Chapter 65: The Shocking Secret Market

I was completely at a loss as to what to do in this ghost market, and the strong fluctuations in the magic array even scared me. For a moment, I felt that I didn’t know whether to stand or sit, and I didn’t know what to do. Was I supposed to find a bed and sit down like those people?

But no one paid any attention to my confusion. At that moment, a handsome middle-aged man came over to me and asked, “Are you Chen Chengyi?”

“I am. And you are…? I don’t remember having such an acquaintance.

“Gu Chaowen is my master, and he specifically asked me to look after you in this ghost market. My name is Gu Xindao. If you don’t mind, you can call me Brother Xindao.” The handsome middle-aged man explained to me with a smile.

I didn’t expect that old man Gu would really take care of me. I didn’t delay any longer and called out, “Brother Xindao,” with my hands clasped in a fist.

Gu Xindao smiled and nodded, then whispered, “Follow me.”

I followed Gu Xindao into the hall full of beds, and I was very careful along the way because I sensed that the people who could stay here were all highly skilled, at least not comparable to me.

Along the way, people would occasionally cast a glance at me, some of them quite peaceful, others extremely unfriendly, but I followed Gu Xindao with my head bowed, in keeping with the principle of low-key.

It wasn’t until Gu Xindao found two adjacent empty beds that he stopped. Then we both sat down on the beds, and Gu Xindao whispered to me, “I’ll be next to you, so you can follow me and I can take care of you.”

I was full of questions about this ghost market. After sitting down, I asked in a low voice, “Brother Xindao, can you tell me more about this ghost market? I really don’t know anything about it. And when I entered, I felt a strong fluctuation in the formation. Just that fluctuation made me tremble with fear. That…”

Gu Xindao interrupted me before I could finish my question, and said in a low voice, “Don’t ask too much about this formation. This ghost market has existed since ancient times, and this formation has been passed down from generation to generation. There are many legends about this formation, but the most common one is that this formation was given by the gods.”

“Ah?” I couldn’t help but say “Ah” involuntarily. To be honest, even if I believe in Kunlun and think that it is a mysterious place of preaching, I am very stubborn in not believing in immortals. Even if I invite gods, my understanding has always been that I invite powerful beings with spiritual power. As for the upper Taoism, it’s nonsense. Who has ever seen that thing?

As if anticipating my reaction, Gu Xindao said calmly, “It’s normal for you to react this way. After all, you and I are both cultivators, and our knowledge is extensive. We have never heard of anyone who has really seen a true immortal, or the people who have seen them will not tell us. In short, this formation does not need to be discussed again. It has always been in the hands of an extremely mysterious neutral organization. This organization is the organizer of the annual ghost market, and on the surface, it is the large organizations of the two paths of good and evil that take turns hosting it. No matter what they do, the mysterious organization will take 30% of the fee as the cost of the formation.

This is really a secret story, but unfortunately it has little to do with what I am looking for, so I just took it as interesting to hear, and I didn’t care much about the rest.

As for this ghost market, Gu Xindao said two things to me: “If you want to know what this ghost market is about, I can’t explain it to you clearly, but I must tell you two things. First, if you can’t separate your soul from your body, it’s meaningless to participate in this ghost market. Second, the reason why this ghost market has such high restrictions is because the ghosts who trade in this ghost market are almost all my Taoist ancestors. It’s more appropriate to call them ghost cultivators.”

What? The ghosts in this ghost market are all Taoist ancestors? Then the significance of this ghost market is indeed different, and it is definitely worthy of being called a secret market. But I don’t understand why you have to leave your soul and body to participate in a ghost market. But before I could ask, Gu Xinda interrupted me: “I have also watched your duels these two days. I believe that most people in the circle can temporarily leave their souls and bodies, so you must have no problem.”

“There is no problem, but…” Unfortunately, before I could finish my sentence, a man in black walked up to the front. Unlike the other men in black, this one covered his face. When he took the stage, everyone else kept quiet.

Gu Xindao was the same, so I couldn’t continue asking questions.

The black-clad man stepped forward, without any nonsense, and said in a very old voice, “The secret chamber will be officially opened in ten minutes. After I finish speaking, the formation will start, so you should also prepare yourselves.”

After saying this, the black-clad man shouted to turn off the lights, and then the entire cave fell into darkness. Then I felt a ten times stronger fluctuation of the formation than before. That fluctuation gave me a strange feeling, which I can’t describe. It was as if I had sunk into the water and everything I saw was a refraction.

Just as I was indulging in this feeling, I heard a low voice from Gu Xindao next to me: “Hurry up and meditate, let your soul leave your body. You only have ten minutes to prepare. If you wait until the mountain gate closes, you’ll have come for nothing.”

Mountain gate? What mountain gate? I didn’t know anything about it at all, but I knew that Gu Xinda wouldn’t have said it without a reason, so I quickly recited a mantra for meditation in silence and fell into a state of meditation in a moment.

The reason why most people in the circle can detach their soul from their body is that they are used to deep meditation, and a large part of this detachment of the soul is related to meditation. It is a kind of wonderful control of the body and soul by the brain, and it is difficult for people who have not experienced it to understand that feeling.

In less than ten minutes, I had already achieved the state of soul separation. I felt a bit sorry that the preparation time was too short. I would have liked to tie a knot to my body. I always felt that my soul was separated from my body, and I was not at ease.

“Chen Chengyi, don’t worry about your body. This secret city is directly supervised by that mysterious organization, and it will not allow any mistakes.” The voice was that of Gu Xindao. This sudden exchange of spiritual states scared me a lot.

After all, it’s different from talking to people. Once you leave your body, the kind of communication is spiritual, and I still need a little time to get used to it.

“It’s you, Xindao. You scared me. Xindao, as far as I know, the soul cannot leave the body for too long or too far. I’m always a little worried about this kind of transaction.” Yes, only by experiencing the spirit state can you know the benefits of having a physical body. When I asked, I saw that most of the people in this cave had already completed the separation of the soul from the body.

As a Taoist priest, I felt like I had taken off my strongest armor when I temporarily left my body, and it was so uncomfortable.

“It won’t be too long, and it won’t be too far away, will it? Maybe when we wake up, it’ll only be a few minutes. The secret city here has never been held for more than ten minutes.” Gu Xindao said to me in a strange, uncertain tone.

This made me shocked again. I was about to ask again, but I saw Gu Xindao looking at the front of the cave with a kind of crazy, hot look, and he muttered, “It’s coming, it’s coming…”

“What’s coming soon?” I asked subconsciously, but my gaze turned in the same direction as Gu Xindao’s. Nothing had actually happened in that direction. If anything, it felt like someone had created a layer of water curtain there, making it look distorted and unreal.

Isn’t this how I felt when the formation first started to operate?

But at this time, Gu Xindao answered me with a sentence: “That is the only existence in my life that I consider a miracle, and it is the greatest motivation for my unwavering heart in my life.”

Is this exaggeration? I didn’t know what to say, so I could only stare at the front of the cave with Gu Xindao. At this time, a large amount of fog inexplicably came from the front of the cave. The fog came too quickly, and it instantly filled the entire cave, making the cave look like a fairy cave.

At this moment, a faint outline appeared. I was stunned and realized that Gu Xindao’s words were not exaggerated at all.

My thoughts instantly returned to nine years ago, to the night when I was with my master in the Tianjin ghost market. My master had said, “There are many ways to understand the ghost market. In ancient times, people often saw the so-called ghost market, and the explanation given on the surface was ‘mirage’. I think there are mirages, but whether this is actually the case is open to discussion.”

“Master, why is it open to discussion? What is your opinion?”

“My opinion? Haha, maybe it’s a spatial interweaving.”

Intertwined space? Master, did you already have a definite answer, and have you seen the ghost market here before, so you could say this to me?

At this point, I was still in a state of shock!