Ronghua did not react to her findings and kept ascending the stairs with Rongnuan. A timeworn smell for out of repair spread out when they opened the door, nearly driving Ronghua to throw up. How long had it been uncleaned?
Rongnuan stayed calm and patted at her back to comfort her. Ronghua still stepped in with him, pretending to be normal. The desk and chairs all had a thick layer of dust heaped on them. Ronghua snapped her fingers, and the flame burned all the dust in the blink of an eye.
The server found the dust had gone when he followed in, but his stiff face did not express much astonishment. He put down the dishes and went out, shutting the door consciously.
Rongnuan was aware of the surprise in the server’s eyes but did not mention it at that time, and now he asked, “Can’t he smile?”
Ronghua sat down and browsed at the table, “Can the dead smile?”
Rongnuan had no word to retort, but he did not mind this and sat down as well. He gazed at the food and did not find anything wrong. However, when Ronghua used her fire to burn them, all that he had seen changed.
“Is…is that…” a human?
Ronghua wiped her hands with a handkerchief and signed, “Well, I won’t eat. How about you?”
Rongnuan stared at her, speechless. Ronghua laughed amusedly, “These are not for our meal.”
Ronghua waved her hands and glimpsed at both sides, “It seems that…there are other humans here?” Then they heard shouts from outside. Ronghua might have missed the sound if she had not got a sharp sense of hearing. Rongnuan also seemed to hear something, “The next door…” “Hush!” Ronghua interrupted him and gave a sign of keeping silent.
Then she made gestures, instructing him to move to the wall.
They kept their movements light and leaned on the wall to hear. There was suddenly a sound of a knife cutting on the meat. They looked at each other, guessing those servers were killing humans. The ones who visited here were people coming in without noticing abnormity or being duped. They were all be treated as food by the ghosts here as soon as they stepped in.
Ronghua pressed her hand against the wall, sensing the emotion conveyed from the other side of the wall. Then she perceived the smell of the soul of one who was murdered, and a strong scent of blood came. She could feel the smell of blood was full of the room at that side without sniffing intentionally.
“Are they all the ordinary humans cheated into this place?”
“No!” Ronghua observed a while and replied warily, “Even though it is the inn operated by ghosts, some audacious people who are not afraid of death still come.”
Not afraid of death? “Who?” Ronghua peered at him and pointed at the middle of his forehand, then Rongnuan understood at once. The ones who were able to open the third eye should be…the Taoists.
“Do they know what happened here?” Ronghua shook her head and said, “The cultivation of the owner of this inn was not low. Each room here is isolated, preventing the people inside from hearing the sounds or see other ones outside.”
“Then should we…” rescue them? Ronghua glimpsed at him with a resigned look and walked to the bed, “Don’t think about it. We could do it in the past, but now, I can’t use any spiritual power of mine, and you did not have cultivation yet. We might not even fight against a ghost server here.”
Rongnuan was wordless. Was she looking down on him?
“Could we start cultivating now?” he asked cautiously, and Ronghua saw the emotions in his eye. He was eager for power. “Yes!” she took out a book and handed over, “Come ask me after you finish reading this.” Rongnuan took the book and gazed at it, “This is the supreme fire spell—the Realm of Endless Fire.” This book recorded the sublime state of Empyreal Shenfeng of fire control, the Realm of Endless Fire, which was much more powerful than other fire spells. If he could practice it to perfection, he could even compete with the Sixth-heaven Phoenix.
“You…you gave me this?” Obviously, Rongnuan had not recovered from astonishment. “What? Is there any problem?” Ronghua held one teacup, sipped, and asked curiously. Rongnuan found back his mind at once, “No. I will practice this industriously. Then how to do with my wood spells?”
Ronghua was considering this as well, but she decided, “There’s no good to go so fast on cultivation. Focus on practicing this fire spell first. I will give you the wood spell when I find a suitable one.”
Rongnuan echoed and brought the book to cultivate. Ronghua took out a pair of ear clips in the shape of real ears and wore them, hence she could hear many voices that he could not listen.
Rongnuan knew that there were things she had to do, so he did not bother her anymore. However, this inn was too large that she could not hear what she wanted even with the ear clips, so she had to go outside.
A flame floated from her fingertip silently and flew around Rongnuan. These ghosts could not harm him as long as he did not step out of the circle of the flame’s protection. “Rongnuan, I need to go out. No matter what you hear later, even I call you, don’t come out. Do you understand?”
Rongnuan asked, “Even you are calling me?”
“Yes,” Ronghua said firmly.
“Then I wait here for you to come back,” Rongnuan replied. Ronghua’s heart stroke her when she heard this. There was something about to come out in her mind. She tried her best to push it back and walked out. Before she got out, she handed a few Dragon-virtue Fruits to him, “Eat this when you are hungry.”
After shutting the door, Ronghua leaped to downstairs when the ghosts had not discovered her yet. In the room, Rongnuan held the Dragon-virtue Fruit in hand, thoughtfully.
It proved true of their suspicion that these ghosts ate living humans. Ronghua hid her breath and followed those ghost servers to the eastern kitchen. She already smelled the blood before she entered. Ronghua frowned and stared at those busy…ghosts. They were freaky compared with typical ghosts! Their skins were as pale and dark as the dead, the eyes were protruding, and the mouths deviated from the normal place. Some lost one hand and used the remaining one chopping on the meats, which might be the flesh of the living humans. No, the dead humans.
A brawny ghost was stirring with a large spoon in the pot, unknown liquid flowing down from his mouth. Ronghua felt sick for this scene.
“Well, we have new living humans come!” A thin server started chatting, holding a tub in the arm.
“Oh, how do they taste?” The ghost with a spoon asked emotionless. Taste? Were they talking about Rongnuan and her?
“Not too bad! The male is a bit tasty, but the female…is not good, just enough to fill the belly,” the thin server said with dissatisfaction.
“Not good? Me? Is it suitable to make such comments on me just because he could not see my face through the veil I wore?” Ronghua complained in her mind.
She felt annoyed about their conversation and left.
She went to another place and was about to sit down, but she noted that many ghosts had arrived in the hall. Ronghua confirmed again carefully. Then she scouted a spot at which was unimpressive and convenient for monitoring those ghosts.
These newly arriving ghosts dressed more decently. They might have been ghosts for years. Was anything going to happened here resulted in their gathering? Ronghua gazed at a fat ghost in front of her, who was holding an abacus and calculating meticulously.
Another one quipped, “Milord the Fifth, do you come to buy something again? Do you have enough money? I can lend you some if you need any.”
Milord the Fifth despised him, “Come on, Milord Gao! Keep your money to cheat someone else! I can’t afford your usury!”
It turned out that Milord the Fifth came here once a few years ago and lend the money from Milord Gao when he paid for a thing but lack of money. However, Milord Gao turned the loan to usury, which forced Milord the Fifth to surrender all his resources and even appeared in the dream of his living relatives to raise enough funds to repay. Hence, he hated Milord Gao so much.
“How dare a poor guy come to this place!” Milord Gao spat, swore and walked away.
Ronghua smiled contemptuously, squinting at Milord Gao. He had a falsehearted face even as he had died, so she could infer that he had always done similar works when he was alive.
She also deduces from their conversation that this inn was virtually an auction house, which had extraordinary things for bidding, and the price must be considerable.
Before returning from her meditation, four burly males came over and handed her a dozen lists.
Ronghua glanced at the lists and smiled mildly, “I don’t have money. Can I still have a look?”
According to the normal conditions in the human world, they would not be friendly to her if she had no money, while this was not the human area. Those burly fellows did not care about this at all, “We do not only bet on the money!”
Therefore, Ronghua took the lists with a smile. She was a little surprised as they did not mind her human identity.
Maybe this was the wisdom of businessman!
Ronghua unfolded the lists and found the goods they mentioned were quite nice, but all of them were just useful to the dead! There was no need for her to get any one of these.
Besides, most of these goods were instruments for the evil deed. Forgave her that she really could not find suitable words to describe them.
Take the figure-revealing pill as an example. It could help the ghost to be seen by the living passengers at night. They could drive the living to burn the joss paper to them, relying on this method. The ordinaries who frequently walked at night were likely to meet a ghost. This was a well-founded one among the folklores. A human should be Yang when he was alive and be Yin after his death. Yin and Yang were two opposing principles in nature. Yang had more great spirits of righteousness, while Yin had more evil spirits of viciousness. There were more great spirits of righteousness existing at daytimes, so the livings liked to do their business during these periods. Whereas the great spirits would fade at nights, meanwhile, the evil spirits would spread. Hence the ghosts were active at midnights, and they would get in touch with the livings who were still out of homes at that time.
Compared with the figure-revealing pills, the resurgence pills surprised Ronghua the most. This inn could even bring the ghosts back to life, and it seemed that they had sold a lot, which meant that many ghosts might have succeeded.
This severely violated the rule of nature. Not only the one who took this pill would be punished, but also the one who made it would lose his remaining lifetime for this behavior!
Suddenly, there came a regular knock on the door from the outside. The lively hall soon quieted when they heard the beats, and all the guests turned to stare at the entrance. A ghost server went to open the door in a hurry. A strong flow of Yin rushed into the hall when the sever unbarred the door, and all of the others fixed their eyes on the one stood at the door.
Ronghua heard the crisp ringing of the bell before someone stepped in. Then a male dressed in red walked into the hall, with all eyes’ gaze. He might be the head of this place! The swanking red introduced his unique characteristics.
As soon as he entered, he announced, “Let’s begin!” His voice was magnetic. Ronghua thought he was not the one to be trifled with.
All the ghosts became excited after his words, preparing for the fierce competition of auction. Ronghua was also observing him when he spoke, but he wore a mask, and she could see nothing. He was very mysterious.
“The previous rule is still applied. The one who meets my needs could get the goods.”
Well, it seemed that wealth was not the only requirement. He only swapped for the things that satisfied him.
Suddenly, someone firstly offered the price, “Spirit-locking Kettle!”
After he shouted, the others all became unconfident and suspected the source of his treasure. It must be costly to get one!
However, the male in red just clicked on the table, considered for a while, and then said, “Too weak!”
An invisible storm was wandering among the ghosts. If the spirit-locking kettle could not meet his standard, their collections had no advantages either.
Yet despite all that, someone still tried to quote, “Soul-gathering Lamp!”
Why was it an implement related to the soul again?
The male in red ruminated on it for a while, and then he lifted his hand and took the lamp through the air. That ghost did not expect the price would be accepted, so he asked in a whisper when a server came to him. The voice was too low to hear by others, but Ronghua wore her ear clips in advance, so she could hear it no matter how small the sound was.
“I want…the king of the ghost does me a favor. Help me earn a place in the Realm of Ghosts…”
He did not overclaim, but the price might not be enough!