Volume 12: Invitation to Hell - Chapter 54: The Mysterious Market

This meeting left Yao Guang and Shang Liye enjoying each other's company immensely. Curious about the trading market, Yao Guang accepted Shang Liye's offer to take her there for a look.

Passing through two narrow alleys, they reached the trading door still standing in its place. Yao Guang and Shang Liye stepped across the threshold.

Crossing the door felt somewhat like entering a cavern entrance—a momentary flash of dizziness. By the time Yao Guang regained her senses, a din as loud and chaotic as a vegetable market nearly overwhelmed her.

Before Yao Guang even had a chance to survey the market, a bewitchingly beautiful woman dressed in traditional ancient attire walked right up to her. "Looking for secret techniques?"

Yao Guang shook her head.

"Wealth? A blessed land? Medicinal formulas?" The woman reeled off a string of treasures coveted by cultivators.

This piqued Yao Guang's curiosity. "You have all of these?"

"I don't, but I can guide you to whatever you want in this place, and the cost won't be too steep." The woman smiled, her flirtatious gaze truly captivating—something ordinary men would likely find impossible to refuse.

Yao Guang knew that nearly everyone in this realm was a cultivator, yet she rarely encountered such a sultry and seductive woman among them. Cultivation was a lonely path, and most practitioners led austere lives. She couldn't help wondering where this woman had sprung from.

However, casually prying into others' business was unlikely to get her far here. "None of the things you mentioned interest me," Yao Guang said. "I only wish to gather some information."

"Oh? What kind of information? Do tell," the woman said, a flicker of curiosity crossing her eyes. After all, the treasures she offered were hard for any cultivator to resist.

Knowing this was a mixed-crowd territory and lacking a clear understanding of her surroundings, Yao Guang certainly wasn't going to trust anyone blindly. "I want to inquire about ghost cultivators," she said. "Cultivation is just too exhausting."

Inquiring about ghost cultivators out of the blue would naturally arouse suspicion, so Yao Guang had to come up with a solid pretext!

Sure enough, the woman looked at her as if she were out of her mind, then snapped ungraciously, "I can't help you with that. Farewell." With that, she vanished into the surging crowd. Yao Guang smiled. To be honest, she wondered if the entities here had spent too much time in contact with modern humans, as their speech carried a distinctly modern flavor that took some getting used to.

Beside her, Shang Liye watched and let out a playful, helpless chuckle.

After the woman took her leave, Yao Guang finally had the time to take in the market. Looking around, she felt as though she were stepping straight into a scroll of life along the river. This was no ordinary market; it resembled a bustling main street within this sanctuary, where people engaged in every imaginable trade.

It made one wonder whether the entities residing here were simply too lonely, turning this place into a reflection of the mortal realm. Yet, in truth, it was no mortal world at all! One dared not dwell too deeply on the thought; doing so brought a sense of sorrow—human life is already hard enough, yet it ultimately proves to be nothing more than a mirage in a mirror or the moon reflected in water.

Yao Guang had no mood to trade just yet. She wanted to gain a deeper understanding of this place before slowly beginning to search for what she truly needed.

Strolling casually, Yao Guang found it all quite fascinating. There were even stalls selling fruits and vegetables, along with various peddlers doing business. Had it not been for the occasional modern person interspersed among the crowd, Yao Guang would have genuinely believed she had wandered into an ancient scroll painting.

After making a few casual inquiries, she learned that these so-called items from the mortal world actually commanded a high price here. They originated from mortal visitors who employed special methods to offer them as tributes to the entities of this realm, who in turn brought them out for trade. Over time, a unique market had formed.

Indeed, offerings could be made through special rituals. Ordinary people could present tributes, let alone cultivators. It was just that supplying items to the inhabitants of the netherworld was somewhat more difficult.

Nor did these phantoms actually need to eat; mortal foods were not necessities for them, yet they occasionally grew homesick for those familiar flavors.

Walking further, Yao Guang discovered numerous shops engaged in covert transactions. Quite a few modern people could be seen inside these establishments, though one could hardly guess what was being sold without stepping inside. In those shops, she caught glimpses of people ecstatic with joy, consumed by greed, filled with regret, or plunged into melancholy. Stripped of their cultivator facades by the temptations tailored for practitioners, how were these people any different from ordinary mortals?

Yet Yao Guang congratulated herself on her self-restraint. As she walked, she steadfastly refused to set foot inside a single shop. She told herself that unless she had an absolute necessity to trade, she would not pay even the smallest price for external possessions.

Yao Guang and Shang Liye walked through the place like mere sightseers, lacking only cameras to snap pictures; otherwise, they would have passed entirely for tourists.

After making a wide circle, Yao Guang did not return empty-handed. She successfully traded for the complete spiritual essence of a thousand-year-old ginseng.

Shang Liye asked her what she wanted it for.

Yao Guang's reply was simple: "To reshape physical bodies for you and the others."

This astonished Shang Liye. Physical bodies could be reshaped?

Yao Guang only smiled mysteriously, offering an expression that suggested heavenly secrets could not be divulged.

Just as Yao Guang was thoroughly enjoying every sight around her, Shang Liye announced that their time was running out. To bring Shang Liye back out with her, Yao Guang instructed him to attach himself directly to her soul.

Suddenly, Yao Guang felt as though she were plunging into water, and everything began to blur. Before she could panic and figure out what was happening, her consciousness plunged into pitch-black darkness, and she knew nothing more.

Finally, a blinding headache—much like the throbbing agony of a severe hangover—awakened Yao Guang. When she forced her eyes open and woke up, she found herself back inside the mountain cave. Gone was the dark night ghost market entirely!

Accustomed to the unconstrained and wondrous sensation of moving in a spiritual form, moving her physical body once again made her feel somewhat heavy. Enduring the throbbing headache and looking around the pitch-black cave, she felt a persistent sense of unreality. Was it all just a "dream of Nanke"?

She felt a lingering confusion, unable to tell illusion from reality.

"You're awake?" A voice beside her interrupted her deep contemplation. Yao Guang looked up and saw none other than Bai Xin.

Yao Guang nodded. With a smile, Bai Xin asked, "Does it feel like you've just had a dream? Many people have doubted whether the dark night ghost market truly exists, or if some powerful entity casts a mass dream upon us all. You know ghosts are capable of sending dreams. But the fact remains that people always manage to acquire things in the dark night ghost market, and that is perhaps the ultimate proof of its existence. Actually, I've had that dreamlike feeling too. Some masters have even suggested that the formation merely gathers many powerful entities together, after which we are collectively made to dream, obtaining whatever information we desire within the dreamscape."

"Indeed, when all is said and done, the transactions in the ghost market are merely exchanges of information, and souls in their disembodied state are much more susceptible to dreams and illusions," Yao Guang replied. Looked at this way, it was hard to tell whether it had been a dream or not.

Yet this was not a profound mystery that beings like Yao Guang and Bai Xin could fully unravel, so Yao Guang simply let the heavy topic go.

Bai Xin asked, "Did you trade for anything?"

With a wave of Yao Guang's hand, Shang Liye's soul drifted out from within her body.

"A merchant spirit? You're incredible!" Bai Xin gasped in astonishment.

By this time, twos and threes of people were already leaving the cave. Bai Xin invited Yao Guang to leave with him, marveling aloud that the ghost market truly felt like a wondrous realm of immortals.

Yet, deep in her heart, Yao Guang sighed quietly. What mortals perceived as an immortal paradise was, in Shang Liye's words, nothing more than a cage.

The scenery is viewed by the fish, yet you are not the fish; how can you know the joy of the fish? Standing from different perspectives, the scenery of this world always appears differently.