Chapter 481 - 454: Now, Are You Willing to Heed My Words?

Human desires: Shock, fury, and suspicion from a Celestial Pride Level Golden Core Stage Cultivator. Weight: five jin and six taels. Tradable.

Song Ciwan sorted through the recent harvest stored within the Heaven and Earth Scale, pulling out a few particularly outstanding entries.

’A Celestial Pride Level Golden Core Stage Cultivator...’ This mass of human desires had undoubtedly come from Ye Sheng.

Ye Sheng had provided more than just this one mass of human desires—there were nine in total.

Two of them weighed over five jin. One read: Human desires: Resentment, doubt, and disbelief from a Celestial Pride Level Golden Core Stage Cultivator. Weight: six jin and nine taels. Tradable.

Not only did it weigh over five jin, it was actually over six jin!

’This mass of human desires must have appeared the moment his Golden Core was extracted.’

After that, there were various others—three jin, four jin, two jin, and so on—not worth listing one by one.

In addition to Ye Sheng’s two masses weighing over five jin, the onlooking Cultivators had also provided Song Ciwan with a total of five more during the previous battle.

Human desires: Surprise, horror, and suspicion from a Mid-Stage Divinity Transformation Cultivator. Weight: five jin and one tael. Tradable.

Human desires: Shock, fear, and doubt from an Innate Third Transformation Martial Artist. Weight: five jin and six taels. Tradable.

Human desires: from a Late-stage Qi Cultivation Cultivator...

Two of the masses weighing over five jin came from the Mid-Stage Divinity Transformation Cultivator and the Innate Third Transformation Martial Artist.

Four masses weighing over five jin came from those at Innate Second Transformation and the Qi Cultivation Stage.

Any mass of human desires weighing five jin or more was likely quite valuable to her.

The higher the provider’s Cultivation, the greater its value.

Furthermore, the most noteworthy entry was a mass of human desires from the Celestial Immortal Wang Cheng.

Human desires: Surprise, suspicion, and prudence from an Early-Stage Returning Void Cultivator. Weight: one jin and six taels. Tradable.

This mass of human desires from the Celestial Immortal was exceptionally light compared to the others. But he was a Celestial Immortal, after all. For him to have even a momentary lapse in composure was already quite something.

Song Ciwan discovered from the time record on the Heaven and Earth Scale that this mass of human desires hadn’t actually appeared at the moment she cut open Ye Sheng’s Golden Core, but at the moment she successfully resisted the Celestial Thunder.

’Or maybe it was even earlier than that. This mass of human desires must have appeared at the moment I took out Ye Sheng’s Golden Core, intending to publicly display its secrets and in turn drawing down the raging Celestial Thunder.’

Song Ciwan paused, lost in thought.

Wang Cheng had already left, and it wasn’t as if she could just run over and ask him, ’Did you figure out any secrets?’ or something to that effect.

She could only set the matter aside for now and turned her gaze toward the crowd at the foot of the mountain peak.

The crowd was still cowering like quails, waiting in terrified suspense, looking as pitiful as lambs to the slaughter.

Although Song Ciwan, in truth, had no intention of continuing the slaughter—

Her gaze met theirs from her position high above.

Finally, amidst the crowd’s apprehension, the black-clothed youth on the mountain peak let out a soft laugh.

A jolt of fear shot through the crowd.

Song Ciwan said with a smile, "Everyone is born rebellious. When I offered my earnest advice, none of you were willing to believe me. Now, I’m done trying to persuade you. I’ll just ask this: is there anyone here who still intends to enter the Spirit Realm Secret Realm?"

She continued, "If so, feel free to step forward. I will be waiting."

But the crowd remained deathly silent. Not a single person stepped forward.

And yet, Song Ciwan received three more masses of human desires.

Song Ciwan was speechless.

’It seems I’ve found another royal road to accumulating human desires.’

The crowd below remained silent for two breaths. It seemed everyone was waiting for someone else to speak first, but in the end, no one did.

Finally, unable to bear it any longer, someone burst out, crying, "No! I’m not going! I, I... To answer Elder Lu, this junior never had any intention of entering the Spirit Realm Secret Realm! Elder Lu, I’ll leave right now! I’m heading back!"

With that said, the man forced himself to his feet and began to limp away.

But his robes were soaked in blood, and his face was ashen. How could he possibly get far?

Just then, Lian Jia, who was standing beside the Puppet Carriage, reached out and steadied the man.

The cultivator’s already pale face went ghostly white. He sagged pitifully against the Puppet Carriage, bowing his head, not daring to utter another word.

The scene had the absurd air of a great demon lord menacing a helpless little bunny.

Song Ciwan couldn’t help but laugh again. When her laughter subsided, she shook her head and sighed.

From the foot of the mountain, the crowd saw the black-clothed youth standing atop the peak, hands clasped behind his back. A sudden look of desolation crossed his stern features.

No one knew why, but though they should have been terrified, what struck them at that moment—more than apprehension and fear—was an indescribable, shared sense of desolation, as if they were empathizing with him.

The feeling was as strange as it was frightening.

Then they heard the youth speak. "Believe it or not, I never intended to be malicious."

The youth gazed down upon the crowd, his posture like one who stood at the summit of the world, surveying all below.

"There is a logic to the form and function of all things," Song Ciwan said calmly. "Everyone, the Spirit Realm Secret Realm is no paradise. Since when do good things simply fall from the sky for the taking?

If such a thing does exist, I guarantee you it isn’t filled with sweet honey, but with bitter poison!

I am not mad, and I hope the rest of the world hasn’t gone mad either. I have said my piece. Do as you will."

With those final words, she no longer lingered at the entrance to the Spirit Realm Secret Realm.

Instead, she turned and stepped back into the sea of clouds.

This time, she was truly gone.

It was nearly a quarter of an hour after Song Ciwan’s figure had vanished before the people at the foot of the mountain finally snapped back to their senses.

A rising tide of discussion finally broke the silence of the crowd.

"H-He’s really gone?"

That was the first cautious question.

Another replied, "Y-Yes, he must be, right?"

"So... should we get back quickly?"

"We have to go back, of course... But one thing. Do you all think Lu Celestial Pride really won’t return to the entrance of this Spirit Realm Secret Realm?"

Someone immediately retorted, "And what if he does? What, are you actually thinking of making a trip into the Spirit Realm Secret Realm to see for yourself?"

The previous speaker immediately shook his head. "No, no, of course not! Whether Lu Celestial Pride comes back or not, there’s no way I’m going into that Spirit Realm Secret Realm!"

Indeed. Who would be that foolish?

Yes, it seemed no one was that foolish. And yet, in that moment, they all just stared at each other blankly.

As they stared at one another, a sense of indescribable bewilderment hung in the air.

The day’s events had left a complex taste in their mouths, one impossible to describe.

Suddenly, a quiet voice spoke up. "Everyone... Lu Celestial Pride was so insistent on stopping us from entering the Spirit Realm Secret Realm, and today he deliberately extracted Brother Ye’s Golden Core in front of everyone... Has anyone given any deep thought to what he meant by ’honey’ and ’poison’?"

It was a pivotal question.

But the reply came from another voice. "Honey or poison, it doesn’t matter. I’m not going either way, so what’s there to think about? What I’m curious about now is whether the Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List has been updated. Fellow Daoists, we’d better figure out a way back to the city.

Right now, the only thing I want to do is get back to the city and check the latest Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List!"