Chapter 103: In the City

I was puzzled by the existence of such a place. This feeling was not unfamiliar. Why was it not unfamiliar? But it was exactly the same feeling as when I entered the secret ghost market that year. It was like a dream, like a dream…

In that case, is it my soul that has entered here? I raised my hand and habitually touched my neck. The sensation was not that of warm, elastic skin, nor did I feel the familiar rope. Instead, it was a sense of emptiness without any foundation.

Yes, it is the soul state!

This discovery not only did not make me feel justified, but rather, I was a little panicked. The soul is completely separated from the body, and how long can the body last? It is like the state of a vegetative person, who is maintained with all their strength. If the soul is really completely separated from the body, and the soul does not exist in the body at all, then that vegetative person will soon die.

So it doesn’t matter if our bodies are just left lying around? This is different from the ghost market, where there is a safe time, and when it’s over, they come out. Here, we don’t know how long we’ll be in.

Lu Shan looked at me and smiled wryly, saying, “Chengyi, I didn’t expect things to develop this way after accompanying you on your journey of discovery.”

“You found it?” I looked at Lushan with a wry smile. He kept saying that he was a descendant of the Mountain clan, and his thoughts were more delicate than those of Xiao Chengqian, who was also a descendant of the Mountain clan. It was no surprise that he was the first to find it.

Facing my question, Lushan nodded and said something that was obvious. He asked me to take a look at everyone.

At this time, I looked at everyone, and indeed, as Lushan said, it was obvious, because we had all changed our appearance. This so-called change in appearance does not refer to a change in our appearance, but rather a change in the way we dress and our temperament.

We, the Li clan, all wore dark yellow Taoist robes and carried a cloth bag of the same color embroidered with the Eight Trigrams. Our demeanor seemed to have lost a bit of the worldly flavor and gained a bit of the otherworldly meaning.

Ruyue, on the other hand, was dressed like a Miao girl, looking a little more childish and quirky than usual.

As for Jueyuan, he was wearing a white monk’s robe, with a handsome and compassionate face, quite the meaning of a high monk.

Huigen looks much more “tough” in a monk’s robe similar to Dingyuan’s, also with half his body exposed, his sleeves casually tucked into his belt, and his blood-colored tattoos fully revealed.

The strangest thing was that Lushan and Taobai were wearing a strange uniform that I had never seen before, with a number on it.

Tao Bai looked at the clothes and his face was very ugly. Lu Shan smiled at him to comfort him, and then stared at his clothes and said, “It’s a memory I don’t want to think about, but after entering here, it reflects the image of the deepest part of a person.”

I really don’t know much about Lu Shan and Tao Bai, but after spending a long time with them, I feel that they are not bad people at heart. As our friendship grew, I began to treat them as friends.

Looking at them, it seemed that they had some kind of experience that they couldn’t tell anyone about, but I didn’t know anything about it, and there was only so much I could do. I could only smile at them reassuringly and then say to everyone seriously, “I think we all know what our current situation is. If we don’t want to really die, then let’s hurry up.”

Yes, seize the time, otherwise the body will not last long.

There was no other choice in front of me, only a black road, and if I turned back, there was no way to find the way I came. Behind me was only a fog. I tried to walk a few steps backwards, but no matter how I walked, I would only end up back where I started. There was no way to turn back.

Even how to get out has become a problem, so I can only go forward.

In a special space, there are special restrictions. In the ordinary world, the soul can float or fly at a high speed, basically not restricted by the physical world.

But here, we can only walk along this black road, just like in a ghost market.

No wonder the old man told us that it was impossible to bring the magic weapon in.

But what about the string of agarwood beads in my hand? When I arrived here, they no longer looked like the original string of agarwood beads. Each bead had turned into a ball of pale red mist, and what was even more amazing was that there was a small, faint blue light inside the mist.

Is this the original appearance of the spirit of my agarwood bead string? I felt very strange, but this was not the time to explore this after all. After all, we were already in the legendary ghost city, which was still very unfriendly and full of unknown changes—the new city.

The road beneath our feet has become wider and wider, from the beginning, it could only fit three people walking side by side, but now it is wide enough for all of us to walk side by side.

The surrounding scenery, which at first could only be seen as a hazy mist on both sides of the road, has now become a black, endless plain.

On that plain, there was no green grass or red flowers like there would be on a real-world plain. There was only the dark, gloomy land, with the occasional silhouette of a black tree, which looked desolate and hopeless.

Time in this space is unmeasurable, and even hunger, thirst, fatigue, and the desire and thought of excretion are absent. After all, it is already a state of the soul, so time becomes even more blurred.

We don’t know how long we have been walking, and the scenery in our eyes is all this black plain, which is also boring. Moreover, we have been walking for so long, not to mention a ghost, not even a sound. Such a road is bound to make people feel heavier and heavier as they walk.

“Chengyi, how long do we have to keep walking before we reach the end?” Xiao Chengqian’s patience had reached its limit. The only thing supporting us was the faint buildings in the mist in the distance. We originally expected danger, and didn’t want to face it so soon, but after walking in this environment for a long time, it became a place of hope.

“I don’t know. Let’s just keep going.” Because there is no concept of time here, and there is no fatigue, I really don’t know when there will be an end.

But this is often the way of the world. When you are already disappointed, thinking that a certain thing or state of affairs is unchangeable and will continue forever, a turning point will appear.

When I was talking to Xiao Chengqian, a light mist suddenly appeared in front of us. The mist became thicker and thicker as we walked on. We walked on numbly, not paying attention to the mist at first.

The world in front of us had finally changed, and a city stood before us in all its reality. The black city walls, the buildings on the walls full of ancient Chinese style, the deep blue sky, and the purple-black flames made up the picture before us.

Outside the city gate was boundless silence. The gate was half open, and there was not even a gatekeeper. The road leading to the city wall was no longer a black road, but a bridge over the moat. Under the bridge flowed the kind of purple-red river we had seen before. Occasionally, a figure would quickly pass by in the river, and then disappear.

“Is it really a city? It’s very stressful.” The one who spoke was Chengxin Ge. I understood what he meant. We came here to fight against a city. How could there be no pressure?

“Yes, a city. Let’s go in,” I said, barely keeping my composure. There was no turning back, no choice. What else could we say except to move forward? All along, we were just following in the footsteps of our master, but as things continued, we almost forgot what the purpose was. We were driven forward by one thing.

It was like I saw a gate in the dark, and I thought I didn’t have the power to stop it. If the sky were to fall, there would be someone tall enough to hold it up, but I didn’t want to be the one to bear the brunt for no reason.

This was my thought as I walked on the bridge.

I tried my best not to look down, but I had to see that the figures in the river below the bridge were the spirits of the dead. They struggled, but in the end they could not climb ashore. They could only howl and be washed away again and again by the moat.

Is this perhaps one of the punishments in the city? This is the only way I can understand it.

The half-open city gate was right in front of me, and I tried to force myself to think of nothing as I stepped through it. After passing through the dark and deep gate, our group finally entered the so-called new city.

At that moment, we were surrounded by a sense of insolence, arrogance, and depravity!

Because the first scene that came into view was several figures in pain, with distorted faces, fighting each other, but they could not be killed for real, they could only fall down, get up again, and then pounce on each other…

They were fighting at the gate of the city, with no fixed target, just a complete venting of anger. They hurt whoever they met, and for us standing at the gate of the city, they basically ignored us completely.

“Resentment dominates all actions, without reason. There is a city, but it is not a place to settle down. It is just a place where tragedies are fixed and constantly played out. Amitabha.” Jueyuan’s face was full of compassion. He was just describing the essence of the ghosts. Their hatred needed to be vented, and they were also dominated by hatred. Their spiritual power had long since lost its peace, and all they had was endless violence.

But what can be done? Just like the old village chief, it is a matter of a thought. It is better to seek salvation from others than to seek it from oneself. But how many ghosts can escape the shackles of hatred in this world and seek salvation from themselves, putting down the butcher’s knife?

I was silent, just walking forward, and the others followed me silently. We were completely at a loss as to what to do in this city, who to find, and how to do it. We could only walk in and talk about it…

The city is huge, with many black buildings, main streets and countless alleys. But everywhere, there are countless vengeful spirits and ghosts, and it is likely that even ordinary people would go crazy if they walked here.

Look over there, there is a vengeful spirit climbing up the black building and jumping down again and again, its flesh and blood are all mixed up, but it cannot die, but it repeats this tirelessly…

Look at the other side. A woman with her hair down is constantly carving on the wall. On closer inspection, it is a few names. She is laughing madly, shouting spitefully at those names. I will never forget you. I will come for you…

This is just one scene in the city. Such things happen constantly in every corner of the city. Here, there is no order. Hatred is the driving force and order of everything!

We thought that after entering the city, we would be caught in a tough battle, but here, no one cares about us at all.

The even worse news is that we are lost and don’t know where to go…