Chapter 157 Subtleties

Crossing the border between the vegetable market and the ghost market, repeatedly jumping from dusk to night, Luo Xuanyi could only rely on the white paper lanterns hanging in each store to identify the street in the dark environment.

Unlike the butcher shops outside, the shops here are diverse. Luo Xuanyi was about to step forward when a shadow suddenly floated in front of her and stopped her.

The "shadow" was facing away from the light, and even his clothes could not be seen clearly. Luo Xuanyi had the illusion that he was extremely thin.

He said nothing, but handed Luo Xuanyi a piece of white paper. When he approached Luo Xuanyi, Luo Xuanyi saw that his face seemed to be covered by a layer of white paper, and her expression could not be seen at all.

Perhaps this white paper was a magical tool to conceal the information. However, Luo Xuanyi only watched him hold it in his hand without taking it, feeling a little hesitant.

Someone gave me a magical tool that could conceal my identity, so I could just put it on casually? Luo Xuanyi looked past the shadows and out to the street. Under the dim light of each white paper lantern, one or two tourists occasionally passed by. Luo Xuanyi could see that most people were wearing these white paper masks. Their figures looked exactly like the shadows who distributed the masks, frighteningly thin.

A small number of people didn't wear white paper masks, but instead used various magical instruments or spells to conceal their figures. It didn't seem necessary to wear them. Luo Xuanyi thought for a moment, decided to proceed with caution, and rejected the shadow.

The shadow didn't seem to intend to force anything. He tilted his head, put away the white paper, and floated back to the corner. Luo Xuanyi realized that he was actually staying in the gap between the two streets.

But was he truly human? Luo Xuanyi wondered if the various sensations she felt while looking at the shadow were due to the white paper artifact or something else entirely. The shadow didn't strike her as human, but rather a projection of some kind. It seemed to be behaving like a human, but the way it was done was strange.

However, his cultivation level is quite low, only at the initial stage of foundation building.

Luo Xuanyi stood at the intersection, and the first thing she had to do was to take care of her own appearance. In this ghost market where everyone was hiding, she still had to be careful everywhere.

She was originally a strange cultivator who had revealed his true form. It was very easy for her to conceal her whereabouts. She just had to disperse the death energy condensed on her surface.

As Luo Xuanyi thought about it, dense black mist peeled off from her body, like ink that was not completely spread out in water.

After confirming that the positioning system Yang Zongchun had placed on her body was not destroyed, Luo Xuanyi began to blend into the crowd at the ghost market, observing the shops to see if there was anything she could use.

Every store had a myriad of whimsical signs to attract visitors, but none of them had their names written on them. Furthermore, every storefront was covered with red cloth, so to find out what was sold inside, one had to rely on the signs to guess, or go inside and see for themselves.

After walking and stopping for a while, and passing countless shops, Luo Xuanyi's attention was attracted by a wooden board.

That was a shop sign. Unlike other shops that displayed skulls and bull heads to attract customers, the owner had nailed a few nails on a wooden board, and on each nail were several wooden signs hanging, a bit like a menu.

This store was also very prosperous. Luo Xuanyi saw that someone who wanted to enter the store had to stand in front of the wooden board and make a selection before entering, so she also went over to check.

Luo Xuanyi's fingers passed over the wooden signs one by one. She found that the characters engraved on the wooden signs were mostly different, and the only few identical wooden signs were hung separately on a nail.

The inscriptions on the wooden signs ranged from general to specific, making it difficult to guess what exactly the shop sold. Luo Xuanyi was particularly intrigued by two: one inscribed with "restraint" and the other with "puppet." She decided to go in and take a look.

Unsure how many wooden plaques each person could hold, she decided to take one and go into the shop to see what was going on. Luo Xuanyi picked out a "puppet" plaque, lifted the red curtain, and walked in.

The shop was surprisingly simple. Luo Xuanyi's first action upon entering a new environment was to look around. But aside from the counter facing the main door, the shop was empty. All the monks who entered gathered around the counter. They seemed oblivious to each other, speaking to the empty counter as if no one else was around.

Luo Xuanyi took a few steps toward the counter, and the scene before her changed immediately. Everyone in front of the counter vanished, replaced by the owner, who had appeared from nowhere behind the counter. She wore a white paper mask and seemed to smile at Luo Xuanyi. Beneath her delicate clothing, her red fox tail swayed gently.

"Sir, what do you want?"

Luo Xuanyi didn't react immediately. Her attention was completely focused on the space.

Space restrictions. Ever since Luo Xuanyi entered the Vegetable City, she'd noticed space restrictions everywhere. Furthermore, there seemed to be no clear connections between the different spaces, which left her very puzzled.

In her knowledge, spatial restriction was a very powerful spell. If it were so easy to practice, she wouldn't have bothered with the various array techniques. However, with so many advanced techniques, it was impossible not to have any resistance.

Everyone's understanding of the Dao is different, and therefore there should be differences in space. The moment of transition creates a distinct sense of disparity. For example, when Luo Xuanyi entered the spatial restriction created by Hao Fei's array flags, she felt a distinct shift. Another example is when Luo Xuanyi entered the illusion of the past, she felt a momentary sense of something was wrong.

However, the changes in space she felt these times were only caused by the discomfort of the visual sense, but there was no abnormality in her body.

She first entered the Vegetable Market, undergoing her first spatial transition, then the Ghost Market, and finally this shop. There was no stagnation in the transition. This could only be because all these spatial restrictions were created by the same person.

In other words, everything in this huge space, all the different stores and spaces, are operated by one person.

This could explain some of the confusion surrounding space. However, such powerful force, the delicate and simultaneous manipulation of multiple elements, could only be achieved by a Divine Transformation cultivator who specialized in space. Furthermore, to deploy such a technique, a cultivator, unless they were a formation master, would have to be physically present; remote control was not an option.

It's also possible to achieve this by force through some special means. If it were the Zang Yaozong method, it would involve a large number of human sacrifices. However, in a place with strict control over the righteous path, such a method would not work.

Ghost markets are spread across every state. If the evil cultivators behind them have so many Divine Transformation cultivators, why would they even need to hide behind the Vegetable Markets to survive? Wouldn't it be better to just go on a killing spree, like the Zang Yao Sect, and turn several states into strongholds? Therefore, Luo Xuanyi was inclined to believe that it was a formation, or that someone was causing trouble.

In other words, there must be traces of the evil cultivators in Hao Fei's memory in this ghost market, and they are very likely the thugs guarding the ghost market.

Luo Xuanyi thought about how she was let in by the crazy old man and the skinny dog, and also thought about the two righteous people following behind her.

What if we forcibly disrupt the Ghost Market and force this ghost cultivator to come out and confront the two righteous people head-on?

Luo Xuanyi had an idea in her mind.

Wednesday's update~ There will be another update tonight, making it two updates~