My Scales Can Make Equivalent Exchange
Chapter 291 - 290: Being Careless

Chapter 291: Chapter 290: Being Careless

Ever since the Grand Selection, Wang Zijia’s fame within the Outer Sect had been growing by the day, now signifying that he was the standout figure of his time.

This was not only thanks to his own endeavors, but also the combined effort of various factions within the Scripture Pavilion, which were beginning to overshadow other factions. One could discern this from yesterday’s Grand Selection, which showed the popularity of the factions within the Scripture Pavilion.

As he stepped into the Great Hall, he drew numerous glances. Thankfully, no one was audacious enough to approach him.

Wang Zijia came in front of a counter, where the disciple operating the array screen promptly stood up. After paying a respectful bow to Wang Zijia, he asked, "Martial Uncle Wang, are you here to hand over a task?"

Wang Zijia nodded slightly, saying, "My apprentice task has been involved in some other matters, and I was notified to personally hand it over."

"Alright, Martial Uncle, I will—..." The disciple behind the counter faltered in his speech as his face stiffened. He paused his operation on the light screen, saying, "Martial Uncle, please wait. I don’t have enough authority to approve your task!"

"No worries." Wang Zijia only furrowed his eyebrows slightly as he replied softly.

Just a while later, a man in his twenties hurriedly walked out from within the hall. He greeted Wang Zijia with a bow, saying, "I’m Bai Gaohan. I’ve heard a lot about Junior Brother Wang, and I’m glad to finally meet you in person."

Wang Zijia stood up to return the greeting, smiling as he said, "You are too kind, Senior Brother Bai!"

"Junior Brother, please step inside for our conversation!" Bai Gaohan gestured towards Wang Zijia, inviting him in.

Wang Zijia hesitated for a moment, but decided to sit down for a while. There wasn’t much difference even if he was in a hurry.

"Junior Brother’s experiences while fulfilling the task surely have been exciting," Bai Gaohan initiated a conversation as they walked.

Wang Zijia showed a bitter smile, helplessly saying, "I would have preferred a smoother journey. You didn’t see it, Senior Brother. The horrifying scene in the Tianhong Dynasty. Skeletons strewn across the field, the whole kingdom was almost wiped out."

"Junior Brother indeed is as the rumors described, wholesomely innocent and brimming with the zeal of youth..."

As they conversed, the two entered the Inner Hall. It was the first time Wang Zijia had been in the Inner Hall of the Task Hall. From his observation, several people seemed to be in charge of handling the tasks here, not just Bai Gaohan. He saw several oddly uniform offices.

As they entered a private office, Bai Gaohan’s mana fluctuated slightly. The room began to extend as if the space was expanding. The surrounding scenery started to transform as the intense fluctuation of illusionary array filled the air.

With Bai Gaohan’s casual wave, Wang Zijia could feel the space shifting. They had arrived at a small square, where thousands of coffins were densely scattered on the ground. Inside the coffins were over seven thousand mortals with spiritual roots, all of their bodies battered and bloody.

These were the corpses of over seven thousand skin-nurturing demonic children that Wang Zijia and his team had brought back. Right now, with the help of the great array enveloping the entire sect, they had virtually projected themselves onto a small square in the Funerary Preserving Vein.

"These are the victims you brought back. The Funerary Preserving Vein discovered during their inspection that all the corpses had been initially cleansed. The Evil Seed’s pollution had been primarily extracted, just barely meeting the standard for preservation. They asked me to question you, Junior Brother. Did you process these?"

Bai Gaohan manipulated the coffin illusions around him as he asked Wang Zijia.

Wang Zijia paused, then gently nodded. "I did it."

"Looking at the residual traces on these corpses, it seems that all the demonic children had been polluted to varying extents. So may I ask, Junior Brother, did you also clean up the pollution from the over three thousand survivors you brought back yesterday?" Bai Gaohan further queried.

’I was careless. I was purely focused on the living and thought that if I cleaned them up beforehand, no one would know about the demonic children’s pollution. But I forgot about the corpses. I didn’t expect that traces could be found after the removal of the Evil Seed and a hasty cleanse. Had I known, I wouldn’t have brought them back,’ Wang Zijia thought to himself.

Wang Zijia was taken aback and fell silent for a moment. Considering his current status as a Dao Child and being renowned across the entire sect, he didn’t need to be too cautious about certain matters. Hence, Wang Zijia didn’t deny it, but nodded and said,

"Yes, I did use some special means. But those who survived could only do so as their degree of pollution was the lightest."

Despite having speculated earlier, Bai Gaohan’s eyes still lit up as he confirmed, "To be able to clear living pollution, one must at least have a high-level method of the second grade or above. Moreover, most of them are forbidden techniques. According to the information we have on you, there’s no record of you exchanging for any related forbidden technique in the Scripture Pavilion. So, Junior Brother, do you have any intention of submitting your inheritance?"

Wang Zijia’s brows furrowed. Bai Gaohan probably realized that he had misspoken and immediately added, "Ah, Junior Brother, you might not be quite familiar with the procedures in the Scripture Pavilion."

"But as long as a disciple obtains an inheritance that the sect does not have and is extremely precious, such as the technique to take out internal pollution,"

"If you agree to submit the inheritance, there will be someone assigned to evaluate your inheritance. If it’s precious enough, the Inner Sect will send out an elder of the fourth grade or above to try and duplicate the method."

"Although it does affect you a bit, the impact isn’t severe. However, the benefits you get are absolutely top-notch."

"An inheritance master?" Wang Zijia asked.

"Um, I’m not quite sure about that." Bai Gaohan shook his head, adding,

"But it’s unlikely to be an inheritance master. I heard that duplicating a secret book by an inheritance master is like torture and causes great damage to both Dao cultivation and Dao Foundation. Only those on their deathbed would choose to do so. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be assigned to the Funerary Preserving Vein!"

"So, apart from the regular approaches of entering the coffin and inheritance, there’s also the unconventional method of secret book replication? However, it seems to be a method not easily accessible," I thought.

"What if I refuse?" Wang Zijia asked, while deep in thought.

"There’s nothing wrong with refusing. I’m just following instructions to routinely question about potential inheritance of cleansing series," Bai Gaohan replied, seemingly unsurprised.

"I guess I’ll refuse then," Wang Zijia responded accordingly.

"Junior brother, you should think carefully. If it really gets assessed as a forbidden technique of the top-grade cleansing magic door, the bounty from the Scripture Pavilion, at minimum, will be three sets of complete top-grade magic doors, and it might even directly reward you with a fourth-grade technique," Bai Gaohan temptingly said.

"I would love to, not only could I receive significant benefits, but I could also see other methods of secret book replication. The problem is I also need to hand over related magic doors!"

Seeing that Wang Zijia was unmoved, Bai Gaohan no longer tempted him, instead, he tapped on the void and several light screens appear before him.

"Alright then, the corpses you brought back this time are all Spiritual Roots without cultivation. After the Funerary Preserving Vein and the Pill Institute refine the blend pill, you will be given an extra share, which doesn’t count towards the balance of this task’s reward," he said.

"In addition, junior brother, for your merits in exorcising the demon and slashing the late-stage Demon Dao, you’ve earned an additional merit: 3, Dao Kung: 5000. You’ve collected three top-grade spiritual roots, but since you took in one early on as a disciple for establishing External Sect, so there won’t be extra rewards in this regard."

"The overall task assessment is: Outstanding, reward: Cultivation Method (already advanced), merit: 3, Dao Kung: 10000."

"If you have any doubts about the above assessments, let me know, otherwise, I will submit it for review."

Bai Gaohan pushed the light screen towards Wang Zijia, who scrutinized it carefully before saying: "Well, it’s pretty close to the general situation, except for senior brother Ma, he also made a sizable contribution this time."

"We can’t do much about that, we’ve already done a broad investigation. Brother Ma Haoran joined the sect over two hundred years ago through the Grand Selection, it’s impossible to trace his mortal relatives, nor are there any relatives among the disciples in the sect," Bai Gaohan replied.

’So lonely indeed! But he lived an unbridled life!’ Wang Zijia envied Ma Haoran’s free-spirited lifestyle.

······

After the two settled the task, they had a casual chat before Wang Zijia left.

He then immediately went to the Secular Courtyard and requested for a team to audit the organization setup, approval on related resources and inquiries about the opening of channels.

On his first day back, Wang Zijia ran multiple errands between the Qifu Faction and the foot of Qifeng Mountain. He managed to settle the bulk of the affairs and only needed to wait for the various reviews to come out.

After that, Wang Zijia went to the South Street Market again, buying a variety of spiritual materials worth more than three thousand magic money.

By the time Wang Zijia returned to Biyi Court, it was already evening, even later than his usual get-off-work time.

After dinner, Wang Zijia didn’t immediately go back to the Cultivation Room but took a rare stroll with the girls in the North District instead.

·······

Night, within the underground base of Biyi Court.

In the massive sacrificial room, the crystal red sacrificial laboratory, bathed in the flickering candlelight, painted everything a dark red, as if in Hell.

Blood-red Array runes spread all over the room, a bone altar stood at the center, and a massive Corpse Pit on one side filled with cold air, making the sacrificial room deeply cold.

The Five Ghosts, tossed out by Wang Zijia, looked at this familiar yet terrifying place, the five chubby little ghosts instinctively huddled together, fearfully looking at Wang Zijia.

Among them, they were possibly the ones in the Biyi Court who least wanted to come home.

Wang Zijia didn’t pay attention to the Five Ghosts. Instead, with his left hand open, the Blood Red Jade Book appeared. In such an environment, the ordinarily lavish Blood Red Jade Book seemed strange, akin to the Death Book in legends.

Wang Zijia lightly touched the book with his right hand, gently opening it to reveal a painting of a monstrous, long worm-like snake with spider legs. Under Wang Zijia’s control, the snake came to life from the painting, swirling and crawling out of the book.

"Thud!"

After crawling out of the book, the late-stage Sacrificial Wine snake quickly grew larger.

However, all its power was sealed, it couldn’t fly; even supporting its massive body with its mutated insect legs was impossible.

So, after manifesting, it collapsed onto the ground, wriggling feebly, like a dying snake.