Movie variety show soul travels between two worlds to become a rich man

Chapter 681 Lighting Shop: Scholar Meets Soldier
Without taking out a powerful flashlight, Gao Dongxu casually walked down the dark corridor where a chilling wind was blowing.

A chilling wind, carrying the stench of decay, seemed to come from nowhere and swept through the narrow space, emitting a chilling wail.

His footsteps echoed eerily in the empty corridor, each step sounding as if he were stepping on someone else's footsteps.

Suddenly, Gao Dongxu found himself holding an eagle-headed cane. The silver eagle head gleamed with a cold, eerie light in the darkness, its sharp eyes seeming to scan the surrounding shadows.

Gao Dongxu casually twirled his cane, the cane making a faint hissing sound as it cut through the air, like some creature whispering.

The corridor seemed endless, but he wasn't in a hurry at all. He walked along for about ten minutes, and suddenly, in a moment of disorientation, the surrounding environment had been completely transformed.

The pitch-black night pressed down heavily, and fine rain pierced the ground like countless silver needles. A deep alley suddenly appeared before us, the towering buildings on both sides looking even older in the rain.

A pale light, emanating from an unknown source, reflected the puddles on the ground like shattered mirrors, each puddle reflecting a distorted and warped world.

"Interesting." Gao Dongxu looked up at the pitch-black night sky without a single cloud, fine raindrops falling on his face.

The next moment, a totem spirit stone appeared in his hand, and white light spots emerged from his body, merging with the light spots emerging from the spirit stone, slowly solidifying into a half-meter-tall eagle on his arm.

Gao Dongxu suddenly raised his arm into the air, and the eagle was thrown high into the air. It flapped its wings lightly and flew into the sky in the drizzle.

"Wow—"

A high-pitched, clear cry of an eagle echoed throughout the rainy night.

All the hurried pedestrians, heads bowed and silently making their way home in the rainy night, regardless of age or gender, looked up at the sky with a bewildered curiosity.

When the eagles cried out, the male owner of a brightly lit shop that was operating normally in the dark rainy night stopped wiping his work, looked up at the street outside the glass door, and his eyes turned into lizard-like vertical pupils, as if he could see through the void.

The cry of an eagle also startled Xu Qin, who was shivering and huddled in a dark alley filled with discarded items.

At this moment, Xu Qin looked like a drowned rat, her hair hanging down and sticking to her pale face, constantly dripping water.

She was curled up under a large piece of cardboard, her clothes were soaked through, and she was shivering from the cold.

She didn't know how she got to this strange place. She had already packed her things in the lab and everything went smoothly until she got to the lab, but because the elevator was out of service, she had to continue down the stairs.

She unexpectedly ended up at the entrance of the morgue on the second basement level, which terrified her so much that she screamed and tried to run back to the first floor. Just as she turned and ran into the corridor, she heard hurried footsteps behind her, as if someone was chasing her.

This made her even more panicked. She ran forward desperately, only to find herself trapped in an endless loop, unable to find a way out.

Just as she was about to despair, the scene suddenly changed. Under the pitch-black night, a fine rain fell, striking the gray stone bricks with hollow echoes. The walls on both sides of the alley were mottled and damp, and mist drifted through the narrow alley, sometimes condensing into blurry human figures, and sometimes disappearing without a trace.

This frightened her so much that she dared not move, tears welling up in her beautiful eyes, and she covered her red lips tightly with her hands.

It wasn't until a gust of cold wind blew past that she shuddered, and in a panic, she took off her shoes and ran towards the alley entrance. Xu Qin didn't care about the pain in her feet, as she had already lost her shoes.

But no matter how far she ran, the end of the alley seemed to be forever swallowed by darkness, with no end in sight.

Finally exhausted from running, she gave up and hid in a corner of the alley next to a pile of cardboard boxes. She used a piece of cardboard to shield her head from the rain, curled up helplessly and shedding tears.

A cold gust of wind swept by, carrying a few rotten leaves that swirled in the air before finally settling into the puddles at her feet, as if pressed into the mud by some invisible force.

Da da da--

Wearing a black trench coat and holding an umbrella, Gao Dongxu walked towards the alley entrance, occasionally fiddling with the Ghost Seal in his other hand.

At this moment, the Ghost Seal began to emit a bright green light, like a greedy giant whale, frantically absorbing the pure yin and cold energy.

"Heh, I'd like to see how long you can hold out." Gao Dongxu smirked, a playful expression on his face.

He has gained a general understanding of the layout of this Yin-Yang boundary through the perspective of the eagle guardian spirit.

The entire boundary between Yin and Yang resembled the old city of Shanghai. Gao Dongxu guessed that this must be the old city, only in a different dimension.

What's most interesting is that this old town is like a big maze, mostly consisting of narrow alleys.

At the heart of the maze is a brightly lit lighting shop accessible from all the alleyways.

That's right, the store is called Lighting Shop. Gao Dongxu guessed that it was probably another movie he hadn't seen before. A lighting shop in the boundary between Yin and Yang? That must be a modern person's imagination, not the Yin-Yang boundary from mythology.

With that, Gao Dongxu breathed a huge sigh of relief, as long as it wasn't the underworld from mythology.

However, after walking in the alley for more than half an hour without getting out, he knew that he had been discovered and was being targeted.

Moreover, through the perspective of the eagle guardian spirit and his own speculation, he discovered that the flow of time here was very strange. In some places, the sun rises and sets, while in other places, there is only eternal cold and dampness.

Occasionally, a streetlamp would suddenly go out, then eerily light up again, as if some entity were silently adjusting the rules of this world. And the souls that lingered here had empty, moist eyes that reflected nothing but bottomless darkness.

Now that he had been discovered and targeted, Gao Dongxu was naturally not going to sit idly by and wait for his doom. Of course, without figuring out the other party's strengths and weaknesses, he was not going to simply rush in recklessly.

First, use politeness, then force the other party to meet you.

So he took out the Ghost Seal, intending to release a few Yin soldiers to explore and break through the barrier. Unexpectedly, as soon as he took out the Ghost Seal, it began to frantically absorb the surrounding Yin energy.

Gao Dongxu immediately smiled happily, for the yin energy here was undoubtedly a great tonic for the Ghost Seal.

At this moment, in the lighting store, the shop owner, who was standing behind the counter with glasses on his nose and some gray hair, twitched his lips a few times unnaturally. He reluctantly put down the lamp he was wiping, his eyes turned into vertical pupils as he looked ahead and sighed softly.

Holding an umbrella, Gao Dongxu strolled through the alley and saw the light at the alley entrance. He put away the Ghost Seal and the umbrella, his eagle staff appeared, he twirled it, and stepped out of the alley, appearing in front of the brightly lit lighting store.

Gao Dongxu smiled, casually tucked his cane under his arm, strode to the shop entrance, pushed open the door, and stepped into the warm, brightly lit shop, listening to the jingling doorbell.

Tsk——

Upon seeing the shop owner's celebrity lookalike, Gao Dongxu broke into a bright smile; it was indeed a scene from a movie or TV series.

"This is not a place for you—"

The shop owner looked at Gao Dongxu, who was smiling at him, and said indifferently, his lips twitching slightly.

"I know, but I have no choice. I have to come. A female student has gone missing, and I have to find her..."

Gao Dongxu smiled as he explained his reasons, but after he finished speaking, he and the shop owner looked at each other and both felt something was off.

Hmm, it sounds a lot like the excuse the Japanese invaded.

"...If you turn left after you go out, you'll find her in the alley. Just walk back the way you came, and you'll get out..."

The shop owner looked at Gao Dongxu with some apprehension and wariness. In the more than 30 years since he took over from the previous shop owner, this was the first time he had encountered an outsider who could make his heart pound.

Although he was an immortal being within this boundary between Yin and Yang, and could even control half of the rules, he still felt threatened by Gao Dongxu.

"No rush—" Gao Dongxu said with a smile to the shop owner.

The shop owner's lips twitched unnaturally as he silently watched Gao Dongxu, who was looking around nervously. Just as Gao Dongxu was about to touch a light bulb with a nearly extinguished filament, the owner stopped him, saying, "Don't touch it—"

Gao Dongxu's hand hovered in front of the light bulb, then he slowly withdrew it, turned around and looked at the shop owner with a mocking expression, saying, "They say that when a person dies, the light goes out. Does this mean that a person has died?"

The shop owner's pupils contracted slightly. He adjusted his glasses, picked up the velvet cloth from the counter, and continued meticulously wiping the lamps. He said calmly, "This isn't a place for you. You'd better leave..."

"Hehe, who said I shouldn't have come? Look, I'm nowhere to be seen—" At this moment, Gao Dongxu tapped his cane on the floor, his eyes gleaming, and teased the shop owner.

"Hey—what exactly do you want?" The shop owner looked helplessly at Gao Dongxu, who was standing in front of the counter, taking out a cigarette and a lighter, lighting the cigarette, and carelessly blowing smoke trails.

"I've come all this way, you should at least let me know, right? The Yin-Yang Realm, the Yin-Yang River... I never thought you'd use light bulbs to explain life. Interesting. I wonder if you have any of my light bulbs?" Gao Dongxu said, pulling a cigarette from his pack and gesturing to the shop owner.

"Thank you, I don't smoke..." After saying that, the shop owner couldn't help but twitch his lips, looking helplessly at Gao Dongxu's mocking smile, and said, "There's no need for your third wheel here."

Watching Gao Dongxu leaning on his cane and smoking, the shop owner knew that this tough nut to crack wouldn't leave without him saying something.

The shop owner wanted to throw Gao Dongxu out, but Gao Dongxu's ability to summon guardian spirits, spatial abilities, and the Ghost Seal that frantically absorbed yin energy forced him to be careful. In particular, the shop owner had tried to probe the cane Gao Dongxu was leaning on, but immediately felt a chilling and sharp edge, which frightened him so much that he quickly withdrew his divine sense.

(End of this chapter)