Chapter 21: Ghost Market Bids for Longevity

Dusk, wrapped in Yin Qi, seeped into the cracks of the bluestone bricks. Lu Qingyang squatted in front of a stall made of intertwined locust tree roots, his fingertips pinching a moldy Grain Abstinence Pill. Opposite him, the stall owner, wearing a crying-face mask, was tapping a pottery jar with a bone flute. The bottom of the jar was covered with a sticky, dark paste, emitting a fishy smell of decaying flesh mixed with cinnabar.

"Fellow Daoist, this Yin Corpse Mud in your jar is probably third-hand goods dug from a mass grave." He deliberately crushed the Grain Abstinence Pill into powder and sprinkled it over the jar's opening. The powder, upon touching the black paste, glowed with green flames. "See? Even the lowest-grade Grain Abstinence Pill can't suppress its Yin Qi, yet you dare to ask for twenty Spirit Stones?"

The stall owner's Adam's apple bobbed twice beneath his mask. He suddenly grabbed the pottery jar and shoved it into Lu Qingyang's arms: "Five! Five Low-Grade Spirit Stones, and it's yours!" Lu Qingyang smoothly palmed a bronze shard stuck to the bottom of the jar, but still shouted, "Three! One more coin, and Young Master will report you for selling fakes!"

At three-quarters past the hour of Xu, the soul 引魂 lamps at the entrance of the Ghost Market lit up one after another. Lu Qingyang slipped into the latrine to change out of his grey cloth shirt. When he emerged, he was a wealthy Young Master in brocade robes and a jade belt, his waist jade pendant magically transformed into the Taiyi Pavilion's style by an illusion spell. He swaggered towards the auction house, the qingmu spirit pearl in his sleeve pouch resonating and heating up with the bronze shard.

"Next item for auction—a thousand-year-old Flood Dragon's Inverse Scale!" On the stage, an Old Cultivator lifted the red silk. The blood patterns on the scale actually formed a fragmented character: "funeral" (bury). Just as Lu Qingyang raised his bidding paddle, a light chuckle came from beside him: "Daoist Lu, aren't you afraid of the Law Enforcement Hall extracting your soul and refining your essence for impersonating a Taiyi Pavilion Disciple?"

Su Li wore a moon-white ruqun, but the hairpins in her hair were adorned with Seven Fiend Soul-Locking Nails. Her fingertips traced the fake jade pendant on Lu Qingyang's waist, the icy touch sending shivers down his neck: "Su Gu Niang, aren't you also using the title of a Hehuan Sect outcast to sneak into the Ghost Market looking for a Dual Cultivation Cauldron?"

When the bidding reached eighty Spirit Stones, a hoarse voice came from a private room on the second floor: "One hundred High-Grade Spirit Stones." Amidst the uproar, Lu Qingyang caught a glimpse of a faint flame pattern on the bidder's cuff—the unique mark of the Taiyi Pavilion's Law Enforcement Hall. He clenched the spirit pearl tightly. The illusory medicinal field within the pearl actually combined with the blood patterns on the Flood Dragon scale to form a complete map, pointing to a certain Restriction deep within the Burial Dragon Abyss.

"One hundred and one Spirit Stones." Lu Qingyang shook his folding fan and stood up, deliberately revealing a corner of his Storage Pouch. Inside, it was stuffed with fake spirit crystals made of Yin Corpse Mud, their surface smeared with genuine dragon blood grass juice. Su Li stomped hard on his foot under the table: "Are you crazy? That's the Taiyi Pavilion..."

"One hundred and fifty!" The bamboo curtain in the private room exploded into fragments. A Cultivator with a flame pattern on his brow stepped onto a Flying Sword, soaring into the air. "You young brat, you're courting death!" The pressure was like a collapsing mountain. Lu Qingyang dropped to his knees, spitting out a mouthful of blood, but the fake spirit crystals in his sleeve took the opportunity to scatter across the floor. As everyone scrambled to grab them, he flicked a finger, sending the true spirit crystal towards the opposite private room, and shouted, "Fellow Daoist of the Profound Yin Sect, aren't you going to make a move?"

Seven or eight black figures burst through the windows in response, and the auction house instantly descended into chaos. Lu Qingyang crouched down and ducked under the display stand. The moment the qingmu spirit pearl touched the Flood Dragon scale, the hourglass illusion reversed, showing a tenfold time flow. He watched with his own eyes as tiny, fly-head-sized characters appeared on the scale's surface—"The third fragment of the qingmu spirit pearl is hidden at the bottom of the blood pool in the Burial Dragon Abyss."

"So the map the Old Drunkard left was bait!" Lu Qingyang cursed as he scraped off the surface of the scale. A scorching wave of Qi suddenly struck him from behind. The Taiyi Pavilion Cultivator's Flying Sword had turned fiery red, melting even the bluestone bricks into lava wherever it passed. He threw out the Thunderstorm Talisman Su Li had given him, but instead, his hand brushed against a bellyband embroidered with the Hehuan Sect's emblem.

"A dog can't change its habit of eating shit!" Su Li grabbed him by the back of his collar and crashed through the wall. Her Rouge Tiger Puppet spewed poisonous mist to block the pursuers. The two of them sprinted through the maze-like alleys. Lu Qingyang, while running, pulled out the bellyband to wipe his sweat: "Su Gu Niang, this token of affection is truly flamboyant... Ouch!"

At the end of the back alley, an old man selling sugar figurines squatted. His straw target was full of lifelike Nascent Soul figurines. The old man's cloudy eyes suddenly turned towards them: "Would the two of you like to try a sugar heart?" As he spoke, his mouth split to his ears, revealing a mouthful of barb-like fangs.

"It's a Gluttonous Puppet!" Su Li threw out a soul-locking nail, but it got stuck in the syrup. Lu Qingyang grabbed the spirit pearl and pressed it into the sugar figurine stall's stove fire. The green flames surged three zhang high. The Gluttonous Puppet let out a scream like an infant's cry, and the syrup in the stove actually solidified into the shape of a key.

The moment the key was inserted into a crack in the wall, the entire alley rolled up like a scroll. Lu Qingyang was still mumbling as he fell into the hot spring water: "I heard that there's a paradise hidden beneath the Ghost Market... Mmph!" Su Li pushed his head into the water. At the bottom of the pool, a glazed coffin was clearly visible, and the female corpse inside bore a seven-tenths resemblance to her.

"So you tricked me into coming here for this..." Lu Qingyang surfaced, shaking his head, then suddenly his eyes widened. The bronze box held in the female corpse's hand was identical to the one marked on the Burial Dragon Abyss map. As Su Li was breaking the formation, he secretly took the Soul Nurturing Jade buried with the corpse in the coffin, but then he heard the Old Drunkard's sigh from within the spirit pearl: "Foolish child, that jade locks souls..."

The glazed coffin lid suddenly shattered, and the female corpse opened her eyeless eyes. Su Li spat out a mouthful of heart blood to activate her Puppet. The Rouge Tiger transformed into a three-zhang-tall beast and pounced. Lu Qingyang fled, sprinkling urine on the Soul Nurturing Jade as he ran: "Heavenly spirits, earthly spirits, Young Master's pure Yang fluid specializes in countering Yin corpses!"

The female corpse indeed hesitated for a moment. He seized the opportunity to insert the spirit pearl into the bronze box's slot. The dome of the underground palace descended with starlight forming a chessboard, each star an illusory image of a lost ancient treasure. Su Li suddenly hugged him from behind, her soul-locking nails at his temples: "Daoist Lu, if you monopolize the Star Luo Chess Manual, this servant won't agree."

"How could I!" Lu Qingyang chuckled, reaching for her embroidered pouch at her waist. "Seven for me, three for you... Hey, why are you touching my crotch?" Su Li pulled out three swapped recording stones, which clearly showed the process of him using an illusion spell to trick away the Flood Dragon scale. The underground palace suddenly trembled violently, and the stars of the chessboard fell like meteors—the Taiyi Pavilion Cultivator was actually using his vital essence to forcefully break the formation.

At the brink of death, Lu Qingyang bit his tongue and sprayed blood onto the spirit pearl. The hourglass illusion enveloped both of them; ten breaths in the outside world were equivalent to one hour inside. In the gap of time, he spread open the "Taiyi Pill Scripture" that Su Li had stolen, muttering as he copied it: "I should have touched her more, this loss is huge..."