Donghuang Ziji

Chapter 629: Fair Market

Under the gloomy sky, countless gray-black mists rose, and the desolate land was covered with dark brown soaked in blood. The forces of ominousness, darkness, terror, withering, etc. took shape again.

Taoist Zhijing, who was leading the way, kept warning his companions behind him: "The concentration of negative energy in the environment around us is obviously abnormal. This means that there are certain beings around us that are influencing the surrounding environment and making it more orderly. But don't think that this is safe. In this environment, some dangerous things will use order to disguise themselves. So don't touch things you don't understand, don't try to understand, don't... Damn it!"

Halfway through the conversation, a young man became curious about an unusually thriving and twisted flower he saw nearby and wanted to touch it.

He hurried forward, raised his hand and cut off the young man's palm that was touching the flower. In an instant, the arm that fell to the ground began to turn into wood, and then a smaller, abnormally strong and twisted flower grew out of it.

But the young man seemed to feel nothing at all and was still thinking about moving forward and making contact.

Upon seeing this scene, Taoist Zhijing acted decisively and cut off the young man's head, shaving off half of the flesh and blood, revealing the brain with twisted roots growing inside.

"Oh no, this guy has been contaminated. We must quickly use the power of the Supreme Saint."

Taoist Lao Zhijing was also horrified when he saw this scene, and hurriedly began to chant the precious edict belonging to Chu Tai. As the words echoed, an illusory feather rose from the brain of the young man whose half head had been cut off, suppressing the growth of the roots. Then the young man's flesh and blood began to swell abnormally.

The madly growing flesh and blood devoured the roots. The roots, which were originally twisted, gradually began to show patterns like a twisted and desperate human face, but soon, blood seeped out of them, apparently unable to digest the constantly growing flesh and blood.

When the flesh and blood took over, these roots became the nutrients for the young man's rebirth. As the twisted flesh and blood expanded, contracted, and reorganized, he shook his head, took two steps back, and said, "This thing is very strange. Everyone who sees it has been pollinated. Once in close contact with it, the pollination will turn into seeds and begin to reproduce in the body. You'd better check the changes in your body as well."

Hearing this, the people around started to clean up the subtle changes in their bodies. Taoist Zhijing, who was doing the same thing, couldn't help but admire Chu Tai's ability even more after noticing the problem in his body.

He and these people practiced the quick-learning method that Chu Tai tailored for them, which could transform their own blood, flesh and essence, and mix the two qi of life and death to refine a different kind of true qi. This method was very suitable for them, and with the feather protection given by Chu Tai, they could change their physical tissues at will, such as growing wings, growing whips, and regenerating broken limbs, etc. When necessary, they could also release their blood and flesh, let it grow wildly, devour all abnormal things produced in the body, and then change back little by little.

Just these abilities are enough to allow people to deal with many dangers, not to mention that the truly exquisite ability of the feathers is actually an ability called [Corpse Transmigration], which allows them to abandon their physical bodies when necessary, leaving all the pollution and influences on themselves in the physical body, allowing the essence to disintegrate under the protection of the feathers and be reborn in the earthen platform and blood fetus.

It is precisely because of this ability guarantee that Master Zhijing and his apprentice have the courage to lead these people to continue to explore in depth.

Of course, this kind of protection also comes at a price. The quick method has very little effect on improving one's mind. If it weren't for the protection of the feather, the young man would have been swallowed up by the distorted essence of the flower the moment he came into contact with it, and would have been uncontrollably heading towards decline and extinction.

The protection of the feather relies on Chu Tai's power. Taking the young man as an example, the feather he was granted has consumed most of the stored power after previous use. If he wants to continue to use it normally, in addition to praying to Chu Tai regularly and converting the corresponding energy through offerings of human spiritual energy, he can only obtain it by practicing the oath he made before Chu Tai.

Therefore, after everyone was sure that there was no problem, they stood together again and held a small ceremony to pray for Chu Tai's blessing.

"Okay, now we have to move forward. During this time, we need to be more careful and not waste too much energy like we did before."

After saying that, Taoist Lao Zhijing was about to get up and move forward with everyone, but the sky ahead was suddenly covered with dark clouds, as powerful as raging waves, as if a pair of invisible hands gathered the surrounding dark clouds together, forcing them to rush in one direction.

Then there was a very horrifying wailing sound. The sound was very strange, as if countless sharp and strange sounds overlapped together. It was obviously an extremely chaotic and complex interweaving, but it gave people a sense of rhythm with ups and downs, disordered and orderly changes. The people who just heard the sound had their flesh and blood distorted, and their granulation tissue began to grow and wriggle.

Master and disciple Zhi Jing immediately realized that something was wrong, and they sat down cross-legged. Their arms turned into flesh and blood and pierced into the bodies of the people around them, controlling them to make hand gestures and recite the precious edict together, begging Chu Tai for help.

Chu Tai, who had just been given a little help from a distance through the power of incense and vows, felt the power falling again. He showed a slightly strange expression and turned to look at the position of Zhi Jing and his disciple. Based on their position, he felt the emergence of a force.

"What is this?"

Chu Tai stood up and looked down through the void. The shadows of feathers appeared on the bodies of Master Zhijing and his disciple, and then flesh and blood began to grow. An eyeball fell from the cracked flesh and blood, and floated in the air, making it convenient for Chu Tai to observe the surroundings with the help of this eyeball.

In Chu Tai's eyes, the rolling dark clouds were filled with misery, chaos, and negative forces. In the seemingly disordered gaps in the dark clouds, there were painful and distorted faces made of mist.

Furthermore, these faces kept changing, trying to assume Chu Tai's appearance, thereby seizing Chu Tai's image and concepts, and turning them into a force for him to survive under the shadow of the unspeakable.

As Chu Tai's power fell, the eyeball suspended in the air continued to change. Wriggling granulations appeared around it, and small eyeballs also grew on it, staring at that direction together.

Through the dark clouds and mist, Chu Tai saw a strange creature, which was somewhat similar to an overweight, fleshy humanoid monster. It opened its mouth wide and waved its seven arms, tearing and swallowing the mist. Its dark skin seemed like old bark covered with bumps, with layers of wrinkles superimposed on each other, and as its body swayed, it shook off dirty liquid.

And when the human face in the mist tore its skin, sharp and dirty teeth would grow in the wrinkles, like a big mouth, swallowing the gathering mist.

"Wow wow wow..."

The sound that Master Zhijing and his disciples heard earlier was the sound of the monster shaking its "fat" and the collision of skin against skin. The impact and shock was enough to kill most of the sixth-rank cultivators. It was not something that Master Zhijing and his disciples could contend with at the moment, so he made a prompt decision and asked Master Zhijing and his disciples to leave.

When this order was given, the eyeball was instantly blinded, and wisps of mist flowed out from the pierced wound, quickly covering everyone's body, obscuring their breath and image, making it easier for them to leave the area.

At the same time, Chu Tai was also judging the distance between the monster and his own position, so as to ask Zhi Jing and his apprentice not to come back directly to prevent them from bringing the monster's breath back directly.

"Go to another piece of land on the right."

This was the rare peaceful and undisturbed place that Chu Tai had seen when he was observing the battle. It was also the place that looked the most orderly and was worth exploring.

Zhijing and his disciples naturally would not refuse Chu Tai's request. Under the protection of the mist, they quickly headed in that direction, but were surprised to find that this was a market. Zhijing and his disciples, who did not enter directly, led everyone to pray to Chu Tai again. Zhijing Taoist's flesh and blood grew again, and a new eyeball was born, but it was much smaller than the previous one. After it was formed, it swallowed the remaining mist around it and looked at the bustling market with a hint of surprise.

Above this market, Chu Tai felt several familiar auras, but upon closer inspection, these auras did not seem to be the ones he remembered. After thinking about it, he asked Master Zhijing and his disciple to go in and take a look first.

But when the few people walked to the gate, two huge heads emerged from the wall and laughed at everyone: "Welcome to the Fair Market. Everything is fair trade here. Anyone who wants anything must uphold the concept of fairness. But if you want to enter, you need to pay."

"Only after paying can you enter the Fair Market. Everything here is a fair trade. Anyone who wants anything must uphold the concept of fairness."

Similar words came out from the mouths of the two people on the wall. The voices overlapped and carried some kind of coercive force. Master Zhijing and his disciple wanted to speak, but were blocked by Chu Tai's power.

'Ignore them and go in!'

Master Zhijing and his apprentice walked forward obediently, and the head beside them suddenly became furious: "If you want to go in, you need to pay! (You can only go in after you pay!)"

The overlapping sounds were filled with an absolute sense of oppression. Master Zhijing and his disciple were better off, as they had sufficient mental cultivation and the protection of the feathers.

But the same could not be said for the people who were accompanying them, especially the young man who was in a daze. Chu Tai realized something was wrong and asked Taoist Zhijing to separate his flesh and blood, pierce into the young man's body, and pull him forward.

The sounds of the two heads became louder and louder, and the void around them even began to distort, making it difficult for Zhijing and others to move forward. At the same time, they were also trying to sever the flesh and blood connection between Zhijing and the young man.

But when Zhi Jing entered, the connection between his flesh and blood was severed by a great force, and the two heads spoke at the same time: "If you want to go in, you need to pay! (You can only go in after you pay!)"

The powerful sound waves pierced the young man's ears directly, and he wailed, "I will pay!"

The two heads laughed loudly, each sticking out a tongue full of teeth, rolling down the young man's hands and tearing them apart.

As the flesh and blood disappeared, Chu Tai could see that the concept of the young man's arms was also devoured.

He asked Taoist Zhijing, "Does it cost money to enter here? Can this still be considered a fair trade? You took his hands, but what did you pay for them?"

"He hasn't entered the market yet, so..."

Before the two heads could finish their words, Taoist Zhijing raised his hand, and a long blood vessel on his hand connected to the young man's body.

Then Taoist Zhijing was heard asking again, saying that he and others had already paid and demanded full access to the market.

This time, many people at the gate smiled strangely and looked at the heads on both sides of the gate.

The next moment, countless mottled chains fell from the void, and with the wailing of the two heads, two things similar to flesh and blood seals were torn from their bodies and fell into the hands of Taoist Zhijing. Afterwards, the heads were continuously torn apart, various things were exchanged, and two more things similar to flesh and blood seals appeared and fell into the hands of Zhijing's companions.

"Oh my, these two guys have screwed so many people, and now they have come to this. Boy, are you interested in selling the blood and flesh seal in your hand? Oh, and are you interested in selling the disabled companion beside you? His liver, facial features, senses, and flesh are all top-quality materials and can be sold for a lot of money."

A man standing by the gate spoke up. In Chu Tai's opinion, it was hard to describe this man as a human. He did not have a complete human form, but was more like a human form made up of all kinds of messy things. He waved some broken pieces in his hands and looked at Zhi Jing Taoist: "For one of his eyeballs, I am willing to give three large pieces of broken essence!"

"Tsk, if you don't have money, don't pretend to be rich. I'm willing to pay three sperms for an eyeball!"

"I'd like to add two big pieces of broken sperm to the three sperms!"

As the prices kept being bid, it seemed as if Taoist Zhijing had agreed to sell out his companions.

"Don't pay any attention to them, we will go straight inside."

When Chu Tai saw this market, he had basically understood the concept of this market. When he obtained the four flesh and blood seals, he was even more certain of the power and attributes here. He asked Taoist Zhijing to connect the flesh and blood of everyone together, and then he walked into the market holding the flesh and blood seals.

Along the way, everyone showed fearful expressions when they saw this scene, but in the end they did not stop them too much and allowed Taoist Zhijing and his party to come to the deepest part of the market, where there stood a huge cage with densely packed mottled chains wrapped around it, and on each chain hung something, including people, monsters, flesh and blood, organs, and even some things that were close to concepts.

At a glance, Chu Tai saw the arms that had been taken away from the young man, as well as some things that had been torn off from the two heads.

At this moment, these things are hanging on chains, waiting for people to buy them.

Chu Tai asked Taoist Zhijing to step forward and chose the young man's stolen arm. The chains around it moved happily, and the cage twisted, forming something similar to a mouth and eyes. He looked at Taoist Zhijing and said, "I was surprised before, and always felt that something extraordinary seemed to have come. I didn't expect that there really was a fellow Taoist here..."

"Why, are you just going to stay on this little thing forever?"

The cage stared at Taoist Zhijing, or rather, Chu Tai who was attached to him.

(End of this chapter)