The Quest for Immortality

Mo Hua and his companions exchanged glances, their eyes filled with shock.

Murder for corpse-trading?

”Who did you sell to?” Mo Hua asked.

Wang Lai hedged, ”A grey-clothed, masked Cultivator... I don’t know who it was...”

”You didn’t see his face?”

”I only want the Spirit Stones; I don’t care about his appearance...”

”What else?” Mo Hua’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Wang Lai looked somewhat bewildered, ”What else is there?”

Mo Hua said, ”How did you meet him, how did you connect, how did you make the transaction, how did you murder, how did you sell the corpses—tell me everything, without missing a detail.”

Wang Lai tugged at the corner of his mouth.

Mo Hua kicked him, and said fiercely,

”Don’t try to deceive me. Your little tricks won’t get past me. If I find out you’ve lied to me, I’ll make sure you regret it!”

But his delicate, picturesque face didn’t seem threatening when he tried to be fierce.

Yet, Wang Lai didn’t dare not speak.

This young demon might look adorable, but his actions were anything but.

Especially those eyes—innocent yet profound, as though they could see right through one’s secrets...

Besides, there was no need for him to hide anything anymore at this point.

If he was to speak, then there was nothing he couldn’t say:

”I met that grey-clothed Cultivator in a brothel on Jinhua Street...”

”He was average in height, lean, with his face covered, his features unclear, his Divine Sense impenetrable.”

”He always had a faint, odd smell about him—I didn’t realize at first, but after making a few deals, I understood. That scent, it was the smell of the dead, a cold, decaying odor.”

”The first ’deal’ happened because I ran out of Spirit Stones.”

”I gambled away everything the previous night, and my creditors were pressing me hard, threatening to chop off my hands if I didn’t pay up.”

”Desperate, he asked me, ’Do you want to make a deal?’”

”I scoffed. These days, with legitimate business, how can one earn Spirit Stones?”

”He then said it wasn’t legitimate.”

”That piqued my interest, so I asked him about the deal. He asked if I had killed before, and I said yes. He then told me it was similar to killing, except this time, I was to give the bodies to him afterward.”

”It felt ominous, but without any Spirit Stones, I was worse off than a stray dog—hungry and unable to fend for myself.”

”Poverty can be scarier than death.”

”Besides, it was others who were dying, not me. So I agreed to it.”

”The first time I did this job for him, I killed a passerby Cultivator. After killing him, I cut a few extra times before handing over the body. He frowned and said that except for the vital meridian, there couldn’t be too many wounds, or I’d have my payment deducted.”

”I was impatient—it was just a killing, yet there were too many damn rules. But I needed the Spirit Stones, so I had no choice but to follow his rules.”

”He went on to explain the details to me...”

”A young and fit Cultivator’s corpse, one hundred and fifty Spirit Stones;”

”An aged Cultivator’s corpse, eighty Spirit Stones;”

”Gender doesn’t matter.”

”Apart from the vital meridian, the body mustn’t have any wounds.”

”If there are wounds, depending on the severity, ten to fifty Spirit Stones would be deducted...”

”...”

”After a few sales, I realized this business wouldn’t last long.”

”Kill one or two, and the Taoist Court might not bother. But if you kill too many, even fools will track you down.”

”That’s when the grey-clothed Cultivator suggested I target Mining Cultivators.”

”I hesitated at first; after all, my father was a Mining Cultivator, and I’m half a Mining Cultivator myself. Even though I did no good, we would still see each other from time to time, and we weren’t without rapport.”

”But he offered too much, I couldn’t refuse...”

”For Cultivators, Spirit Stones are the only truth, while rapport is illusory.”

”Killing a Mining Cultivator, I could make roughly a hundred Spirit Stones per hit.”

”With so many Mining Cultivators in South Yue City, I couldn’t even begin to imagine how many Spirit Stones I could earn if this continued to the end...”

”And more Mining Cultivators would be born, an endless cycle of potential targets...”

”Even if I didn’t kill them, they would die of old age, exhaustion, mineral poison, oppression, or accidents in the mines...”

”Since they’re bound to die anyway, why not let me make some Spirit Stones off it?”

”Besides, killing a Mining Cultivator could be very discreet.”

”Their lives were so miserable, any pretext of earning Spirit Stones would lure them.”

”The mines at night were quiet and deserted, perfect for murder.”

”Disguise it as a disappearance afterward, and no one could find out—the perfect crime.”

”Still, we were somewhat worried about being discovered.”

”So we approached the families of the deceased Mining Cultivators, offering to help them claim compensation.”

”First, to divert suspicion and reduce doubt—as we claimed compensation on behalf of Mining Cultivators, no one would suspect us of being the killers.”

”Second, claiming the compensation allowed us to take a cut of the Spirit Stones.”

”One dead Mining Cultivator could earn two shares of Spirit Stones...”

Old Yu listened with eyes blazing red, wishing he could devour Wang Lai alive.

Mo Hua’s expression was icy to the extreme, ”The five Mining Cultivators who disappeared before—they were also your work?”

Wang Lai hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

Mo Hua’s gaze intensified, ”Then how did they end up dead in the mine?”

Wang Lai’s expression showed a trace of fear, ”I... I don’t know.”

”I just killed them. But after I killed them, it seemed like there was some activity in the mine...”

”I thought of the rumors about the mineshaft and got scared, so I hid their bodies in a corner, covered them with rubble, and then planned to sneak the corpses out of the mineshaft when I had the chance.”

Wang Lai swallowed hard, ”But... but when I went back the next day, I found that the bodies of these five people... were gone...”

Mo Hua’s eyes shone coldly, ”You don’t know about the Lu Family mine?”

These five corpses, they seemed to have been dragged into the mineshaft by something and then... eaten...

Wang Lai was perplexed, ”What mineshaft?”

Mo Hua released his Divine Sense, peeking at the fluctuations in Wang Lai’s Divine Sense, and found that he was not lying.

Wang Lai... really didn’t know...

”How many years have you been in this trade?” Mo Hua asked again.

”Thirty or forty years...”

Mo Hua’s face was expressionless, ”So you’ve been killing Mining Cultivators for thirty or forty years, and you’ve been selling the remains of Mining Cultivators for that long?”

Wang Lai gulped, ”Yes...”

Bai Zisheng couldn’t help but say, ”How about we just kill him...”

Wang Lai was horrified, ”You promised to let me go.”

Mo Hua’s gaze slowly turned cold, his expression inscrutable, his thoughts unknown.

Chills ran down Wang Lai’s spine.

At that moment, Mo Hua’s expression suddenly showed shock as he looked towards the mineshaft behind him.

From within the mineshaft, the pervasive aura of death abruptly intensified.

It was as if something was gradually awakening.

Moisture condensed into droplets that fell with a rhythmic pitter-patter, the sound of water drops echoing eerily throughout the mineshaft.

From the surrounding stone walls, minute and peculiar noises emerged.

Mo Hua’s expression changed drastically, and he hurriedly said:

”Run!”

Bai Zixi and Bai Zisheng also sensed the danger and nodded to each other.

Mo Hua glanced at Wang Er and Tang Wu, who were lying on the ground, and said to Old Yu, ”Wake them up.”

Old Yu looked panicked.

He, too, felt the abnormalities in the mineshaft.

It was the dead of night, the most dangerous time within the mineshaft.

Something unknown had come to life...

Old Yu’s legs went weak as he staggeringly stood up, walked over to Wang Er and Tang Wu, and slapped both of them, ”Get up quick!”

The two were only knocked unconscious, and having consumed Mo Hua’s Pills, their injuries were healing. With Old Yu’s slap and his cry, they gradually opened their eyes.

The scene before them seemed alien.

The thugs lay on the ground spitting blood, Wang Lai was miserably curled up in a corner.

In front of Wang Lai, stood three young Cultivators with an extraordinary bearing.

The two were stunned at first, ”Old Yu... what is this...?”

Old Yu said, ”Don’t ask, just run for your life!”

Wang Er and Tang Wu then realized the urgency and scrambled to their feet.

”Let’s go!” Mo Hua said decisively.

Just as they were about to run, Wang Lai pleaded:

”Save me! I don’t want to die here!”

Mo Hua’s gaze flickered, then he said to Bai Zisheng, ”Take him with us.”

Bai Zisheng was somewhat reluctant.

Mo Hua said, ”He still has his uses.”

”Alright then.”

Bai Zisheng nodded, secured Wang Lai with a chain, and dragged him as they ran outside.

As for the remaining thugs, Mo Hua didn’t care.

If they could live through the anomaly in the mineshaft, that would be their good fortune. If they died, they deserved it, repaying the lives of the Mining Cultivators they had taken.

And so, Bai Zisheng dragged Wang Lai, who was like a mangy dog, without slowing down, running out of the mineshaft.

Mo Hua employed his movement technique and followed Bai Zisheng closely.

Bai Zixi’s steps were light as she followed beside Mo Hua.

Behind them, Old Yu, Wang Er, and Tang Wu ran for their lives with desperation, possibly spurred on by the crisis, they were running quite fast.

The atmosphere inside the mineshaft grew increasingly sinister, the aura of death gradually filling every corner.

But fortunately, Mo Hua had detected it early, and their withdrawal was timely enough.

So by the time a muffled roar emerged from the mineshaft, sounding eerily non-human, Mo Hua and the others had already escaped from within.

Still, Mo Hua was not reassured, and led everyone through the secret passage away from the Lu Family mineshaft until they reached the edge of the mine. Only then did they stop.

Wang Lai was dragged so violently that he was covered in wounds and passed out.

Wang Er and Tang Wu had only just calmed their frightened souls and were gasping for air.

The expressions on Bai Zisheng’s and Bai Zixi’s faces were also filled with astonishment and uncertainty.

Mo Hua turned to look at the mine, his pupils shaking.

At that moment, the mine burst forth with a terrifying presence, composed of numerous sinister auras.

From deep within the mineshaft, there came grating and heart-wrenching noises, like some spectral beings scraping at something with their hands.

It also sounded as if deceased Mining Cultivators were still laboring in the mine.

And amidst the decay and the aura of death, that malevolent presence from the Ultimate Formation that Mo Hua had sensed became even more intense.

Mo Hua’s brows furrowed even more tightly.

Who exactly set up this Ultimate Formation, and what was it? What exactly lay hidden in this gloomy mine...