Chapter 338: The Most Dazzling Chosen One, Dragon Country’s Advantage!
The props in the Ghost Market were all excellent—whether in terms of material or function, they all presented practical effects.
Besides props with good functions, there were even sharp tools for wounding and bleeding. The Chosen Ones wanted them all.
Moreover, it wasn’t just people from Phoenix City who came to the Ghost Market—people from other cities could also reach this place through special channels.
So when going back, you had to return the same way. This point was very important—otherwise, who knew which city you’d end up in after leaving?
“No wonder the rules said that buying fake goods here counts as lucky.”
Rahman sighed as he strolled through the Ghost Market.
Even an ordinary Chosen One like him could tell these props were of good quality, but they all gave off a feeling of being unaffordable.
It was as if the Strange Tales World was deliberately mocking the Chosen Ones, letting them know how useless they were that they couldn’t even afford these props.
After browsing for a while, Rahman didn’t find a single prop under two thousand ghost coins.
Anything remotely useful was over five thousand ghost coins, and the more useful ones were priced in the tens of thousands.
But then again, with such an expensive entry fee, who would bring worthless things to sell?
He only had about a thousand or so on him, and he needed to save travel fare for the return trip. If something unexpected happened and he needed to speed up or something, he’d need at least three hundred.
“If I could just get one or two props, I feel like this Strange Tales run would be in the bag.”
Weaker Chosen Ones naturally wanted them desperately.
But the sellers wouldn’t lower their prices—take it or leave it.
This dashed the hopes of Chosen Ones who had originally planned to buy something to deal with the Rainy Night Killer.
At this stage, the only one who had money to buy props was Zhang Yangqing alone.
He did indeed buy a prop—one that left everyone baffled.
In front of Dragon Country’s big screen, Zhang Yangqing spent 5,000 ghost coins to buy a purple python robe from a seller.
Never mind what the purple python robe was for—just the 5,000 ghost coins alone were enough to make other Chosen Ones green with envy.
Seeing someone so discerning, the seller immediately boasted: “Boss, you’ve made the right choice! If you wear this robe, you’ll surely have the bearing of a celestial being—truly blessed by heaven!”
After all, that’s how clothing sellers are—no matter how the buyer looks in the clothes, no matter how bad the buyer’s figure is, they’ll praise the customer to the skies.
But this time, the seller felt he wasn’t exaggerating—even saying this much seemed like stating the truth.
Because after Zhang Yangqing put it on, the murky aura around him dispersed, and a man of heroic bearing and majestic, dragon-and-phoenix-like physique appeared before everyone.
This drew astonished sounds and whispered exclamations from countless people around.
With every gesture Zhang Yangqing made, the very energies of heaven and earth seemed to be stirred by him.
His whole body shimmered with flowing colors, surrounded by auspicious spirits, like an emperor star descending to the world, giving people an impulse to bow in worship.
His entire being seemed to be sheltered by the aura of the heavenly dao—this purple python robe seemed tailor-made for him!
The seller was stunned. In the past, to sell his goods, he’d praise customers to the heavens.
He never expected to be at a loss for words—he couldn’t even praise this customer by a ten-thousandth.
Actually, he was a proud man, and this robe was his prized creation—his collection piece.
Because he felt no one deserved this robe. If he weren’t really short on money, he wouldn’t have brought it out to sell.
Now he felt that only when worn by this person could the robe’s true value be expressed. Anyone else wearing it would be a waste of a masterpiece.
In this murky, dark Ghost Market, Zhang Yangqing’s appearance was undoubtedly like a radiant glow of ten thousand rays, making everyone else fade into insignificance.
On Dragon Tiger Mountain, Zhang Xuanjing, sitting beside Su Muyu, furrowed his brows. He had been looking for a long time and still couldn’t find anything special about this robe, so he asked Su Muyu: “Eldest Senior Brother, what’s the deep meaning behind the Sect Celestial Master buying this robe?”
After all, five thousand ghost coins was no small amount.
Su Muyu stroked his chin and said with a serious expression: “It looks good.”
Zhang Xuanjing: “…”
He couldn’t believe it. The Sect Celestial Master spent five thousand ghost coins on a robe just because it looks good?
I knew it—I looked for so long and couldn’t figure out what this robe was useful for. Turns out it’s useless.
This place was full of practical props—how did the Sect Celestial Master find an impractical one?
If the other Chosen Ones who couldn’t afford props saw Zhang Yangqing playing like this, they’d probably cough up blood from anger.
They had no money to spend—this guy had money to burn.
The main theme was just being willful.
Inside the Strange Tales World, the Chosen Ones had been in the Free Trading Market for about an hour. They were starting to get familiar with the place and had gained some things.
Quite a few Chosen Ones had indeed managed to buy some functional props by bargain-hunting.
Because the Chosen Ones had initially entered the premium area where things were very expensive. Besides that, there was also a miscellaneous goods area where you could buy cheap but good small props—you could even call them toys. They couldn’t compare to the premium area.
Rahman reacted relatively quickly in this level. He felt his thinking had gone wrong.
Because when the Chosen Ones entered the Free Trading Market, they were attracted by the dazzling array of props and subconsciously started looking for props that suited them and that they could afford.
But the rules didn’t say they had to buy things at the Free Trading Market.
From the subsequent rules, Rahman could judge that the rules were only reminding the Chosen Ones to come here—but coming here was for going to the dangerous places that followed.
So as long as he wasn’t misled, Rahman knew this level was about gathering intelligence at the Free Trading Market.
“Damn it, if only I’d thought of this earlier—wasted a whole hour for nothing.”
Seeing his incense had shortened another section, Rahman’s expression grew grave.
So he began wandering the Free Trading Market, striking up conversations with some seasoned-looking NPCs, asking how to find the bull-headed and horse-faced ones, and even buying maps of the Ghost Market.
This was what the Chosen Ones should be doing.
After all, intelligence was also something that could be traded.
Someone who reacted even faster and performed even better than Rahman was Miller.
After wandering the Free Trading Market for over half an hour and finding he couldn’t afford anything, he started to wonder if his approach to this level was wrong—if he’d been misled by what was in front of him.
So he started gathering intelligence. Here, he was quite bold.
Rahman asked old veterans—that was very safe, not much could go wrong. After all, if they had intelligence, they’d surely tell you. It was a transaction; buying intelligence didn’t cost much, and it was something Chosen Ones could afford.
Because the rules stated that if you bought fake goods, someone would help you deal with it. Just this one rule meant almost no one dared to lie.
But the people Miller asked were the Free Trading Market management personnel—the ones holding feather dusters.
After all, they were the natives of this place. Asking old veterans was nothing compared to asking them.
As for how to get them to talk—the previous level had already given the hint: money could bribe the “staff” here.
After some staff members took Miller’s money, they naturally started telling him some intelligence about the Ghost Market.
【Strange to say, we haven’t seen the bull-headed and horse-faced ones for a long time.】
【You mean the parade? I remember—at the crossroads in the city center of the Ghost Market, a parade is held at exactly twelve o’clock.】
【The Ghost Market has a Yama Palace—that’s the biggest building here.】
【People wearing crying and smiling masks? Now that you mention it, I do recall some, but those people are sneaky. They’re not within our jurisdiction—otherwise I’d have grabbed them for questioning too.】
【I feel like something’s off about your state, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. You could ask the Yin Officials, though they probably won’t answer your questions.】
This Free Trading Market management person, having taken Miller’s money, answered all his questions one by one.
But his abilities and authority were limited—he could only tell Miller what he knew.
For instance, about the Rainy Night Killer and the Demon Cultivator station—he knew nothing at all.
Someone in the Free Trading Market surely knew, but finding that person would indeed take considerable effort.
Miller felt the main quest was more important. If he dawdled any longer, once his incense burned past the one-third mark and he got caught up in some troublesome situation with no quick solution, he could easily be corrupted and assimilated when the incense burned out.
You see, incense could only be bought outside the Ghost Market.
The intelligence had also said that in certain areas, incense would burn very fast—he had to pay attention to this.
Miller’s solution was to tie the incense to his peach wood sword—but not flush against it, with a little distance, using some skillful binding method at the incense’s end.
This way, he could free up one hand, because he knew the road ahead might not be easy.
Having done all this, he set off toward the Ghost Market’s city center—this was the place mentioned in the intelligence. If he wanted to find the other eerie creatures mentioned in the rules, he should continue searching near the city center crossroads.
So he walked in the direction the Free Trading Market management person had indicated, leaving the place.
Once out of the crowded Free Trading Market, Miller’s body tensed up again.
People, once familiar with an area, feel safe in it.
Once they enter the next area, that unfamiliar feeling invades.
The Free Trading Market was gloomy, but there were many people like himself there.
In a crowd, Chosen Ones wouldn’t feel too afraid—but now the streets were empty.
In the surrounding dark areas, something seemed to be writhing and crawling.
Leaving the Free Trading Market, those eerie gazes began converging on the Chosen Ones.
Miller also tried to stay close to the streetlights as he advanced, accelerating through the dark zones between lights, minimizing his time spent there.
But after walking for less than ten minutes, passing over a dozen streetlights, problems arose.
Under almost every streetlight ahead, there were eerie creatures.
Some in groups of three or five, some alone—they stood within the range of the light.
Under the illumination, you could see these eerie creatures all looked bizarre, emitting waves of black aura. Some looked scary; some were truly terrifying.
And most importantly, there were no green streetlights nearby.
In other words, if the Chosen Ones wanted to reach the city center, they had to pass near them.
Otherwise, they’d have to face the pitch-black, terrifying unknown creatures in the darkness.
Compared to facing those, the Chosen Ones still felt it was better to face the visible ones.
“I knew this level wouldn’t be easy. Looks like fighting is unavoidable.”
Having reached this point, Miller got serious and pulled out the coin sword he had barely used.
Now it was peach wood sword in the left hand, coin sword in the right.
Because Miller had already analyzed the hidden rule—the two eerie entities he’d encountered when he first arrived were hints.
Some eerie entities can be fought; some can’t.
When you encounter eerie entities with weak combat power that only scare people, just cut right through.
When you encounter those with physical bodies and strong combat power, it depends on your judgment on how to pass.
Whether to detour from a distance or fight directly—that depended on the Chosen Ones’ own abilities.
Detouring from a distance wasn’t impossible, actually. The so-called detour meant going to the streetlights where weaker eerie entities were, avoiding the powerful ones.
But here Miller had a headache. Detouring would definitely waste time—and on the way back, wouldn’t it be the same road?
So he needed to calculate the time lost—otherwise, if the incense burned out and he couldn’t leave the Ghost Market, that would be a big problem.
Thinking this through, Miller felt he should fight when necessary—he couldn’t just keep detouring.
At this stage, the Chosen Ones’ battles began.
At this moment, Miller had two streetlights ahead to pass. Under the left streetlight were four eerie children—their eyes hollow, two blood-red fangs protruding from their mouths, looking absolutely chilling under the light.
The four eerie children held hands, circling around the streetlight, singing as they went. Their singing was actually quite melodious and moving.
It gave off an innocent feeling, like they were playing a game.
But Miller thought—how is this innocent? What if they eat me when I pass?
Other Chosen Ones who saw this eerie sight were also very uneasy.
Under the right streetlight was a massive eerie creature nearly five meters tall.
He was even taller than the streetlight—Miller couldn’t even see his upper body.
But just from his thick, sturdy lower limbs, one could tell he was definitely not to be trifled with.
Here, being afraid definitely wouldn’t work—you had to find their characteristics.
On the four children’s side—there were more of them, and from the speed of their circling, they weren’t slow.
If you wanted to run past under their noses, it would be very difficult—so you could only kill them.
As for the five-meter giant eerie entity on the right—his combat power went without saying. He was basically already the type the Chosen Ones couldn’t beat.
But his lower limbs were enormous, so he probably wasn’t fast. If the Chosen Ones were fast enough, they could actually run past before he reacted.
This was Miller’s judgment.
Of course, this was just his initial impression. Whether it was correct would depend on his judgment.
At this stage, the stronger Chosen Ones chose to go left—how much combat power could children have?
The weaker Chosen Ones were limbering up, observing the obstacle on the right, preparing to just run past.
Although Miller had already advanced to Transcendent, he was at the bottom among Transcendents.
Despite his big build, he couldn’t even guarantee he could beat the eerie children.
So he could only choose to run past the one on the right.
Whoosh~
Miller took a deep breath and bolted forward.
When he entered the white light’s illumination range, the five-meter giant eerie entity seemed to wake up and quickly charged at him.
With every step the five-meter giant eerie entity took, the ground trembled.
“Oh no—I judged wrong. He’s not slow.”
Miller’s expression changed drastically. He hadn’t expected this big guy to charge over like a dump truck, walking with wind.
At this moment, Miller didn’t give up. He suddenly thought of something.
Since this massive creature was fast, his turning ability should be poor. As long as I zigzag, he definitely won’t be able to catch me.
With that thought, Miller started running in a Z-shaped pattern.
Sure enough, the five-meter giant eerie entity kept overshooting each time due to his speed and massive size.
He looked fierce, but there were still techniques to get past.
In this level, five unlucky Chosen Ones didn’t react in time and were violently knocked flying and stomped into meat paste.
That scene made the audience not want to eat meat sandwiches for three days.
Miller ran out of the streetlight’s illumination range, and the five-meter giant eerie entity didn’t continue pursuing.
Meanwhile, the four children next door were still holding hands, circling under their streetlight, ignoring what was happening on this side.
As long as you didn’t enter their attack range, they wouldn’t attack the Chosen Ones.
This made Miller breathe a sigh of relief. He actually had a “stealth” divine skill, but this wasn’t a do-or-die moment yet—he’d avoid using it if possible. This was only the beginning of danger; who knew what more dangerous things lay ahead?
That skill had a one-day cooldown and only lasted ten seconds.
Back at the general store, if he hadn’t had this skill, he would have died.
Because at that time, he knew if he didn’t use it, he’d die—no choice.
The Chosen Ones who went the other way also failed. They had judged that the four children’s combat power was weak and they could cut through.
But there was a pitfall here too—the four children had sonic attacks. Fighting while singing could make Chosen Ones dizzy and disoriented.
You had to finish quickly—otherwise, after five minutes of fighting, the Chosen Ones’ resistances would keep dropping, and negative status effects would appear.
By then, the four children’s blood-filled mouths full of fangs would open wide, going straight for the Chosen Ones’ vital points.
Although the Chosen Ones had half-zombie bodies with strong recovery abilities.
But fatal wounds would still leave them unable to move on the spot, and then they’d be devoured completely.
In this pitch-black, murky place, Chosen One after Chosen One fell, and big screens went dark.
As for those with strong combat power—like the Ramen Country’s Cardinal Robert, a cold-blooded madman.
No matter how much pain or discomfort he felt, his face remained expressionless.
His special ability was converting negative status effects. As long as he avoided vital points, he could keep converting.
In less than three minutes, he decapitated the four eerie entities. He was drenched in blood—only no one knew whose blood it was.
This got the audience’s blood pumping.
Not just Robert—here you could see outstanding performances from various countries and different Transcendents.
Transcendents still had a big advantage—their combat power was enough to increase their survival rate in this level.
At this stage, the most impressive Chosen One so far was undoubtedly the Kangaroo Country’s Transcendent, Martin.
This guy was purely skipping levels—using the lime-in-the-eyes method to catch eerie entities off guard and get past them.
No matter if you were four eerie entities or a five-meter giant eerie entity—as long as you were a living creature, I’d throw lime in your eyes.
If you were the type that could only scare people, why would I be afraid of you?
“Hehe, if I’m guessing right, this should be a Dragon Country background. Sure enough, in a Dragon Country background, Dragon Country moves work best.”
The Kangaroo Country’s Transcendent Martin couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the thought of other Chosen Ones being tormented while he tormented the eerie entities.
