The Dead Cannot Bury the Dead

"Yes, Spirit Stone will do." Song Shuhang affirmed. He was really too poor. Apart from the Spirit Stone in the Silver Dragon Puppet that had been mostly used up, he didn't have a single Spirit Stone scrap on him.

As a cultivator, not even having a single Spirit Stone is truly pathetic.

Song Shuhang looked at Daoist Horizon —he currently had twenty Blood Pearl; how many Spirit Stones could he exchange for them from Daoist Horizon?

The essence of buying and selling is mutual consent—even a piece of rotten wood can fetch a good price if you find the right buyer who genuinely likes the item.

If Song Shuhang were to trade these Blood Demon Pearl with other cultivators, the price he could fetch would likely be limited. After all, other cultivators don't have an urgent need for Blood Demon Pearl.

These Blood Demon Pearl were part of an experiment by Venerable White. He intended to transform the Blood Demon into something similar to Spirit Stone, but the transformation was not very successful.

Ultimately, although these Blood Demon Pearl possessed Sixth-Grade- grade spiritual power level, the spiritual power content of a single Blood Demon Pearl was only about seven-tenths of that of an ordinary sixth-grade Spirit Stone. In addition, the purity of the spiritual power in Blood Demon Pearl was also inferior to that of ordinary Sixth-Grade Spirit Stone, as it contained impurities of Blood Demon.

Therefore, in the end, one Blood Demon Pearl is roughly equivalent to the price of two Grade-Five Spirit Stones.

But this is only under normal circumstances.

The Daoist Horizon on the other side desperately needs these Blood Pearl, and besides, he doesn't seem to be poor.

With that in mind, Song Shuhang was willing to exchange about five Fifth-Grade Spirit Stones for one Blood Pearl!

In this way, he can obtain 100 grade Fifth-Grade Spirit Stone, which is equivalent to 1000 grade Fourth-Grade Spirit Stone.

For Shuhang, this was already a remarkable quantity.

To put it in perspective, entering Master Profound Principle's [Vajra Grotto Abode] once, and comprehending the advanced [Vajra Demon-Subduing Fist Vajra Foundation Fist] from the Heart-Refining ancient well, only requires 6 Fourth-Grade Spirit Stone. How many times could Song Shuhang comprehend it with 1000 Grade Fourth-Grade Spirit Stone?

As for learning the miraculous life-saving technique 'Flame Substitute Technique' from Venerable Seven Cultivations, it would require a full 15,000 Rank Spirit Stone.

That miraculous life-saving spell, we'll talk about it later. 15,000 grade Spirit Stone —even if you sold Song Shuhang now, he wouldn't be worth that much.

When Daoist Horizon heard that Song Shuhang wanted Spirit Stone, his eyes lit up.

Things that can be solved with Spirit Stone aren't really problems!

Daoist Horizon asked, "Young friend, how do you plan to sell it?"

Song Shuhang smiled slightly and asked in return, "Daoist Master, you name your price."

Daoist Horizon pondered for a moment, recalling the appearance of the 'Blood Demon Pearl' in his mind.

A single Blood Demon Pearl possesses roughly the spiritual energy reserves of Sixth-Grade Spirit Stone. Therefore, let's consider one Blood Demon Pearl as equivalent to one Sixth-Grade Spirit Stone.

He is currently very eager for this Blood Demon Pearl, but it is unrealistic to expect to acquire it for the price of a single Sixth-Grade Spirit Stone Blood Demon Pearl.

Then... let's double it.

"One Blood Demon Pearl, two Grade Sixth-Grade Spirit Stone, how about it?" Daoist Horizon voice.

Song Shuhang remained calm— Daoist Horizon generous; with just one sentence, he quadrupled the price he had in mind.

So he nodded and said, "Deal!"

Perhaps, if he weighs his options a bit more, Daoist Horizon will offer a higher price. After all, this is only Daoist Horizon's first bid, and it's definitely still a bit short of his mental limit.

But Song Shuhang felt that this price was about right— Shuhang was definitely not a qualified businessman; if he went out to do business, he would probably lose a lot of money.

"Deal!" Daoist Horizon secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

The two exchanged money for goods.

Twenty Blood Demon Pearl were exchanged for forty Grade Sixth-Grade Spirit Stone.

That's equivalent to four hundred grade Fifth-Grade Spirit Stone, or four thousand grade Fourth-Grade Spirit Stone!

It was another deal that satisfied both parties.

Daoist Horizon took the twenty Blood Pearl, gently stroking each one. Then he looked at the villa's owner, Yu Jiaojiao, "Jiaojiao Daoist Jiaojiao, may I Old Daoist a quiet room?"

The Daoist priest planned to conduct a small experiment with these Blood Pearl to see how well they matched his custom-made 'Tribulation Transcendence Artifact'.

He was already quite impatient.

"No problem, this way please, Daoist Master." Yu Jiaojiao was still using Soft Feather's 'Shapeshifting Brooch', maintaining her mother's appearance.

She stood up and led Daoist Horizon to the innermost room of the villa, where it was quieter and undisturbed.

"Thank you, Fellow Jiaojiao," Daoist Horizon said gratefully.

"You're too kind, Daoist Master," Yu Jiaojiao replied with a smile. "As long as we don't talk about 'passing on skills,' we can be good fellow Daoists."

On the other side, Song Shuhang put the Spirit Stone into his pocket—he dared not put Spirit Stone into the Inch-Shrinking Bag, which contained a puppet that could devour Spirit Stone.

According to the Appraisal Technique, that thing is a [Premium Puppet tailor-made for VIP clients by the Ancient Ink Sect, possessing many miraculous functions. It requires 50,000 Rank 8 Spirit Stone to activate!]

Fifty thousand Eighth-Grade Spirit Stone! His forty Rank Sixth-Grade Spirit Stone are not even a fraction of that. If they were swallowed up, they wouldn't even make a ripple.

Song Shuhang had already decided to give the puppet to Venerable White to take apart and play with. He was definitely not going to be a fool and spend 50,000 eighth-grade Spirit Stone to play with this puppet.

After putting away the Spirit Stone, Song Shuhang took out a gift box from his Inch-Shrinking Bag. Inside was a complete set of 'Thirty-Three Spirit Beast Crystals', all of which were of the Second-Grade.

Shuhang's physique has reached the limit of the Second-Grade, and he can use the 'Whale Swallowing Technique' to consume these Spirit Beast Crystal and perfect the 'Innate True Qi' in his body.

Currently, Shuhang has consumed five types of Spirit Beast Crystal: shark, sheep, horse, donkey, and camel.

"Today, I will devour the Spirit Beast Crystal of 'ox, deer, pig, dog, and cat.' Five a day, and the Innate True Qi of the <Thirty-Three Beasts Divine Innate Unity Qi Technique> will surely be completed soon!" Song Shuhang thought to himself.

So he returned to his room, took out five Spirit Beast Crystal, and used the 'Whale Swallowing Technique' to devour them, thus beginning a new day of cultivation.

The dream of Sword Flight at the Fourth-Grade is getting closer and closer.

Just as he was thinking this, Shuhang suddenly remembered that he had a Blade Flight technique called "Dragging Saber Technique".

May evil thoughts be banished!

Unless he's trying to save his life, he absolutely shouldn't be dragged along by the knife; that would be too foolish.

******************************

On the other side, in the distant Eastern Sea.

The Glazed Scholar who had seized the Spirit Ghost of Shuhang finally found the person he was looking for after searching for a long time in the Eastern Sea.

On the Eastern Sea, a man dressed as a scholar in a Confucian robe was running on the surface of the water.

His hair was disheveled, his clothes were rumpled, and he was wearing only one shoe.

With a foolish grin on his face, as he ran, terrifying [Immortal Energy] around him stirred up horrific waves.

The scholar, possessing the Spirit Ghost body of Shuhang, felt tears welling up in his eyes when he saw the disheveled figure. However, what flowed was not tears, but pure spiritual energy.

"Senior Brother Daozi, I've arrived," the Glazed Scholar said softly, a hint of tenderness appearing in his eyes, which were filled with madness and killing intent.

The mad scholar dressed as a Confucian scholar completely ignored the Glazed Scholar.

He continued to laugh maniacally, running across the sea surface, or suddenly diving into the ocean depths, disappearing without a trace.

The Glazed Scholar rubbed his eyes and followed closely behind the disheveled, mad scholar, never leaving his side.

The mad scholar ahead kept running, searching for all sorts of strange fish, and playing with them, turtles, and shrimp.

This was the appearance of Daozi brother, that Glazed Scholar had never seen before.

In his memory, Daozi Shusheng was the eldest disciple, the first student of the Confucian Sect Sage teacher.

His every word and action served as a model for the other disciples, just like a textbook.

The dignified senior brother, the beloved senior brother, the senior brother who is like a brother and a father.

But the senior disciple in front of him was like a child, laughing and aimlessly chasing after everything he could see.

After an unknown amount of time, Master Daozi finally grew tired of playing. Once exhausted, he remained motionless, letting his body sink.

It keeps sinking, keeps sinking.

Ultimately, it sank to the bottom of the sea.

The Glazed Scholar also sank to the bottom of the sea.

Daozi lay motionless on the seabed, his eyes closed.

Beside him, [Immortal Energy] created a space that prevented seawater from penetrating his body.

The Glazed Scholar knelt beside his senior brother.

For a long, long time...

The sleeping Daozi brother Daozi slightly opened his eyes. His innocent and childlike eyes looked curiously at the Glazed Scholar before him.

"Daozi, I've arrived," the Glazed Scholar said again.

Daozi's eyes were still filled with curiosity; he didn't recognize Glazed Scholar at all.

The Glazed Scholar, knelt and kowtowed gently. "Please, Daozi, instruct me on the whereabouts of the Sage's remains and the remains of my fellow disciples who were abducted and killed."

Back then, the Sage teacher failed in his struggle for the 'New Heavenly Dao'.

In the battle for Immortality, defeat meant certain death. The Sage of the Confucian Sect died at the hands of the 'New Heavenly Dao'.

Not only that, but the New Heavenly Dao struck again and again. Among the disciples of the Sage, almost all of the Thirteen-Tribulation Immortal perished. Countless Confucian Sect classics were destroyed; tens of thousands of Confucian scholars under the Sage were burned by the Tribulation Fire.

In that catastrophe of the Confucian Sect, the remains of the Sage and the remains of those who perished among the Thirteen-Tribulation Immortal vanished without a trace.

Daozi Brother Daozi tilted his head, still looking at the Glazed Scholar with curiosity.

"Senior brother, the calamity is over. Please allow me to collect the remains of the Sage and my fellow disciples, so that I may give them a proper burial," the Glazed Scholar said solemnly, prostrating himself on the ground.

He begged Song Blockhead to seal him away, allowing him to linger on until now, one of his purposes being to survive the catastrophe that Confucian Sect. Only then could he have the opportunity to bury his teacher and fellow disciples.

"Hehehehe." Daozi Brother Daozi suddenly chuckled, "How can a dead person be buried?"

"Daozi!" The Glazed Scholar kowtowed firmly.

"The dead cannot be properly buried," Daozi said with a chuckle.

The Glazed Scholar gave a wry smile, and finally sighed softly, "I understand."

The scholar bowed to his Daozi brother Daozi again, respectfully saying, "Daozi, I have left behind the Sage's legacy, awaiting a destined person. I have finally completed the task you entrusted to me years ago. Now, I have nothing left to hold me in this world... Therefore, I ask you one last question: Who is the New Heavenly Dao?"

What is the background of the New Heavenly Dao?

Why is it that no one in the entire cultivation world, whether Daoist, Confucian, Buddhist, demonic, or monster-like, knows his origins? Back then, who exactly was the Sage Master competing with for the qualification of 'Immortality'?

"Hehehehe." Daozi Brother Daozi continued to chuckle, then rolled over and began to roll around on the seabed.

"Senior brother, my time is running out. At least, please give me a chance to end this or rather, to vent my frustrations," the Glazed Scholar said in a low voice.

Daozi Brother Daozi continued to gaze curiously at the Glazed Scholar. Then, he sat up, resting his chin on one hand, his brows furrowed deeply, as if deep in thought.

But if he could easily recall his memories, he wouldn't have gone mad for so long.

Thinking and thinking, Daozi Brother Daozi rolled around on the seabed, his fingers constantly pinching his chin, deep in thought.

The Glazed Scholar remained kneeling on the spot, not uttering a sound to disturb his Daozi.

Suddenly, Daozi sat up: [Nine Netherworld.]

[Nine Netherworld? Does the New Heavenly Dao originate from Nine Netherworld?] The Glazed Scholar's eyes lit up.

"No... but that day, the people of Nine Netherworld killed many Confucian scholars," Daozi clapped his hands and said.

The Glazed Scholar sighed softly, and then bowed to his Daozi brother Daozi one last time.

Then, he stood up and Shanghai.

He could not take over the task of burying the Sage teacher. However, he had already made arrangements for the Sage teacher's legacy, waiting for the destined person to inherit it.

Now, he has only a little time left... so he should go to the Nine Netherworld!

As the Glazed Scholar rushed to the surface, a glowing jellyfish simultaneously tore through space and appeared in front of him.

"Fellow Daoist, you are truly persistent." The Glazed Scholar gazed at the jellyfish, a hint of a smile hidden in his crazed eyes.

"Where are you going next, and what are you going to do?" The Glowing Jellyfish looked at the Glazed Scholar, then noticed that his appearance had changed again—wait, is this what that young friend Song looks like?

The Glowing Jellyfish was so surprised because it didn't see the Glazed Scholar forcibly taking the Shuhang Spirit Ghost.

"I'm going to the Nine Netherworld," Liuli Shuwei said calmly. "That's the last place I'll go; I won't come back. So, fellow Daoist, you don't need to follow me anymore."

The Glowing Jellyfish stared at the Glazed Scholar, and finally nodded slightly. "Take care."

The Glazed Scholar shook his head slightly.

Then, he reached out and tore open the space—on the other side of the space was a space filled with filth, curses, and all the evil in the world.

The Glazed Scholar took a deep breath and vanished into the Nine Netherworld.

The moment he entered the Nine Netherworld, the power he had been suppressing erupted completely.

An immense and boundless [Immortal Energy] filled Song Shuhang's Spirit Ghost body.

Immortal Energy is a powerful force that is two levels higher than true qi and even spiritual qi; it belongs to the power of Ninth-Grade Tribulation Immortal.

Just as Glazed Scholar was about to unleash his full power... Song Shuhang, far away in his villa in the Jiangnan Region, suddenly widened his eyes.

Transmission of skills?

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