Becoming a Big Shot in the Celestial Realm

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Chapter 60: Rice Balls

The teachings are not to be passed on lightly.

Not to mention the Purple Palace master, even the high-level Qi Training elder teaching demands a hefty fee for personal guidance.

Breaking down those four characters reveals that they are filled with gleaming spirit stones!

Wang Chen estimated that the opportunity for a face-to-face exchange with Changchun would cost at least one hundred spirit fragments.

It sounds like a significant amount.

But he believed that among the tens of thousands of cultivators present, many could afford such a sum of spirit stones.

This is what is known as targeted selection, a precise harvest!

Wang Chen patted his lower back and strode out of the Dharma Hall.

It was noon, right at mealtime.

Wang Chen found a street-side tea house, spent ten spirit fragments on a pot of high-quality Cloud Mist Spirit Tea, and chose a window seat on the second floor. He pulled out the rice balls he had prepared that morning to satisfy his hunger.

Of course, there were numerous inns and restaurants in Yunshan City.

However, even the cheapest meal set in these taverns and eateries cost at least one spirit stone.

And it still wouldn’t fill him up.

So before coming, Wang Chen had prepared his lunch.

The small tea house was quite affordable; ordering a pot of tea allowed him to sit for a couple of hours.

If business was slow and there were many empty seats, even after the time passed, the shop assistant wouldn’t chase him away.

Most importantly, he could catch some gossip while in the tea house.

So every time Wang Chen came to the city to handle business or shopping, he would stop by here.

He filled his stomach while listening to the news, ensuring his ears didn’t remain too closed off from the world.

Just as he swallowed two rice balls, he suddenly heard someone shouting on the street below, “At the east gate during noon, the punishment hall will execute seventeen guilty cultivators! If you want to watch, hurry over!”

The whole tea house erupted in excitement.

Many people hurriedly rushed to the windows to peek outside.

The main street was buzzing with activity as several people rushed ahead to spread the news, and behind them followed a crowd of onlookers of all ages.

Seeing this scene, the tea drinkers lost all interest in their idle chatter.

They hurried to settle their bills and leave.

Wang Chen finished the rice balls he had brought and drained the pot of spiritual tea completely before leaving the tea house.

Following the crowded people, he exited through the east gate.

There was still some time before noon, but the area around the execution platform outside the east gate was already packed with a crowd eager to watch.

The Yunyang Sect enforces its sect rules with utmost severity, and the gravest punishment is public execution by beheading on the execution platform.

Many of those executed are cultivators who committed crimes within the sect’s territory or dared to defy the authority of the Yunyang Sect.

As the news spread, a steady stream of onlookers gathered to witness the beheadings, turning the scene into a bustling spectacle akin to a grand market. Small vendors flocked to the area, calling out to their children, and the atmosphere was charged with excitement.

However, near the execution platform, a somber group of people stood, their faces etched with grief and pain, some quietly weeping.

Boom~

The bell signaling the hour of noon rang out as expected.

A squad of fully armed Punishment Hall disciples escorted a dozen guilty cultivators onto the execution platform.

These guilty cultivators had their powers sealed and their senses blocked, resembling lifeless dogs stripped of their spines, kneeling on the high platform at the mercy of the Punishment Hall disciples.

The tension in the air reached its peak!

Once all seventeen guilty cultivators knelt in a row, an elder from the Punishment Hall, his face stern and unyielding, stepped forward and declared in a thunderous voice, “The sect’s iron laws are inviolable! Public execution by beheading serves as a stern warning to all!”

His voice boomed like thunder, instantly quelling all surrounding noise.

The Punishment Hall elder unrolled a scroll and began to read aloud: “Guilty cultivator Xiao Penghai, a disciple of the outer sect’s Three Preparatory Teams, spread malicious rumors to defame the sect, inciting unrest and causing severe harm to the sect’s reputation. Sentenced to beheading!”

“Guilty cultivator Liang A-da, a battle cultivator from the seventh pioneering team, fled the battlefield in cowardice and violently resisted arrest. Sentenced to beheading!”

“Guilty cultivator Teng Bao, a battle cultivator from the ninth pioneering team, attacked a Higher Steward without provocation, inflicting serious wounds. Sentenced to beheading!”

“Guilty cultivator Xin Dan, a spiritual plant farmer from the sixth Wei Hall, secretly worshipped Evil Spirits…”

As the elder listed each crime, the crowd grew increasingly uneasy, their initial excitement replaced by shock and doubt.

To their surprise, none of these guilty cultivators were loose cultivators; they were all outer sect cultivators!

Moreover, the severity of their crimes did not seem to warrant such a harsh punishment as public execution.

Yet, despite their growing unease, no one dared to voice their concerns.

After all, these were not their own Family members facing execution.

Only the group of people standing near the execution platform, likely the families of the guilty cultivators, appeared even more anguished and sorrowful.

No one dared to cry out for justice or plead for mercy!

Unless a powerful figure intervened, the verdict of the Punishment Hall was final and unchangeable.

Anyone foolish enough to speak up at that moment would surely face dire consequences!

Two teams of elite Punishment Hall disciples stood guard nearby, their watchful eyes scanning the crowd.

Once the elder finished reading the charges, he rolled up the scroll and cast a piercing gaze over the assembly. “Begin the execution!”

As soon as his command echoed, three burly executioners ascended the execution platform.

They were bare-chested, clad in black shorts, and wielded nine-ringed ceremonial blades. Their faces were devoid of emotion, their eyes cold and unfeeling.

“Execute!”

One of the executioners strode forward and stood beside a kneeling guilty cultivator.

With a swift swing of his blade, he brought it down with a heavy thud.

A head tumbled to the ground.

“Ah!”

Some of the onlookers, unable to bear the gruesome sight, gasped and shut their eyes tightly.

The executioner delivered a forceful kick, sending the headless body tumbling off the execution platform!

At that very moment, a group of elderly men and women surged forward, pushing and shoving to get closer.

Clutched in their hands were rice balls, still warm and sticky.

They quickly retreated back into the crowd, shoving the bloodied rice balls into the mouths of their children.

Those who resisted were forced to eat, their protests ignored.

Some of the children, terrified, burst into tears, but their cries were met with indifference from the very elders who usually doted on them.

Nearby, a group of Punishment Hall disciples observed the scene, their eyes gleaming with scorn, making no move to intervene.

A complete root bone is the very foundation of cultivation; without it, one cannot hope to become a magical cultivator.

However, there are rare heavenly materials and treasures that can mend an incomplete root bone.

The issue is that such treasures are far beyond the reach of ordinary families.

Then, rumors began to spread—someone claimed that this gruesome ritual could help children with incomplete root bones achieve completion.

This practice was called “exchanging blood for marrow.”

Though most people knew this was utter nonsense, it didn’t stop some foolish and desperate individuals from clinging to the belief.

In the world of cultivation, an incomplete root bone spells the end of one’s journey of cultivation. Even if one could strengthen their body through Martial Arts, they would never qualify to become something as humble as a spiritual plant farmer.

Those born into wealth might find a way to cope, but children from ordinary families were doomed to lives of servitude, destined to live out their days in obscurity and misery.

The children forced to eat the rice balls all had incomplete root bones.

And the elderly men and women who had gathered had all paid spirit stones for this grim opportunity.

A portion of those spirit stones would go to the executioners!

One by one, heads were severed, and bodies crumpled to the ground…

The crowd jostled and scrambled, some eager, others merely numb.

More people stood by, their faces blank, watching the spectacle unfold.

Wang Chen felt his stomach twist and churn, bile rising in his throat. He wished he could vomit up every last rice ball he had been forced to eat.

Without a word, he turned and walked away.

Chapter Correction