Chapter 43: The Desolate Village Instance and the Unsolvable-Rank Instance, Visitors from Hell

Compared to ordinary skeleton shops, the dark-red skeleton shop appeared significantly more high-end, luxurious, and sophisticated.

The flooring was a deep blood red, and shelves were illuminated by flickering blue ghostly fires.

Every single item was independently packaged in a skeleton gift box.

Bai Wan and Su Yening walked around the shop with intense curiosity.

Is this the highest-grade skeleton shop?

It certainly looked very upscale.

Moreover, the time they were allowed to stay in the dark-red shop had been extended, with the countdown timer displaying a full twenty minutes.

This was more than enough time for them to carefully select what they wanted.

Since time outside was currently frozen and they didn't need to worry about any ghostly attacks, the two of them finally felt a sense of relief.

Bai Wan looked around, but failed to spot the skeletal brother anywhere. He couldn't help feeling a bit regretful; his current achievements were inseparable from the skeletal brother's generous sponsorship.

He touched his pocket, where a bandage picked up from a hospital trash can lay—originally intended as a gift for the skeletal brother.

He had come this time hoping to check on the skeletal brother and perhaps perform a little dance for it.

Unfortunately, that plan fell through.

Bai Wan and Su Yening walked deeper into the shop and, upon closer inspection, noticed a notice posted right by the entrance. It read:

[Because my skeleton bandage was stolen by a thief a few days ago, I am temporarily away from the shop for a period of time to prepare a new bandage. The shop has now been switched to a self-service vending mode. During these days, players are requested to make purchases on their own.]

When Bai Wan saw this, his eyes widened in disbelief.

What do you mean it was stolen by a thief? Are you daring to imply I didn't pay?

What? So what if it was one ghost coin? Is a ghost coin not money?!

Besides, he remembered spending several hundred coins to buy that blood-stained bandage!

Such shamelessness! And here he was, thinking of it fondly and even preparing a new bandage for it!

Unbelievable!

Bai Wan felt as though he had been betrayed.

Just as his mother had taught him, one shouldn't be too good-natured in this world; good people always end up getting bullied!

Noticing Bai Wan's aggressive and indignant stance, a trace of suspicion flashed across Su Yening's eyes.

Earlier, in the graveyard, she had thought the bandage Bai Wan was using looked rather familiar, but she hadn't thought much of it at the time. Now, seeing this notice, she couldn't help being suddenly startled.

Could Bai Wan's bandage possibly be the skeleton merchant's bandage?

Bai Wan also noticed Su Yening's gaze and started whistling with a guilty conscience.

Seeing this, Su Yening said with a face full of utter disbelief, "No way, Bai Wan... Did you do *that* to the skeleton?"

Bai Wan: "???"

Miss, what on earth are you thinking?!

"Ahem, stop joking around. Let's focus on serious business, shall we? There are so many good things in here, we ought to pick carefully." Bai Wan awkwardly changed the subject, though facing so many treasures, he indeed couldn't entirely suppress his eagerness.

Su Yening was much the same, staring with yearning eyes at the cargo boxes glowing with ghostly fires before them.

There weren't many items displayed, but every single one of them was a rare treasure.

A great number of ghostly items were placed on the shelves, and quite a few of them were of blood-red quality.

Su Yening browsed through them with a deeply tempted heart.

Ghostly items of blood-red quality were absolute lifesavers.

Bai Wan, on the other hand, didn't seem all that interested in the ghostly items in front of him.

He already possessed a blood-red quality ghostly item—the blood-stained skeleton bandage—as well as an even higher-tier abyss-grade item, the Blood Corpse Statue.

However, through the dark-red skeleton shop, he gained an even deeper appreciation for the true value of the Blood Corpse Statue.

The qualities of ghostly items, from lowest to highest, were Ordinary, Blood-Red, Cursed, Abyss...

Whether there were any tiers above that remained unclear, but even the highest-grade skeleton shop only stocked blood-red quality items; let alone abyss-grade ones, there wasn't even a single cursed-grade item—there was a direct gap.

One could only imagine just how rare his abyss-quality item truly was.

Currently, the only place he needed ghostly items was for his abyss-exclusive skill, the Blood-Red Bodhi Heart, which happened to be an excellent survival skill.

Bai Wan wanted to check how many coins he had left after clearing the Deserted Village dungeon before making a decision.

Therefore, he skipped the ghostly items in front of him and cast his gaze directly toward the second-to-last tier of the shelf.

Two pictures were posted on that section of the shelf.

One of the pictures depicted a desolate village, looking incomparably quiet and still like a pool of stagnant water.

The two characters "Deserted Village" were imprinted on the image.

Upon seeing this, Bai Wan's breathing sped up involuntarily.

This was precisely what he needed most.

Beneath the picture lay a black card—the invitation ticket required to enter the dungeon.

The price was also displayed before his eyes at that moment.

[Deserted Village Invitation Letter]
[Detailed Description: Purchasing this grants entry into the Deserted Village dungeon. The next dungeon opening is 20 days away.]
[Selling Price: 200 Ghost Coins]

This surprisingly affordable price caught Bai Wan off guard.

After all, the Deserted Village dungeon offered a chance to obtain the rare Artisan profession, and it even hid information regarding the Ghost Artisan. Setting aside its extreme difficulty, it could be said to be a high-value, premium dungeon.

Selling it for only 200 coins was quite cheap indeed.

However, Bai Wan then reflected that gaining entry to this top-tier skeleton shop was no easy feat. One had to break through the terrifying Ghost Burial Graveyard; although it was populated mostly by weak ghosts, the sheer volume of them was overwhelming. Even if an expert managed to force their way through all those layers of obstacles, they would surely have exhausted most of their ghost coins in the process.

Thus, this pricing was likely the result of careful consideration by the system—quite humane, all things considered.

After using the blood-stained bandage, he still had 500 ghost coins remaining, which was more than enough to purchase the Deserted Village slot.

Curious, Bai Wan shifted his gaze to the other dungeon listed right alongside the Deserted Village.

That one appeared to be an ordinary, inconspicuous small town as well. What made it particularly special was that the people in the town all wore numb, vacant expressions, standing in the painting one after another like corpses. Furthermore, the ground seemed to have cracked open, with a pale hand stretching out from the fissure.

Four blood-red characters were imprinted upon the image—Visitors from Hell.

The ominous vibe emanating from the dungeon made Bai Wan feel deeply uneasy, but what piqued his curiosity even more was that this dungeon could be sold side-by-side with the Deserted Village as a special dungeon. Surely, it must contain some unique resources of its own.

Noticing Bai Wan staring intently at Visitors from Hell, Su Yening spoke up, "What, interested in this dungeon? I advise you to take back that interest right now."

"Oh?" Bai Wan looked at Su Yening with confusion, waiting for her explanation.

With a solemn expression, Su Yening said, "Just like the letters, this is an unsolvable-grade dungeon, or rather, this is what a true unsolvable-grade dungeon looks like. The reason some unsolvable-grade dungeons end up with no one clearing them is simply because they appear too rarely.

"But this dungeon right here is different. Many veteran hunters have challenged it, and it even includes quite a few big names... A captain of an S-rank Ghost Hunting Squad once perished within this dungeon."

Bai Wan was somewhat astonished upon hearing this.

S-rank squads—there were only four such teams in the entire Ghost Hunters Alliance.

And the four captains of the S-rank squads could be said to stand at the absolute pinnacle of all ghost hunters.

Such a figure had actually been buried in this dungeon named Visitors from Hell.

"Then what on earth is inside this dungeon?" Bai Wan couldn't help his immense curiosity. For such a terrifying dungeon to continuously attract challengers, even including an S-rank captain...

Just what kind of secret was hidden inside?