Chapter 107: Rules
With this in mind, I asked Zhu Zhu without hesitation: “The powerful female ghost you mentioned, is she called Yucuizi?”
Faced with my directness, Zhu Zhuo suddenly opened his mouth wide, his eyes wide, and his little round face made such an expression, which was a bit funny and reminded me of my young roots. But before I could laugh, a pair of small hands covered my mouth.
“You actually called the adult’s name directly, that’s not good, not good! If someone hears it and reports it to the inner city, the result will be being devoured.” Zhu Zhuo’s expression was very serious.
It really is Yucuizi, I thought to myself. I believe that its soul power may be naturally stronger, but I don’t believe that this powerful soul power can make it a ghost Rakshasa in such a short time. There must be other mysteries in it, and this mystery may also be the purpose of our coming to the Lake of a Thousand Ghosts.
It is no exaggeration to say that with the power of my soul, I would not have the ability to become a Rakshasa in such a short time after my death.
However, in the face of Zhu Zhuo’s seriousness, my heart was still a little warmed. This is a city with its own rules and regulations, and even the various conspiracies and competitions unique to the human world, but it lacks true feelings.
Zhu Zhuo’s behavior was also a kind of concern, and in a place like the Ghost City, such emotions were as bright as diamonds.
So I gently pushed Zhu Zhu’s hand away, touched its head, and said, “I know, I won’t say anything.” I thought to myself, if it knew that I had already fought with the ghost Rakshasa twice and held it off three times, would it be “scared to death”?
Zhu Zhuo took my hand away with some dissatisfaction and said to me, “Don’t treat me like a child. I’m already hundreds of years old.”
I laughed, forgetting about it. But at this moment, Jueyuan suddenly looked at Zhu Zhuo and said seriously, “You will be well-transcended.”
I knew that Jueyuan was serious, but Zhu Zhuo disagreed, saying, “You are dressed like a great monk, but in this city, whether it is a Taoist or a monk, it is not new. There are many of them. I don’t know how many monks and Taoists have died here over the past few hundred years and become ghosts wandering here. In the end, many of them went crazy. Don’t say such things just because you were a monk in your previous life. Give up such hopes. It is important to enter the inner city.”
Jueyuan stopped talking, closed his eyes, gently turning the rosary in his hands. When he opened his eyes again, his face still had a determined expression.
But I was shocked. The dead monk and Taoist priest? That means that the souls of those who had entered the circle here had not been liberated, but were instead here… What a sad thing. At this time, I really hope that the monk Hong Ren can succeed and that these souls can be liberated.
But Zhu Zhuo was already too lazy to care about Jueyuan, and he didn’t even notice my shock. His thoughts were completely absorbed by Xiao Chengqian’s question, and he was talking non-stop.
Xiao Chengqian’s question was very simple. It was just a sentence: You said we are qualified to enter the inner city, so what exactly do we have to do?
Zhu Zhuo was most concerned about the question, so he naturally spoke very seriously. In summary, there are two points. The first point is that we already know that we must stay awake. Of course, this is not a matter of one or two days, but rather a matter of staying awake for a certain period of time. This time limit is at least five years. If the soul power is particularly strong, you can relax a little, but it must be at least three years.
“Any ghost will be remembered as soon as they enter the city. As for how, I don’t know. Anyway, you guys have been awake for how many years, and the adults in the inner city know the answer.” Zhu Zhuo explained seriously.
But I was scared to death. I couldn’t sweat in my current state. If I could, I would have been covered in cold sweat. This sentence meant that we had entered the new city, and that the hidden enemy had known about it from the beginning.
If it knew, why did it let us wander around the city and even contact the ghosts here? What exactly did it want to do?
Everyone had the same thought as me. When Zhu Zhu was telling the story, we couldn’t help but exchange glances with each other, and then pretended to be nothing. If not, what else could we do? Let’s take one step at a time.
As Zhu Zhuo told the story, I realized that the second thing we knew was that in addition to staying awake, we also had to have a strong soul power. We had to reach a certain threshold before we could enter the inner city.
“This limit is to defeat the four gatekeepers who guard the entrance to the inner city, and then you can enter. To put it another way, you only have the qualifications and foundation to enter the inner city. If you want to improve, you need to devour…” At this point, Zhu Zhu’s face was a little pale, and he whispered, “I myself think this is a very cruel thing, because you have to devour others, and others will be scattered! That is a more terrible thing than death, but what can you do? This is the law of survival here.”
I was silent. After all, Zhu Zhuo, this “weak” existence, is always on guard against being devoured by other beings. It lives very carefully and very hard, and it is not even daring to go out. From our casual chats with it, we have long known that the only safe place here is this so-called room. Any ghost (except for the existence of the inner city) cannot enter the room to fight or devour. Even those ghosts who are not very sober strictly abide by this rule.
For so many years, I can imagine that Zhu Zhu spent most of his time in the room, guarding day after day. What kind of loneliness and despair was that?
In silence, Yueyue glanced out the window and saw a ghost holding another ghost that was “dying” enter the inn opposite Zhu Zhuo’s room.
“Ah? This inn is not a decoration, and someone really went in?” Ru Yue exclaimed, attracting the attention of all of us.
Zhu Zhu glanced at it and said in a bad mood, “Of course it’s not a decoration. Every inn here is the place we most yearn for, because here, only the rooms in the inns have relatively pure yin energy. The devouring usually takes place in the inns. You see, that dying ghost is about to be devoured. It will be made into a dish in the inn, and the other half will be handed over to the inner city. In exchange, it can stay in the inn for three days.
As Zhu Zhu was speaking, the ghost had already entered the inn, handed over the other ghost in its possession, and sat in the window seat, waiting for its “big meal.”
This kind of picture itself does not have any sense of incongruity, but when you think about it carefully, it is creepy. Living beings are devoured, and what is the difference between human society and people eating people?
This is different from the devouring of ghost heads, and it is also different from the devouring of ghost heads by the four great evil spirits, because ghost heads can almost be said to have no will of their own, and are purely evil energy bodies… but devouring living souls…
Zhu Zhuo saw that we were staring at the inn and said very seriously, “Look at me, I haven’t treated you to anything.” As he spoke, he jumped off the stool, opened a box against the wall, and took out a plate of steamed buns and a pot of tea from it.
What the hell is this? I looked at Zhu Zhuo curiously, and Cheng Yuan covered his mouth and said after a long time, “You… you also devour people?”
We naturally didn’t believe the tea and steamed buns were real. When we thought about what Zhu Zhu had just said, and that the souls in the inn had been made into food, there was no basis for Cheng Yuan’s speculation.
Zhu Zhuo placed the steamed buns and tea on the table and said, “I don’t have the ability to devour others. These things are not soul power, but just the pure yin energy that Master Hong Ren gave away. This yin energy is equivalent to our food. Don’t you know that you are ghosts? Eat it. I’ve been saving it, but I’m reluctant to eat it. After all, Master Hong Ren’s offerings are limited. I barely managed to snatch it once.
After Zhu Zhu said this, we once again became curious about the Master Hong Ren, but we didn’t want to eat Zhu Zhu’s food. However, Zhu Zhu didn’t care, saying, “You may be the adults of the inner city in the future. This is my hope. It is my luck to be able to get to know you like this. You eat it. If you don’t eat it, I won’t be at ease.”
Zhu Zhu said this, what else could we say? We could only share the steamed buns and tea. Zhu Zhu ate with us at our request. We deliberately ate less so that Zhu Zhu could eat more. Looking at its satisfied expression, I couldn’t help but feel a little sad, not just for it, but also for the ghosts in this new city…
The ghosts and spirits that were once hated are now hard to feel pity for. No wonder the great monks insisted on converting the ghosts here, and no wonder the test of the Jueyuan sect was set here…
The nourishment of pure yin energy from the soul is indescribable. Even at this moment, after eating these simple foods, we also feel a sense of comfort and a strange kind of satisfaction.
“You should apply for a house. You are qualified to apply for a house as soon as you enter the city.” Zhu Zhuo suddenly said this to us with a steamed bun in his mouth.
Then, it looked at us hopefully and said, “Can it be near me?”