CHAPTER 73: CHAPTER 72: I HAVE TIMELESS VERSES, FOR SPIRITS AND GODS TO HEAR

Chen Xu put down the bald pen in his hand and was about to pick up the [Defective Bone Mirror].

His action not only caught the attention of Wang Ji but also Wu Zhengze, Cui Jingxian, Wang Mochuan, and other clear-minded individuals, who all looked at him with concern.

The shadow behind the stall suddenly said, "Mr. Chen, are you really giving me the original of this poem?"

Indeed, the original.

It was exactly the piece of yellowed edged paper with the poem written on it, lying on the stall.

Ordinary, such a rough piece of paper, yet it bore an exquisite Chapter.

At this moment, most of the cyan smoke rising from the paper had dissipated, with only a faint cyan glow lingering above the rust-like words.

The old yellowed paper, the dark red rust-colored ink, and the faint cyan glow, under the illumination of paper lanterns, collectively presented an indescribable coldness.

Reflecting on the dim street at this time, the deep abyssal shadows made one feel its substantial and extraordinary quality.

The shadow said, "Mr. Chen, are you truly willing?"

This question instead made Chen Xu a bit surprised, and he replied, "This poem was written for you, as a payment for this Bone Mirror. Don’t you want to sell it?"

His tone was so ordinary that the shadow was stunned.

After a moment of shock, the shadow hastily swayed, reaching out a pair of black arms from the shadows to snatch the paper with the poem from the stall.

It was merely a shadow, swaying and floating behind the stall, but as it grasped the paper, it seemed as if it had caught a heavy mountain.

The next moment, with a "bang", the shadow astonishingly dropped straight to the ground from its floating state.

It hit the ground like that, but a hoarse laugh came from its shadowy form.

"Ha, hahaha...," it laughed while seeming to cry, "I, I love it so much, I love it so much."

She was crying, laughing, getting in death what she couldn’t in life.

The wailing voice of the ghost soul attracted a soft sigh from the white bone ghost at the end of the street.

The sigh came and went quickly, almost unheard.

Chen Xu composed himself, took the Bone Mirror from the stall, and felt its coldness in his hand, yet the bony surface seemed to carry an unusual heat.

Before grabbing the Bone Mirror, Chen Xu had secretly increased his Tri-Attribute, Essence, Qi, and Spirit each by three points.

Once the attributes were added, the Innate Qi within him, which could only recover slowly, suddenly felt like gaining an extra spring.

The spring gushed forth, making the Innate Qi recover rapidly.

With the miraculous Innate Qi, Chen Xu had the confidence to reach out for the Bone Mirror.

Of course, if necessary, he could directly store the Bone Mirror in the Fire and Smoke Kitchen. Since it had an entry and could be used as an ingredient, it could naturally be stored there.

However, this was the last resort; unless absolutely necessary, Chen Xu didn’t want to expose his ability to collect materials easily.

Sleeve Universe, pot with sun and moon, might not be much to this world’s experts.

But if a scholar like Chen Xu, with no foundation, suddenly exhibited such abilities, it would definitely be problematic.

This pushed him even more urgently to gain fame, openly cultivate Qi, pass imperial exams, and conceal his Food God Technique Scroll with Confucian cultivation methods.

Until the day he stood at the peak, free to do as he pleased, without any facade!

At this moment, holding the Bone Mirror, Chen Xu only felt that it was somewhat weighty in his hand, but its weight seemed no different from real bone.

At most, the Flood Dragon Bone was a bit heavier.

He could hold it easily, without experiencing any "being suppressed to immobility" situation.

Chen Xu realized internally that it was because he not only crafted the Cyan Smoke Poem, but the shadow stall owner had genuinely appreciated and resonated with it.

He let out a slight breath.

With the Bone Mirror in hand, he walked towards another stall.

On either side of the dark street, the shadow stall owners appeared to be somewhat restless.

Under the shaky paper lanterns, suddenly there were calls enticing customers.

"Mr. Chen, come here, I have good items here!"

"Mokele, Mokele, shadowy Mokele, Mr. Chen, won’t you come and see?"

"Mr. Chen, here, here..."

Voices were bustling, lively and noisy.

If not for the unusually bleak moonlight, and the deep shadows on either side of the street, such enthusiastic calls to customers would be just like a market in the Mortal World.

Many listening felt a mix of sourness and tension.

They were in the Ghost Market and didn’t enjoy such proactive solicitation.

Chen Xu paused in his steps, stopping beside a dazed Chang Song.

Or rather, he stopped in front of the old farmer’s stall where they’d previously been given a poem by Chang Song.

On the old farmer’s stall, Chen Xu had his eye on an item.

[Forgetfulness Mushroom, a wild fungus from the roadside of the Yellow Springs, upon cooking, it causes all worldly living and non-living beings to lose all emotional fluctuations for a quarter of an hour.]

He chose this large, gray-black mushroom, and asked the old farmer stall owner for paper and pen.

"Alas..." an unknown shadow seemed to stomp and sigh.

All gazes turned towards them.

The old farmer stall owner was extremely joyful, shivering as he reached beneath his stall for items.

Yet halfway through, he hesitated and quickly lifted his shadowy head to look at the white bone ghost standing quietly at the end of the street.

The white bone ghost turned her alluring cheek and laughed lightly.

Then, a white bone hand appeared out of thin air above the stall, placing paper, pen, ink, and inkstone down.

The paper was white and soft-an exquisite Golden Sprinkled Xuan Paper; the pen was a fine fine-tip jade brush, and the ink, top-quality Netherworld Pine Smoke Ink.

The old man uttered an "Ah" of incomparable joy.

He quickly cleared the stall, laid out the paper and pen, expectantly facing Chen Xu.

At the same time, all eyes in the Ghost Market eagerly looked towards Chen Xu.

Chen Xu seemed completely oblivious to everyone’s gaze, he merely said to the old farmer, "Old uncle, I shall write a ’Pity the Farmer’ for you as well."

Then he took the pen, dipped it in ink, and began writing elegantly:

The old farmer ghost couldn’t read, but beside him, Chang Song craned his neck to watch, and recited excitedly:

"In spring one-plants-a-grain-of-millet, in autumn one-reaps-a-thousand-seeds.

In all four seas, there is no idle land, yet farmers still starve to death."

As the voice fell, Chen Xu had already lifted the pen.

A wisp of cyan vapor rose into the sky, like a dragon, or an ethereal rainbow.

The moonlight above fell another way, appearing to have dropped from the zenith to halfway, hanging obliquely, on the verge of falling.

Suddenly, the sound of loud crying emerged: "In all four seas, there is no idle land, yet farmers still starve to death... woo, starving to death!"

The ghost was beating its chest and stamping its feet as it fell from floating.

The whole venue was left with only the elder’s crying, while the rest were utterly silent.

Especially Chang Song, who was utterly lost.

After reciting the poem, he felt as if what he recited wasn’t a poem but all his spirit and strength.

Chen Xu then slid the paper with the written poem to the old man, took the Forgetfulness Mushroom, and moved towards the next stall.

This time, he set his sights on the [Tears of Resentful Ghosts].

Chen Xu was very cautious and did not blindly compose a poem.

Because he’d realized that with each cloud-producing poem on paper, his Dantian’s Innate Qi was invisibly drained once.

He had a feeling, that in his current cultivation state, Cyan Smoke Poem was his limit.

Furthermore, he clearly couldn’t quickly produce a large number of Cyan Smoke Poems within a short timeframe; over-extraction of Innate Qi, even with attribute points supplementing, would harm his foundation.

However, the standard for this "large number" was evidently different from common understanding.

Chen Xu stopped in front of another stall owner, the stall owner who had earlier severed Wei Tang’s foundation!