Chapter 83: Tail Ship 01
On the calm sea, an ancient unmanned boat floated over from afar.
The ship looked old, with tattered sails and cobwebs everywhere. There were also a few ominous skeletons scattered on the deck. It looked like a ghost ship that was about to fall apart, but it seemed to know the direction as it slowly moved along a straight route, making creaking sounds from time to time.
If someone saw it, they would probably be so scared that their eyes would roll back, mistakenly thinking that the legendary ghost ship story had come true.
It is said that there are often unmanned ghost ships on this vast ocean. The mortal eye can only see the empty deck, but they have no idea that the ship is full of evil spirits and ghosts who eat wine and drink blood.
The fragile wooden planks were connected by a foul-smelling slime, and the bottom of the boat was paddling in the water with pale arms...
But there was no wind or waves on this sea, and no one or boats passed by. On the sea, which reflected the blue sky, there was only this slowly moving broken boat. The afterglow of the setting sun shone over, and the sun set behind the horizon, leaving a faint moon hanging in the sky.
At this moment, the ghost ship suddenly came to life.
"clang--"
An iron lantern suddenly appeared on the bare mast, and it fell straight down, and should have smashed through the rotten wooden planks in one go, but it stopped when it was still a man's height away from the planks. It looked as if it was stopped in mid-air by something.
Suddenly, a cry of pain came from the empty air: "Ouch, who hit my head?"
Along with the shout, a short man with a strong waist appeared.
As he looked up and cursed, a child slowly appeared on the pole of the boat. He chuckled and said, "Of course it would be fine if it was someone else. Who told you to be the shortest?"
"How dare you say I'm short?! Stop right there—"
An old man and a young man chased each other on the empty deck, bringing the first breeze on this still sea. Mysterious changes occurred where the wind passed.
A group of shirtless men appeared and were making a fuss around the originally empty wooden table.
The child screamed "Sister, save me" and rushed to the empty fence. Suddenly, a floating sleeve was caught in his hand, and one, two, three or four beautiful young women appeared out of the air. They were watching the farce and laughing.
"You are so restless. Why don't you make any noise during the day?"
The short man cursed angrily: "Who are we? Can we show up in the daytime? The sun in this sea is too damn hot. We were never this hot when we were alive. Look at my neck!"
The girls gathered around him and commented on the wound on the back of his neck. The kid who had caused the trouble saw that the matter was resolved, so he leaned out and shook his head: "Big ghosts, small ghosts, male ghosts, female ghosts, no matter if they are short or tall, they can't escape the scorching sun... because..."
"We are all ghosts~"
The woman, the child, and the man smiled at each other, then wiped their faces as if they had telepathy. Their flesh immediately melted into a pool of blood, revealing their white bones and fleshless bodies. Wisps of black air continued to overflow, covering their sinister faces.
This empty ship was filled with ghosts like them.
The man suddenly stretched out his hand and the child had no time to dodge.
"I caught you!" "Hey, help me, sister, help me!"
The young woman twisted her waist and returned to the fence. She looked at the people on the boat in the cool moonlight. She could not hear his cry for help. Ghosts also like to watch handsome men and beautiful women like humans, otherwise they would not have created beautiful female bodies. It's a pity that most of the people on the boat have ordinary faces.
But...there are exceptions.
"Oh my, he's out."
The direction that the bones pointed to was on the second floor of the ship. There stood a man with a pair of deer-like eyes. His appearance was so outstanding that he was spotted by a group of female ghosts on his first day.
"Can you smell how he died?"
Most of the ghosts who have not entered the cycle of reincarnation are filled with reluctance and regret. They die in various ways, each with its own pain, and to ghosts, these pains all have flavor.
"I can't smell it. It doesn't stink anyway!"
One of them smiled and said, "I'll leave him to you. I prefer the younger one. The handsome guy with white hair looks good too."
The women nodded enthusiastically. The two of them boarded the boat at the same place, looking like companions.
"It looks like they're waiting for someone." The woman sighed, "I wonder where they're going? It would be sad if they left halfway. I don't want to see short fat guys every day."
The other woman giggled, "This is your first time on a boat, sister."
"Our ship has no one at the helm, and it has only been on one course since the day it was built. Haven't you noticed that we never stop? Because there is no destination, the destination of all of us is at the end of the ship."
“The moment you drop anchor, wandering and loneliness will disappear.”
"This is the promise of the Lord of that holy land..."
Everyone came over, even the children and the short man who were fighting came to the woman's side, and as she spoke, they couldn't help but look up at the moonlit sky.
"The eternally happy ghost market——"
"It's the stern ship."
-
“…”
Noticing the gazes from afar, Leng Wenhan's face darkened and he took a step forward. Jiang Yuelu stopped him, "Are you still not used to it? Just look, they don't have any other intentions."
Leng Wenhan: "But they are ghosts."
Jiang Yuelu asked, "If it's a ghost, do you want to kill it?"
Leng Wenhan opened his confused eyes, nodded and said, "Then don't kill him for now." Jiang Yuelu held his forehead secretly. No matter what he said, this kid would obey him, but he still hoped that Leng Wenhan could understand the reason not to do so.
He said patiently, "I know that you have been taught to exorcise demons since you were a child, but sometimes you have to distinguish the situation. Now is not a suitable occasion to take action, nor is it suitable to make too much noise."
Leng Wenhan was silent for a while, then asked in a low voice: "Did I do something wrong?"
Jiang Yuelu was helpless, "No. You didn't do anything wrong, I was just teaching you. Some things..."
Leng Wenhan never leaves his house. His most frequent social activity in previous years was to attend various ghost-falling ceremonies as a "mascot". The students in the academy were already isolated enough, and they had not even been to school. Over the past ten years, he had very little experience interacting with people. In his opinion, it was easier to communicate with ghosts.
"If you don't obey, you will be killed."
Jiang Yuelu laughed and then shut up for a while: "...Are you serious?"
This little white-haired boy really believed that. On the first day he boarded the boat with Jiang Yuelu, he realized that there were ghosts everywhere and almost took out his black stick to send the entire boat back to the underworld.
Leng Wenhan was like a student who had just graduated from school, holding two imperial swords in his hands. On his left hand was written: Kill all ghosts; on his right hand was written: Follow the exam rules.
But there is no examination room now.
They came to a place of unknown depths. What kind of ship was this? Where was it going? They had to find the answers.
"The tail ship..."
He read out three words, and unlike the enthusiastic and enthusiastic ghosts on the deck, he was extremely calm and rational. "We have been gathering information since we boarded the ship, and now we know some of the inside story."
First of all, the tail-carrying ship is a ghost market in the ghost city.
Just as the academy has the 18 shops on Fallen Street, Ghost City also has its own huge market. The last time he went to the 18 shops, he heard about a commotion. Several young wizards passing by were very proud, "How about it, are the things in the 18 shops unheard of and unseen?"
"Before I came here, I thought you were exaggerating! This place is simply a ghost market - there are all kinds of treasures!"
A few hoarse laughs suddenly rang out from behind the cobweb-covered counter, and the voices sounded particularly sarcastic.
"There are Shabi every year, but this year there are especially many."
"Have you ever seen a ghost market? You two little yellow-haired kids couldn't walk after seeing these things. If my great-grandfather's great-grandfather were here, he would definitely use his own bones to smash your skulls—"
"If you want to die, go ahead and die. Don't drag us eighteen shops into this... We are no match for the ghost market!"
A small incident of attempted bragging has now revealed a deeper meaning.
Although the ghost shop owners in the 18 shops have been "good people" for many years, the evil spirit in their bones still follows them like a shadow, and they will show their true colors from time to time. But in a special place like the academy, the evil spirit can only go in another direction and become arrogance, so they are secluded and closed, quietly guarding the underground of Fallen Street, and never interacting with wizards.
This group of ghosts regarded the eighteen shops as their eyes that could not be touched or scolded. It was said that once when Dean Kong used inappropriate words in his speech, they regarded it as "lack of respect and recognition for the shops", and then closed the shops for half a month as a protest. In the end, it was Vice Dean Tong who went to talk them out of it.
But they said: "We can't compare with the ghost market."
These are not just complaints, they really think so.
However, no one had ever seen the ghost market, nor did they know what it looked like now. This time, the bounty order came with an invitation, and they learned that the ghost market that used to be entrenched in the underground lanterns was no longer there. The ghost market today had changed its name a hundred years ago and was controlled by the "Happy Ghost" among the four ghosts of "Joy, Anger, Sorrow, and Joy".
——The above are all the precious information that Jiang Yuelu obtained in exchange for her "dedication" of her body in the past few days.
That’s right. What was sacrificed was Wen Han’s looks.
Then again, this Legui-sama is worthy of his name.
It is said that there is only laughter on the huge round ship floating in the air, and the loneliness and resentment that cannot be drowned by the sea will be eliminated there. However, it is difficult to encounter a ghost ship heading for the tail ship, and only by chance can you meet it on the vast sea.
As for how the ghost ship sailed across the turbulent black sea and the icy and fiery sea... that was a story Jiang Yuelu didn't know. He and Leng Wenhan boarded the ship after arriving at this silent sea.
"That's right."
Jiang Yuelu suddenly remembered, "Where's Tong Mian? He wouldn't have come in."
Leng Wenhan Mo.
No one wanted to come in, except Tong Mian. That guy would crawl in even if his legs were broken.
There was a commotion in the distance, and the ghosts standing on the deck suddenly walked to the stern. The short man walked in front and asked suspiciously, "Everyone, I've been wanting to ask this for a long time, isn't our ship moving a little too slowly?"
"What a fuss! Have you ever been on a ghost ship? How do you know if it's fast or slow if you haven't been on it?"
“How ignorant!”
This sentence was criticized by the whole audience. The man was about to vent his anger when he heard a chuckle from the other side, "It's a bit slow."
The young man who was speaking was sitting on the empty stern of the boat, covered in gold and silver, looking glittering with jewels, but not rustic, but rather elegant and noble. However, because he was standing low, Jiang Yuelu was blinded by the light reflected from his golden body when he took a closer look...
I couldn't help but cover my eyes, I could hear the laughter still coming.
The young man received the same criticism as the short man - the female ghost stopped talking because of his outstanding looks, but the male ghost became even angrier after seeing his romantic behavior, making the two even, so the volume of the argument sounded almost the same as before.
The young man smiled calmly, "Don't be angry, harmony brings wealth."
"I have never been to a ghost ship, but I have heard some rumors about it."
"Humph! Bullshit rumors. The ghosts who went to the tail ship never came back. What you heard is probably fabricated fake news. Don't make a fool of yourself!"
"You're amazing! You even know the saying 'once you leave, you won't come back.'" The young man continued to smile, "But the rumors I heard were not about those ghosts."
"What is that? What else is there on this ship besides a ghost?"
Leng Wenhan exuded a chill, and Jiang Yuelu narrowed his eyes.
But the young man just gently waved his broken gold folding fan and said, "It's a ship. The rumors I heard were about this ghost ship."
"Boat?"
The ghosts on the boat looked at each other with wide eyes, "What's there to talk about with a boat?"
"This ghost ship can leave the Ghost City and can go back again. It is different from the ghosts that never come back. It enjoys the unique privilege of freely entering and leaving the tail ship. If it can speak, it may be more popular than you."
This made several female ghosts burst out laughing. The boy was in a very good mood and interacted with them with his eyes, which made the other male ghosts even more annoyed.
"Stop talking about those useless things and tell me what happened to the ghost ship!"
"Oh." The young man sat back leisurely, with his back to the ghosts. They looked at each other, "...what do you mean by this!"
"What's the point? I don't want to talk about it anymore~"
“You—! You’re making me so mad!”
Seeing that things were not going well, several young ladies hurriedly pulled them away. They were still thinking of giving a hand so that they could rekindle their relationship with the young man, but when they looked back at the stern, no one was there.
"Strange...why do I have no impression of such a beautiful person..."
After everyone left, Jiang Yuelu and Leng Wenhan came down to check. The speed of this ghost ship was indeed much slower than that of an ordinary ship. Especially when one of their companions lost contact, and that companion was very likely to get into trouble...
"You need to look down again."
When he was possessed, he suddenly heard a light laugh. The missing boy came back, fanning himself and pointing at him with a smile, "I heard crying down there last night."
"You are the one crying, your whole family is crying!!!"
After a few seconds of silence, a cursing voice came from the bottom of the boat. This voice was very familiar, or rather expected. Jiang Yuelu couldn't help but hold his forehead, "...Tong Mian? How...how long have you been down there?"
Tong Mian shouted in misery: "I have stayed here for as long as you have been here, gulu gulu..."
Hearing the sound of bubbles, Jiang Yuelu hurriedly said, "Wait for us to rescue you!"
"Hurry up, Gulu, save Gulu Gulu..."
“…”
"You'd better stop talking."
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