Fantasy: Immortality Begins with Absorbing Demons

Chapter 251 The Realm of Ghosts (Part 1)

It's no wonder the woman was so nervous. She was just an ordinary citizen, and the highest-ranking people she had ever met were only constables and yamen runners.

The person in front of you is an inner disciple who is unapproachable!

Thinking of this, she became even more nervous and stammered, "My husband usually goes home early on time, but this time my family has been waiting and waiting, and he hasn't shown up. We thought he was busy and couldn't get away, but we haven't even received a message, so I came to ask..."

"Zhang Dongping, did Xiao Ba tell you where he went?"

Han Yi shook his head and looked at Zhang Dongping standing to the side. He hadn't been to the black market at all last week and didn't know much about these things.

“Xiao Ba did go home to rest…” Zhang Dongping thought for a while, “He also went to the cafeteria to get some eggs and smoked meat, saying he would take them home to eat. That was several days ago. Where else could he have gone if he didn’t go home?”

Although Xiao Ba is a bit clever, he usually only does things that are lazy and slacking off. Overall, he is an honest person.

When was the last time you saw him?

Han Yi's brows remained furrowed as he continued to press for answers.

"It must have been the night before he went home to rest. We were changing shifts in the live goods section at the time..."

Zhang Dongping gave an uncertain answer.

"The night before...the live goods section..."

"He didn't go home and was still patrolling at night, which means if something really happened to him, it's possible that it happened in the black market or on his way home..."

Thinking of this, Han Yi shouted at Zhang Dongping in a stern voice.

"Take a few men and search the live goods area to see if you can find any clues!"

Zhang Dongping dared not delay and summoned several disciples to head there quickly.

"Master Han, something terrible has happened!"

Soon, he arrived in front of Han Yi with a package, his voice low and urgent.

He first glanced at Xiao Ba Niangzi, who was sitting uneasily to the side, and then whispered to Han Yi, "Master Han, the brothers just searched the live goods area as you instructed, and sure enough, they found Xiao Ba's things in an abandoned house!"

"oh…..."

Han Yi glanced at the package and saw that it contained flatbread, smoked meat, and several hard-boiled eggs with broken shells covered in dust.

Besides these, the most eye-catching item is a soft whip. It is a seven-section whip, more than three feet long, made of tanned animal hide, with faint traces of dried blood on it.

At the tip of the whip, there is a ring that secures it, with Xiao Ba's name engraved on it.

Although the woman kept her head down and dared not say much, she kept glancing at their movements.

When she saw the soft whip, she was stunned for a moment, and then tears welled up in her eyes.

This soft whip was Xiao Ba's most prized possession. His family was not well-off to begin with, and he spent several months' salary to buy it.

After buying it, I would wipe it with a soft cloth with grease whenever I had free time. I wanted to hold it with me even when I slept and ate. How could I easily throw it away?

Something must have happened!

The more the woman thought about it, the more sorrowful she became. She could no longer hold back her grief, her face turned deathly pale, and she burst into tears.

For a moment, the guard post was filled with the heart-wrenching cries of a woman…

……………

"Missing..."

Han Yi absentmindedly flipped through the register in his hand, but his mind was on Xiao Ba's disappearance.

In the evening, he finally managed to calm the grieving woman down, gave her some money to go home first, and reassured her that he would comfort her as soon as he heard any news about Xiao Ba.

After all, there's no sign of him alive or dead; all we see now are some items, which Xiao Ba might have accidentally dropped.

However, having just dealt with this troublesome matter and before he could even catch his breath, another large shipment arrived, and Han Yi had to go and check the registers again.

Perhaps it's because they know there's a shortage of live goods on the black market.

This time, those brokers, I don't know where they came from or what methods they used, prepared so many 'live goods'.

The convoy of vehicles stretched like a string of pearls, forming a long, dense line. Even after unloading goods for most of the day, the line continued uninterrupted. After a busy period, Han Yi was finally able to sit down, have a cup of tea, rest for a while, and have time to think carefully about Xiao Ba's matter again.

"But this black market is in the heart of the city, and it's surrounded by the territory of the Crimson Flame Sect. What kind of danger could occur within our own sphere of influence?"

He looked at the blood-stained whip in his hand, his mind racing with speculation.

"Neither alive nor dead" was merely a way to comfort Xiao Ba Niangzi.

He knew perfectly well that abandoning his beloved weapon for no apparent reason and not showing up for several days was a clear sign that he had encountered danger, and it was even possible that something had happened in the black market.

However, what puzzled Han Yi was that a perfectly healthy person, surrounded by so many disciples, and in the city, could possibly be in any danger.

He pondered for a moment, then stood up and walked towards the live goods section.

Along the way, he ignored the greetings from his many disciples and hurriedly arrived at the room where he had found the items on Xiao Ba's body.

"This room..."

Han Yi strode over, tore off the outer layer of black cloth, and gently touched the iron bars on the window with his fingertips.

It seemed that because no one had lived there or cleaned it for a long time, as soon as he touched it, a damp, cold, and eerie feeling surged into his body through his fingers, and he suddenly shivered.

Then, the Qianyang Gong circulated spontaneously, and a stream of heat spread from the dantian along the meridians to all parts of the body.

The previous chill melted away rapidly under the influence of the Yang energy, like spring snow, and was soon no longer felt.

"This room..."

Han Yi withdrew his finger and used his thumb to rub the dried, dark red substance on his index finger.

He placed his finger under his nose, and a faint smell of blood entered his nasal cavity. Han Yi finally remembered this room and what had happened before…

That happened about two weeks ago...

At that time, it seems that a young lady from a security escort agency was sold to the black market, and as a result, she smashed her head against the railing and died right here in this house!

For this reason, many people disliked the house because it was considered unlucky, and abandoned it.

Han Yi looked inside and saw blackened wooden walls, rusty black iron chains, and tattered, yellowish-brown thatched mats.

Everything is as usual, everything is as it always has been.

"Why did Xiao Ba's things end up in here...? He's so busy at night, why did he go into this empty house..."

The wind blew, and only Han Yi murmured to himself in bewilderment.

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The moon sets and crows cry; the night is pitch black, with dark clouds pressing down on the sky, making it seem as if you can't see your hand in front of your face.

The black market, at midnight, is precisely when most people are most prone to drowsiness.

At this moment, a servant disciple was carrying a lantern and yawning as he slowly walked through the live goods area.

This evening, a big dealer brought in a batch of high-quality live goods from somewhere. Just the handling and processing during the day was already exhausting!

At night, they even have to patrol!

The servant couldn't stop complaining in his heart.

Since that incident in the black market, patrolling has become an important task there.

Every moment, all day long, requires dedicated personnel to inspect and patrol to prevent accidents. However, where there's a policy, there's a countermeasure; these menial workers are mostly slow and inefficient, neither putting in their best effort nor being conscientious.

He casually shone the lantern into the house, didn't even glance inside, and immediately turned and left.

What could possibly happen so late at night?

Hurry up and finish watching, then go back to sleep – that's the most important thing!

As he casually closed the black cloth and turned to leave, the woman inside the room grinned, giving a strange smile.

Even though her eyes were closed, she moved like a puppet, tearing off her thin clothes and unconsciously running her hands over her body. Large red marks then appeared on her fair skin, extremely noticeable.

Immediately following, there was a surge of skin, bulging and pulsating, as if tiny mice were rapidly moving beneath the skin, from the feet to the head, from the foot meridian to the kidney meridian, finally flowing to the Baihui point…

With a low, guttural roar, the once plump and voluptuous woman instantly transformed into a dried-up corpse, her skin turning a dark bluish-black like stone, and even cracking with patterns resembling shattered porcelain.

Shuttle shuttle...

A slight rustling sound arose, and what was puzzling was that the sound did not come from outside the house, nor from the soil, but from the mummified corpse!

Wow!

Countless densely packed black insects with sharp teeth burst forth from the woman's corpse like a tidal wave, causing countless tiny holes to appear in her mouth, nose, ears, and even her skin!

The swarm of insects left through the crack in the door and rushed to the next house.

In this night unnoticed, one by one, women died, their faces contorted in agony, all turning into mummies…

Gradually, a chill began to appear, then turned into icy cold, and finally made people feel a gloomy chill.

After so many deaths, a thick, almost tangible aura of yin energy enveloped countless faint, transparent humanoid figures, which drifted forward amidst the swarm of insects…

When the tide reached the last house on the street, the house where the young lady of the security escort agency committed suicide…

Suddenly, a powerful suction force emanated from the room, and the swarm of insects and humanoids were all frantically swept inside.

In this process, the swarm of insects was fragmented, shrunk, torn apart, and fragmented limbs and carapaces flew about. Humanoid forms were also ripped apart, becoming bizarre, deformed… grotesque, and twisted…

This room was like a bottomless black hole in a dark body of water. With the entry of these countless strange substances, the originally peaceful atmosphere seemed to reach a certain extreme, and then suddenly... it was "detonated"!