The Escaped Avatar

"Did he go out?"

"How did he go out?!"

"He shouldn't have gone out!"

Whispers rose in waves, weaving together as they echoed continuously from behind the counter.

Resentment invisible to the naked eye began to surge endlessly within this place.

But when a figure stepped in from outside, everything within this Ghost Art Shop instantly returned to normal.

The newcomer was clearly a living person.

He wore a mask with a tiger's face embedded in a human face, and he seemed quite familiar with this place. The moment he entered, he said, "I'm not buying Ghost Arts. I'm buying information. Price it the same as a Ghost Art."

At once, the dim light began to brighten, and the figures standing before the counter gradually became clear.

They were people dressed in black robes. Their faces couldn't be seen, for each wore a thick, featureless mask. Only from their builds could one tell that there were both men and women among them.

What was stranger was that these people wearing featureless masks stood utterly still, like puppets set out on display.

The door behind the counter opened, and a mass of shadow emerged from behind it. With every step it took, its form became clearer.

When it finally came fully into view, what appeared before him was an exceedingly horrifying sight.

It was a stone ball tightly bound in layer upon layer of iron chains, its surface covered in human faces. There were men and women, young and old, and every face bore a different expression.

"What information do you want?" Though the faces differed and their expressions differed, the words spoken from them were exactly the same.

"Is it true that Vengeful Ghosts have recently been disappearing from the Weird Game?" asked the man in the tiger mask.

"It is true." Different voices formed the same reply.

The man immediately took out a bloodied severed finger and placed it on the counter. Then he asked, "Who did it?"

Yet the stone ball gave no answer. Instead, all the faces upon it turned to look at him.

There were weeping faces, laughing faces, furious faces... For a moment, his scalp went numb, and he thought the Stone-Ball Vengeful Ghost was about to attack him.

Fortunately, the faces spoke again. "That is a second piece of information."

"This is a severed finger of the Withered Wood Ghost. It can count for ten Yin Virtue. A Ghost Art costs five Yin Virtue." Relieved, the man hurriedly said this.

But the stone ball didn't acknowledge that price at all. "The Withered Wood Ghost's severed finger is worth that much only among your people. Here, it is worth only five Yin Virtue."

The man fell silent. But very quickly, he took out another bloodied severed finger. "This is another severed finger of the Withered Wood Ghost."

The faces on the stone ball glanced at the finger, seemingly confirming its value. Then the faces said, "We don't know, and no one knows."

"No one knows?" The man was immediately shocked, because once a transaction began in the Land Where Humans and Ghosts Coexist, neither side could deceive the other.

Though this stone ball was merely a special Vengeful Ghost, it was actually the escaped avatar of a Yin Spirit.

It was said that the Yin Spirit had suffered an accident and been sealed away. During the time it was sealed, this avatar developed self-awareness. After failing to devour its master in retaliation, the avatar fled to the Land Where Humans and Ghosts Coexist, using this place's peculiar nature to evade pursuit from its true body.

And because it had stolen part of the Yin Spirit's true body's abilities, this Stone-Ball Vengeful Ghost could learn of many things unknown to others.

Soon after, the man left.

As luck would have it, just after he walked out of the shop, Tan Shuchang, who had wandered around the market outside for a while, returned.

There were many ghosts in this lively yet quiet market, but Tan Shuchang felt that the ghosts running the stalls probably weren't very powerful. Some of them might even be players.

More importantly, Tan Shuchang couldn't understand a single thing being sold at these stalls, and he felt none of it would be useful to him.

So rather than risk capturing those stall owners, he might as well capture the shopkeeper.

Anyone who could open a shop in the Land Where Humans and Ghosts Coexist, even in its outermost area, had to be a very powerful Vengeful Ghost.

After all, there were only a handful of shops in this market.

Tan Shuchang's return delighted the Stone-Ball Vengeful Ghost within. The more newcomers it hunted after they first entered this place, the greater the power it could obtain.

"Only true bodies are allowed to enter here!" The Stone-Ball Vengeful Ghost came directly before Tan Shuchang.

At this moment, Tan Shuchang saw the Vengeful Ghost's true body. Seeing the dense, sinister aura around it, his heart instantly blossomed with joy.

Sure enough, he'd come to the right place!

Just look at how fierce this Vengeful Ghost was—it was nearly on the level of a Yin Spirit!

A Yin Spirit was a powerful ghostly entity above a Vengeful Ghost. However, despite carrying the title of spirit, its essence hadn't changed much.

Compared to Vengeful Ghosts, Yin Spirits were merely stronger and able to begin controlling themselves. Their consciousness could even be no different from that of an ordinary living person.

"No problem."

Tan Shuchang readily agreed. But when his true body entered the Land Where Humans and Ghosts Coexist, the owner of this Ghost Art Shop suddenly screamed in terror, "What exactly are you?"

After all, it was the escaped avatar of a Yin Spirit. What ordinary Vengeful Ghosts couldn't see, this Stone-Ball Vengeful Ghost could already perceive to some extent.

Tan Shuchang didn't waste words with it. He was only one Vengeful Ghost away.

Immediately, black light flowed between the five fingers of his left hand. The instant black runes appeared among them, the Stone-Ball Vengeful Ghost couldn't move.

This was Force Suppression Might.

Then Tan Shuchang used an extremely crude and simple method to stuff it into his sleeve.

"Since I'm here, I might as well pack some of this stuff up and take it back to examine carefully." Tan Shuchang had originally intended to leave directly, but his gaze swept over two strange severed fingers on the counter, along with more than a dozen sealed bamboo scrolls, and he casually took them all with him.

He had heard the term Ghost Art mentioned in passing by a player during a previous instance. Judging from the emotions that player had shown when he mistakenly thought it was a Ghost Art, such an item had to be quite extraordinary. So even if Tan Shuchang couldn't use them himself, he could still trade them with other players for information on Vengeful Ghosts later.

With a thought, he summoned the attribute panel. Then, focusing his gaze on the final mask icon, Tan Shuchang instantly left the Land Where Humans and Ghosts Coexist.

Tan Shuchang left decisively. But not long after he departed, this place descended into chaos.

That was because the motionless figures had all been people entering the Land Where Humans and Ghosts Coexist for the first time. The Stone-Ball Vengeful Ghost had bewitched them into bringing in their true bodies, then guided them into making mistakes before taking their "faces."

These people were like living puppets. But unlike living puppets, once the Stone-Ball Vengeful Ghost—their master—was gone, they immediately "awakened." Yet because they no longer had faces, they could neither see nor hear, and could only grope and claw about wildly.

As these Faceless people ran out, word spread that the Stone-Ball Vengeful Ghost of the Ghost Art Shop had mysteriously vanished, and that the Ghost Art Shop had been robbed.