A Good-for-Nothing

183. A Little Boy (1)

Translator: Dragon Rider

On entry, He Zheng had sensed something was not right. He only remembered hearing a shout from Qiu Luo, which had been followed by a sharp flash of sword-light striking down from the sky like a lightning spell. He had subconsciously turned to look at Jin Qianlai and the others, but they had all vanished amid the glaring sword-light.

He Zheng was walking alone in an alley where the road was paved with blue flagstones. This place was very peculiar. The flagstones were somewhat abnormally large in terms of both their length and their breadth. They were dark brown and bore even darker marks which looked like dried blood.

A chill wind blew by and He Zheng, who was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, felt a wave of wetness break over him. He rubbed his naked arm. His skin was warm, not cold, but he still felt very cold, as if the chill wind had directly blown through his soul.

BARK! BARK!

He heard a flurry of dog barks. Wondering, He Zheng muttered, “There are dogs in this alley?”

He slowly proceeded forward. To his surprise, the perfectly straight alleyway led him to a fork. The barking of the dog was getting increasingly fierce. Eyebrows knitted, face full of confusion, He Zheng looked from the alley pervaded by black gas to the fork. Without any hesitation, he started making towards the fork.

When he had taken one step forward, the surroundings began to change drastically. The originally bright sky abruptly went dark, and the bluestone-flagged alleyway turned into rows of stores and buildings of different heights. Red Chinese lanterns hung from the eaves of those stores, candle flames flicking inside them, but the color of the flames was an eerie green.

However, there were people walking on the streets, and various kinds of calls could be heard, making this place quite uproarious. He Zheng watched those people walking with their backs to him. Then he turned his head aside to observe those passing him from different directions. There was nothing out of the ordinary about these people apart from their rather fixed facial expressions and unduly pale complexion.

In a massage parlor.

A young woman abruptly opened her eyes. Her appearance was very plain and probably wouldn’t leave any impression on those walking past her, but her eyes were all black, with no pupils or whites, looking a trifle frightening.

“Oh, I got hurt.” The woman raised her left hand. Black gas was escaping from her palm, which was a somewhat spooky sight.

“How did he come to fall into the Phantom Market?” mumbled the woman, as if to herself, but her voice was very weird, sounding like a synthesized voice.

With black gas gradually covering her face, the woman’s lips curved in a very creepy smile. The left half of her lips curled up, but the other half was flat and straight, as though someone had used an iron to make it that way. “The Spectral Market allows entry but no exit. It seems that the Demonic Seed is not in his possession.”

The Spectral Market repelled the tremendous energy contained in the Demonic Seed. Had He Zheng been carrying the Demonic Seed, he would have, instead of accidentally gaining entry into the Phantom Market, been lured by the Human Devil through the alley to the massage parlor where the Human Devil was currently staying and would eventually drain him of his mental energy as he had done Wang Dong and the other three students.

The Human Devil rose from her feet. It was not until this moment that the whole inside of the massage parlor was seen. Before the Human Devil stood a couple of pretty, young girls, all of whom were wearing vulgar, black dotted silk stockings, red leather skirts and heavy eye make-up. Their features were beautiful but their lips were covered with bright, blood-red lipstick. The fragrance of cheap cosmetics mixed with pungent perfume. Thick foundation make-up perfectly concealed the post-mortem stains that had appeared on their skin.

With a wave of the Human Devil’s hand, one of the girls meekly walked over to her. There seemed to be nothing unusual about her except for her fairly stiff movement.

“Good girl.” As the Human Devil gently ran her fingers through the girl’s hair, the girl seemed to give a hallucinatory blink.

Soon, a traveler, who had just finished a tiring journey and checked into a nearby hotel, pushed open the doors of the massage parlor. “Welcome.” A harsh voice was heard. The Human Devil narrowed her eyes. Her face had returned to normal, the black gas gone. Smiling, a girl walked up to the traveler. “Good evening, Sir. Massage or cupping?”

…

He Zheng wanted to stop the man in front and ask him what this place was, but when he had stretched out his hand, he hesitated.

People on the streets were either walking or sitting, but those who were walking seemed to belong to some kind of loose formation. What with the night and those eerie red Chinese lanterns, the flickering shadows of pedestrians kept giving He Zheng a feeling that all this was illusory.

Suddenly, someone gave He Zheng’s sleeve a pull. He confusedly turned and saw a white-skinned, delicate little boy who had two ram-horn braids on the sides of his head and was holding a leash the other end of which was attached to a collar around a big black dog’s neck.

“What are you doing here, Big Brother?”

“Me?” He Zheng, who had no idea how he’d ended up in this place either, shook his head. “I don’t know. I entered this place by accident.”

“Wow, so you came from the outside?” The little boy pointed at a spot. He Zheng looked in that direction and saw that what she was pointing at was the entrance of the bluestone-flagged alley, which was not far away.

As he was only a kid, He Zheng wasn’t really wary of him. He replied with a nod, “Yeah.”

The little boy thoughtfully lowered his head. “Coming from the outside means edible.”

“What did you just say?”

He Zheng failed to distinguish his words.

The little boy shook his head and looked around. Nobody seemed to have noticed them. He flicked several appraising glances at He Zheng and said, “Big Brother, you’re not supposed to be here. This place is very dangerous. Come with me.”

The little boy raised his arm at He Zheng. Her fingers were very white. As he was just a kid, He Zheng was totally off guard and held his hand, but the moment his hand came into contact with his, He Zheng felt a stab of coldness spread from his palm straight to his soul. As though he was holding something extremely repulsive, a layer of cold sweat instantly welled up on his back.

“You…”