How Much For Your Soul?

Chapter 5

The Snow Wind Family's compound was quite large and had guards at every entrance and courtyard, this seemed to be overkill. The Divine Family's compound was just as big but had half the guards.

With Chen Zhenlong's status, they were escorted to the grand hall without any problems. After ten minutes of waiting, a haggard-looking City Lord walked in and sat on his throne. His long purple hair was mussed, and his usually stern face was replaced with a weary one.

"Brother Chen, I made you wait, please accept my apologies."

"No, it's us that needs to apologise for interrupting you, brother Ye. Is everything alright? My business is not urgent if you need to attend other matters." Said Chen Zhenlong with concern.

Ye Zong hesitated but then decided to confide in Chen Zhenlong. "My wife is unwell, the Family's doctors are unable to treat her. She has fallen into a coma for the last three days, and the doctors are unsure if she will last much longer." His words were full of emotion, it was clear he was straining to hold back tears.

Shen Yue was stunned! Had he suddenly gained plot armour? Will he now randomly fall over, only to realise it was a buried ultimate artifact that he tripped over?

He had only wanted to establish a connection with Ye Zong and maybe get a look at Ye Ziyun, but now he was here at the same time the city lords much-cherished wife was poisoned! He had thought she was already dead.

She had not even been part of any of his plans as she was only mentioned once in the novel randomly. Apparently, his douche father had wanted Ye Zong to suffer, so he poisoned his wife, dude was all kinds of spiteful. It only mentioned she had died when Ye Ziyun was young, which now seems to be when she was six.

This opportunity was too good to pass up, plus it will piss Shen Hong off! Shen Yue was still absolutely livid about the beating he received. After listening to Ye Zong and Chen Zhenlong debate over a possible solution, he threw his hat in the ring.

"Excuse me City Lord, but maybe I can help?" It really was difficult being in a child's body, no one gave him any recognition.

"Who is this child, brother Chen?" Said Ye Zong with a disapproving face.

Chen Zhenlong could only admire Shen Yue's fearlessness, praying he had the capability to back it up. With a resigned sigh, he introduced the little rapscallion to the City Lord.

"This is the 'Runaway Prince', Shen Yue. I brought him here today because we need you to witness a contract signing." Said Chen Zhenlong quickly filling him in on the details of the little terror's saga. Hearing of Shen Yue's exploits and ability, he managed to raise a tired smile.

"You have confidence in treating my wife?"

"No, but I have read over a hundred thousand books, maybe one of them contains a possible answer to her condition." Not wanting to sound too arrogant he downplayed his chances of success.

Ye Zong thought that the chance of the kid helping was close to zero. Left with no other alternative, he swallowed his pride and led them to his private courtyard.

On the bed was a gorgeous woman with long purple hair splayed out above her pillow. Getting the ok from Ye Zong, he approached her and held her wrist. It was time for his cheat library to do its thing. Sure enough, a book was compiled.

[ Ye Rou, 26 years of age, a citizen of Glory City, the wife of City Lord Ye Zong,

Demon Spiritualist Gold 1-Star.

"Flaws: No.1, Cultivation technique is not compatible with soul realm form. No.2, her talent toward cultivation is lacking, her ability to sense energy from heaven and earth, known as qi, is too weak... No.3, the body had been corroded by the aura of Black Oil Tree causing her Eight Extraordinary Meridians to be blocked. The specific locations where the eight meridians are blocked are... ]

"So she is also from the Ye family, that explains the hair colour." After pretending to examine a few of Ye Rou's symptoms, Shen Yue stood up and gave the most solemn look his youthful face could show.

"I'm afraid your wife has been poisoned, I have read of these exact symptoms in a book of my Family's library. It comes from a tree that grows in the Dark Forrest, the Black Oil Tree. Does your wife perhaps have a personal garden, or somewhere she could come into contact with this tree?" Explained Shen Yue, not forgetting to try and implicate his dear ol' dad.

Hearing this, the City Lord rushed them to a private garden, where there were two unassuming saplings behind a bench used to view the garden. Shen Yue positively identified the trees and inquired where they were sourced from. Fuck the timeline, if he could get Shen Hong killed it would make his next six years a lot easier.

Unfortunately, Ye Zong didn't know how they came to be here and was now focused on finding a cure. There absolutely was a cure to help Ye Rou, it was easy to procure and would allow her to heal with little effort.

But Shen Yue wanted to try his luck at souring the relationship between two of the major three families or at the very least, get into the restricted library! You might think it was already that of a cold war, but Ye Zong was totally oblivious towards Shen Hong's hate.

Following lots of assurances that he could cure Ye Zong's wife if he had that book, a party consisting of two Family patriarchs, a heap of guards and a little shit stirrer, was on its way to the Sacred Family to hopefully borrow a book that actually exists.

Without much drama, the group found themselves in front of an annoyed Shen Hong and a group of curious elders. If looks could kill, then Shen Yue would be dead... and he just remembered that Shen Hong could probably kill him with just a glance.

"Fuck it, let's go all out!" He thought as his face developed a shit eating grin. With the two patriarchs next to him, he would be safe from any harm.

"What brings you to my Sacred Family?" Questioned Shen Hong, wondering why the City Lord was here. "Could he know that he was responsible for his wife's condition? No, impossible, I covered my tracks. It must have to do with that brat!" Thought Shen Hong angrily.

"Shen Hong, unfortunately, I don't come under happy circumstances, my wife has fallen ill, and I have been told you might have the answer in saving her. If Brother Shen could help me, I would be most grateful!" Said Ye Zong.

"If there is anything I can do to help, then just ask. It is only natural to lend aid in these situations." The Sacred Family patriarch obviously had to say this, though internally he was worried.

"Thank you, brother Shen, I, Ye Zong will remember this favour! Go get the book, Shen Yue, we must hurry!" Ye Zong was on cloud nine, so close to a cure for his wife.

Shen Yue was pretty sure there was a book on poisons in the restricted area, he just hoped that it covered the Black Oil Tree. There was a scroll in the public section with a cure in it, but it didn't name the poison. It was a higher tier detox pill that would easily do the job, it would be his back up plan, should he be pressured to produce a method of curing Ye Rou.

Not giving a shit about etiquette he ran off before Shen Hong could even ask what book he was referring to. His next obstacle was the guard for the restricted library, as the elder was in the main hall with the patriarchs.

"Halt! This area is restricted!" Shouted the meathead they had planted in front of the door.

"Idiot, I wouldn't be here if I didn't know that! I have been sent here by the City Lord, Patriarch Chen Zhenlong and my father, Patriarch Shen Hong! Do you know them?" Getting a startled nod from the guard, he continued.

"I need the book on poisons covering the Black Oil Tree. Hurry, go fetch it. The City Lord's wife is near death!" Shen Yue made sure to use keywords like 'City Lord' and 'death' to convey the shit storm this guard will be in if he fucks up.

"I, ah, um, I'm not sure." Stammered out the guard.

"That's fine, what's your name? I need to report to the patriarchs which idiot had the balls stopping me from saving the City Lord's wife." Shen Yue knew this guy was about to crack. Sometimes the lines from movies work (if you happen to be reincarnated into a fictional world where the average exposure to Jedi mind tricks are quite low!).

"Fuck just go in, but if this is a trick, the patriarch will punish you heavily." What was left unsaid was that he would also be in for a world of hurt.

Running past the guard as soon as he heard 'go', he ignored the rest of the speech. Entering the room, he was surprised by how small it was. Upon remembering that these are the dangerous/illegal books only able to be seen by elders, it made sense that there would be only three hundred or so books and scrolls.

Usually, he would only scan two books a minute. Taking his time, so as not to damage the book, or look like a crack addict in need of a fix. But it only took five seconds to grab a book, flip the pages, then return it to the shelf.

Thirty minutes later, three hundred books that had been forbidden to him, had been scanned into his library. As luck would have it, or not really, considering how unscrupulous Shen Hong was, there were a total of eighteen books on poisons.

One of them covering the Black Oil Tree in detail. There was even a journal of one of the Sacred Family's member's exploration of the Infinite Forrest! That will surely come in handy later.

Taking the needed book out of his storage ring, as he had found it fifteen minutes ago, he ran out the door not even bothering about the guard yelling at him. Why where these compounds so big! It took him another ten minutes to get back to the patriarchs who had been waiting close to an hour for his return.

These ten minutes of running were much needed as he could barely contain his excitement. He had it! There were three inscriptions of the enslaving variety!

-Soul Shackle Sometimes known as Soul Chains, binds the targets life to a seal stone. The corresponding seal stone needs only to be crushed to kill the target.

-Blood Imprint Once the imprint is applied, the person will feel great pain every night. If they were to move a kilometre away from the caster, they would immediately die. It can only be removed if the slave is able to reach the gold rank or if the caster is killed.

-Emphatic Curse A curse designed to amplify specific emotions, though it eventually causes the target to become insane.

Concentrating on running was all he could do to stop from jumping in joy! It took nearly seven years, the worst beating he had ever had in both lives (not including truck-kun!) and many close calls with mental illness, but he had finally done it. After some massive amounts of modifying, he will be able to build a loyal army!

"Here it is City Lord!" Yue Shen called out as he kicked open the doors, not giving the guards any time to open it or question him. He ran over and shoved the book into Ye Zong's hands.

"What book is it?" Shen Hong asked Shen Yue, nervous that anything could be traced back to him, there shouldn't be a book on Black Oil Tree in the public library!

Shen Yue just ignored him, he had already cut ties with the Sacred Family and was planning on searching disreputable sources for a slave inscription. Now that he had three of them, he really couldn't give a fuck about Shen Hong, especially with the Divine Family's backing and now the City Lords after his help today.

Seeing his son ignore him enraged Shen Hong! The little shit had already spread rumours of how he crippled the boy, and now in front of the Snow Wind and Divine Families, he disrespected him!

He couldn't believe how things had come to this. With the boy's talent, he could have brought the family great benefits. Not to mention all the knowledge they could reproduce if they ever moved to the Nether Realm like he had been planning with the Dark Guild.

Shen Hong hadn't meant to beat him so heavily, but when the little shit called him trash, he had lost control. The lack of treatment had been to teach him a lesson, but he had overlooked Shen Xiu's involvement. Now things were out of his control. He would have to wait until Shen Yue returned to the compound, then he would teach him respect!

Ye Zong had already found the page with the Black Oil Tree information and was over the moon! He would be heading straight to the Alchemy Association to get the antidote made.

"Brother Shen, I can't thank you enough for lending me this book. I will have it returned as soon as I have cured my wife. I will call on you again, hopefully with happy news!" Yelled Ye Zong, almost jogging to the door. He was too eager to retain his composure.

Shen Yue just ran after the City Lord, while Chen Zhenlong saluted and gave a proper salute. Rushing through the streets, no one dared to obstruct the path of such influential people. When they reached the Alchemy Association, they were shown straight to President Gu Yan's courtyard.

While the higher-ups were discussing the antidote, Shen Yue was looking at Gu Yan's personal library! There were only one hundred or so books, but they were bound to be of a higher tier. As soon as the ingredients were brought over Gu Yan started to make the antidote.

While everyone was concentrating on the pill furnace, Shen Yue started flipping pages! Going at a decent pace but as quietly as he could, he was finished well before the pills were made.

Making sure all the books were in order he walked over to watch the pill furnace with the others, not forgetting to compile a book on the President. When he started his own pill making business these techniques and the books he just scanned, will be invaluable.

Shen Yue had no desire to make the acquaintance of the most renowned pill maker in Glory City, he had already stolen all his skills and recipes. When the City Lord left as soon as the pill was made, he followed along.

Two hours later, Ye Rou had awakened from her coma, and everyone was crying in happiness. Feeling very awkward, Shen Yue just stood out of the way. He struggled with emotional situations.

Ye Ziyun was an adorable child, she would be growing into a gorgeous woman. His fellow Earthling's future body already had the appearance perks she had chosen.

"I wonder what happens to this Ye Ziyun's soul? Maybe I can save it when the slapper takes over. Right, it's decided, let's keep a decent relationship with Ziyun. At the very least it will cause the bitch problems when she steals her body if she suddenly changes personality." He thought, making more plans for the future.

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