Time Travel: Pampered by the Aloof Prince-Chapter 373 This Place is Actually a Ghost City

"’Could it be that these dishes are actually edible?’" Qi Yu tried once more, unconvinced by the superstition, and the result was no different from before; the silver needle showed no sign of blackening.

However, Li Mingjue said, "The absence of poison doesn’t mean these dishes are safe to eat. It’s possible that these dishes are made from insects or something of the sort, and to our eyes, they look no different from normal vegetables."

Hearing his words, Qi Yu looked at the dishes with visible disgust.

She put the lid back on and pushed the food box far away, not giving it another glance.

"How exactly are we supposed to escape this illusion?" she asked, furrowing her brows as she continued to ponder the question.

Li Mingjue’s eyes flickered slightly as he said to her, "Illusions are interconnected. The person behind the scenes has a simple goal, to kill us. At first, he tried to use the women poisoned with the Poisonous Insect Poison to kill us, which did not succeed. Then, after we left the Imperial Palace, ’people’ mysteriously appeared in the streets. If I’m not mistaken, every ’person’ that appears in this city will seek an opportunity to kill us."

After listening to his analysis, everything went dark for Qi Yu.

"That’s too difficult, isn’t it? If everyone in the entire city wants to kill us, how can we possibly escape?"

Li Mingjue looked at her despair and slightly curved his lips. "Didn’t the Princess say? As long as we find the lifeblood of this place, we can leave."

Qi Yu hadn’t forgotten this point, but where exactly was the lifeblood?

At the very least, everything here seemed completely normal so far.

Li Mingjue shook his head and said to her, "No, what seems ordinary is precisely the most extraordinary part of this city."

Qi Yu looked at him, puzzled. "What do you mean?"

What was this all about? How could what seems ordinary be exactly the most extraordinary?

Li Mingjue hinted, "Since everyone in this city wants to kill us, they are certainly not working together."

Qi Yu’s eyebrows lifted in understanding. "You mean, what we’re seeing now is just a facade. These ’people’ are also killing each other."

"Exactly," Li Mingjue nodded and after a moment of silence, he revealed an even more shocking truth. "The term ’illusion’ is just a nice way to put it. In reality, this place is a Ghost City."

"Ghost City?" Qi Yu gasped in astonishment, her eyes wide.

She had combed through that book of the Tulan Secret Technique, but had never seen any mention of a "Ghost City."

Li Mingjue’s gaze darkened momentarily as he said solemnly, "Tulan was originally built upon a Ghost City."

Qi Yu was dumbfounded and urged him to continue.

"Hundreds of years ago, there was a small but powerful nation here, thriving on the trade of jewels, with every household living in wealth. Until the ancestors of the Tulan people discovered this place, they decided to take this city for themselves and cunningly murdered all its inhabitants. They buried their bodies underground, trying to erase any trace of their existence."

"The wronged souls who were killed could not rest in peace, and from time to time, terrifying sounds would echo throughout the city. As time passed, it became known as a Ghost City."

This was the first time Qi Yu heard this piece of history, and she was so shocked that it took her quite some time to recover her senses.

Li Mingjue glanced at her and continued indifferently, "It is said that the art of Poisonous Insect Poison of the Tulan people was originally developed to suppress the vengeful spirits here."

Unable to help herself, Qi Yu shook her head with a couple of sighs, "Indeed, what a sin."

She had always wondered why the Tulan people were so singularly fond of Poisonous Insect Poison, something that was deeply harmful to others.

It turns out it was their own guilty conscience that made them fear ghosts knocking on their door, prompting them to engage in these deceptive tricks.

By this point, Qi Yu had gradually approached the truth and said somewhat speechlessly, "So, the so-called illusion is actually Ghost City, and the ’people’ here are the wronged souls who died hundreds of years ago?"

Li Mingjue agreed, "Exactly. The ghosts here feed on humans, and every person who enters the illusion becomes their food. Since the amount of food is limited, they also fight each other bloodily over it."

Thinking of becoming a dish on the table, to be devoured by those ghosts, Qi Yu suddenly felt a chill in her heart.

She shook her head vigorously, casting the image out of her mind, and said with a lingering fear, "Then we must figure out a way to escape quickly."

Otherwise, they would become the ghosts’ meal.

She exhaled softly and walked to the window, pushing open the tightly shut window to look down below.

The once cheerful scene suddenly took on a sinister aspect in her eyes; the "people" smiling down below looked up at her with a surging bright desire in their eyes.

Qi Yu quickly closed the window, frightenedly patting her chest lightly with her hand.

She turned her head quickly to look at Li Mingjue and asked urgently, "What should we do now?"

Li Mingjue was rarely accustomed to seeing her in such a panic; she must have been quite frightened.

He drew her into his arms with a mix of amusement and compassion, whispering, "It is still daytime, they dare not make a move."

Qi Yu was reassured but soon looked distressed again and said, "When night comes, they will turn us into human meat buns."

Li Mingjue chuckled and pinched her scrunched-up little face, reassuring her, "They won’t."

Qi Yu was too preoccupied to care about his gestures; her mind was full of the fear of being eaten by ghosts.

Her brow furrowed, her mind whirring rapidly, she strained to think of a plan.

Suddenly, her eyebrows relaxed, and she looked at Li Mingjue with shining eyes, "I have an idea!"

"Hmm?" Li Mingjue was briefly taken aback by her bright gaze before asking, "What idea?"

Qi Yu curved her lips and leaned in close to his ear, whispering a few words.

Elsewhere, Shiqi and Shen Nanxing, after discovering that the Prince and Princess were missing, immediately returned to Qingzhou.

Hearing this news, everyone’s faces were far from good-looking.

Mo Qingshan was still composed, but his brows were deeply furrowed, "So you mean that after leaving the city gates, you lost consciousness, and upon waking up, they were nowhere to be found?"

Shiqi nodded with a grave expression, "Yes, we were observing from the shadows the whole time, and saw the Prince and Princess board the carriage and then we knew nothing more."

Shen Xiheng clenched his teeth and said coldly, "It must be those Tulan people secretly messing around. I’ll go demand an explanation from them now!"

Mo Qingshan glanced at him and stroked his beard, "Even if the Tulan people are behind this, they will never admit it. Even if you go, what kind of explanation can you demand from them?"

His words made Shen Xiheng speechless. Clenching the sword in his hand tightly, he forced himself to calm down and asked Mo Qingshan, "Then, according to Elder Mo, what should we do?"

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