"Why did Spirit dium have to activate at such a critical mont? Isn’t this ssing with ? Now I’m in a haunted district, and once I activate the Spirit dium, it ans I might get targeted by the ghosts here, which would put in even greater danger."
At this mont, Li Yi was grinding his teeth in frustration, wishing he could forcibly interrupt his body’s evolution.
But that was impossible.
The life-and-death ordeal had allowed Li Yi to take that crucial step on the path of cultivation, and the reason he could do so was due to the fact that his body had absorbed too much Cosmic Energy ordinarily.
It was just that this energy had been stored in his body and had not been stimulated.
Therefore, Li Yi’s activation of Spirit dium was not a coincidence, but an inevitable outco.
"While my Spirit dium hasn’t fully activated, there might still be a chance to leave this place," Li Yi thought, as he frantically fled the silent street.
But the further he ran, the more ’people’ appeared around him, and these figures grew more complete and clear in his vision. Several cold figures had even spotted him, their gazes subtly following Li Yi’s run, though those figures didn’t take any action.
Even so, Li Yi felt chills crawling up his spine.
He could even sll a strange odor of decay and feel the coolness emitting from the passing figures on his skin.
The street was getting more crowded.
At first, he was able to ignore these eerie figures and walk straight through them; they had no reaction at all. But later on, Li Yi no longer dared to do so and had to carefully avoid them, because he felt that if he walked through them again, he would definitely bump into soone.
"I can’t get out, I am trapped here,"
Soon, Li Yi abruptly stopped. Standing on this strange street, he had completely lost his sense of direction.
Strange figures ca and went incessantly around him, and the buildings nearby had changed, no longer the sa as before. High above, blood-red lanterns hung, emitting a red glow. Besides that, strange noises reached his ears, sounds he could not comprehend.
It was like whispers were around him, yet also like a particular dialect.
At that mont, Li Yi felt as though he was in a foreign world, no longer in the dangerous district he knew.
However, at that mont,
Suddenly.
A passing figure stopped abruptly beside him, and with its lifeless, ash-gray eyes, stared intently at Li Yi.
Being stared at, Li Yi felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He sensed the person was not alive but a cold dead body.
And not just that.
The second one, the third one... Eerie ’people’ around him stopped one after another, all turning to look at him in unison.
It seed Li Yi, a living person, was particularly out of place here. His presence had attracted the attention of many strange beings.
Li Yi also realized he stood out too much.
He wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go; he could only be cornered here.
"It looks like I might die here too, no wonder Brother Tao avoided this area before."
Li Yi’s heart pounded, sweat beading his forehead, as he saw one of the somber, eerie figures walking towards him.
Then a second, a third, a fourth... More and more ghosts converged, all targeting him.
No way out, no place to escape.
At this mont, Li Yi was trapped in a dire situation.
But just then, suddenly, a cold figure in a paper shroud approached swiftly, extending a wrinkled and rough hand to grab Li Yi’s arm.
"Hmm?"
Tense all over, Li Yi instinctively resisted, his strength bursting forth, trying to shake off the hand.
But strangely, the hand held on tight, impossible to shake off.
"You’ve got so nerve, lad. Standing in the middle of Ghost Street like this? Aren’t you afraid of dying? Co on, follow ," a deep middle-aged man’s voice sounded, his accent odd, like an unknown dialect, but Li Yi could understand him.
Li Yi’s eyes narrowed. It was then he noticed that this figure in paper clothing wasn’t a ghost, but a living person in disguise.
"Okay."
Without a mont’s hesitation, he agreed imdiately.
Subsequently, the person clad in paper garnts tossed sothing over, "Put on this hood, conceal your living breath, or else the ghosts here will keep staring at you. If you co across ghost soldiers again, you’ll certainly be dead. Now, stop talking; if you keep it up, I’ll start drawing their attention too."
Li Yi instinctively caught the hood.
It felt soft, yet chilling to the core, and it also emanated a stench similar to that of rotting corpses.
This was no ordinary skin covering; it seed to be made from the skin peeled off a dead person’s head.
But Li Yi couldn’t concern himself with that right now; he didn’t want to die here in a confused state, so he imdiately put on the hood.
Strangely enough,
as soon as he donned the skin hood, those eerie gazes around him retracted, the ghosts stopped approaching him, and after a brief observation, they dispersed gradually.
At this mont, the person in paper garnts was swiftly leading Li Yi through this street.
Li Yi didn’t resist.
This person led Li Yi through twists and turns and then entered a small alley. Oddly enough, this alley did not exist in the dangerous area; moreover, the style of the alley did not resemble modern architecture. Surrounding him were gray tiles and green bricks, as though he had suddenly stepped into ancient tis.
Li Yi kept silent, observing and silently morizing the route to prevent getting lost and being unable to find his way back later.
Quickly, the person brought Li Yi to a gate at the end of the alley and stopped.
The gate was an old double wooden door, upon which two severely faded Door Gods were affixed. The representations of the Door Gods were unusual, not the familiar figures of Qin Shubao and Yuchi Gong, but rather the much older Shen Tu and Yu Lei. Furthermore, the script on the door wasn’t modern and Li Yi couldn’t recognize what it was; after all, he wasn’t highly educated and hadn’t specialized in this field.
"Knock, knock!" the person in paper garnts rapped on the wooden door.
After a little while.
The wooden door opened, and a girl of about seventeen or eighteen stood behind it, hair coiffed in a bun, dressed in a Luo skirt.
She didn’t speak but imdiately stepped aside to make way.
Then the person hastily pulled Li Yi into the courtyard.
Only after entering did the girl rush to close the door and secure the door bar.
"Dad, are you alright?" Once the door was closed, the girl dared to speak.
"I’m fine, went around once and ca back, didn’t find a place selling dicine. Instead, I picked up a young fellow with his head not quite right." The middle-aged man spoke while carefully removing the paper garnt from his body, fearing that any careless force might tear it apart.
Only after he had taken off the paper garnt, could Li Yi finally see the man clearly through the holes in the hood.
He was a lean, slightly hunched middle-aged man with an ordinary appearance, face full of wrinkles, and he had a full head of hair and a beard, dressed like soone from ancient tis.
"All is well in here now. The Door Gods at the entrance haven’t completely faded yet and can still protect the peace here. The ghosts from outside can’t enter, so you can take off the hood," said the middle-aged man.
Upon hearing this, Li Yi imdiately removed the hood and took deep breaths; the sll from the hood had been unbearable.
"Tsk, tsk, truly nothing is too bizarre. One does not roam as a spirit, two does not wear shrouds pretending to be dead; such a big living person just barged into Ghost Street and is still alive. How did you manage that?" The middle-aged man circled around Li Yi a few tis, clicking his tongue in wonder and scrutinizing him.
"It’s a long story. I was being chased by a Fierce Beast and accidentally ran here. When I arrived, it wasn’t Ghost Street yet, but then as I walked, I fell in and couldn’t get out," Li Yi explained briefly.
"An accident, eh?" The middle-aged man nodded, "That makes so sense. Young fellow, what is your na?"
"Li Yi."
"Do you have a style na?" The man asked again.
"Style na?" Li Yi paused, then quickly caught on.
In ancient tis, people had both given nas and style nas.
To have a style na ant that one had a certain family background and scholarly attainnt; it wasn’t common among ordinary people.
Li Yi hastily made one up, "Style na: ng De."
"ng De? aning bravery and noble virtue, good na. It seems the person who nad you is quite remarkable," the middle-aged man’s eyes sparkled faintly, then he nodded, "I am Zhao Ge, and this is my daughter Zhao Qian. We’re ordinary folks, my daughter hasn’t been styled yet, please excuse us."
He then saluted with hands folded in front of him, appearing sowhat ashad.
"Not at all, not at all," Li Yi promptly imitated the gesture, returning the salute, while his mind pondered whether he truly arrived in the Otherworld, or if everything here was false, an illusion before his impending death.
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