64: Chapter 64 Venturing into the Ghost Market Alone

At two in the afternoon, in the old district of Jiangzhou City, Panjiayuan Antique Street.

On a late autumn afternoon, there were few pedestrians on the antique street.

The fallen leaves of the locust trees on both sides of the road covered the ground, making a crisp cracking sound when stepped on.

Stalls selling fake antiques and cheap jade wares lined both sides of the street.

The vendors leaned listlessly against folding stools, dozing off.

Fatty Wang got out of the taxi and tightened the collar of his jacket.

He walked through the bustling outer street and, following the route in his memory, twisted and turned into a remote, deep alley.

Deep in the alley hung that dusty wooden plaque — [Half-Immortal Hall].

The grand master chair in front of the shop was empty, and the door panels were half-closed.

Sounds of Peking Opera singing drifted from inside.

Fatty took a deep breath, pressed the boning knife at his waist, mustered up his courage, pushed open the door, and walked in.

The lighting inside the shop was dim.

A strange smell mixed with inferior sandalwood and aged moldy wood drifted in the air.

A skinny old man wearing a yellowish Tai Chi uniform was lying on a rocking chair with his eyes closed.

He wore round-framed sunglasses on his face and was twirling two shiny walnuts in his hands.

An old radio placed on the side tea table was playing "The Empty City Strategy".

"Master Chen!"

Fatty walked with big strides to the tea table and shouted at the top of his lungs.

He kept the instructions given by Lin Ye in mind; his imposing manner must not falter in the slightest.

The old man was startled by this shout, and the walnuts in his hand almost dropped to the ground.

He pulled down the sunglasses on the bridge of his nose, revealing a pair of slender eyes flashing with shrewd, greasy light, and looked Fatty up and down.

"I was wondering who it was; turns out it is the lackey of the Lin family boy from Taiping Street."

Master Chen let out a cold snort, put his sunglasses back on, leaned back against the rocking chair, and spoke in an arrogant tone.

"What, did your boss strike it rich and send you to my little temple to collect protection money?"

Fatty did not waste any breath.

He directly took out the yellow paper parcel from his inner pocket and slammed it hard onto the solid wood tea table in front of Master Chen.

"Crack!"

A muffled sound.

The originally dismissive expression of Master Chen froze instantly the moment the yellow paper parcel touched the tabletop.

On the surface of a cup of scalding hot tea placed on the tea table, a layer of thin ice crystals actually formed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

A netherworld deathly Qi that went straight to the soul pierced through the blockade of the yellow paper and permeated the entire room.

It was as if a spring was installed under the buttocks of Master Chen, and he sprang up violently from the rocking chair.

His speed was completely unlike that of a decrepit old man.

"This aura... This is..."

He scrambled over to the tea table, his hands trembling as he cautiously peeled open a corner of the yellow wrapping paper.

When that pitted, pitch-black ore came into view.

Master Chen gasped, retreated three steps in a row, and slammed his back hard against the antique shelf, rattling several fake porcelains with a clatter.

"A floor tile fragment from the City of Wrongful Deaths?!"

The eyes of Master Chen hidden behind the sunglasses widened like those of a dead fish, his voice becoming sharp and distorted due to extreme shock.

As a descendant of the Lüshan Sect, he had spent half his life struggling in the quagmire of the metaphysical world.

Such peerless yin items tainted by ancient netherworld laws—he had only seen a few scattered words about them in the core ancient texts and diagrams of his sect.

"Your boss... actually brought things out from that place alive?!"

The gaze of Master Chen toward Fatty changed completely.

Just what kind of monster was that young man named Lin Ye?

Not only could he wield the lost Pure Yang Thunder Fire, but he could also move freely in and out of the legendary netherworld ruins!

Seeing the worldview-shattered appearance of Master Chen, the confidence of Fatty instantly soared to the extreme.

He pulled over a chair to sit down, crossed his legs, and speaking at a leisurely pace, imitated the composed tone of Lin Ye:

"Old Chen, do not make a fuss over nothing. This broken stone is just the toll fee given to you by my brother."

"A toll fee? Which path does Boss Lin want to ask about?"

Master Chen swallowed with difficulty, but his gaze could not move away from that piece of ore no matter what.

If this thing fell into his hands, it would be enough to raise the power of his Lüshan spells by a whole level, and he might even break through his bottleneck of many years!

Fatty put away the smile on his face, leaned forward slightly, and lowered his voice:

"My brother wants to buy a piece of intelligence. Where is the lair of the Yinshan Sect hidden in Jiangzhou and even the entire Jiangnan Province?"

As soon as these words came out.

The withered cheeks of Master Chen twitched fiercely, as if he had heard some terrible taboo.

"The Yinshan Sect? You... You want to find the core stronghold of the Yinshan Sect?"

The old man waved his hands repeatedly, shaking his head like a rattle-drum.

"No, you must not! Boss Lin is muddle-headed! Those people are a pack of mad dogs, and the Yinshan Patriarch they worship is extremely bizarre."

"I heard that you just broke one of their peripheral elders last night. It is already too late to lie low, yet you are still taking the initiative to go court death?"

"This old man dares not want this stone, nor will I sell the intelligence. You two had better look for someone else!"

Master Chen knew very well how terrifying the retaliation of the Yinshan Sect was. Compared to this priceless netherworld ore, he valued his life more.

Seeing this old fox wanting to back down, the anger of Fatty flared up.

He abruptly stood up, unzipped his jacket with a clanging sound, pulled out the ferocious boning knife stained with dark red blood from his waist, and hacked it fiercely onto the tea table!

"Bang!"

The blade sank an inch into the solid wood tabletop.

A fierce baleful aura condensed from slaughtering countless living beings erupted within the narrow pawnshop.

The eyes of Fatty widened round, and his flesh-covered face trembled slightly due to ruthlessness.

At this moment, he perfectly played the role of a desperate desperado.

"Old Chen, my brother said, whether you want to accept this stone or not, you must accept it! If you do not spit out something useful today, the pig-slaughtering knife of Lord Fatty here will bleed you first!"

Under the oppression of this baleful aura, coupled with the deterrent of the unfathomable background of Lin Ye, Master Chen completely caved in.

He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and slumped dejectedly back into his chair.

"Forget it, forget it... This old man is afraid of you jinxes."

Master Chen looked around as if he was afraid that walls had ears.

He leaned closer to Fatty, lowering his voice extremely low, as if even the air would leak the secret.

"Heishui Town."

"Seventy miles west of Jiangzhou, in Heishui Town, at the abandoned Paper Mill No. 44, there is an underground sewage facility built on a mass grave."

"Several core protectors of the Yinshan Sect are secretly preparing a great array of the [Hundred Ghosts Night Parade] there."

Master Chen stared fixedly at Fatty, his tone revealing an extreme warning:

"Tell Boss Lin! They have set up an inescapable net there, and the trump cards in their hands are far simpler than just a few walking corpses. Going there means nine deaths and a slim chance of survival."

Fatty pulled the boning knife out of the tabletop, re-wrapped it, and tucked it back into his waist.

He pushed the package of netherworld ore in front of Master Chen, a wild smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

"Nine deaths and a slim chance of survival? Old Chen, you underestimate my brother too much. Just wait and see, after tonight, there will no longer be that rotten signboard of the Yinshan Sect in the metaphysical world of Jiangnan Province."

With that, Fatty turned around, pushed open the wooden door, and strode into the late autumn sunset.

The setting sun elongated his back figure.