Room 607
Inside the extravagantly luxurious chamber, Wang Chen, riding on little rich girl Meng Hongchen's privilege token, immediately noticed a black soul tool password box placed on the table.
This kind of lockbox was highly secure—a sixth-tier soul tool—normally used to hold top-secret documents.
It could only be opened with the correct password. If the wrong one was entered three times, or if the box suffered external damage, its contents would be destroyed automatically.
To crack or force it open without harming what lay inside was a daunting task, something even eighth-tier Soul Engineers couldn't guarantee. In terms of security, it was top-notch.
Wang Chen looked at the box, muttering inwardly: Did Little Meng leave this for me?
He sat on the sofa beside the table, studied the password box, then entered Meng Hongchen's birthday.
A red light flashed—the input was wrong.
After hesitating for a moment, he tried his own birthday instead.
This time, a green light blinked. Correct.
With a crisp click, the box opened.
Inside was a letter. Wang Chen unfolded it and began reading:
Brother Chen, Grandpa won't let me see you, so I thought of this way to contact you. Clever, right? … From now on, every Monday I'll leave a letter here. Hehe Brother Chen, make sure to write me back when you see this. I miss you Your Meng'er.
The letter went on at length, full of the little worries of a young girl and the amusing things she had encountered recently.
Wang Chen finished reading and sat in silence for a while before snapping out of it.
He took paper from his storage soul tool and began to write a reply.
Unlike Meng Hongchen's letter, his contained no worries or complaints.
Instead, it was filled with encouragement, praise, and comforting words, and most of all, anecdotes about what he had experienced while watching the Soul Duel Tournament in the Heavenly Soul Empire.
Wang Chen had always disliked burdening those close to him with his troubles. What he wanted most was to bring smiles to their faces.
After writing, he placed his reply back into the password box, closed it securely, and set it on the table, waiting for Meng Hongchen to collect it next time.
Then he sank into the sofa, channeled a bit of soul power, and activated the soul tool screen in the VIP room.
Using his guest privileges, he began browsing the Sun and Moon Empire's latest intelligence.
In the Sun and Moon Empire, soul tool technology was so advanced that, in some respects, it rivaled his previous world.
The VIP room also had a soul tool message transmitter that could contact Treasure Pavilion staff, allowing him to issue instructions and request better services.
Wang Chen's black eyes skimmed rapidly across the soul tool screen. Thanks to his sharp spiritual power, his reading speed was extraordinary—almost like "ten lines at a glance." Even more impressive, he could recall everything he read.
Before long, he spotted a piece of news that might seem trivial to others but was of immense importance to him.
The infamous Soul-Devouring Inscription Knife, ranked ninety-ninth among the Catalogued Inscriptions, had claimed yet another owner's life.
The moment Wang Chen read this, his eyes blazed with light.
The Soul-Devouring Inscription Knife! It had surfaced!!
Though in the original storyline it appeared at an auction in the Star Luo Empire, seeing it now in the Sun and Moon Empire didn't surprise him in the slightest.
After all, the Sun and Moon Empire was the true heart of Soul Engineering. More than two-thirds of the Catalogued Inscriptions originated here, including the very first owner of the knife.
Wang Chen guessed that in the original story, it ended up in Star Luo because its evil reputation left Soul Engineers in the Sun and Moon Empire unwilling to touch it. Eventually, someone must have decided to toss it into the Douluo Three Kingdoms and let it wreak havoc there instead.
Indeed, the whole world feared it. The knife was cursed—none of its wielders had ever met a good end. Not one had even survived ten years.
But Wang Chen was not among those people. He knew the knife's true essence—Life-Gold.
Life-Gold was a treasure that could transform one's very being. Its boundless vitality meant that whoever absorbed it would find death nearly impossible.
Fixing his attention, Wang Chen scoured the details about the Soul-Devouring Knife.
Soon, the corners of his lips curled into a smile.
The knife's most recent owner had died. His widow and son, terrified of the curse, feared they too might one day be killed by it.
Thus, they decided to auction it off.
The place and time were already set:
One month later! At the Sun and Moon Empire's grandest venue—the Sun and Moon Auction House.
Wang Chen drew in a deep breath, his eyes shining with barely restrained heat.
Because of its infamous reputation, the knife's price was far lower than that of other Catalogued Inscriptions.
In the original, Huo Yuhao had purchased it in Star Luo for only 100,000 gold soul coins.
Here in the Sun and Moon Empire, where Soul Engineers were far more numerous, the bidding price would likely rise—but not excessively.
Even if it climbed tenfold, that was still only 1,000,000 gold soul coins. And that amount couldn't even buy a single ten-thousand-year soul bone.
Would spending a million on the Soul-Devouring Knife be a loss? Not at all. Far from it. By value alone, it was an absolute bargain.
Life-Gold was priceless. Compared to it, even a hundred-thousand-year ring or soul bone would pale into insignificance.
But soon, Wang Chen's excitement dimmed.
He didn't even have 100,000 gold coins on hand—let alone a million.
Counting all his wealth, he barely had 20,000. Nowhere near enough.
So how could he possibly claim the knife a month from now?
After some thought, his mind turned to the upcoming Clan Competition, only three weeks away.
If he could seize first place, the family's resources would be shifted heavily in his favor.
And if the Wang Family refused to fund his purchase? Then he'd have no choice but to shamelessly rely on the little rich girl herself.
He would ask Meng Hongchen to lend him a hand in acquiring the Soul-Devouring Knife.