Chapter 1,486 Ghost Market
There are no people coming from other places to trade, and the traders waiting here seem to have been stationed for a long time. Observed from all angles, this place does not fit the characteristics of a market at all, and it does not even look like a place where living people gather.
The location where everyone is located is the Sulitang Empire, the last of the five empires to appear in the northern border of Lost Land.
This is a large empire with nomadic people as its main body. Its territory is larger than the other four empires, but its population is not larger than any of the other four empires. Its characteristic is that it has a vast territory and sparsely populated areas.
Investigating the reason, if a time traveler were to analyze it, he would say that the entire Sulitang Empire is located north of the temperate zone, and most of the country is in the cold zone, which is not suitable for human habitation. Pasture is limited and food cultivation is difficult, which limits the rate of population growth.
According to the Midi people, it's just too damn cold! Most of the year can be considered winter.
Although the main body is nomadic, the Khan Court is constantly on the move. However, after hundreds of years of development, it has absorbed many other ethnic groups and races and brought them under the jurisdiction of the Suritan Empire.
Its characteristic is that numerous large-scale Homo sapiens gathering places have been built, such as cities and villages. And farming was also carried out in these places to supply the needs of the entire empire.
But in order to meet the trade needs of the more mobile nomads, there will be temporary markets like this one, which appear at irregular times and at irregular locations. It may be that itinerant caravans came here, and there were also neighboring settlements or herdsmen who came here to trade with excess things.
The market usually lasts for three to seven days. When the transaction volume drops to a certain level, the traders who organized the market will pack up their trading products and go to the next place to open a market.
However, recently on the forum, a rumor about a ghost market appeared.
Rumor has it that there is a market in the north where rotten or destroyed items are traded. The people moving in the market are not living people, nor are they like the living dead of the undead tribe. They are an even more unknown type.
The bazaar has also been around for a while. As long as you enter this ghost market, you will never come out alive.
...When he heard this information, Ezio wanted to complain. If no one alive came out, where did this news come from? Those guys who don't know whether they are dead or alive, posted it on the forum themselves?
For regional anomalies like this, the local adventurers guild should have commissioned suitable adventurers to investigate.
However, the situation of the Suritan Empire is difficult to describe. The result is that capable adventurers are reluctant to operate within the empire. Naturally, there are not enough professional and capable people to deal with the anomalies in the ghost market.
A country dominated by nomadic people is quite welcoming to outsiders and external resources, including food.
However, the biggest failure of the Suli Tang Empire is that there is a certain degree of contempt for human race within the empire, mainly in terms of official appointment and treatment. High-level official positions will not be open to non-mainstream ethnic groups; even if they hold the same official position, they will enjoy different benefits due to different ethnic groups.
Although this chain of contempt has not become a written law, it actually exists in every corner of the Suritan Empire and affects the attitude of the subjects of the empire. This was done to ensure that the dominant nation's control over the empire would not fall into the hands of different nations.
Outsiders are not treated differently just because they are not imperial subjects. They will still be in a certain position in the contempt chain because of their own race. For those experienced adventurers, it is impossible to endure this.
As long as they can survive life and death difficulties again and again, such adventurers will inevitably be a little arrogant. Even if you treat people kindly, it doesn't mean that anyone can look at them with contempt and disgust.
Of course, there are qualified adventurers within the Sulitang Empire, but the number of these people is too small, and they all have their own areas where they are accustomed to hanging out. The ghost market is quite a remote countryside, sparsely populated, and no one wants to come here. So it was the turn of Ezio, a group of outsiders who were just looking for trouble.
The location of the ghost market is to the south of the Sulitang Empire. The area is full of hills and surrounded by hills, so it is not considered an excellent pasture. Therefore, after the empire conquered this area, it did not pay special attention to this area. It just left some small marginal tribes to make a living here. To prove that this land belongs to the Suli Tang Empire.
In fact, if you want to know the news about the ghost market, the leaders of these small tribes know best. But one shortcoming of the forum is that it is weak in its ability to clearly target specific people.
If the person who sees the news knows that it is related to him, but does not come forward, no one can do anything to him. Unless the person making the request comes in person, there is no way to ask others to do something through the forum.
What's more... According to Sister Kaya's inference, whether those small tribes are still there is a problem in itself. Ezio thought so.
The two people following him were covered in heavy armor, and the one carrying a huge shield was Kish. The most special person in the elementary school, his mother Vana is still working as a maid in that mansion. So just like Ezio, he is someone who receives special care in the eyes of others.
But in fact, Kish may be the most talented among that group of children, and he is also the hardest working one. The special care in the eyes of others is actually a manifestation of his own efforts, and it is not that someone really made a small fuss for him.
Just say that the heavy armor he wore weighed almost as much as an adult. Being able to carry an adult on his back at all times and still be able to move freely, you can imagine how good his physical fitness is.
Such a young man with a promising future is a very rare guardian knight!
You must know that not everyone can hold the title of Guardian Knight. He must be able to recite the oath of the Guardian Lord and strictly abide by his precepts. Only those who have received divine grace are qualified to call themselves guardian knights.
The threshold is not low. But in Lost Land, the belief in the Guardian Lord is quite popular. Even if they have not obtained the grace and title of a Guardian Knight, there are still a large number of young people who keep the vows and move towards the goal of becoming a Guardian Knight.
Another young woman who was dressed similarly to Ezio, but with different colors and an extra bow, was Rowan. When Ezio blended in with the kids on the street, Rowan was the head kid at the time. But no one knew her gender at that time, and they all treated her like a big brother.
Compared to Ezio, who is nourished by dragon blood, or Kish, who is truly talented, Rowan's talent performance in all aspects is mediocre, and there is nothing particularly outstanding. But compared with other children, any ability is above average. In the eyes of others, he is considered an all-around outstanding talent.
Rowan is also good at organizing and directing. After all, not everyone has the ability to pull a bunch of children and take care of them at a young age. The fraternity in the elementary school can be organized. In addition to the help of senior members of the Turtle Dove Alliance such as Uzov and Maier, Rowan is the first to contribute.
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And she followed Ezio not so much because she had the idea of controlling the Brotherhood, so she wanted to control the leader of the Brotherhood. But in fact, she is more like Ezio's nanny, who specializes in helping deal with the aftermath of professional troublemakers.
In any case, these three people are the golden lineup and sharp knife team that the Brotherhood can produce today.
But with such a sharp knife team standing in the ghost market, looking at the scene in front of them, they felt like they had no idea what to do.
There were many people passing by, but no one looked up at them. If Ezio is currently in a stealth operation, it is certainly a good thing to have no sense of presence, and he may also say something bad about the results of his stealth.
But the three of them stood in front of the market without any concealment, and they were still ignored. People coming and going didn't even glance at me. Such abnormal phenomena have to be said to be a bit strange.
"What's going on?" Ezio asked confusedly.
It’s just that the three of them are all young men in their twenties. Even though Rowan was born on the street, he has never seen such a situation. Not to mention the other two when they were little, at least someone was taking care of them. Although I have been traveling for several years, I am still not very knowledgeable.
Kish, who is said to have the best talent, is of little use in such a situation. In the past, all his talents were used to train himself. Although his mind was quick and alert, he had no experience. He didn't even think about it, so he naturally didn't know how to deal with the situation in front of him.
In the end, it was Ezio, a decisive and bright person, who made the decision and said: "Forget it, I can't think of an answer while standing here. Let's take a walk and see."
Rowan asked: "Are we going to separate?"
Upon hearing this, Ezio immediately objected. Said: "No, this is not the Holy City. We are familiar with the top and bottom of the Holy City, and we know where to run when we need to run. If this place is separated, if someone has an accident, it will be difficult for others to support us, and we may not be able to connect." I don’t even know the situation. Let’s go together, maybe someone can see something that others haven’t noticed.”
The other two people agreed with Ezio's opinion. Moreover, when three people move together, they can pay attention to more directions. The blind spots behind the scenes are watched over by fellow travelers, which makes people feel more at ease.
They first walked to the vendor closest to them. On the temporary shelf, there were some withered and rotten vegetable leaves, and their original appearance was no longer visible. Several other items such as baskets, wooden spoons and bowls that would not rot would have accumulated a layer of dust and had not been taken care of.
But it was obvious that the stall owner was standing aside, staring blankly into the distance.
His skin color doesn't look like the bloodless blue of an undead creation; but it doesn't look like the elastic rosy color of a living person either. The two eyeballs were normal, not gouged out, leaving only two holes; but there was no emotion hidden inside, and they were empty.
The reason why we can confirm that the other party is not an undead is because in that home, there is a real necromancer and an undead apprentice who work with corpses all day long. Even the life bishops in the Church of Three Holy Lights gathered together to study the mysteries inside the human body.
Oh, the Bishops of Life have set up another mountain. Although they were still under the Church of Three Holy Lights, they formed the Knights of the Hospital. An organization that does both healing and killing.
Because there are these people messing around, Ezio knows exactly what the real undead creations should look like. In short, they are not like the living people in front of them. They look alive, but they are like empty shells without souls.
...soulless? Ezio felt as if he had grasped something key.