"A cultivator's entire body is a treasure trove. It's hardly surprising that someone else had the same idea as me.
"After all, how could spying into the methods of heaven and earth ever be as fast as directly plundering ready-made Golden Cores?
"Still, if it can be called a 'massive deal'..."
A flicker of doubt crossed Li Fan's mind. *Buying up cultivator remains in bulk—what are they trying to do?*
Li Fan had no intention of delving deeply into their motives.
However, acting so furtively, combined with Zhang Debiao's prolonged failure to return, meant the man had most likely met a grim fate.
Although killing a cultivator without a trace in the Xuanhuang Realm might be difficult due to the anomalies of death,
simply making someone vanish from the face of the earth, disappearing without an explanation, involved all too many methods.
Zhou Qing'ang, for instance, was a living example.
He was still lying at the bottom of the Congyun Sea to this day!
Just as Li Fan was hesitating over whether to spend some contribution points to hire someone to keep probing for news of Zhang Debiao,
an unfamiliar cultivator paid an uninvited visit, seeking him out on his own initiative.
Since Li Fan had adopted a completely new identity—the alias Yu Ji—to avoid unwanted attention while moving about Tianling Province over the past few days,
he immediately knew the visitor's purpose had to be tied to the missing Zhang Debiao.
*Interesting. Let's see what he has to say.*
In a courtyard of the Dao Discussion Tower, Li Fan met the visitor.
It was a grey-robed cultivator.
With a short, frail frame and a face lined with ravines of wrinkles, he limped along, looking utterly decrepit, as if a single gust of wind could blow him over.
The moment the man drew near, Li Fan faintly caught a foul, rotting stench coming off him.
"Jie-jie-jie..."
"Fellow Daoist Yu, I hear you've been looking for Zhang Debiao? Does he have something you need?"
The grey-robed cultivator got straight to the point, asking in a bizarre, grating voice.
Li Fan narrowed his eyes and appraised him.
Although the visitor appeared to have only Golden Core cultivation, Li Fan was almost certain this was merely an illusion.
The wave of danger welling up in his chest reminded him that this grey-robed cultivator was by no means simple.
"How should I address you, Fellow Daoist?" Li Fan didn't answer directly, cupping his hands to inquire about the other's name.
"Daoist Xiumu," the grey-robed cultivator replied crisply and concisely.
Li Fan sifted through his memories; he had never heard of this person before.
After a moment's pause, Li Fan lowered his voice and nodded. "Indeed. I need some cultivator Golden Cores.
"The more intact, the better. And the higher the rank of the laws contained within, the better.
"Price is not an issue," Li Fan added.
A sharp gleam flashed in Daoist Xiumu's eyes. Reaching out, he produced a Golden Core swirling with green and crimson from somewhere, handing it over.
"Fellow Daoist Yu, take a look at the quality of this one."
Li Fan's heart stirred. Taking the Golden Core, he scrutinized it carefully.
It looked as though it had just been freshly gouged out of a cultivator's body, flecked with residual specks of blood.
Probing it with his senses, he found that the insights coalescing inside the core seemed related to the laws of Wood and Fire.
Testing it with True Reversion, a prompt indeed signaled that it could be absorbed.
"What's the price?" Li Fan asked.
"Thirty thousand contribution points," Xiumu said in a deep voice.
Perhaps worried Li Fan would find it too steep, he added, "I have single-method Golden Cores over there that are cheaper—only fifteen thousand points. Of course, if you need a large quantity, we can negotiate the price further.
"By the way, paid in equivalent spirit stones. No direct transfers of contribution points." While Li Fan pondered without replying, Daoist Xiumu added another condition.
Naturally, what Li Fan cared about was not the price, but rather the suspicious manner in which Daoist Xiumu had appeared.
Furthermore, peddling cultivator Golden Cores was a taboo business, yet the man spoke of it openly and without the slightest concealment.
It was as though they were trading ordinary merchandise rather than illicit contraband.
More importantly, Li Fan was currently using an obscure persona of unknown origin.
The man couldn't possibly know Li Fan's true background.
Yet Daoist Xiumu was still so utterly brazen...
Was he not afraid that Li Fan might be an undercover investigator from the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals running a sting operation?
"Twenty-eight thousand is fine too," Daoist Xiumu offered proactively when he saw Li Fan remain silent.
Only then did Li Fan pretend to hesitate before nodding. "Deal."
Feigning putting it into his storage ring, he directly absorbed it with True Reversion.
On the True Reversion panel, the unlock progress for the anchor increased by 0.5%.
*Calculated this way, it would take a full two hundred intact Golden Cores. And that's considering what I just absorbed was a dual-method Golden Core. If it were ordinary single-method Golden Cores, the required number would likely be even higher.*
*Conventional methods won't be enough to gather them.*
*Unless I dare to commit an unforgivable outrage, turning into a demon and slaughtering Golden Core cultivators at will...*
The thought flashed through Li Fan's mind for only an instant before he discarded it.
"Fellow Daoist Xiumu," Li Fan coughed lightly. Rather than immediately proposing another deal, he voiced the doubt in his mind.
To his surprise, Daoist Xiumu dismissed it with a wave of his hand. "Don't worry, Fellow Daoist. We're not like that amateur kid Zhang Debiao.
"The Golden Cores we provide are safely sourced and guaranteed. There will never be any lingering troubles.
"Even if the Alliance investigates from above, there won't be the slightest problem. Put your mind at ease!"
He thumped his chest in full assurance.
He hit it with such force that Li Fan even wondered if the man might shatter himself to pieces.
"Surely not?"
The answer was far beyond Li Fan's expectations. A look of disbelief immediately surfaced on his face. "The Golden Core just now was clearly dug out of a cultivator's body not long ago...
"For such an inhumane act, not to mention our Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, even the Five Elders Association would never turn a blind eye if they found out, right?
"If not for a special reason that left me in urgent need, I wouldn't do something that weighs so heavily on the conscience either!" Li Fan declared with righteous indignation.
Daoist Xiumu gave a cold chuckle, not bothering to refute Li Fan's righteous nonsense.
Instead, he asked out of the blue, "What if those Golden Core cultivators gave them up voluntarily?"
"Voluntary or not, it still—"
Li Fan suddenly froze.
"Voluntarily?! How could that be?"
Genuinely startled by Daoist Xiumu's words, Li Fan feigned utter shock, widening his eyes and staring straight at him.
"Where there's demand, there's naturally a market.
"In all the years since order was rebuilt in the Xuanhuang Realm, the emergence of our line of work is hardly anything new."
Daoist Xiumu shook his head and began explaining to Li Fan.
"Digging out Golden Cores from corpses like Zhang Debiao does—that's far too inefficient."
Chapter 584