His hands and feet were bound tightly by ropes, making movement impossible. A rag stuffed into his mouth prevented him from shouting. Even his eyes were blindfolded tightly by a red cloth. All he could see was a blurry expanse of red.
Even worse, the dull, throbbing ache left by a blunt object striking his head continued to torment his nerves, making it hard to focus or think.
Lu Liangting didn’t know where he was now, only that he’d been ambushed shortly after entering the village. The one who ambushed him was apparently a living person.
The main question was: what was this person’s purpose in knocking him out and tying him up?
Lu Liangting struggled, but could barely move. All he could feel was that he was sitting on a bed with soft bedding. The bedding seemed brand new, with no wrinkles to the touch. He didn’t know the material, but it felt hard and cold.
The air was thick with an indescribable scent. It smelled a bit like wax oil, mixed with a rancid odor, and the musty, decayed smell of an old house long uninhabited, its wooden items rotting from moisture while the air had gone stagnant.
These scents combined sent a chill through his heart.
That person had captured him, perhaps for a sacrifice.
He could tell: one layer of his clothes had been removed, and he’d been dressed in something else. The material of this garment was exactly the same as the bedding beneath him—cold and stiff.
Lu Liangting tried to struggle. His legs were bound to something, preventing him from standing. He could only lean back as far as possible.
Leaning against the bed, he shifted his body, trying to twist to one side.
Since he was on a bed, there should be a headboard. He could use it to rub off the blindfold and at least see his situation before figuring out how to escape.
This was his only option now. His clothes had been removed, and the three Fierce Ghost Items inside them were useless. He couldn’t even speak. He could only save himself.
After many attempts, Lu Liangting actually succeeded.
He turned his body sideways with all his might, pressing his head against a wooden post on his left side. Fortunately, the red cloth over his eyes was thick enough to create friction against the post.
After several tries, rubbing up and down, the red cloth slowly crept upward, and the room gradually came into view.
With one final forceful rub, he freed the red cloth. But as his vision returned, the sight before him left Lu Liangting completely dumbstruck.
The room was dimly lit by two red candles on a table, carved with the characters for “Double Happiness.”
Everything in the room was decorated in red. In this small room, the doors and windows were tightly shut, plastered with large “Double Happiness” characters. Even the doorframe was draped with red cloth strips meant to look festive. On the table before him were several plates, but their contents weren’t candy—they were eyes, noses, ears, and hearts.
A Red String was tied between the two red candles, seemingly symbolizing something.
And he was now sitting on an old wooden bed draped with red curtains and covered in bright red bedding.
His clothes had been changed, not into sacrificial robes, but into a wedding gown. There was even a large red flower pinned to his chest. The only thing missing was the hat.
It didn’t take much thought to realize this was an old-style wedding.
The problem was… one of the two main leads in this wedding, the Groom… seemed to be him!
He was an outsider. Aside from Zhao Mingyue, there was no one in this village.
Why would he be the Groom?
A thought suddenly struck Lu Liangting.
“A ghost marriage!”
Even he couldn’t help but curse inwardly. He had no desire to see what his “bride” looked like, nor did he want to “wed” her in this godforsaken place.
He tried to struggle and realized his feet were tied to two iron rings attached to the bed. He couldn’t deal with his feet without freeing his hands first.
An eerie silence surrounded him. Through the paper-covered window, Lu Liangting could vaguely make out many people standing outside.
So many people, yet so silent.
No… were those things outside even human?
Lu Liangting recalled the wax-sealed, moving wax corpses he’d seen on his way here. His heart already knew the answer, and despair inevitably crept in.
What use was it even if he broke free? Those Jiangshi outside were blocking the way.
Despair in his heart aside, Lu Liangting quickly regained his resolve and continued struggling.
He would try as long as there was even a sliver of hope.
Time passed unknowingly as Lu Liangting struggled. Then, suddenly, a sound broke through the silent, pitch-black night. It came from outside the house. He even heard several roars that only Fierce Ghosts could make.
“Someone’s coming. Is it the bride? Or the bastard who knocked me out?”
Lu Liangting stopped struggling and looked toward the window.
“I hope it’s not Mingyue.”
He knew Zhao Mingyue was also in this village, so he worried the person breaking in might be her.
…
At the same time, Bai Yu, controlling Zhao Mingyue’s body, darted toward the Wedding Courtyard like a phantom, her speed terrifyingly fast. Approaching the courtyard, she raised her hand, the Blood Thread Long Blade coalescing in her grip. Planting her foot to steady herself, she slashed out with full force.
A three-meter-long Blood Thread Blade Aura swept across, bisecting over a dozen wax corpses in front of the courtyard at the waist.
Three strides, she leaped, stepping on a wax corpse for leverage, and with another jump, landed directly on the roof of the main gate.
Shen Shuyun said there were several Fierce Ghosts hidden inside. A single glance confirmed it.
Normal wax corpses had their entire faces sealed shut, their features completely obscured—more terrifying than having their features sewn shut. But among these wax corpses, a few were different. Their sealed features had been forcibly pried open. Because of this, their facial expressions were extremely twisted and horrifying, their eyes and mouths wide agape, revealing an empty void within.
Bai Yu did a quick count. About eight such wax corpses.
Aside from their faces, these eight wax corpses had another distinguishing feature: their joints.
Though still heavily, perhaps even more thickly covered in wax, it didn’t hinder the movement of their joints one bit.
“Are these perhaps Jiangshi?”
Zhao Mingyue’s voice echoed in her mind. Even Bai Yu was startled.
“You’re awake?”
“Mhm. It’s a very strange feeling, like sleep paralysis. My consciousness is awake, but I can’t control my body. Overall, a terrible experience.”
“This is a ghost marriage. Lu Liangting was captured to be the Groom.”
“He’s the Groom of a ghost marriage? Then what about the bride?”
“The bride…” Bai Yu raised her eyes, gazing toward the mountain concealed in the darkness. “I suspect the bride comes from the Back Mountain.”
She had always wondered about the connection between the Back Village and Front Village. The dangers in the Front Village were real, but no matter how you looked at it, it seemed like minor skirmishes, as if this place was just a faint radiation from the Back Village. Now she was almost certain: the power of the Back Mountain was continuously devouring this place.
There was one more thing. She kept feeling as if the two Evil Gods in the Back Mountain wanted to come out—not just out of the mountain, but to escape.
These two Evil Gods were constantly orchestrating and controlling everything in the Front Village, weakening something. If they succeeded, perhaps they could leave the Back Mountain.
As Bai Yu stood on the eaves, communicating inwardly with Zhao Mingyue, the Fierce Ghosts in the courtyard had already spotted her. Compared to ordinary wax corpses, these Evil Ghosts were indeed boss-level.
From over five meters away, one pounced with a leap, a foul stench assaulting her face.
Its wax-sealed mouth stretched open as widely as possible, letting out a low, hoarse, raspy roar.
It had lived a miserable life and died under the Evil God’s control. Even in death, it found no peace; its corpse and Wraith would both be exploited, just like the Old Lady of East Village. In such circumstances, how could its Resentment not be profound?
The Fierce Ghost Resentment soared to the heavens. If freed from its wax corpse body, it wouldn’t be much weaker than Xiao Lian, the Fifth Floor Female Ghost from Sunshine Apartment.
“Roar!”
Squelch!
Reversing her grip on her Long Saber, Bai Yu thrust it upward, stabbing into the pouncing wax corpse’s mouth. The blade pierced through its oral cavity and burst out the back of its skull.
As she drew the blade, the roof tiles beneath Bai Yu’s feet shattered. She launched her body into the air, kicking another leaping wax corpse back down with one foot. Using the rebound force, she leaped again, her leg swinging in two rapid upward kicks, striking the chin of yet another wax corpse from below.
The wax corpse’s body jerked back uncontrollably. Bai Yu landed and executed a Quickdraw Slash.
With a gurgle, the wax corpse’s legs were severed. Two more squelches followed as it was bisected at the waist with one slash and decapitated with the next. Its head flew off into the distance.
Driving back three Fierce Ghost wax corpses in a single exchange, Bai Yu retreated two steps.
The Blood Thread Long Blade in her hand roiled chaotically for a long moment before finally re-condensing back into the shape of a saber.
The bodies of these wax corpses were simply too hard. If ordinary wax corpses had the hardness of plastic, these three were solid rock.
Zhao Mingyue’s body had its limits, after all. Even after being strengthened, it wasn’t significantly powerful. Severing these wax corpses required focusing on the Long Saber itself.
But under extreme manipulation, the sharper the blade became, the more brittle it also became—as if it lost all its flexibility.
With each slash, she felt the pain.
After all, the blood threads were part of her own body—an important component at that.
The people behind her were somewhat stunned for a moment. The gap in their abilities was shocking.
But then it dawned on them: the person with the blade was nine out of ten times that monster. Their hearts accepted it.
That outfit, that Long Saber, those clean, efficient moves—they’d be fools not to believe it was her.
“Hahaha, Doctor! Never thought I’d run into you here! How’s it feel, being transformed into a woman?” Underground Boxer laughed boisterously, casually blasting a Fierce Ghost away with a single punch.
“I’ve wanted to spar with you for ages, never got the chance!”
No sooner had the words left her mouth than a Blood Thread Blade Aura shot straight toward her position, its angle tricky and trajectory predicting her movement.
Underground Boxer almost dodged on instinct before forcefully stopping herself. The Blood Thread Blade Aura just barely grazed past her body, slicing through the floor tiles before dissolving into tiny blood threads and vanishing into the earth.
If she’d followed her bodily instincts and dodged, she’d definitely have been hit.
“Just joking! If we spar, it won’t be now!”
Cursing “monster” inwardly, Underground Boxer didn’t dare provoke Bai Yu any further and focused on her enemies.
Landing, Bai Yu swept the scene with a casual glance.
She had no interest in finding Lu Liangting. She only wanted to know if the God Statue was inside somewhere.
Spotting a remote, small side room, she dashed toward it swiftly.
