Eternal Life: I Can Sell Everything

Chapter 235: Chapter 231: Stirring the Divine with Qi, the Rules of the Heaven and Earth Scale

Song Ciwan rented the Seventy-Ninth Cave Mansion of the Xuan Character, then took the Cave Mansion Token and went up Wangjiang Mountain alone.

The vegetation on Wangjiang Mountain was lush and green, completely devoid of any trace of the bizarre events from the previous night. It was hard to tell if this terrifying resilience was a testament to the mountain’s magic or the incredible methods of its managers.

According to Xie Yunxiang, the true proprietors of Wangjiang Mountain were actually the Court—the Government Office.

However, the major families and Sects of Cangling County were also involved. If that weren’t the case, Xie Yunxiang wouldn’t have been able to use his status as a scion of the Xie Family to secure a post in the Steward Hall.

Song Ciwan concluded it was all just a matter of dividing up the profits—nothing worth digging into.

She entered the Cave Mansion and, as was her custom, first scanned the interior and exterior with her Spiritual Sense. Next, she cast the Blazing Flame Technique to incinerate the air inside. Finally, she stirred the divinity within her Sea of Consciousness, which opened its eyes in an instant—

’Good. The Cave Mansion is completely clean. No problems at all.’

Only then did Song Ciwan relax and activate the Cave Mansion’s Array. As for the Duality Heart Protection Array Plate, she had given it to Gao Xiaolang.

Its defensive power was actually far too weak for both the current Song Ciwan and Gao Xiaolang. The most Gao Xiaolang could do with it was use its aura-blocking ability to conceal his own peculiar aura.

As for protection, it was useless.

So Song Ciwan didn’t bother with any further arrangements. She sat cross-legged in the Cave Mansion’s Cultivation Room, instantly opened the Heaven and Earth Scale, and summoned a mass of qi she had obtained from Gao Xiaolang: [Small City Level Mysterious Ghost Spirit. Bewilderment, bitter hatred, sorrow. Five jin and nine liang. Available for trade.]

That’s right, it was the mass of qi that was over five jin.

Qi Over Five Jin brings a qualitative change!

Previously, while cultivating the Thunder Fire Body Devouring Technique to resist the Celestial Thunder, Song Ciwan had sold off many masses of Gao Xiaolang’s qi, but she had always kept this one, the one that exceeded five jin.

’She always felt that Qi Over Five Jin had to be different!’

According to the rules of the Heaven and Earth Scale, the first time you sell the emotional qi mass from a specific source, you can obtain all sorts of things—a Cultivation Technique, a Daoist Technique, a Martial Technique, or Divine Techniques, to name a few. The reward is random.

After the initial sale, the second, third... or who knows how many subsequent sales would generally grant Cultivation time.

The amount of this Cultivation time depended on the Cultivation of the subject being traded and the weight of their emotional qi mass.

Of course, it was also tied to Song Ciwan’s current Cultivation Level.

When Song Ciwan was in the Qi Transformation Stage, selling one jin of a mortal’s human desires could grant her a year of Cultivation time. Once her Cultivation reached the Qi Refining Stage, one jin of a mortal’s human desires could only provide one month of Cultivation time.

From the human desires of a Qi Transformation Stage Cultivator like Xie Yunxiang, she could get a year of Cultivation time per jin.

But Mysterious Ghost Spirits were somewhat different from human desires. The first time Song Ciwan traded Mr. Gao’s Mysterious Ghost Spirit, she obtained the First Layer of the Supreme Alchemy Skill.

Subsequent trades, however, granted direct Cultivation feedback!

Back in the Wealth Village Deceitful Realm, she had also received Cultivation feedback when she traded those Village Level Mysterious Ghost Spirits.

Setting that aside, another point worth noting was that back in Huailing City, Song Ciwan had encountered a Great City Level spirit.

That one had also given off a Mysterious Ghost Spirit several times.

But when Song Ciwan traded those Mysterious Ghost Spirits, she didn’t receive Cultivation feedback, but rather all sorts of Marvels.

Among them was a Purple Gold Sea-Swallowing Gourd, whose power Song Ciwan believed to be the greatest of all the treasures she currently possessed—with the exception of life-draining ones like the Profound City Life and Death Seal.

However, Marvels were often single-use items. Even if they weren’t, they usually had various usage limits.

Therefore, Song Ciwan was cautious about using treasures like the Profound City Life and Death Seal and the Purple Gold Sea-Swallowing Gourd.

’Of course, that’s not what Song Ciwan needed to consider right now. The real question was—why did trading a Mysterious Ghost Spirit inside a Deceitful Realm grant Cultivation feedback, while trading one outside a Deceitful Realm granted various Marvels?’

’Was this a pattern, or was it random?’

’Did it have to do with whether her current location was inside a Deceitful Realm, or was it related to the level of the spirit itself?’

The answer to this question would determine what Song Ciwan should do the next time she encountered a Deceitful Realm: if she collected a Mysterious Ghost Spirit, should she sell it all off as quickly as possible inside the realm, or save it and wait until she left to trade it?

Many of the Heaven and Earth Scale’s rules were vague, requiring Song Ciwan to understand them carefully and figure them out slowly.

It didn’t have an Artifact Spirit, so there was no clear communication with its owner, no question-and-answer sessions to clear up doubts. Truth be told, this Divine Artifact was more like a conglomerate of rules.

It leaped beyond the Three Realms and existed outside the Five Elements, a wondrous rule abiding in the void. Song Ciwan happened to have an affinity with it, and she had bound herself to this treasure in a contract when her Innate Wisdom returned.

She sat in the Cave Mansion, her thoughts racing. After weighing her options, she finally stopped hesitating and chose to sell the mass of Mysterious Ghost Spirit.

Unexpectedly, just as she issued the command to trade, Song Ciwan sensed a hazy feedback from the void—

’When a Small City Level Mysterious Ghost Spirit’s qi is over five jin, the direction of the trade can be specified!’

Song Ciwan was instantly shocked and delighted. It wasn’t that she had never obtained qi weighing more than five jin before. Selling such qi often yielded substantial rewards. For instance, the Insight Technique was what she got from selling five jin of Yang Taixuan’s human desires.

’But being able to specify the direction of the trade... that was an operation Song Ciwan had never encountered before.’

’She guessed it must be because Gao Xiaolang’s level was high enough.’

’How could five jin of qi from a mortal be the same as five jin of qi from a Small City Level spirit?’

Song Ciwan immediately decided to direct the Heaven and Earth Scale to trade Gao Xiaolang’s five jin of qi for the Third Layer of the Sutra of Sitting and Forgetting.

This was related to her advancement—

However, just as she was about to issue the command, Song Ciwan hesitated again.

’Was the Third Layer of the Sutra of Sitting and Forgetting really what she needed most right now?’

’No, Song Ciwan wasn’t actually in a hurry to advance. She still needed to acquire a lot more Demon Fiend Malice during the Qi Refining Stage to exchange for lifespan!’

’If she advanced too early and entered the Divinity Transformation Stage, the amount of Demon Fiend Malice needed to increase her lifespan would increase tenfold, or even a hundredfold. How could that be as easy as extending her life during the Qi Refining Stage?’

’Wouldn’t it be a huge loss to advance without first hoarding a thousand, ten thousand, or even a hundred thousand years of lifespan?’

’Back when I was still in the Qi Transformation Stage,’ Song Ciwan recalled, ’hoarding six or seven thousand years of lifespan was as easy as playing a game. But now that I’m in the Qi Refining Stage, the difficulty has skyrocketed, leaving me with only a little over seven hundred years of life.’

Then there was the Profound City Life and Death Seal, a major life-consumer. Strange Techniques like Substitution also drained one’s life. Thinking about this, Song Ciwan became even more determined to reject the idea of advancing.

’It’s not like qi over five jin from a Small City Level Mysterious Ghost Spirit is a one-time-only thing. I can just find a way to get more in the future.’

’What I need most right now should be—the Second Layer of the Void Illusion Demon Sword? The Second Layer of the Illusion-Breaking Blade Technique? Or maybe the Second Layer of Infinite Power? The Second Layer of Fetal Transformation and Shape-shifting? The Second Layer of Call Wind and Rain?’

...

’No, it was none of those.’

What she truly and urgently needed was a Magic skill that specialized in divination, countering divination, capturing souls, completely preventing enemies from turning into spirits, or converting them into Heroic Spirits.

’Without a skill like that, I’ll always feel insecure,’ Song Ciwan thought. ’The Heaven and Earth Scale might be able to destroy a body and erase all traces, but can it really stop an enemy from turning into a spirit?’

With her mind made up, Song Ciwan immediately specified the direction and controlled the Heaven and Earth Scale to make the trade.

[You have traded a Small City Level Mysterious Ghost Spirit—bewilderment, bitter hatred, sorrow, five jin and nine liang—and obtained the Qimen Taoist Skill, the complete Great Derivation Birth Skill.]

’The complete skill, not just the first or second layer!’