"Is this the kind of place where you can even sell living people?"
"Don’t say stuff like that, the Rakshasa Ghost Market might push some boundaries, sure, some things really do cross the line, not exactly by the book.
But selling the living, nobody dares cross that line—if Lord Zhu ever hears about it,
the Scorching Sun Department wouldn’t even need to step in, Lord Zhu would chop whoever tried that into pieces and feed them to the dogs himself."
As Kong Er spoke, he saw Wen Yan neither refuting him nor saying anything, just looking on with a blank expression.
He glanced again at the nether soul following Wen Yan, still bearing a talisman stuck to its forehead.
He suddenly realized—most likely, it’s true this time...
This nether soul with the talisman on its forehead, it even looks like a life soul, not yet a true ghost.
Kong Er jumped in fright, stammering,
"N-no way..."
"Who runs this Rakshasa Ghost Market?"
"I don’t know exactly who’s in charge, but Lord Zhu definitely has a stake in it."
Wen Yan checked the time and asked Zhang Laoxi,
"Can you sense where it is? Let’s not waste time."
"I can." Zhang Laoxi nodded.
Wen Yan set off immediately. Kong Er got a shock and tried to follow, only to see the yang energy radiating off Wen Yan’s body grow ever more intense, while the oil lamp in his hands burned ever fiercer.
Shit—there really are some reckless bastards who dare do this kind of thing!
Kong Er hurriedly caught up, trailing them all the way to a shop called the Righteous Store. Kong Er quickly ran ahead, stopping in front to bow.
"Brother Wen, let me ask around first, you wait here a moment. Don’t worry, this will definitely be handled to your satisfaction."
Kong Er went in first. Seeing a customer enter, the shopkeeper behind the counter quickly looked up.
"Oh, isn’t this Scholar Kong? You really have an eye for quality, our Righteous Store only deals in the freshest corpses.
And they’ve all been specially treated, with excellent adaptability.
Are you here to visit family, or do some official business?
All with real identities, guaranteed legit.
Even that train outside, you can take it with these.
Guaranteed no problems for at least seven days.
Want to try one first? Take a look at this—just died today, still fresh.
Source? Don’t worry, the source is totally clean, all bought before they died.
Or bought from the family, with IDs and all.
Guaranteed not a single issue."
Wen Yan stood outside, listening as the shopkeeper boasted to Kong Er. He’d pretty much figured out what this Righteous Store was up to.
Holding the Everbright Lamp in one hand and the Chunjun Mace in the other, he strode inside.
In this so-called Righteous Store, the place was indeed packed with rows of black coffins—only here, most of the coffins were left uncovered.
The shopkeeper noticed a living person coming in, that fierce yang energy was practically about to ignite the place, so he rushed out at once.
"Oh my, what an outstanding young man from which family? Please rein in your divine skills—for real, you’ll burn my whole place down if this keeps up."
Wen Yan ignored him, followed Zhang Laoxi deep into the shop. Once he’d identified the coffin, he pushed open the lid, and saw Zhang Laoxi’s body lying inside, a talisman still stuck to his forehead.
The runes on the talisman had all but faded; only a faint trace clung to the talisman core, but even that was blurry now.
"Old man, just to be safe, you check it again."
"That’s definitely my body."
"Can you return to it now?"
"No, this place is odd. I have to get my body out first. Only then can I return to it."
Wen Yan didn’t waste words, just slung Zhang Laoxi’s body over his shoulder and headed out.
The shopkeeper tried to stop him, but Kong Er was quicker—two slaps to the face, eyes blazing, looking like he wanted to tear the shopkeeper apart.
"If Lord Zhu gets wind of you selling living people at your Righteous Store, you’d better pray for death, because you won’t get it!"
The shopkeeper, after taking two slaps, didn’t dare fight back. He just listened, then hung his head, eyes flickering, meekly slinking back behind the counter.
As Wen Yan was about to walk out, the shopkeeper raised a teapot—and blew a breath at Wen Yan.
In an instant, gray vapors poured from the teapot, unaffected by Wen Yan’s yang energy, unhindered by the light from the Everbright Lamp, drifting straight into Wen Yan’s body.
Wen Yan froze mid-step, eyeing the gray mist swirling before him. He raised his left hand; all the gray vapor sank right into the black fingernail on his left middle finger.
"Not even gonna ask who I am, or test the waters first? You dare try poisoning me? And with corpse poison, at that?"
All the gray mist swirling to block his way was devoured as Wen Yan flexed his finger.
Back then, Uncle might not have specialized in corpse poison, but at the end, Uncle had ascended—he’d already become a flying zombie.
As a Big Executor Corpse, before leaving, he gave Wen Yan a nail for protection.
The corpse poison within this nail—while it may not match the best of the same rank devoted to poison, it’s definitely leagues above any ordinary deformed corpse.
If someone could take Wen Yan down with corpse poison while he carried Uncle’s nail, that’d be a real joke.
Kong Er was rooted to the spot, his face green and his tongue nearly hanging out to his chest.
This was going to blow up.
Wen Yan shot a look at the shopkeeper, checked the time, and said to Kong Er,
"Since Lord Zhu has a stake in this place, and Lord Zhu himself once helped me out, as a junior, I’ll show some respect and let him clean up his own mess."
Kong Er breathed a sigh of relief and hurried forward to bow deeply.
"Thank you, Brother Wen. Don’t worry, you will get a satisfactory answer to this matter."
Wen Yan didn’t lash out—he knew exactly what the priority was. He didn’t have time to risk Zhang Laoxi’s life just to vent his anger at someone else.