Food gives me an entry, I will be invincible if I stay alive

Chapter 70: Ghost Poems, Palace Poems (Please read it, more will be added today!)
Chen Xu walked among the bustling crowd, looking at one stall after another.

There were shadows laughing beside me from time to time, and the occasional screams of people seemed very far away.

Paper lanterns sway, and light and shadow whisper.

I looked up at the dim moon in the sky. It was at its zenith and showed no signs of setting.

But Chen Xu had no intention of wasting any more time. He looked at most of the stalls and found that there were always a few items on each stall that would display entry prompts.

For example: [The tears of resentful ghosts contain the resentment of the Nine Netherworlds. If dripped into a carefully cooked soup, it will emit a strange fragrance, making ghosts intoxicated.]

[Forgetfulness Mushroom, a fungus found on the roadside of the underworld, after cooking, can cause all living and dead beings in the world to lose all emotional fluctuations within a quarter of an hour.]

[Blood Wedding Dress, made from the skin of a young bride's heart, peeled off when she hanged herself. After being roasted and ground into powder, it can increase the resentment of ghosts...]

Most of the things are very ghost market-like, but for Chen Xu himself, their value is difficult to define.

He originally wanted to directly select the Tears of the Vengeful Ghost, but when he turned around, he found an interesting entry popping up on a stall.

[A defective bone mirror, made from dragon bones, can illuminate a person's doubts. The bones can be ground into powder and cooked to a certain extent to heal internal and external injuries of demons.]

Although this bone mirror is a defective product, it can be used for two purposes!
Chen Xu was in need of something to heal his wounds, so he immediately came to the stall and chose this palm-sized white bone mirror.

Behind the stall, a shadowy voice said hoarsely, "Sir, this item can't be bought with ordinary poems. It must at least be able to produce smoke. Otherwise, you will have to pay with two arms, two legs, and a pair of eyes."

"Do you... still want to buy it?" The shadow shook slightly, as if raising its empty head.

Clouds and smoke on paper, a first-class work of Qingyan!
This matter sounds simple, but it is actually very difficult.

It seems that Chen Xu has been studying in Jichuan County for many years, but he has never seen anyone write a masterpiece that can appear on paper.

Of course, the prerequisite for writing on paper is the original book and the original work. It is impossible to write on paper by simply copying and circulating it.

Otherwise, Chen Xu would have realized that something was wrong with this world long ago.

He listened to the ghost's reminder and said, "You are a kind ghost. Thank you for your reminder. I want to give it a try."

"You actually said I'm kind? Haha..." A hoarse voice laughed, and black ash seemed to fall on both sides of the shadow.

"You could have taken my arms, legs, and eyes without reminding me. But you reminded me. How is that not kindness?"

"I'm not kind," Shadow said slowly, his voice hoarse. "They are all truly pitiful, and I... hehe."

The shadow laughed, and the sound was like rough sandpaper polishing on a rusty old bronze mirror.

It hurt the eardrums so much that Chen Xu felt his heart skipping a beat when he heard it.

He immediately mobilized the innate Qi in his body to suppress the discomfort and unify and balance the three elements of essence, energy and spirit.

When the spirit is full of energy, external evil will naturally be difficult to invade.

He heard Youying say, “I was born in a family of minor officials. I was born as a concubine, but because my mother was powerful, I was raised in the countryside when I was young.

When I reached marriageable age, my stepmother wanted to give me to Shangguan as a concubine.

Shangguan was over sixty years old, and his young concubines had died one after another.

I was unwilling to go to that devil's den to die, so I plotted to murder my elder sister and took her place to enter the palace to participate in the selection of female officials.

Since we are all concubines, why don’t I be a concubine to the man with the highest position in the world?

Although I was a female official, I caught the emperor's eye with my beauty and scheming, and won his favor, and we had a wonderful night together.

I thought that from now on I would be able to turn things around and become the most powerful person in the six palaces, change my fate that was as lowly as dust, and trample under my feet all those who had bullied me, humiliated me, and harmed me!
But who would have thought that the truth was that the emperor just looked at me and favored me for a night.

He forgot about me after that...

He didn't remember who I was, and he went on to sing, feast and dance with others. There was constant music every day, and a new person every night.

What am I? I’m just an evil ghost who did bad things and deserves retribution! Haha, haha…”

The shadow just laughed, as if he wanted to shake his body off.

"You write a poem for me, but what kind of poem can you make? Write that I deserve to die of old age in the palace? Hahaha!" In the chaotic ghost market, only at this moment was the ghost's laughter different and sharp, which even caused the paper lanterns on both sides of the long street to shake, attracting many eyes to this side.

Chen Xu just said calmly: "You are wrongly blaming yourself. How can it be wrong to fight against fate?

Aren't the ones who are wrong the so-called superiors who treat people as objects?"

"I, I..." The shadow floated slightly, as if retreating into the dark abyss behind the stall.

"Are you an object?"

"No, I'm not!"

"I'll write a poem for you," Chen Xu said. "Do you have paper and pen?"

"What do you need paper and pen for? You're reading..."

“Without pen and paper, how can the clouds and mist on paper be expressed?”

He downplayed it and spoke with such confidence that Youying was frightened by his expression and subconsciously turned to face the white-skeletal female ghost standing alone at the end of the long street.

The skeleton ghost said nothing, but just stood alone quietly.

Youying rummaged under his stall, and after a while he really took out a piece of yellowed rough paper and a bamboo pen that looked a little bald.

In addition to paper and pen, you also need ink. Shadow took out a small jar from under the stall.

The jar was half filled with a strange black and red liquid, with a faint fishy smell emanating from it.

The shadow pushed the jar in front of Chen Xu, but halfway through, her shadowy hands retracted.

Chen Xu steady the can of "ink" and placed it on this side of the stall.

[Netherworld Ink, made from half a can of livestock blood mixed with kitchen ash. After cooking, it can be eaten by demons and ghosts. It tastes bitter and can clear internal heat.]

Youying hurriedly adjusted the things on his stall, leaving a corner for Chen Xu to write poetry.

Chen Xu dipped the brush in ink, picked up the pen, and bent down.

His writing is smooth and flowing, like mountains and hills, with varying degrees of lightness and heaviness, neither fast nor slow.

The poem was titled "Palace Poems".

Seeing the lines of poetry written by the pen, Youying couldn't help but recite them:
"My tears wet my silk scarf, and my dream could not come true. Deep in the night, I could hear the singing in the front hall.

The beauty is still young, but the love has already ended. I sit leaning against the incense burner until dawn."

As the last character "Ming" was written on the paper, a wisp of green air suddenly rose into the sky.

In an instant, Chen Xu only felt the innate Qi in his body running at a high speed, but it was drained away by some invisible force in an instant.

But on the yellow paper in front of him, he saw green air swirling and rising, like clouds and waves hitting the sky, and waves sweeping across the sea.

“It’s Qingyan!”

"Am I seeing things? I'm actually seeing things happening right before my eyes."

"I actually saw the clouds and smoke on the paper?"

"After death, seeing the clouds and smoke on paper, my death has not been in vain..."

Paper lanterns swayed on both sides of the long street.

The living and the dead let out chaotic screams at the same time, and saw the green gas rushing up and suddenly meeting the moonlight in the sky.

The moonlight swayed slowly and fell halfway.

Note: The poems in this chapter are from Bai Juyi's "Palace Poems".

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(End of this chapter)