Whispering Verse

Worn bamboo supports held up rotten wooden boards, on which three items were placed. One of them was a severed finger as thick as Shade's wrist. The thick black blood at the base of the broken finger had solidified into ice. For the other two items, you can’t see what they are at all.

Miss Higgins took a few deep breaths, then plucked up the courage to say to the shadow behind the booth:

"Excuse me, do you know..."

She tremblingly took out a piece of paper and read out the ancient runes on it:

"Where are the soul-stealing merchants?"

Shade blinked suspiciously, and the black shadow shook his head slightly, and then pointed to his stall.

The witch thought for a moment, lowered her voice and asked:

“I have to buy something from you so you can answer my question?”

This time it was a nod.

"I need time to think about it. I don't have much money after all."

As they spoke, they stepped back. Even if they had to buy something to ask for directions, they didn't necessarily have to buy it here. They could just go to the market and have a look.

But the shadow was unwilling to let any of the guests go. When the witch retreated, dozens of blood-stained black chains flew towards the witch from the black shadow's feet. Fortunately, Miss Higgins never let down her guard and quickly waved the torch forward while the golden light shone in her right hand. The warm light dissipated some of the chill. Shade was quite familiar with this power. It was the power of the sun.

Most of the chains that attacked the witch slowed down a lot after being illuminated by the light of the torch, while the rest continued to approach the witch. So the fireball in the palm of the witch's right hand covered the surroundings like a bomb explosion, but because of the black mist, it could only extend a short distance to her side.

Through those lights, Shade clearly saw that the black chains were made up of rune chains that represented [Greed]. This was definitely the [Sin Chain] he was most familiar with, but the Sin Chain was definitely not afraid of the sun. strength.

"Be careful."

Old Mrs. Miles and the timid boy Andor Ade hurriedly stepped forward to help. They waved the torches in their hands like witches, slowing down the remaining chains. At the same time, Shade's free left hand had already taken out the sword with silver moonlight from the black mist.

Qiang~

The big sword struck the chain, and while silver light shards and sparks flew everywhere, the two collided and made a scalp-numbing buzz. At the same time, more and more blood-stained chains appeared from all directions, surrounding the four people. Shade then ordered the four people to gather together and face different directions. The waving torches connected the afterimages of the firelight into a line, but that only slowed down a small part of the chains.

"Why can he have so many chains of sin!"

It was like being besieged by a swarm of snakes, but all this happened silently. Shade, who was familiar with the characteristics of [Chain of Sin], reminded loudly:

"This thing has no offensive power, but once it is entangled, the ability to cast spells and move will be imprisoned. Don't try to destroy the chain with ordinary methods, but use the destructive power - the Black Moon Symbol-Hiton Seal."

Shade reached out and grabbed the chain closest to him. The moment he touched it, the flow of spirit in his body stagnated, but the dark moon mark also appeared on the chain.

The chains slowly disintegrated into fly ash, and at the same time, the exploding golden shield pushed all the remaining blood-stained chains outward.

The witch Miss Higgins also understood and kissed the index finger of her right hand. Then the life-corrosive dust scattered from the index finger also caused a small part of the chain to rust and rot.

But whether it's Shade's thaumaturgy or the witch's secret technique, the casting of both powers is quite expensive, and the recovery of spirits in this weird place is almost stagnant. They can't just waste all their power.

"Chains of Sin!"

The chains protruded from Shade's sleeves, making a clattering sound. Under the control of the living rope trick, they got mixed up with the chains that were temporarily pushed away. Chains were intertwined with chains, and the six mortal sin runes were intertwined with countless [Greed], and Xia De suddenly felt a strange feeling in his heart. This was his first confrontation with the [Chain of Sin], and the power of the same source gave him a new understanding.

Although Shade only had one chain, he had the upper hand. The runes symbolizing the six deadly sins emitted a faint light that made his companions uncomfortable, but he was able to completely suppress the chain that only had "greed".

But this is still not enough. Shade can deal with dozens of chains, but not hundreds or thousands. It seemed as if endless chains were flying out from all directions, even protruding from the soil under their feet and hanging from the sky above their heads.

There were already chains tied around Mrs. Miles' ankles and tied around the boy's neck - of course, the witch didn't care about the latter. Miss Higgins had no choice but to say:

"I'll buy it! If I don't leave now, I'll trade with you and take your chains back."

All the chains that were still squirming stopped, leaving only Shade's chain still clattering.

No one dared to move. The four of them breathed slowly, but their breaths were suppressed to prevent their body temperature from losing too quickly. Shade silently counted twelve numbers in his mind, and then the chains very slowly retreated into the depths of the black mist invisible to everyone's eyes. Looking at the dark figure behind the stall, it seems that it has been pointing at the goods with its finger and has not moved at all. But they all knew that if they dared to retreat now, the blood-stained chains that would pour out in an instant would swallow them up immediately.

After such twists and turns, even though there was still the light of the torch, Mrs. Miles and the boy were already pale. The witch had to hold the old man up so that she wouldn't fall, and grab her hand to keep her warm. Mrs. Miles now had just enough strength not to let go of the torch in her hand.

"I, let me help her."

The boy who had gathered his courage said to the young witch despite the cold and fear. The latter frowned but did not hesitate:

"Take good care of this lady. Protecting her means protecting you."

She asked the boy to support Mrs. Miles and stand behind Shade and her, and gave the two a glowing yellow stone, as if it could provide warmth. Then, she softly apologized to Shade for what happened just now. After all, she was the one who put the group of people in danger. But compared to danger, Shade cared more about time.

Although he was concerned about the chains with only the [Greed] rune, he also knew that this was not a good opportunity to investigate, so he asked the black shadow on behalf of the witch:

"What do you have here? We can only see one item."

The black shadow still didn't speak, maintaining a still movement, and the black fog covering the items finally dissipated. Next to the thick severed finger was a coiled blood-stained rope and coagulated blood in a dirty glass tube.

The rope is a relic, and as for the other two items, they should be powerful extraordinary materials.

"What are these?"

Shade continued to ask, but received no answer. The black shadow in this camp might not have the ability to speak at all. The witch then asked again, but also received no answer.

The light of the four torches illuminated everyone's uncertain faces. The firelight was obviously weaker than when they first set off.

Miss Higgins frowned and thought for a moment, breathed into her palm, and then said to Shade:

"I'm afraid this camp won't explain the purpose and function of the products. We can only pick one at random, which is no different from gambling on luck."

"Do you have enough currency with you? Judging from the situation just now, if you don't bring enough currency, it will not let us leave without paying...I'm afraid it will charge us other things ."

Miss Higgins pursed her lips and nodded:

"Before departure, His Majesty gave me and my wife a sum of money. I have 23 coins on me."

"I have 6 here."

The silver-haired old woman who was leaning on the boy said next. When Shade looked at her, she smiled hard:

"The rest is up to you, young man."

The boy who had been silent until then said tremblingly:

"I have 7 coins here. My coins were sold to me along with the map by the witch who gave me the method to enter here."

“Then the remaining question is simple – what’s the cheapest here?”

It's foolish to judge the value of an item based on its appearance, but sometimes it has to be done. There are three items, fingers, ropes and blood. Although the rope is the only relic, it cannot be considered to be the most expensive. Although the fingers are the only items whose appearance has been revealed in advance, it cannot be inferred that it must be the cheapest.

The two ordinary people had no chance to speak at this time, and it was left to Shade and the witch Miss Higgins to make the decision.

"I don't have the ability to evaluate, nor do I have the power to identify treasures."

Shade spoke first, while the red-haired witch said hesitantly:

"Because it involves transactions, I learned the secret skills of identification before entering here. Let me give it a try."

She rolled up her right sleeve to reveal her white wrist, then grabbed her right wrist with her left hand, opened her right palm and aimed at three items in sequence.

"oh!"

She made a gesture of holding her breath while her eyes widened. But within two or three seconds, he groaned and black blood flowed from his mouth and nose. She let go of the breath, and fell backwards with trembling, but fortunately, Shade held her in time.

"Ahem, ahem."

After coughing violently, she spat out the dirty blood onto the ground, quickly corroding the low weeds under her feet.

"it's okay no problem."

She covered her chest and waved, but she didn't look like she was okay:

"I'm being attacked. It's like this camp is attacking me. It seems like you can't touch or inspect goods that don't belong to you without permission."

"Give."

Shade handed over a bottle of No. 3 holy water. Witch Gudong Gudong drank it and then expressed her gratitude in a hoarse voice, but her face was still very ugly:

"What to do now? I have no choice."

"As you just said, you can only gamble on luck. The currency is your own, you decide."

The two looked at the three items together. After looking at each other, the red-haired witch pointed to the bottle of blood:

"I want this."

The originally almost stationary black mist began to flow, and the black mist condensed on the wooden board between the goods and the four Shade, forming a scale in a cloudy state.

The black shadow finally moved, picked up the bottle of blood and placed it on the left end of the scale. The scale tilted to the left, and then it made a gesture of invitation. This action was easy to understand, so Miss Higgins took out the leather bag from her skirt pocket, and with trembling palms, she placed the coins with her own image on them one by one towards the right side of the scale. Although I still don't know if this bottle of blood is the cheapest here, but fortunately, only 4 coins were placed in it, and the scales reached a balanced state.

At that moment, the balance, which was originally in a dense fog state, actually solidified into black metal. The scale reflected the metallic luster under the light of the torches in everyone's hands. The color was deep and extraordinarily thick. Shade took a liking to it at a glance:

"Speaking of which, Yin Luna's birthday gift..."

The four coins were taken away by the shadow, and then it pushed the scale with blood on one end to everyone, and then returned to the motionless posture from the beginning.

Miss Higgins carefully collected the bottle of blood from one end of the scale, but she did not know what the blood was, so she first put it into the satchel she carried with her.

Then seeing that the black shadow had no objection, he touched the dark-colored scale, and Shade also reached out and touched it. There are incised patterns of shells, coins and olive branches on the surface of the scale, which is extremely cold and heavy. Both Shade and the Witch can confirm that this is just an ordinary item.

The witch asked softly:

"Now that the shadow is motionless again, do you think this scale is a clue to guide us to find the next businessman?"