Chapter 513 - 288: Ghost Play
Chapter 513: Chapter 288: Ghost Play
The three torches silently changed color.
Gentle’s expression remained unchanged, looking at the flames with slight curiosity.
She didn’t know how this trick was done, it seemed very interesting.
Wu Qianhuan, however, instinctively swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
She just felt her scalp tingling... She couldn’t help but look at Chu Qing:
"The fire... the fire..."
Chu Qing nodded, just about to speak, when the sound of a gong rang out, followed closely by the rapid beating of drums, and the lingering sound of opera floated in.
The sound was elusive, carrying a kind of desolate and eerie feeling, sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right, making it impossible to grasp.
Wu Qianhuan took a deep breath, forcing herself to stay alert.
But she instinctively grabbed Chu Qing’s hand. Having grown up in a family of the Martial World, she had both experience and knowledge.
So she knew clearly that someone was trying to deceive them with illusions...
But even so, she couldn’t help but feel nervous.
Especially since Chu Qing hadn’t given any warning before, which was rare and strange.
After all, his Divine Skill was unmatched in the world, this group shouldn’t have been able to escape his notice.
How could it be that not until the flames changed color did he speak a word?
She thought this in her heart and couldn’t help but become even more nervous.
Chu Qing took a look at Gentle, who sniffed and said:
"Seventeen people..."
Chu Qing nodded.
He indeed hadn’t heard any sound; either this group’s Breath Concealment Technique was extraordinary, or there was another reason.
However, the scent was undeniable.
Gentle was talking about seventeen people, not seventeen corpses reeking of decay.
This showed that the arrivals were human, not ghosts.
"Since they’ve set up the stage, it would be a shame to waste their good intentions by not watching it."
Chu Qing held Wu Qianhuan’s hand, leading Gentle, heading toward the sound.
Though the sound was elusive, it mattered not if it made noise; once it was audible, it wasn’t hard to unravel its mysteries.
Chu Qing’s actions inexplicably gave Wu Qianhuan a sense of safety, and her courage grew as they walked.
As they got closer to the destination, the sound of the opera grew louder in their ears.
Looking up, they saw within the dense forest of Heaven-Reaching Ridge, flickers of green flames, through gaps in the trees, revealing a stage.
Someone was performing opera on the stage, singing something that seemed to be ’Zhong Kui Exorcises Ghosts’ and similar pieces.
But this was a performance Wu Qianhuan had never heard before.
In front of the stage, people sat in small groups.
Each of them had a ghastly pale face, seemingly loners and ghosts attracted to the stage, enjoying a rare moment of leisure here.
As the stage came into clear view, Wu Qianhuan finally realized why the opera seemed odd to her.
In the usual ’Zhong Kui Exorcises Ghosts’, even if there are setbacks, Zhong Kui ultimately triumphs, capturing the demons and ghosts.
But what they heard now was Zhong Kui being toyed with by malevolent ghosts, finding no refuge in heaven or earth, losing an arm here and an eye there, a complete inversion of natural order.
Zhong Kui in panic, the malicious ghosts rampant!
"This opera isn’t right..."
When Wu Qianhuan spoke this sentence, she was already standing by the stage.
The audience below the stage and the performers on it looked at Wu Qianhuan the moment she finished speaking.
Their eyes showed no emotional fluctuations, as if they had long since died... Each pair of eyes stared unblinkingly, making one’s scalp tingle.
Wu Qianhuan’s fear had peaked.
As the saying goes, when fear reaches its limit, it turns to anger; in that moment, Wu Qianhuan didn’t flee in panic; she got angry!
"You scoundrels, who told you to play tricks here? In the middle of the night, don’t you know people can be scared to death?"
Wu Qianhuan couldn’t help but scold.
Though she was angry, she hadn’t lost her reasoning.
She knew to hide behind Chu Qing, poking her head out to shout.
"Which family’s wandering ghosts dare to be presumptuous in front of this prince?!"
Amidst the opera, a voice came from the stage, as a figure on it pointed a finger:
"Take them down!!"
As soon as these words were spoken, a wailing arose suddenly from the stage, and from behind that figure, shadows emerged one by one.
They converged and charged straight at Wu Qianhuan.
"Hmm?"
Wu Qianhuan’s eyes narrowed slightly; without fighting, the depths of her opponents were still unknown.
Once they made a move, the Ghost Qi dissipated immediately, and a human scent suddenly emerged.
The technique used by the opponents might fool ordinary people, but Wu Qianhuan could see at a glance that it was a method of Mysterious Skill manipulation.
Seemingly ghosts, but in reality, it was an external manifestation of True Qi.
She directly stepped out from behind Chu Qing, grasping the hilt of the Injury Concealing Sword, with a clang, drawing the long sword:
"Dare to play tricks in front of me, I’ll tear down your stage."
Chu Qing couldn’t help but laugh, knowing the girl was genuinely angry.
She rarely referred to herself as ’this miss’ outside, and calling herself ’auntie’ was even rarer.
As her sword blade emerged, a bright moon suddenly appeared behind her.
The round moon was like a wheel, its light illuminating everything, and Wu Qianhuan leaped as if into the moon.
In the next moment, the sword light shot forth, directly colliding with the shadows.
The sword light and True Qi surged in all directions, sweeping first over the audience before the stage.
Just a moment ago, they were playing tricks; now seeing things turn bad, each couldn’t help but start running with their heads down.
Fearing they might be injured by the Sword Qi and Inner Breath.