The Twenty-Sixth Ghost Market, the Plague Market.
The last day of the lunar month, when yin qi was at its strongest, was also the day the many ghost markets welcomed visitors from all directions.
Unlike the "ordinary" sights of the Shadow Puppet Market, the Plague Market's surroundings were rather filthy.
Black gunk clung to the streets, and most shops were built of rotten wood that gave off a foul stench. It was a perfect model of filth, disorder, and squalor.
Many cultivators passed through the streets, but plague ghosts and disease spirits were even more numerous. Some were covered in pustules that leaked yellow fluid; others were as thin as kindling and coughed incessantly. Their forms were bizarre beyond counting.
At that moment, deep within the ghost market, in Plague Daoist's residence.
Chu Mo lounged in the seat of honor, a roll of beast hide in his hand, studying the few unusual plague ghosts standing below him.
Their bodies were a ghastly green, plague qi spreading around them. Wherever they passed, malaria and disease sprang up in profusion, as though they were walking sources of poison.
"Disease qi combined with the resentment of those who died unjustly, with strength at the early third tier. They do have their peculiarities. Putting them into the banner would add some new varieties of banner spirit and give me a little more help. Not bad."
There were no third-tier banner spirits in the banner yet. These plague ghosts would fill that gap nicely.
With that thought, Chu Mo turned his gaze to the beast hide in his hand.
He had unearthed it from Plague Daoist's stores. Titled the Plague and Disease Secret Record, it recorded various methods for collecting plague qi and refining plague ghosts.
After quickly reading through its contents, he shook his