The inky black mansion was pierced by a red lantern drifting through the air, emanating a scarlet glow. Strangely, its light seemed imprisoned within its cage, failing to illuminate the surroundings.

The lantern floated to the entrance, stopping before Zhang Yuanqing, separated only by a threshold.

Zhang Yuanqing could clearly sense the presence of a ghost within the threshold, a chilling and eerie specter. Yet, no matter how intently he stared, he couldn't discern its features within the darkness.

He silently mobilized the power of Taiyin, ready to devour its essence at any moment.

Night Watchers inherently suppressed spirits, provided the spirit's level didn't exceed their own.

From the darkness, a hand emerged. Zhang Yuanqing, aided by the faint red light, saw a hand with bluish-black skin and black, grim nails.

The ghostly hand held a stack of red-covered name cards, seemingly offering them to Zhang Yuanqing.

Zhang Yuanqing didn't accept it. The ghostly hand persisted, an eerie stalemate ensued, as if they were locked in a contest of wills.

After what felt like an eternity, Xi Shi's trembling voice softly reminded, "Wang Tai?"

Seeing Wang Tai standing motionless, she feared the man might unknowingly trigger a deadly peril.

Alas, it's all the same... Zhang Yuanqing reluctantly took the name cards. The bluish-black ghost hand immediately retreated, and the red lantern drifted away, returning to the depths of the mansion.

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

"Five in total, seems like they're for us."

He distributed the name cards to his teammates. Unfolding them, they revealed red backgrounds with black characters, listing the bride's name and birthdate, while the groom's side remained blank.

The bride's name was "Bai Lan."

The instance notification echoed in their ears:

[Ding! You have received the Ghost Bride's wedding invitation. Please fill in your name. The Ghost Bride will select a groom in one hour.]

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

What would happen if chosen by the Ghost Bride? Holding the wedding invitations, their minds raced.

Zhang Yuanqing, having been dishonest during introductions and using the name Wang Tai, was now conflicted. Should he write Yuanshi Tianzun or Wang Tai?

He couldn't determine if using a false name would incur a penalty.

While pondering how to fill in the names, Zhang Yuanqing had a sudden thought, looking at his companions:

"Do you remember the amusement park's introduction, an indescribable existence came here, asking the spirits in the amusement park to find a certain young man, whose name is four characters long."

Xi Shi and the others naturally remembered, but didn't understand why he brought it up.

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

Following this line of thought, the little girl's face changed slightly, "An indescribable figure asked the Ghost Bride to find a certain young man, and she's asking us to fill in our names? Does this mean, the young man the bride in the haunted house is looking for is The Way of the Extraordinary?"

"How could that be..." Xi Shi looked stunned.

They were all The Way of the Extraordinary who had experienced multiple instances. Usually, the instance introduction serves as a background, telling you what kind of place this is, what happened.

To allow The Way of the Extraordinary to quickly understand the instance, nothing more.

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

It had nothing to do with the "players."

How could a mere The Way of the Extraordinary change the essence of an instance?

"It's just a coincidence, right? Since it's a ghost marriage, it's natural to write names," Qi Tian Dasheng frowned.

No, it's not a coincidence. Because the old guide didn't mention anything about wedding invitations. This only appeared after the instance changed. Combining it with the instance introduction, I don't believe there's no connection between the two... Zhang Yuanqing secretly grew wary.

He wondered if it was just his imagination, but he felt a strong sense of déjà vu from the information in the instance introduction.

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

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

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

Why did it stop? This speaker is weird... Zhang Yuanqing waited a few more seconds. Seeing the speaker remain silent, he stopped paying attention and said:

"Let's fill in the names first."

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

That was what he was thinking. Since the spirits in the haunted house had given the requirement to write names, it meant 'she' couldn't see the real IDs of The Way of the Extraordinary. Otherwise, the wedding invitation would be redundant.

Therefore, there was reason to speculate that the instance allowed The Way of the Extraordinary to disguise their IDs, just that it wasn't explicitly stated, and needed to be inferred and understood on one's own.

Actually, writing Yuanshi Tianzun would have been fine too, it's just that it might cause a crisis of trust among teammates... Zhang Yuanqing thought, and then saw the 'strokes' his fingers had written condense into black letters:

Wang Tai.

Then, he randomly fabricated a birthdate and gender. Well, the gender wasn't fabricated.

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

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

After writing the wedding invitations, Zhang Yuanqing put it in his pocket, and stepped over the threshold first, saying:

"Let's go in, it's best to stay behind me."

Seeing his teammates looking tense, he joked to lighten the mood, "I've had a tough life since I was a kid, even female ghosts have to consider maternity leave when they see me."

Everyone: "..." Joking about this at this time, are you really brave or aren't you afraid of death? There really is a bride-to-be ghost inside.

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

Beyond the threshold was the outer courtyard, quite large in scale, with a stone-paved path in the middle and corridors along the outer walls on both sides.

As the group crossed the threshold, the red lanterns under the eaves of the corridor lit up eerily, adding a touch of deep red to the dark night. The red lanterns were like scarlet eyes, silently staring at the living entering the courtyard.

At the end of the stone path was a hall with upturned eaves. The lattice doors were tightly closed, and dim yellow light filtered out from within.

"Huh..." As soon as he crossed the threshold, Zhang Yuanqing's eyes lit up slightly: "Take a look, have your skills and item bars been sealed?"

Fire Fiend and the others were stunned, either sensing their skills or checking their item bars, and were pleasantly surprised to find that this mission hadn't sealed their abilities and items.

For a time, they were both happy and worried. Happy because they finally had confidence when facing danger. Worried because opening up items and skills meant that the danger level of the haunted house was unusually high.

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

"Ah~"

Just as everyone was concentrating, they suddenly heard a scream, causing them to shudder.

Fire Fiend angrily turned his head, glared at Xi Shi, and roared: "What are you screaming for?"

Xi Shi's face was pale, pointing to the corridor a dozen meters away, she trembled:

"Th-there, there, under the lantern, there's a woman..."

Everyone turned their heads sharply, only to see lanterns hanging high, silent and still. Where was any ghost?

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

Zhang Yuanqing was still okay. He had experienced a paranormal instance before, and he was also a Night Watcher. He no longer had that 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, Yin energy everywhere, it will paralyze my senses. I can't sense spirits 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 everyone, Zhang Yuanqing led the team forward.

"Have you noticed, the instance only gave the prompt that the Ghost Bride will choose a groom in one hour."

Blind fear was meaningless. He used information to divert his teammates' attention and relieve their emotions: "My idea is, in the next hour, our behavior will become the standard for the Ghost Bride to choose a groom.

"I just don't know if becoming the groom means surviving, or death... Also, the Yin energy here is very heavy, containing many dangers. Maybe before an hour, we'll all be wiped out."

I don't know if the Ghost Bride still cares about looks. If she does, as the most handsome person in the team, I'm under a lot of pressure...

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

"Creak~"

The teeth-aching sound echoed in the night.

Inside the hall, candles were held high, red carpets covered the floor, red cloths hung on the pillars, and at the end of the red carpet were two grand chairs, a sacrificial table with candles and fruits, and a bright red "囍" 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, slightly upturned lips.

The most unsettling thing was that the heads of these paper figures were twisted into strange angles, their hollow eyes looking at the door, at the group that had entered.

Dong dong dong... Xie Lingxi took a step back in terror, covering her mouth with her small hand, not letting herself scream.

At this moment, Zhang Yuanqing felt a tingling in his scalp.

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

After sensing them carefully, he breathed a sigh of relief. They were all minor ghosts.

I might not be able to deal with the Ghost Bride, but for you little ghosts to dare to be arrogant in front of this daddy, that's going too far! Zhang Yuanqing mobilized the power of Taiyin, allowing the darkness to gather in his eyes. He gathered his Qi in his dantian:

"Get out!"

The paper figures in the hall fell to the ground, gusts of Yin wind swept through, and faintly, there were ghostly wails, as they scrambled to escape.

Xi Shi, Xie Lingxi, Fire Fiend, and Qi Tian Dasheng behind him were stunned by what they saw.