Dizziness Is Normal

Wang Yu put on a relaxed front.

"To tell you the truth, Wang came from a Spirit Slave background. My aptitude is nothing but Useless Spiritual Roots. Forget Foundation Establishment—even reaching Qi Refining Late Stage in this lifetime would be difficult.

"What True Inheritor Su values isn't my strength, but my brains. Killing me won't prove anything. Why not bury the hatchet? Tell me who persuaded you to come here, and we'll pretend today never happened."

His words appealed to both reason and emotion.

The other man was clearly swayed, wavering in uncertainty.

"Truly?"

"Tru—"

Wang Yu walked forward with a genial smile, saying softly, "As long as you tell me who's plotting against Wang from the shadows, you and I will be friends."

The man let out a long sigh and completely let down his guard.

"It was Zhao Shang. He put up a secret bounty among the Outer Disciples. He's selling the [Essence Qi House] you live in for twelve hundred Contribution Points. Whoever can kill you gets to buy it."

A sharp gleam flashed through Wang Yu's eyes. He truly hadn't expected it to be Zhao Shang. After all, they bore no grudge against each other. The only thing that could have driven him to make this decision was profit.

Twelve hundred Contribution Points—was that all his life was worth?

"Thank you. May I know how to address you, fellow Daoist?"

Wang Yu patted the man's shoulder in a show of friendliness.

"My name is..."

"Pfft—"

The Ice Sword suddenly pierced through the man's neck, jutting out from the back of his skull. Wang Yu held his head steady, blood staining his palm red as he whispered, "Relax. Dizziness is normal."

Though this man had been persuaded with surprising ease, that was because Wang Yu truly had been elevated from among the Spirit Slaves by True Inheritor Su. Everything he had said was true.

Zhao Shang's cultivation was higher and his background stronger, but all his authority came from True Inheritor Su. If the two clashed, anyone would know which side to stand on: the True Inheritor's.

Secondly, Wang Yu's strength and decisiveness had intimidated the man. Without confidence that he could kill Wang Yu, making peace was the best path. Coupled with Wang Yu's verbal needling, he had begun to doubt and resent Zhao Shang.

All those factors had led to This result.

Of course—

The most important point was that he lacked worldly experience. His temperament was not yet tough or decisive enough; he had not fully become a cunning, qualified demonic cultivator.

As Wang Yu understood it, the Inverse Spirit Blood Sect had four normal channels for recruiting disciples.

First, cultivation clans from the Red Kite Demon Domain.

Second, an "Apprentice Recruitment Assembly" was held in a place Named [Soaring City], several tens of thousands of kilometers away. It was hosted by five Nascent Soul factions, with numerous Core Formation demonic sects participating.

It was a grand event held once every Twenty Years. At that time, outstanding rogue cultivators from throughout the Red Kite Demon Domain came flocking at its name. It primarily recruited Qi Refining Cultivators, though rogue cultivators at Foundation Establishment were also accepted. Core Formation cultivators were relatively rare.

Third, they abducted disciples with suitable aptitudes from the Great Lake Spirit Domain, where righteous factions held sway, or acquired large numbers of promising cultivation seedlings through trade and turned them into disciples of the demonic sect.

Fourth, it was common practice in the Red Kite Demon Domain to raise mortals in captivity. Every faction possessed quite a few cities specifically used to breed mortals. Their aptitudes were tested each year, and disciples were selected.

Mortals who grew old and lost the ability to reproduce had other special uses.

Thus, every year, tens of thousands of new disciples from the two domains entered the Inverse Spirit Blood Sect. Generally, only after reaching the Qi Refining Mid Stage were they qualified to accept missions outside the sect.

This fellow disciple, who had died peacefully, was one of the seedlings traded over from the Great Lake Spirit Domain. He had simply experienced too little of the petty scheming and scrambling for gain.

After taking his Storage Bag and putting away the corpse, Wang Yu cleaned the bloodstains from the area and left through the other end of the alley.

When he returned to Ice Snow Tower, Zhao Shang was still leaning behind the first-floor counter. He showed no reaction upon seeing him.

Wang Yu climbed the stairs as if nothing had happened. At that moment, Zhao Shang's nostrils twitched. Narrowing his eyes, he spoke.

"Junior Brother Wang, are you injured?"

"Thank you for your concern, Senior Brother Zhao. Just a minor injury, not worth mentioning."

Zhao Shang stood and extended a hand in invitation.

"Whether you're injured isn't important. Corpses of those who cultivate the Cold Blood Peak Inheritance are valuable things. Has Junior Brother Wang considered selling them? Ice Snow Tower's business is no small operation."

Wang Yu fell silent for a moment.

"Senior Brother Zhao truly has keen eyes. While out shopping today, this junior brother happened to pick up two corpses. I had intended to hand them over to the Law Enforcement Hall, but if the tower wants them, I'll give them to Senior Brother."

With a light pat of his Storage Bag, two flayed, mangled corpses, their original appearances utterly unrecognizable, were placed on the table.

Zhao Shang's eye twitched slightly as he looked at Wang Yu in surprise.

"These corpses Junior Brother picked up are rather... distinctive."

"Still good, I suppose."

Wang Yu smiled bashfully.

"How much will the tower offer?"

After a brief inspection, Zhao Shang said.

"Both of these corpses cultivated the Ice Marrow Scripture. I can refine two portions of low-grade ice marrow from them—one hundred spirit stones in total. How about it?"

"Deal."

No matter what price the other party named, Wang Yu would agree. Mere worldly possessions—so long as they could keep him steady, sooner or later he would spit them back out. There was no need to rush to collect the debt.

The transaction concluded, and Wang Yu was about to leave.

But Zhao Shang called him back, reminding him, "Junior Brother, don't you have anything else to sell?"

Wang Yu paused, drew a deep breath, then dumped out all the resources from the two Storage Bags before Zhao Shang, aside from the spirit stones and spirit sand.

Flying Magical Artifact—Black Silk ×2.

One quasi-magical artifact longsword, two sets of standard-issue quasi-Dharma Robes.

Low-grade Fasting Pills ×3, low-grade Spirit Recovery Pill ×1, mid-grade Ghost Shadow Step Talisman ×1, exotic insect—Bewildering Butterfly ×1, and assorted miscellaneous items.

After pawing through them a few times, Zhao Shang somewhat disdainfully pocketed the mid-grade talisman and the small bottle containing the butterfly, then pointed at the remaining items.

"Fifty spirit stones. I'll take it all."

"Fine."

Wang Yu was dissatisfied, yet powerless. That son of a bitch was fixated on fleecing him to death! He wondered how Su Qing Shan had dealt with this sort of situation.

After being stripped clean, Wang Yu took his one hundred fifty spirit stones upstairs and returned to Room 29 on the Tenth Floor.

Unless specifically mentioned otherwise, the items traded by Qi Refining Cultivators were all first-rank spirit items.

There was still plenty of spirit sand in the two new Storage Bags, worth roughly eighty spirit stones when converted. Though more than half had been squeezed away, it still amounted to the gains from a single mission.

Two hundred thirty Low Grade Spirit Stones in all—it counted as a windfall!

Killing and plundering brought money down like rain, splashing all over the ground. It truly shook Wang Yu's pure Heart/Mind. No wonder demonic cultivators were all experts at fighting.

Why bother with production or technology when robbing was so much faster?!

After this day, Wang Yu did not step outside. He stayed in his room for a full four days.

[Placement Slot 2: Herbal Compendium—Qi Refining Volume (Complete)]

"Herbal Compendium (100/100): Twelve two-hour periods a day, complete in one month."

"One month..."

Having experience placing purely knowledge-based books before, Wang Yu roughly understood the pattern. After reaching completion for the first time, he was still at the rote memorization stage. Leave it in place for another month, and he would be able to integrate the knowledge completely and draw upon it at will.

However, after the encounter in the dark alley, he urgently craved greater combat power. Added to that were the unfathomable, ghostly methods of the Demonic Path, so he decisively replaced it with the Night Concealment Spell.