"Lead the way." My heart was on fire with urgency, only wanting to find Xiao Li quickly, I commanded.
Where exactly had Xiao Li been taken to?
And they were all zombies?
The Patchwork Man trudged ahead, then suddenly, with a cry of "Ouch," he fell to the ground.
After a faint sound of "zzzip," all of the embroidered threads on the Patchwork Man's body snapped; his legs flailed weakly, "I'm so dizzy~ ah~! I can't get up~ oh~"
At the same time, it felt as though something had struck me in the chest.
A prickly pain spread throughout, but it disappeared in an instant.
I immediately realized that some kind of witchcraft blocking off her aura had been cast on Xiao Li.
Anyone who tried to use Mysterious Art to find her would be backlashed by their own Art because of the witchcraft.
Luckily, the embroidery was an external Art, so it wasn't strongly connected to me.
I wasn't severely hurt by the backlash, the prickly pain in my heart was fleeting, "Hurry and tell me your approximate location."
"To the west... there is a large banyan tree, and also a well..."
The Patchwork Man ran out of Spiritual Power, spoke in fits and starts, and then completely turned into just pieces of cloth.
I picked up the pieces of cloth from the ground and immediately set off towards the west.
My heart sank; there were banyan trees all over the southwestern region, countless to the west, how was I to find one specific tree?
Fortunately, the town was exceptionally small, and heading directly west would bring me to the market.
The night market was pitch-black and shrouded in eerie white fog.
All the daytime vendors were gone, I expected it to be desolate and empty.
To my surprise, there were two or three vendors still doing business at night, with their stalls illuminated by the bright incandescent lamps.
One was selling sweet soup, another was selling ancient coins, and there was also one with particularly strange wooden puppets.
I walked past the stalls with a shiver of horror and quickened my pace.
Suddenly, from behind, a haunting voice called out, "What's a living person doing in the Ghost Market so late at night, girl, are you lost?"
"Doing business with the living or the familiar, it's all the same, all making money," I replied, my scalp tingling and my stomach cramping with fear, yet somehow finding the courage to turn around and strike up a conversation with the emaciated stall owner.
The stall owner was selling a pot of sweet soup that gave off steam, with the liquid inside bubbling vigorously as if it were Four-Fruits Soup, emitting a rather fragrant aroma. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ nοvelfire.net
As the soup bubbled, a human hand that seemed about to dissolve surfaced.
Sweat broke out on my forehead, and I stepped back half a step.
The shrewd stall owner's eyes flickered, and he quickly covered the pot with a wooden lid, "This sweet soup is prepared for water demons, not for human consumption. Just a dead hand scares you this much, and you want to do business with me?"
"I'll buy two bowls of sweet soup and also ask you something," I glanced at the QR code beside the incandescent lamp, scanned it, and following the price listed, transferred two hundred yuan.
The emaciated stall owner, who had a long-standing business in the Ghost Market, had sunken eye sockets and permanent dark circles as if always wearing smoky makeup, spoke with a voice like sawing wood, "So you're here to inquire about something, go on and ask."
He casually spoke while ladling out two bowls of the Four-Fruits Soup.
"Where can I find a place with both a water well and a banyan tree?" I looked at my watch, already twenty minutes into my search.
It was around ten o'clock at night now, peak time for evil spirits to stir.
But my concern for Xiao Li's safety turned all my fear into a single urge, to find her as quickly as possible.
The stall owner cackled, his gaze slowly drifting to an ancient wooden structure not far away, "Isn't that it?"
I slowly turned around, looking towards the Corpse-Driving Inn, fifty meters away, as if cloaked in the shadows of the Netherworld.
The place was darker than any other, and even with my Spiritual Eye, visibility was very low; I could only make out vague outlines.
In front of the inn was a large banyan tree that would take three to four people to encircle, but there was no well, and I resolutely said, "Are you sure you're not mistaken, Boss? I've checked several times in front of the Corpse-Driving Inn, there's only a banyan tree, no well."