Chapter 156: Making an Exception
Lin Huai sat down quietly on a waiting bench by the door, observing the customer through an ornamental screen. Whoever it was wore an even more thorough disguise than her own, completely swallowed by fabric.
A moment later, the stranger walked past the screen without a word and strode out into the alley.
Lin Huai could not see through the layers of cloth, and the stranger could not pierce her deep hood. They merely brushed past each other in silence, turning in opposite directions.
Lin Huai rose and stepped behind the partition.
Behind the wooden counter sat a shopkeeper whose face remained entirely blurred, as though veiled behind a patch of thick, shifting fog. He lazily clicked the beads of an abacus—beads carved from segments of yellowed finger bones.
“Honored guest, what do you seek? Secret knowledge, ancient relics, or… useful connections?” The shopkeeper’s voice drifted with an airy, hollow cadence, laying out the parlor’s trade.
Lin Huai got straight to the point. “I need a shortcut to the Netherworld Blood Sea to claim the Karma Fire White Lotus.”
Though the shopkeeper’s features were lost in the mist, Lin Huai distinctly felt an icy, piercing gaze lock onto her skin like driven nails.
“A shortcut to the Karma Fire White Lotus?” He drew out the final syllable thoughtfully. “Who told you I had access to such a thing?”
Lin Huai’s tone was cold and unyielding. She had no intention of exposing Old Hei. “That is none of your concern. You only need to tell me whether you can provide the route.”
With a sharp thud, she dropped a heavy pouch of Yin energy crystals onto the solid counter.
Noticing her uncompromising posture and the generous coin, the shopkeeper’s sharp tone softened. “A shortcut… Yes, I can provide one. It is just that…”
As he spoke, his bony fingers reached eagerly toward the purse.
Thunk!
Lin Huai drew a combat dagger and drove it straight through the fabric of the pouch into the wood, the steel tip missing his fingers by an inch.
Her voice dropped to a razor chill. “The contact who directed me here told me what you know. You should understand that I am no ordinary survivor.”
“If you try to swindle me, be prepared to spend the rest of your days looking over your shoulder.”
She smoothly pulled the blade from the table, sliding it back into its sheath with a crisp click. “If your shortcut is genuine, this bag is merely the down payment. Once I return in one piece, the remaining balance will be three times this amount.”
“I assume an information broker never turns away real wealth?”
The shopkeeper truly cared only for profit. The moment he heard this was just an advance, his demeanor became downright cheerful.
“Very well, very well! You want a path to the Blood Sea? But let me be entirely clear: I am only responsible for pointing out the way. I will not hold your hand, and whether you possess the strength to make it through is entirely on your own head.”
He snatched the pouch, tucking it securely into his robes, and stood up to lead her through the rear door.
“The side path to the Netherworld Blood Sea is not an easy trek. True, it bypasses the checkpoint sentries and brings you to the waters early, but the terrain is far deadlier, and you might easily leave your bones behind. Are you certain you still wish to go?”
Having pushed this far, hesitation was out of the question. Lin Huai nodded, her voice steady. “Tell me the way. Whether I come out alive is my own affair.”
The shopkeeper said no more. He led her down a winding dirt trail behind the parlor, slipping through a silent grove of gnarled locust trees until they reached the edge of a sluggish, dark river.
The water was black and murky. Lin Huai lightly nudged a fallen leaf into the current, watching it instantly spiral downward into the depths without floating back up. She understood immediately: this water could carry no weight.
The broker pointed toward a weathered wooden dock jutting into the mist. “Do you see that landing? Lift a soul-guiding lamp, stand on the planks, and a ferry will arrive for you.”
He plucked a dark leaf from a low locust branch, resting it upon his palm. As a wisp of pale smoke rose from his skin, the leaf withered and flattened into a narrow slip of yellow paper.
Handing the slip to Lin Huai, he instructed, “Once you step aboard, do not speak. Simply hand this slip to the ferryman, and she will navigate you to your destination.”
Lin Huai took the paper and examined it closely. It was stamped with a stark crimson seal reading Xiao, clearly the broker’s personal mark. On the reverse were several twisting, archaic glyphs she could not read, likely the spiritual coordinates of the Netherworld Blood Sea.
As she tucked the token away, the shopkeeper shrugged, turning back toward the trees. “For the sake of the final payment, take one last piece of advice: the Karma Fire White Lotus does not bloom for those without the right destiny.”
Lin Huai weighed a second, larger pouch of crystals in her hand and tossed it toward his retreating back.
The shopkeeper caught the heavy purse without turning around. When his fingers registered the sheer volume of crystals inside, he stopped dead and spun back in surprise.
Lin Huai had already turned toward the rickety pier, not breaking her stride. “If I lack that destiny and fail to return alive, at least I won’t die owing you a debt.”
The broker stared down at the fortune resting in his hands. He closed his eyes, exhaling a slow, heavy breath, as though wrestling with an internal choice.
“Fine… It is rare to meet a mortal with such honest pride. I will bend the rules for her just this once!”
Raising two fingers to his lips, he whispered a low, secret incantation into the wind.
Walking along the damp bank, Lin Huai suddenly heard the shopkeeper’s voice echo right against her ear, delivering a single, crucial instruction. She paused, glancing over her shoulder, but the dark woods behind her were completely bare. The broker was gone.
The message had been sent directly to her soul.
Lin Huai chuckled softly under her breath. “Thank you. I’ll watch my step.”
Reaching into her inventory, she brought out a soul-guiding lamp. As its pale flame flickered to life, she walked onto the wooden landing.
Just as the broker had promised, the moment the lamp illuminated the dark water, an ancient wooden skiff drifted out from the heavy river mist, gliding silently toward the pier like a ghost ship.
Holding the lantern steady, Lin Huai stepped aboard the damp deck and passed the paper slip to the cloaked figure at the stern without making a sound.
The ferryman accepted the marker with a cold, pale hand, glancing at the seal. The paper melted back into a dead leaf, which she flicked into the water, watching it sink straight to the bottom.
All around them, bloated corpses and water ghouls bobbed beneath the dark surface, their pale eyes staring blankly. Yet whenever the small skiff glided past, they quickly ducked beneath the current, only floating back up once the boat had cleared the area.
Wrapped tightly in her dark cloak, Lin Huai sat motionless, studying the craft, the bottomless river beneath her boots, and the countless entities swimming beneath the hull.
This was the very same river that ran alongside the endless highway.
Standard survival rules strictly forbade players from touching this water. Yet here she sat, traveling across its surface, while the monsters below treated her as invisible.
Before stepping through the Ghost Market’s stone arch, she had anticipated the need to hide her living warmth. She had rested inside the blood jade coffin for several hours beforehand, allowing the heavy Yin aura of the artifact to saturate her flesh and clothing. To the creatures of the underworld, she appeared as just another wandering spirit.
However, that borrowed aura would only hold for four hours.
She needed to secure the Karma Fire White Lotus, escape the Blood Sea, clear the Ghost Market, and return to her vehicle before that protective veil faded.
Touching the spatial jade bracelet on her wrist, Lin Huai kept her gaze on the dark horizon, counting down the minutes in silence.
