Upon hearing the last sentence, Cheng Zongyang couldn’t help but take another look at Zhang Chuchu.

’He really is a meticulous and intelligent man,’ Cheng Zongyang thought. ’No wonder he could serve as a family’s steward and manage things for over a decade without issue. If not for outside forces, he’d probably still be in that position.’

But then Cheng Zongyang asked,

"If the Soul-Loss Pit has never been filled, why didn’t they send the bodies there when the County Town was being cleared?"

Steward Zhang shook his head slightly.

"I’m not entirely clear on the details. But I imagine it wouldn’t have been large enough. Besides, no one even considered sending the bodies to the Soul-Loss Pit.

With so many corpses back then, nobody wanted to detour from West City to South City and then walk another long stretch. Besides, they were short-handed. The round trip was a long haul, and it was far easier just to burn the bodies."

Cheng Zongyang nodded slightly. He felt that was a plausible reason. ’Who would have been so diligent under those circumstances?’

Having gotten the locations, Cheng Zongyang decided to visit all three to save himself future trouble. One for each location would be perfect. Besides, he also needed to test an item he had never used before.

After dismissing Zhang Chuchu, Cheng Zongyang finished his tea and frowned.

It was still terrible.

"I need to get some better tea,"

Cheng Zongyang murmured to himself before leaving his residence. He decided to try the prison first.

Just as Zhang Chuchu had said, when it came to places with a high death toll, if the prison was number two, no other place would dare claim to be number one.

The prison was located in an area between the West and North City, near the city wall. It covered a considerable area.

When he arrived at the prison entrance, he found the place had long been abandoned. It was unguarded and unkept, and an assortment of indescribable stenches assaulted his nostrils, forcing Cheng Zongyang to hold his breath.

He took out a Soul Crystal Stone and headed inside, keeping an eye on its progress.

A Middle Tier Soul Crystal Stone had a coverage radius of one hundred meters, an area large enough for many locations. But the County Town’s prison was quite large, so he had to venture deeper inside.

The dim prison felt cold and sinister, like a crisp night in early spring. The temperature was significantly lower than outside.

Cheng Zongyang noted the feeling for a moment before dismissing it.

Upon reaching the area where the jailers used to rest, Cheng Zongyang looked at the Soul Crystal Stone.

——

Middle Tier Soul Crystal Stone: 2/2000

——

’This progress is good.’

Cheng Zongyang’s eyes lit up. He had only walked thirty or forty meters since entering, yet he’d already gained two points of progress. Clearly, there were many wandering souls in this prison.

These souls couldn’t harm a Martial Artist, but an ordinary person exposed to this environment for a long time would surely develop illnesses and have their Lifespan reduced.

He stayed for about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. Seeing the progress rise to 10, he felt reassured.

He hid the Soul Crystal Stone inside a wall and then covered it, to prevent anyone who might wander in from seeing it.

Seeing that everything was in order, Cheng Zongyang left the prison and headed toward the Soul-Soothing Slope north of the city.

About fifteen minutes later, Cheng Zongyang arrived at the location Zhang Chuchu had described: the Soul-Soothing Slope.

It was a small hill, but the area was quite large. The slope was covered with densely packed grave mounds.

Various tombstones stood watch over them. They were made of wood or stone; some graves had no marker at all, just a simple rock placed on the mound.

The scale and style of the graves also varied. Some had a wooden plaque stuck in the earth before them, while others were constructed in more unique designs.

All of this spoke to the financial status and identity of the deceased’s family.

’The feng shui here must be good. Otherwise, so many people wouldn’t have chosen to be buried here.’

But the sheer number of graves was astonishing. As Cheng Zongyang walked up the slope, he took out the other Soul Crystal Stone to check its status.

The moment he reached the foot of the hill and entered its range, the Soul Crystal Stone’s progress began to shoot up.

Cheng Zongyang was stunned.

It was just like the first time he had placed a Soul Crystal Stone in the Chaotic Burial Mound. When Cheng Zongyang reached the top of the slope, he discovered that it gave way to several more, all of them likewise covered in a dense sea of graves.

The sight made Cheng Zongyang’s skin crawl.

If he had come at night, the concentration of Yin Qi here would probably be enough to make a physically weak person gravely ill.

Since it was daytime, things were a bit more normal.

Even so, an ordinary person wouldn’t dare to linger here.

Coupled with the chaos in the County Town, this place had long been neglected. It was overgrown with wild grass, with some graves completely covered, presenting a scene of utter desolation and decay.

Many old graves had been replaced by new ones, the bones of the previous occupants nowhere to be found.

As far as the eye could see, the graves stretched on and on. It was, for all intents and purposes, an ancient and massive public cemetery spread across a cluster of hills.

Cheng Zongyang glanced at the Soul Crystal Stone in his hand again. The progress had already jumped to over fifty. The speed was incredible.

Cheng Zongyang left the Soul Crystal Stone in his pocket and began to measure out the area.

The Soul-Soothing Slope was much larger than the Chaotic Burial Mound, making it an excellent testing ground.

He had kept the item he’d bought in his hut ever since, never using it. Now was the perfect time to give it a try.

If this worked, his problem of finding a source of souls for the Soul Crystal Stones would be completely solved.

In the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he used the Wind-Stepping Step to quickly traverse the entire Soul-Soothing Slope and determine its central point.

On one of the slopes, he took out a Wordless Stone Stele that was nearly as tall as he was.

The moment the Stone Stele appeared, a wave of Cold Yin Qi billowed out. Simultaneously, a gray mist that only he could see began to emanate from the stele.