Chapter 24: Just a Mere Core Dissection

Chapter 24: Just a Mere Golden Core Dissection

And he was dead sure his guess was spot on.

He'd had this suspicion from the moment he laid eyes on Yuan Changsheng's concubines. With that many concubines all looking more or less like the same person, what else could it be but some woman he could never get his hands on? That guess got confirmed later when he talked to Yuan Yingdi's puppet in the room.

And as for the parents not giving a damn about Yuan Yingdi, you could tell just from their names.

Yuan Changsheng—just plain "wishing their son a long life."

And Yuan Yingdi—that's just "Yingdi," meaning "welcoming a younger brother."

As the eldest daughter, she didn't even get a real name—like from the day she was born, her parents just saw her as a tool to bless their precious son.

Any modern woman with a mind of her own would've blown her top over this, but Yuan Yingdi put up with it for years.

He was bringing up this old crap now just to smoke Yuan Changsheng out. Once Yuan Changsheng showed his face, the demon backing him would come out of the woodwork too.

"You're talking nonsense!" Sure enough, the second Xue Youtan finished talking, something stirred inside the room. Half of Yuan Changsheng's face was swallowed by the shadows past the candlelight, the other half out in the open, his expression flickering like a faulty bulb. "My sister didn't kill herself because I was bothering her—she loved me. She killed herself because... because..."

Then Yuan Changsheng suddenly stopped, his voice shifting, the tail end of his sentence going up. "But none of that matters now. After tonight, my sister's gonna live again. That person said if I lure a cultivator at golden core or above into the array and take their inner core, my sister can live forever."

Tsk, so this was a setup to lure him in. The whole "come catch a demon" thing was a front—the real deal was carving out his core.

What a coincidence, right? They both wanted the same thing.

One wanted a golden core, the other a demon core. Tonight would decide who walked away and who didn't.

Either way, he wasn't gonna die. He had the system—2484 wouldn't let him kick it in a side quest, right? I mean, dying like that would be way too lame.

"Host, don't get ahead of yourself. This system version doesn't have a respawn-at-spring feature. Please be careful and keep yourself alive."

The system's voice appeared in his mind, still as cold and merciless as ever.

Damn, did the face-slap have to come that quick?

"Heavenly Master Xue, I don't wanna hurt nobody. If you come over and make the trade, I'll let your disciple go. Otherwise, I'll kill him right now!"

You don't wanna hurt anyone, but you went and killed all those women? Yeah, right—only a fool'd buy that.

Xue Youtan now got why Yuan Yingdi's wooden puppet had been so scared when Yuan Changsheng came near during their talk. On the regular, she must've been getting knocked around a lot.

Xue Youtan silently cursed the bastard out, then spotted three thick needles suddenly materializing in front of the array holding Pei Zhi.

Don't ask how he could see needles from a few meters out—the answer is the tips were glowing green and black qi was swirling around them, so they stood out like crazy. As Yuan Changsheng's words landed, the three needles hung in the air—two aimed at Pei Zhi's eyes, one at his throat—stopping just a hair's breadth from sinking in.

Pei Zhi's eyes went wide, too scared to blink, terrified that any twitch would send those needles straight into his eyeballs.

Li Luoshu, standing outside the door, seemed to find this hilarious. He let out a big laugh and yelled, "Evil spirit, you messed up! The guy you've got tied up is just a traitor from Cangya Mountain. See those wounds on him? The master put them there. You really think the master would trade anything for a traitor like him?"

Hearing that, Yuan Changsheng shot Xue Youtan a doubtful look. Before he got any reaction, the thick needle hovering at Pei Zhi's throat pressed in a bit more, the tip breaking skin and clearly ready to keep going.

Xue Youtan's hand, hidden in his wide sleeve, clenched into a fist, but he still didn't move.

The side mission had tipped him off: the more danger Pei Zhi was in, the more likely he'd trigger his protagonist-only innate skill. He couldn't go soft now; he had to hold out and see.

Watching the needle sink into flesh while Pei Zhi stayed weak as hell, showing zero sign of stepping up, Xue Youtan caved first.

"Deal!"

Just as the needle pushed forward again, Xue Youtan's voice cut through the night from outside the door.

He couldn't gamble Pei Zhi's life over 200 prestige points—not worth it, and he couldn't afford the risk.

For now, he didn't want a do-over.

"My disciple's only at early Qi Refining, hasn't even hit Foundation Establishment. He can't even form an inner core. Killing him would just add one more body to the count. You want a golden core, right? No biggie—I'll cut mine out right here, on the spot."

"Master, you're really gonna cut your core out right here?"

Already floored by Xue Youtan agreeing to the trade, Xiao Yiheng's brows stayed knotted when he heard the master say he'd carve out his core right there.

He hadn't been at Cangya Mountain that long, but it wasn't short either. Two years of cultivation, and he'd only hit mid Foundation Establishment. Sure, he had an inner core, but it was still dark brown, nowhere near golden.

And to forge a golden core, you had to be at Nascent Soul or above. You can only imagine how hard that was to pull off.

In all these years, he'd never heard of any Altar Master at Cangya Mountain surviving having their golden core ripped out.

Then again, no Altar Master had ever been crazy enough to try it.

The cultivation techniques of Cangya Mountain's three Altar Masters were always talked up as something legendary. Hearing Xue Youtan talk like that now, was carving out a golden core really just a walk in the park for him?

Xiao Yiheng would rather buy that Xue Youtan had some divine trick up his sleeve than believe he'd trade his life for that little shit Pei Zhi.

Though Xiao Yiheng's guess was a bit over the top—it wasn't exactly a life-for-life trade; Xue Youtan was way too fond of his own skin for that.

Xue Youtan's cool attitude left Yuan Changsheng stunned for a sec. He stood there frozen for a good ten seconds before snapping out of it. Shooting a glance into the shadows, he pulled back the three needles from Pei Zhi and loosened the threads around his limbs too.

Free of his bindings, Pei Zhi crumpled to the ground, barely able to move. He reached up and touched his neck. It stung a bit, but only the skin was broken.

That needle, thick as his fingertip, had already buried itself in his flesh. He didn't even wanna think about what would've happened if it'd gone a hair deeper—would his throat have been punched clean through?

"Pei Zhi, can you still stand?"

Xue Youtan's voice was like a mountain spring, slipping into his ears and washing through him. Pei Zhi took a deep breath and fought to get up, but his whole body was limp as a noodle. He tried a few times and couldn't find his footing. Lucky for him, his spiritual power was already so weak that the Spirit Dispersion Array hadn't messed him up much. Even with no spells now, just pure muscle, he kept falling and dragging himself back up, again and again.

"Good. Now walk toward me."

Pei Zhi did as told and started moving, but before he could step out of the array's range, Yuan Changsheng cut him off. "Heavenly Master, I let him go. So when you gonna cut out that core? No goods on the table, I can't just let him walk."

"Tsk," Xue Youtan clicked his tongue, looking down on Yuan Changsheng's haggling attitude. He dug at his ear, and Liguang shot out from his divine sense, morphing into a dagger right in front of him.

Xue Youtan gave the dagger a couple of test tosses in his hand. Once he liked the weight, without a word, he jammed it straight into his own chest.

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