Chapter 201: Dinner’s Served
The instant he passed through the light screen, a familiar sense of imbalance reappeared.
It was like stepping into empty air. Zhang Qian felt his body constantly falling, continuously downward, downward…
There was nothing in his field of vision, or rather, at this moment he had already lost control of his body and couldn’t even confirm if his eyes were open.
He didn’t know how much time had passed.
Perhaps a second, perhaps a year.
The downward trend suddenly stopped, the speed instantly dropped to zero, yet there wasn’t much discomfort.
“Looks like earlier we weren’t really falling downward; it was just an illusion caused by some supernatural power.” Zhang Qian thought to himself.
The opened portal wasn’t an ordinary main entrance; it was more like a passage connecting different supernatural spaces.
Experiencing some strange sensations when using such a passage seemed normal.
Fortunately, that strange sense of helplessness had disappeared. Zhang Qian’s eyelids trembled, and he finally slowly opened his eyes.
The surrounding environment was still shrouded in darkness.
It wasn’t pure nothingness; it was more like being covered by something, hazy and indistinct.
For some reason, he now seemed not to be standing somewhere, but sitting on a chair.
This chair was definitely very old; not only was its material icy cold and rigid, but it also poked painfully into his entire body.
Of course, this wasn’t the focus he should be paying attention to right now.
Figuring out the surrounding environment and confirming any possible dangers was the most important thing at the moment.
“Speaking of which, the mannequin doesn’t seem to be with me?” Zhang Qian realized belatedly, suddenly noticing the absence of that feeling of something pressing on his shoulder.
He reached out and gently touched it; sure enough, there was no trace of the mannequin.
They passed through the same portal but ended up in different places?
Zhang Qian frowned and didn’t act rashly. His perception of the outside world was now almost zero; if he got careless and triggered the attack pattern of some fierce ghost prematurely, it would be bad.
Moreover, he always felt that this darkness wasn’t calm; there seemed to be some gazes with deep malice secretly watching him.
Then let’s see what those things are.
He slightly focused his mind, wanting to channel true qi toward his eyes…
Then, nothing happened.
“True qi out of control? No, it’s completely gone.” Zhang Qian suddenly felt something was wrong.
Such a large mass of true qi had just vanished without a sound?
However, before Zhang Qian could think more, a strange sound suddenly came from the darkness behind him.
“Hey, honored guest has arrived, serve the food!”
From the sound, the “person” speaking should be a man, but this tone was uncomfortable no matter how he listened.
It was like something that couldn’t speak was clumsily imitating human speech; although the meaning was understandable, the tone always carried a pretentious strangeness.
Was it a fierce ghost, or a ghost slave?
The instant this sound fell.
Only two claps were heard, followed by a sizzling electrical sound surging, and then a piercing white light suddenly appeared in the space.
Judging by the color, it seemed somewhat similar to the light screen in the portal.
With this light, Zhang Qian finally saw clearly the environment he was in.
In front of him was a table covered with a white tablecloth, and near his position was a brand-new set of bowl and plate.
From the setup, it seemed like a dining table.
The dining table was very large, rectangular, with Zhang Qian at the bottom end; the other areas could seat at least a dozen people.
However, those places were empty, and the white tablecloth had no other tableware.
In other words, the mannequin really wasn’t in this place.
Unfortunately, the light only covered the dining table and a small surrounding area; the ceiling and surroundings were still that gauzy hazy darkness, providing no more clues.
“Going to such great lengths just to invite me for a meal? Even a ghost wouldn’t believe that.”
Retracting his gaze, Zhang Qian wanted to turn his head to see what that thing behind him was, human or ghost.
But he failed.
Even his entire body became uncontrollable the instant this thought arose.
Not only could he not stand up and turn around, his hands also moved uncontrollably, properly placing themselves on the tabletop.
His back straightened involuntarily.
He looked just like a kindergarten kid waiting for mealtime.
“Strange ability…”
In this situation, Zhang Qian had lost all capital for resistance; he couldn’t even control his own body.
But there wasn’t much fear in his heart; instead, he began speculating about this fierce ghost’s supernatural power.
It could erase true qi; from the surface, it seemed somewhat like an ability related to suppression.
But to say there was a fierce ghost terrifying enough to completely suppress true qi, to the point where he couldn’t sense it at all—Zhang Qian didn’t quite believe it.
After so many supernatural events, he had encountered no small number of highly terrifying fierce ghosts, but whether it was the tattoo parlor owner Xun Can, or Wang Cha Ling’s Wang First Generation and Wang Second Generation, none had given him such a sense of oppression.
Rather, although the current situation looked dangerous, Zhang Qian himself didn’t feel much sense of crisis.
Maybe… this place was just a kind of illusion?
“How is the honored guest’s appetite?”
Suddenly, that thing in the darkness approached again, almost whispering right by Zhang Qian’s ear.
A strong foul breath sprayed out; even Zhang Qian, used to big scenes, felt nauseous from the smell.
This smell was like not having brushed teeth for decades.
Without true qi to rely on, Zhang Qian couldn’t even hold his breath; to avoid being fumigated to death by this breath, he had to tilt his head slightly.
However, the waiter in the darkness seemed to take it as some signal; his voice suddenly became excited, shouting at the top of his lungs: “Honored guest has ordered, no more questions, serve as much as there is!”
“?”
Zhang Qian blinked, unclear when he had ever meant to order food.
Forced buying and selling, huh?
If it weren’t on the ghost ship, he’d call the official authorities and shut it down in minutes.
He took the silent loss, but Zhang Qian still had no intention of responding verbally, planning to see what tricks this shady restaurant intended to play.
Serve the food then; anyway, he wouldn’t eat a single bite.
Rather than stopping this process, it was better to look for an opportunity to leave amid these changes.
It didn’t keep Zhang Qian waiting long.
A cyan porcelain bowl suddenly appeared not far from his left hand.
The speed was extremely fast; Zhang Qian just blinked, and when he opened his eyes again, the porcelain bowl was already quietly sitting on the table.
He silently glanced at it; there was nothing special about its appearance.
However, the porcelain bowl’s design was exquisite, with pale cyan patterns outlining scenes of rising and falling tides. The light shining on it even showed curved halos, completely without traces of corrosion by time.
At that moment, the waiter loudly announced the dish name: “One serving of honey glazed first-grade ham!”
