Ghost Market

"How about it, when will Qiao Ming's older brother come to save us? Wuwuwu, will we be eaten by monsters?"

The girl with mushroom bangs and a small floral skirt, about six or seven years old, clutched at her own skirt hem and began to cry as she spoke.

"He'll definitely come, my brother has to fight so many monsters every day, we'll be rescued soon!"

The chubby little boy swore solemnly as he thumped his chest, with a serious expression.

"Stop bragging, yesterday Xiao Pang you were boasting that your brother went to other cities to get rid of monsters, how could he possibly come back now? I think you're just lying to us. You guys can wait for my brother to come save you!"

Qi Ao, who had originally been cowering in fear in the corner, couldn't help but refute upon hearing Qiao Ming's words, momentarily forgetting his fear as he jumped up.

After speaking, he glanced furtively at the girl's reaction, and seeing that she was still trembling in fear, without noticing his imposing figure, Qi Ao felt a little disappointed.

"I didn't lie!"

Qiao Ming first hemmed and hawed, unable to explain himself, then his mind turned and he shouted loudly: "My brother flew back in an instant, very fast!"

"You just have, you just have. Just you wait, your brother will be beaten away by the monsters later on."

"Your brother will be the one beaten away!"

"Impossible, your brother isn't as powerful as mine!"

"Nonsense, my brother fights hundreds of monsters every day, can your brother do that?"

"Then my brother fights thousands of monsters every day. My brother even dares to eat monsters!"

"I...my brother also dares..."

By the last sentence, Qi Ao spoke hesitantly, with a twinge of apprehension, his eyeballs rolling as he looked around, afraid his big brother might suddenly appear to discipline him.

With a goddess before him, he could only pretend to be tough and argue with the other person.

"Hmph!" "Hmph!"

When Qi Ao and Qiao Ming didn't know what else to make up, they could only use meaningless syllables to keep up appearances. The mushroom-haired girl's eyes brimmed with tears as she said in a tiny voice, "I...I seem to...hear sounds outside..."

...

Through the glass window, Qi Yuan confirmed that the sky outside the teaching building had darkened, and the entire domain was now in a night state.

Lv Cheng had been full of swagger ever since earlier, eager to find a monster to vent his anger on.

Perhaps the heavens really do favor fools.

Qi Yuan expressionlessly watched the reflection in the glass window, and the reflection noticed his gaze, curling its lips in an ominous grin.

A "yellow talisman" flew over and affixed itself to the window.

Qi Yuan's reflection let out a shrill scream, then felt its forehead - other than a circular scar that had burned into its skin, all was well.

"You are...humans..."

The reflection spoke in a hoarse, unpleasant voice, then bared its fangs again, pouncing at them...at Lv Cheng.

Lv Cheng ran away screaming with his head clutched: "Isn't this a Class D Specter? Why didn't my yellow talisman work?"

You call that a yellow talisman?

Qi Yuan looked at the sheet of white paper on the ground by his feet, with the words "yellow talisman" written on it.

As if explaining too much, while fleeing Lv Cheng still didn't forget to defend his "yellow talisman": "My special ability is drawing talismans. As long as I write the corresponding symbol, regardless of the text, it will take effect."

The specter's claws were about to pierce Lv Cheng's shoulder when Qi Yuan was about to summon a light barrier to block the attack.

A figure burst out from behind the door, pushing Lv Cheng out of the way.

Taking advantage of this chance to catch his breath, Lv Cheng immediately wrote a ghost-suppressing talisman on the paper.

He rolled to dodge the specter's attack, and stuck the ghost-suppressing talisman onto its body.

Before he even had a chance to heave a sigh of relief, the person who had just saved him grabbed Lv Cheng and fled wildly.

"Humans..."

"Hehe, humans here."

Ghosts and monsters gathered from all directions, as if they were hyenas catching the scent of prey, crawling out from every dark corner.

Thanks to fleeing swiftly, and Qi Yuan clearing the path ahead with light barriers, they quickly broke through the encirclement and shook off the horde of ghosts and monsters.

The three hid in a room, and Lv Cheng was about to lock the door when the other person stopped him with a shout.

"Don't, ghosts can pass through walls. Locking the door will only trap us."

After saying this, he sat down on the floor, gasping for breath without any image.

Lv Cheng waited until he had caught his breath before asking: "What exactly is going on?"

Qi Yuan also looked to him, waiting for his reply.

Amidst the chaos, he could only grasp a few key words like rules, stele, and ghost market, which made him somewhat curious.

"The stele at the entrance says that fighting is prohibited within the ghost market. Just now, if you had insisted you were ghosts instead of humans, as long as you could talk your way out of it, the ghosts couldn't have done anything to you."

"What is this ghost market? Why didn't my yellow talisman work?"

Although he had only used a fraction of his power because he judged it to be a Class D monster, Lv Cheng still felt aggrieved about this.

For him, this was an epic weakening.

"From my observations, the ghost market is similar to the underworld. It has an amplifying effect on ghosts, increasing them by an average of half a level to a full level. With your Class D abilities against Class D+ or even C level monsters, the effect would naturally be greatly reduced."

He methodically explained Lv Cheng's doubts, resolving his concerns.

As long as I haven't gotten weaker, phew, scared me to death.

Only then did Lv Cheng have the state of mind to chat with the other person. "What's your name?"

Hearing Lv Cheng's question, he began to introduce himself: "I'm called Qiao Bai. I'm a Class D ability user. I accidentally got separated from the patrol squad, have you seen them?"

"I'm Lv Cheng, he's Qi Yuan. Do you know Sister Xue Shiyun?"

Xue Shiyun was in charge of this area, so the patrol squad Qiao Bai mentioned was most likely the 6th squad. Lv Cheng's social butterfly tendencies kicked in, and he actively networked with Qiao Bai.

"You know Squad Leader Xue too?"

Qiao Bai was pulled into his network, and relaxed a little: "I entered the convergence zone with Squad Leader Xue, but the black fog appeared and I got separated from them."

After verifying that Qiao Bai wasn't lying, and the surrounding environment was relatively safe for the moment, Qi Yuan closed off his psychic senses. Keeping it open constantly was quite taxing.

Lv Cheng spread his hands helplessly. "We haven't seen Sister Xue Shiyun since coming in. What else did that entrance stele say?"

"That stele had the ghost market rules on it. First of all..."

Qiao Bai described the rules on the stele. Since it was a ghost market, the restrictions and protections were naturally all for ghosts.

The two most important points were: one, fighting was prohibited in the market; two, no entering private property without the owner's permission.

"I wrote the rules down on sticky notes and pasted them around the stele and places I passed, hoping it could help some teachers and students."

After listening, Lv Cheng belatedly realized: "You can actually read the stele, what kind of text is that?"

Speaking of his strong suit, Qiao Bai proudly held up his thumb to him: "Yours truly's special ability is linguistic interpretation."

"So what text was it?"

"...I don't know either."