There were less than twenty-eight hours left before the 【Ghost City of Ultimate Bliss】 dungeon opened.
Time was tight, and the task was heavy; they only had one night.
The members of Team One and Team Two were all mobilized.
To cover up their true intentions, the members of the Huaxia delegation actively cooperated. Those who were supposed to attend the exchange meetings attended them, those visiting scholars did so, and those discussing cooperation went ahead with their talks.
—There was absolutely no need to fake anything, nor did they fear any investigation.
They had originally come to participate in the economic exchange conference in the first place.
Qin Yue submitted a report and had the organization intervene, successfully obtaining tickets to the Ba Yan God's wedding. Then, under the pretext of “quietly worshiping the deity,” she got the temple keeper to agree to let a few of them stay in the temple for the night.
Xu Keji, the leader of Team Two, had a sudden stroke of inspiration. He paid out of his own pocket to buy observation slots from several “devout” believers.
...
Whether by coincidence or not, the room arranged by the temple keeper was located right near the Infant Spirit Tower. Opening the window revealed the sharp tip of the tower.
Despite being in a tropical country, once the rain started falling, the rooms became freezing cold, and a sickening musty smell permeated everywhere.
Fortunately, there was a fire pit in the room specifically for warmth.
“There are statues of the Ba Yan God everywhere.”
Qin Yue searched the room thoroughly, throwing all the Ba Yan God statues she found on the ceiling and headboard into the fire, her face filled with disgust.
As the wooden tablets burned, they crackled loudly, and the musty smell grew even stronger.
Nan Zhi quietly manipulated the wind to blow the musty odor out of the window. In doing so, she spotted a somewhat familiar young boy not far away, being shoved and pushed outside by two believers.
The speech bubbles floating above the heads of the three were exceptionally eye-catching.
“Please, I beg you, save my sister! I’m sincere! I’ll work hard to make money, and I’ll give all the money I earn in the future to the Ba Yan Temple!”
“Don’t let my sister marry the Ba Yan God! She will die!”
“The Ba Yan God already has seventy-two brides! I only have Sariya, she can’t leave me! Please! I beg you, let me see the great exorcist!”
The boy, whom they had met once before, knelt on the ground and repeatedly kowtowed, trying to arouse their pity.
But the two devout believers only sighed. Looking at him as if he were an ignorant child, they said with earnest well-meaning:
“The great exorcist isn’t someone you can just see whenever you want. He is currently cultivating. Get lost and go back!”
“Sariya being chosen by the Ba Yan God is a supreme honor. She is going to the Buddha-land to enjoy blessings. From now on, she will be free from illness and disaster, becoming the noble and great wife of the Ba Yan God. No evil spirits will harm us in the future, and you will be taken care of as well. Isn’t that wonderful?”
“I can support myself, and I can support Sariya too! I don’t want her to be a deity’s bride! The great exorcist is a liar! Sariya will die! The previous brides all died too!”
The boy screamed, rushing forward to punch and kick the two believers, but how could a child’s strength contend with adults?
His resistance only brought him a severe beating.
...
“Tell me, why are you here?”
Nan Zhi held a dry towel and carefully wiped the boy Patipan’s face.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have stolen your things.”
With bruises all over his face, Patipan lay on the floor like a dead fish, suddenly feeling a bit ashamed.
His tears fell in large drops, his eyes filled with despair.
“Sariya is going to be sent into the Infant Spirit Tower tomorrow to become the god's bride. I want to die with her.”
—Those big shots would never give him a chance to ruin the wedding.
Bewitched by the deity, Sariya could no longer listen to anything he said.
Flee with Sariya?
Where would they run to?
Run to the underground casinos to be a dog for Shilihua?
Or run to the red-light district, selling their bodies to support himself and Sariya?
Damn it.
Those big shots were all liars! Their daughters and their sons were never chosen to be the Ba Yan God's brides!
Patipan could no longer cry. He wasn’t afraid of death; after all, there were plenty of ways to live in this world that were far more terrifying than death.
Gods were liars.
Believing in a god wouldn't make life any better.
“I forgive your rudeness, but you’re still so young. How do you know tomorrow won’t be a little better?”
Nan Zhi flicked his forehead and gestured for Qin Yue to translate:
“Would you like to tell me the stories of the Ba Yan God’s other seventy-two brides?”
As she spoke, a bright flame suddenly bloomed in her palm, gentle yet impossible to ignore.
It seemed capable of dispelling all the fear in one's heart.
It was transcendent power!
It was the transcendents mentioned in the newspapers!
They came from mysterious Huaxia! They would definitely have a way to deal with the Ba Yan God!
Patipan scrambled to roll over, kowtowing vigorously as he began to stammer out the story of the Ba Yan God’s weddings.
...
In the beginning, when ghosts and monsters first appeared in their lives, everyone was terrified. They hid in their homes every day, and no one dared to go outside.
Shops, banks, restaurants, schools, temples...
Once night fell, no one dared to venture out, fearing they would run into an evil spirit and suddenly drop dead.
Even the greedy casino owners never dared to open at night.
The Ba Yan God was indeed very effective.
As long as a household enshrined the Ba Yan God, even on the darkest nights, they wouldn't attract evil spirits as long as they didn't turn on the lights.
Everyone abandoned the Naga Goddess and turned to worshiping the Ba Yan God instead.
But the great exorcist said that the Ba Yan God was in the Buddha-land and wished to marry brides.
Thus, General Basong took charge, and one beautiful young boy and girl after another was wrapped in wedding clothes and sent into the Infant Spirit Tower.
In the great exorcist's descriptions, although these young people's physical bodies had died, their souls had already flown to the Buddha-land to serve the deity Ba Yan for all eternity.
Patipan had always firmly believed this.
First was Patiksha, the son of a family down the street who ran a small business repairing electrical appliances.
Patiksha was very beautiful. His family had raised him with good food and drink since childhood, planning to send him to a casino to work as a ladyboy to support the family once he turned twelve.
Then, one day, he was suddenly chosen to be the Ba Yan God's bride.
After that, Patiksha slowly wasted away. Even without eating or drinking, his spirit remained high, and he was eventually sent to the Infant Spirit Tower.
Next was Trina, the eldest daughter of the family running a restaurant in the front alley, who was still in high school.
She passed by the mouth of the alley every day in her clean, neat school uniform, making Patipan incredibly envious.
One day, while Trina was taking an exam, someone suddenly rushed into the school and announced that the Ba Yan God had chosen her to be the sixty-seventh bride.
Trina was unwilling, so the believers beat her mouth with a book, forcing her to swallow her exam paper.
Once she returned home, Trina's parents refused to give her food or drink. It wasn't until the seventh day, after she died, that Trina was wrapped in bridal attire and sent to the Infant Spirit Tower.
Even as she starved to death, Trina wore a smile on her face.
Ghosts?
It wasn't a ghost that killed Trina.
It was just that everyone was very unlucky. Although they weren't killed directly by ghosts, there were those who drowned while swimming, choked to death while eating, jumped from buildings, hanged themselves, died in car accidents...
As Patipan spoke, his face grew paler.
He suddenly realized something, standing frozen in place, blank and hollow:
“This isn’t right. Too many people have died... and they are all, they are all people from the slums.
Auntie from the Pong family drowned, the youngest son of the Gulinan family was in a car accident, the grandmother of the Songpashan family fell to her death—”
His voice pitched higher, and he shrieked:
“This isn’t right, this isn’t right! The ones who died are all, they are all people like us, people like us...
But those big shots, those big shots!!”
Patipan grabbed Nan Zhi's hand, screaming with all his might:
“Help me, help me, save my sister! Help me!”
Qin Yue showed a look of pity.
To her surprise, Nan Zhi shook her head and had Qin Yue translate:
“I’m sorry, I cannot help you. I still have very important things to do.”
Qin Yue didn't understand. They had clearly agreed earlier, so why did Nan Zhi suddenly change her mind? However, without the slightest hesitation, she immediately called someone in to take the boy away.
“You! You’re in league with them! You will go to hell!”
The light in Patipan’s eyes extinguished, and he cursed viciously:
“The Ba Yan God will go to hell!!”
The boy glared fiercely at Qin Yue, spat out a few curses, and quickly ran out of the room.
“Why—”
Before Qin Yue could finish her sentence, Nan Zhi grabbed her hand, gave it a gentle squeeze, and, with her back to the window, mouthed:
【There is something outside the door.】
“You’re right. We’re on someone else’s turf right now; it’s better to avoid trouble if we can.”
Qin Yue reacted quickly, immediately raising her voice: “If we really feel sorry for the child, we might as well donate more money...
Why is it so cold when it rains? Let’s close the window for a bit.”
With that, she walked over to the window and took a stealthy glance outside.
With just that one glance, a dense layer of cold sweat broke out across Qin Yue's back.
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