Chapter 1 A world that feeds on ghosts
The faint morning light illuminated the thousands of miles of rivers.
Several lonely boats floated on the water, and fishermen could be vaguely heard singing songs as they rowed toward Peibaicheng in Jialiang Water Town, loaded with fish.
As a town at the junction of the four water towns, Peibaicheng has a permanent population of more than 100,000, and today coincides with the first morning market in early spring.
Frost has covered the old city, and shops are clustered around the market.
People were walking through the streets and alleys. Goods were being delivered by ship from the dock, and three or two police officers patrolling the streets stood watching.
An old man and a young man led a mule and bought fresh vegetables along the street.
"Ahe."
"Dad, what's wrong?"
The old man lowered his head and called, and the young man of seventeen or eighteen years old echoed.
"Ahe, you just came to Peibai not long ago. Be smart and protect the mule. Don't let the passers-by pick up your wallet."
"I got it, Dad."
"Yeah."
The old man greeted the vendors at each stall one by one.
Mr. Song, the fish seller, said jokingly: "Yang San, you have brought your children to Peibai. It seems that you made a lot of money last year."
"No way, I have a son when I am old, and my mother-in-law died early. If I don't bring him, I will be disliked by my uncle." Old man Yang patted the mule's butt and raised his head slightly with satisfaction.
"Let's go, we have to work for a while."
He knew all the vendors in the market and asked about the prices of seasonal vegetables. He occasionally purchased a few bundles without taking advantage of the vendors.
Yang He pulled the mule and followed closely, looking at the quaint Jiangnan town.
Two months ago, Yang He was still living in a technologically advanced city.
When he woke up, he had replaced the original owner who had just died after falling off a cliff. While recovering from his injuries, he only realized that the world he was in was extremely strange.
It seems that the dynasty has lasted for more than two thousand years.
"Ahe, come and take a look, there is a lot of wisdom in selecting seasonal vegetables."
Yang He came back to his senses, and Old Yang pointed sideways at the vegetable stall to teach his experience, "Whether the March greens in early spring are fresh or not depends on the green color, the fullness of the leaves, and the third..."
He immediately handed over the copper coins, picked out a few kilograms of vegetables and wrapped them.
Old man Yang works as a "vegetable merchant" and is responsible for delivering seasonal vegetables to restaurants and mansions. Naturally, he hopes that Yang He can inherit his father's business.
Yang He suddenly remembered the purpose of his trip.
"Dad, are you going to the Blackwater Martial Arts School to deliver goods later?"
Old man Yang nodded and said: "Ahe, you are too old, otherwise I would send you to a martial arts gym to lay the foundation. Alas, it's a pity that you have a little surplus recently."
Yang He was very interested in martial arts and came to Peibai because he wanted to get in touch with martial arts.
I heard that warriors flew over eaves and walls, smashed boulders with one palm, and decapitated enemy generals among thousands of people with sharp weapons. Practicing both internal and external skills can also prolong life.
As a time traveler, how could I miss the mysterious martial arts?
Suddenly, there was a noise.
Yang He looked towards the market entrance, his expression became a little strange.
Thousands of people flocked to the market entrance, and people from other urban areas continued to arrive.
Old Man Yang noticed at a glance that a caravan carriage was transporting seven large vats containing living creatures, which were being placed in the open space one after another.
"Dad, this is..."
"Ahe, you're new here and haven't seen any strange things yet, right? Come on, keep your eyesight!"
The father and son squeezed into the crowd and saved a lot of energy by relying on their mules.
"Strange object?"
Yang He's words were complicated and his eyes were staring ahead blankly.
"Once plants, trees, birds and animals absorb the essence of the sun and moon, they will turn into strange things. Warriors take strange things to strengthen their essence and blood, but ordinary people will not be able to take the supplement."
Old man Yang kept talking, emphasizing that all rare things are valuable.
Yang He was breathing rapidly, not because he was excited about seeing the strange object, but mainly because the golden finger of the two generations suddenly moved.
There was a surge of writing in front of my eyes, and the panel revealed its clues.
【Spiritual Vision: 0.2 points】
[Your eyesight is slightly better than ordinary people, and you will no longer be troubled by eye diseases. 】
In the past twenty-four years of this life, the spiritual vision has always been 0.1 points. The main effect is reflected in the outstanding visual acuity, which is slightly useless.
Until a strange object appeared, spiritual vision began to increase.
【Spiritual Vision: 0.3 points】
Yang He hadn't taken a few steps when his spiritual vision increased for no apparent reason. Whether it was an illusion or not, the noise in the market gradually became silent.
"Ah He, it's Turbot!" Old Man Yang came closer and said.
The caravan warriors broke seven large vats, and the water flow carried the living creatures and fell into the open space.
The people were in an uproar because inside the tank was a fat koi carp that was a full meter in size.
The koi's body is covered with proliferating sarcoma, its pupils are facing the sky in an unusual way, and its belly is like a balloon, as if it is about to explode.
【Spiritual Vision: 0.5 points】
Yang He felt chills all over his body, and he felt inexplicably creepy looking at the turbot fish.
Old Man Yang explained: "The rare turbot fish often appears in the Jialiang water town. Its stomach pouch is a good material for making leather armor, and the fish meat is also rare for warriors."
When Yang He heard the comments around him, the sudden shock in his heart intensified.
"It's so rare. Normally turbot fish appear in large quantities only at high tide in water towns. Wow, how could it happen three or four months earlier this year?"
"Who knows." "Turbo fish are the most greedy. They eat whatever they see on weekdays. In two or three years, they have to stretch themselves to death. The Fuyang Chamber of Commerce is a good idea."
"There are many treasures, many treasures. I heard that someone found gold in the fish stomach, but I don't know whether it is true or not."
【Spiritual Vision: 0.7 points】
Yang Heyi was in a daze, the street vapor in his eyes was billowing, and the smell of turbot fish was getting more and more fishy, but others turned a blind eye.
Old man Yang noticed something strange about the child and touched the latter's forehead.
"Are you okay?"
"It's okay, I'm so crowded that I can't breathe."
Old Man Yang licked his lips and said: "Processing turbot is extremely troublesome. The fish meat must be peeled off while it is still alive. If it dies early, most of the fish meat will lose all nutrients."
“It would be nice to learn three melons and two dates from merchants.”
Shopkeeper Chen cupped his hand and received applause from the audience: "Dear fellow villagers! I am Chen Baosheng from the Fuyang Chamber of Commerce."
Check out the 16-9 book bar to see the correct version!
"The turbot fish has been ordered by major martial arts schools in advance, so everyone can get lucky."
"The contents of the fish stomach, regardless of whether they are high or low, are given to the folks!"
The crowd was bustling, and the entire market was attracted by the actions of the Fuyang caravan.
"Eviscerate!!"
Bouncer Chen shouted loudly, and the seven butchers took out their long knives and slashed the belly of the turbot, revealing the meat of mutton-fat white jade.
The warrior caught the fish's blood in a wooden basin and quickly helped the butcher in the slaughtering.
【Spiritual Vision: 0.9 points】
Yang He's head buzzed, and his temples were swollen and painful. He could feel that the source of the surge in spiritual vision was something in the fish's stomach.
puff.
Stubborn rocks and aquatic plants surged out from the fish's stomach, occasionally mixed with a few dead bones of animals.
[Spiritual vision: 1 point]
[You have 1 point of spiritual vision and can see part of the nature of the world. Remember, don’t be discovered by ghosts. Those who see ghosts will not survive. 】
Yang He's pupils shrank slightly, and the Tianling Cap seemed to open a hole, and he was filled with coolness.
His legs were numb, and everything in his eyes changed drastically.
Peibaicheng is still Peibaicheng, but it looks eerie and terrifying.
Yang He noticed that the turbot fish that the butcher was dismembering was no longer a koi.
What is seen through spiritual vision.
The turbot fish transformed into a ferocious monster that was half human and half fish. Its body was as skinny as wood, its abdomen was as distended as a drum, and it was mumbling indistinctly.
"Hungry, hungry..."
【Hungry Ghost】
[Hungry ghosts who drink water and die are hungry but only have raw water to drink. They are forced to death. After death, their resentment persists and they turn into ghosts. 】
The butcher skillfully disemboweled the body, but the hungry ghost opened his mouth wide without any resistance.
You could even say...excited? Excited to face death?
Yang He looked around, hearing various sharp murmurs echoing in his ears.
He belatedly noticed that he was not in the earth at all, but in hell!
There are more than a dozen human-headed lantern ghosts floating in the corners of the alleys; there is a breath-taking ghost with a slender neck lying on the top of the eaves; there is a group of long-haired ghosts drifting in the river; the most exaggerated thing is the medicine shop.
The pharmacy clerk is drying the angelica angelica that looks like eyeballs, the grass fruits that look like organs, the ginseng with facial features, and the astragalus that keeps bleeding...
But all the medicinal materials related to strange objects come from ghosts!
"The warriors in this world are using ghosts as medicine!!"
Yang He covered his head, maybe all the strange things were caused by spiritual vision? Is it all an illusion?
no.
It is better to believe that it exists than to believe that it does not exist.
According to the prompts of spiritual vision, "Those who see ghosts will die from eating them all", which means that being able to look directly at ghosts is definitely not a good thing.
There is a layer of window paper between humans and ghosts. If the window paper is broken, the corpse may not be left alive.
The only thing you can do is turn a blind eye!
Yang He suppressed his distracting thoughts and realized that the object that caused the growth of spiritual vision was very important, and the golden finger was what he relied on for survival.
"Huh?!"
A butcher made a mistake, and before he could make amends, the turbot died.
From a normal viewing angle, the turbot becomes shriveled up at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Shopkeeper Chen smiled helplessly and did not blame the butcher.
What Yang He saw was different. There was a gap in the turbot's back, and it seemed like a ghost got out of the body, and then disappeared suddenly.
"If the processing of strange objects fails, new ghosts will be born? No wonder there are lonely ghosts everywhere."
Yang Heyi gritted his teeth and leaned into the crowd of people scrambling for sundries.
"Dad, I'm going to get some luck."
"Don't be reckless!"
Old man Yang waited anxiously, and it took him a long time to see his son come back in embarrassment.
Yang He gasped for air and held a lotus seed in his palm. The appearance of the lotus seed was unremarkable. At the same time, his spiritual vision had been fixed at 1.2 o'clock.
[Vulgar things: lotus growing lotus]
[Related allusion: "Ghost Flower", whether to spend 1 point of spiritual vision to enter the allusion world]
(End of chapter)