498 The Hell Path
The place where the singing came from was a dark store.
The shopkeeper was a multi-eyed ghost. It floated above the store and its entire body was covered in eyes.
As Xu Qing stared at it, half of the multi-eyed ghost’s eyes looked at Xu Qing.
Xu Qing didn’t care and walked over. He looked at a small bronze bottle among the many items on the ground.
“Sound-catching bottle.”
Xu Qing immediately recognized it.
He had once obtained a sound-catching bottle. Later on, he used that bottle to capture the tune of the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts and used it to attract the giant pulling the sun’s carriage, finally obtaining Golden Crow Refines All Life.
However, under the pressure of the giant, the sound-catching bottle had shattered.
The singing voice came from the bottle.
Xu Qing fell silent for a while. He then pointed at the sound-catching bottle and looked at the multi-eyed ghost. After that, he threw out a pouch that contained a portion of the souls.
After the multi-eyed ghost caught it and checked, all its eyes narrowed as though it was thinking. Very soon, it shook its head.
Xu Qing glanced at the ghost in front of him.
He knew that most of the ghosts and monsters in the market were greedy, so he threw out another leather pouch. However, this time, there was a hint of coldness in his eyes that was clearly warning the other party.
Perhaps it was because there were enough souls, or perhaps it was because of the coldness, the multi-eyed ghost nodded after some thought.
Xu Qing picked up the sound-catching bottle and covered it. As the sound of singing disappeared, he turned and left.
After returning to the inn, Xu Qing looked at the small bronze bottle in his hand as he waited for the dawn to break. A deep sense of doubt rose in his mind.
“This voice is indeed the voice of the woman in the pentagonal wooden hut in the ghost cave.”
“It’s obvious that someone used a sound-catching bottle to store her voice…”
Xu Qing recalled the scene in the ghost cave back then. As the woman sang, the divine eye in the depths of the ghost cave slowly closed.
He didn’t know if this song was only targeted at that god or if this voice itself contained some unfathomable power that could make gods close their eyes.
However, no matter what, Xu Qing felt that it was very worth it to buy this sound-catching bottle.
Not long later, as the departure time was about to arrive, footsteps rang out from outside the room. Xu Qing kept the small bottle and tidied his clothes before pushing open the door and walking out.
Most of the disciples of the Eight Sects Alliance were gathered in the inn, but the captain wasn’t around.
Xu Qing wasn’t surprised. Others might hesitate about the ghost lane but the captain definitely wouldn’t be able to hold it in.
However, it was obvious that going to the county capital was the most important thing in the captain’s mind. Hence, just before the departure time, the captain entered in a hurry from outside. His eyes were still filled with excitement as he arrived beside Xu Qing.
“Little Qing, did you go to the ghost lane? Let me tell you, there are good things there.”
Xu Qing was about to speak when his expression changed at the next instant. All the disciples in the inn were the same.
An astonishing pressure spread out from outside the inn.
This pressure emitted an indescribable coldness, causing the people in the inn to feel as though they were caged in eternal ice. There was also a great fear that rose uncontrollably in everyone’s minds.
Xu Qing wasn’t unfamiliar with this feeling. The first time he encountered bizarre entities, he had a similar feeling.
At the same time, during the three months when he became a Treasure Bearer, he felt similar things from the depths of the forbidden zones when he gazed through the Taboo magic treasure.
Just as everyone’s minds were trembling, Purple Mystic Fairy’s figure walked out of the inn’s room and arrived at the inn’s entrance in one step. She lifted her hand and gently pushed forward.
As the door of the inn opened, everything outside… was different from what Xu Qing had seen when he returned earlier.
The ghost lane was still there, as was the normal market.
It was as though white and black, yin and yang had appeared at the same time. The two markets overlapped and turned blurry.
Amidst this blurriness, a black ship that was thousands of feet long silently appeared from the void and floated in the sky.
This black ship was riddled with holes and was extremely dilapidated. The sails on it were also tattered, revealing the aura of decay and age. At the same time, it also carried an extremely dense aura of death.
Its arrival brought forward an icy oppression that seemed capable of freezing everything.
This was a ghost ship.
It stopped in mid-air, as though this market was a port. It would stop here for a short time and wait for the people who wanted to board it.
“Get on the ship!” Purple Mystic Fairy’s voice calmly rang out. With a step, she directly stepped into the sky and entered the gloomy ghost ship.
Xu Qing and the captain looked at each other and took a step forward at the same time, heading straight for the sky. The others also braced themselves and flew up. Very soon, the group from the Eight Sects Alliance stepped on the ghost ship.
As they stepped in, the cold feeling became even more obvious. The dilapidation of this ghost ship was also reflected clearly in Xu Qing’s eyes.
More than half of the deck had rotted, and many places were filled with holes. In fact, the stern of the ship was so dilapidated that it looked like it was about to disintegrate. There were no signs of any ghosts in this ghost ship.
However, the gloominess here was extremely intense.
Xu Qing also discovered that it wasn’t just the Eight Sects Alliance who boarded the ship. There were dozens of cultivators in the city square who chose to board the ship at this moment. Among them, Xu Qing saw the two Sword Holders he had seen on the way.
After the two of them stepped onto the ghost ship, they also looked at Xu Qing and the captain.
They were both surprised to see each other again. The two Sword Holders nodded at Xu Qing and the captain but didn’t say anything else and walked into the cabin.
The cabin was also decaying.
Xu Qing entered the cabin and saw that everyone had found a place to sit down. Purple Mystic Fairy and Lord Fifth were also meditating not far away.
Hence, he found a corner where he could see everything and sat down. The captain surveyed the surroundings and chose to sit beside Xu Qing.
“Where there’s a ghost lane, there’s a ghost ship.” Zi Xuan’s voice rang out in Xu Qing’s mind.
This time, it didn’t just appear in his mind. Xu Qing noticed that the captain and the other Alliance disciples were all looking at Purple Mystic Fairy, who was sitting not far away.
“As for the ghost ship, it’s the most common phenomenon in the Wanggu Continent. It can bring people to travel far away. Its speed far surpasses that of an ordinary flying ship. After all, the flying ship flies in the air, while the ghost ship moves between life and death.”
“A place with death is equivalent to pulling a rope for it that allows it to pass through.”
“In the next month, we will ride this ghost ship across the land. You guys must remember that after the ghost ship starts moving later, you can’t open your eyes this month.”
“This is a taboo on the ghost ships.” As Purple Mystic Fairy’s voice echoed, everyone nodded.
“Xu Qing, Chen Erniu, the two of you, take out the cloud beasts’ flesh and place them on the deck outside the cabin. That’s our ship tickets.”
Xu Qing nodded and stood up with the captain to walk outside the cabin. They then took out the two cloud beast giant corpses and placed them outside. The two Sword Holders also did the same. They threw out a portion of the flesh here.
The other people did the same as well.
After doing all this, Xu Qing returned and discovered that the captain was still outside.
“Xu Qing, go and drag him back.”
Purple Mystic Fairy calmly spoke. On the way, she was like this in front of others. Only when there was no one else would she reveal a strange gaze at Xu Qing.
Xu Qing felt that this was more comfortable. At that moment, he turned around and went to search. He saw the captain outside an entrance to the warehouse on the deck.
The captain’s expression was filled with deep curiosity. He was squatting there and probing, as though he wanted to go down and take a stroll. When he noticed Xu Qing’s arrival, he spoke in a low voice.
“Little Qing, there’s a treasure in this ghost ship that can speed up our cultivation. I heard a voice summoning me just now, wanting to exchange it for some items!”
Xu Qing stopped in his tracks. After some thought, he squatted beside the captain and lowered his head to take a look.
“Deceit?”
“There’s a high chance that they want to lure me down, so I’m wondering if I should find an opportunity to do something.”
The captain grinned. This was what he admired the most about Xu Qing. The two of them didn’t need to explain much to understand each other’s meaning.
“Not now. When we reach our destination, we can take a look at the situation.” Xu Qing thought about it and transmitted his voice.
“Alright. Otherwise, if there’s really a problem, it’ll be troublesome if this ghost ship doesn’t take us with it.” The captain nodded and the two of them returned to the cabin.
The moment they stepped in, Purple Mystic Fairy glared fiercely at the captain.
“Nihility ghosts are sealed in the ghost ship. If you want to die, go and die by yourself.”
The captain felt a little aggrieved. Hence, he looked at Xu Qing bitterly. It was clearly decided by the two of them together…
Xu Qing lowered his head and sat cross-legged at the side, pretending not to see the captain.
Not long later, just as the first rays of the sun were about to appear, this ghost ship suddenly trembled and began to blur.
Purple Mystic Fairy’s voice also entered the minds of the Eight Sects Alliance’s disciples at this instant.
“Close your eyes!”
Everyone instantly closed their eyes.
As he closed his eyes, Xu Qing could sense that the vibrations of the ghost ship were becoming increasingly intense, as though it was shuttling back and forth.
Very soon, the first rays of the sun appeared between heaven and earth, and this ghost ship also disappeared from the sky. The overlapping ghost shop on the marketplace on the ground dissipated, and the marketplace returned to normal.
As for the ghost ship, the cold intent grew stronger and stronger as the ship continued to move. The surroundings were even more silent, and only the trembling of the ship continued.
Although Xu Qing’s eyes were closed, the shadow transmitted a scene in his mind.
On the scene was the dilapidated cabin of the ghost ship.
Everyone had their eyes closed. Only the captain… stuck an eye out of the shirt on his chest and observed his surroundings.
This eye was very bizarre and carried a hint of blue light, emitting malevolence and gloominess. It seemed to have fused with the surrounding atmosphere like a ghost eye.
Xu Qing wasn’t surprised. He controlled the shadow to look at the place where the flesh was piled outside the cabin. Very soon, he saw countless shadows there. These shadows all had red eyes and fought for the flesh madly.
Occasionally, when they were biting, they would turn their heads and greedily look at everyone in the cabin.
The cruelty and malevolence emitted by them were extremely obvious, but they restrained themselves from entering the cabin.
In the end, a few of them hesitated for a long time after they finished eating. It was as though they couldn’t hold it in anymore and chose to crawl into the cabin and drift around in front of everyone.
When they passed by Purple Mystic Fairy, one of them silently disappeared. Another one disappeared when they passed by Lord Fifth.
Another one appeared in front of Xu Qing and sniffed his face. The red light in its eyes intensified and it opened its mouth. However, at the next instant, as Xu Qing took a breath, this ghost suddenly trembled and was directly sucked into Xu Qing’s mouth, suppressed in the Heavenly Palace.
There was also a ghost floating at the captain’s side, staring at his ghost eye. After noticing that its companions had disappeared in the surroundings, this ghost was clearly terrified. Just as it was about to leave, the captain’s ghost eye transformed into a large mouth at the next instant.
It swallowed the ghost. After that, it transformed back into its eye form as though nothing had happened and even winked at Xu Qing.
Outside the cabin, a large number of ghosts were still fighting for food, not paying attention to the deaths of their companions in the cabin.
A long time later, as the last piece of flesh was eaten, these ghosts slowly drifted on the ghost ship. They controlled the ghost ship like ship workers, causing its speed to increase by a lot.
It shuttled toward the pitch-black netherworld in front of it.