Chapter 32.1: Why is wife always looking at me?
Chapter 32 Part 1
It was pitch-black on the banks of Poyang Lake. The vast and boundless lakewater were enveloped by the colors of the night. Poyang Lake in May was a great time of the year. Many tourists were camping by side of the lake, spending the night in the open, walking on the grass, and having fun. However, they would never have thought that at this very moment at the center of the lake, the gathering of the greatest ghost market of the Xuanxue world had already begun.
Xi Jia walked along this long passageway of ghost fire for approximately five minutes. When they reached the end, Ye Jingzhi extended his hand to cut apart the dense fog that obstructed them. Everything suddenly became clear.
Thousands of ghosts and Celestial Masters had already gathered at this ghost market.
Xi Jia stood in the corner of the ghost market to observe. The ghost market was hovering above Poyang Lake, covering at least a hundred thousand square meters. At this time, Xi Jia was currently standing at a corner of the ghost market. There were countless ghosts who had set up small stalls on the surface of the lake in a seemingly disorderly manner, but was in fact orderly disorder. They faintly formed into a perfect ten-sided figure.
Ye Jingzhi said in a low voice, “This is an Eight Trigrams array. Only Celestial Masters with a Golden Pointed Leaf can enter the ghost market and walk on top of Poyang Lake. Besides them, any wild ghost can enter and exit. The primary participants of Poyang Ghost Market are the ghosts, and Celestial Masters are only guests.”
“This Sir knows a lot!” A resounding voice unexpectedly sounded.
Xi Jia and Ye Jingzhi turned to the side to look. They saw a ghost rubbing both hands, looking at them as if currying favor. There was a broadsword piercing through this ghost’s stomach. It wore linen clothes from the beginning of the last century. Short bristles sprouted on the front part of its head, and the hair on the back half reached its shoulders.
Xi Jia sized up this person, and there was a vague idea in his mind. The ghost tactfully said, “This little one is called Zhao San. It has been almost 100 years since this little one had died. At that time, it was the Warlord Era, and this little one was a member of Grand Marshal Feng’s squadron. Later, everyone was sent home after the war was lost. Unexpectedly, this little one was stabbed to death by the enemy midway.”
This ghost talked a lot. Seeing that Xi Jia and Ye Jingzhi still hadn’t responded, it rolled its eyes and directly said its intention, “These two Sirs, do you need this little one to lead the way? This little one comes to attend this Poyang Ghost Market every year and knows this place inside out. If Sirs wants to buy any magic treasures or pills, this little one knows everything.”
Ye Jingzhi nodded, “Okay.”
Xi Jia naturally also understood this person’s idea. He looked at Ye Jingzhi, and Master Ye explained like so, “It’s been three years since I’ve come to this ghost market.”
Since Master Ye also didn’t know much about the Poyang Ghost Market, the two of them might as well follow this ghost.
Sure enough, Zhao San had stayed in the Poyang Ghost Market for a long time. Because Xi Jia and Ye Jingzhi merely came to the ghost market to play and weren’t really here to buy things, he firmly led them to stroll around.
“The Poyang Ghost Market was prepared by us, wild ghosts who cannot reincarnate. At this ghost market, we can play as much as we like and use the paper money our family had burned for us. Besides this, we ghosts can earn the Xuanxue world’s points. ‘Ghosts Know’ also caters our contributions. As the saying goes, ‘Ghosts know, I know, you don’t know.’ Where in this world can you find reporters specializing in gossip that can compare with lonely souls and wild ghosts like us?”
Speaking to here, this little ghost complacently stuck out his stomach, and light reflected off of the broadsword.
“Us lonely souls and wild ghosts cover the Nine Provinces of Huaxia. Once something has happened, we would run over immediately and definitely get to the bottom of the truth before submitting it to ‘Ghosts Know.’ We are faithful reporters for ‘Ghosts Know.’ Last month, we provided an article, 《 The Story That Has to be Told About Cengxiu-zhenjun and His Disciple, Nan Yi 》”
Xi Jia was in the middle of drinking a beverage that the ghost market was selling. Suddenly hearing this, he nearly choked. “Cengxiu-zhenjun and his disciple?!” Xi Jia saw Cengxiu-zhenjun before. Cengxiu-zhenjun was seriously like a sage, elegant and poised. With a glance, he looked like a great master. However, the important point was that he’s already 103 years old this year!
Zhao San laughed, “The subtitle is 《Tips of Cengxiu-zhenjun Teaching His Disciple》.”
Xi Jia, “……” Was there any professional work ethics?!
Zhao San talked non-stop. By the time the two humans and one ghost went around half of the outer layer of the Eight Trigrams array, Zhao San carefully said, “Sirs, this Poyang Ghost Market is comprised of a Wu Xiang Eight Trigrams array and is divided into two parts: the outer layer and the inner layer.1 The outer layer is basically for the wild ghosts who only have paper money and no points to eat, drink, and play. In the inner layer, there are a lot of magic treasures and talismans that the Celestial Masters had refined. If you want to enter the inner layer, you need to have points. You just need to press your modou against the entrance and ensure that there’s points in there, then you can enter. Right now, we have arrived at the entrance to the inner layer.”
Xi Jia lifted his head to take a look. Sure enough, he saw a large golden door ten meters away. There were many wild ghosts moving around this door with eyes filled with envy, but each of them couldn’t enter. They could only keep watch beside the door.
Zhao San continued to explain, “Basically, every young genius of the Xuanxue world are inside Poyang Ghost Market’s inner layer. The elites of the older generation won’t interfere with the ghost market. Only the younger generation of every large sect would come here to sell their things. In fact, a lot of the things can also be bought on Tian Gong Pavilion’s online shop. But, Sirs also know that Tian Gong Pavilion’s fee is truly too high, and they take half of the profits. Only at this Poyang Ghost Market would the fee be only 20% of the profits. Many Sirs of the younger generation would set up a stall in the inner layer to earn points. Sirs, do you want to go in and see?”
Ye Jingzhi looked at Xi Jia, “There’s still half a layer, do you want to finish walking around?”
Xi Jia thought for a bit and nodded his head while smiling, “I still want to finish this outer layer.”
Upon hearing this, Zhao San revealed a disappointed look. Ye Jingzhi raised his hand, hitting a golden light towards him. Zhao San was stunned for a moment before looking at Ye Jingzhi in surprise. He quickly kneeled and kowtowed repeatedly, “Thank you, Sir. Thank you, Sir.”
Ye Jingzhi indifferently said, “We already know about the outer layer, and I am mostly clear about the situation in the inner layer. Go in yourself. There’s no need to lead the way anymore.”
“Thank you, Sir! The inner layer of this ghost market has a lot of Celestial Masters. If Sirs doesn’t want to see a familiar person, there’s a ghost with 50 years of cultivation 20 meters ahead. He used to make masks when he was alive. Sirs, you can buy a mask from him before entering.”
Zhao San gratefully kowtowed another three times. Then, he proceeded to take out a small gray modou and pressing it against the golden door. The entrance opened, and he stepped over the threshold to enter.
Xi Jia smiled, “Master Ye, you already gave him the reward that he wanted?”
Ye Jingzhi nodded, “I gave him some points.”
The two of them didn’t stay here any longer and continued to walk forward, planning on finishing the other half of the ghost market’s outer layer.
Xi Jia has long known that there are no free lunch in this world. That Zhao San wouldn’t have acted as a tour guide and kindly show them the way for no reason. Zhao San said before that lonely souls and wild ghosts could also earn points because they could contribute to “Ghosts Know.” If a wild ghost with higher cultivation killed a malicious ghost, they could also earn points.
However, how could points be so easily earned?
“Ghosts Know” only publishes four articles each day. Only a few of the little ghosts’ gossip news would be included. Ghosts who had never killed anyone and malicious ghosts who had killed someone, the gap in strength between them was far and wide. Wanting to kill a malicious ghost was very diffcult.
Therefore, maybe that Zhao San only wanted to act as a tour guide for them and earn some points.
However, Xi Jia never would’ve thought that just as Zhao San excitedly entered Poyang Ghost City’s inner layer, it was tugged by an old friend.
A hanged ghost happily seized Zhao San by the shoulder, laughing, “San-er, did you earn some points from that Sir?2 Come, I just saw disciples from Tian Gong Pavilion setting up stalls over there. Their eldest disciple, Measurement, Sir Measurement’s Shape Setting Talismans are being sold for 0.1 points each! You should quickly go buy one!”
Zhao San excitedly nodded. It was precisely because he wanted to buy a Shape Setting Talisman that he gave Xi Jia and Ye Jingzhi a tour for half a day.
The hanged ghost said, “San-er, quickly see how much Sir gave you? Maybe he gave you 0.2 points, then you can buy two Shape Setting Talismans.”
“Those two Sirs looked pretty ordinary and very young. I’ve never seen them in Poyang Ghost Market before. They shouldn’t be disciples of the Four Great Sects.”
Zhao San opened his own modou. Right when he turned his head to talk to his old pal, that hanged ghost’s eyes widened. The tongue that usually hung outside of its mouth directly fell out.
“Oh my, holy shit! San-er! Ten Points! Ten! Did I see wrong?!!! You’ve made it!!!”
Zhao San’s eyes bulged.
Facts had proven that Master Ye’s “some points” and the “some points” that ordinary people spoke of were absolutely two different concepts.
Translator’s Addition:
Mirror: I’m on another date with wife~ (♡´艸`)
C+: How could ghosts also be so shameless!
Translator’s Notes:
1 Wu Xiang 无相 – can mean “signless,” without face/figure/appearance/picture/etc. I reverted back to pinyin for references in the later chapters. ↵
1 -er -儿 : A diminutive suffix to show endearment like Little/Xiao. ↵