bookbashuk Chapter 117 A Storm Begins from the End of a Floating Stream
Chapter 117 A Storm Begins from the End of a Floating Stream
The young man, who called himself "Lone Soul," stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the distant city of flesh and blood that writhed like rotting viscera.
His back was extremely thin, as thin as a withered bamboo stripped of its leaves by the autumn wind, as if it could be broken with the slightest force.
But it was this very frail body that, in front of Jing Yuan, who had transformed into a monster, casually tossed out a life-saving fee, tearing a path to survival through the cracks in the rules.
You look...
Black Swan carefully chose her words, trying to find a suitable entry point in this mad world of memories: "You don't seem like someone who would be trapped by nightmares. Your rationality, in this insane world, seems... out of place."
In this realm constructed from the deep-seated fears of the planet, both the teahouse owner with only a mouth and no face, and Jingyuan sitting on the spine chair, present a chaotic sense of illogical collapse.
The only person in front of me, though his clothes were worn and his eyes were gloomy, had a more intense sense of humanity than any living person in reality.
Li He turned around.
His eyebrows were very thick, as if he had made two bold strokes of burnt ink on pale rice paper.
"Trapped?"
The young man's pale lips curled slightly, revealing a smile that was somewhere between self-mockery and arrogance.
"Here, there is neither the infighting of officialdom nor the torment of illness. There is wine, there is poetry, and there are countless gods, Buddhas, demons, and monsters to keep me company. To me, this place is not a prison, but... a paradise."
He stretched out his long, slender fingers and pointed to the dark red abyss below, his fingertips seemingly piercing through the false tranquility.
"As for you, young lady, if you want to find the truth in this chaos, you'll probably find it difficult to move an inch with just your elegant demeanor."
Black Swan nodded slightly; she did not deny the other party's assessment.
The experience at Shence Mansion just now has proven that conventional "memory-telling methods" are greatly suppressed here.
The rules here belong to "魙", which is a bizarre logic that is of a higher dimension and completely unreasonable.
"Since you have come to my rescue, it must not be for the purpose of composing poems."
The black swan took a half step forward, its purple eyes gleaming with a probing light.
"I need intelligence. Information about the nature of this world, about planet 4546, and... that three-headed corpse."
"intelligence?"
Li He chuckled lightly. He didn't answer directly, but instead lifted his foot and walked towards one side of the platform.
Everything in this world has a price. Outside, it might be gold and silver, but here... it requires something purer.
He stopped in front of a broken stone step, glanced back at the black swan, and his eyes revealed a ghostly aura.
"Follow me. There's a 'ghost market' not far ahead."
"That place is a melting pot, full of all sorts of strange and unsavory characters. You might find what you're looking for there. However..."
Li He paused, the smile on his lips becoming even more playful.
"The vendors there are far more eccentric than I am. They not only sell intelligence, but occasionally... they also sell human flesh buns."
......
Leaving the high platform, we followed the path paved with pale white leg bones downhill.
The surrounding scenery began to change dramatically.
The nauseating, slippery, and sticky fleshy buildings gradually disappeared, replaced by a strange neighborhood shrouded in a gray mist.
The air here is no longer filled with the stench of blood like it was in Shence Mansion; instead, it's permeated with a kind of...
The smell of incense.
The smoky aroma of burning sandalwood, mixed with the scent of rouge and face powder, and even the rich, savory aroma of cooked meat, intertwined to create an extremely complex, alluring, yet unsettling scent.
Lanterns were hung on both sides of the street.
The lanterns were not made of paper, but of some kind of translucent thin skin, and the flames burning inside were not candles, but clusters of eerie green phosphorescence.
The dim light cast flickering shadows on the faces of passersby, making them appear like lonely souls wandering between the realms of the living and the dead.
"arrive."
Li He concealed his aura, becoming as inconspicuous as a shadow.
He skillfully navigated the bustling crowd, avoiding both collisions and eye contact.
Black swans followed closely behind.
To her surprise, this so-called "ghost market" was actually just as bustling as a human market.
However, the "people" here are a little special.
On the left, at a stall, a vendor with three heads was loudly hawking his wares.
His three heads displayed three different expressions: joy, anger, and sorrow. The one in the middle was in charge of shouting, the one on the left was in charge of collecting money, and the one on the right was drooling incessantly.
"Fresh! Just out of the oven!"
"The finest fear! Ancient despair! Don't miss it!"
On the cutting board in front of him were not goods, but rows of transparent glass jars.
The canister was filled with colorful smoke, which twisted and deformed, transforming into terrified faces that screamed silently against the glass wall.
Go forward again.
A woman in a red wedding dress sat on the ground, holding a needle and thread, mending something.
The black swan glanced at it briefly, and its pupils instantly contracted.
The woman wasn't mending clothes.
Instead, it was a... complete human skin.
She laid the human skin flat on her knees and, with gold thread, carefully repaired the damaged areas...
Stitched.
With each stitch, the human skin would emit a faint sob, as if from the depths of its soul.
"This is... the 'market' in Dohoshi's mind?"
The black swan felt a chill creep up its spine.
Nightmare?
Countless repressed, forgotten, and fear-distorted fragments of memory are pieced together and fermented here, eventually evolving into this bizarre and fantastical world.
Don't look at it too much.
Li He's voice drifted over, as light as a night breeze rustling through the treetops.
"If you look at too many, you'll easily get hooked. Every 'stall owner' here is the embodiment of some kind of obsession. If you show too much interest in their goods, they'll assume you want to make a sale."
"At that time, you won't be able to avoid buying it even if you want to."
The black swan immediately looked away, focusing its attention on its nose and mind, and obediently followed behind Li He.
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