"The Tomb Shadow and Venomous Vessel Secret Art Secret Art is not easy to practice. Since you are a body-refining cultivator, your divine sense is already weaker than cultivators of the same rank, making the practice of this art even more difficult..."

Once Wei Tu took his seat, the burly man with a yellow face didn't rush to conduct the transaction for the secret art. Instead, he first spoke these words.

If it weren’t for the fact that they were in the demonic path, discussing soul searching—a subject that causes most cultivators to tremble with fear—these words would make the man seem like a well-meaning person.

"I, Liu, have been practicing the Tomb Shadow and Venomous Vessel Secret Art Secret Art for a hundred years. If you wish, you can hire me to perform a soul search..." The yellow-faced man revealed his true intentions, smiling widely.

Wei Tu's expression remained cold. He didn’t respond immediately to the offer. Instead, he unleashed his divine sense, comparable to that of a Golden Core cultivator at the late stage, and directed it towards the yellow-faced man.

In the demonic path, power is paramount.

As a body-refining cultivator at the early third stage, Wei Tu might have been troubled by the yellow-faced man. But as a late-stage Golden Core cultivator, he wouldn't have to worry about such things.

"Dual cultivation of body and law?"

As expected, the yellow-faced man’s expression shifted slightly as he sensed Wei Tu’s divine sense.

A third-stage early body-refining cultivator is not to be feared.

But a late-stage Golden Core demonic cultivator with dual cultivation of body and law is not someone to take lightly.

Those at the latter stage are all extremely powerful Golden Core cultivators.

They are very difficult to deal with!

"I misspoke, please forgive me, Daoist." The yellow-faced man’s tone softened as he quickly backed down.

"This is the Tomb Shadow and Venomous Vessel Secret Art Secret Art. As I mentioned earlier, I will sell it to you for seven thousand spirit stones."

"Additionally, I’ll offer a portion of Hundred Fiends Yin Qi as a compensation gift."

As he spoke, the yellow-faced man took out a jade slip and a pill bottle, placing them on the table.

Next, he made a soul oath, guaranteeing that the contents were true and that there was no deception.

He swore an oath to the soul for the art he was selling.

This was one of the main reasons why Wei Tu chose the yellow-faced man out of the four Golden Core cultivators.

Breaking a soul oath would bring about heavenly punishment during a cultivator's tribulation, which would intensify the difficulty of their tribulation.

Only cultivators who had given up on their path would recklessly make soul oaths.

The Tomb Shadow and Venomous Vessel Secret Art Secret Art not only has the ability to search souls, but it is also a soul-cultivating art that strengthens the cultivator’s divine sense.

At seven thousand spirit stones, it was not too expensive.

Wei Tu nodded slightly, first reviewing the contents of the jade slip. After confirming there were no issues, he took out a bag of spirit stones from his sleeve and handed it to the yellow-faced man.

"This is the address of Liu. For the next ten years, I will stay here. If you have any doubts about practicing this technique, you can come to me for answers."

After the transaction was completed, the yellow-faced man thought for a moment and threw another jade slip containing his address at Wei Tu.

This was not out of kindness, but because the yellow-faced man had noticed that Wei Tu’s cultivation was not low, and he had intentions of forming a connection.

"Rogue cultivator, Liu Moqun."

Wei Tu took the jade slip and, using his divine sense, scanned it quickly and memorized the yellow-faced man's name.

...

After achieving his goal at the auction, Wei Tu returned to the private room, patiently waiting for the high-level auction to come to an end.

While waiting, he began to contemplate the Tomb Shadow and Venomous Vessel Secret Art soul technique.

This art leaned toward the ghost path. It uses deathly energy as its foundation, combining it with the divine sense to condense Yin Zhai, which are then used as vessels to cross over to the other shore.

Yin Zhai are toxic insects formed from the deathly energy of graves. They are rare and hard to find.

"With just this technique, one cannot truly cross over to the other shore," Wei Tu muttered, shaking his head.

The "other shore" in ghost path techniques is similar to the "ascension to immortality" in immortal cultivation—it is mentioned in nearly every technique, but it is more of a metaphor.

It’s something to look at, but not something to take literally.

The Tomb Shadow and Venomous Vessel Secret Art is merely a soul technique between the third and fourth grades and cannot involve methods to transcend to the other shore.

Two days passed.

The auction concluded.

Wei Tu and Gong Shulan and the others made their way back through the same transmission array, leaving the venue.

Throughout the event, most of the cultivators at the auction had no idea where the Yunyan Chamber of Commerce's auction site actually was in reality.

Wei Tu, however, had the means to find out. But since the Yunyan Chamber of Commerce had no direct conflict with him, there was no reason for him to stir up trouble and attract unnecessary attention.

The Yunyan Chamber of Commerce had Nascent Soul cultivators protecting it. Wei Tu’s methods could fool Golden Core True Lords, but they wouldn’t fool Nascent Soul Ancestors.

Returning to the ancient house.

The Blood God Son was the first to leave, transforming into a cloud of blood and flying off.

"Daoist Xu, Gong Shulan, we shall meet again," Huang Juzhi cupped his hands and bid farewell, heading in the opposite direction of the Blood God Son.

Soon, only Wei Tu and Gong Shulan were left in the ancient house.

Seeing this, Wei Tu also said his farewells to Gong Shulan and was preparing to leave.

"Daoist Xu, please wait," Gong Shulan called out to Wei Tu, a smile on her face. "I have something I’d like to trouble you with. I wonder if Daoist Xu could..."

Gong Shulan had her own intentions and wanted to develop a closer relationship with Wei Tu, the true heir of the demonic path.

During the time spent together, she had come to feel that Wei Tu had a more gentle character, unlike many other demonic cultivators like the Blood God Son, who were often arrogant and domineering.

However—

Before Gong Shulan could speak for long, Wei Tu immediately responded with rejection.

"I, Xu, have other matters to attend to and will not chat with Daoist Gong any longer."

With that, Wei Tu’s foot gathered energy and he vanished from the ancient house in an instant.

Standing in place, Gong Shulan, who had been smiling, froze. It seemed she hadn’t expected Wei Tu to reject her so quickly, leaving her too disheartened to come up with another excuse.

“Did I offend him?” Gong Shulan stood there stunned for a while, unable to figure it out.

The only point of conflict between her and Wei Tu had been the issue of the Nascent Soul corpse. However, she had already cleared up the misunderstanding through an apology and by compensating him with spirit stones.

“Guess I’ll just take the loss!” Gong Shulan glared at the direction in which Wei Tu had disappeared, biting her lip and stamping her jade foot.

Had it not been for trying to get closer to Wei Tu, she wouldn’t have directly handed over three thousand spirit stones as a form of compensation.

— Three thousand spirit stones were her initial investment in getting close to Wei Tu.

Now, these compensation spirit stones were inevitably wasted after Wei Tu’s “cutting off” of their relationship.

...

On the other side.

After leaving the ancient house, Wei Tu didn’t waste any time. He went straight to the Sun Residence, intending to finish his business in Jing Kingdom as quickly as possible.

He was unaware that his blunt refusal had caused Gong Shulan to regret deeply and question her judgment of people once again.

Not long later, Wei Tu landed on the courtyard wall of the Sun Residence, his divine sense sweeping over the entire residence.

“Transcendence Pills, Blue Flame Pills... I didn’t expect such breakthrough pills to appear at this high-level auction. What a pity... I don’t have enough spirit stones...” In the backyard of the Sun Residence, Qian Hong, who had just returned home, showed a hint of regret on his face as he muttered to himself.

He cursed himself for not taking the auction seriously enough, not selling off his belongings in advance, and missing the opportunity.

With all his wealth, plus the three Cloud-Containing Pills he had received a month ago, he could barely afford a Blue Flame Pill.

“The Yunyan Chamber of Commerce will hold another auction in Ning Lan County in three years. By then, I’ll have enough spirit stones and maybe I can bid for a Blue Flame Pill…” Qian Hong thought of what the auctioneer had said after the auction ended and his heart filled with some ambition.

There’s a huge difference between a Foundation Establishment True Person and a Golden Core True Lord.

Once he becomes a Golden Core True Lord, he won’t just be sleeping with ordinary mortal beauties and Qi Refining female cultivators.

All the fairies he is networking with now will have to bow beneath him.

“I wonder when Senior Xu will arrive. With his reward… a Blue Flame Pill is within reach,” Qian Hong thought eagerly, secretly anticipating Wei Tu's arrival.

As Qian Hong daydreamed, he suddenly looked up and found a cold-faced "green-robed male cultivator" standing before him.

When Qian Hong saw this, his heart skipped a beat. He quickly got up, bowed humbly, and greeted the green-robed cultivator, “Senior Xu.”

This green-robed cultivator was, of course, Wei Tu, who had just made his way to the Sun Residence.

“Have you done what I asked, Qian Hong?” Wei Tu casually found a seat and sat down.

“The Xia family descendants have been missing for several hundred years, Senior. It’s not easy to find them…” Qian Hong bent over, carefully observing Wei Tu's expression. As soon as he noticed the displeasure on Wei Tu's face, he hurriedly corrected himself.

“But I would never disappoint Senior. Upon realizing the difficulty of the task, I immediately dispatched my subordinates and offered a bounty of three hundred spirit stones…”

“After twenty days of searching, I scoured all the genealogies of the common families in Changshan County and finally found a branch of the Xia family for Senior.”

As Qian Hong said this, he looked eagerly at Wei Tu, hoping for the promised reward.

Finding the Xia family descendants had indeed cost him a lot of effort, but it wasn’t as extraordinary as he made it sound. The bounty wasn’t as high as he claimed either.

He thought that a big figure like Wei Tu wouldn’t mind a few hundred spirit stones, so he exaggerated the bounty.

“Where are the Xia family descendants?” Wei Tu glanced at Qian Hong with a neutral tone.

He didn’t move, nor did he take out any spirit treasures to reward him.

Hearing this, Qian Hong immediately realized that Wei Tu would not give him another reward unless he showed the Xia family descendants.

“I have arranged for the Xia family descendants to stay in a separate residence in the county city,” Qian Hong replied.

“A separate residence?” Wei Tu raised an eyebrow and stood up, his sleeve flicking slightly.

At this sight, Qian Hong’s heart immediately brightened. He stepped forward, hands outstretched, preparing to receive the reward he was certain Wei Tu would give him, thinking of many words of gratitude to express his thanks for the great favor.

But—

In the next moment, Qian Hong froze.

The hand that Wei Tu extended from his sleeve was empty, and this hand, like a ghost, pressed directly onto his Heavenly Spirit.

“Soul search!” Wei Tu’s lips barely moved as he coldly uttered those two words.

Immediately, his divine sense solidified into several Yin Zhai, which resembled venomous scorpions, and they drilled into Qian Hong’s seven orifices, stabbing straight into his sea of consciousness.

At this point, he had yet to fully master the Tomb Shadow and Venomous Vessel Secret Art soul searching technique.

However, trying it on a Foundation Establishment cultivator was still feasible.

“Senior Xu, please spare me, please spare me!”

Qian Hong’s cultivation was immediately suppressed the moment Wei Tu acted, and he had no way of fighting back. He could only display a pitiful look and beg for mercy.