Chen Zhuo had never imagined that the Ghost Market would be where he ran into his former roommates again.
He studied the people in the iron cage closely. Of the seven former roommates, at least five were locked inside, covered in blood and looking as though they had been tortured.
The other two were nowhere to be seen. Their fate was probably no better.
He had never been close to those seven, and he had helped them only at a critical moment. Whatever the reason, there was no real affection between them.
The sight had shocked him only because these men were, after all, from the Yamen. How could they be treated like livestock and locked in an iron cage?
But in the end, these people had nothing to do with him anymore.
"Business comes first."
Chen Zhuo put his curiosity aside, turned, and led his donkey cart through the crowd, pushing a path straight ahead.
He hadn't gone far when he heard a tremendous crash behind him.
He glanced over. Someone had already hoisted the iron cage and thrown it onto the ground.
The people inside were shaken so badly they could barely move, let alone get up.
Then a rough voice rang out beside him, hawking its wares.
"'Step right up, don't miss out! Come look, come see! People in an iron cage, twenty taels apiece, with a deed of sale. Take one home and use him as a riding dog if you like...'"
What a world...
Selling people like dogs wasn't even all that unusual.
He'd already seen people being sold in more than one place along the way.
Chen Zhuo shook his head and walked on.
By the time the sun was high overhead, Chen Zhuo had finally fought his way out of the crowded streets and reached a somewhat quieter spot.
He was now at the very edge of the Ghost Market. There were few people around, and only a handful of stalls, spaced far apart.
Chen Zhuo walked up to a fortune-telling stall and asked, "Blind man, are you blind?"
The stall's owner was an old man with a head of white hair. He raised his face with his eyes closed. Hearing Chen Zhuo's voice, his nostrils twitched, and he leaned closer to sniff at him.
"You're blind?"
The Old Blind Man sounded displeased.
"I'm not blind."
"If you're not blind, how come you can't see that I am?"
"So you really are blind?"
"You're the blind one."
After the Old Blind Man shot back, Chen Zhuo didn't respond. The air seemed to fall briefly silent.
Only Little Black Donkey was panting heavily nearby, as if he still hadn't recovered from their earlier mad dash.
"Yan Ming sent you to find me, didn't he?"
The Old Blind Man smiled faintly, and the awkwardness melted away like snow in spring.
Chen Zhuo let out a soft sigh. "He did."
"Hahaha... That's satisfying. It's been so long, and that kid still remembers my temper. He's thoughtful, all right."
The louder the Old Blind Man laughed, the more helpless Chen Zhuo felt.
Before coming to the Ghost Market, Yan Ming had told him that if he wanted to buy unadulterated Demon Blood, he had to seek out the Old Blind Man.
But the old man was a bit eccentric. Unless you let him insult you for a while, you could probably kill him and still not get anything worthwhile.
That was how Chen Zhuo had ended up asking such a stupid question.
"Yan Ming sent you to buy Demon Blood, right?"
The Old Blind Man didn't beat around the bush. He got straight to the point.
"That's right," Chen Zhuo said. "Do you have any in stock, Blind—er, sir?"
"Sit."
The Old Blind Man pointed to the little stool in front of the stall, then rummaged in the box behind him. He found five porcelain bottles and waved them in front of Chen Zhuo.
"One bottle is fifteen taels of silver. Three bottles get you ten percent off, and five get you twenty percent off. How many do you want?"
"Wasn't it ten taels a bottle? Why did the price go up so much?"
Chen Zhuo frowned.
"Ten taels?"
The Old Blind Man gave a cold laugh. "That was last month's price."
"There aren't many Blade-Catchers in Baiyun County. It's a line of work where you risk your life. And lately, people have been buying up False Blood in bulk, so naturally the price has shot up."
"Fifteen taels a bottle really isn't expensive. Even this price is only because Yan Ming sent you. Believe it or not, I could mix in some pig's blood and sell you one bottle as two without you noticing."
"Fine."
Chen Zhuo sighed. He glanced over the five nearly identical porcelain bottles, but instead of discussing the purchase, he tentatively asked, "Do you happen to have any True Blood for sale?"
"True Blood from a demon beast?"
The Old Blind Man tilted his head, his sightless eyes facing Chen Zhuo as though he were looking at him intently.
Chen Zhuo felt a chill crawl over him beneath that "gaze." Just as he was about to speak, the Old Blind Man continued, "A hundred taels as a deposit. Come back in fifteen days to collect it. The final price will depend on the value of the True Blood."
A hundred taels right off the bat, and it was a preorder...
Chen Zhuo fell silent.
True Blood from a demon beast really was rare and hard to find.
"Get lost. If you don't have the money, don't ask. If you weren't someone that kid Yan Ming sent, you'd be on your way out already."
The Old Blind Man waved a hand, looking ready to chase him off.
"Three bottles."
Chen Zhuo didn't waste words. He pulled out a banknote and handed it over.
It was the biggest sum he'd spent so far. It hurt, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Save where you can, spend where you must.
The Old Blind Man rubbed the banknote between two fingers, then tucked it into his clothes. He handed Chen Zhuo three of the bottles and found the remaining silver, laying it in his palm to pass over.
But Chen Zhuo didn't take it. Instead, he asked, "Sir, has anything unusual been happening in the mountains?"
By "the mountains," he meant Dangyun Mountain.
The Autumn Hunt was coming up soon, and buying Demon Blood wasn't the only reason he'd come to see the Old Blind Man.
He also wanted to learn what was currently happening on Dangyun Mountain.
The Old Blind Man knew the business. He immediately took one tael back from his palm and said calmly, "You'd better not go into the mountains for a while. You'll die."
"Why?"
Chen Zhuo's heart skipped a beat.
The Old Blind Man took another tael back from his palm. Chen Zhuo winced at the sight.
"A great demon has just emerged in the mountains. Whoever goes there dies."
A great demon?
Chen Zhuo frowned, not quite understanding.
What kind of demon beast was a great demon? Was it strong?
The Old Blind Man seemed to "see" his confusion and motioned toward his palm.
Chen Zhuo steeled himself and gritted out, "Go on."
The Old Blind Man smiled and took back another tael. Then he said:
"Martial artists have the lower three realms, and demon beasts have the lower three ranks. A great demon is a third-rank demon beast, equivalent to a martial artist in the third realm: Spirit-Nurturing."
The lower three realms of a martial artist were Body Refining, Aperture Opening, and Spirit-Nurturing.
"A great demon is the equal of a martial artist in the third realm. Wouldn't it slap me dead with one blow?"
Just imagining it made Chen Zhuo shiver all over.
If that was the case, wouldn't going to Dangyun Mountain be nothing but a death sentence?
Wait...
Chen Zhuo suddenly remembered what Yao Xiong had said at Morning Assembly a few days ago.
This Autumn Hunt, the White-Uniform Runners had been exceptionally allowed to go along and harvest chives.
They had even set the Yamen Runner promotion test during the Autumn Hunt.
"Demon beasts aren't the chives. We White-Uniform Runners are the real chives."
Everything suddenly became clear.
Putting together what Fatty Sun had written in his letter, Chen Zhuo finally understood. The Yamen had already decided to send them to their deaths.
The only ones who would survive were Sun Fei and Zhou Sheng.
Magistrate Liu, Registrar Wang, Chief Clerk Sun...
Chen Zhuo fell silent.
Their faces kept flashing through his mind in turn. A pressure seemed to swell in his chest, making his breathing grow unusually heavy.
He quietly clenched his fist until his knuckles turned white.
Just then, a voice abruptly pulled him out of his silence.
"Old Blind Man, I hear you're selling demon beast blood here?"
Chen Zhuo turned his head slightly. A ripple stirred in his heart.
The speaker wore a black robe and had their face hidden behind black cloth. Their build was impossible to make out, and their features were impossible to discern.
Yet just from the person's eyes and brows, the more Chen Zhuo looked, the more familiar they seemed.
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