Chapter 337: Playing This Trick in Front of a Celestial Master? Showing Off in Front of an Expert!
In the blink of an eye, a blurry and uncertain phantom, carrying a distorted feeling, instantly appeared face-to-face right in front of him.
Rahman could even feel a strand of long hair brush across his face. That realistic touch stimulated his nerves—how could he not be terrified?
Being scared backward was just an instinctive reaction. He quickly pulled out the peach wood sword at his waist, recalling the skills the old blind man had taught him, and prepared to do battle with the long-haired eerie entity—
When an even stranger scene appeared.
The streetlight in Rahman’s area wasn’t broken. Even though he had been scared back a few steps, he was still within the streetlight’s illumination range—but this streetlight wasn’t green.
The long-haired eerie entity was standing right where he had just been. But the streetlight on the opposite side flickered a few more times, and the long-haired eerie entity seemed to vanish right before his eyes, actually returning to the broken streetlight. It gave the feeling of spatial dislocation.
Or perhaps—she had never been in front of him at all, and it was just his illusion?
But then, how do you explain that realistic touch on his face?
Rahman kept swallowing nervously, not knowing what to do for a moment.
He observed the streetlight and the sign beside it, but there didn’t seem to be any intelligence hints either.
What did this level mean—it wasn’t going to let him pass?
After thinking for a while, Rahman suddenly noticed that the incense in his other hand had actually burned down a section.
Only then did he realize with sudden clarity.
“Oh no—she was just trying to scare me, to make my incense burn faster, and then assimilate me. I can’t fall for it!”
In this level, many Chosen Ones’ incense began to burn fiercely.
Because the one-armed guy had said: the more fear in your heart, the faster the incense burns.
Rahman knew this principle too, but how was he supposed to get past?
He tried swinging his sword a few times at where he had just been standing, but the long-haired eerie entity wandered in the distance, as if mocking his stupidity.
He was stuck here for about five minutes, Rahman and the long-haired eerie entity battling wits and courage.
Then he had a sudden revelation—he was an idiot!
“This long-haired eerie entity definitely can’t beat me, so she can only scare me. If she could really beat me, she’d just kill me directly. There’s no green streetlight nearby anyway—why should I care about her? Just walk past!”
With that thought, Rahman finally understood the principle of this level.
Because facing an unknown creature, he would instinctively feel fear—because he felt he wasn’t very strong, and didn’t know the opponent’s strength.
Put plainly, it was just lack of combat experience.
So in this kind of scare-tactic segment, you need some time to adjust your mindset.
And indeed, just as Rahman expected—when he held the peach wood sword and swung at the air all the way past, the long-haired eerie entity really didn’t fight him. She just kept appearing at the streetlights ahead, trying to scare him.
This time Rahman wasn’t falling for it. After all, he had learned a few moves from the old blind man, and his physical strength was now far beyond what it used to be. From now on, whenever he encountered something not written in the rules, he’d just fight first and run later if he couldn’t win.
But next, he encountered another eerie entity—tall and bulky, with two heads and four arms—standing under a white streetlight.
This eerie entity had a fierce, menacing face. Both mouths were constantly chewing something, and bright red liquid dripped from the corners of their mouths. It looked like bad news at first glance.
But this guy wasn’t floating in the air—he stood firmly on the ground, and his aura felt extremely powerful, more than twice as formidable as the long-haired eerie entity from before.
Coincidentally, there was only one streetlight near him.
If you didn’t want to step into the pitch-black area, you had to pass by him.
And behind the white streetlight where this two-headed eerie entity stood, the next streetlight was green.
Since he had just driven off the long-haired eerie entity, Rahman felt this thing might also just be trying to scare him.
So he walked up with his peach wood sword. He couldn’t be afraid this time—otherwise, before he even found the Free Trading Market, his incense would burn out.
At this moment, Rahman felt that when he passed by, the two-headed eerie entity would definitely make a move.
So he decided to strike first. Following what the old blind man had taught him, he formed a sword seal with his fingers and launched a sudden attack.
Credit where it’s due—Rahman had indeed trained.
The peach wood sword cut through the air with a whistling sound. The two-headed eerie entity, caught off guard, took a slash from Rahman.
A bloody wound instantly appeared on his tall body.
Seeing this, the audience from the Pyramid Country was thrilled.
They never expected that Rahman, an ordinary Chosen One, could actually wound such a powerful-looking eerie entity—this was truly a monumental feat in the Strange Tales World!
Some viewers were even fantasizing about how Professor Rahman would slay the two-headed eerie entity next.
After all, one quick move leads to another.
But when the Pyramid Country’s Pharaoh heir saw this, the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
“Is this guy asking for death? That thing isn’t the type a peach wood sword can handle!”
To be precise, the long-haired eerie entity was a ghost-type evil spirit—very afraid of peach wood swords.
But this two-headed eerie entity had a ruddy complexion—clearly a living creature. Living creatures aren’t afraid of peach wood swords.
Rahman’s slash thoroughly enraged the two-headed eerie entity. Both mouths roared, and he charged over. The two grappled together.
At this point, Rahman finally understood what “two fists can’t beat four hands” really meant—the opponent literally had four arms.
The two-headed eerie entity beat Rahman until he was scurrying with his head covered, and even his peach wood sword was broken.
Rahman finally came to his senses, scrambled and tumbled, and ran desperately to the green streetlight behind, finally escaping the two-headed eerie entity’s attacks.
But the two-headed eerie entity also charged in, seemingly wanting to drive him out and then eat him. Rahman kept dodging, playing “King of Qin circling the pillar,” looking for a chance to escape—a complete waste of time.
In this level, the Eagle Country’s Chosen One Miller performed quite well. When he noticed the streetlight behind the two-headed eerie entity, he understood one principle.
This two-headed eerie entity was eating “meat.” If he went over, he’d definitely be attacked—because he was certainly the creature’s prey.
But there was a green streetlight behind. That message was telling him: as long as you reach the green streetlight before being eaten, you’re fine.
Here, the boldest Chosen Ones directly entered the dark area, but didn’t dare go too far.
The main idea was: I can’t see you, and you can’t see me either.
Anyway, as long as you run toward the next streetlight, you can’t go wrong.
There were also Transcendents with exceptional movement techniques who actually dared to slip right past him.
If we can’t beat them, can’t we at least outrun them?
If you never intended to fight from the start, running is indeed easier.
There were even bolder ones—this time, the Kangaroo Country’s Transcendent, like Rahman, actively attacked the two-headed eerie entity.
But the method of attack was different. This guy didn’t use a peach wood sword or a coin sword—he had secretly learned a Dragon Country technique: throwing lime powder.
Because the general store’s warehouse actually had lime, he grabbed a handful and kept it hidden in his pocket for emergencies—who knew he’d need it now.
Against a living creature—and one with four eyes at that—this stuff works incredibly well.
As a Transcendent, his accuracy with lime powder was terrifyingly precise. After being hit, the two-headed eerie entity writhed in pain, clutching his heads and swaying in place.
By the time the two-headed eerie entity’s eyes recovered, the Kangaroo Country Transcendent had long since vanished.
In this level, the Chosen Ones each displayed their own remarkable abilities.
As long as you figured out that the two-headed eerie entity was a living creature and the long-haired eerie entity wasn’t, it was easy to get through.
As for how to judge—that wasn’t actually difficult.
After all, the Chosen Ones had all spent time in the general store, the tomb, and Phoenix City. Careful observation would naturally lead to judgment.
As a Chosen One fighting on home turf, Zhang Yangqing’s advantage was unquestionable.
In his big screen, a crowd of people had gathered, all wanting to see how Celestial Master Zhang would shout and make the scary long-haired eerie entity reveal her true form.
But in Zhang Yangqing’s screen, a scene even stranger than the eerie entity appeared.
When Zhang Yangqing passed by this area, flickering streetlights appeared before him.
Whether it was a green light or not was very important to others, but to this person—it didn’t matter at all.
The long-haired eerie entity saw a fearless person striding over and decided to scare him.
After the streetlight flickered, she appeared under the light.
But a baffling scene unfolded—where was the person who had just been walking ahead?
Hearing footsteps, the long-haired eerie entity suddenly turned around. At some unknown point, the striding man had already reached the next streetlight.
“Did I imagine things? He actually already passed?”
The long-haired eerie entity didn’t quite understand, but that didn’t stop her professionalism.
She still decided to teach this reckless person a lesson.
But when she suddenly appeared at the next streetlight again, the man before her eyes vanished once more.
She turned to look back and found this man appearing at the next streetlight again.
This made the long-haired eerie entity start to feel uneasy—what kind of ghost was this?
Unwilling to give up, she chased after him several more times. But no matter which streetlight she appeared under, this man would inevitably appear somewhere even stranger than her.
And this man seemed to “not notice” her at all, just walking normally.
Even the long-haired eerie entity—a ghost herself—felt like she had encountered a ghost wall.
When she appeared once more under the streetlight the man was about to reach, preparing to give him a face-to-face fright—
The moment she appeared, this time not only did the man disappear, but even the footsteps vanished.
The long-haired eerie entity looked left and right, frantically spinning her body, observing every corner of the surroundings.
Shocked! This man seemed to not exist at all!
The long-haired eerie entity clutched her head, panicking internally.
“Was there no such person at all? Was it my imagination?”
Just as she was scratching her head in confusion, a voice silently appeared behind her.
“Are you looking for me?”
At that moment, the extremely nervous long-haired eerie entity broke down. When she turned around and saw Zhang Yangqing wearing a mask—that eerie mask twisting with the murky darkness—it scared the soul right out of her.
“Ah!!”
The long-haired eerie entity let out a scream and ran madly into the darkness.
But she forgot—there seemed to be even more terrifying things in there.
After the long-haired eerie entity ran in a certain distance, a horrifying fluctuation came from that direction.
Painful screams and sounds of gnawing appeared. Before long, everything returned to calm, as if the long-haired eerie entity had never existed. That area was terrifyingly dark.
This scene made the audience burst out laughing. You see, the long-haired eerie entity had scared quite a few other Chosen Ones—but in front of this person, she was simply showing off in front of an expert.
: I’m dying of laughter. Celestial Master Zhang drove that ghost insane. Defeating her in her own area of expertise—what a humiliation. It’s worse for her than just killing her.
: I’ve seen plenty of ghosts scaring people, but this is my first time seeing a person scare a ghost. This cracked me up.
: This female ghost really overestimated herself, actually trying to scare a Daoist Celestial Master. Is this trying to kill me with laughter so she can inherit my Huabei debt?
: The female ghost can be said to be very professional, but who knew the other side was an expert—a top-tier expert at that. How could that not be scary?
Actually, Zhang Yangqing had been standing on the streetlight just now, watching the female ghost shake her head stupidly down below.
Even if the female ghost had looked up, the streetlight had strong glare and visual distortion—she couldn’t see Zhang Yangqing in the darkness at all.
Finally, Zhang Yangqing appeared “just in time” when she was at her most uneasy, giving her a surprise.
Originally he was just scaring her for fun, but who knew he’d discover some unexpected gains.
Namely—many eerie creatures hidden in the darkness. These creatures seemed to be the most terrifying existence in the Ghost Market.
Before long, Zhang Yangqing arrived beside the two-headed eerie entity at a normal pace.
Zhang Yangqing didn’t even have the desire to make a move. This thing was at most on the same level as a Red-Clothed Eerie Entity.
Other Chosen Ones didn’t dare fight, afraid of wasting time and spiritual energy.
Zhang Yangqing merely released a fraction of the aura that even made Purple-Clothed Eerie Entities retreat. The two-headed eerie entity’s chewing mouths suddenly stopped. His whole body seemed scared silly, not daring to move, not even daring to glance at Zhang Yangqing.
He felt that as long as he didn’t move, he wouldn’t attract this big shot’s attack.
In the Strange Tales World, eerie entities all seemed to be guessing Zhang Yangqing’s attack rules.
As long as they didn’t violate them, they wouldn’t be beaten to death.
And so Zhang Yangqing smoothly passed this level—one scared insane, one scared stupid.
Before even reaching the Free Trading Market, the Chosen Ones’ incense had already begun to change.
After all that struggle, Rahman finally escaped danger and found that his incense had already burned a third. This gave him a headache—six hours of incense, and only four hours remained.
But if the rest of the journey wasn’t too problematic, it should be enough.
But how could it not be problematic? What he’d encounter was all unknown.
Some Transcendents were very bold, so their incense had only burned about a quarter.
After all, they’d been inside for an hour—that was normal consumption.
The incense in Zhang Yangqing’s hand was the most ridiculous. The audience felt like his incense wasn’t burning at all—how had it not decreased even a bit?
But then again, with Celestial Master Zhang appearing in a place like this, it should be others who were afraid.
But did that mean Chosen Ones who weren’t afraid wouldn’t have their incense burn?
Inside the Strange Tales World, Zhang Yangqing wasn’t thinking too much. He just felt this place was somewhat interesting.
Following the guidance of the streetlights and signs, after walking for over half an hour, Zhang Yangqing finally arrived at the Free Trading Market.
Upon arriving, he found quite a few people already trading and haggling here.
Similar to a normal market, in this place, those with goods would find a streetlight, place their goods on the ground, and open the wrapping cloth for passersby to browse.
Those with ghost coins were wandering around, looking for props they fancied.
But everyone was the same—holding incense in their hands.
Because the Ghost Market had just opened, everyone’s incense was still quite long. Some timid people’s incense seemed to have already burned halfway.
Zhang Yangqing looked around, seeming to search for props he needed—or rather, he was looking for the people mentioned in the rules.
When Chosen Ones didn’t know what to buy, looking for keywords was the way to go.
In this place, the first thing to confirm was the 【Free Trading Market Management Personnel】.
But their location was easy to find—these people stood in groups of three or five, wearing uniforms.
Left hand holding something that looked like a feather duster, right hand holding a steelyard scale.
They were the maintainers of order here. No one seemed to dare cause trouble in this place.
What Zhang Yangqing found strange was that the atmosphere here was unusually stifling.
Normally, sellers would call out to let people know what they were selling.
But the sellers just placed their goods in front of themselves, then stayed silent, waiting for discerning buyers to come to them.
Whether anyone bought or not—they didn’t seem to care.
In this murky, dark world, it seemed only buyers were asking about prices and uses.
These props didn’t seem very useful to Zhang Yangqing, but the other Chosen Ones felt they were extremely useful.
For example, Miller found a seller holding what looked like a “Demon-Binding Rope.”
According to the seller, once activated, this thing could automatically bind its target.
For Ghost Cultivators and Demon Cultivators at the Red-Clothed Fierce Ghost level and below, it could bind them directly for ten hours.
For Ghost Cultivators and Demon Cultivators above Red-Clothed Fierce Ghost level, it could also bind them directly, but only for five minutes.
This was the advantage of the Demon-Binding Rope. The disadvantage was that it was ineffective against humans.
With this thing, he’d have another major asset in the Strange Tales World, and going to Demon Cultivator areas would have some guarantee.
But the price was 5,000 ghost coins.
Seeing this price, if Miller was interested, his heart must have dropped.
His entire savings was only 1,800 ghost coins—which was quite a lot—but he simply couldn’t afford it.
If he wanted to buy this, he’d have to work at the general store for a few more days.
Rahman also found a good prop—the seller was holding a bronze mirror that looked like a “Demon-Revealing Mirror.”
It was said to not only see through all disguises—whether human, demon, or ghost—as long as you activated it with your body’s energy and shone it on the target, it could make the target reveal their true form.
If he bought this, Rahman felt the hidden mission would basically be a guaranteed pass.
This was simply a prop tailor-made for the hidden mission.
Just use the Demon-Revealing Mirror in the area where the Rainy Night Killer appears, find the person disguised as 1.7 meters but actually 1.9 meters, and kill him.
This time Rahman had experience—after all, last time there were clueless Chosen Ones who showed how eager they were and got ripped off by black-hearted profiteers.
Rahman said lightly: “This thing is okay, I guess. If the price is right, I might consider buying it for fun.”
The meaning of this sentence was: I don’t actually need it. If you’re desperate for money, sell it to me cheap as a toy.
Seeing the seller hesitate, Rahman knew his little trick had worked. He wasn’t going to be a sucker.
Finally, the seller gritted his teeth, seemingly making some painful decision, and said: “Fine. If you pay 10,000 ghost coins, I’ll sell it to you.”
Now Rahman was completely dumbfounded. Ten thousand? Why don’t you just go rob someone?
This broken mirror is worth ten thousand? And you’re selling it painfully—if you weren’t in pain, would it be tens of thousands or more?
Seeing Rahman’s stunned expression, the seller seemed to realize he didn’t have that much money either, and said with disgust: “Poor ghost, can’t even afford ten thousand, yet acting like a big spender. Go somewhere else, don’t waste my time doing business.”
Rahman really wanted to pull out his peach wood sword and have a go with him.
But reason told him to forget it, lest he be directly executed.
However, Rahman thought: this thing was probably just shown to Chosen Ones by the Strange Tales World. If a Chosen One wanted to buy it, they’d have to do night watch at the general store for more than three days to earn enough money.
By then, even if they completed the hidden mission, the time score wouldn’t make it.
So this thing was essentially a “not-for-sale item.”
In Rahman’s view: it was impossible for any Chosen One to have ten thousand ghost coins at this stage!
