Acai's Sky

Chapter 996 Huangquan 1 Street 3

The foul smell was like a sticky spider web, wrapping around the stuffed bear on the old woman's fingertips.

Button Eyes whimpered softly in her palm, like the whispers of a wronged soul trapped in the depths of the underworld.

The old woman's withered fingers suddenly exerted force and threw the doll into the drawer behind her which was made of human skin. The rusty key slipped from between her nails and hit the bluestone floor with a cold sound. The sparks that flew up disappeared in an instant, like the fleeting hope in the underworld.

"The treasure on the second floor——"

The old woman opened her bleeding mouth, and half of her gold tooth shone eerily in the green phosphorescent light. "They all have fangs. Of course, the price..."

She stuck out her tongue to lick her dry lips, and her tongue split in two. "It's harder than a soul-snatching rope."

The wooden staircase groaned in a way that made one's teeth ache. With every step, black slime oozed out from the rotten cracks like a monster's saliva.

Just as Ah Cai stepped onto the seventh step, there was a sudden roar of porcelain breaking downstairs, like thunder from the depths of the underworld.

When everyone looked back, they saw the Black Mountain Demon running wildly with a wine jar as thick as a water jar on his back, his bellyband straps dancing wildly in the wind, like a drunkard throwing a tantrum.

His red hair was disheveled, and half a sealing talisman was stuck to his butt. He ran and howled, "Help! This old man wants to use my demon pill to make Meng Po soup! I haven't even got married yet!"

The old woman chased after him, waving a spirit-calling banner. The corpse worms entangled in her silver hair fell down and squirmed on the ground, forming strange patterns.

The sewing machine under her feet suddenly grew spider legs and rushed around carrying a cabinet full of human skin lanterns. Wherever it passed, the shelves turned into giant gluttonous mouths with bared fangs and claws, gnawing on the netherworld air floating in the air.

"Dare you take my demon wine jar for free?"

The old woman screamed, her voice like nails scraping against a coffin, "Watch me refine you into a Nine-Transformation Resurrection Pill, and you will never be able to reincarnate!"

The scene on the second floor was so strange and suffocating.

The revolving display stand was like a never-ending gallows, and the blood-colored barrier surged on the surface of the display case like boiling blood plasma.

The air was filled with a sweet and fishy mixture of rust and rotting flesh, and every breath felt like swallowing a razor blade.

In the crystal coffin in the center, half of the torn pages of the Book of Life and Death are suspended in it, and the golden seal characters are faintly visible in the air of the underworld. Every stroke carries a heart-pounding pressure, as if recording the most terrifying secret in the world.

"Have you seen enough, little girl?"

The old woman's voice came from behind, with a disgusting damp feeling, like a rag soaked in corpse water.

She was pulling out the stuffing from the teddy bear, and the black flocs fell to the ground and turned into wriggling maggots, weaving a fine black web on the ground.

"Seven pawn tickets, seven shackles—collect them all, and the Book of Life and Death is yours."

She snapped her fingers, and the booth began to spin wildly. Twelve projections lit up like a kaleidoscope, each emitting an unsettling glow.

In the first projection, the cheongsam-clad female ghost pursed her red lips in front of the bronze mirror, and the skull hairpin on her temples glowed faintly.

Her skin was like peeling wall paint, revealing the rotting muscle tissue underneath, but she still posed seductively in front of the mirror.

"The juice of Lycoris radiata is the best match for my rouge..." She said coquettishly, stroking the rotten half of her face in the mirror with her fingertips.

Suddenly, black blood oozed out of the mirror and swallowed her whole like a waterfall, leaving only the fallen pawn ticket, which was still stained with undried corpse oil and exuded a sickening sweet smell.

"This ticket belongs to me!" The golden raccoon dog jumped up and wrapped its tail around the pawn ticket.

Its nose twitched suddenly, sensing something amiss. "Wait, the scent of jasmine is mixed with the smell of rotting flesh! This female ghost must be lying..."

Before she could finish her words, the pawn ticket suddenly turned into a moth, flapping its wings and flew into the old woman's sleeve.

The old woman giggled, took out the charred moth corpse from her sleeve, and scratched the tip of the golden raccoon dog's nose with her nails, leaving a scorch mark that emitted blue smoke.

"Smart little bastard..." she hissed. "In the underworld, the sweeter the fragrance, the deeper the trap. It's like Meng Po soup: sweet when you drink it, but you forget who you are after you finish it."

In the second projection, three little ghosts were playing Landlord on the skeleton card table.

The kid wearing sunglasses threw out a glowing tooth card, and a forked black tongue stretched out from his grinning mouth. Saliva dripped from the corners of his mouth, corroding small holes on the table.

"Exchange your memory for a ticket?"

It laughed strangely and suddenly leaned close to Ah Cai's ear, a foul smell hitting her face. "It could be the wedding night - or the moment when you watch a loved one die. Hehe, I love to see people in agony on earth the most."

Qin General Wang Jian suddenly stepped forward, the talisman paper in his hand glowing faintly: "Perhaps, we can use... special memories?"

The picture of "Qin Shi Huang Granting Marriage" that he quickly drew was lifelike, but the moment he handed it over, the little ghost smelled the flaw.

The little ghost in sunglasses suddenly jumped up and tore the talisman paper into pieces. The tip of the judge's pen ignited the flame of the underworld. "Fake! You deceived the residents of Huangquan. According to the law, you should be beheaded! I will let you taste the taste of the eighteen levels of hell!"

"Wait a minute!"

Qin general Meng Yi took out a playing card. The cards were not printed with suits of cards, but with the ferocious faces of ox-headed and horse-faced monsters, each expression full of malice.

"How about a bet?" he asked gravely. "The loser hands over the pawn ticket, and the winner takes all the coppers. Do you dare to take a chance?"

The three little ghosts' eyes suddenly lit up, and the tooth cards hit the table in the shape of a skull, making a teeth-grinding friction sound.

In the first game, Qin general Meng Yi deliberately lost miserably to let the little ghosts relax their vigilance; in the second game, he cleverly set up a game and used the "Zha Jin Hua" technique to win back the key cards; in the deciding game, the little ghost wearing sunglasses was so anxious that he kept scratching his butt. Its tail had turned into a snake's tail and was whipping the ground frantically, with its scales rubbing against each other and making a rustling sound.

"Boom! Four bull heads!" Meng Yi threw out the cards, a golden light flashed, and the tooth cards of the three little ghosts were swallowed up in an instant.

The kid wearing sunglasses was so upset that he wanted to cry, but he suddenly took off his sunglasses. In his empty eye sockets, two spiders were spinning silk and weaving a web, and their eight legs drew strange arcs in the air.

"You're so cruel!" it said viciously, "But next time, we won't be fooled so easily!"

It suddenly stuffed the pawn ticket into Ah Cai's hand, turned around and muttered to its companions: "The people in the mortal world are really smart. They should have known to use the cards soaked in Meng Po soup. They will forget who they are as soon as they touch the cards, hehehe..."

When the fifth pawn ticket was pocketed, the whole street suddenly rang out with sharp whistles, like a call from the depths of the underworld.

Countless will-o'-the-wisp flames gushed out from the ground and transformed into stalls of various shapes.

The oil pan of the fried ghost vendor was bubbling. After the crispy ghosts were sprinkled with chili powder, they actually made faces at the diners and muttered, "Take a bite. If you eat it, I will make sure you walk sideways in the underworld!"

The blind old woman at the fortune-telling stall shook the skull dice, each side of which depicted a different way of death. "Can you tell me about my marriage?"

She suddenly grabbed Ah Cai's wrist, her skinny fingers like iron clamps. "You are destined to suffer a bloody disaster—how about I help you change your fate in exchange for three years of my life? But I have something to tell you, changing your fate is worse than being frying in oil."

In the dark, two little ghosts squatted in the corner and whispered.

The little ghost on the left is chewing on a glowing eyeball lollipop, with sugar dripping from the corners of his mouth and corroding small pits on the ground.

"See? That woman collecting pawn tickets must have some big conspiracy," it muttered. "Maybe she's trying to tamper with the Book of Life and Death to achieve immortality."

The little ghost on the right stuffed his mouth with ghost fire marshmallows, which made crackling sounds. "Who cares? Once they gather, we'll..."

It suddenly let out a sinister laugh, and the marshmallow in its hand transformed into entwined chains. "Catch her in a trap and pawn her soul! Hehehe, we'll make a killing again."

At this time, Acai was staring at the sixth pawn ticket flashing on the stall.

It was a bell floating in a pool of blood. Every ring was accompanied by the cry of a baby, and the sound was full of despair and pain.

The surface of the bell is covered with tiny cracks, like the mouths of countless wronged souls shouting silently.

The old woman appeared behind her again at some point, with new eyes sewn onto the stuffed bear in her hand - they were two living human eyeballs, turning around in fear. Tears mixed with blood slid down her cheeks and dripped onto the stuffed bear's body, creating strange blood flowers.

"Want this pawn ticket?" the old woman whispered in her ear, her voice like a venomous snake. "As for the price... guess what?"