Zu An realized that what the voice said was true. Without that reminder, he would have gone over to kill the other competitors; forget about all of the evils he would incur, he wouldn't necessarily be able to win either.

Even though those Naihe Oblivion Ferrymen all had the so-called Naihe Oblivion Art, he still had confidence in facing one or two of them. But if he gave away his intentions, the other ferrymen weren’t idiots and would definitely band together to get rid of him. That way, if he had to fight against so many Naihe Oblivion Ferrymen with the Naihe Oblivion Art, the most likely fate awaiting him would be getting thrown into the river and turning into a water ghost.

But there were only two hours left. Where would he even go to gather so many souls? It would be great if there was a bridge...

His eyes suddenly lit up.

Wait, shouldn’t the Naihe Oblivion River have a Bridge of Helplessness, and the Bridge of Helplessness has a Grandmother Meng? The Black and White Guards of Impermanence said that we shared destinies, and the giant statue even said that there was someone here who shared great karma with me.

He looked around him and spread out his divine sense. Unfortunately, there was no bridge in sight across the endless waters.

He quickly asked the voice, but it replied, “In order to ensure the safety of this competition, I cannot help you any more.”

Zu An was about to laugh out of anger. “Fairness? I only have two hours left, while those guys have all already ferried over a hundred thousand souls. You call this fair?”

The voice hesitated for a moment before saying, “What you say carries some reason. How about this? I'll make one more exception. The Bridge of Helplessness is not here; it is behind the Hall of King Reincarnation. It is not in the same spatial position as this place, so you can give up on that idea.”

“I can’t do this, I can’t do that, why don’t you tell me something I can do?!” Zu An exclaimed angrily.

“You can only rely on yourself for this trial. Since you were brought here by ‘me’, I believe that you will definitely be able to do it.” After finishing its sentence, the voice no longer responded.

Zu An immediately erupted into curses. However, he took a deep breath and held back his anger, as it was completely meaningless.

Just how was he supposed to make up the hundred thousand gap in ferried souls in under two hours? He looked at the surging river and suddenly thought of something.

It doesn’t seem to be completely impossible.

Then, Zu An jumped onto the small boat again. With a row, he tested out what he envisioned in his mind. Sure enough, it worked! He immediately felt much more encouraged.

When he reached the other shore, he ran to the closest ferryman and asked, “This brother over here, how about we make a deal? Seeing as the virtue you've earned is far inferior to the first three ranks, how about selling your virtue to me?”

The ferryman rolled his eyes as if he was looking at an idiot. “What are you going to use to buy my virtue?”

“What do you need?” Zu An asked.

The ferryman sneered and said mockingly, “I need virtue.”

Zu An was speechless.

Just then, the ferryman continued, “In Hell, the only thing useful to us is virtue. Everything else is useless.”

Zu An didn’t panic and replied, “It’s true that I don’t have that much virtue on me, but I can pay in installments, right?”

“Pay in installments?” The ferryman was stunned. He had clearly never heard of such a thing before.

“That’s right. For example, if you give me the ten thousand virtue you have right now, I’ll return one thousand one hundred every month. That way. after ten months you’ll have eleven thousand virtue. Ten percent in earnings is already pretty good,” Zu An explained. Either way, he was going to leave the underworld once he finished his mission, so he couldn't care less where these ferrymen looked to collect the debt after.

𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

If you greed after my interest, then I’ll greed after your capital!

The ferryman was a bit tempted, but his expression quickly became stern again. He said, “I’m not interested.”

Are you kidding right now? I was already about to give up, and yet you came up with this new way of thinking.

Can’t I just do this myself?

What right does a newbie like you with just a few dozen virtue coins have to work with me?

As such, he chased Zu An off and tried to get ferrymen with more virtue to work with to see if he could catch up to the top three.

When he saw how wild with joy the ferryman was, Zu An chuckled. He wasn’t surprised by the reaction at all. Then, he contacted a few more ferrymen, and they all refused him without exception. However, they also excitedly looked for others to get loans.

They all started mocking this newcomer inwardly.

You only have a trifling couple dozen virtue coins, so what right do you have to work with us? You really overestimate your own worth.

Zu An didn’t get angry. He found the fourth-ranked ferryman. That person now had eighty thousand virtue, and even though he wasn’t that far from the top three, catching up in this short amount of time was near impossible.

The ferryman sneered when he saw Zu An arrive. “You can save your breath. I already have a rough idea of what happened. Those guys really are stupid and want to pay back in installments, but can’t those in the top positions do it themselves? They can do the same thing, and how can the others catch up to them then? In the end, these guys will end up owing a bunch of money for nothing without gaining anything at all.”

Zu An chuckled and said, “It seems your distinguished self is a smart person. Then could it be that you don’t plan to participate anymore?”

“Of course not. A loss is a loss. Even though I can't gain the qualifications to participate in this trial, I’ve at least earned these eighty thousand virtue properly. It’s enough for me to enjoy a comfortable life for quite some time.” The ferryman acted as if he was the only one who knew what he was doing. “So there’s no need for you to try to advise me.”

Just then, Zu An said, “This brother has misunderstood. I didn’t come to discuss installments with you, but rather that I wanted to remind you of something. Have you considered lending to others?”

“Lending?” The ferryman frowned.

“That’s right. Since those guys are so greedy and you know that you can’t catch up to the other three this way, why don’t you lend out your virtue? Everyone wants virtue coins right now, so they’ll definitely welcome it if you lend your coins,” Zu An advised.

“Hmph, it’s just a ten percent return, so why would I care about that?” The ferryman waved his hand. He was someone who liked stability more. It’d be really annoying if he couldn't collect his virtue back.

“It’ll be more than ten percent,” Zu An explained with a smile. “That's just a diversion. For example, if you lend ten thousand to someone, they'll return you one thousand one hundred in the first month. However, at that point, they'll clearly owe you nine thousand. If we still continue to evaluate that based on the initial rate of ten thousand, the real interest is almost double. You can then continue to lend out your money once you get it back again and increase the assets lent out. In the end, the virtue you’ll gain will be unimaginably greater.

“Besides, if everyone is frantically seeking virtue, even if you increase the rate a bit, I’m sure most people will still be able to accept it. Then, you might earn double, or even several times the virtue back,” Zu An advised.

To be honest, if it wasn’t because there wasn’t enough time, he would even want to mess around a bit himself and let this underworld experience the power of finance, the shrewdness of capitalism.

Sure enough, the ferryman’s eyes immediately widened. He wouldn’t take the risk if it was just ten percent, but what if it was several hundred percent in returns? No one… Not even ghosts could resist this kind of temptation!

His breathing became a bit hurried, but he still retained his last bit of rationality. He looked at Zu An suspiciously and asked, “Why aren’t you doing something so great yourself and came all the way here to tell me?”

Zu An shrugged and said helplessly, “I want to do it too, but I’m a newcomer without much capital, so there’s just no way. That’s why I can only try to collaborate with you. I just hope that after this brother succeeds, you'll share a thousand virtue with me.”

“Are you not scared that I’ll go back on my word?” the ferryman asked with a chuckle.

“Brother seems to be outstanding and impressive in bearing, and you aren’t as disloyal as the others I spoke to, so that’s why I shared this method with you first. This is also an expression of my sincerity,” Zu An said with a sincere expression. If any of his sweethearts were here right now, they would immediately realize that he was scheming.