The suppressed evil spirit was greatly frightened and argued, "Since you said you wouldn't make a move, why don't you release me quickly? Do you want to alert the Great Steward and be punished, your soul scattered and your essence annihilated!"
Ye Tiancheng smiled. He didn't really want to do that, but this fellow was unlucky enough to be the first to cause trouble. He just happened to run into him and was used as a warning to others.
The Great Steward mentioned by this evil spirit was the owner of this space. From the attitude of these evil spirits, it could be seen that they truly feared the Great Steward to the extreme, being terrified of him.
Although Ye Tiancheng did not intend to be low-key, he also had no intention of attracting the most troublesome existence right from the start.
Thus, Ye Tiancheng smiled and said to the evil spirit, "Your words are unpleasant. Did I make a move against you? Did I capture you? What do you mean by releasing you?"
"I neither hit you nor captured you, so how can there be any talk of releasing you? You don't have legs, or perhaps you've forgotten how to walk?"
The evil spirit trembled with anger, his hand pointing at Ye Tiancheng shaking, "You, you! If you weren't suppressing me, I would have left long ago!"
Ye Tiancheng immediately put on an innocent expression and said, "What did I do to you? Did I touch you? I'm more than ten feet away from you, how could I be suppressing you? You refuse to leave yourself, and yet you blame me. Are you trying to get something for free?"
Due to the aura Ye Tiancheng exuded and the strength he displayed, he was so arrogant here that no one dared to intervene. There were even few who dared to watch the spectacle from the side; most evil spirits kept a wide berth, not getting too close.
Ye Tiancheng's original intention was to make an example of this one, not to stir up trouble. Therefore, Ye Tiancheng did not make things difficult for this evil spirit, nor did he prevent him from leaving.
After all, maintaining this state for a while could be attributed to being provoked and feeling displeased, thus wanting to stir up some trouble. However, if it continued like this, it was likely to attract the Great Steward himself to confront Ye Tiancheng.
Therefore, Ye Tiancheng did not persist for long. After forcing the evil spirit to apologize to him and the little fox, he let the evil spirit go.
With such a deterrent in place, Ye Tiancheng then walked around with the little fox, and most beings were quite polite to him. Few even dared to watch them.
This was because it was a rare occasion of openness in the space, and a market was being held. Even though an anomaly had occurred, with the formation that tracked the fragments of the Fuxi Qin being transferred here and sealing off the surroundings, it did not significantly affect the situation inside. The market remained as lively as ever.
According to the information Ye Tiancheng had gathered in the past few days, it was likely because they all had great trust in the strength of the space's owner, the Great Steward.
Fear was one thing, but sentient beings, to some extent, had a tendency to admire strength. Under the Great Steward's powerful suppression, many evil spirits sincerely believed in the Great Steward. Therefore, even in the face of such a change, most evil spirits here were not panicked.
After all, in their view, since the Great Steward himself had not reacted, it was likely not a major issue and could be easily resolved without affecting them, so they were naturally much more at ease.
And all of this ultimately benefited Ye Tiancheng, making it even more convenient for him to act.
Ye Tiancheng did not know if this could be considered the Great Steward's trap to lure the rabbit into the coop, but since there was a high probability that the Fuxi Qin fragment was in this place, even if it was a trap, Ye Tiancheng had to come.
Because one thing was easy to understand: if the Fuxi Qin fragment was truly in this place, with so many evil spirits coming and going, it was impossible for no one to have noticed the Fuxi Qin fragment here. If there truly was no one, then there was only one possibility.
That is, the Fuxi Qin fragment here must be in the hands of the rumored Great Steward. It was even possible that the Great Steward had already controlled some of the Fuxi Qin fragment's power, which might be why he could control such a space.
Ye Tiancheng had never heard of such a space before, so he did not know much about this place. He could only wander around for now.
Although the people coming and going in this place were basically evil spirits, it was not a ghost market, but rather a "Curiosity Market."
The reason it was called this name was that most of the goods traded in this market were rare and peculiar items. The emphasis was on being peculiar; it had to be rare or strange to be considered a presentable commodity.
In this Curiosity Market, all sorts of things with unknown original forms were moving about. There were also many small vendors setting up stalls along the street. In short, the scene was quite magical.
Although his goal was to find the Fuxi Qin fragment, and Ye Tiancheng had speculated that the Fuxi Qin fragment here was very likely in the hands of the Great Steward of this space, nothing was absolute. Such matters required testing multiple possibilities, so Ye Tiancheng could not be entirely certain of his destination.
After all, Ye Tiancheng's eyesight was limited. He could not distinguish which of the goods sold on the streets were treasures worth buying, and which were merely peculiar.
However, even so, Ye Tiancheng could clearly see that most of the goods displayed in the market, whether peculiar or not, were indeed very strange.
There were brushes that came with their own ink and could write endlessly, bubble gum that could blow large bubbles, wrap a person inside and make them fly with the bubble, and oh, yes, mirrors that could grant the user their wishes.
Ye Tiancheng was speechless. If this mirror had such a powerful ability to grant the user their wishes, why would it be put out for sale?
So, the stall selling the mirror attracted the attention of some passersby, but they stopped not to buy or sell, but to mock the stall owner.
The atmosphere in this Curiosity Market was extremely unfriendly. After all, the buyers and sellers here, no matter how well they pretended on the surface, were mostly evil spirits. Their natures could be described as quite malicious. It was enough for them to use all their self-restraint just to avoid causing trouble here and obediently follow the Great Steward's rules.
During transactions, it was very possible to curse each other at the slightest disagreement, and even to attempt to fight. However, no one dared to actually engage in combat here.
Ye Tiancheng wandered around for a while without much success and did not want to waste too much time. He decided to find a place to stay. There were establishments that provided accommodation, similar to hotels or inns. All of them were the Great Steward's properties, managed by evil spirits who wished to live in this space.
Since the entire space belonged to the Great Steward, he would not allow any piece of land here to belong to others. Therefore, even those who opened their own shops here were only renting the stalls. The shops themselves were theirs, but the houses and land still belonged to the Great Steward.
Residential land was the same, without exception. Even setting up a stall on the street required paying a stall fee to the Great Steward.
Do not naively think that you can set up a stall and get away with it. With just a thought from the Great Steward, he would know exactly how many entered and exited this space, and what each of them was doing.
If the Great Steward did not discover it, it would be fine. But once discovered, losing one's life would be considered a light punishment. Generally, they would be directly annihilated to serve as a warning.
Ye Tiancheng thought about it. Such an existence felt more like the Nuwa Stone, similar to being in the illusion constructed by the Nuwa Stone itself, possessing absolute control. The only difference was that the Great Steward here clearly had a human form, while the Nuwa Stone did not.
If one were to speak of the Nuwa Stone, at most it could condense an image within the illusion, which could be seen by people within the illusion, but it had no physical form. It could only be seen but not touched; in reality, it was merely a condensed phantom.
Ye Tiancheng, along with the little fox, found some evil spirits who seemed to have better tempers and asked for information. "Excuse me, elder brother. My brother and I heard from friends that there is a Curiosity Market here, so we became curious and this is our first time here. Therefore, we are not familiar with the situation in the Curiosity Market."
"However, my brother and I did not originally plan to stay long, but now some changes have occurred, and it seems we cannot leave. So we have to find a place to stay. We have been wandering around here for the past few days without paying much attention, and we are not very familiar with everything. May I ask if there is any place nearby where we can temporarily stay?"
Ye Tiancheng had not gone very far, so the evil spirits in the vicinity were aware of the presence of Ye Tiancheng and the little fox.
Even if they had not seen them personally, in a place with so many evil spirits, word of mouth had spread Ye Tiancheng's reputation far and wide, and many beings were already aware of him.
The good-tempered evil spirit Ye Tiancheng inquired with had clearly heard of Ye Tiancheng. When Ye Tiancheng called out to him, his face showed a hint of fear, clearly wanting to flee. However, he was afraid that such behavior would anger Ye Tiancheng, so he ultimately did not dare to leave and remained obediently in place.
As a result, seeing that Ye Tiancheng's tone was relatively friendly and his attitude not overly arrogant, these evil spirits secretly breathed a sigh of relief and busied themselves in answering Ye Tiancheng, also fearing that their delay and dawdling would make Ye Tiancheng impatient.
He replied, "Yes, yes, of course there are such places. The Curiosity Market is large, and there is no shortage of places to stay. Go straight ahead, turn left after about five hundred meters, and then walk for over a thousand meters. On the right-hand side is the largest inn in this area."
Ye Tiancheng intended to find a place to stay, but he also knew that in this Curiosity Market, places called inns, unlike hotels in the outside world, were ancient buildings, and the modes of behavior inside were more akin to ancient times.
If one wanted to experience the same accommodation as outside, they would have to find a hotel; inns would not suffice, as they were not as convenient for living experiences as hotels.
The reason for this difference, the existence of inns and hotels, was because this place was a mixture of all sorts of beings. There were evil spirits who had died hundreds or thousands of years ago, as well as evil spirits who had died in recent years. To satisfy different needs, different styles of establishments were naturally set up.
Ye Tiancheng thought to himself. Although staying in an inn might be quite interesting, he was not here for leisure. He would rather find a place he was accustomed to.