Chapter 766: Side Story 4: 3

The old turtle spoke, as the clothes on its body fell away, revealing its true form.

That was an old turtle as large as a round table, its entire shell on the back had been lifted off, ancient in age, the wounds on its back had long healed, yet left behind mottled pits and scars.

What's more frightening is that, on that ferocious scarred back, faint runes flickered.

That rune resembled the Eight Trigrams, yet exuded a gloomy aura, suppressing the old turtle, making its movements sluggish, its memory fading, continually draining its remaining merit, barely clinging to life.

The old turtle lay weakly on the ground, exposing its ugliest scar, hoping only that Xiao Jiu could help it.

It should have been a being with hope of ascending to immortality!

Who on earth could be so ruthless as to reduce it to this?

Xiao Jiu naturally wanted to agree right away, but being cautious, she carefully asked: "You said you are cursed to reincarnate endlessly in this world; what exactly is the curse? How many lifetimes have you undergone? What was your experience in each lifetime? Approximately how many years could you live in each reincarnation…"

After the series of questions, the old turtle leisurely put his clothes back on, transformed back into human form, leaned on his cane, sat in the chair before the counter, and then answered each one.

"My memory and cultivation are suppressed by that rune on my back, so they're useless; I don't know what the rune is, nor what curse I've suffered, nor how many lifetimes I've undergone… probably not less than three; each time I fail to pass the hundred‑year mark, each life is worse than death, my later years are miserable…"

Xiao Jiu listened to the old man's words and suddenly understood: "So you want to pawn your next lifetime's reincarnation opportunity? Will that affect you?"

Xiao Jiu still didn't quite understand how this was supposed to work.

"It's not the next lifetime's reincarnation opportunity, but the fruit obtained from this lifetime's reincarnation." The old man said, "When I reincarnate, only my soul essence reincarnates; after death, my soul essence returns to the turtle's body. During the nearly hundred years of my reincarnation, the turtle body is cursed and sealed in an underground ancient well.

The interval between two reincarnations never exceeds a hundred days; within those hundred days I have the chance to act freely at night, and when the next reincarnation opportunity arrives, my soul essence will be drawn out again and my physical body will enter the sealed state.

And on some day during those hundred days, my body will condense a turtle core; consuming this turtle core can extend my yang lifespan by a hundred years—this is what I wish to pawn to the Yin Dang Hang.

Xiao Jiu then fully understood.

The old man wanted to advance‑pawn that turtle core, which was about to take shape, to the Yin Dang Hang; the pawn fee he asked for was to have the Yin Dang Hang help him retrieve his shell.

This pawn transaction, which seemed to have no time limit, actually lasted less than a hundred days.

After that time, the old man fell back into the reincarnation cycle; as for who would take the turtle core, it goes without saying.

The difficulty now is that the old man no longer remembers who harmed him.

If we wait until that person or his descendants come to claim the turtle core and then try to trace the source, it will be too late.

Xiao Jiu pondered: the old man was the old turtle in human form; though the turtle had almost ascended, it ultimately failed, so now he could only be considered a demon or a spirit?

Regardless, the old turtle is not human, so this transaction counts as a yin pawn.

He exerted all his strength, successfully crossed the pawnshop's threshold, thus meeting the pawnshop's requirements; this order, Xiao Jiu must accept.

Thinking thus, Xiao Jiu took out a pawn ticket and began to fill it in.

As she put pen to paper, the old man said, "Xiao Jiu Zhanggui, the pawn period can be written as 'no expiry'."

"No expiry" means that, if this attempt fails, the transaction can continue into the next lifetime, then the next after that…

Xiao Jiu asked, "But I see your merit power is already extremely weak; is it…"

Whether one can survive the next lifetime remains unknown.

Xiao Jiu couldn't finish the latter half of her sentence, but the old man understood her meaning, waved his hand and said, "If I cannot survive the next lifetime, I only ask Xiao Jiu Zhanggui to help me retrieve my shell, bury my flesh together in the sea, so I may return to my roots."

Xiao Jiu felt a sudden sourness at the tip of her nose.

The old turtle repaid kindness, only to be schemed against.

Scheming for one lifetime wasn't enough; the other party was simply endless in its demands.

In this world, the most terrifying thing has always been the human heart!

Xiao Jiu finished filling out the pawn ticket, and both parties signed and stamped their handprints on the signature line.

The pawn ticket existed in two copies; Xiao Jiu kept one for the records and gave the other to the old man.

The old man put away the receipt of the pawn ticket, then leisurely departed.

He had just stepped out when Huang Fan already followed after him.

Xiao Jiu sat behind the counter holding the pawn ticket, watching; Liu Junyan walked over, sat opposite her, and asked, "What are you thinking about?"

"There's less than a hundred days of time," Xiao Jiu said, "but we know nothing about the situation."

Everything that had just happened, Liu Junyan knew.

He asked, "Didn't he say it was unlimited?"

Xiao Jiu replied, "Many things are better done early than delayed; once missed, they may become permanent. Ah Yan, I don't want good people to suffer while bad ones go free."

Liu Junyan understood Xiao Jiu; she has always been kind‑hearted, and this is also why she insists on guarding the Yin Dang Hang—isn't that right?

Liu Junyan comforted, "Don't rush; Huang Fan has already followed after him. Let's first determine where the old turtle is sealed, then we'll plan the rest."

Xiao Jiu pondered, "This matter has spanned at least nearly three hundred years from start to finish, and it continues; the three hundred years of accumulation and precipitation mean the other party's status and position are absolutely not to be underestimated, yet this world hides dragons and tigers everywhere—trying to pinpoint the target is like seeking a needle in the ocean; for now I don't know where to begin."

"Wait," Liu Junyan said, "Xiao Jiu, you should know that our Yin Dang Hang has reopened for business; how many eyes are constantly watching us in this world? Tonight's transaction is the Yin Dang Hang's first successful deal—believe it or not, before dawn, much information about this old turtle will be dug up.

Now those who should be anxious are not us, but the evildoers; to block information as much as possible, in the latter half of the night they probably won't even have time to close their eyes.

Xiao Jiu's eyes lit up; "Exactly—unless they have no interest in the Yin Dang Hang of Wufu Town at all, otherwise they should be feeling the heat right now."

Then she worried, "Has Huang Fan, who followed after him, already been discovered? He might not make it to the end."

Liu Junyan winked at Xiao Jiu and said, "Rest easy—do you not trust your husband's work? The mantis stalks the cicada, the oriole waits behind; who will be the final hunter is still uncertain."

Xiao Jiu finally breathed a sigh of relief; it seemed Liu Junyan had arranged more than one wave of personnel after Huang Fan.

He's always so proper, it puts people at ease...