Compass · Human Skin Paper

A zombie?

Chen Ying glanced at the car parked behind him. Uncle Qing sat upright in the driver's seat, both hands gripping the steering wheel.

He had never expected the other end of the path to connect to the Wrongful Death Ghost Market. Where would he end up if he followed this road?

Chen Ying lowered his head. The needle of the compass in his hand pointed ahead. What he wanted most was up ahead.

"Business is good."

Chen Ying looked at the noodle stall owner. A customer sat at one of the tables, his body already swollen, his black hair drifting through the air like waterweed.

The customer's swollen arms could not move at all. He could only lower his head and struggle to reach the bowl with his mouth.

With a plop, an eyeball fell from his face into the bowl. He let out a roar.

"They're all penniless ghosts. Nothing compared to you. I've hardly seen anyone who could do what you do."

The noodle stall owner shook his head. He walked over, fished the eyeball out of the noodle bowl, and tossed it into his own stockpot.

"You've brought something good this time."

His eyes stared greedily at Chen Ying's pocket.

"What's in there?"

Chen Ying lowered his head.

In his pocket was the eyeball he had gouged out of the red-clad ghost child's face.

"The same thing you threw into your pot."

Chen Ying replied.

This noodle stall owner was definitely no good.

The rule of the Ghost Market was "exchange." Whatever you gained, you had to pay for.

This drowned ghost had wanted some soup, and so he had lost an eyeball.

The last time Chen Ying came here, the noodle stall owner had also served him a bowl of soup, even calling it a "free" gift.

If he had actually touched that bowl of soup, he probably would have lost something, just like this drowned ghost.

"The same? No, no, no. Not the same at all."

The noodle stall owner looked at his large pot and shook his head.

"Trash like this would only dirty my soup if I threw it in, if business hadn't been so bad lately. The one in your pocket is different. Malice that pure is far too rare."

"Young man, I don't know what you've got in there, but I've got some fine goods to trade for it."

The noodle stall owner patted the large pot on his back, producing a series of clinks and clatters from inside.

"Next time."

Chen Ying smiled. "I'll have plenty of good stuff in the future. Let's make this an ongoing business."

"Very well."

The noodle stall owner withdrew his greedy gaze.

Chen Ying did not linger there either.

The compass needle continued to point farther into the market, proving that what Chen Ying wanted lay deeper inside.

When Chen Ying dripped his blood onto it, the wish he made was, "What I need most right now."

This wish was a little crafty, because Chen Ying knew he was a newcomer to this mysterious world. A very specific wish might not produce a particularly good result.

For example, if his wish had been "something that will keep Wu Jie and me alive through the crisis at the Little Building," the compass might very well have pointed him toward two boat tickets to Songjiang.

Of course, the wish "what I need most right now" might also point him toward a boat ticket to Songjiang.

That was how this compass worked: the more clearly defined the conditions, the better.

Chen Ying continued forward.

Countless ghosts wandered through the mist.

White paper lanterns hung high overhead. Firefly light streamed across the bluestone paving, and dark wooden window frames resembled the hollow eyes of the dead.

Every stallholder was a ghost or monster; every passerby was an evil creature.

A pawnshop's doors stood open toward the street. Behind them, ghostly fire seemed to boil in the eyes of an appraiser in a long gown, his hoarse voice drawing out the words.

"I never, ever expected you to bring it to me like this."

The Ghost Appraiser stood there, his entire body reduced to white bones, beneath which burned green fire so thick it was almost liquid.

The last time Chen Ying met this Ghost Appraiser, he had offered thirty sheets of paper money for the compass.

He said unhappily, "This thing is useless now."

"Sorry." Chen Ying slipped the compass into his sleeve. "I couldn't have gotten in without using it. But rest assured, Appraiser, there's someone outside who can make these."

The green flames in the Ghost Appraiser's eye sockets flickered.

"Someone can make them? There are still people who can make things like this?"

"Of course. I'll bring you a few next time. But I've brought something else this time."

As Chen Ying spoke, he looked around. Sure enough, several strangely shaped fellows were watching them.

"Let's talk inside."

The Ghost Appraiser gave Chen Ying a doubtful look.

In the pawnshop's outer room, the tall counter stood like a dead face without features. Green candle flames burned on the tea table. The Ghost Appraiser sat in a chair, staring at the object Chen Ying had placed on the table.

An eyeball rolled across the tabletop.

"You were quite ruthless."

The Ghost Appraiser offered his assessment. "How did you get your hands on something like this?"

Get my hands on it? I gouged it out with my bare hand.

"I came across it on the road."

Chen Ying did not tell the truth. There was no need to tell this old ghost too much truth.

"Parts of a ghost body are easy to find here, but outside, you can only come across them by chance."

The Ghost Appraiser explained, "It's easy to pluck one out in this Ghost Market, because the rule here is 'trade.' Outside, though, these things represent the very essence of those evil entities."

"So even evil entities can't see if they lose their eyes?"

"There are different kinds of losing. Normally, if you destroy its eye, it'll grow another on its own. This is different. This one was 'cut' off."

"Cut?"

"Unless you have extremely advanced mystic arts, you'd need a divine weapon, or even a magical artifact, to cut this thing away from an evil entity's very essence..."

Mystic arts, or a divine weapon?

Chen Ying knew that he had only managed all this thanks to the pure baleful qi within him.

Where exactly did this baleful qi come from?

The baleful qi in his body was a byproduct of his transmigration. Mr. Wen had said this was common, and that many fierce generals in ancient times had been born with it. But now it seemed it might not be so simple.

Even if he had been born with it, there was still something he could do with it.

"Malice this pure. Tsk, tsk..."

The Ghost Appraiser looked at the eye on the table.

"Want me to swap it in for you? Don't worry, I won't charge you. All I want is your current left eye."

My left eye?

This old ghost really was no good. Ever since that vicious fight with the red-clad ghost child, when the baleful qi entered his left eye, Chen Ying had felt that his left eye was exceptionally keen.

It seemed the Ghost Appraiser had noticed too.

Chen Ying shook his head.

"No need."

"Are you sure you won't try it? With this eye fitted, not only will your vision be sharper, you'll be able to see ghosts in broad daylight. I guarantee that one glare from you will leave a living person dazed and slow an evil entity down considerably."

As he spoke, the Ghost Appraiser looked Chen Ying up and down. "Couple that with your divine weapon that can cut ghosts, and what evil entity could stand against you?"

"How much would you offer if I pawned it here, sir?"

"Your left eye, or this eye? Five sheets of paper money for your left eye. As for this eye, fifteen."

The Ghost Appraiser said.

"Thank you for clearing things up, sir."

Chen Ying put away the eyeball on the table.

"What?"

The Ghost Appraiser looked at Chen Ying, the green flames inside his skull flickering.

"I'll try my luck farther in."

Chen Ying stood up.

"I'll come back and discuss it with you in detail later."

"You little brat."

The Ghost Appraiser sounded somewhat angry. "Did you come here just to toy with me?"

"My business sense is lacking. Please bear with me, sir."

The compass in his sleeve had not pointed toward this pawnshop, but deeper inside. Chen Ying had only come in to probe for information.

Now that he had the information, there was no point in staying.

Besides, this Ghost Appraiser was hardly a good ghost or a good person.

More importantly, once he placed the Ghost Eye on the table and began discussing business, the compass needle inside his sleeve had started spinning wildly.

This meant that the Ghost Eye was also part of obtaining "what I need most right now."

The compass was not pointing toward a particular object in the Ghost Market. It was pointing toward a transaction.

And that transaction depended on his possession of the Ghost Eye.

Once he traded away the Ghost Eye, the prerequisite for the transaction would no longer be met, and the compass would point toward other possibilities instead.

According to the way the compass worked, its other choices were clearly the next-best solutions in logical terms.

And the Ghost Eye was a prerequisite for the optimal solution.

Chen Ying apologized to the Ghost Appraiser again and walked into the Ghost Market's dense mist.

The compass kept pointing the way from inside his sleeve as Chen Ying passed stall after stall in the Ghost Market.

A girl with little flower-decorated braids skipped past him, chewing on a finger wearing an emerald ring.

An old woman in hemp clothing squatted on the ground, the basket in her arms filled with scalps trailing black hair.

Human faces lay spread across the ground. A butcher with a brutish face surveyed passing customers with empty eye sockets...

Everything in the Ghost Market was this oppressive and sinister.

The compass needle pointed forward. Chen Ying had no idea how long he walked before finally reaching the edge of the Ghost Market.

The dense mist thinned ahead. In the distance, he could faintly make out a barren hill covered in graves. At the end of the mist was a bus stop, where a minibus had been parked for who knew how long.

Do I have to get on that minibus?

While Chen Ying hesitated, the compass needle swung to one side.

A tall male corpse stood there.

He wore an old-fashioned silk outfit, his white shirt trimmed with lace, black boots beneath his tight trousers. His tawny hair floated in the air like seaweed.

The male corpse seemed to have suffered horrific torture before his death. Not a single patch of intact skin remained on his face. Not only had his entire face been flayed, but wounds deep enough to expose bone twisted across his head.

His right hand was gone, and only the index finger and thumb remained on his left. Beneath his shirt was a huge cavity.

His internal organs had also been taken.

The male corpse paced slowly forward. He pointed a finger at Chen Ying, then took a roll of paper that seemed to be made of human skin from his pocket.

The compass responded to it.

Its needle trembled as it pointed toward the yellowed, shriveled, wrinkled paper covered in floating red script.

Chen Ying took the Ghost Eye from his pocket and held it out.

The male corpse likewise held out the Human Skin Paper.

The transaction was complete.

With a click, the compass needle fell off the box.

The male corpse picked up the Ghost Eye and gently tucked it into his left eye socket.

At first, it did not quite fit, and the eyeball swiveled wildly in the socket, but he soon reached up and fixed it in place.

The male corpse opened his mouth, devoid of both upper and lower lips, and forced out a smile.

Chen Ying, meanwhile, unrolled the yellowed paper.

The red characters on the scroll leaped as though alive...

"I, Solomon, the Third Monarch, record here my covenant with you Seventy-Two Pillars..."