Chapter 197: Getting Rich? Safe?
The monster’s low roars echoed in his ears, the corridor transmitting this eerie terror layer by layer. Every step Clark took was with bated breath, suppressing himself to make as little noise as possible.
“Miss Mireille, where have you hidden now?” Clark thought to himself. From what the monster had said earlier, he already knew that Mireille had miraculously not died and, like him, was playing a deadly game of hide-and-seek with that fused monster.
Suddenly, Clark realized he had reached the vicinity of a corridor shrouded in white mist. Peering through the hazy fog, he could only see a few dim points of light.
When he realized there might be danger, it was already too late to turn back—he was already enveloped in the mist, wrapped in the unknown.
Clark could only grit his teeth and continue forward toward the only source of light, clenching his fist; he could only clench his fist.
Tense skin and bulging veins were precisely his most powerless performance.
Gradually, Clark found that this corridor was becoming very wide— so wide it no longer seemed like a corridor. It felt like he had come outside, but he clearly remembered a blizzard raging outside. If he were outside, he should be shivering all over from the cold.
However, in this thick fog, the body felt neither dampness nor discomfort from the temperature—it was quite pleasant. Only the profound unknown of this scene could bring a chilling fear.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, Clark noticed the fog was thinning, and the light ahead was becoming clearer.
Thus, with courage from who-knows-where, he broke into a mad sprint toward the front.
Lives facing death all chase after light, like moths to a flame, storm petrels to thunder—humans are no exception.
Clark suddenly stopped in his tracks, standing stunned in front of a not-too-large wooden house. He looked at the pair of evil spirit masks on the double red doors, then at the warm-colored lights shining from inside the house to the outside—he had been drawn here by the light from this small dwelling.
“Why is there a wooden house here?” Clark wondered in confusion. He saw the tacky shop sign in front of the door, which had a tacky shop name on it, and fell into silence.
It turned out this wooden house was actually a small shop named “clubhouse”? It sounded more like a toy store.
After a slight hesitation, Clark still stepped forward and knocked on the wooden house’s door.
“Coming.” Soon, a human voice came from inside the house—it was the Shenzhou language he wasn’t very good at expressing, which for a moment gave him the illusion of being back in the Shenzhou region of the human world.
The door opened, and the one who opened it was a woman in loose white clothes, pretty and handsome. To Clark, she had an indescribable Eastern charm, but the flaw was that this woman was too pale—pale to a frightening degree, with lips red like blood, giving her a somewhat alluring allure.
Pure yet alluring, lips red and teeth white, skin like snow… All these beautiful descriptions Clark had only seen on vampires in ancient legends.
Clark was on high alert in his heart. His gaze scanned the woman who opened the door and noticed a deep red sign card tucked at her waist, written in ancient Shenzhou script. He stared at the sign card intently for a moment, then suddenly felt his vision blurring. The text on the sign card seemed to change, turning into the familiar language text he knew: “make money at the first sight”.
He could read the characters, but the phrase was unfamiliar to him.
Make money at first sight?
“Please come in.” The woman seemed unsurprised by his arrival and unconcerned by his somewhat rude gaze, simply smiling and gesturing invitingly.
She seemed to be the female shop assistant here.
Clark glanced at the way back… it was nothing but fog. He seemed to have no choice, so he stepped inside the house.
“Welcome.” Just as Clark entered the shop and was shocked by the dazzling array of goods inside, causing his heart to race, a handsome man in similar attire to the female shop assistant—but in black—emerged from behind a shelf and gave Clark a courteous smile.
Of course, the male shop assistant also had a sign tucked at his waist, with equally suspicious text: “All is at peace（ World Peace）”.
Clark thought they were talking nonsense. The shop was piled high with taboo blasphemous objects—any one leaking out would be a calamity for the human world. He felt he was surely doomed, let alone having any chance to make money.
“Please go ahead; our shopkeeper is in front.” The male shop assistant said with a smile.
Clark nodded hurriedly, not daring to refuse.
Passing through the aisle between two rows of shelves, Clark felt like he was walking through a crevice of hell, with countless ghost hands beckoning him to his death. The path, which was actually fairly wide, felt as precarious as walking a tightrope.
When he arrived in front of the shopkeeper, who was chatting with a red-clothed shop assistant, Clark was already pale-faced and breaking out in cold sweat.
“Welcome to this shop. Do you have any needs for this shop?” Seeing Clark’s appearance, the shopkeeper didn’t laugh, but introduced himself warmly and elegantly: “My name is Li Jiahong.”
“I…” Clark was at a loss for words; he even forgot to think. At the same time, for some reason, the red-clothed shop assistant who had been bantering and laughing with the shopkeeper suddenly became serious upon seeing him at first glance. That scrutinizing gaze made him feel like he might be done in at any moment.
“Hehe, no need to be anxious. Everyone who comes to our shop has encountered difficulties,” Li Jiahong smiled patiently. “Wei Jiang, Old Li, and Xiaoting, you all go ahead. I can handle this guest.”
The three shop assistants in red, black, and white nodded and departed.
After the three shop assistants left and the feeling of being surrounded and gazed at was gone, Clark felt a bit more at ease and gradually began to regain his reasoning.
“What kind of shop is this?” Clark said in his awkward Shenzhou language.
Li Jiahong chuckled lightly and explained: “As you can see, this place sells items considered taboo in the human world. Though taboo, when facing danger, the risks can be ignored. Our small shop sells these ‘blessed props.’ Mr. Clark should know what ‘blessed’ means, right?”
“You know my name!?” Clark’s mind jolted.
“You’re quite famous, Mr. Clark,” Li Jiahong laughed. “I’ve read your academic thesis; it’s very forward-thinking and in-depth.”
Hearing this, Clark’s heart burst like a dam, grasping it like a life-saving straw. He stepped forward and gripped Li Jiahong’s hand. “Save me, help me. I don’t know what’s happening to me. I’m trapped in an old castle in a cold winter… There are dangerous monsters hunting me, and… someone is waiting for me to rescue them… Since you know me, please lead me out of that dangerous old castle.”
Clark instantly let down his guard, pleading bitterly.
