The rotten wooden board was supported by a worn bamboo support, on which were three items. One of them was a severed finger as thick as Shade's wrist, with the sticky black blood at the base of the severed finger already solidified into ice. The other two items were completely invisible.
Miss Higgins took a few deep breaths, then summoned up the courage to speak to the shadow behind the stall:
"Excuse me, do you know..."
She trembled as she took out a piece of paper and read out the ancient runes on it:
"Where is the soul-stealing merchant?"
Xia De blinked suspiciously, and the black shadow shook his head slightly, then pointed to his own stall.
The witch thought for a moment and asked in a low voice:
"I have to buy your stuff before you can answer my question?"
This time he nodded.
"I need some time to think about it. I don't have much money after all."
As he said this, he was about to step back. Even if they wanted to buy something before asking for directions, they didn't necessarily have to buy it here. They could go deeper into the market to take a look.
But the shadow was reluctant to let any guest go. As the witch retreated, dozens of blood-stained black chains flew from the shadow's feet to the witch. Fortunately, Miss Higgins never let down her guard and quickly waved the torch in her hand forward, while the golden light in her right hand shone. The warm light dispelled some of the chill. Shade was quite familiar with this power. It was the power of the sun.
Of the chains attacking the witch, most slowed down after being illuminated by the torches, while the rest continued to approach the witch. The fireball in the witch's right hand spread out like a bomb, but because of the black fog, it could only extend a short distance to her.
With the help of the light, Shade clearly saw that the black chain was made up of rune chains representing greed. This was definitely the chain of sin that he was most familiar with, but the chain of sin was definitely not afraid of the power of the sun.
"Be careful."
Old lady Miles and the timid boy Andor Ade hurried forward to help. They waved their torches like witches, slowing down the remaining chains. At the same time, Shade's empty left hand had already taken out a large sword with silver moonlight from the black fog.
clang~
The sword slashed at the chains, and as silver light and sparks flew everywhere, the collision of the two made a buzzing sound that made people's scalps numb. At the same time, more and more blood-stained chains appeared from all directions, surrounding the four people. Xia De then ordered the four people to gather together, facing different directions, and waving torches to make the afterimages of the firelight form a line, but that only slowed down a small number of chains.
"Why does he have so many chains of sin?"
It was like being besieged by a swarm of snakes, but it was all done silently. Shade, who was familiar with the characteristics of the Chain of Sin, reminded loudly:
"This thing has no offensive power, but once you are entangled, your ability to cast spells and move will be restricted. Don't try to break the chain with ordinary methods. Use a destructive force - the Black Moon Symbol - the Sigil of Hidon."
Xia De reached out and grabbed the chain closest to him. The moment he touched it, the flow of spiritual energy in his body stagnated, but the dark moon mark had already appeared on the chain.
The chains slowly disintegrated into ashes, and at the same time the exploding golden shield pushed all the remaining blood-stained chains outwards.
The witch Miss Higgins also understood and kissed her right index finger. Then the life-corrosive dust that floated off her index finger caused a small part of the chain to rust and decay.
But no matter whether it was Shad's magic or the witch's secret magic, the casting of both powers consumed a lot of energy, and the recovery of the spirit in this strange place was almost stagnant. They couldn't just waste all their strength like this.
"Chains of Sin!"
Chains came out of Shade's sleeves, making a rustling sound. Under the control of the rope trick, they became a mess with the temporarily pushed chains. Chains were entangled with each other, and the six deadly sin runes were intertwined with countless greed. Shade suddenly had a strange feeling in his heart. This was his first confrontation with the deadly sin chain, and the power from the same source gave him a new understanding.
Although Shad only had one chain, he had the upper hand. The runes symbolizing the six deadly sins emitted a faint glow, which made his companions uncomfortable, but was able to completely suppress the chain of "greed".
But this was still not enough. Shade could handle dozens of chains, but not hundreds or thousands. It seemed as if endless chains flew out from all directions, even emerging from the soil beneath his feet and falling from the sky above his head.
Seeing that chains had been tied around Mrs. Miles' ankles and 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! I'm not leaving now. I'll trade with you. Take your chain back."
All the chains that were originally squirming stopped moving, leaving only Shad's chains still rattling.
No one dared to move. The four of them breathed slowly, but suppressed their breathing to prevent their body temperature from losing too quickly. Xia De counted twelve numbers in his mind, and the chains slowly retreated back to the depths of the black fog that no one could see. Looking at the shadow behind the stall, it seemed to have been pointing at the goods, without moving. But they all knew that if they dared to retreat now, the blood-stained chains that would surge out in an instant would swallow them up immediately.
After such twists and turns, even with the light of the torch, Mrs. Miles and the boy had turned pale. The witch had to hold the old woman to prevent her from falling and hold her hand to keep her warm. Mrs. Miles now had only enough strength to keep the torch in her hand.
"I, I'll help her up."
The boy mustered up his courage and said to the young witch in the cold and fear. The latter frowned but did not hesitate:
"Take good care of this lady. Protecting her is protecting you."
She asked the boy to support Mrs. Miles and stand behind Shade and her, and gave them a glowing yellow stone, which seemed to provide warmth. Then, she quietly apologized to Shade for what happened just now, after all, it was she who dragged the group into danger. However, compared with danger, Shade was more concerned about time.
Although he was concerned about the chains with only the Greed Rune, he also knew that this was not a good time to investigate, so he asked the shadow on behalf of the witch:
"What do you have here? We can only see one item."
The shadow remained silent, maintaining its motionless position, and the black mist covering the object 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 made of powerful supernatural materials.
"What are these?"
Shade continued to ask, but got no answer. The black shadows in this camp might not have the ability to speak. The witch asked again, but also got no answer.
The light from the four torches illuminated the gloomy faces of the people. Compared with when they first set out, the flames were obviously dimmer.
Miss Higgins frowned and thought for a while, then blew a breath into her palm and said to Shade:
"I'm afraid this camp won't explain the purpose and function of the merchandise. We can only pick one at random, which is no different from gambling on luck."
"Do you have enough currency on you? Judging from what happened just now, if you don't have enough currency, it won't let us leave without paying... It's afraid it will charge us something else."
Miss Higgins pursed her lips and nodded:
"Before we set out, His Majesty gave me and my wife some money. I have 23 coins on me."
"I have six here."
The silver-haired old woman leaning against the boy continued speaking. Seeing Xia De looking at her, she smiled very hard:
"It's up to you now, young men."
The boy who had been silent the whole time also said tremblingly:
"I have 7 coins here. My coins were sold to me along with the map by the witch who showed me how to enter here."
"Then the remaining question is simple - what is the cheapest thing here?"
Judging the value of an item by its appearance is a foolish act, but sometimes you have to do it. There are three items, the finger, the rope, and the blood. Although the rope is the only relic, it cannot be considered to be the most expensive; although the finger is the only item that has revealed its appearance in advance, it cannot be inferred that it is definitely the cheapest.
The two ordinary people had no chance to speak at this time, and the decision was still made by Shad and the witch Miss Higgins.
"I don't have the ability to appraise, nor do I have the power to identify treasures."
Xia De spoke first, and the red-haired witch said hesitantly:
"Because it involves a transaction, I learned some secret techniques of identification before entering here. Let me give it a try."
She rolled up her right sleeve to reveal her fair wrist, then grasped her right wrist with her left hand and opened her right palm to aim at the three objects in turn.
"oh!"
She tried to hold her breath, and her eyes widened. But after only two or three seconds, she groaned, and black blood flowed from her mouth and nose. She let out a breath, and fell backwards with her whole body trembling. Fortunately, Xia De held her in time.
"Ahem. Ahem."
After a violent cough, she spat the dirty blood onto the ground, which quickly corroded the low weeds under her feet.
"It's okay. It's okay."
She covered her chest and waved her hands, but she didn't look like she was okay:
"I was attacked. It was like the camp was attacking me. It seemed that I could not touch or inspect goods that did not belong to me without permission."
"Give."
Xia De handed over a bottle of No. 3 holy water. The witch drank it with a gurgling sound before expressing her gratitude in a hoarse voice. However, her expression was still very grim:
"What do I do now? I'm at my wits' end."
"You just said it, you can only gamble on your luck. The currency is yours, you decide."
The two looked at the three items together. After a glance at each other, the red-haired witch pointed at the bottle of blood:
“I want this.”
The black fog, which was originally almost motionless, began to flow. The black fog condensed on the wooden board between Shangguo and Xia De and the other four, forming a cloud-like balance.
The shadow finally moved, picked up the bottle of blood and placed it on the left side of the scale. The scale tilted to the left and then 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 hands, she placed the coins with her own portrait on them one by one to the right side of the scale. Although it was still unknown whether this bottle of blood was the cheapest here, fortunately, only 4 coins were placed, and the scale reached a balanced state.
At that moment, the scale, which was originally just a thick fog, solidified into black metal. Under the light of the torches in everyone's hands, the scale reflected a metallic luster, the color was deep and particularly heavy, and Xia De took a fancy to it at first sight:
"Speaking of which, Yin Luna's birthday present..."
The four coins were taken away by the black shadow, and then it pushed the scale with blood on one end to everyone, and then returned to its motionless posture as at the beginning.
Miss Higgins carefully took the bottle of blood from one end of the scale, but she didn't know what the blood was, so she put it into the bag she carried with her.
Then, seeing that the shadow did not object, he touched the dark-colored scale, and Shade also reached out to touch it. The surface of the scale had intaglio patterns of shells, coins, and olive branches, which were extremely cold and heavy. Both Shade and the witch could confirm that it was just an ordinary object.
The witch asked softly:
"Now that the shadow is not moving again, do you think this scale is a clue that will guide us to find the next merchant?"