Compared to an ordinary Skeleton Shop, the Dark Blood Shop looked far more high-end and luxurious.
The floors were stained a dark crimson, blue ghost flame flickering atop the shelves. Each item was individually packaged inside its own skeletal gift box.
Bai Wan and Su Yuening wandered through the shop, eyes wide with curiosity.
So this is the top-tier Skeleton Shop?
It certainly looked premium.
Even the time allowed inside was longer—the countdown above the door gave them a full twenty minutes. More than enough to browse properly.
Outside, time was currently frozen, so they didn’t have to worry about the ghost attacks either. For now, both of them could finally breathe easy.
Bai Wan glanced around, but didn’t spot the old skeleton merchant anywhere. A twinge of regret stirred in his chest. He knew how much of his current success was thanks to the skelly merchant’s generous…sponsorship.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bandage he’d salvaged from a hospital trash bin. He’d originally brought it as a gift—something to give back to the old bones. He’d even planned to say hello and maybe throw in a little dance routine.
Unfortunately… no such luck.
As he and Su Yuening stepped deeper into the store, they noticed a sign posted near the entrance:
[Due to the recent theft of my bandage by unknown thieves, I am currently away from the shop to restock. For now, this location is running in automated vending mode. Please shop responsibly.]
Bai Wan’s eyes went wide.
What do you mean “stolen”?! Are you saying I didn’t pay?!
Excuse me?! A single Paranormal Coin isn’t real money now?
And didn’t he pay another coin for the Bloody Bandage later on? That’s two Paranormal Coins!
Shameless! After everything, he’d even brought the skeleton a new bandage! Unbelievable!
Bai Wan felt deeply betrayed. Just like his mom always used to warn him—in this world, you can’t afford to be too kind. Nice people always get taken advantage of.
Su Yuening glanced at him and caught a flash of guilt on his face, a trace of whistle-blowing unease. She suddenly looked suspicious.
Back in the graveyard, she had felt like Bai Wan’s bandage looked awfully familiar, but she hadn’t thought much of it at the time. Now, reading the sign, a realization struck her.
Wait… don’t tell me that bandage is the one from the Skeleton Merchant?!
Bai Wan noticed her stare and instinctively started whistling.
Su Yuening looked at him in disbelief.
“No way…Bai Wan…you didn’t do that to a skeleton, did you?”
Bai Wan: “???”
Ma’am?? What are you imagining here?!
“Ahem! Let’s not get distracted. Focus, there’s good stuff all over this place. Let’s pick carefully.” Bai Wan hurriedly changed the subject, though in truth, he was having trouble containing his excitement.
Su Yuening was no better. Her eyes were practically glowing as she stared at the wares flickering with ghostflame.
There weren’t many items, but each one was rare and valuable. A variety of paranormal items were displayed on the shelves, several of them marked as blood-grade quality.
Su Yuening couldn’t help feeling tempted—blood-grade artifacts were serious life-saving tools.
But Bai Wan wasn’t all that interested in the ones in front of him. He already had a blood-grade artifact, the Bloody Skeleton Bandage. Not to mention the even rarer abyssal-grade item in his possession: the Blood Husk Idol.
Still, seeing the kinds of goods available here made him better appreciate just how rare that idol really was.
Paranormal artifact grades went like this, from lowest to highest: Ordinary → Blood → Curse→ Abyss
He wasn’t sure whether anything existed beyond that. But this top-tier Skeleton Shop only stocked blood-grade gear—no sign of curse-grade items, let alone abyssal ones. It was a straight cutoff.
Which meant his abyssal-grade artifact was insanely rare.
At the moment, the only real use he had for any more gear was his abyssal artifact’s exclusive skill: Crimson Bodhi Seed—a critical defensive ability that consumes items.
Bai Wan decided to check how much he’d have left after buying the Desolate Village entry. So he skipped past the artifacts and turned to the second-to-last display slot on the shelf.
Two images were pinned to the frame. One was a painting of a desolate village—utterly silent, like a still pond frozen in time. The two words for Desolate Village were stamped boldly over the image.
Bai Wan’s breath quickened. This was exactly what he needed most. Below the image sat a black invitation card—the ticket into the dungeon.
Its price appeared in front of him:
Desolate Village Invitation
Details: Grants access to the Desolate Village dungeon. Next opening - 20 days from now.
Price: 200 Paranormal Coin
The surprisingly reasonable price caught Bai Wan off guard.
The Desolate Village dungeon had a chance to yield the rare Craftsman class, and rumors said it contained secrets about the Ghostsmiths. Setting aside its difficulty, it was a high-value, elite-tier dungeon.
Selling for just 200? That’s cheap.
But then he remembered—reaching this top-tier Skeleton Shop wasn’t easy. He had to survive the terrifying mass graveyard. Even if the paranormal entities were weak, there were so many of them. Even a skilled player who made it through would likely have spent most of their coins getting there.
So this was probably a system-balanced price point—actually kind of thoughtful.
After using the Bloody Bandage earlier, Bai Wan still had 500 paranormal coins left. Enough to afford the Desolate Village invite.
Then, curiosity pulled his eyes to the second display next to the village. It showed what looked like another small, quiet town. But something about it felt wrong.
The people in the image all wore lifeless expressions—one after another, they stood like corpses within the painting. Worse, the ground had split open beneath them, and from the crack, a pale hand was reaching upward.
Two blood-red words were etched across the painting:
Hell Visitor.
Just looking at it made Bai Wan uncomfortable. But the fact that this dungeon was displayed alongside Desolate Village suggested it also held valuable resources.
Seeing Bai Wan staring at the Hell Visitor painting, Su Yuening spoke up.
“What? Are you interested in that one? My advice—don’t be.”
“Oh?” Bai Wan looked over, waiting for her to explain.
Su Yuening’s face was grave. “It’s like The Letter, another unsolvable-class dungeon. Or rather, this might be a true unsolvable dungeon. Some dungeons are considered unbeatable simply because they rarely appear—too few chances for people to try them.”
“But this one is different. Plenty of veteran players have attempted Hell Visitor. Even a few big names… An S-rank para-hunting squad captain once died in that dungeon.”
Bai Wan was stunned.
There were only four S-rank squads in the entire Para-Hunter Alliance, and their captains were the top of the top—legends in the field.
Yet one of them had died inside Hell Visitor?
“Then what’s in that dungeon?” Bai Wan muttered, eyes narrowing. “Something that terrifying… and people still keep going in. Even an S-rank captain…”
What secrets was Hell Visitor hiding?