Chapter 40 - 32 Life Span

Chapter 40: Chapter 32 Life SpanWearing a human skin mask, Li Yi rushed out of the courtyard and quickly made his way through the alleyways based on his memory. He impulsively left for two reasons, the first was not wanting his master, Zhao Ge, to delay buying medicine for treating his illness because of teaching him Practice Boxing, and the second was his desire to find a way to leave Ghost Street. "The route is correct, it seems that nothing has changed here." Li Yi took lefts and rights, and soon he was out of the alleys and back onto that eerie, uncanny street. Going to and fro were various terrifying ghosts and people in ghostly shrouds, resembling a special area where yin and yang converge, inhabited both by wandering lost souls from the underworld and living people disguised as the deceased, with no one able to discern whether the things appearing on Ghost Street were from here or somewhere else. Just like Li Yi, who although lived in a modern city, had encountered Zhao Ge, a martial artist from ancient times. Was it an illusion? Or a collision between reality and the Otherworld? Li Yi didn’t know, his only thought now was to buy the medicine for his master to repay him for saving his life and teaching him martial arts, and then to leave here alive and return to Tianchang City. Looking around. The ends of Ghost Street were engulfed in mist and completely obscured, with no clue where they led or what lay beyond. "I should head in the direction I came from; maybe then I’ll have a chance to find a way out," Li Yi thought to himself. Just as he had taken a step and prepared to move, a hurried set of footsteps suddenly sounded from behind him, Zhao Ge’s daughter, Zhao Qian, now dressed like a paper effigy girl, hurriedly caught up to him. "Brother Yi, you don’t know the medicine, let me go with you," whispered Zhao Qian cautiously. "It’s too dangerous. You should stay with Master. I can manage on my own. I was originally looking for a way home anyway. If you get lost on Ghost Street, that would be the end," Li Yi tried to persuade Zhao Qian to go back, intending to venture out alone. Zhao Qian responded, "Father’s illness also started because of me. If I do not exert effort and fulfill my filial duties, I will sure live in regret. Brother Yi has been an apprentice for just one day, yet is willing to risk his life. Could it be that after Father raised me for more than a decade, I should not think of repaying him? Wouldn’t that make me no different from a beast?" "Brother Yi, let’s not argue anymore, let’s move together." Seeing this, Li Yi didn’t try to persuade her any further and just nodded, "Okay, then we’ll act together, but let’s be careful about everything." "Hmm," Zhao Qian replied softly. Right away, the two of them walked into Ghost Street, then slowly proceeded forward amidst the eerie crowd on both sides of the street. "We only have two hours; once the time is up, we must return to the courtyard we just left, so we can’t go too far," Zhao Qian reminded in a low voice. But as soon as she spoke, the breath of a living person escaped her mouth, immediately drawing the attention of some nearby ghosts. Li Yi remembered the scene when his master, Zhao Ge, had saved him before, and he quickly covered Zhao Qian’s mouth and nose, then hushed her. Zhao Qian quickly caught on and held her breath concentratingly. Seeing the distant cold eyes that had been watching creep away, she breathed a slight sigh of relief. "It’s truly dangerous, let’s get out of here quickly so we aren’t targeted," Li Yi said as he let go of his hand and then quickly pulled Zhao Qian away from the area. Zhao Qian, seeing Li Yi holding her hand, blushed, a touch of shyness washing over her. However, Li Yi didn’t pay much attention to that as he pulled Zhao Qian along the bizarre and peculiar street, his eyes alert behind the mask. "The medicine Master Zhao Ge is looking for is called Coffin Ganoderma, which sounds like a special type of Lingzhi. Since it’s a medicine, it must be sold in a drugstore or possibly hawked by roadside vendors, so I need to look in that direction rather than wandering aimlessly in the street," he muttered. Although he was largely ignorant about many things here, he could still grasp some concepts. After walking for a while, soon, Li Yi stopped when he crossed a junction, a particular street coming into view. This street was bustling too, with people coming and going, and on both sides, some peculiar vendors were selling all kinds of goods, and from his observation, he noticed that although the people on this street looked eerie and uncanny, they, like Zhao Ge and Zhao Qian, were living people who had entered here by some means. "Let’s search inside, this place seems to be a market," Li Yi didn’t hesitate and dove right into this unknown street. His arrival immediately attracted the attention of numerous vendors. Despite Li Yi wearing a human skin mask, this disguise was only good for fooling less intelligent ghosts; it was obvious to any living person that Li Yi was normal. "Where did this greenhorn come from? Such crude disguising tactics, isn’t he afraid of being targeted by some fierce ghosts and ghost soldiers?" many vendors gave him strange looks. But Li Yi was fearless out of ignorance, whispering, "I’m not familiar with Coffin Ganoderma, Miss Zhao, keep your eyes peeled and see if it’s available at any of these stalls, we need to find it quickly." "Sure, Brother Yi," replied Zhao Qian with a slight nod. The two of them began their rapid search. In this place, Li Yi saw many bizarre items, neatly arranged human skulls, and some strange creatures’ limbs, and he even saw some paper figurines, paper clothes, and most outrageously, some were even publicly selling fresh corpses by the roadside. "Truly, anything is up for sale here," he thought, astonished, feeling as if he had stumbled into an unknown and illicit black market.