Chapter 148 – Mysterious Ancient Street of Ghosts Vendors and Undying Husks, Leisurely Fishing by the Creek - Part 1

A door. What was a door? A door was an object placed in a barrier that allowed passage between one place and another. A house door was a door, a township gate was a door; even lifting a carriage curtain could count as a door.

Following that logic, perhaps any threshold at all might have been considered a door. If you entered some new place, be it a cave or even a closet, you had effectively stepped through a door.

Yet no matter which door you crossed, you never arrived at your intended destination; you ended up in the carpenter’s workshop instead.

And the carpenter had work to do. That

work

was you. He was waiting for

you

.

Li Yuan and Pang Yuanhua were not fools. Both of them realized that this carpenter’s workshop represented a terrifying curse.

Unless they did something, they would have had to live in the open, avoiding anywhere with doors. They would even have had to watch out for twisted branches in a forest that might have arched together to form a

door

.

They’d have had no choice but to live in a place so vast that there was no chance of crossing any kind of threshold.

But would that really have guaranteed their safety?

They knew too little about the carpenter’s workshop.

Li Yuan thought he was safe after leaving Flowerpath County. After all, he was still unharmed after interacting face-to-face with ghost servants. He never dreamed that lifting a carriage curtain would trigger the curse.

It happened because he had lacked information. Were there other hidden pitfalls waiting? Most likely, yes. Neither Li Yuan nor Pang Yuanhua was arrogant or prone to taking foolish risks.

The evening shadows grew long, a gentle breeze blowing under the sunset.

The sunlight lingered, so it wasn’t too cold.

The young man and emaciated girl sat side by side on the ground.

Truth be told, Li Yuan was scared. But now, he had no choice but to face it head-on.

Suddenly, he picked himself up off the ground and stood up. He had forced out the shadow blood through every pore of his body through pure muscle tension. Though his clothes remained stained red, his face and body were now free of blood.

He casually discarded the sticky outer robe and the blood-soaked hair ornaments. Bare-chested in the cold wind, his dark hair cascaded over his shoulders.

His muscles weren’t huge, but they were dense and sturdy; his control over his own body was razor-sharp; if he wanted just one drop of blood to flow, there wouldn’t have been a second.

All at once, Li Yuan drew the long blade at his waist, sending a bright slash of silver through the air.

Crash!

The top half of the carriage went flying, crashing loudly some distance away. The startled horses reared up with frightened whinnies, but Li Yuan quickly calmed them with a single pull.

He glanced back at what used to be the enclosed carriage, now an open-air vehicle.

Just as he was about to leap inside, Pang Yuanhua jumped up, calling urgently, “Senior, wait!”

Li Yuan paused, turning toward her.

With a wry smile, Pang Yuanhua said, “If you’re not absolutely sure of the outcome, don’t rush in. We don’t know if this opening might count as a

door

. If it does, you’ll end up right back in the carpenter’s workshop, and this time for no reason.”

She was right; Li Yuan was about to test it. There was too much he still didn’t know.

He asked quietly, “So do you have a better idea?”

“I can take you somewhere,” Pang Yuanhua replied. “I couldn’t speak of it before. I had to keep it secret. But now that you’ve also fallen under the carpenter’s curse, just like me...”

She hesitated for a moment, then uttered, “Have you heard of undying husks...?”

Undying husks. These were people who had been pulled into a ghost domain, should have died, yet survived. They gained certain unusual powers, existing outside the normal martial arts world. Ordinary folk feared them like tigers, but they drifted through the world like phantoms with hidden purposes no one understood.

Li Yuan had learned this much from General Mammoth and Old Ding.

Comparing their descriptions to his own experiences, he saw that he did indeed fit the definition of an undying husk.

His brush with danger in the depths of Little Ink Mountain was different; he had managed to fend off the ghost domain head-on thanks to recalling certain insights from fully mastering a skill, so he hadn’t truly been in a state of

certain death

.

“So... there’s some special secret that only undying husks know, and it must be kept from outsiders, right?” Li Yuan asked.

“Yes,” Pang Yuanhua said. “It’s our only real hope.”

Li Yuan looked at Tang Nian and Old Wang, who were still trembling in shock. Without touching Tang Nian, he simply called out, “Nian Nian, don’t be afraid.”

Tang Nian jolted as if waking from a dream. She was still shaking, but she looked tearfully at her godfather.

Tang Nian’s godfather was as strong as a wild beast. How could he have gotten involved in something so strange? She’d already lost her birth father; she couldn’t bear to lose this one too. He was all she had left.

“Godfather... Godfather...” The tall girl burst into tears, fear and worry mingled with genuine concern.

Li Yuan saw through his goddaughter’s thoughts and felt a subtle warmth in his heart. Keeping some distance, he said gently, “Nian Nian, listen to me...

“From now on, don’t go anywhere, and definitely don’t go through any doors. None at all. Just stay here and wait for me.

“If I’m not back in three days, take a horse or your big puppet out for a look around. If you run into bandits, grab a couple of them, break their hands, and make them follow you.

“When you get to Gemhill, make the bandits enter the gates first. If they come out unharmed, you can go in. At that point, you should really be safe.”

With that, he turned to the coachman. “Old Wang, ride along with Tang Nian. She’s still just a girl; there are many things she doesn’t know. Help her out as much as you can. And remember, don’t get back in the carriage.”

Old Wang quickly nodded in agreement.

Li Yuan was about to leave when he noticed the reluctance in Tang Nian’s eyes. Still gripping his blade, with blood-soaked trousers and a feral air about him, he softened his expression.

“I’ll be back,” he promised.

“Mhm!” Tang Nian nodded, wiping her tears again and again. She pursed her lips and stared, eyes wide, voice quivering yet determined.”I-I’ll wait for you to come home.”

Li Yuan smiled, then swung his blade in several clean strokes to chop the carriage into pieces. From the wreckage, he retrieved a fresh pair of pants, a gray cloak, and a mask. Slipping behind a nearby tree, he changed clothes, stashed his Dragon-Fanged Blade up his sleeve, pulled the hood over his head, and fit the mask onto his face. Finally, he turned to Pang Yuanhua. “Let’s go.”

They wandered the wilderness aimlessly, sometimes veering left, sometimes right, occasionally doubling back. Pang Yuanhua chose only narrow, hidden paths, the kind that looked like they might lead nowhere.

“You’re trying to trigger something, aren’t you?” Li Yuan asked.

“Yes,” she replied. “I’m looking for the entrance to a certain street. We undying husks can find it by continually passing through confined, winding paths. Eventually, we might cross into that street.”

“What kind of street?” he asked.

“A street that only undying husks can enter, though sometimes ordinary people stumble in by accident. There are ghosts there too. But if we intentionally try to bring an ordinary person along, we can’t get in at all.

“On that street, the ghosts won’t kill anyone, unless you do something that draws their attention. Then, when you leave, they’ll come after you. At that point, if the curse doesn’t get you, they will,” Pang Yuanhua said, her face filled with fear. “Still, that street is our only chance to survive, lift the curse, or even become stronger. On that street, you can pass through doors without ending up in the carpenter’s workshop.”

“And how do we lift the curse?” Li Yuan asked curiously.

Pang Yuanhua halted, her voice laced with bitter frustration as she uttered two words, “Pay money.”

Li Yuan blinked. “Money?”

Was it the ghosts who demanded it? Or some powerful expert offering a solution?

“It’s...strange money, nothing like our gold or silver or even blood gold,” Pang Yuanhua explained. “It’s a kind of odd, white paper money. And I suspect the carpenter’s workshop is hidden somewhere on that street, too.

“If we can find it and locate the wooden doll tied to our fate, we’ll see a price tag. As long as we have enough of this paper money to buy it, we can free ourselves from the curse, and possibly gain more power. But...I’ve tried a few times without success.”

Li Yuan said nothing.

The two kept walking and talking.

Another stick of incense’s time passed.

“Senior...” Pang Yuanhua suddenly stopped and took a deep breath. “We’re here.”

Rounding a bend, their narrow, winding path abruptly opened onto a bustling street. Moments earlier, they’d been on a lonely trail with nothing but withered weeds on either side; now, they’d stepped into a lively crowd.

It looked like an ordinary old street, paved with ancient stone slabs whose cracked bricks hinted at a long history. On either side stood shops of varying states, some open, some shuttered.

Closer by, street vendors hawked their wares, each stall offering something different, with excited shouts echoing along the road.

“Come take a look, miss something and regret it! Finest rouge and powder, fair prices for all...”

“New items, new items! Pendants and hairpins on sale! Prices start from only two cash!”

“Sugar figurines here, all sorts of delicious shapes. Buy a skewer and give it a taste...”

Some stalls stood unattended, goods laid out with no one watching over them.

For a moment, everything seemed normal. But when Li Yuan’s gaze passed over the vendors, he realized each of them had a blood-red question mark drifting above their head. A chill ran down his spine.

The blood-red question marks hovering above their heads marked them as ghosts, ghosts hawking their wares as though they were ordinary merchants.

Noticing Li Yuan’s confusion, Pang Yuanhua murmured, “They’re a mystery. They look as if you can talk to them, but you really can’t. They’ll only discuss buying and selling. Try asking about anything else, and they won’t answer. It’s like they’ve only learned to mimic bits and pieces of human behavior.”

Just then, voices rang out from another part of the street.

“Damn! Who’d have thought there’d be a street hidden way out here in the depths of Newsand Mountain? Hahaha!”

“Brother Zheng, be careful. It could be a trap.”

“Trap? You coward, how do you plan to survive in this line of work? This is clearly a ghost market, and I’ve been to plenty of those. C’mon, let’s have a look. Things sold here are like nowhere else, sometimes you can snap up real treasures for next to nothing!”

“Heh, yeah. This place must be a hub for trading stolen goods. You can find all sorts of valuable stuff here.”

Following the voices, two men and one woman entered view. Right away, Li Yuan saw they radiated a dangerous aura. None of them looked the least bit kind.

Glancing above their heads, Li Yuan noted floating numbers.

The man and woman each hovered around 200, and the one addressed as

Brother Zheng

was at 235.

All three were seventh rank martial artists, and not weak ones at that. But Li Yuan had never seen them before.

“They must’ve stumbled in here by mistake,” Pang Yuanhua whispered. “It happens pretty often. People like them—violent, or extreme in personality—are more likely to wander into this street unawares.”

Before she could continue, Li Yuan’s gaze shifted to a cloaked figure lurking in a nearby alleyway. That figure stood with its back against the wall, repeatedly glancing at the three newcomers. Above their head floated an unfamiliar set of lines—

「 450~600 」

「 Equipment 1: Tiny Elephant Sugar Figurine - 2 cash 」