The workings behind it

So the mortal old man could not immediately deal with these corpses shrouded in spells.

That meant the City Patrol Office had to recruit a corpse collector capable of handling such corpses.

But once a corpse collector became a cultivator, their status would be as different as heaven and earth. How could they still be willing to do such filthy work?

"Every City Patrol Envoy in the City Patrol Office has their own duties. Naturally, they don't have that much time to deal with the spells lingering on each corpse."

"Most importantly, most of the cultivators who fight these deathmatches are Demonic Path cultivators. Completely removing their spells takes a fair amount of cultivation power. Even if the spells are temporarily suppressed, they'll emerge again before long."

"And once these Spirit-Sealing Stone Chambers are opened and the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi outside pours in, those spells will burn the corpses to ashes within an hour. So you need to completely remove the Demonic Path spell before you can deal with this person's corpse."

After delivering this string of explanations, the man in blue suddenly slapped the blue bag at his waist. A White Jade Token appeared in his hand, and he handed it to Lu Mingyue.

"A Storage Bag?"

Lu Mingyue's eyes lit up. She looked at the blue bag at the man's waist, intense longing burning in her eyes.

A mustard seed holding the universe!

A Storage Bag was a spatial tool in the cultivation world that possessed an internal space and could hold large quantities of items!

"That's right."

The man in blue nodded and hefted the White Jade Disc in his hand.

"This contains the incantation for opening the Spirit-Sealing Stone Chambers here. There are nine corpses today. If you can finish dealing with every corpse here before sunset this afternoon, you'll have passed our City Patrol Office's assessment."

When he finished and saw hesitation on Lu Mingyue's face, the man in blue suddenly smiled and added:

"Don't worry. What Taiping City values most is its rules. The corpses you'll handle are different from the ones that old man handles, so you can choose what kind of payment we give you!"

"Pills, magic artifacts, or even spirit stones!"

"Of course, all of that is on the condition that you pass our City Patrol Office's assessment!"

With that, the man in blue left with his hands behind his back, evidently off to attend to other matters.

Lu Mingyue also recovered from her shock.

"Taiping City's rules are actually this good?"

Pills, magic artifacts, spirit stones!

These were the three things cultivators needed most.

Pills could improve cultivation, magic artifacts could increase strength, and spirit stones could not only improve cultivation but also quickly restore cultivation power. They could even be used to set up magic arrays!

"I want pills! And spirit stones! And magic artifacts too!"

Lu Mingyue almost immediately settled on the rewards she wanted. Pills could improve her cultivation and help her break through to the fourth layer of Qi Refining in the shortest possible time!

Although the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi in Taiping City was already five times as abundant as in the places Lu Mingyue had stayed before, if she could break through a day earlier, she naturally had no desire to wait!

As for spirit stones, those marvels of heaven and earth, Lu Mingyue had only seen them in the memories of Guo Yang and his companion. Even those two had never possessed such cultivation resources.

Naturally, Lu Mingyue wanted to obtain treasures like those!

As for magic artifacts... from the memories of Guo Yang and his companion, Lu Mingyue knew that even the most ordinary Low-Grade Magic Artifact was expensive, far beyond what an ordinary cultivator could possess.

Besides, Lu Mingyue had already refined the Corpse-Wrapping Cloth into her own magic artifact.

So compared with pills that could help her break through in cultivation and spirit stones with their tremendous uses, magic artifacts actually ranked last for Lu Mingyue.

"I must pass this assessment!"

These thoughts flashed through her mind in an instant. Looking at the black flames on the corpse, which were visibly stronger than before, Lu Mingyue hurried into the Spirit-Sealing Stone Chamber, channeled her cultivation power, and formed hand seals.

"Water Mirror Shield!"

A mirror formed from flowing water suddenly coalesced above the corpse and descended to envelop its already somewhat unrecognizable body.

"Hiss... hiss... hiss..."

Water and fire counteracted each other. The instant the two spells touched, they began eating away at each other.

Could that fellow Daoist have seen that I practiced a water-attribute spell? He didn't even ask. If I'd only practiced fire- and wood-attribute spells, I'd have no choice but to channel Origin Power to dispel the spell on this corpse!

Simply channeling Origin Power to dispel a spell clearly consumed more cultivation power than using a spell of a counteracting attribute to dispel it!

Lu Mingyue was currently only at the third layer of Qi Refining, and there were nine cultivators' corpses here. If she did not possess the corresponding Five Elements Spells, there would be no need for an assessment-she absolutely could not finish dealing with all nine corpses before sunset today.

As for the open door of the Spirit-Sealing Stone Chamber, Lu Mingyue paid it no mind.

The man in blue had already made it very clear: even if the spells on these fallen cultivators were suppressed, as long as they were not completely removed, they would erupt again until the corpses were burned to ashes.

The Spirit-Sealing Stone Chambers served to cut off Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.

Clearly, the flames on this corpse had only reignited after the man in blue opened the stone chamber's door.

So if Lu Mingyue closed the Spirit-Sealing Stone Chamber's door now, even if she finished dealing with this corpse, all her hard work would be wasted as soon as the door opened again.

Come to think of it, those cultivators who step onto the Deathmatch Platform know perfectly well that the City Patrol Office will deal with the fallen, yet they deliberately leave spells inside the people they kill. Aren't they blatantly making the City Patrol Office expend its efforts?

And before stepping onto the Deathmatch Platform, they hand over everything they're carrying. The killer can't take away the dead person's resources. All they can do is settle the mortal enmity between them...

Hmm! So corpses like these are actually a deliberate act by every cultivator who steps onto the Deathmatch Platform? They want to make the City Patrol Office pay something for their fights to the death?

As she dealt with the spell lingering inside the corpse, Lu Mingyue let her thoughts wander. Before long, she worked out the ins and outs of it.

Heh, those cultivators all come for Taiping City's Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi. But once they're here, their enemies still catch up to them, and the City Patrol Office doesn't interfere. The Taiping City Lord won't protect every individual either, so duels to the death become inevitable...

But they seem to be making the City Patrol Office pay a small price in their own way.

And the City Patrol Office clearly knows this, yet it doesn't object. So is that why Taiping City can attract so many cultivators despite clearly not being an Immortal Sect?