Chapter 206: Transaction

Qingyue Qiu led the group to a room in the small yard. She found that the windows of this room were sealed shut, but countless flickers of light shone through from inside. She took everyone inside and discovered it was like night inside; aside from the glow of candles, not a single ray of sunlight could be seen.

Besides rows of bookshelves and a few experiment tables, there was a staircase leading underground. Zuo Zhicheng’s voice came from below.

Qingyue Qiu led the others down and found that there was indeed a hidden space underground. Zuo Zhicheng had actually dug out a basement in just a few short days.

Seeing Qingyue Qiu’s surprised look, Zuo Zhicheng said, “It’s not that big a deal. With my current physical strength, I could have made it even bigger if I didn’t have any concerns.” As he spoke, he pointed to a cell in the basement.

“Take them all inside.”

After the ten death row prisoners were placed in the cell, Zuo Zhicheng tied them up one by one and used a prepared anesthetic to knock them all unconscious.

After doing this, he asked Qingyue Qiu, “Did you bring the things?”

“Mm.” Qingyue Qiu took out several books from inside her clothes and said, “These are all copies I made from home, about body modification. Although they mainly focus on my White Aurora as the subject, I’ll need more time to copy out the parts related to other Life Groves.”

This was exactly what Zuo Zhicheng had asked Qingyue Qiu to do a few days earlier. The materials on body modification recorded in the secret archives were naturally also kept by the Qingyue Family, who practiced and created them personally.

Taking the books Qingyue Qiu brought, Zuo Zhicheng showed a satisfied smile on his face. “Good.”

Watching Zuo Zhicheng look at the books in his hands with an excitement she had never seen before, a hint of disappointment, which even she didn’t notice, seemed to flicker deep within Qingyue Qiu’s cold eyes.

But this hint of disappointment quickly vanished with Zuo Zhicheng’s next action. Zuo Zhicheng patted Qingyue Qiu on the shoulder and said, “Thank you for this. This is what I promised you.”

As he spoke, he handed a few pages he had written to Qingyue Qiu. Qingyue Qiu took the pages and heard Zuo Zhicheng say, “These contain some cultivation methods for White Aurora. Combined with the lung modification you’ve undergone, they should help you raise your strength another level, with the potential to break through the Cultivating Heavenly Palace stage…”

Qingyue Qiu listened while looking at Zuo Zhicheng. As she listened, she felt the sound by her ears gradually fade away. Only when Zuo Zhicheng waved his hand in front of her did she snap out of it and say faintly, “Sorry, I spaced out.”

“It’s fine. I’ve only given you part of it. As long as you continue to provide me with the knowledge and materials on body modification, I will give you the complete set of White Aurora cultivation methods, as well as the deeper parts about Cultivating Heavenly Palace.

With this set of methods, you can greatly increase the amount of gas you control. At the deepest level of training, it’s not impossible to engulf an entire city with Shadow Guard. By the way, you’ve been reassigned back now, right?”

Qingyue Qiu nodded and softly hummed in agreement.

‘Do you know, the reason I brought these materials to you wasn’t really for the White Aurora cultivation methods…’

In the following days, Zuo Zhicheng stayed indoors in his Laboratory, engaging in various studies and training. Meanwhile, every night, Zuo Zhicheng would turn into a black shadow and visit the addresses of various people with Life Groves recorded on the previous list.

Without their noticing, he would use Spiritual Power to inspect their bodies and those of their family members. Then, dozens of people were hired into the manor under various pretexts.

“Four… There are four Life Groves in total that meet my requirements.” Zuo Zhicheng sat at the experiment table, looking at the list before him and thinking, “Two of them belong to Ghost Eye Netherworld Heaven, one belongs to Nightfall Monarch, and one belongs to White Emperor Aurora Sword. Indeed, in terms of quantity, I should choose Ghost Eye Netherworld Heaven, right?”

Among the dozens hired, half had Life Groves and half did not. Among those with Life Groves, only these four met his transplant requirements; all the others were used to distract and deceive others.

Zuo Zhicheng thought for a while and began to consider the differences between the three Life Diagrams. Among them, Ghost Eye Netherworld Heaven required the most Life Groves—81. Next was Nightfall Monarch, requiring 40, and lastly White Emperor Aurora Sword, requiring 28.

According to the descriptions in the Daoist Canon, after mastering Ghost Eye Netherworld Heaven, one gains the ability to travel to and from the netherworld, see through the Three Realms, and wield the power of slaughter. It focuses on stealth and killing; after mastery, there is no one in the world who cannot be killed.

After mastering Nightfall Monarch, one controls the weather, holds dominion over the dark night, and can create a vast army of servants, making its potential limitless.

As for White Emperor Aurora Sword, after mastery, there is only one phrase: number one in mortal slaughter, fastest in the Three Realms.

Of course, as the Life Diagram becomes more complete, the host will master more and more Dao Arts, unleashing increasingly powerful strength. The Daoist Canon introduced many Dao Arts that these Life Diagrams can perform, which won’t be listed in detail here.

But according to Zuo Zhicheng’s thinking, if he had to choose, he would definitely pick White Emperor Aurora Sword. Speed is helpful whether in attack, defense, or escape.

However, judging by the number of Life Groves required, Ghost Eye Netherworld Heaven should clearly be more powerful. And right now, he also had the most Life Groves for Ghost Eye Netherworld Heaven.

‘For now, I’ll choose Ghost Eye Netherworld Heaven.’ After some thought, Zuo Zhicheng made this decision. So next, he began having the people he hired cooperate with him in various experiments.

Of course, most of these experimental subjects were used to mislead others. After all, he was now living in the Shadow Corps’ territory; whatever he did would surely end up in their reports.

He didn’t blame the Shadow Corps for this, because given his current strength and influence, it was perfectly normal. One could say that wherever he went now, he would be observed or monitored. Just like important figures or celebrities in his previous life.

When a person becomes famous and powerful, they naturally attract attention. There’s no way around it.

He simply used more troublesome methods to set up decoys so others wouldn’t detect his true intentions and goals.

…

After more than ten consecutive days of conducting several unnecessary experiments and selecting some test subjects completely unrelated to transplants, Zuo Zhicheng’s Underground Laboratory was finally roughly set up.

So the first main course arrived.

On the experiment table, a skinny young man lay quietly. Standing before him was Zuo Zhicheng in a white robe.

This young man’s Life Grove was located under his foot; its name was Earth Fiend, one of the Life Groves belonging to Ghost Eye Netherworld Heaven.

The reason he was chosen first was simply because his entire family had already died from the plague, and he himself could only survive by begging. Basically, no one would pay much attention to his whereabouts.