Then something magical happened. The moment the saliva touched the gray brick, it turned black. Once the entire brick had changed color, the stallholder nodded in satisfaction and gently pressed its center. The wall across the mouth of the inverted U-shaped alley vanished before their eyes.
The stallholder took out another ice pop, stuck it in his mouth, and walked on. Luo Bin glanced at the stringy slime coating the black brick, then followed close behind.
After winding through several more alleys, the mosquito stallholder arrived beneath a large banyan tree. He leaned against its trunk and hummed a folk song with a distinctly ethnic flavor.
Luo Bin, however, did not think he was simply singing. To him, the stallholder was delivering a coded signal.
Sure enough, once the song ended, their surroundings began to change. Though there was no wind, the banyan leaves rustled, growing louder and louder.
Moments later, hundreds of leaves fell from the tree, whirling into a vortex and gathering into a human shape.
Three seconds later, a man in a green cloak replaced the leaves.
"Did you get it?"
His voice was hoarse and carried an echo. Clearly, he was wearing some sort of magical device that altered his voice.
"You still don't trust me to get the job done? Hold on, don't be so quick to take it off me. Where's the stuff I asked for?"
The Green Cloaked Man turned his hand palm up, and a small green bottle floated into existence above it. The mosquito stallholder excitedly snatched it up.
"With this, I'll never have to worry about sales again. One drop, just one drop in the water! Anyone who smells the Mosquito Biscuits will feel like they're being clawed apart inside unless they eat one. Aha! My brothers and I are