Martial Peak

Chapter 6119, Escape (3)

Author: Silavin

“Hey, just do as I say and nothing will happen, seriously.” Wu Lun’s voice played out in Yang Ji’s mind like a whisper.

“No way. If anyone notices, I’ll get exposed.” Yang Ji shot back.

“Like either of us doesn’t know that obvious fact. Relax. No one besides you three will notice. You can say that this is the sole opening you have to put some pressure on Hong Jun.” Wu Lun nonchalantly said it as if any torrential rain was just but a drizzle in his eye.

“Though I trust that you’ll keep me alive, you at least need to explain a little, you know?”

“Haiz. Just listen to me and do as I say. If I need to explain every last detail, then it’ll take forever. Just know that there is no one listening in to your three right now. But, that’ll only be for a moment, until you leave this street.” Wu Lun smiled as he said. “In fact, you can speak as loudly as you want and your identity would not get exposed here. At worst, he’ll just freeze you in place. Not much he can do to you since your current persona is that of the ‘Young Mistress’. So act as arrogantly as you can. In fact, the more arrogant the better.”

“Wait. From what you’re saying, there is something up with this street.” Yang Ji’s eyes narrowed upon that realisation.

“Ah, quite sharp of you. But, not sharp enough to realise it yourself without me giving a hint.” Wu Lun shrugged and explained no further.

Since Yang Ji could deduce this much, he naturally probed the mysteries of this street on his own. He swept the area using his Divine Sense and felt strange…

Objects and structures around him seemed perfectly sound, like usual. However, he simply could not make up the faces of the people around him for some reason. If one were to look them in the eye, it would be as per normal, nothing would be off. However, once that person left one’s sight, it would be as if one’s mind forgot about their whole appearance.

Yang Ji would check not once, not twice but multiple times upon multiple people. Indeed, it was only applied on people here and not on objects. From this, it was easy to deduce that there was some kind of Array or some kind of strange distortion in a person’s perception here. It was not an illusion, but it certainly bordered on distorting reality.

These two foxes must have been aware of what this place was, otherwise, Hong Jun would not have led the group here.

Yang Ji could not tell how strong one must be to completely break free from its effect, nor did he even intend to go against it. What he knew was that this worked in his favour to do as Wu Lun had proposed, and if Wu Lun mentioned that this place was safe, it was almost certain that no one present could overcome the effects of this place.

…

Indeed, Yang Ji acted as arrogantly as he could. Though, in the end, it was more of him just stating unpleasant facts as they were. So, Wu Lun noted down how this child still had much to learn about acting.

As expected, the child got frozen in place from his words, but they did indeed shift his position within the group. The once perception of a simple tool now changed to that of an actual being they needed to talk to. From this one fact alone, Hong Jun’s expression turned dark enough that Xing Ting had to remind him.

“Sir… your facial expression…”

Naturally, Xing Ting’s words reminded Hong Jun of their current situation, and the many eyes around them, some even pointing at them. Though he was aware that perception was distorted in this street, that did not mean they could lower their guard.

Hong Jun relented and gave a sigh. With a tap on Yang Ji’s forehead, the Rune that froze him in place got broken, but the other Rune was still in place so no words could come out of his mouth.

Hong Jun directly instructed using his Divine Sense while leading the way. “We’re heading to a restaurant.”

“But Sir, there might be spies there…” Xing Ting was opposed to the idea but Hong Jun’s next words changed her mind. “I said restaurant not an inn. We are not looking for a place to rest, but a place to discuss, as what you want. Even if they have spies, they can’t possibly stand guard in every facility. They simply would lack the manpower to do so. So, we’ll head to an ordinary restaurant with a private room, that’s all.”

The three thus moved rapidly through the crowd, to an inconspicuous ‘restaurant’ on that street. Yang Ji was naturally being carried as they moved.

When Yang Ji saw the signboard of the ‘restaurant’, he double checked his vision to see if he was looking at it correctly. After all, the signboard had nothing on it. It was completely blank, as if this restaurant had no name for itself.

The whole ‘restaurant’ looked truly unremarkable from the outside, like any other store here. Mixed with the signboard, it truly made one wonder if it was on purpose or someone had simply been too lazy to give it a proper name.

Yang Ji felt like the latter was probable, since there did not seem to be any customers around.

When Hong Jun saw this, he did not question it and just directly entered through the front door.

What was inside though, had taken Yang Ji aback. From the outside, it seemed as though this ‘restaurant’ held little attention to every bystander. After all, there was no one entering it before they did, and no one leaving before as well. However, once inside, a truly lively scene played out.

This liveliness was comparable to the liveliness of Revitalisation Inn. In fact, it would not have been wrong to describe this place as even more lively.

Compared to the unimpressive outer walls of the building, the insides were a hundred times or even a thousand times  bigger than what the outside would suggest. With one quick check, Yang Ji discovered he could not even see its end using his Divine Sense.

Wu Lun then asked him, “what do you think this place is?”

“Erm… is this place the real city?” Yang Ji could not help but genuinely wonder.

Wu Lun chuckled a bit, “Well, it would seem like it, right? But, no. What’s outside is the real city. This place is just lively because this is where most people, who do not have any use for the Pool of Revitalisation, go to. If one were to think about it, if half of this city’s revenue comes from the Pool of Revitalisation, then this is where the other half comes from.”

“Hmm… so, this is a market?” Yang Ji thought back on the places he had visited in Star Boundary and could only come to this conclusion.

“Exactly. This is a market, and not just any market, it is a blackmarket.” Wu Lun said and Yang Ji could feel as if a pair of hands were slowly turning his head in one direction, as if directing him to look in a particular spot. “Look over there, there are people selling Lower Realm slaves in droves. And over there, Artifacts obtained from corpses found who knows where. Though the sellers have cleaned off the bloodstains, I’m sure with your keep perception, you’d still be able to spot their sloppy cleaning skills.”

Indeed, as Wu Lun said, those articles were truly being sold openly here.

Yang Ji could not help but look around in both amazement and horror at the scene in front of him. After all, a black market did not necessarily mean that everything sold or bought there was illegal goods. Even in Star Boundary, there were black markets as well, just that they were truly tamed compared to this place.

One would understand stores of Monster Beasts or Divine Spirit parts, but here? There were openly Human parts being sold, some even seemingly experimented on or distorted beyond recognition. In a way, though Yang Ji did not know what laws Defiance City held, this black market seems to deal with matters that exceed what his mortality could allow.

However, it might just be him who felt it was odd. He spotted children here, seemingly unbothered by this sight, as though everything here was completely normal. Such a scene just reminded him of how different the Upper Realm was compared to the Lower Realm, compared to his Star Boundary…

As the trio moved in further away from the entrance, Yang Ji turned back to look at the entrance. However, the scene that was playing out in front of his eyes made him doubt reality.

At the entrance, there were in fact people coming in and out. Furthermore, it was not just one or two, but droves of people.

[How does this even make any sense?] Yang Ji wondered, and then realised the truth behind it. It was not a Teleportation Array, those people that entered and left followed his path. It was just that his cognition of those people seemed to have disappeared the closer he got to the outer entrance of this place. It was only when he got further from the entrance that he was starting to make out the people leaving and entering.

[That’s insane.] Who was he? He was Yang Ji. Even without his cultivation, he was still someone who had cultivated his Soul to the Dao Source Realm. Yet, he had not even noticed his own perception being warped to such a degree.

Seemingly knowing what Yang Ji was about to ask after he turned back, Wu Lun said, “there is no shame in failing to notice. After all, even that Hong Jun would not have been able to see through it, much less you.”

As though that insult had reached his ear, Hong Jun’s voice soon came over, heard from inside Yang Ji’s mind, “What are you looking back for? Look ahead and stop being so conspicuous.”

The man had Yang Ji in his arms. For Yang Ji to look behind, naturally the boy had to push his body away from Hong Jun, making it awkward for both. However, since Yang Ji could not speak, it was clear Hong Jun was practically ordering Yang Ji to ‘stop moving about and just stay still you stinking brat.’

Furthermore, since there was realistically nothing Yang Ji needed to see with his own eyes, he just stayed still as ordered and allowed his Divine Sense to check things out in his place.

The scenes around them changed as they moved through store after store to finally reach an actual restaurant. Unlike the fake one outside, this one actually had people sitting around eating and drinking.

A waiter soon came in front of them and led them to a private space under Hong Jun’s directive. From there, Hong Jun started by removing the Rune sealing Yang Ji’s voice.