I'm not a fortune teller.

Chapter 15: Night Market Destroyed!

an hour ago
Many people who were resting at the night market noticed that there seemed to be many more painted skins crawling in the darkness today than before. As the lights in the night market grew dimmer, many people could see that the green eyeballs in the darkness were as dense as fireflies in summer, which was a bit creepy.

But even though they were scared, no one was scared and left. After all, everyone knew that as long as the life-saving lamp was there, no matter how many Painted Skin Ghosts there were, they would not attack you. This was the rule here. It was also because of this rule that the living could survive here and have the opportunity to earn more here.

But Zhang Rui didn't believe this.
"Master Zhang, are you sure you want to leave this art market?" Chen Xiao looked at Zhang Rui who was going in the opposite direction, his face a little conflicted.

He was not very clear about the rules of the Painting Market, but there must be a reason why so many people made this choice. The number of densely packed ghost eyes outside was scary. Did they really want to take the initiative to go out?
"If we don't leave the night market, we will all die here once the fire is out." Zhang Rui said coldly, "Mr. Chen, don't you believe me?"

"It's not that I don't believe it. It's just..."

Zhang Rui sighed and whispered, "Sir, I want to ask you, what is the main theme of this world in the painting?"

The other party was stunned and said hesitantly: "Of course. It's the painting spirit here."

"Sir, you seem to understand this, too." Zhang Rui said with a smile, "In a world dominated by painted spirits, how could there be a rule that unilaterally benefits the living?"

Everyone was stunned, and then they all reacted: "Is it true that this life-saving lamp can protect people?"

"It's true," Zhang Rui sighed, "If it was fake, how could so many Painted Skin Ghosts bear it? It's true that the life-saving lamp can protect people, but it's not foolproof." As he spoke, Zhang Rui opened a jade box.

The jade box was drawn by Zhang Rui. Jade has the effect of nourishing yin. Zhang Rui also set it to condense ghost blood. Although a lot of ghost ink was wasted, Murong Yunji earned enough, resulting in sufficient ghost ink.

He dipped his hand, took out a drop of ghost ink and dripped it directly on the life-saving lamp. The next moment, the life-saving lamp turned green, and then the reassuring warmth just now disappeared, and turned into a chill!
"This is..." Everyone took a deep breath.

"The reason why evil spirits won't come close is because this life-saving lamp needs the blood of a painting spirit to make it lose its effectiveness, and the brighter the lamp, the more blood it needs. Often, several painting spirits need to be sacrificed to extinguish a lamp. Painting spirits usually attack people for the blood of living people, which is equivalent to eating. But a normal painting spirit won't exchange its life for food, so it gives people the illusion that the life-saving lamp can protect them."

"Is there such a thing?" Chen Xiao looked horrified.

"It's right here." When Zhang Rui arrived not far from the entrance of the painting market, he looked at the densely packed green eyes outside and felt a little nauseous.

"My lord, what is this?"

"Wait until the market closes," Zhang Rui whispered. "If we go out now, those painting spirits outside will regard us as their first target. Once the market closes, we will find the right time to blow out the lights in our hands. Then those people in the night market who light life-saving lamps will be the most dazzling targets, and we may have a chance to get out."

Upon hearing this, Chen Xiao turned around to look at those who were still staying in the Painting Market, and guessed in his heart that perhaps no one here knew about this, otherwise they wouldn't have gathered here and stayed in the Painting Market so calmly.

The young county magistrate in front of me is indeed no simple person. I made the right bet!

"Originally, this kind of thing shouldn't happen in this painting market," Zhang Rui whispered, "The people here have been able to live here for so long, it must be because the Painted Skins here have never broken the rules and haven't massacred anyone, but today's situation is obviously different. I suspect that all this is probably related to the Crown Prince incident."

Chen Xiao frowned upon hearing this: "I also thought that the power behind the scenes must be related to this painting market, otherwise they wouldn't use this kind of thing to plot against Master Tian, but I didn't expect that the power was so powerful that they could even control the Painted Skin Ghost!"

Zhang Rui looked around dimly: "Is it possible that the so-called behind-the-scenes people you mentioned are these painting spirits?"

"What?" Chen Xiao was shocked. He had thought of countless possibilities, but this one was the only one he had never thought of.

"Let's try to avoid this wave first. We can't be sure right now." Zhang Rui looked outside and had a rough guess in his mind.

The fact that there are so many living people here means that there must be many forces outside that have already known the secrets of the Painting Market and have entered here through various channels to seek personal gain.

This scale is by no means formed overnight, but many people have never thought that once the world in the painting is connected, people outside can come in and ghosts inside can go out!

Once the painting spirits come into contact with humans too much, the painting spirits that can imitate humans will definitely be able to infiltrate the human world. The longer the painting market is open, the more serious the infiltration of the human world will be. It is not impossible for a large-scale force to form. If the force that murdered the prince is also related to the painting spirit force.
Zhang Rui immediately had two guesses in his mind.

Either, some powerful forces in the human world are secretly conspiring with the ghosts to overthrow the Jin Dynasty, or the spirits in the painting are more ambitious and want to take over.
Woo.
Before he could figure out what was going on, countless eerie ghost cries came one after another. Everyone was startled by the sudden roar. Chen Xiao quickly looked at Zhang Rui and said, "Sir, the market is about to close!"

He could see clearly that the lights in the night market were going out one by one. It was obvious that they had reached their limit, and the painting spirits gathered outside were even impatient. It turned out that what the young county magistrate said was right. This group of painting spirits were going to take action today!

"Light the lamp!" Zhang Rui said hurriedly.

Several guards were stunned. Didn’t they say that the life-saving lamp was useless?
"Hurry up!" Chen Xiao shouted hurriedly. Several guards quickly used their own blood to light the life-saving lamps. Zhang Rui immediately used the ghost blood in the jade box to shoot into the lamps. Several life-saving lamps turned green as before. Then Zhang Rui tapped the ghost blood on everyone's forehead and said, "When those things rush in, hold your breath and don't move!"

The guards hesitated for a moment, but Chen Xiao hesitated for a moment before nodding and saying, "Trust Sir Zhang!"

As he said this, he simply closed his eyes and held his breath. Seeing Chen Xiao like this, several guards also took a breath and closed their eyes in the face of the surging tide of ghosts outside.

With their eyes closed, in just a few breaths, they could feel countless eerie auras approaching. The cold breath assaulted their bodies, just like falling into an icy river in winter, and feeling as if they would be swallowed up in the next moment.

Even though they didn't open their eyes, they could feel that countless painted-skin ghosts were watching them. With their eyes closed, they had almost no room for resistance. However, feeling the terrifying number of people, even if they chose to resist at the first moment, it would probably be useless. It would be better to trust the county magistrate and take another gamble.

"Walk!!"

No one knew how much time had passed, but as the county magistrate's voice rang in their ears, everyone suddenly opened their eyes, only to see that Zhang Rui had almost run away. A group of people cursed inwardly and hurried to catch up.

Before they could even run out of the night market, they heard the roars of countless painted skin ghosts and the screams of countless living people behind them, and they were immediately filled with fear.

If I and others had hesitated for a moment and did not choose to believe this guy, I am afraid that their fate would be the same as those living people who were eaten later!

"Master Zhang seems to know a lot about this art market!"

Chen Xiao looked as weak as a man with kidney deficiency, but he ran as fast as a leopard and caught up with Zhang Rui in the blink of an eye.

"Well, although this is my first time here, I have some special information." Zhang Rui said honestly.

Chen Xiao nodded when he heard this, and did not ask any further questions, but asked: "If we use the ghost blood to light the lamp, will we not be attacked?"

"Not really." Zhang Rui shook his head. "The ghost blood lamp will make you fall into the Yin Qi. It is the sincerity of a living person when meeting a painting spirit, but it does not mean that the painting spirit cannot find you at all. The main reason why we were not attacked just now is that the painting spirits did not indicate the existence of us, so they hesitated and did not attack us. In addition, the night market was full of their targets, so we were able to sneak out."

"Instructions?" Chen Xiao keenly grasped the key words.

Zhang Rui saw this and thought to himself: This scholar with kidney deficiency has a very quick mind.
"Such a large-scale attack by painting spirits must be an organized behavior. The beings controlling them are naturally more advanced. As far as I know, when painting spirits are under large-scale command, they are in a controlled puppet state. Their consciousness is not completely self-aware, but they will rigidly execute orders when they receive them. In this case, the discipline of painting spirits is even more stable than that of our elite military, but they have lost a certain degree of flexibility."

"Is there such a thing?" Standing on a high place, Chen Xiao looked at the night market where screams were heard continuously with a complicated expression.

"All the elites in this night market have been cultivated by the major families with countless efforts. Now they are gone just like that?"

Zhang Rui also looked down with a cold expression. He was not at all interested in those so-called elite families in the painting market.

This group of people mingled in the Painting Market and were clearly familiar with the rules here, but they did nothing when Fuchun County was enveloped by the Painting Market and allowed the people who accidentally opened the door to be slaughtered. Now that it was their turn to be slaughtered, it was natural that no one came to help!

"The so-called blood and essence exchange is essentially a conspiracy." Zhang Rui said calmly: "How can an evil spirit be so beneficial to human welfare? People who are blinded by greed don't think carefully. Is it possible that this thing was used as bait to lure humans into a trap from the beginning?"

Chen Xiao's hair stood on end when he heard this. Now it seemed that all those who thought they had taken advantage of the painting market had actually been calculated by the spirit in the painting from the very beginning. They were being raised like piglets, just waiting for the right opportunity to harvest them!

"I see!!"

Before Chen Xiao could say anything, a gloomy voice came from not far behind. Everyone's hearts, which had just been relieved, suddenly jumped, and they quickly drew their weapons and looked towards the source of the voice.

Chen Xiao's face became extremely gloomy as soon as he heard the voice.

He was extremely familiar with this voice, and he wanted to rip out the throat of the owner of the voice day and night!
"Your Highness seems to be in trouble?" Zhang Rui saluted with a smile.

Murong next to him had already warned him of Qin Fang's approach, so he was not that surprised.

"It's quite a big trouble!" The Third Prince, who was being carried on Qin Fang's back, panted and laughed, "I'm afraid that I'll have to ask Master Zhang to help me!"

(End of this chapter)