The Phantom City of Mount Huan, one of the Eight Sights of Zichuan County, is a spectacle that rarely manifests, perhaps only once in several years.

On this particular day, Young Master Sun Yunian was sharing drinks with his friends in an upper room when, abruptly, a solitary pagoda shot up from the summit of Mount Huan, piercing the very clouds. Moments later, dozens of palaces emerged, their green-tiled eaves sweeping upwards in magnificent grandeur. Then, suddenly, countless sections of city walls sprouted from the peak, stretching for six or seven li. Within those ramparts, one could clearly discern towers, houses, and bustling marketplaces, numbering in the tens of thousands. Every detail of this scenery was visible, sharp and distinct before the eyes.

Suddenly, a fierce gale swept across the mountaintop, whipping up dust and sand. When the wind finally subsided, the entire array of walls and palaces had vanished without a trace, leaving only a single towering structure—a great building perhaps ten thousand zhang high. Each floor possessed five grand windows, all wide open. The lower levels blazed with brilliant light, but as the gaze ascended, the starlight dimmed; above the eighth floor, the glimmer was faint and hazy, and higher still, it dissolved into absolute darkness, rendering the structure inscrutable.

Figures traversed every story of the vast edifice—some leaning against the windows, others standing casually, each in a different posture. After a brief interval, the colossal tower began to shrink. From ten thousand zhang it diminished to a thousand, then a hundred, then ten, until finally, it was no larger than a clenched fist, then a mung bean, before plunging smoothly into the earth and disappearing entirely.

Every time the Phantom City materializes, the marketplace is thronged with spectral inhabitants—dealers, conjurers, and mere spectators—countless in number. For this reason, the phenomenon is privately nicknamed the "Ghost Market."