44 Ghost Market (Part 9)
◎Grab her talisman◎
"You're not going to die, Xie An..." Not knowing why he suddenly reacted so strongly, Li Jintang hadn't finished explaining when his palm suddenly felt empty and the talismans were snatched away easily.
Xie Changyan let go of her, weighed the pieces of talisman paper with his fingers, raised his eyelashes and asked with a smile: "Atang, who gave you these?"
"It's Sister Alan. She said I can use it to protect myself when necessary..." Li Jintang tiptoed to reach it, but he raised his hand and looked down at her leisurely.
Why did you want to steal her things? Li Jintang was a little confused about the man in front of her. She lowered her voice and said, "I'm not going. Can you please give it back to me?"
He was silent for a while, then slowly lowered his arm, and the stack of talisman paper returned to her hand.
Li Jintang lowered her eyes and counted the pictures one by one. A gentle breeze caressed her hair, causing a few strands to drift around her eyes. After counting the last one, she looked up and, through the strands of hair covering her eyes, saw the man looking at her nonchalantly.
"Have you finished counting?" He suddenly felt amused and curled his lips. "Why, are you still afraid that I'll steal yours?"
"That's not what I meant..." Li Jintang blinked blankly, and suddenly realized that his behavior just now was indeed inappropriate, so he didn't say anything else.
"Hurry up, kid! Leave him alone!" the fortune teller suddenly shouted, his voice blazing. "You're grown up, yet you're still trying to snatch things from a little girl. How shameless!"
Li Jintang's face flushed, and he quickly pressed it into his arms, "What did you say? Speak softly."
Fortunately, the other party didn't hear this and turned around and walked past her.
Her face was reflected in the mirror-like lake. The lake was calm, but it looked like a ferocious monster, ruthlessly devouring anyone who trespassed into it without permission.
Suddenly, there was a rustling sound. Li Jintang looked up, only to find it was just a gust of wind passing over the lake. Her heart felt like it was being clenched. She didn't know what had become of Brother Qu and the others, and she couldn't just sit there and wait.
Thinking of this, she suddenly saw a small ripple rising on the lake surface not far away. She calmed down and recognized the scabbard that broke out of the lake.
"Brother Qu?"
Li Jintang called out, but no one answered. Her heart tightened and she had a bad guess - most likely the long-tailed demon had used a trick to make it difficult for them to escape.
She fumbled around her body, her gaze finally settling on the stack of talisman papers in her hand. Li Jintang took a deep breath, zeroed in on the raised spot, and flung out the talisman papers one by one, instantly blasting the surface of the lake with splashes of water.
After throwing the last piece of talisman paper, the vortex on the lake surface suddenly expanded, and then moved towards the shore very quickly, and several figures appeared in it.
"Sister Qiuyan!" Li Jintang jumped up, put his hands to his lips and made a trumpet shape, only then he realized that his arms were slightly numb.
When the other party saw her from afar, his face was full of joy.
Xie Changyan leaned on his side with his arms folded. He raised his eyes slightly when he heard the words, glanced at them, and then lowered his gaze again, as if the life and death of those people had nothing to do with him.
When they got closer, the waves were rolled back in circles, and Li Jintang could see clearly that they were riding on a flying boat. When they got ashore, Alan waved his arm, and the flying boat immediately turned into a piece of talisman paper, which floated in the air.
As soon as Qiuyan landed on the ground, she met the girl's concerned gaze. She smiled and said, "Don't worry, we're all fine. It's all thanks to Miss Alan, otherwise we wouldn't be able to get so many people out."
A group of ghosts transformed into human forms stood on the shore, and it became crowded in an instant.
"It's not me, it's my sister." Alan tilted his head and smiled at her, and the word "sister" came out of his mouth so easily and familiarly.
Li Jintang was puzzled: "Me?"
"The talisman you threw worked," Alan explained to everyone, "otherwise, we wouldn't be able to break the barrier covering the lake."
Li Jintang was shocked after hearing this - if she hadn't used those talismans just now, what would happen now?
An old man with a white beard suddenly knelt down and kowtowed to them, muttering to himself, "Thank you so much, young heroes! Otherwise, my Ghost Market would be destroyed..."
Seeing him like this, the other ghosts also knelt down and said in unison: "Thank you very much, young man, for saving our lives!"
This action came too suddenly, and the two girls were slightly startled. Qu Lingfei and Nangong Xiu had already stepped forward to help the old man up.
"We are inextricably linked to this matter," Qu Lingfei said, his face filled with shame. How could he dare to accept their kneeling greeting? Filled with remorse, he lowered his voice unconsciously: "If we hadn't accidentally intruded and damaged the barrier, you wouldn't have suffered this disaster."
"Young man, you don't know, this barrier has been in place for a long time and is inherently fragile," the old man said, shaking his head. "Today's disaster was inevitable, but I didn't expect to have your help. We are truly fortunate."
After he said that, he raised his hands back and the people kneeling on the ground stood up one after another.
"Are all the people here?" Qu Lingfei glanced at them. There must be more people in the ghost market. Could it be that several ghosts have been killed... Thinking of this, an uncontrollable sadness surged in his heart.
The old man sighed, a trace of sadness flashing across his wrinkled face. "I have managed to keep them in the secret realm, but that monster is really cunning. After trapping us here, I wonder if it has found them again..."
"You'd better go back and take a look. The monster was seriously injured by us and should not dare to come again for the time being." Qiu Yan interrupted and thought of the long-tailed monster who had said that he would kill all ghosts with low cultivation. A chill ran down her back.
The old man led the ghosts to express his gratitude many times, and then disappeared from their sight.
"I can't believe it's only been two days since I went through so much in the ghost market," Qu Lingfei said. He wanted to feel secretly happy, but when he thought of the innocent ghosts who had been killed, he couldn't help but feel sad. "I hope they are all safe in the secret realm."
"Rather than worrying about things you can't change, Fellow Daoist Qu, why not think about what to do next?" Xie Changyan pursed his lips and said calmly, "A day in the Ghost Market is roughly equivalent to half a month outside. By that calculation, we've already been delayed for over a month."
A month? Li Jintang listened silently, counting on her fingers—it had already been half a year since she came into this novel she had never read before.
Oh, no, she comforted herself in her heart after calculating, she didn’t know how the time was calculated in the storybook, if these days were only equivalent to a few days outside, it wouldn’t be too bad.
"There's something I should let you know," Nangong Xiu said with a bad look on his face, even seeming to hesitate. "Never mind, just read it for yourselves."
Qu Lingfei smiled and joked, "Brother Nangong, when did you become so..." Before he could finish his words, his eyes fell on the damaged map in Nangong Xiu's hand, which was no longer recognizable. His eyes widened slightly and he was stunned.
"What should I do? Without the map, what else can I do..."
Before Qiuyan could finish her words, she was interrupted by a long laugh. The person next to the tree was laughing so hard that he was staggering. At last, he looked at them with a gloating look, "How pitiful! He was so eager to help others, but he didn't expect to get himself into trouble too. Haha..."
"What's wrong with you?" Qiu Yan glared at him. When his senior brother tried to stop him, he stepped forward and kicked him in the arm. "So what if the map is gone? It's just a piece of cloth. We have more people and friends. That alone makes us many times stronger than you. You should worry about yourself!"
Xie Changyan's fingers trembled violently. Although his face remained calm, waves were surging in his eyes.
"Xie An, what's wrong with you?" Li Jintang happened to look at him and asked a concerned question.
"Nothing much," he quickly looked away, then smiled casually, "I just thought what Fellow Daoist Qiu said was very good, and it touched my heart."
Qu Lingfei didn't recognize the tone of his words. He just smiled and stepped forward to pull the person away. "Junior sister, if you keep talking, Brother Xie will laugh at you."
"I've finished," Qiuyan clapped her hands, feeling refreshed. She lowered her eyes and continued to stare at Tian Heng: "Why, do you have anything else to say?"
Tian Heng struggled to straighten his twisted body. It was the first time that he was bullied by a woman. His face turned blue and purple. He knew that he had no power to fight back. Even though he felt dissatisfied, he had to turn his face away and not look at her.
"Are you leaving?"
A crisp female voice came from behind. Alan was standing under a tree not far away, staring at them with his eyes.
"I know a way out," Alan continued before they could speak. "The monsters just opened up a valley. When I first came here, I saw someone leave through it, but they later sealed the hole. But we should be able to leave from there."
A few people looked in the direction of her finger and saw a small hole in front of a mountain not far away, which was roughly enough for two people to pass through side by side.
Regardless, it was time to leave here and make a decision. He'd thought he'd be training in the valley for a while, but he'd never imagined there was a shortcut. Qu Lingfei was overwhelmed with gratitude and said, "Miss Alan, thank you so much for these past few days. If anyone dares to arrest you again, just come find me."
"I do have a favor to ask of you," Alan suddenly stepped forward, a hint of nervousness in his empty eyes. "Can I...can I come with you?"
She seemed to have mustered up a lot of courage to say this, but it startled several people present.
"I've gotten used to living in this ghost market and want to see the scenery outside..." Alan's voice became lower and lower as she spoke. "I'm used to living here" was just an excuse. She just wanted to spend more time with the person who called her "sister" for two whole days.
Several people looked at each other, their faces full of embarrassment. After all, they weren't going on a sightseeing trip, and they didn't know how many dangers they would encounter. If they brought a little ghost with such low spiritual power, they were afraid...
"Sister Alan, please stay in the ghost market. When I come back, I will definitely come to see you first, okay?"
Li Jintang roughly guessed what she was thinking, but he didn't point it out to her directly. He just stepped forward, gently held her hand, and said with a smile, "I keep my word, don't worry, sister."
Perhaps it was the two calls of "sister" that worked, Alan finally nodded and just stood there watching their figures disappear into the cave.
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