to mess with! Trade honestly, otherwise the end will be the same as the owner of the Golden Core..."

He took the Golden Core: "Then I will trouble Sun Lao to wait for a while, and listen for the good news from our side."

Sun Lingtong nodded: "You cannot deliberately delay. If one or two months pass and the goods are still not seen, how to settle the account? After all, we are waiting for urgent use."

The gray-robed cultivator smiled confidently: "Rest assured, Qin De has long been forgotten, has been imprisoned in the Cloud Prison, and it is very reasonable for him to suddenly die after not being able to hold on."

"I have been doing business here for so many years, fellow Daoist Yu Heya knows, I have always been honest and reputation first!"

"At most one week, I can get it for you."

Seeing the gray-robed cultivator so confident, Sun Lingtong had a few more points of certainty: "Good, since that’s the case, let’s sign the contract."

The gray-robed cultivator nodded without any hesitation; this was what should be done. He was really confident in this regard. He had really done this kind of business too many times and was very familiar with it.

Evil-Slaying Hall.

Space within the array.

Central stone platform.

The old cultivator looked at Ning Zhuo with satisfaction: "I have one last question."

Ning Zhuo reached out: "Please ask, senior, the junior knows everything and will definitely speak from the bottom of his heart."

In his dantian within his spiritual sea, the My Buddha Heart Demon Seal was shining brightly.

The old cultivator’s voice suddenly became low as if carrying the power of a thousand jun, pressing toward Ning Zhuo: "Third question: The Dao struggles, the tribulation is inescapable. If one day, you need to sacrifice your body and flesh, burn your soul and true essence, only then can you cut off the monstrous demonic tribulation and save billions of living beings from collapse..."

"And after this act, your name, your Dao, and every trace of your existence may be stained by demons, spat upon and misunderstood by the world, forever falling into the dark abyss, never to be reborn... Would you, be willing to go?"

Silence.

After this question, the air on the stone platform seemed to freeze.

The high-level cultivators of the Evil-Slaying Hall stared at Ning Zhuo expressionlessly, not letting go of the slightest change in the latter’s expression.

Ning Zhuo’s brows furrowed, he lowered his head, looked at the stone bricks under his feet, and fell into deep thought.

The cultivators of the Evil-Slaying Hall contained expectations, and as time passed silently, they gradually became nervous.

The three questions of the Evil-Slaying Hall were a hidden assessment link, only aimed at the most outstanding batch of people in the first round of the Cloud-Rising Trial.

And among the crowd who answered, the vast majority could pass the first two questions, and very few could pass the third question.

Because this third question was indeed too harsh.

Sacrificing one’s life is already heroic, let alone bearing the infamy of ten thousand generations?

For the sake of the righteous path of the world, do you really have to sacrifice yourself to such an extent?

What do people pursue justice for?

"It doesn't matter, just from the heart." The old cultivator saw Ning Zhuo not answering for a long time, and could not help but remind him.

He was worried that Ning Zhuo would lie and be detected.

In that case, Ning Zhuo would be directly and completely eliminated, and the entire Evil-Slaying Hall would be permanently closed to him, with no possibility of being hired.

They did not know that what Ning Zhuo was thinking about was not this matter, but his own situation.

Ning Zhuo already had a clear perception: "I have the My Buddha Heart Demon Seal to protect my body, and my true heart cannot be monitored."

"I naturally know how to answer to pass smoothly."

"But in this way, I will most likely win the top spot."

Top spot...

This will be the top spot of the third Cloud-Rising Trial.

In this way, Ning Zhuo will be the first to obtain the qualification to change his wooden plaque to a stone plaque ahead of most people.

He will stand out in this first round of the Cloud-Rising Trial and become a newcomer on par with Situ Xing and others!

Before, although Ning Zhuo also passed Che Zhuzi’s Cloud-Rising Trial and achieved good results. But Che Zhuzi did not acknowledge Ning Zhuo’s top spot result.

Che Zhuzi still wanted to use this reward to attract more people to participate in his Cloud-Rising Trial, so naturally, he would not announce it in advance.

The Cloud-Rising Trial can be held for multiple rounds, but the top spot is only awarded once.

There are many halls in the Evil-Slaying Hall, but if Ning Zhuo is awarded the top spot this time, then although such a Cloud-Rising Trial can still continue to be held, the honor of the top spot cannot be bestowed upon a second person.

Ning Zhuo stood at the crossroads of choice.

Is it to endure like in Fire Persimmon Immortal City and keep a low profile?

Or should he give up the opportunity before him, but achieve the top spot later, just not in Situ Xing's first round, and follow a middle-of-the-road path?

Or to seize the opportunity in front of him, be the first to collect three top spots, be honored, walk with his head high, and move forward?