Chapter 1754: What the Hell Is This?!
Wei Suo stiffly looked down at the things in his hand. Peanuts? Like hell they were peanuts! They had been replaced with chubby white maggots that squirmed in his hand, clearly still full of life. When he recalled how much he had eaten, he could no longer hold himself back.
Blaaaaaarg!
He turned to one side and vomited. Compared to the vomit from motion sickness, it was many times worse.
The others were all really happy that they had been grossed out earlier, and thus hadn’t touched the food. They hadn’t even drunk any of the water.
Zu An couldn't be bothered to console Wei Suo. He leaped onto the stage and grabbed the executioners. And yet, to his surprise, they exploded as soon as he grabbed them. Everything in front of him blurred. What play? They were nothing more than paper dolls with vivid and lifelike appearances. Their faces were thickly covered with drama makeup, which made them look especially terrifying.
He shivered and quickly returned to the table, saying, “Everyone, be careful!”
Suddenly, he noticed that the guests who had been enjoying the play also turned into paper dolls. Furthermore, they seemed to have sensed his movement. They were no longer looking at the stage, instead turning their heads at freakish angles to look at Zu An’s table. They stared at the group with empty black eye sockets. The candles around them had also begun giving off a faint green light. Sinister winds blew past them, making the flames and shadows flicker erratically. The whole scene was really frightening.
Qiu Honglei couldn't help but cry out in alarm. She instinctively moved closer to Zu An. Even though she was a cultivator with quite a high rank, she was still a woman. She had been watching the play with keen interest, but mere moments later, this scene unfolded. She really was frightened quite badly.
It wasn’t just her. Even Jing Teng’s face turned a bit pale. However, she was a native of this world and quickly said, “Be careful. We seem to have stepped into a haunted house!”
Zu An was stunned. A haunted house? They had clearly been very careful on the way here and had constantly inspected their surroundings. They had sensed the aura of the living all around them! He looked outside, and saw that it was already dark. He thought to himself for a bit. It seemed as if everything looked normal during the day, but then these ghosts showed themselves once night descended.
Everything was quiet around them, which made Wei Suo’s vomiting sound even louder. The paper dolls all turned to look at Wei Suo, and a look of disdain actually appeared on their faces. It was as if absorbing his blood essence would dirty their mouths.
Zu An roared angrily, “This is nothing more than a ploy to scare us!”
As he spoke, he brandished a Flame Blade. Phoenix flames surged all around him, erupting brilliantly with him at the center. Flames were the bane of paper, so the dolls were almost instantly lit ablaze.
Strange and ear-piercing sounds filled the air. Zu An felt everything in front of his eyes blur as the paper dolls disappeared. There was no more play and no more guests. Everything around them completely disappeared. Even Qiu Honglei and the others vanished.
Zu An was startled. He quickly looked around him and even spread his divine sense. He discovered that his surroundings were affected by a gray mist, so his divine sense could only reach out about a dozen meters away.
“Is it an illusion or…” Zu An muttered, before recalling what Jing Teng had shared about ghosts; then, he calmed down a bit.
With Honglei’s cultivation, she would be able to protect herself for some time. Even Wei Suo wasn’t that weak, let alone the fact that the paper dolls had all looked at him with disgust. He was likely still okay. As for Jing Teng, she was a fiend to begin with, and had even had ghosts under her, so there was even less of a need to worry about her.
As long as I can quickly break out…
He looked all around him and saw that he was inside a large house. There were still bright lanterns and banners all around him, but the large lanterns were giving off a faint green light. The surroundings were hazy and full of an eerie sensation. From the looks of it, he was still in the Zhang clan’s manor.
He thought to himself for a bit, then began to search the area. He decided to find the monster behind all of this; as long as he could deal with them, everything else would be easily resolved. He thought back to everything that had happened when he first entered the place. Everything revolved around the wedding, so it went without saying who was behind it all. Thus, he didn’t flee the manor, and instead went deeper in. The bride would naturally be in the inner courtyard.
He had visited the human and Fiend races’ imperial palaces before. He had seen the residences of many high officials and nobles, so he was really familiar with such structures. Secret dungeons’ architectural styles were virtually the same. Thus, he quickly chose a direction.
As he went deeper, the surrounding fog became denser and denser, but Zu An remained completely calm. He was completely immune to poison anyway, and the Primordial Origin Sutra had purification properties against evil spirits too. He naturally didn’t fear the ghosts.
Along the way, he encountered all sorts of twists and turns. The different courtyards were all quite refined and elegant. A small river wound around the different courtyards, and there were many delicate rock gardens and flowerbeds. Unfortunately, there were no flowers inside; instead, there were only some bare tree branches that looked strange and sinister. The rock gardens were covered in dust and spiderwebs, clearly having been abandoned for a long time. Judging from the stone and wooden sculptures’ details on the memorial arches, it was easy to guess just how wealthy the Zhang clan had been in the past.
After walking for a while longer, Zu An stopped. He frowned slightly. He could sense that the scenery in front of him was a bit familiar. With his memory, he naturally recognized that it was where he had just passed.
“Ghost hitting a wall?” Zu An muttered, recalling what Jing Teng had said before.
There were some ghosts that had some special abilities which, by borrowing a special illusion, could trap someone inside a labyrinth forever. In order to break through such a skill, one had to either excel at ancient divination or have some navigation-type magic weapon…
Of course, there was the crudest method, which was to wait until the sky brightened again. Once the sun came out, such things would naturally dissipate. However, once trapped in a ‘ghost hitting a wall’, the flow of time could become different. Those inside would likely lose their minds out of fear too, which would consume more and more strength; that would in turn easily lead to a collapse of their very self. They wouldn’t necessarily be able to last until the sun came out again.
Zu An remembered that the sky had just darkened when they entered the manor. Now, Qiu Honglei and the others could be in danger, so he definitely didn’t have time to wait until the sky brightened again. He took out the Tai’e Sword and said, “Master empress, I’m not good at formations. Can you help me figure out how to get out of this ‘ghost hitting a wall’?”
Mi Li didn’t appear and just replied with a yawn, “Do you really need to ask me for this sort of trivial thing? Doesn’t your Primordial Origin Sutra have a way to deal with evil spirits?”
Zu An said with a headache, “But that ghost is still hidden. I have no target to aim at!”
“Why do you have to follow the path they gave you and be led by the nose? Can’t you just use brute force?” Mi Li replied impatiently.
Zu An was startled. He looked at the paths around the residences. He had ended up getting trapped by following those paths…
“Thank you, master empress,” he said.
He walked up to a wall, then used his Primordial Origin ki to smash through it. Just like that, he passed straight through. Since he wasn’t good at formations, he would just break through directly instead.
“Hmph, even the ignorant can be taught!” Mi Li muttered, then fell silent again.
Zu An no longer followed the paths, and instead just went in the direction of the innermost courtyard with sheer strength. He created a perfectly straight line toward the residence. His Primordial Origin Sutra naturally countered sinister powers to begin with; thus, the walls that were destroyed couldn’t be repaired, and he was able to successfully reach that innermost house. He wondered whether any ghosts would attack him along the way, but for some reason, there wasn’t a single ghost. There weren’t even any of the paper dolls from earlier.
The bride’s room wasn’t hard to find. It was naturally the one that was the most grand and beautifully decorated… even though it was now surrounded by dim green lanterns and seemed rather eerie. Thus, Zu An went straight over to it. When he arrived in front of the entrance, he suddenly sensed something. He noticed that there was someone inside. The door wasn’t completely closed, so he could see inside through the crack.
Inside, there was a woman dressed in red wedding clothes who was grooming herself in front of a mirror. Judging from the sight of her back, she was clearly a very attractive woman. Furthermore, the way she was combing her hair was also refined and elegant. It was easy to imagine that she was definitely the educated and well-balanced daughter of a distinguished household.
Zu An suddenly remembered Paper Bride, whom he had met at Cloudcenter Commandery. He thought to himself that if she were here, she would definitely have quite a bit to talk about with this woman.
While he sighed wistfully, the woman suddenly seemed to have reached an inconvenient area to comb. As such, she just removed her head and put it on the table to comb it carefully.
Zu An was speechless. Even though it has already been many years since he transmigrated, he had lived as a normal person in his previous world for far too long. When he saw that, he couldn't help but shiver all over.
However, in that instant, he quickly adjusted his condition and broke in. He tried to grab the ghost, intending to detain her first so she wouldn’t have any chance at retaliating.
But who would have thought that when he arrived at the bride’s side, the world would simply ripple like water before his eyes? Everything in front of him disappeared, replaced with a lady’s chamber that carried a delicate fragrance and a cheerful atmosphere. Zu An saw that he was currently on a large bed. There were double happiness characters and red brocade everywhere, indicating that he was in someone’s bridal room.
Hearing a sob, Zu An looked down stiffly and saw that there was a tear-stained bride lying underneath him.
Meanwhile, on a table nearby, there was a tied-up groom staring in their direction with a furious gaze, struggling as he muttered incomprehensibly.
Zu An was stunned. Just what the hell is this?!
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