Soul Points

Soul Points. "Heh heh heh, since you've come, why not enter the shop?"

A voice, aged and hoarse, drifted out from inside the shop. It sounded like a demon from beneath Jiu You, making anyone who heard it shudder.

Xiao Yan narrowed his eyes. At that moment, his mind raced wildly. He knew he had been able to come here because of the token, so his safety was at least guaranteed.

Xiao Yan took a deep breath. He did not lose his nerve. He walked up to the storefront, gently pushed open the shabby wooden door, and stepped inside.

The first impression this Soul Offering Old Shop gave Xiao Yan was that this was no shop at all. It was simply like stepping into a graveyard, like some haunted place.

Inside the Soul Offering Old Shop, the light was extremely dim. Illumination depended entirely on the few candles placed on the counter, and the whole shop was pitifully small. Even the smallest shop in the Xiao Clan Market was more spacious than this.

Aside from a shabby wooden cabinet from who knew what era, there were only a few shelves covered in spiderwebs on the left and right. There was nothing else.

Beside the cabinet hung a black curtain. Xiao Yan could not see what lay behind it. It was pitch-black, and he had no idea where it led.

At that moment, Xiao Yan's gaze turned to an old man seated behind the counter. The old man's right hand propped up his cheek, his eyes closed as though he were dozing. He was frighteningly thin, his whole body shriveled to skin and bones. His eye sockets were sunken, and only a few sparse strands of hair remained on his head. He looked even more like a dead man than someone who had been dead for three days!

If the voice just now had not proven that this old man was still alive, Xiao Yan probably would have been startled and truly thought a dried corpse had been left here.

Even someone as bold as Xiao Yan broke out in goosebumps all over in a place like this. Even the air was cold, making him extremely uncomfortable.

Xiao Yan mustered his courage, walked up to the counter, and lightly knocked on the tabletop. "Hello, elder. May I ask what this place is?"

Hearing Xiao Yan's question, the old man's body slowly moved, like a dried corpse coming to life. His eyelids gradually opened, and a pair of eerie blue-green eyes stared at Xiao Yan like ghostly eyes.

"You don't even know what this place is, yet you dare walk in?" a hoarse, low voice came from the old man's throat.

Xiao Yan was left a little awkward by the question. He gave an embarrassed smile and said, "I was just wandering around casually, then accidentally ended up here."

The old man's lips split into a smile, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth with half of them missing. He spoke slowly, "Without the permission of my clan, no one can pass through the spatial barrier and arrive here."

After some thought, Xiao Yan did not hide it. He took out the black token, made from some unknown material, from his pocket.

The old man's eyes narrowed slightly. He sized Xiao Yan up with curiosity, then slowly said, "You are neither a member of my Hun Clan, nor have you joined Soul Hall, yet you possess my clan's Soul Token. Interesting, interesting."

Xiao Yan rubbed his nose and said, "Someone called Hun Xuzi gave it to me. He said I had talent in alchemy and begged me to go to the Royal Capital of the Jia Ma Empire to join some Soul Hall."

Xiao Yan's words were half true and half false. The token had indeed been given to him by Hun Xuzi, but Hun Xuzi had never said Xiao Yan had alchemy talent, nor had he begged him to join Soul Hall.

Xiao Yan's goal was to raise his own value.

Hearing Xiao Yan's words, the old man gave a meaningful smile. He stiffly shook his head, then closed his eyes as if he were about to sleep.

"This is the Soul Offering Old Shop, the place where my Hun Clan conducts outside trades."

"Trades?"

Only then did Xiao Yan seriously look at the items on the shelves. When Xiao Yan brushed aside the spiderwebs and carefully saw what was on them, his expression instantly changed.

"Agarwood Soul Wood! This is an extremely precious rare treasure! If Agarwood Soul Wood is ground into powder and made into a sachet to wear on the body, it can slowly strengthen the soul! It's also the main ingredient for refining sixth-grade soul-type pills!"

"Dream A-Flower Honey."

"Dragon Millet Rice!"

Xiao Yan turned to look at a gemstone beside the Agarwood Soul Wood. After he identified it, his eyelids twitched violently, because it was one of the main ingredients used to refine the Seventh Grade Pill, the Yin-Yang Profound Dragon Pill: Yin-Yang Stone.

As for whether the Yin-Yang Stone had any other uses, Xiao Yan did not know. If not for the formula for the Yin-Yang Profound Dragon Pill in his Storage Ring, which introduced this gemstone, he would not have known what it was.

"Heh heh heh, not bad. You've got a decent eye."

Xiao Yan had spent over ten years thoroughly reading all the pill formulas, the Compendium of Materia Medica, and the illustrated guides to rare treasures inside his Storage Ring, but there were still some things here that he could not recognize.

Without exception, everything Xiao Yan could recognize was extremely precious. At the very least, they were items starting from the level of main ingredients for Fifth Grade Pills.

Xiao Yan swallowed and pointed at a withered leaf inside the cabinet behind the old man. "How much is that withered leaf?"

And the most precious item Xiao Yan recognized was undoubtedly the withered leaf behind the old man.

The old man said calmly, neither pleased nor saddened, "The main leaf of the Earth Vein Sacred Tree. It can nourish the soul and increase lifespan. It is the main ingredient for refining the Tier 8 Medicinal Pill, the Soul Return Pill. The Soul Return Pill can repair remnant souls and restore Soul Power to damaged souls."

The old man recited the withered leaf's effects as though counting his own treasures, without the slightest error.

"It's not expensive. One high-level Dou Zong's soul."

!!!!!

The things here were not traded with Gold Coins or exchanged for pills, but with cultivators' souls!

"No wonder the books record that the people of Soul Hall hunt Soul Bodies all across the continent." Xiao Yan came to a realization. Soul Hall's currency was actually souls!

Xiao Yan shrugged and said helplessly, "Forget Dou Zong. Right now, I'm only a Dou Zhe, not even a Dou Shi. Forget it, forget it. The things here aren't suitable for me."

Dou Zong? Even if one lay on the ground, Xiao Yan could empty all his Dou Qi and still not harm them in the slightest.

"Kid, these things are only a drop in the bucket. Everything here was obtained in the Black-Corner Region, just some scrap metal that certain Soul Envoys sell to exchange for Soul Points."

"What my Hun Clan possesses is far more than this."

The old man's body was thin and small, but his tone was extremely grand.

Xiao Yan could not help grumbling inwardly. Why were all the people of Soul Hall the same? The previous one said the Bone Chiling Flame was trash, and this one said everything here was worthless scrap metal.

However, Xiao Yan finally understood what this Soul Offering Old Shop was for. This place was equivalent to Soul Hall's black market. Even if you were not a member of Soul Hall, you could use Soul Bodies to exchange for the things here.

Moreover, from what the old man said, the things here were all useless to Soul Hall. The truly useful things were those traded with Soul Points.

As the Young Clan Leader, Xiao Yan naturally understood that it was perfectly normal for a faction to have its own merit points. Some Cultivation Methods and Magic Crystal Weapons of the Xiao Clan also had to be exchanged for with merit.

It was just like the Xiao Clan's Herb Gathering Team—the rarer the medicinal herbs they gathered, the greater their merit.

The purpose of that was to encourage the clan's disciples.

"What can Soul Points be exchanged for?" Xiao Yan asked curiously.

The old man grinned. "Anything."

Xiao Yan's gaze sharpened, and he asked tentatively, "Even Heavenly Flames?"

As if he had guessed that Xiao Yan wanted a Heavenly Flame, the old man grinned and let out an unpleasant laugh. "Heh heh heh, of course! Even information on a specific Heavenly Flame, its location, and the method to take it—so long as you have enough Soul Points."

"My Hun Clan can give it all to you."