Chapter 1 The Overture

Inside the pitch-black mansion, a red lantern floated over, emitting a scarlet glow. Strangely, its light seemed to be sealed within the lantern, unable to illuminate the surroundings.

The lantern drifted to the entrance, stopping in front of Zhang Yuanqing. Only a threshold separated him from the red lantern.

Zhang Yuanqing could clearly sense a ghost inside the threshold, a ghastly and eerie ghost. However, no matter how intently he stared, he couldn't make out the ghost's appearance in the darkness.

He silently mobilized his Taiyin power, ready to devour it at any moment.

Night Watchers innately suppress spiritual bodies, provided the spiritual body's level doesn't exceed their own.

From the darkness, a hand reached out. By the faint red light, Zhang Yuanqing saw that it was a cyan-black hand with dark, sinister fingernails.

This ghostly hand held a stack of red-covered name cards, seemingly wanting Zhang Yuanqing to accept them.

Zhang Yuanqing didn't take them, and the ghostly hand continued to offer them. The two sides were deadlocked, as if engaged in a standoff.

After a long while, Xishi's trembling voice softly reminded, "Wang Tai?"

Seeing Wang Tai standing motionless, she feared that this man might unknowingly trigger a crisis and suddenly die.

*Sigh*, whether I stretch my neck or shrink back, it's all the same outcome... Helplessly, Zhang Yuanqing accepted the name cards. The cyan-black ghostly hand immediately retreated, and then, the red lantern floated away, returning to the depths of the mansion.

Zhang Yuanqing stepped back from the threshold, returned to his teammates, and raised the name cards in his hand:

"There are five in total, it seems they're for us."

He distributed the name cards to his teammates one by one. The others unfolded them, revealing red backgrounds with black characters, writing the bride's name and *bazi* (eight characters of birth time), while the groom's side was blank.

The bride's name was Bai Lan.

The instance notification echoed in everyone's ears:

[Ding! You have received the ghost bride's wedding invitation. Please fill in your name. The ghost bride will choose her groom in one hour.]

Fill in their names, and she'll choose a groom in one hour?

What will happen if one is chosen by the ghost bride? Holding the wedding invitations, the others were lost in thought.

Because he hadn't been honest during his self-introduction, using Wang Tai's name, Zhang Yuanqing was now a bit conflicted. Should he write Yuanshi Tianzun, or Wang Tai?

He couldn't judge whether writing a fake name would result in punishment.

Just as he was pondering how to fill in the name, Zhang Yuanqing's heart stirred, and he looked at his companions:

"Do you guys remember the amusement park's introduction? An indescribable existence came here and asked the spirits in the amusement park to help find a certain young man. That young man's name was four characters long."

Xishi and the others certainly remembered, but they didn't understand why he was mentioning it.

Xie Lingxi's mind worked the fastest. She glanced at the wedding invitation in her hand, "Are you saying that there might be a connection between the two..."

The little girl followed this line of thinking, and her face changed slightly: "The indescribable person asked the ghost bride to find a certain young man, and yet she's asking us to fill in our names? Does this mean that the young man the bride in the haunted house is looking for is a Spirit Walker?"

"How could that be..." Xishi looked astonished.

They were all Spirit Walkers who had experienced multiple instances. Usually, the instance introduction was just background information, telling you what kind of place this was and what had happened there.

It was just to help Spirit Walkers quickly understand the instance.

Before this, they thought that the young man the indescribable existence was looking for was a character in the instance, or even a monster.

It had nothing to do with the 'players'.

How could a mere Spirit Walker change the essence of an instance?

"It's just a coincidence, right? Since it's a ghost marriage, of course you have to write your name," Qitian Dasheng frowned.

No, it's not a coincidence. Because the old version of the walkthrough didn't mention anything about wedding invitations. This appeared after the instance changed. Combining this with the instance introduction, I don't believe that there's no connection between the two... Zhang Yuanqing was secretly vigilant.

He didn't know if it was just his imagination, but he felt that the information in the instance introduction had a strong sense of deja vu.

"Zzzzzz... That day, she came to Jinshui Amusement Park..."

Suddenly, the Cat King speaker in Zhang Yuanqing's pocket made a sound.

Everyone immediately looked at his pocket, but the Cat King speaker stopped talking.

Why did it stop talking? This speaker is strange... Zhang Yuanqing waited a few more seconds, but seeing that the speaker remained silent, he stopped paying attention and said:

"Let's fill in the names first."

He unfolded the wedding invitation and tried to use his finger as a pen to write "Wang Tai" in the name column.

That was what he was thinking. Since the spirit in the haunted house gave the requirement to write names, it meant that 'she' couldn't see the Spirit Walkers' real IDs either. Otherwise, the wedding invitation would be unnecessary.

Therefore, there was reason to deduce that the instance allowed Spirit Walkers to disguise their IDs, but it wasn't explicitly stated. You had to infer and understand it yourself.

Actually, writing Yuanshi Tianzun wouldn't be a problem either, but there might be a crisis of trust among teammates... Zhang Yuanqing thought, then saw the 'strokes' his finger had made, coalescing into black font:

Wang Tai.

Then, he randomly made up the *bazi* and gender. Well, the gender wasn't made up.

The four teammates followed suit, using their fingers as pens.

Xie Lingxi stood on tiptoe, timidly glancing at Zhang Yuanqing's wedding invitation, then wrote her own name. In the gender column, she hesitated slightly and filled in "male."

After writing the wedding invitation, Zhang Yuanqing put it in his pocket and took the lead in stepping over the threshold, saying:

"Let's go in. It's best if you all follow behind me."

Seeing his teammates' tense faces, he joked to lighten the mood: "My *bazi* has been strong since I was a child. When female ghosts see me, they have to consider maternity leave."

Everyone: "........" You're making this kind of joke at this time, are you really brave or not afraid of death? There's really a ghost waiting to be married inside.

Wasn't this joke funny enough? Zhang Yuanqing glanced at their faces, stopped talking, and silently entered the mansion.

Beyond the threshold was the outer courtyard, which was quite large. In the middle was a path paved with stone slabs, and on both sides were corridors connected to the outer walls.

When the others crossed the threshold, red lanterns under the eaves of the corridor lit up eerily, adding a touch of crimson to the pitch-black night. The red lanterns were like scarlet eyeballs, quietly staring at the living people entering the courtyard.

At the end of the stone slab road was a hall with upturned eaves. The lattice doors were tightly closed, and dim yellow light shone through the doors.

"Oh..." Just after crossing the threshold, Zhang Yuanqing's eyes lit up slightly: "Take a look, has your skill and item bar been sealed?"

Huomo and the others were stunned, sensing their skills or checking their item bars, and were pleasantly surprised to find that this mission didn't seal their abilities and props.

For a time, they were both happy and worried. They were happy that when facing danger, they finally had a foundation. They were worried that the opening of props and skills meant that the danger level of the haunted house was not generally high.

Under Zhang Yuanqing's lead, the others moved forward slowly. In the silent night, only their footsteps could be heard.

"Ah~"

Just as the others were concentrating, they suddenly heard a scream, which startled them.

Huomo turned his head angrily, glaring at Xishi, and said angrily, "What are you screaming about?"

Xishi's face was pale, she pointed to the corridor more than ten meters away, and trembled:

"There, there, under the lantern, there's a woman..."

Everyone suddenly turned their heads, only to see the lanterns hanging high, silent and without sound, where did the ghost come from?

With this interlude, the already apprehensive four people became even more solemn.

Zhang Yuanqing was alright. He had experienced a spiritual instance once before, and he himself was a Night Watcher, so he no longer had the kind of fear of ghosts from the bottom of his heart.

In his opinion, ghosts were no different from Autobots.

This place is filled with ghostly aura, and yin energy is everywhere, which will numb my perception. I can't sense spiritual bodies that are too weak or too far away. However, I can use the Demon Subduing Pestle now. I'm not afraid even if the ghost bride comes... While comforting the others, Zhang Yuanqing led the team forward.

"Have you noticed that the instance only gave the prompt that the ghost bride will choose her groom in one hour."

Blind fear was meaningless. He used information to distract his teammates and relieve their emotions: "My idea is that in the next hour, our behavior will become the standard for the ghost bride to choose her groom.

"I just don't know if becoming the groom means surviving, or death... In addition, this place has a heavy yin energy and contains many dangers. Maybe we'll all be wiped out before an hour."

I don't know if the ghost bride is still a looks-ist. If she is, as the most handsome person on the team, I'm under a lot of pressure...

Soon, they arrived at the main hall. Zhang Yuanqing came forward and pushed open the tightly closed lattice doors.

"Creak~"

The unsettling sound echoed in the night.

Inside the main hall, candles were lit high, red carpets covered the ground, red cloth hung from the pillars, and at the end of the red carpet were two grand master chairs, an offering table with candles and melons and fruits, and a bright red double happiness character on the wall.

On both sides of the red carpet stood seven or eight paper figures, dressed in ancient servant costumes, with lifelike eyebrows and eyes, and crimson lips slightly raised.

The most terrifying thing was that the heads of these paper figures were twisted into strange angles, and their empty eyes looked at the entrance, at the others who had pushed the door open.

Da-da-da... Xie Lingxi retreated in terror, covering her mouth with her small hand, not letting herself scream.

At this moment, Zhang Yuanqing's scalp was a little numb.

Not because of fear, but because these paper figures were all ghosts...

After carefully sensing them, he breathed a sigh of relief. These were all little ghosts.

I may not be able to do anything about the ghost bride, but how dare you little ghosts be arrogant in front of this grandpa, this is too much! Zhang Yuanqing mobilized his Taiyin power, condensing the darkness in his eyes. He concentrated his breath in his *dantian*:

"Scram!"

The paper figures in the hall fell to the ground, a gust of yin wind blew, and faint ghostly cries echoed, scrambling to flee.

Xishi, Xie Lingxi, Huomo and Qitian Dasheng, who were behind him, were stunned by the sight.