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540. Night Market
🕑 Added 2023-04-18 15:00:02 +0000 UTCHui flew out of the water and into the air. High up, he peered down at the world around him.
In the darkness of night, a few lanterns dimly lit a sprawling market. Ghosts, ghouls, and other monsters of unknown providence wandered around the narrow streets, the passageways cluttered with stalls, stands, and streetside sellers. Half-dressed female ghouls in thick makeup allowed glimpses of their rotting bodies through translucent robes, winking and smirking at the passersby from beneath red lanterns. Burly one-eyed monsters smoked outside a low-slung gambling establishment, casting vicious looks at the passersby. Demons wandered around, slinging back jugs of alcohol, while a drowned ghost with long, wavy seaweed-like hair beckoned anyone who looked his way toward an ornamental garden with placid, dark ponds.
Eh? Did Zhu Diyu want to show me this night market? Is that all?
No, there’s got to be more to it. I’ll keep poking around. After all, I’m a dead person right now. I shouldn’t be in too much danger, exploring a night market filled with monsters. From a certain perspective, I am a monster.
Hui circulated his qi again. Midair, he burst out of his seed shell and reached his full size. He dropped out of the sky and landed beside the pot of boiling water he’d leaped out of, in which various human body parts stewed.
Growing a hat from his lotus body, he put it on his head and turned to walk away.
A bony hand caught his sleeve with surprising strength. Hui stopped short and turned back.
“Hey. No stealin’,” the old lady ghoul stirring the pot grunted, scowling at him. A patched set of robes hung loose off her bloated flesh. They hung open, revealing far too much of her sagging breasts and greenish skin. Hui quickly averted his eyes, unwilling to see any more than he already had.
“I didn’t steal,” Hui said, somewhat confused.
“You came out of my pot. That means you’re mine,” she said, crossing her arms.
He shook his head. “I fell into your pot seconds earlier. That doesn’t make me yours.”
The old ghoul sniffed at him. The head burst out of the pot, streaming hair after it and screaming. She flicked her wrist, smacking the head right back into the boiling water. “Sure does. You’re my lotus seed. I’m making lotus seed and head soup. Just because you fell into it, doesn’t mean you aren’t mine.”
“Elder Sister, please reconsider,” Hui said.
“I’m considerin’, but all I’m coming up with says you’d better pay up, or I’ll call the patrol,” she said, narrowing her eyes.
“Ah, then… you’re willing to admit you were going to poison your fellow ghouls?” Hui said, putting a finger on the side of his face.
“What?” she asked, raising a brow.
“Yes, yes. You know, I’m a lotus seed ghost. I’m the resentful spirit born from thousands of roasted lotus seeds, eaten without justice. I’ve accumulated a lot of resentment and poison inside myself in retribution for all my eaten lotus seed brethren. If I was a part of your soup, then… isn’t that the same as admitting to attempting to poison all these ghouls around you?” Hui asked, shaking his head.
The ghoul scowled. “I’ve never heard of a lotus seed ghost.”
“Mmm, that’s because we’re exceedingly rare. Exceedingly rare, and exceedingly poisonous. Would Elder Sister like to try?” Hui held out his hand. Ugh, I really don’t want her to bite me. Please don’t actually try.
The ghoul eyed his hand, then scoffed. “Whatever. I never put any vegetables in my soup, anyways. Nothing but meat! Meat, all the way down. Vegetables are useless filler.”
Hui smiled. “Good, good.” Settling the hat on his head and tying the straps under his chin, he set off through the night market.
The floating head popped up in the boiling soup water. “What’s a lotus seed ghost?”
“Shut up! I don’t know,” the old ghoul snapped, batting him on the head with a ladle and forcing him back down in the water.
He popped up a second later. “Why’d you let him go? That’s not like you. You haven’t even let go of me in the ten years since I landed in your pot, not even when customers paid for head in their soup!”
She scowled. “He hid his pressure well, but did you notice? That water, how hot is it?”
“Too hot, if you ask me,” the head said.
“Exactly. And yet, that man’s skin didn’t have the faintest redness. He’s too strong for us to bother with. If he wants to be a lotus ghost, he can be a lotus ghost.” Harrumphing, the old ghoul shoved the head back down into her soup.
“Lotus seed ghost!” the head called, before it dipped below the surface of the water. The rest of what it had to say became nothing but garbled bubbles.
Hands tucked behind his back, Hui wandered through the night market. Instead of fully imprinting his own image onto his lotus body, he allowed some of the lotus body’s unique traits to surface. Dead black eyes cut through the crowds, and his features took on an androgynous softness different to his usual handsome face. Rather than tying his hair up, he let it float behind him, long and free. For his clothes, he left the petals that formed them black, rather than turning them blue. When among ghosts, best to appear as a ghost myself. This way, I won’t stand out in the same way the reaper or human-like Hui would.
He scanned over the street, taking everything in at a glance. All these monsters… none of them are proper death cultivators, but many of them have a kind of aberrant cultivation. They’re all dead bodies that gathered resentment and death qi and revived on their own, or else happened to land in a fortunate spot full of yin energy. These monsters aren’t properly ordinary mortals, nor properly cultivators. Instead, they’re caught in a place between the two, where they can neither rest easy and enter the cycle of reincarnation, nor do they have any hope of cultivating to the Immortal realm and entering Heaven.
How unfortunate, truly unfortunate. This… I wonder if this place is where Zhu Diyu collects those creatures which do not fall into any other category, the true fall-through of these three realms.
Adjusting his hat slightly, he peered out at the world. So where is the ‘more’ to this night market?
Or… is Zhu Diyu just encouraging me to enjoy the Underworld, the same way that the reaper was… not really trying, but at least telling me to? He frowned, casting a look at a pair of rather gangrenous and dead ladies of the night. Er… Zhu Diyu, Senior, my tastes aren’t that extreme, okay? This, er, isn’t exactly… encouragement…
One of the ghoulish ladies blew him a kiss, her torn-open cheek gaping. A fetid blast of rotten breath rolled over him. Hui’s face stiffened, and he barely avoided retching. He does know that I have wives in the mortal realm, right? Bai Xue is considered one of the greatest beauties of all time… and most handsome faces, too, but that’s beside the point. And Li Xiang is the idol of Starbound Sect! I… it’s not that my standards are high, but rather, I’m very lucky in places that aren’t the Underworld! Why would I bother with these… uhm, welcoming women? It’s not that I don’t sympathize with their plight, but at the same time… er, no thanks.
As for gambling… no thanks, no thank you! This small cultivator has no desire to hurtle into debt! And for drinking, the same!
…No, no. This can’t be all there is. I’ll… spend a little longer searching for the truth beneath the truth!
After all, that fire the man was using for his pill cultivation was phoenix fire. Out here, though—
Mid-step, Hui halted. He blinked, then ran across the street and grabbed the lantern.
“Whoa, watch it!” the lantern shouted, vibrating angrily in his grasp.
“Ah, sorry, sorry, Senior,” Hui said, releasing it. But… those flames. They’re phoenix flames!
“What are you looking at?” the lantern asked. It spun around, glowering at him with a buff male face.
“I’m sorry. It’s just that Senior’s flames are entrancing,” Hui said, waving his hand.
“Hmph. Stop eyeing my girl,” the lantern said, turning slightly away from him.
On the opposite side of the door they hung over, the other lantern whirled around. This lantern had a slender, handsome face, haughty, sporting high cheekbones. “Your girl? She’s everyone’s girl. Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Making it sound like my woman is the town’s whore, how presumptuous!” the first lantern snapped. His flames flared up, bursting out of the top of the lantern.
“Stop deluding yourself, idiot. She belongs to everyone,” the second lantern said, rolling its eyes.
“Er, Seniors… where could I find myself some of these flames?” Hui asked.
“Hands off my woman!” the first lantern howled.
The second one shook its body, as if shaking its head. It nodded at Hui. “Head toward the center of town. In the Grand Dragon’s gambling den, ask for Little Fire.”
“You—how dare you!” the first lantern spat, trembling with rage.
Hui bowed. “Thank you, Senior.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” the lantern muttered, half to itself.
“Hmm?” Hui asked.
“Nothing,” the lantern said, turning away.
Hmm… suspicious! Though I’ll be honest, going to a Grand Dragon’s gambling den sounds like danger from start to finish! This small Hui will have to be very careful, very careful! Hui nodded to himself as he walked off, adjusting his hat once more.
“She’s my woman, you hear me? My woman!” the first lantern shouted after him, furious.
“Yes, yes, Senior. Small cultivator understands!” Hui said, bowing as he backed away. Too noisy, far too noisy. It’s time to make my escape! He whirled on his heel and ran off. The lantern continued to shout after him, but Hui snaked through the crowd and escaped, leaving the lantern to cause a scene on its own.
Comments
noct
Don't tempt me
Elizabeth Marrelle
Hui is crossdressing now
