It was almost dusk, Han Qing drove the carriage and walked on the desolate post road, looking around, there was not a single family in sight on the wild field, there were a few wild wolf cries in the distance, and a few old crows flew overhead from time to time.

Duan Feng looked at the desolate scenery outside the window, thinking about his comfortable and carefree days, and his heart was infinitely desolate and emotional.

Looking at these friends next to him who were forced to give up a stable life and flee because of themselves, Duan Feng felt more self-blame and guilt in his heart.

Suddenly, the carriage slowly stopped, pulling Duan Feng back from his reverie, and during his doubts, Han Qing opened the door curtain and said, "There is a town in front, it's getting dark, let's rest here for the night, right?"

Duan Feng looked ahead, and a town not far away was impressively across the vast field, slightly abrupt, but looking far away, there were no other town shops to settle in.

"Thank you Brother Han. ”

Han Qing smiled slightly, urged the horse forward, and walked quickly in the direction of the town.

From the outside, the whole town was very quiet, there was no one outside, only a rough path, just enough for a carriage or two.

"At this time, it's dinner time, and there is not a trace of cooking smoke in the town?" Han Qing said suspiciously.

"It's really strange, everyone be careful!" Duan Feng's many days of running and fleeing made Duan Feng have a certain sensitivity to danger, so he reminded him backwards.

Hearing the conversation between the two, Liu Yuwei and the others sat up straight and looked out of the car vigilantly.

The carriage drove slowly into the town, and it stands to reason that there would be an archway at the entrance of a town like this with the name of the town written on it, but there was nothing at the entrance of this town, not even a stone tablet with the name of the town, and the whole town seemed to fall out of thin air on the desolate field.

The horse-drawn carriages walked slowly through the streets of the town, the shops on both sides of the street were closed, and there was no one on the street, and the whole town was like an empty city.

A cool breeze blows, sweeping the rolling leaves on the street, where does such a cold wind come from in this season?

Han Qing felt that something was not right, and put his right hand on the sword at his waist, reminding everyone to be careful.

While everyone was walking cautiously down the street, they suddenly noticed that there was an inn in front of them with lights on, and the sun seemed to have set, and the whole town was shrouded in a layer of ash.

The lights in the store were particularly dazzling in the dark town, and Han Qing and the others carefully walked into the inn, where the tables, chairs and benches were neatly arranged, but there was no one inside.

Just when everyone was surprised, a person suddenly stood up from the counter, not tall, wearing a bowler knitted hat, a snow-white towel on his shoulder, and his face was crowded with smiles that only the shopkeeper would have.

"A few guest officers, do you still live in a hotel?"

Listening to Xiao Er's tone, Han Qing concluded that it was indeed a human race, even though it was very strange outside, but judging from Xiao Er's look, at least the store should be safe.

"Stay. Han Qing replied.

"Okay! A few guest officers, please come with me!" the shopkeeper shook the towel on his shoulder and walked in front of a few people.

On the way, Han Qing heard the sound of talking from the guest room next to him, there was no light in the room, and the voice was very low, but it was indeed a human voice, so Han Qing was relieved.

Although everyone had a lot of questions, they were tired and hungry after a day's journey, so they told Xiao Er to hurry up and prepare some meals.

Xiao Er enthusiastically led everyone to the second floor and opened three rooms, one for Han Qing and Duan Feng, one for Su Yanjun and Liu Yuwei, and one for Du Tong.

After settling everyone down, without staying too long, Xiao Er walked down the room to prepare the meal.

A few people entered the room, at this time a very ordinary inn room, there was a bed in it, very old, the bedding on the bed was also very shabby, but it was still clean and had no smell.

In the middle of the room was a broken table, one of which had a broken leg and was tied with sticks and ropes, and on which lay several teacups and a teapot without a mouth.

Han Qing looked around and found that there was no stool in the room, so he wanted to go downstairs to find Xiao Er to ask for a stool, at this time Liu Yuwei and others happened to come to Han Qing's room, and it turned out that there were no stools in the rooms of several people.

"This shop is too stingy, even if the furniture is shabby, why don't you even have a stool. Liu Yu complained slightly.

At this time, the shopkeeper happened to come up with a plate of food. Liu Yuwei grabbed Xiao Er and asked, "Don't you have a better room in your store?"

Xiao Er replied with a smile: "These rooms are already the best in the store." ”

"Is your town very poor?" Han Qing asked.

Xiao Er said: "This ······ Sometimes it's poor, sometimes it's not poor. ”

Xiao Er's words aroused Han Qing's curiosity and asked, "What do you mean by this?"

The shopkeeper didn't answer, he put the food on the table directly, and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, don't ask more, let's eat quickly, rest quickly after eating, don't light the lights at night, and don't run around." ”

Xiao Er's words aroused Han Qing's curiosity even more, and he wanted to continue to ask, but the shopkeeper prevaricated in a trance, and Han Qing saw that Xiao Er seemed to have something unspeakable, so he didn't continue to ask.

Liu Yuwei said: "Xiao Er, you move a few chairs up, how can we eat without chairs, we can't always eat standing up, right?"

Xiao Er said: "This young lady, you have to eat standing up, there are no chairs in this store." ”

When Liu Yuwei heard this, he said angrily: "What is this, how can the innkeeper not have a chair?"

Duan Feng then remembered that when he was downstairs just now, he saw a few tables in the living room on the first floor, and a few benches neatly placed in the corners.

"Don't be angry, this young lady, at this time, the rules of this store, when you eat in this restaurant, you have to stand, and you can also squat. Xiao Er said.

When Liu Yuwei heard this, he was stopped by Duan Feng just as he wanted to get angry.

Xiao Er went downstairs, everyone went back to the room to eat, and several people were standing or squatting, and they had dinner together.

I was about to ask Xiao Er to come up and clean up my things, when I suddenly heard a lively downstairs, shouting and fist fighting.

A few people went out to see that the downstairs, which was still deserted just now, was full of guests at this time, and the important thing was that the people downstairs were all sitting and eating.

Liu Yuwei was immediately furious when he saw it, and scolded: "This shopkeeper is simply too deceitful, there is obviously a chair here, and he was stunned to say no." ”

Liu Yuwei wanted to go out to find Xiao Er's theory, but was stopped by Han Qing, Han Qing motioned for everyone to look down, everyone stretched out their heads to look down, and found that there seemed to be something wrong with the guests downstairs.

Before each meal, they would throw some of the food on their plates on the ground, and then eat it, and they would also sprinkle a little of it on the ground when they drank, as if they were paying tribute to someone.

"Could it be that someone is holding a funeral here?" Han Qing wondered.

"No, how can anyone be so happy when they have a funeral?" Su Yanjun pointed to a table of guests who were making fists.

"Isn't it a custom here?" Liu Yu said after calming down slightly.

Everyone was very puzzled after seeing it, and it happened that the shopkeeper saw them downstairs, and his face changed greatly, as if he saw a ghost, so he hurriedly ran upstairs, pushed a few people into the house, closed the door and whispered: "Why did you come out, didn't you tell you not to run around?"

Liu Yuwei said: "Didn't you say that you don't have chairs?

The shopkeeper said: "That's different, the chair downstairs, it's specially prepared for the guests downstairs, you don't have a chair." ”

Liu Yuwei became even more angry after hearing this, and said, "Why is this, just because we are outsiders?"

Xiao Er said: "This has nothing to do with the local and foreign places, didn't you notice that I don't have a chair?"

Duan Feng then remembered that when he entered the door, he didn't find that there were chairs in the counter, and besides, Xiao Er was squatting on the ground to rest just now.

Duan Feng asked, "What the hell is going on, what is this place?"

The shopkeeper couldn't screw everyone when he saw it, and he was worried that if he didn't tell everyone the truth, he didn't know what kind of mess would happen.

After hesitating for a moment, the shopkeeper said: "I look at your dress, it seems that you are also from the rivers and lakes, and you must have seen the world, so it doesn't hurt to tell you." ”

When Duan Feng heard this, he felt that this place was extraordinary, so he closed the door and several people found a spacious place to squat.

The shopkeeper lowered his voice and said, "I wonder if you've heard of the 'ghost market'?"

"Ghost City?"

When Han Qing heard this, he immediately remembered that he had heard of this place before.

The so-called ghost market is a market where you can trade with ghosts. The ghost market is generally located at the junction of yin and yang, which is the place where the two worlds of yin and yang trade, and the ghost merchants who enter and exit here are generally ghosts and the human world, and the ghosts are responsible for bringing the goods from the underworld to the ghost market and selling them to the ghost merchants of the human world in exchange for what they need.

Although the ghost market has always been forbidden by the heavenly realm and the human realm, because the ghost market is at the junction of yin and yang, and the junction is constantly changing, the ghost market will also continue to move with the changes at the junction, so few of the law enforcement officers of the heavenly realm and the human realm have touched here, so the ghost market has existed to this day.

Han Qing didn't expect that he would be able to encounter the legendary ghost market, and he was shocked and a little worried.

Legend has it that the ghost market is not located at the junction of yin and yang?

Han Qing thought for a while, impossible, according to the map, they should be on the road between Phoenix City and Baiye Island now, how could it be the junction of yin and yang? Han Qing couldn't figure it out, and Xiao Er couldn't give an answer.

According to the shopkeeper, every night here, it is the time when the ghost market opens, and at that time, except for the ghost merchants in the human world, the rest are ghosts. According to the rules of the ghost market, this is the territory of ghosts, and the human race cannot enter the ghost market without the consent of the ghost king.

In the ghost city, the identity of the ghost is higher than that of the human race, so the human race who comes to the ghost city has no right to sit on an equal footing with the ghost. Therefore, no inn here will have chairs for the Terrans. Terrans had to stand or squat if they wanted to eat.

As for the chair downstairs, it wasn't really a chair, it was a paper chair that ghosts could only sit on.

After listening to Xiao Er's words, Liu Yuwei dissipated her anger, but immediately became interested in the ghost market again, and asked, "What will the ghost market sell?"

Xiao Er said: "I don't know about this, because at night, I don't go out." According to the requirements of the Ghost King, only the Ghost Merchants who hold the token issued by the Ghost King can move freely in the Ghost Market. ”

After saying that, the shopkeeper walked downstairs, and everyone went back to their rooms, closed the doors and windows, and prepared to rest.

Liu Yuwei heard of the ghost market for the first time, how could she stay in the room? When it was quiet outside, Liu Yuwei secretly looked downstairs, and those "people" had already disappeared, so she quietly called Su Yanjun, and the two were ready to explore the ghost market at night together.