Ghost Street

"When could Spirit Medium have activated? Why did it have to be at a time like this? Wasn't this just messing with me? I'm in a haunted district right now. The moment I activate Spirit Medium, it means the ghosts here might set their sights on me. By then, things will be even more dangerous."

Li Yi was gnashing his teeth in frustration. He wished he could forcibly interrupt his body's evolution.

But that was impossible.

The life-and-death trial just now had allowed Li Yi to take that crucial step on the path of cultivation. The reason this had happened was that his body had absorbed too much Cosmic Energy in his daily life.

It was just that this energy had normally accumulated inside his body without being stimulated.

Therefore, Li Yi's activation of Spirit Medium at this moment was not a coincidence. It was simply the natural result of everything falling into place.

As long as Spirit Medium hasn't fully activated, I might still have a chance to leave this place. With that thought, Li Yi fled madly down the silent street.

But the farther he went, the more "people" appeared around him. Those figures grew increasingly complete and distinct in his vision. Several cold, lifeless figures had already seen him, their gazes turning slightly as Li Yi ran past. However, those figures did not do anything.

Even so, the more Li Yi saw, the more his hair stood on end.

He could even smell a strange stench of corpses, while his skin sensed waves of gloom and coldness radiating from the figures as they brushed past him.

The street was growing more and more crowded.

At first, he could ignore those strange figures and walk straight through them. The illusory people did not react at all. But later, Li Yi no longer dared to do that and could only carefully avoid them, because he had a feeling that if he crossed straight through them again, he would definitely collide with them.

"I can't get out anymore. I'm trapped here."

Before long, Li Yi suddenly stopped. Standing on the strange street, he had completely lost his sense of direction.

Strange figures streamed endlessly through the area. The nearby buildings had also changed from before. Scarlet lanterns hung high overhead, casting a red glow. Besides that, all kinds of bizarre sounds drifted into his ears—sounds he could not understand.

It was as if someone were whispering beside his ear, or perhaps it was some especially strange dialect.

At that moment, Li Yi felt as though he had entered an unfamiliar world. This was no longer the Danger Zone he knew.

Yet just then—

Suddenly.

A passing figure abruptly stopped beside him, then stared fixedly at Li Yi with dull, dead-gray eyes.

Li Yi was so terrified that his hair stood on end. He felt that the person was not alive, but a cold corpse.

And that was not all.

A second, then a third. One after another, strange "people" stopped beside him, then all turned toward him in perfect unison.

It seemed that Li Yi, a living person, was especially out of place here. The aura around him had drawn the attention of many strange beings.

Li Yi also realized that his intrusion here was far too conspicuous.

He wanted to flee, but there was nowhere to go. He could only be trapped here, surrounded on all sides.

"I'm probably going to die here too. No wonder Brother Tao avoided this area before."

Li Yi's heart pounded wildly, and cold sweat poured down his forehead. He saw a deathly still, strange figure walking straight toward him.

Then a second, a third, a fourth—more and more ghosts gathered, all targeting him.

There was nowhere to go and nowhere to run.

At that moment, Li Yi had fallen into a desperate predicament.

Yet just then, a gloomy figure dressed in paper funerary clothes rapidly drew close. It extended a rough, wrinkled hand and grabbed Li Yi's arm.

"Hm?"

Li Yi, every muscle taut, instinctively resisted. The strength in his entire body erupted as he tried to shake off that hand.

But strangely, the hand still clung tightly to him. He could not shake it off at all.

"What tremendous strength. Young man, have you gone mad? Just standing here on Ghost Street? Aren't you afraid of dying? Come, follow me." A deep, middle-aged man's voice rang out. His accent was extremely strange, like some unknown dialect, but Li Yi could understand him.

Li Yi's pupils narrowed. Only then did he notice that the figure dressed in Paper Clothes was not a ghost, but a living person who had disguised himself.

"Okay."

He agreed immediately, without the slightest hesitation.

The person in Paper Clothes then tossed him something. "Put on this hood and cover up your living aura. Otherwise, the ghosts here will keep watching you. If you run into the Yin Soldiers again, you'll be dead for sure. All right, stop talking. If you say anything more, the ghosts will notice me too."

Li Yi instinctively caught the hood.

It felt soft to the touch, yet was incomparably cold and gloomy. It also gave off the stench of rotting corpses.

This was not an ordinary leather hood. It seemed to have been made from human skin peeled off a dead person's head.

But Li Yi could not worry about that now. He did not want to die here for no reason, so he immediately put the hood on.

Strangely enough—

The moment he put on the leather hood, the strange gazes around him withdrew one after another. The ghosts no longer approached him either. After observing him briefly, they gradually dispersed.

The person in Paper Clothes pulled Li Yi rapidly along the street.

Li Yi did not resist.

The man led Li Yi through several turns before entering an alley. What was strange was that this alley clearly did not exist within the Danger Zone, and its style did not resemble modern architecture either. Gray brick and dark tiles surrounded them, as if they had suddenly stepped into ancient times.

Li Yi said nothing. While observing, he secretly memorized the route so that he would not get lost and be unable to find his way back.

Before long, the man brought Li Yi to a large gate in the alley and stopped.

The gate was an old double-leaf wooden door, with two severely faded Door Gods pasted onto it. Their appearance was somewhat unusual. They were not Qin Shubao and Yuchi Gong, whom Li Yi knew, but the even more ancient Shentu and Yulei. The writing on the door was not modern either. As for what script it was, Li Yi did not recognize it. His education had not been particularly extensive, and he had never studied such things.

"Knock, knock-knock!" The person in Paper Clothes knocked on the wooden door.

After a while—

The wooden door opened. A girl of around seventeen or eighteen stood behind it. Her hair was tied in a bun, and she wore a silk skirt.

She said nothing, merely stepping aside at once to make way.

The man immediately dragged Li Yi into the courtyard.

Only then did the girl hurriedly close the door and lower the crossbar.

"Father, are you all right?" the girl asked only after shutting the door.

"I'm fine. I went around once and came back. I didn't find anyone selling medicine, but I did pick up a young man with something wrong in the head." As he spoke, the middle-aged man carefully removed the Paper Clothes from his body, afraid that a careless tug would tear them apart.

Only after all the Paper Clothes had been removed could Li Yi clearly see the man through the holes in the hood.

He was a thin, slightly hunched middle-aged man with an ordinary appearance and a face full of wrinkles. He wore his hair long and had a beard, looking dressed like a man from ancient times.

"It's safe here now. The Door Gods at the entrance haven't completely faded yet, so they can still protect this place. The ghosts outside can't get in. You can take off the hood." The middle-aged man spoke.

Hearing this, Li Yi immediately removed the hood and gasped deeply. The smell from it had nearly smoked him out.

"Tut, tut, the world truly holds every kind of marvel. You haven't wandered out of your soul, you aren't wearing funerary clothes and pretending to be dead, and yet a living person as large as you barged into Ghost Street and is still alive. How did you manage that?" The middle-aged man circled Li Yi several times, clicking his tongue in amazement as he looked him over.

"That's a long story. I was being chased by a Fierce Beast and accidentally ran here. This place wasn't Ghost Street when I arrived, but as I walked, I somehow got trapped inside and couldn't get out." Li Yi gave a brief explanation.

"An accident?" The middle-aged man nodded. "That explanation does barely make sense. Young man, what's your name?"

"Li Yi."

"Do you have a courtesy name?" the middle-aged man asked again.

"A courtesy name?" Li Yi froze for a moment before realizing what he meant.

People in ancient times did not merely have personal names; they also had courtesy names.

Having a courtesy name meant that a person possessed some family background and learning, rather than being a commoner.

Li Yi hurriedly made one up. "Courtesy name: Mengde."

"Mengde? It means courage and lofty virtue. A fine name. It seems the person who gave you your courtesy name when you came of age was no ordinary man."

The middle-aged man's eyes brightened slightly. Then he nodded. "I am Zhao Ge. This is my daughter, Zhao Qian. She is an ordinary commoner and has not yet received a courtesy name. Please forgive us."

He then clasped his hands and bowed, his expression full of embarrassment.

"Not at all, not at all." Li Yi immediately imitated him, bowing in return. At the same time, he wondered inwardly: Have I really come to another world?

Or is everything here fake—a hallucination born just before my death?