I slay evil in the Department of the Supernatural

Chapter 132, Section 131: Forcibly Entering the Ghost Market! Border Crisis

"A welcoming team? What's that?"

The moment the crimson mark appeared ahead of Tongyou Road, Xu Lindong felt a chill and his consciousness instantly sank into the Tower of Babel.

Houtu's voice came from the top of the tower, calm yet tinged with sarcasm: "There are old ghosts who rob caravans at the entrance of the Ghost Market, targeting unfamiliar faces. You'll occasionally encounter this rule when entering the Ghost Market; you have to pay a toll."

Xu Lindong subconsciously pressed down on the hard gold bars in his pocket.

We're going to need it so soon?

"No need to pay."

Houtu's tone turned cold: "Get on your weird bicycle and just drive straight through. These old ghosts are the most bullying of the weak and cowardly of the strong. If you back down today, they'll cling to you like leeches and you won't be able to shake them off."

At this point, the path to the secluded place had come to an end.

A figure suddenly appeared in the dim light and shadow ahead.

But the figure was over two meters tall, with a blue face and fangs, eyes blazing with ghostly fire, and its body was shrouded in solidified black resentment, like a gatekeeper demon that had crawled out of hell.

It lay across the road, emitting a low growl like sandpaper scraping in its throat, "Want to pass? Leave behind—toll money!"

""

Xu Lindong's eyes twitched. This ghost looked very fierce and seemed like someone not to be trifled with.

Hop on a bicycle — go straight there?

Don't be intimidated by it.

Houtu's voice came again: "Ghosts are best at scaring people."

"good!"

Xu Lindong no longer hesitated.

The thought just popped into my head.

The tower gate on his neck suddenly opened.

"Merit—660!"

hum!

A large, old-fashioned bicycle exuding an eerie aura suddenly appeared out of thin air, its bell humming and vibrating, and its rims quickly developing dark red patterns.

He flipped himself onto the bike, gripped the cold handlebars, and the flickering firelight in his eyes vanished in an instant.

"Toll?"

Xu Lindong gave a low shout and stomped his foot: "Ask it if it accepts money to buy your life!"

"Ring ring!!!"

The horn of the ghost-summoning carriage suddenly rang out, its sharp sound waves tearing apart the deathly silence of the path to the underworld.

The bicycle transformed into a crimson blur, hurtling forward!

The tall, imposing demon froze at the sound, its ghostly pupils shrinking sharply, reflecting the image of the old bicycle, as if it had discovered something terrifying.

It suddenly let out a short, sharp howl and turned to run away!

As it fled, its size shrank rapidly.

Two meters, one and a half meters, one meter — in just a few breaths, it quickly shrank into a hunched little devil less than half a meter tall, tumbling and crawling into the darkness by the roadside, disappearing without a trace.

Xu Lindong: "————"

He muttered under his breath, "Playing tricks, what a fool."

Without slowing down, he crashed straight into the ghost market gatehouse ahead, where the light and shadows were distorted.

The sticky, cold, and prying gazes that had been cast from the depths of Tongyou Road vanished the moment the old bicycle appeared.

It's as if it never existed.

The view before me suddenly opened up.

Entering the ghost market.

What came into Xu Lindong's view was a street scene that resembled the era of powerful clans in this world.

The gray-brick arcade buildings stretch out in a row, with dim yellow lanterns hanging under the eaves. Shops line the alleys, with plaques displayed one after another.

A woman in a cheongsam, holding a paper umbrella, was walking gracefully across the stone bridge, while the faint strains of opera music drifted from the stage on the opposite bank.

Several children ran and chased each other through the alleyway, laughing and playing, stirring up a gentle breeze and their innocent laughter.

Everything in this ghost market is so vivid and lifelike, as if a small town from the era of powerful clans has been frozen in time.

"What the hell? The ghost market is actually teeming with life?"

Xu Lindong felt a chill run down his spine, and his eyes suddenly darkened.

The power of the zombie sequence flowed into his eyes, and his Ghost Eyes were activated.

The reality before my eyes was instantly overturned.

But the once neat arcade building had large sections of plaster peeled off, revealing a rotten, blackened wooden frame behind it.

The fire in the dim lantern turned into clusters of eerie green will-o'-the-wisps.

Among those vibrant pedestrians, the woman in the cheongsam slowly turned her face, revealing half of her face to be ulcerated to the bone.

On the stage, the actor's neck was twisted 180 degrees, his vocal cords were already rotten, yet he still opened and closed his mouth.

The running child's feet were three inches off the ground, his eyes were empty, and his mouth stretched to his ears. His previous innocent laughter was now filled with a chilling deathly aura.

Rotten, lifeless, and foul-smelling.

The whole street was filled with a faint smell of ashes, and more distorted shadows lurked in the dark, some like puddles of mud stuck to the corners of the walls, others hanging upside down under the eaves, silently watching.

Beneath the glitz and glamour lies a chilling and sinister scene.

The old ghost with sparse hair and a hunched back was now several feet behind Xu Lindong, trying to get closer.

But they seemed wary of his old-fashioned bicycle and dared not approach.

"Um?"

Xu Lindong keenly sensed the malicious gaze behind him.

His gaze suddenly turned cold, and with a thought, the chilling power of the zombie sequence began to circulate within his body.

Then, his neck turned backward, one step at a time, at an extremely slow, almost eerie speed.

A ghost turned around!

As he turned his head, a thick and eerie ghostly aura emanated from his body, as if solidified into a chilling presence.

With the bloodlust and ferocity unique to the zombie sequence, it rippled outwards like waves.

The old ghost's deep-set eyes behind him suddenly met Xu Lindong's cold pupils as he looked back.

The ferocious malice on Lao Gui's face slowly turned into indifference.

It let out a barely audible, sharp hiss, slowly retreating a few steps, only daring to lurk venomously from the shadows.

"This old ghost is at least a seventh-rank ghost official. He's not afraid of my ghost turning around at all; he's afraid of bicycles instead."

""

Xu Lindong was extremely wary. If it weren't for the ghost official, he would never have ignored the faceless man's mask and targeted him.

Inside the Tower of Babel, the voice of the Goddess Houtu entered the depths of his consciousness.

"Don't look around, don't touch anything, and don't respond to anyone. You can't afford to mess with the things here right now. Just ride your bike and find me the tailor shop."

"good!"

Xu Lindong immediately did as instructed.

Fortunately, his legs were long enough that he could easily touch the ground with his toes when he stopped the bike, even when he was on the 28-inch swingarm. He didn't need to sit down at all and quickly rode through the ghost market, which had a stiff, cold, and eerie atmosphere.

The pedestrians in this ghost market are like walking corpses, moving slowly and mechanically.

The vendors on both sides stood straight at the entrance of their shops, their lips not moving, yet a faint, sinister, and tempting aura emanated from them.

Xu Lindong kept his eyes straight ahead, not even glancing at the "goods".

Here, even a glance could lead to being entangled, forced into buying or selling, or even being haunted by ghosts.

He pedaled on, the streets seemingly endless.

The shop signs on both sides were blurred and faded, but the words "Golden Scissors" were nowhere to be seen.

As time went by, Xu Lindong felt an increasing threat from the depths of his being. He focused his mind on the Tower of Babel and asked a question.

"Your Majesty, does that tailor shop really exist in this ghost market? After all these years, could it have changed its name?"

"It won't be changed."

Houtu's voice was firm, yet tinged with a hint of hesitation, "There must be such a shop in the Ghost Market—I just forgot—which alley it's hidden in."

Xu Lindong asked no more questions and continued riding deeper into the valley, gradually feeling the suffocating atmosphere emanating from the faceless mask.

The further you ride, the darker it gets around you.

Grayish-white mist seeped out from somewhere, lingering under the eaves and at street corners, slowly creeping around.

This is not ordinary water vapor, but "ghost fog" formed by the excessive concentration of evil energy, which is viscous, damp and cold.

The air inside my nostrils smelled musty and fishy, ​​like the crater field, where extraordinary power had gathered and condensed.

"The place is no longer as lively as it used to be."

Xu Lindong's expression was solemn, and he was extremely cautious.

If he hadn't been riding a bicycle and had Houtu protecting him, he really wouldn't have dared to come here.

Finally, as he turned into an exceptionally narrow old street, his eyes narrowed.

Across the street, above the door of a shop hangs an old wooden plaque with three nearly worn-out lacquer characters carved on it.

Golden Scissors Tailor Shop.

There is another shop across from the shop.

A vertical plaque reading "Ghost Pawnshop" hangs above the entrance, and the two black wooden doors are tightly closed, as if it has not been open for a long time.

"The Ghost Pawnshop is actually here?"

Xu Lindong felt a chill run down his spine and immediately thought of the ghost pawnshop owner who had previously caused damage to the ancestral hall sinkhole in the ancient town outside Jiangcheng.

At that moment, under the streetlight ahead, a figure draped in a black robe appeared and stood there, seemingly out of nowhere.

It had no face, no features, and its robe sleeves hung down empty.

Just as Xu Lindong was about to ride past, it suddenly blocked his way.

There was no sound, only a chilling, icy thought that pierced Xu Lindong's mind.

"This car—belonged to my former master."

at the same time.

The Xia Kingdom was located near the border of Daxing.

The dark purple pollution surged like a sea of ​​blood bursting open, rising from the horizon.

Among the many twisted low-sequence mutants, there are also many monsters of sequence six and sequence five.

There were gaunt ghosts covered in bone spurs, crawling like lizards, and rotting heads floating in mid-air, emitting shrill mental screams.

There are also spliced ​​giants, haphazardly pieced together from countless severed limbs and bits of flesh, oozing dark yellow pus.

Like a pack of mad beasts that have caught the scent of blood, they charged madly toward the border of Xia Kingdom, carrying an aura of destruction.

The border troops had already received the news and entered a state of maximum combat readiness.

The trenches crisscrossed, and superhuman heavy artillery lay dormant like giant beasts behind cover. Superhumans and soldiers in standard armor were mixed together in formation, their aura as chilling as iron.

In the sky, several high-speed drones equipped with extraordinary psionic detectors patrolled back and forth, transmitting real-time data back to the command center of the churning pollution clouds in the distance and the approaching dark shadows.

"Three Rank 6 Corrupted Skullstone Zombies, one Rank 5 Pus-like Giant Puppet, and quite a few Bone Lizard Soul Monkeys —"

The threat level has reached level seven; activation of the "Sky Curtain" defense is recommended.

In the communications channel of a command post, a cold and urgent warning was being broadcast.

Just then, a figure rose into the air from within the border fortress.

It was a middle-aged general dressed in dark gold armor.

His body was burning with energy like a furnace, and his immense humanitarian pressure swept across the land.

It was Bi Yue, the "Marquis of Zhenbei" of the Great Xia Dynasty, who was the fourth strongest in the sequence to be stationed here.

His temples were white, his expression was dignified, his face was resolute and sharp, and his eyes held a hidden divine light between opening and closing.

He didn't say much, but simply raised his hand and pressed down lightly.

"All troops, listen to my command! Formation!"

With a low shout, the energy of the tens of thousands of guards below suddenly surged.

The ground lit up with crisscrossing, dazzling patterns, and the power of the vast army surged into the sky, transforming into a semi-transparent, crimson-gold light curtain stretching for hundreds of miles, resembling the mythical Great Wall of Beacon Fire.

A formidable presence stands guard on the border.

"town!"

The light curtain suddenly pressed down.

The long line of low-sequence monsters at the forefront suddenly froze. The blackish-purple contaminated energy on their bodies, as if exposed to the scorching sun, began to disintegrate inch by inch.

The monsters following closely behind screamed in agony as their bodies were forcibly pressed down by an invisible force, making it impossible for them to move forward even an inch.

However, at that very moment, a blinding silver light surged forth from the depths of the pollution wave.

"roar!!"

A silver giant, over fifteen meters tall, slowly rose from the horizon.

Its entire body shimmered with a mercury-like luster, and the giant axe in its hand was wrapped with boiling, sinister runes.

With each step taken, the earth trembled. Even before truly approaching, the savage and violent oppressive feeling swept towards the border like a tsunami.

Marquis Bi Yue of Zhenbei's expression changed drastically. "That Sequence Three Behemoth?"

He immediately raised his head and roared, his voice like thunder rolling across the border, "All troops, heed my command! Activate the Divine Array!"

Once the order was given, the entire army responded.

"promise!"

The sound waves rose like a tsunami.

In an instant, the blood and spirit of the tens of thousands of soldiers on and off the border were united, and their will became one.

Deep within the trenches on the ground, ancient array patterns, seemingly engraved long ago, seemed to light up one after another.

The crimson light spread along the ravines, as if the earth's blood was awakening and boiling.

"Buzz!!!"

The heavens trembled.

An invisible barrier, pale gold in color and vast and majestic, unfolded out of thin air.

It is not a physical entity, yet it is more indestructible than the millennia-old black iron. As its aura flows, it seems to contain the weight of thousands of miles of mountains and rivers and the unbroken will of an entire civilization, silently standing before the border.

The surging monsters and the pollution from the sinkhole, upon hitting the barrier, were like those who had crashed into a piece of viscous amber; their speed decreased drastically, and their offensive collapsed.

Only a few faint, thread-like wisps of blackish-purple pollution managed to seep through the gaps in the barrier and drift into the territory.

The extraordinary troops guarding the border immediately began to divide their forces and eliminate the enemy.

The flames and purifying light bullets of the extraordinary weapons lit up and then went out on the wasteland.

The alert level was raised again, but the anticipated full-scale war did not break out.

The crisis was firmly kept outside the border by that pale golden barrier.

But the oppression did not dissipate.

The divine behemoth, shrouded in silver light, continued to approach, and with each step closer, the ripples on the barrier's surface intensified.

Further away, deep within the dark purple pollution cloud, came a low, rumbling roar, as if an even larger, more twisted supernatural being was awakening.

Almost simultaneously.

At the observation stations in the other two eastern coastal cities of Xia Kingdom, alarms blared mournfully.

The sea level is rising rapidly.

It wasn't a tide, nor a giant wave, but rather the entire ocean seemed to be lifted up by an invisible hand.

The pitch-black seawater, carrying countless strange, phosphorescent silhouettes, rumbled toward the coastline.

The silver light also faintly bloomed at the horizon, just like the scene at the border.

"The second and third sinkholes are starting to trigger a chain reaction, possibly indicating that the Bermuda Triangle sinkhole has been unsealed."

Inside the highest command center of the Xia Kingdom, a dignified soldier wearing a white official hat took a deep breath, his expression solemn.

The pollution map on the screen was spreading at an alarming rate, like a giant net that was gradually tightening and closing in on Great Xia.

Inside the ghost market, the situation was at a standstill for a moment.

Xu Lindong sat in the car, his heart pounding with alarm bells, staring intently at the black-robed ghost that suddenly appeared from under the streetlights across the street, feeling an unprecedented pressure.

They didn't even dare to ride their bikes directly into it.

Because at this moment, his finger was pressing on the bicycle bell, but the bell did not move at all, as if even the old bicycle was hesitating.

This suddenly appearing vengeful ghost is very likely a terrifying being at the level of a City God of the fifth rank...