Chapter 588: A New Kind Of Shock

It's no surprise others have the same idea. A cultivator's entire body is a treasure trove.

Why bother peering into the laws of heaven and earth when you can just plunder a ready-made Golden Core?

But for it to be considered a "massive deal"...

Suspicion stirred in Li Fan's mind. What would anyone need cultivator corpses on such a scale for?

He had no intention of probing too deeply into the other party's motives. Still, Zhang Debiao's methods had been conspicuously clandestine, and the man had been gone far too long without a trace... He had likely already met a grim end.

In the Xuanhuang World, killing a cultivator undetected was no easy feat, as a cultivator's fall was always heralded by phenomena in the sky. But making someone simply vanish, without any discernible cause? The methods for that were countless.

Zhou Qing'ang was a living example. Even now, he still lay at the bottom of the Congyun Sea.

Li Fan was still weighing whether to spend contribution points on a deeper investigation into Zhang Debiao's whereabouts when an unfamiliar cultivator arrived uninvited.

For the past few days in Tianling Province, Li Fan had been operating under a fresh identity to avoid attention, going by the alias Yu Ji. The moment this visitor appeared, Li Fan understood his purpose had to be connected to the missing Zhang Debiao.

Interesting. Let's see what he wants.

Li Fan received the man in a private courtyard of the Dao Discourse Tower.

The cultivator wore gray robes and was short and gaunt, his face carved with deep wrinkles. He moved in a hobbling shuffle, looking frail enough that a strong gust might carry him off. As he drew closer, Li Fan caught a faint whiff of decay beneath a fishy, foul odor.

"Heh heh heh... Fellow Daoist Yu, I hear you're looking for Zhang Debiao. Does he have something you need?"

The gray-robed cultivator got straight to the point, his voice strangely grating.

Li Fan studied him carefully, eyes narrowed.

Though the man appeared to be no more than a Golden Core cultivator, Li Fan was almost certain this was a misdirection tactic. Intermittent pulses of danger prickled his senses, warning him that this gray-robed figure was far from simple.

"How may I address you, Fellow Daoist?" Li Fan asked, cupping his hands in greeting rather than answering directly.

"Daoist Rottenwood," the gray-robed cultivator replied.

Li Fan searched his memory. He'd never heard of this name before.

After a brief pause, Li Fan lowered his voice and gave a candid nod. "Correct. I require the Golden Cores of cultivators. The more intact, the better, and the higher the tier of laws contained within, the better. Price is not an issue."

A glint flashed in Daoist Rottenwood's eyes. He reached into empty air and produced a Golden Core shimmering with intertwined hues of cyan and crimson, then held it out.

"Fellow Daoist Yu, what do you make of this one's quality?"

Li Fan accepted it with interest and examined it closely. It looked freshly extracted from a cultivator's body; flecks of dried blood still clung to its surface. Probing it with his senses, he found the laws coalesced within appeared to be related to wood and fire.

He tested it with Return to Truth, and as expected, a prompt came back confirming it could be absorbed.

"What's the price?" Li Fan asked.

"Thirty thousand contribution points," Daoist Rottenwood said gravely.

Seemingly worried Li Fan might balk at the cost, he pressed on. "I also have Single-Law Golden Cores available. Those run cheaper, only fifteen thousand contribution points each. And naturally, if you require a larger quantity, the price can be discussed further. Oh, and payment must be in equivalent spirit stones. I don't accept direct contribution point transfers."

The price itself wasn't Li Fan's concern. What troubled him was the suspicious manner in which Daoist Rottenwood had appeared, and the casual, unguarded way he spoke of selling cultivators' Golden Cores—a taboo act—as openly as if he were hawking common goods.

More crucially, Li Fan was currently wearing a cultivator's body with no background or identity attached to it. There was no way this man could know his true origins. And yet Daoist Rottenwood remained brazenly unconcerned.

Did he truly not fear that Li Fan might be a Myriad Immortals Alliance operative running an undercover investigation?

When Li Fan stayed silent, Daoist Rottenwood lowered the price himself. "Twenty-eight thousand would also work."

Seizing the opening, Li Fan made a show of hesitating before nodding. "Deal."

He pretended to store the Golden Core in his storage ring but fed it directly to Return to Truth instead. On Return to Truth's panel, his progress toward the next anchor point ticked up by 0.5%.

By that calculation, I'd need two hundred intact Golden Cores. And that's assuming they're all Two-Law Golden Cores like this one. If they're ordinary Single-Law Golden Cores, the number required would be even greater. Conventional methods won't be enough to gather that many.

Unless I choose to become a monster and start slaughtering Golden Core cultivators wholesale.

The thought surfaced for only an instant before he dismissed it.

Li Fan cleared his throat lightly. Rather than moving straight to another transaction, he voiced the question on his mind.

To his surprise, Daoist Rottenwood waved it off. "Rest assured, Fellow Daoist, we are nothing like that brute Zhang Debiao. The Golden Cores we provide come from safe, reliable sources. There is absolutely no cause for future worry. Even if the Alliance authorities investigate, nothing will come of it. You have my word."

He thumped his chest with full conviction, striking himself so hard that Li Fan half-expected him to cave his own ribs in.

I highly doubt that.

But the answer was clearly not within Li Fan’s expectations. He let disbelief show plainly on his face. "The Golden Core you just handed me was clearly extracted from a cultivator's body not long ago. An act this inhuman... even the Five Elders Council wouldn't look the other way if they knew, let alone our Myriad Immortals Alliance. If I didn't have a pressing, urgent need, I would never do something that weighs so heavily on my conscience."

Li Fan delivered this with righteous conviction.

Daoist Rottenwood gave a cold laugh but didn't bother refuting the performance. Instead, he posed an unexpected question: "What if these Golden Core cultivators... were all willing?"

"Willing or not, it's still—"

Li Fan stopped.

"Willing? How is that possible?"

Genuinely startled by Daoist Rottenwood's words, he kept the shock on his face and stared fixedly at the man.

"Where there is demand, there will be supply," Daoist Rottenwood said, shaking his head. "In all the years since order was reestablished in the Xuanhuang World, those in our line of work have hardly been a novelty. Zhang Debiao's method of digging Golden Cores out of cultivator corpses is far too inefficient."

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