Love from the Male Protagonist's Harem

Chapter 68-Jianfeng Key Part 1

Translated by Snowfall77

This auction down in the cavern……Xia Ge had to see it for herself.

However, after taking a few steps forward, Xia Ge paused.

[What’s The Matter?]  The system was puzzled.

Xia Ge: “……nothing, I’m probably imagining things.”

But from when she’d first started trying to sell her dan till now, she’d felt something off……

Like someone had been watching her the whole time.

The system remained mystified: [What Kind Of Thing Are You Imagining?]

Xia Ge shook her head, answering: “Like I said, it’s nothing.  Let’s go.”

After reassuring both the system and herself, Xia Ge went back into the cave where she’d paid the toad-mask puppet.  The interior was almost pitch-black, yet taking about three steps in, Xia Ge saw that the toad mask puppet was still on guard.  The toad mask puppet glared at Xia Ge, even as its body shrank back from her.

……Guilongyu really did come in handy sometimes.

The toad mask puppet’s terrified appearance significantly brightened Xia Ge’s mood.

Although the surroundings were dark, Xia Ge could still see that the descending stone steps were very wide and carpeted with some sort of dark red animal fur.  On the stone walls, countless lines of glowing silver composed overlapping formations, lighting peoples’ way.  Xia Ge thought about the rule of ‘don’t step on the formation!’  Had the toad mask puppet meant these luminous formations on the walls?

But they were on the walls.  Just who was going to be stepping on them?

Xia Ge didn’t have time to waste on idle curiosity though.  Numerous cloaked figures were brushing past her, and there was no way of knowing if they were human or something even worse.  While the broad stairs were winding and rife with demonic qi.  So Xia Ge made her way very cautiously.

After walking for a short while, Xia Ge stopped.

Coming up the stairs separated into four forks.  One appeared to be the continuation of the main stairs, and the other three forks….. who knew where they led to?  On the damp stone walls the mysterious formations provided only faint illumination, not helping Xia Ge in making her choice.

Which way should she go?

She watched the people coming and going, some of their masks fiercely sinister, others simply strange.  There was one that was pure black, with only two holes for the eyes, another shaped like a beautiful butterfly, and even a sly-looking fox one.  The further down the stairs one went, the weirder the masks one encountered got.  Yet at the same time, the more a person’s aura was airtightly concealed.

Part of Xia Ge’s problem was that, in this shithole of a black market, she couldn’t very well tug on someone’s sleeve and go ‘hey good-looking, can you give me directions?’  Call out to a random person in this place and for all you knew, you’d end up dead the next day.

And even if Xia Ge wasn’t particularly well-versed in puppetry, she understood that you shouldn’t holler around them indiscriminately.  Because puppets could have a passive curse put on them by their masters.  If you said the word that triggered the curse and got a response back, well, you were going to be rather unlucky.

For example, if you called ‘hey beautiful’ on the street and a particular cursed puppet answered……congratulations.  That puppet could now find your bathroom on the morrow and ogle you as you bathed.

Then, apart from cursed puppets, cloaks could be poison to the touch, while others might have some awful curses at the ready.

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Therefore Xia Ge didn’t dare ask for directions, but she couldn’t just stay where she was either.  Fidgeting with the leaflet, Xia Ge realized she’d been too overcome hearing the words ‘Zhen Hun.’  Since the leaflet was advertising an auction, it should have its location written on it, no?

Xia Ge scanned the leaflet, only to watch surprised as the writing slowly faded off the page to be replaced with an arrow symbol pointing straight ahead.

Xia Ge: “……”

So advanced.

Following the arrow on the leaflet, Xia Ge continued her descent.

Walking for a long time, Xia Ge took about eighteen bends in the stairs.  Thankfully, no matter how twisty things got, the arrow on the leaflet moved like a compass needle, constantly pointing the correct way ahead.  She passed by many other halls, hollows made in the stone walls, and engraved formations on the ground.  Knowing that the ‘big’ black market only started in the evening and that it was still early yet, Xia Ge couldn’t help but want to study the formations.

After examining the formations for a moment, Xia Ge suddenly felt something not quite right.

That feeling of being watched……it was back again.

She was being followed.

By who?

Maintaining her composure, Xia Ge made a show of being done with analyzing the formations and checking the direction of the arrow on her leaflet, all while rapidly scanning the people around her.

Surrounded by figures vestured in either black cloaks or other oddly-shaped concealing garments and faces hidden behind strange masks, Xia Ge found again that it was impossible to guess who was who.

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Was someone truly following her?  Or was it just her nerves playing tricks on her?

Glancing down at the arrow and then the two forks ahead of her, Xia Ge came to a decision.

Instead of taking the fork the arrow indicated, Xia Ge deliberately took the other, walking like she knew where she was going.  As expected, since it wasn’t the main thoroughfare, there gradually were less and less people around her.  Marching ahead for a long time, Xia Ge’s way was eventually blocked by a bronze door.  She turned around, finding that there was no one behind her and that her sense of being watched was gone.

Maybe it’d just been all in her head?

Xia Ge was still confused though.  All she’d done was sell two dan, why would anyone target her?  To rob her?  But in the black market, one hundred spirit stones wouldn’t be that valuable……right?