Chapter 16: Sequence Eight: Wandering Soul

The forbidden talisman chains fell to the ground, the doors swung wide open, and then everyone saw a scene that had clearly been meticulously arranged.

It was a clean and tidy dark room, with an exquisite, rotatable-top, two-tiered hardwood round table placed in the center, surrounded by over a dozen official-hat chairs.

When Li Yu stepped forward and placed the electric eel lamp on the table, the room instantly brightened.

"My fellow neighbors, please take your seats."

"I will initiate the first round of trading: a Bone-Stripping Knife that possesses blade techniques but drives one to violent madness, a scroll of human skin containing the Song of the Human-Vegetable, a drop of brain matter that can kill many mortals but has greatly diminished effects on transcendents, and a secret recipe for human-vegetable medicine... These are the curios I can offer for trade; please, everyone, make your offers."

As he spoke, the evil cultivators all took their seats along with Li Yu.

It seemed that for this "secret society gathering," even Zhu Mei, the host of the Pig Master Temple, was participating for the first time and felt a great sense of novelty.

Hearing his words and seeing him place several curios directly on the table while introducing them, their eyes all lit up.

Trading with Li Yu!

Knowing the root and the bottom, it could be considered an open hand.

Everyone in the room knew that this kid was trying to save his own life.

And among the eleven evil cultivators in the room, there were indeed some who had their eyes on the curios Li Yu possessed.

The next moment, the pet dealer known as Geng Jing spoke up:

"I have a type of food called [Spirit-Locking Pill], hmm, it is the highest-grade and most special spirit grain I have here. After eating it, one can both satisfy hunger and suppress the spiritual evil Qi within the body."

"I don't know the details of what is in your belly, but I imagine it is eroding you by relying on spiritual evil Qi. Why not try my pill? If it is useful, I would like to trade for that highly toxic brain matter."

"Here, try one first to get a feel for it."

As the words fell, this person flicked his finger, and a stream of light flew over.

Li Yu reached out to catch it and looked; it was a pill the size of a pigeon egg, pitch-black as ink, emitting a faint stench, as if it had been rolled out of filth.

Although Geng Jing spoke somewhat cryptically, everyone understood.

This pill was, in reality, pet food.

It was likely what he used to tame some savage and violent strange objects or evil pets.

However, with his persona established, Li Yu did not even hesitate; he opened his mouth and swallowed the pill.

The moment it entered his mouth, the thing turned into a cool, bitter sensation that flowed into his belly.

"Hmm?"

A look of unexpected surprise suddenly appeared on Li Yu's face.

It actually had some effect!

That cool, bitter energy was almost entirely swallowed by the forbidden egg, without a single drop wasted.

And Li Yu immediately felt that the forbidden egg, which remained violent and restless even in its sleep, had calmed down slightly.

"It has a slight effect, but it's not obvious; at most, it will only delay things a little."

"It's not enough to trade for a whole brain; how about I cut off a portion for you?"

"Fine, I, Old Geng, won't take advantage of you. This gourd of Spirit-Locking Pills is enough for you to eat for a month; you just need to cut a bowl of brain matter for me."

"Agreed!"

When the conversation ended, Geng Jing tossed over a yellow-skinned gourd.

And Li Yu took another box, picked up the Bone-Stripping Knife, and unceremoniously cut out the brain matter.

The moment the blade touched it, the previously dormant brain matter seemed to come alive, trembling and letting out a shrill scream.

The room was full of familiar neighbors, and upon hearing it, they all knew who the owner of the brain matter was.

But not one showed any sympathy or indignation; instead, they each laughed and said:

"Looks like I guessed right; this is Boss Jiao's brain."

"Boss Jiao worshipped the [Forbidden God] for over a decade and ate countless people; his body was full of meat toxins. It's perfectly normal for him to condense into a transcendent strange object after death."

"Old Jiao once wanted to buy a half-human bird from me to enjoy, but I never expected that I would be buying his brain now. Come to think of it, those strange objects, the half-human birds, do love eating human brains; isn't this excellent bait... I suppose it's fate. I must make good use of this to catch more beautiful and enchanting half-human birds."

"Since Boss Jiao could precipitate a strange object after death, I suppose Boss Lady Sun could too. Where is hers?"

The last sentence was asked by Cui Yuan.

And Li Yu had just finished portioning the brain and handed the box to Geng Jing.

Upon hearing this, without the slightest concealment and in a tone devoid of emotion, he replied:

"After she died, she condensed into a [Living Blood Sausage]. I took it and sold it to the Rouge Society for a thousand taels of silver."

"I bought maids, prepared a feast of spirit food, and it all went into everyone's stomachs; it's already all spent."

"Hiss!"

Although most of the evil cultivators in Wanfu City were mentally deranged, perverted, and evil.

They still possessed basic human emotions.

Some evil cultivators who committed every conceivable crime even did so with the starting point of protecting their loved ones.

And everything Li Yu displayed was, in the eyes of the others, top-tier in terms of perversion.

They could not know what had happened to this family; they could only guess that Li Yu, this "adopted son," could no longer stand being kept in captivity, so he rose up and slaughtered his foster parents, dug out his father's brain after death, and pulled out his mother's intestines...

To survive, this person could ruthlessly snap his own neck and even let a maid saw off his own limbs while he was alive; this was clearly a highly qualified, insane evil cultivator.

People in the room like Hong Sanquan and Sikong Nian were muttering to themselves: "This kid is truly ruthless. If I could be this crazy, I would have long since advanced to Sequence Eight, or even Sequence Seven." His previous inexplicable insistence on "not eating people" had been somewhat suspicious, but now it seemed it might have been an obsession born after suffering a great change?

Even if such evil cultivators were trapped in a predicament, they had a chance to break free.

As these thoughts emerged, the gazes the evil cultivator neighbors directed at Li Yu underwent some changes; the mockery decreased, replaced by a bit of respect.

From this change, one could observe and summarize an invisible rule of Wanfu City:

How does one get ahead in this land of outstanding people and simple folk customs?

Simple: just be more perverted than them.

Li Yu did not know what these people were thinking. After selling about a third of Jiao Qing's brain, he used his eyes to ask the other evil cultivators, but the result was that they all spread their hands, indicating they were powerless to help.

This was reasonable; if being parasitized by a forbidden egg were so easy to solve, the Forbidden God Sect would not have such a great reputation.

However, just as his gaze swept toward Zhu Mei, the look in the eyes of this pig-temple-hosting demon monk as he looked back was filled with an increasingly thick sense of pity.

Then, as if he had thought of something, a look similar to that of a prankster appeared on his face, and he said to Li Yu:

"I, Old Pig, have no strange objects or secret arts on me that can solve the forbidden egg in your belly."

"But I can give you a path for free. As I said in the courtyard just now, praying devoutly to the evil god you follow gives you a chance to receive spiritual guidance."

=9+Shu_Ba

"Those with poor aptitude receive poor spiritual responses."

"If one has good aptitude, there is a chance to receive an extremely high spiritual response; some geniuses can even directly obtain a large portion of inheritance and quickly leap from being unranked to a very high sequence."

"For example, that [Benevolent Physician Hu Buku] in our Wanfu City, who has a hobby of turning patients suffering from great pain into zombies, was originally an unranked physician. He considered himself incomparably kind and could not bear to see his patients suffer even the slightest bit of pain, so he prayed day and night for a month to that extremely powerful evil god, the [Merciful Father]."

"When he disappeared for a period and reappeared, he was already a Sequence Six powerhouse of the Plague God path, a [Sick Corpse]."

"Kid, you have that kind of potential. You can pray to that Forbidden God day and night; who knows, you might receive an extraordinary spiritual response, both preserving your obsession and self, and gaining powerful strength."

"If you truly succeed in the future, do not forget this favor of incense from me, Old Pig."

As soon as Zhu Mei finished speaking, the other evil cultivators could not help but look at each other, all simultaneously dismissing this path in their hearts.

It wouldn't work for them!

Almost everyone in Wanfu City had heard of Hu Buku's reputation.

This person was powerful and considered himself a person of ultimate kindness, unable to bear seeing anyone tormented by illness, calling himself the Benevolent Physician.

Yet his medical skills were clumsy, and he couldn't cure anyone, so he chose to turn the patients into zombies.

As everyone knew, corpses could not feel pain.

Hu Buku's logic was thus closed in a loop.

And he, along with other perverts, was counted as side evidence of this city's outstanding people and simple customs.

"Because he can't bear to see illness, he chooses to eliminate all patients—what kind of perverted logic is that?"

"And that evil god's name is Merciful Father?"

"At first glance, one would think it's a benevolent righteous god; good heavens, so this is how they play?"

"Too bad, their perversion is real, while I, Li Yu, am faking it."

Li Yu was absorbing new transcendent knowledge while complaining wildly in his heart.

His understanding of Wanfu City could not help but deepen a little more.

His determination to escape this godforsaken place became even firmer.

Seeing that no one else was interested in trading with him, Li Yu quickly packed up his things and then prepared to speak, taking the lead himself to set the pace and guide these neighbors to trade.

It would be best to exchange secrets, recipes for sequence medicines, and the like.

But just before he could speak, an elderly master at the round table, dressed in exquisite clothing and looking full of shrewdness, finally could not hold back and spoke.

Li Yu also had a deep impression of him; his name was Tan Buyi, and he was in the spice business.

He mastered some related evil arts, but for some reason, he had not cultivated any of the god paths.

At this moment, he heard him say with a smile:

"Everyone, since we have such a rare opportunity, I, Tan, would also like to initiate a trade."

"I am looking to purchase a secret medicine recipe—evil god, righteous god, or even some hidden gods; I only require that the related god path be as complete as possible. If it is too incomplete, I don't want it."

"Neighbors who wish to sell, feel free to speak up. As long as it is suitable, whether it be wealth, extraordinary spices, or some special requirements, I, Tan, will do my best to satisfy them."

"Of course, the human-vegetable recipe possessed by the little brother of the Jiao family is excluded; I, Tan, have no great interest in cannibalism."

After Tan Buyi finished these words, the person in the venue most excited was not the neighbors who possessed other secret medicine formulas, but Li Yu.

Heaven does not let down those who work hard!

The opportunity he had been waiting for so bitterly had finally arrived.

And the subsequent progress was even smoother than he had expected.

Perhaps because Li Yu had set a fine example, the enthusiasm of the gathered evil cultivators was slightly ignited.

Upon hearing Tan Buyi's words, someone immediately responded:

"It is quite a coincidence; I have a secret medicine formula here that I have no use for, and its divine pathway is extremely complete."

"It is just that it is not one of the common evil gods in Ten Thousand Blessings City, but rather the orthodox Earth Mother, and the Underworld Son pathway under her command, Sequence Eight [Wandering Soul]."

(End of chapter)