6: Chapter 6 Black Market Entry Tickets

The chilling aura had receded, but the corrosive, stinging sensation deep within his soul remained.

Lin Yuan stood on a neon-lit street corner, casting his gaze toward a narrow alleyway sandwiched between two old residential buildings a hundred meters away. There were no streetlights there, only the dim yellow light filtering through a few windows, barely outlining the piles of clutter and mottled wall plaster. In the eyes of an ordinary person, this was just another common dark corner of the city. But in Lin Yuan's currently weak spiritual perception, a mass of viscous, filthy "stuff" was entrenched there—like a sediment of countless negative emotions that had developed a rudimentary instinct.

He couldn't rush over there recklessly.

His current state was like walking into a septic tank holding a small flame that could go out at any moment. That evil spirit might not be strong, but its attributes absolutely countered a budding divinity like his, which was maintained entirely by a bit of "Positive Optimization" Power of Faith.

He needed to find some "tools."

He remembered Hu Wei mentioning in passing during a chat that there were some inconspicuous shops in the old city district that sold "special things" late at night to those who "knew the ropes." These weren't souvenirs for ordinary tourists, but genuine old items that had been touched by incense, broken talismans, or even "materials" of ambiguous origin. That place was a grey area, and also where many who were new to this path obtained their first self-defense item.

Lin Yuan checked his phone; it was 1:17 AM. Exactly the time when such places might start becoming active.

He opened an obscure local forum and typed in a few keyword combinations Hu Wei had mentioned. After searching for over ten minutes, he finally found a vague address description and a secret code in a reply to a three-month-old post: "After the Hour of the Rat, knock on the door three long and two short, and ask 'Do you have any Year 3 Republic Yuan Datous?'"

The address wasn't far from here, also in the old city district.

Twenty minutes later, Lin Yuan stood before a tightly closed shop hanging a sign that read "Chens Antique Restoration." The rolling shutter was shut tight, with no light inside. The surroundings were silent, save for the occasional sound of distant cars.

Following the instructions, he knocked on the old wooden side door in a rhythm of "thump—thump—thump—thump-thump."

After waiting for about a minute, a raspy voice came from inside: "We're closed. Come back early tomorrow."

"Do you have any Year 3 Republic Yuan Datous?" Lin Yuan lowered his voice.

The inside went silent for a few seconds before the sound of a sliding bolt followed. The wooden door opened a crack, and a pair of cloudy eyes sized him up, lingering for a moment on his brow—where there seemed to be a faint spiritual light belonging to a divinity, invisible to ordinary people.

"Come in." The door opened, revealing a scrawny old man wearing a faded white undershirt.

The shop was crammed with various old items: porcelain, wood carvings, rusted coins, and tattered calligraphy and paintings. It was crowded and chaotic, the air thick with the smell of dust and old wood. But Lin Yuan could feel that among this pile of "junk," a very few items emitted extremely faint spiritual lights of different natures.

"A newcomer?" The old man sat back in a reclining chair behind the counter, preoccupied with fiddling with a compass that was missing a corner. "The scent on you isn't right. Too clean, yet carrying debt... Tsk, are you a 'Loan God'?"

Lin Yuan felt a slight chill in his heart; this old man was not simple. "Senior has a sharp eye. I'm looking for something for self-defense, to deal with some... unclean, low-level things."

"Low-level things?" The old man sneered. "To be targeted by a pauper god like you, it's either a starving fool or a ghost being manipulated by someone. What you need to guard against might not just be 'things.'"

He pulled open a drawer under the counter, which contained a messy assortment of yellow paper, blocks of cinnabar, faded red strings, and some irregularly shaped, dim crystals.

"Talismans. The most basic 'Evil-Expelling' and 'Spirit-Suppressing' ones are single-use, activated by the Power of Faith. As for the effect, it depends on the quality of the activator's faith and the foundation of the talisman itself. These are ones I drew for practice; five faith points each. Over in that corner, there's some old brick powder salvaged from a dismantled temple, mixed with cinnabar. It has a bit of a deterrent effect on filthy things. It's cheap; one point of faith can get you a small bag."

Lin Yuan looked at those so-called talismans. In his spiritual perception, they only had extremely faint, dull halos, even less active than his own 0.5 reserve of faith. As for the old brick powder, he could barely sense anything at all.

"Is there... something a bit more effective? Specifically against the kind of evil spirit that survives by absorbing resentment and despair," Lin Yuan asked tentatively.

The old man glanced at him and slowly pulled a palm-sized old wooden box from his bosom and opened it. Inside, cushioned by red velvet, lay a dark-colored copper coin with somewhat worn edges. The inscription on the coin wasn't the usual currency name, but twisted, talisman-like patterns.

"A 'Yansheng Coin' from the Kaiyuan era. It wasn't circulation currency, but something a Taoist master with some skill cast to keep at the bottom of his chest. It's touched human life and suppressed evils; it seals a wisp of extremely faint evil-breaking golden Qi. It works well against Yin and filthy things." The old man tapped the wooden box with his finger. "This one is thirty faith points. No bargaining."

Thirty points! That was exactly the amount of his first divine breath payment!

Lin Yuan's lips twitched. "I can't afford it. Are there any other options?"

The old man seemed to have expected this. He closed the wooden box and bent down to pull a dirty cloth bundle from under the counter. Unwrapping it, he revealed three pieces of talisman paper that were darker in color and coarser in texture. The cinnabar patterns on them seemed to have been dried for a long time, but they held a faint sense of sharpness.

"Collected from near an ancient battlefield. They should be remnants from an army chaplain Taoist. The killing intent is heavy, and they deal extra damage to Yin spirits and evils. But the power is violent and hard to control; it's easy to damage your own spirituality." The old man tapped the talisman paper. "Ten faith points each. You might not be able to afford these either."

Lin Yuan looked at the numbers in his system—[Faith Reserve: 0.511]—and felt a wave of helplessness. This place really wasn't meant for a truly pauper god. He couldn't even afford half a sheet of the cheapest five-point practice goods.

"Is there... anything that can be traded for with worldly currency?" he asked, clinging to a final shred of hope.

The old man looked at him like he was an idiot. "Kid, anything that can hurt those 'things' must be an item containing 'spirituality' or 'willpower.' The incense and paper money bought with worldly currency only produce smoke that can feed the lowest-level wandering souls. You're dealing with an evil spirit that can already actively corrode a divinity, understand? Either save up enough faith to buy something, or..."

He paused, a glint of shrewdness flashing in his cloudy eyes. "Do you have anything you can 'collateralize' or 'exchange'? For example... those 'permissions' in your divinity that haven't been completely locked down by debt? Or perhaps some interesting 'information'?"

Lin Yuan felt a surge of wariness. Information? About the blue ocean of "Optimization" faith he had discovered? About the evil spirit in that alley? He couldn't reveal any of that.

Permissions? Aside from that crude system, he had almost nothing.

He shook his head.

The old man wasn't surprised either and waved his hand. "Then there's nothing for it. However, since I like the look of you, I'll give you a piece of advice for free: things that live off negative emotions fear two things most—extremely pure positive willpower (which you don't have), or 'Baleful Qi' that is even more vicious and unreasonable than they are. In this old city district nearby, the edges of demolition sites, haunted houses that have been vacant for a long time after violent crimes, or even old slaughterhouse sites... sometimes masterless 'Baleful Qi' escapes from these places. You can try your luck and see if you can draw a wisp of it for protection. But playing with fire is easy to get burned; be careful not to get yourself caught in it."

Baleful Qi?

Lin Yuan noted the term. This seemed like an alternative that didn't require spending faith immediately, though the risk was extremely high.

"Thank you." He nodded, preparing to leave.

"Wait." The old man suddenly called him back, fumbled something out of a corner of the drawer, and tossed it over.

Lin Yuan caught it. It was a small wooden chip with irregular edges, looking like it had been snapped off a wooden plaque. It was jet black, cold to the touch, and bore a blurry, incomplete mark.

"What is this?"

"A black market 'Suiyin'." The old man yawned. "Behind the City God Temple, every ten days at the Hour of the Rat, there's an informal market. This thing counts as a temporary permit to go in and take a look. Come back when you've brought enough 'money' next time, kid. Remember, in the black market, faith points are the hard currency, but the most valuable things... are always information and secrets."

Lin Yuan gripped the cold wooden chip, thanked him again, and turned to leave the strange antique shop.

Walking on the way back, he digested the information from tonight. The absolute importance of faith points, the existence of the black market, the potential uses of Baleful Qi...

When he returned to his apartment building, he deliberately took a detour to pass by the alley where the evil spirit was entrenched from a distance. The chilling sensation was still there, but it didn't seem to actively attack again.

He needed to gain the power to protect himself as soon as possible. Whether it was going to a malevolent site to draw Baleful Qi or finding a way to quickly earn faith points to buy talismans.

Just as he walked into the building entrance, his phone vibrated. It was a message from Hu Wei:

"Old Lin! A friend of mine saw those 'Optimization' cases you asked about and is really interested. He seems to be a manager at a small company, and his subordinates are incredibly competitive, with a super high turnover rate. He asked me privately if there's a more systematic 'solution.' Preferably something with... well, psychological suggestion or metaphysical elements, you know. He said he can pay a consulting fee; money is no object! [Attached: Contact Information]"

Lin Yuan's footsteps stopped.

He looked at the message, then at the pitiful 0.511 faith reserve in the system and that blood-red countdown. In his mind, the prototype of a plan slowly emerged.

Perhaps his "first pot of gold" didn't necessarily have to come from the ethereal collection of willpower.

Maybe he could start by serving these "premium clients" who had "Optimization" needs, using worldly money to exchange for the "equipment" he urgently needed at the black market.

And the person behind this message might be his first "client" and the first springboard toward a true "Faith Economy."

He looked up, a calculating light flashing in his eyes.

The countdown was still ticking. But the game of predator and prey seemed to have found a new way to be played.