The boat was docked at the pier, and the sturdy hemp rope was tied to the boat at one end, and the other end was thrown ashore and fastened to a wooden stake. The guests on the boat climbed the hemp rope and went ashore one after another.

On the shore stood a line of men, wearing miserable white masks, two bright blush on their cheeks, and holding a gong in their hands. Everyone who went ashore consciously took out a copper coin and threw it into the gong to make a "dang" sound.

Bai Ziche stuffed a copper coin into Chu Zhixia's hand.

Chu Zhixia understood with a touch of his fingertips that this was a copper coin with the same engraving on both sides.

The copper coins that were smelted and minted were supposed to be destroyed together, but they were used as the keys to entry and exit in the ghost market.

"Look at that step," Bai Ziche whispered, "ordinary people are unstable in stepping on it, and they must climb it with the help of a rope." If someone used a fake copper coin, the rope would be cut and the person would be thrown into the water. ”

The steps were sloping, the edges were polished smooth, and there was an unknown layer of stuff on them, shiny and shiny. There were no handrails on either side of the steps, only a rope leading into the darkness on the shore.

"Fake copper coins are real here, real copper coins are fake here." Chu Zhixia snorted, "Yin and yang are reversed, black and white are confused, and the ghost market really lives up to its name." ”

As soon as the words fell, there was a scream in front of him.

The broken hemp rope fell into the water with a "plop", and a human figure rolled into it along with it.

The masked man's sharp and thin fingers grabbed the copper coin and threw it into the strength, and the sharp voice announced loudly: "Holding the living money, don't enter the Huangquan Road!" Don't enter Huangquan Road! ”

"Oops." Bai Ziche frowned and said, "There is a person on this ship, and the whole boat can't dock." ”

But if you wait for the next boat, it's not how much time you have to wait.

"Your Highness take hold of me." Chu Zhixia said.

"What-"

Before Bai Ziche's words fell, Chu Zhixia grabbed his arm and flew to the shore. The boat just swung gently in the water, and the two landed firmly behind the masked man.

The masked man's eyes widened, and he was about to scream, when Chu Zhixia flicked his fingers, and the two copper coins hit the gong with a bang.

"Shhhh Chu Zhixia put a finger in front of his lips, a smile appeared at the corner of his eyes, but his tone was full of threats, "Otherwise, the eldest lady will cut your tongue." ”

The masked man swallowed the cry into his stomach, rolled his eyes to check that the copper coin was correct, obediently handed over a lamp, and got out of the way.

It is a small bronze lamp made in the shape of a fat white child holding a carp in its arms, and the fish has a spoonful of lamp oil in its belly. Chu Zhixia took the lamp, only to feel that it was fishy, and the lamp was also slimy.

The masked man looked at her directly, and said mechanically: "Without a light to guide the way, it is difficult to get out of the ghost market." ”

Chu Zhixia showed a polite smile at this thing that didn't know if it was dead or alive, grabbed Bai Ziche and turned around and walked towards the narrow staircase.

"This lamp oil stinks." Bai Ziche couldn't help but say.

"It's made from animal corpses." Chu Shixia pressed and didn't tell the truth, "Your Highness, don't stay too far away from me, it's dark here, if you get lost, I'm afraid I won't be able to find you." ”

The dim light snaked into the deep, narrow crevices of the masonry, so narrow that only one person could walk through. Chu Zhixia held the lamp, lowered his head and moved out of the cramped aisle little by little, and there was a row of ant-colony-like people floating in front of him.

After walking for a long time, my eyes opened up.

The houses on both sides of the street are not low, on the contrary, they are so high that it is difficult to catch a glimpse of the daylight, but they are crooked. Suspiciously colored curtains hung from the buildings, like dark clouds hanging overhead. The dense windows are like thousands of eyes, many open and few closed, watching the inside of this strange behemoth.

There are many stalls on the streets, and the stall owners are all hiding under the heavy hoods, refusing to show even a finger. They curled up behind the stalls, like shrimp cooked over a fire, carefully scrutinizing everyone who passed by.

What was even more striking was the unrecognizable corpse unloaded from the donkey cart and dragged into a small workshop on the side of the street.

The plaque of the small workshop reads: "Lamp oil refining, not for sale".

Bai Ziche stumbled on the soles of his feet and looked at the lamp in Chu Zhixia's hand in horror.

Chu Zhixia said clearly: "It seems that the edict of the painting academy did not tell you the whole picture of this place. ”

She followed up with a sentence: "Your Highness, don't be afraid, I won't let you hold the lamp." ”

Bai Ziche calmed down with difficulty, and said with difficulty: "I'm not familiar with this either, how can we find the blood lotus?" ”

"How hard can it be to ask for directions?" Chu Zhixia tilted his head and pointed to the small workshop for refining lamp oil, "I'll go there and ask." ”

——

The front of the small workshop was sprinkled with a large amount of paper money, and the cold and damp air was scorched by the fire in the depths. The coffin, suspended from the chains, was placed in a place that could be seen as soon as you entered.

"Raise the 'coffin' to make a fortune, the boss is a good omen!" Chu Zhixia praised it familiarly, and naturally patted it on the coffin.

"Who are you?" The dwarf, who was only as tall as Chu Zhixia's waist, looked up at her, and his dark eyes were full of vigilance.

"Asking for directions." Chu Shixia said, "What about your boss?" ”

"Ask what way? Idlers and others are not allowed to enter here. The dwarf said in a vicious voice, "Don't get out of here yet!" ”

"Is there a place to sell medicine in this ghost market?" Chu Shixia asked politely and thoughtfully.

The dwarf said coldly: "Have you ever seen someone who prescribes medicine to a ghost to cure a disease?" ”

As the gnome's words fell, the busy people in the workshop raised their heads. They were tall, short, fat and thin, but they had one thing in common – their noses had all cut off. The light of the fire in the stove made their eyes shine like red-hot coals.

Chu Zhixia pressed one hand on Bai Ziche's chest and pushed him out of the door without refusal.

At the moment when Bai Ziche withdrew from the workshop, a red-hot soldering iron flew over in the air. Drinking the stream snow lightly, the soldering iron fell into the oil tank without landing, and the whole jar of oil burned violently.

The dwarf was so angry that he jumped three feet high, pointed at Chu Shixia and shouted, "Catch her!" ”

Chu Shixia turned his hand and threw the lamp in his hand to Bai Ziche, jumped up, grabbed the chain on the coffin and flew over the two workshop guys. More people poured out like ants in boiling water, crawling and beating her with burning sticks and shovels.

Chu Zhixia drew his sword with his backhand and cleanly cut the iron chain on the coffin.

The people below immediately scattered, rolling and crawling to dodge. The coffin fell heavily to the ground, kicking up a person-high smoke and dust, but it was very strong and did not fall apart.

"You're all coming back to me! How dare you run! The dwarf child scolded like a temper, "I'm going to dig out all your brains and carve them and give them to the ghost city lord!" ”

"You only give you a few dollars, and you want me to sell your life for you?"

I don't know who shouted like this, and almost made the dwarf sit on the ground with anger.

Chu Zhixia slowly stood up on the coffin, the dwarf smelled the smell of danger, and hurriedly wanted to slip away, but Chu Shixia lifted it up with his back collar.

"I'll ask one last time, where is there a blood lotus in the ghost market?" Chu Zhixia asked.

"I don't know!" The dwarf angrily folded his arms, and there was a kind of "what can you do with me" in it.

Chu Zhi Xia Wan'er smiled, hooked his toes and kicked open the lid of the coffin. The dwarf realized something and struggled to jump out of her grasp, but she slammed it into the coffin. The dwarf fell into the coffin, and before he could come to his senses, the coffin lid was smashed from the outside.

"Let me out, let me out!" The gnome screamed.

"Aren't you a ghost, and you're still afraid of sleeping in a coffin?" Chu Zhixia leaned on the coffin, a handful of iron nails in his hand, and his voice was crisp, "I have a very bad temper, since you don't know where to buy medicine in the ghost market, I have to let you be a ghost." ”

When the dwarf heard the sound of the iron nail knocking into the coffin, he was angry and anxious, and he lay in the coffin and greeted the eighteenth generation of Chu Zhixia's ancestors with the most filthy and filthy words, and both men and women were not spared.

"Guess what, your stove for refining lamp oil can fit into such a big coffin?" Chu Zhixia asked lazily.

"I say, I say!" The dwarf was so frightened by her that she cried, and said with tears in her eyes, "The people in the ghost market are all rotten, and if they get sick, they will die, and there is no one to sell medicine at all." But the blood lotus you are talking about, there is a ghost market! ”

"Where?"

"Eighteenth floor."

Chu Zhixia and Bai Ziche looked at each other, knocked on the coffin good-naturedly and asked, "What is the eighteenth floor?" ”

The dwarf scolded again: "You don't even know what the eighteenth floor is, and you dare to come to the ghost market to spread wild, aren't you afraid of death?" After he finished scolding, he was afraid that Chu Zhixia would burn him with a coffin, so he hurriedly said, "The eighteenth floor is the territory of the ghost city lord, taking the meaning of 'eighteen layers of hell', everything is sold there, and of course the blood lotus is not a problem." ”

"Okay, got it, thank you boss for showing you the way." Chu Zhixia patted the coffin twice, chatted with thanks, and was about to leave with his feet raised.

The dwarf shouted, "You'd better let me out!" ”

"I can't let you out, in case you lie to me, who will I come back to settle the score?" Chu Zhixia waved his hand, "You honestly stay inside." ”

The gnome erupted into a barrage of foul words, kicking and punching in the coffin.

——

The eighteenth floor is not difficult to find, and the tallest and most gorgeous building in the ghost city center is. The pavilion hangs down the couplet with red characters on a white background, the upper one is "the land without the sun, the moon and the sky", and the lower one is "the person who does not die, does not live and does not laugh".

In the dimly lit ghost market, lanterns hang around the eighteenth floor, not like hell, but as bright as the sun falling here.

"Miss Chu, how do you know that the dwarf is the boss?" Bai Ziche asked curiously.

"He's dressed about the same as everyone else, but his shoes are silk." Chu Zhixia said casually, "Ordinary people can't afford to wear such shoes, they are expensive and easy to wear out, unless he is not short of money and does not have to do heavy work." ”

Bai Ziche vigorously wiped Fang Cai's hand holding the lamp on the handkerchief, and asked again: "Then how can you be sure, he must know the whereabouts of the blood lotus?" ”

"The ghost market leads the way with lights, if the entire ghost market uses his lamp oil, then he must be familiar with the owner of the ghost market." Chu Zhixia handed the hand that had held the lamp in front of Bai Ziche, with a faint smell between his slender and white fingers.

"Moreover, there is a mint smell in this lamp oil. Just imagine, how can a workshop that refines a large amount of lamp oil every day and how much mint it uses, how can it be impossible not to know where there are medicinal materials in the ghost market? ”