55: Chapter 55 Strange Treasures in the Ghost Market, A Thousand Layers of Schemes to Trap the Young Master

Outside the abandoned dock in the southern suburbs of Jiangzhou, the river waters surged torrentially.

The Mingyue Cruise Ship, resembling an entirely pitch-black steel behemoth, silently broke through the thick white fog over the river surface, sailing toward unknown deep-water areas.

Inside the No. 8 VIP box on the second floor of the cruise ship, the view was exceptionally superb.

A full-sized, one-way perspective floor-to-ceiling bulletproof glass kept the ring-shaped central auction stage below in full view.

The box was paved with a heavy handmade Persian carpet, and an elusive hint of top-tier sandalwood flowed through the air, yet it still failed to cover up the earthy stench and yin-shas qi converging from all directions on this ship.

Lin Ye lazily leaned back deep into the genuine leather sofa with his legs crossed.

Leng Yue sat upright by his side.

Under the dim lighting of the box, the deep black backless evening gown on her body shimmered with a luxurious velvet luster.

With a dignified posture, she extended her slender, jade-white fingers to peel a crystal-clear purple grape, smoothly passing it to the edge of Lin Ye's lips.

Lin Ye opened his mouth and bit down, the sweetness of the grape mixed with the lingering cold fragrance of spider lilies on Leng Yue's fingertips, spreading across the tip of his tongue.

This scene fell into the eyes of Young Master Qin and Fatty Wang opposite them, making the corners of both men's eyes twitch wildly.

The dignified, peerlessly cold and stunning female fierce deity who had instantly killed the Corpse King with a single move was unexpectedly peeling grapes like a submissive maid at this moment.

This strong sense of contrast raised Young Master Qin's awe of Lin Ye to an unreachable dimension once again.

"Clang!"

A low, ethereal metallic clashing sound abruptly interrupted the noisy conversations within the venue.

On the ring-shaped auction stage below, a gray-robed elder with a hunched back had appeared at some unknown time.

Holding a ghastly pale human thigh bone in his hand, the elder struck an ancient bronze gong in front of him.

The elder was as thin as a skeleton, his face covered with brown corpse spots, his left eye empty and hollow, while his only remaining right eye flickered with a sly and greedy eerie light.

"Fellow practitioners and bosses, welcome to the Mingyue Cruise Ship Yin-Yang Ghost Market!"

The elder's voice was extremely piercing.

"This old man is Ghost Hand Seven, serving as tonight's hammer-master. The rules of our Ghost Market are: no questions asked about origins, no returns or exchanges included, spot delivery, and life and death, fortune and misfortune are up to one's own destiny."

This completely unguarded opening remark not only failed to arouse public disgust,

but instead caused the masked rogue cultivators and wealthy merchants in the hall to burst into waves of excited whispers.

"Yezi, this old man looks even more demonic than a ghost."

Fatty Wang muttered quietly, cowering in the corner of the sofa.

"He is an outcast of the Western Hunan corpse-driving lineage, dealing with corpses all year round, and has contracted corpse poison on his body; he won't live for another three years."

Lin Ye glanced at the elder, exposing the other party's background in a single sentence.

At this time, two burly masked men pushed a brass cart covered with red silk onto the high stage.

Ghost Hand Seven yanked open the red silk.

In the center of the cart was placed a transparent bulletproof glass tank.

Immersed inside the tank was a viscous, light-yellow antiseptic liquid.

Right in the middle of the liquid floated a meat-like object as large as a washbasin with a dark red body.

This lump of meat lacked facial features, and its surface was covered with cyan veins resembling blood vessels one by one.

Furthermore, this thing was actually contracting and expanding regularly, like a beating heart.

"The first lot, the millennium blood Tai Sui!"

Ghost Hand Seven's harsh voice spread throughout the venue via the loudspeaker.

"This item was desperately brought out by brothers of the tomb-raiding lineage from the water eye of the underground palace in a Western Han vassal state ancient tomb."

"Tai Sui meat prolongs life, brings the dead back to life, and puts flesh back on bones. This piece of millennium blood Tai Sui only needs to be cut to the size of a fingernail and ingested to extend life by ten years! Starting price, ten million!"

The hall instantly boiled over.

Extending life by ten years!

For those top-tier tycoons with half a foot stepping into the coffin,

let alone ten million, even one hundred million would be smashed down by them without hesitation.

"Fifteen million!"

"Twenty million!"

Bidding voices rose one after another; within a short half-minute, the price soared to fifty million.

Young Master Qin sat in the box with reddened eyes and rapid breathing.

His grandfather was advanced in years; if he could successfully bid for this blood Tai Sui and bring it back, his status within the family would definitely soar to the skies.

"Master Lin, this thing..."

Young Master Qin rubbed his hands, preparing to press the bidding device.

"If you want your grandfather to die a sudden death and your whole family to be wiped out, you might as well buy it back."

Lin Ye picked up his teacup with a cold tone.

Young Master Qin's finger trembled, abruptly stopping above the bidding device.

"The meat lingzhi recorded in the Compendium of Materia Medica indeed has the effect of prolonging life, but that lump of stuff on the stage cannot be called Tai Sui at all; it is clearly a piece of corpse-yin fungus."

Lin Ye pointed at the cyan veins on the surface of the meat lump, analyzing coldly.

"This thing grows in the water-gathering acupoint of an extremely yin corpse-nurturing ground, surviving by absorbing the corpse grease and grievances generated when hundreds or thousands of corpses rot."

"You think it looks like it's breathing? That's spewing corpse poison outward! If a mortal ingests this thing, within three days, his internal organs will be covered with these dark-red tumors, and he will eventually be drained of all his essential blood, turning into a withered bone covered in mushrooms."

Young Master Qin listened with cold sweat pouring down. He glanced at the bald wealthy merchant in the hall who had successfully bid for the blood Tai Sui at an astronomical price of eighty million, a thick trace of pity flashing in the depths of his eyes.

"Congratulations to this boss for joyfully obtaining the supreme treasure of longevity!"

Ghost Hand Seven struck the bronze gong, a sinister smile hanging at the corners of his mouth.

Of course he knew this thing was poisonous; the rule of the Ghost Market was simply to sell without asking about life or death.

In the following half hour, one bizarre lot after another was pushed onto the stage consecutively.

There was a soul-summoning bone flute carved from the thigh bone of a blind girl.

This flute needed to be played with the essential blood of a living person, and it could drive lonely ghosts and wild spirits within a radius of ten miles.

Lin Ye saw at a glance that a vicious backlash curse was attached to this bone flute, and the player would eventually have their heart devoured by ten thousand ghosts.

There was a tattered bronze corpse-suppressing bell.

The surface of the bell was engraved with authentic thunder patterns of the Maoshan sect, making it indeed a rare genuine magical artifact.

Due to the fracture of the internal bell clapper, the corpse-suppressing effect was greatly reduced, and it was ultimately picked up as a bargain by a rogue cultivator for five million.

Young Master Qin acted like an obedient primary school student throughout the whole process, with his hands placed on his knees.

Without Lin Ye speaking up, he didn't dare to recklessly raise a bid even for a single cent.

"Clang!"

Ghost Hand Seven struck the copper gong once again, and the lights inside the hall dimmed accordingly.

A dazzling spotlight shone on the center of the auction stage.

Two burly men carried a heavy red sandalwood stand onto the stage.

On the stand, an octagonal ancient bronze mirror was squarely enshrined.

This ancient mirror exhibited a demonic purple-gold color throughout its body, and the mirror surface was polished very smoothly.

Moreover, eight crimson gemstones were inlaid around the ancient mirror.

Even though they were far apart, everyone inside the box could still feel a fierce and domineering pure-yang heat wave rushing toward their faces.

"Everyone, tonight's grand finale has arrived!"

A fanatical light burst out from Ghost Hand Seven's only remaining right eye.

"The Purple Gold Thunder-Fire Mirror! This is a town-sect magical treasure passed down from the Celestial Master Mansion of Mount Longhu in the Ming dynasty, the mirror seals within it a wisp of the might of heavenly thunder and earth fire, specializing in subduing all yin-evil zombies and century-old great demons. Starting price, thirty million! Each increment must not be less than one million!"

Once this magical treasure appeared, not only the wealthy merchants in the hall, but even those few VIP boxes on the second floor that had been holding back all along emitted waves of commotion.

Pure-yang magical instruments were undoubtedly supreme sharp tools for saving lives in this turbulent world where yin energy was reviving.

Lin Ye gazed at the Purple Gold Thunder-Fire Mirror.

On the surface, this was indeed a heavy yang-attribute treasure with compelling spiritual energy.

When he condensed a trace of the Qi-Observing Technique into his eyes, a trace of cold mockery instantly swept across the depths of his eyes.

Deep within the purple-gold light of that ancient mirror, a dense, pitch-black evil aura was hidden!

This evil aura was cleverly wrapped by the outer layer of thunder-fire aura, just like a sugar-coated fatal poison.

Once someone injected spiritual power into the mirror attempting to stimulate the thunder-fire, this hidden extreme-yin evil aura would instantly backlash, completely freezing and shattering the user's extraordinary meridians.

Just at the moment when Lin Ye saw through the profound mystery within it, a faint light flickered on his retina.

"Ding! "My Lord, Please Behave Yourself" System prompt: It is detected that in the No. 3 VIP box, Gu Changfeng, the second young master of the Gu family, is preparing to maliciously bid. Please host make a choice within three minutes to let this group of arrogant bumpkins witness a thousand-layer scheme!"

[Option A: Swallow one's anger — sit on the sofa eating melon seeds, watch helplessly as Gu Changfeng wins the magical treasure through bidding, and laugh at him afterwards for being an idiot.]

[Reward: Buddhist Youth title. Consequence: No one in the audience knows your brilliance, and Gu Changfeng will even think you have no money to bid, mocking you fiercely, resulting in a complete loss of aura.]

[Option B: Wealthy and imposing — squander Young Master Qin's wallet, directly shout out an astronomical price of one hundred million, crushing all defiance with money.]

[Reward: Tycoon Experience Card. Consequence: Spend one hundred million to buy a life-shortening talisman home, Young Master Qin will suffer a cerebral hemorrhage on the spot, and Leng Yue will think your brain got flooded with water.]

[Option C: Swindle and bluff, invite the target into the trap — display actor-level acting skills, pretending to be determined to win the magical treasure and acting almost crazy.]

[Induce Gu Changfeng to maliciously drive up the price and drain his working capital. Reward: "My Lord, Please Behave Yourself" System points +300, acquire the limited-time title [King of Scamming Kings], and Leng Yue's favorability will significantly increase.]

These options simply wrote the script out and fed it right to the mouth.

Lin Ye turned his head, looked at Young Master Qin sitting next to him, and lowered his voice:

"Young Master Qin, this Purple Gold Thunder-Fire Mirror is a rare treasure of the world! Even if I go bankrupt today, I must secure this item. Is the capital in your hands enough?"

Young Master Qin was startled by Lin Ye.

"Enough! Master Lin, rest assured, there is five hundred million in working capital on this card of mine, swipe it however you like!"

Young Master Qin patted his chest in assurance.

"Good."

Lin Ye took a deep breath, suddenly pressed the microphone of the bidding device in front of him, and his voice echoed across the entire venue: "Fifty million!"

This sudden and massive price increase instantly silenced several rogue cultivators in the hall who were just preparing to raise their placards.