“Is your Team One missing someone?”
Xu Keji held a banana in his hand, nudged over to Qin Yue's side, and whispered, “Has the entrance to the secret realm been confirmed? If anything goes sideways, our Team Two will be on standby as a mobile unit. As long as even one person successfully enters the secret realm, it won't be considered a failure.”
“According to Little Aunt's deductions, the place where the secret realm is most likely to open is at the ruins of Baoshan Temple, which is the current Infant Spirit Tower,” Qin Yue's gaze followed the procession, locking onto the bride on the bamboo sedan. “Is the girl hidden away?”
“Don't worry, she's safe. I found a female comrade to take close care of her... That girl only has one breath left. These people are truly wicked, torturing a perfectly good child into—” Xu Keji made a hand gesture, then suddenly realized something. He stared at the sedan in sheer horror. “Wait, if you swapped out the bride, then who is sitting on that sedan right now? Holy crap?!!”
Where was Little Aunt? Where was that whole, living Little Aunt?! The higher-ups had given strict orders to keep a close eye on her! And they just let her get carried away on the bamboo sedan like that, serving her up as a sacrifice to the evil spirit?!
“Are you the one at Qi Refinement level 5, or am I?”
Qin Yue's lips moved slightly as she spoke in a flat tone, yet her eyes refused to drift even a fraction from 'Sariya.' “Right now, the most important thing is to ensure the wedding goes smoothly. Little Aunt already has a theory about how the secret realm's entrance opens; she just needs to verify it.”
Nan Zhi's method of saving people was incredibly simple and crude. Right in front of the yin spirits in the courtyard, she had swaggered into the room where the bride was kept, slung her over her shoulder, carried her away, and then put on the Chakkri wedding attire to sit in the room herself.
—Naturally, the Ba Yan God would not reject a fresh, delicious sacrifice delivered right to its doorstep.
Nan Zhi knew that the Ba Yan God knew their objective, and the Ba Yan God knew that they knew it knew their objective. Both sides were playing with their cards on the table, maintaining a tacit understanding.
But what the Ba Yan God did not know was that the only wildcard in this wedding was actually in Nan Zhi's hands.
“Don't worry. Before we left, Master was worried something might happen to me, so she lent me a dharma treasure to keep on me. It contains one of her attacks. A minor evil spirit is nothing to fear.”
Qin Yue recalled Nan Zhi's words from last night, and a profound sense of security washed over her.
The scenes of Ma Guniang slaying the colossal creature with her own hands and fighting off a horde of demons on her own were still vivid in her mind.
She wondered just how powerful a single strike from this Demon Suppression Commissioner would be.
If she could easily slay a mythical creature like a dragon, then an evil spirit from a tiny Southeast Asian country would certainly be no match for her.
With these thoughts, Qin Yue's mind settled. Her gaze inadvertently met that of the witch Harley in the crowd. They exchanged a brief look and quickly averted their eyes.
Little Aunt was right—cultivators had to fight for what they wanted.
Their target this time was a spirit herb called "Ghost Sand," which was an ingredient needed to refine Snake-Bear Pills.
If their goals clashed, they would inevitably have to battle for it.
They came at the perfect time.
A dense surge of Will to Fight suddenly rose in the depths of Qin Yue's eyes.
...
The Infant Spirit Tower stood 9.9 meters high. Beneath it was a sunken pit, filled layer upon layer with small jars containing Kuman Thong. The very bottom was pitch-black, completely obscuring any view, seemingly bottomless.
Deep and dark.
Seventy-two brides had met their deaths down there.
“May the Ba Yan God bless me! Bless me to make lots and lots of money and marry lots and lots of wives...”
“Ba Yan God, protect me. I beg you to show mercy and take away the pain and suffering of my illness.”
“Great Ba Yan God, I am willing to abandon everything. I beg you to let me enter the Divine Kingdom to rest eternally...”
“Ba Yan God, I worship you, and my entire family worships you. Please bestow your mercy upon us and drive away the ghosts wreaking havoc in my home.”
The believers held bouquets woven from yellow flowers. As they kowtowed and kissed the ground, they tossed the yellow flowers in their hands toward the feet of the bride, who lay there like an offering.
Dressed in Chakkri wedding attire, the bride remained completely motionless, like a corpse.
Right at that moment, a sudden change occurred.
The starry night sky was suddenly obscured by a dark cloud—a cloud stained with a deep, dark red that veiled the moon.
As the red moonlight fell upon the earth, a nameless wind began to howl around the Infant Spirit Tower. From the shadows within the tower where the light could not reach, muffled, tender cries of infants echoed out.
“Waaaa, waaaa...”
“Wah, wah!”
“Wah, wah! Ma... Ma...”
A very faint corpse fragrance suddenly drifted through the air.
From the eye sockets of the straw effigy representing the Ba Yan God, wriggling maggots began to crawl out one by one. In an instant, the pastries and offerings that had been perfectly fresh just moments ago rotted and turned foul, becoming completely inedible.
Panic seized the believers, who knelt on the ground and prayed frantically. The gaunt great exorcist Sashu stood up, scanning his surroundings with a sinister gaze as he suppressed the crowd. “Silence!”
“The Ba Yan God has descended! He is extremely pleased with his bride. Behold, the Ba Yan God is about to welcome his bride and take her to the beautiful, eternal Divine Kingdom!”
The believers came to a sudden realization, their devotion deepening as they took this to be a divine miracle.
However, there were still some who were not blinded.
Qin Yue's gaze remained steady, ready to back up Nan Zhi at any moment.
Xu Keji turned and gave a look to the person beside him.
Harley slipped into the crowd, accompanied by several werewolf soldiers.
The Manggu reporters held up their live-broadcast cameras, aiming them at every prominent public figure present at the wedding.
Surrounded by soldiers, Basong Zhalunpeng's face was grim.
“Caw! Caw! Caw!”
Black crows circled in the sky, suddenly diving down to crash headfirst into the Infant Spirit Tower one after another, their blood dyeing the bone tower used for suppression a deep red.
As the tender cries rang out once more, layers of ominous black mist rolled in, and a crack was suddenly torn open in the empty air.
Through the crack, one could see a cluster of bizarre, peculiar buildings on the other side, with faint, blurry figures walking along the streets.
【Dungeon: Ghost City of Ultimate Bliss has been activated】
“It's the Divine Kingdom!!”
“The Divine Kingdom! The Ba Yan God has descended!”
“The Divine Kingdom is right here in Manggu! I've seen it with my own eyes. It truly is a magnificent land where all the dead live.”
One believer scrambled to their feet and rushed toward the crack without a second thought:
“It's no different from reality! The dead live there without hunger or hardship, with endless milk and rice. It's as beautiful as heaven!”
As if a floodgate had been opened, almost all the believers surged toward the entrance of the secret realm in a chaotic rush!
A powerful suction force swept over them. In the blink of an eye, the entire environment surrounding Baoshan Temple changed dramatically, plunging into a dark, hazy sky.
—If anyone were to look down from a satellite at this moment, they would find a massive, jarring blank space where Baoshan Temple in Manggu once stood.
It was as if someone had physically scooped the temple right off the face of the earth.
...
【You have entered the Ghost City of Ultimate Bliss. Activated Dungeon: Ghost King's Wedding】
Seated on the bamboo sedan, Nan Zhi lifted her veil. Her surroundings were no longer the vicinity of the Infant Spirit Tower, but an entirely unfamiliar landscape.
The river rippled gently, and jagged rocks stood like a forest.
The riverbanks were covered with large, vibrantly colored, bizarre flowers. Towering trees shot straight into the sky, their broad canopies laden with tiny fruits nestled among the leaves.
The flora here was vastly different from that of the real world.
Flowers bloomed everywhere, yet none of them had leaves.
The banana trees were stubby, standing only half a meter tall, while the mint plants grew robust and towering like forest trees.
Crucian carp flew through the sky, while sparrows swam beneath the water.
Rats the size of basketballs chased cats around, and an old hen flapped its wings to soar high into the air, snatching up a weak eagle chick.
A rabbit as colossal as a beast charged out of the dense forest, pinning down a tiger and chewing on it vigorously. The bones crunched loudly as the rabbit's snow-white fur was stained with a layer of crimson blood.
A snake soared high in the sky, and a large black wild goose poked its head out from the depths of the water, staring at her curiously before opening its beak to speak in human tongue:
“Where did a strange creature like you come from?”
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