Chapter 66: Entering the Mountain Gate

What did I see? I wasn’t sure what I had seen because I didn’t know how such a clear mountain gate could have appeared. As for what was behind the mountain gate, it was shrouded in mist and I couldn’t see clearly.

So, I could only think of a mirage, but then I thought of what my master had told me, that a mirage might not be a real mirage.

I was too shocked to communicate with anyone, and I understood why Gu Xindao told me that this was the only miracle he had ever seen in his life!

“Chengyi, Chengyi.” Gu Xindao’s voice kept echoing in my consciousness, and I finally came to my senses.

After all, we were in a spiritual state, and there was no way for us to touch each other. He had no choice but to keep calling me. I came back to my senses and said, “Sorry, Xindao, the continuous duels have weakened my spiritual power, and I don’t know if that’s why my reaction is slower.”

“Oh, it’s fine. This is not the key. The key reason is that you were also very shocked. I was the same way the first time.” Gu Xindao saw through it. I was actually trying to hide my embarrassment.

I smiled embarrassedly, but Gu Xindao said to me, “The gate is already there, let’s go in quickly. The gate maintained by this formation is not stable. If we don’t hurry and go in, our trip will be in vain.”

At this point, I noticed that the floating figures had entered the mountain gate in a certain order. I didn’t say anything at the moment, and with great curiosity, I entered the mountain gate with Gu Xindao.

I don’t know how to describe the feeling of entering the so-called mountain gate. I just felt that when I approached the mountain gate, it felt very majestic and huge. There was a plaque hanging on the mountain gate, and I didn’t know who had written four small seal characters on it that were very unfamiliar to ordinary people.

I have learned a lot of ancient characters from my master since I was a child, and to be honest, these four characters are not difficult for me to read, so I recognized them at a glance. The meaning of the four characters is “a place to live.”

This made me wonder. The history of the small seal script is very old, and this mountain gate looks very old-fashioned. The characters on the plaque above should be the name of the ancient mountain gate, just like the mountain gate in the Chinese mythology that I always associate with鈥攖he Southern Heavenly Gate.

But what does it mean to write a place to live?

But I couldn’t think too much about it. Under the urging of Gu Xindao, I could only enter the gate with him. I said that I couldn’t describe the feeling of crossing the gate. To put it simply, it felt like falling into a pool of water, and the whole vision and consciousness became blurred.

Especially in this process, there is no concept of time at all. You seem to be in a kind of lucid sleep, or in a coma. It seems like an instant, but also like eternity.

I thought that this feeling would never end, but then I thought that being awake was like a momentary thing. When I was completely awake, I couldn’t even react to what was going on. A huge breath of life came rushing at me.

I opened my eyes wide, not knowing where I was or what era it was鈥擨 saw green tiles and red tiles, a peaceful ancient town, and a clean cobblestone street right at my feet.

Is this the ancient Jiangnan? I found that the sky here was overcast, as if a light drizzle was about to fall at any moment.

But in fact, this is definitely not Jiangnan, nor is it any of the dynasties I am familiar with. Although I can’t say I’m very knowledgeable about history, I at least have some knowledge of the distinctive clothing and dress of the dynasties that have existed in China.

I can’t imagine that in such a street, there are people wearing Tang Dynasty costumes, Ming Dynasty costumes, and even Republic of China costumes. They blend together so harmoniously that they casually stroll down the street, their expressions peaceful, and they don’t even pay any attention to me, an outsider.

Although my spiritual power was already weak at this time, spiritual awareness is a kind of ethereal feeling that is always there. I was just very sensitive to the people walking on the street, and each of them had a good spiritual power!

This suddenly reminded me of what Gu Xindao had said to me, that the people here are all the souls of my Taoist people! So it is no surprise that they have such outstanding spiritual power.

Standing on this quaint street, I didn’t know what I was going to do, or even where I was going. There were no shops or anything like that here. The buildings on both sides of the street were just like residential buildings, and the “people” walking on the street simply ignored me.

“Chengyi, this is the ghost market, the real ghost market! The rest is just simple human-ghost transactions, which can’t be considered a ghost market. People who aren’t really in the know wouldn’t even think that the real ghost market might not even be in this world. It’s only vaguely recorded in some ancient documents, but it’s been interpreted as a mirage, which is quite helpless.” Gu Xindao appeared next to me at some point, and it seems that he entered some time later than me.

My master discussed this with me many years ago, but I don’t want to discuss this topic here, because people always think that seeing is believing, but they never consider the limitations of their own eyes.

If it can’t be explained as an illusion, then it is forcibly explained by science. Even if this scientific explanation lacks sufficient evidence, most of the evidence is only speculation!

Things that can be confirmed by real science can be applied or reproduced by scientific means. Who can reproduce the mirages recorded in ancient documents under certain conditions they call sufficient? You have to know that those mirages don’t appear in deserts or on the sea, sometimes they even appear in densely populated places.

And the people who can ‘see’ them should be people with outstanding spiritual powers. This is my guess.

I even suspect that some mirages are not mirages at all, or… I dare not imagine what or what, I admit that my knowledge is also limited.

Since I didn’t want to discuss this topic with Gu Xindao, I asked the question I wanted to ask most: “Xindao, why do the people here simply ignore us? What should we do here?”

Gu Xindao shook his head and said, “I don’t know the specific reason. I only know that in this ghost market, you need to have a connection. If someone here can talk to you, then it’s your time. You can start your transaction or choose whether to trade.

“Choose whether to trade?” I was a little confused. According to Gu Xindao’s statement, then the transactions in this ghost market are rare. Why do you have to choose whether to trade?

Gu Xindao smiled slightly in response to my question, saying, “Yes, in this ghost market, if such a chance comes, you may get any benefit without having to pay a price, but if the chance does not come, and you happen to meet someone who speaks to you, the benefit you receive may cost you a huge price.”

“Hmm…” I understood what Gu Xindao meant.

“But this ghost market is not really like this. It’s actually very big. There is a huge market here, and that is where orthodox transactions take place. But don’t think you can buy anything here,” Gu Xindao enthusiastically introduced to me.

I couldn’t imagine what the meaning behind this sentence was, and how great the price would be, so that people couldn’t buy anything here.

For a moment, I was stunned, but Gu Xindao said to me, “Let’s go. This place is actually very big. If you look around, can’t you see anyone else?”

Gu Xindao and I walked along the cobblestone street, just as he said, and indeed, apart from him and me, we couldn’t see anyone else who had come to the ghost market with us.

“It was because I promised my master to look after you that I entered the gate at the same time as you, so we happened to end up in the same place. But people who participate in this ghost market almost all have their own secrets, and under normal circumstances, they would never choose to enter the ghost market with others.” Gu Xindao explained to me.

“Is it big? How big is it?” What came into my eyes was the beautiful scenery of the ancient Jiangnan town. Between the red walls and green tiles, I could see peach blossoms and apricot blossoms from time to time. After turning down an alley, I could see the clear water flowing slowly in the river covered with moss, shrouded in a thin mist.

It is all so beautiful that it takes your breath away, but there is always a sense of unreality and unreality, but it is also real.

I really want to know how big it is, how big a Jiangnan city it is?