Chapter 56 : Marriage Invitation

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

The lantern drifted to the entrance and stopped in front of Zhang Yuanqing. There was only a doorstep between him and the red lantern. He could keenly sense that behind the doorstep, there was a ghost—a chilling and eerie ghost. However, no matter how hard he stared, he couldn't make out the appearance of the ghost lurking in the darkness.

He silently mobilized his power of Tai Yin, ready to devour spirits. The Night Roaming God naturally suppressed spiritual entities, as long as their level did not surpass his own.

In the darkness, a hand reached out. With the faint red light, Zhang Yuanqing saw that it was a dark greenish-black hand with creepy black nails. The ghostly hand held a stack of red-covered name cards, seemingly wanting Zhang Yuanqing to accept them.

Zhang Yuanqing hesitated and did not take the name cards. The ghostly hand kept extending them, and both sides seemed to be in a deadlock.

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

She saw Wang Tai standing motionless, deeply afraid that he might inadvertently trigger a crisis and disappear without a trace.

Sigh, dealing with all of this is really nerve-wracking... Zhang Yuanqing helplessly accepted the name cards. The dark greenish-black ghostly hand immediately retreated, and then the red lantern floated away, returning to the depths of the courtyard.

Zhang Yuanqing stepped back to his teammates and raised the name cards in his hand.

"Five in total, it seems they are meant for us."

He distributed the name cards to his teammates. Everyone unfolded their cards, which had red backgrounds with black writing, displaying the names and birth dates of the brides. On the groom's side, it was blank.

The bride's name was "Bai Lan."

The system prompt echoed in their ears:

[Ding! You have received the ghost bride's marriage invitation. Please fill in your name, and the ghost bride will choose a groom one hour later.]

Fill in the name, and the ghost bride will choose a groom in an hour? What would happen if they were chosen by the ghost bride? With the marriage invitations in their hands, everyone's thoughts were in turmoil.

Zhang Yuanqing was in a dilemma because he introduced himself using Wang Tai's name, so he was unsure whether to write "Yuan Shi Tian Zun" or "Wang Tai." He couldn't determine if using a false name would incur any punishment.

While contemplating how to fill in the name, Zhang Yuanqing suddenly looked at his companions.

"Do you still remember the introduction in the amusement park? An indescribable being came here, and it asked the spirits in the amusement park to help find a young man with a four-character name."

Xishi and the others certainly remembered, but they couldn't understand why he brought it up.

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

Following her train of thought, the little girl's face changed slightly. "The indescribable being asked the ghost bride to find a young man, and now she's asking us to fill in our names. Does this mean that the young man the ghost bride is looking for in the haunted house is a Spirit Realm traveler?"

"How is that possible..." Xishi looked astonished.

They were also experienced travelers who had been through numerous instances. Generally, the introduction of a Spirit Realm was just a background description, informing the travelers of what kind of place it was and what had happened there. It was meant to help Spirit Realm travelers quickly understand the instance, and that was it.

Before this, they believed that the indescribable being was looking for someone within the Spirit Realm, perhaps even a monster.

It had nothing to do with "players."

A mere Spirit Realm traveler, what qualifications did they have to change the essence of a Spirit Realm?

"It's probably just a coincidence. Since it's a ghost wedding, they must write their names," said Monkey King, furrowing his brow.

No, it wasn't a coincidence, because there was no mention of marriage invitations in the old version of the walkthrough. It only appeared after the changes to the Spirit Realm. Combined with the introduction of the Spirit Realm, Zhang Yuanqing found it hard to believe that there was no connection between the two. He remained wary.

He didn't know if it was an illusion, but he felt a strong sense of familiarity with the information in the Spirit Realm introduction.

"Zi zi... That day, she came to the Golden Water Amusement Park..."

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

Everyone immediately looked at his pocket, but the speaker fell silent again.

Why did it stop talking? This speaker is weird... Zhang Yuanqing waited for a few more seconds but, seeing that the speaker remained silent, he stopped paying attention and said, "Let's fill in our names first."

He unfolded the marriage invitation and tried to write "Wang Tai" in the name column using the designated pen.

His thinking was that since the ghost in the haunted house required them to write their names, it meant that 'she' couldn't see the Spirit Realm travelers' real IDs; otherwise, the marriage invitations would be unnecessary. Therefore, it was reasonable to speculate that the instance allowed Spirit Realm travelers to use false IDs, but it was just not explicitly stated, requiring them to reason and understand on their own.

Actually, writing "Yuan Shi Tian Zun" wouldn't be a problem either, but it might lead to a crisis of trust among teammates... Zhang Yuanqing thought. He then saw the 'pen stroke' formed by his finger turn into black letters:

"Wang Tai."

Afterward, he casually fabricated his birth date and gender, well, he didn't fabricate his gender.

The other four teammates followed suit using the designated pen. Xie Lingxi tiptoed and sneakily glanced at Zhang Yuanqing's marriage invitation, then wrote her own name. In the gender column, she hesitated for a moment and wrote "male."

After filling in the marriage invitations, Zhang Yuanqing tucked his into 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 expressions, he tried to lighten the mood with a joke, "I have a strong horoscope since I was a child. Even female ghosts have to consider maternity leave when they see me."

Everyone: "..." Making jokes like this at a time like this, are you really brave or just not afraid of death? Inside there is a real ghost bride waiting for a groom.

Is this joke not funny enough? Zhang Yuanqing glanced at their faces, refrained from saying anything more, and quietly entered the mansion.

Behind the threshold was the outer courtyard, quite spacious with a stone-paved path in the middle and covered corridors on both sides against the outer walls. As the group crossed the threshold, red lanterns hanging under the eaves of the corridors mysteriously lit up, adding a deep crimson hue to the pitch-black night. The red lanterns looked like crimson eyes quietly staring at the living beings who entered the courtyard.

At the end of the stone path was a grand hall with an overhanging eave, and the lattice door was tightly closed, with dim light seeping out from behind it.

"Hey..." Just as everyone was fully focused, they suddenly heard a scream, making them jump in fright.

Fire Demon angrily turned around, glaring at Xishi, and scolded, "Why are you screaming like a ghost?"

Xishi's face turned pale, pointing her trembling hand to a corridor about ten meters away and said, "There, under the lantern, there's a woman..."

Everyone turned their heads abruptly, but they saw the lanterns hanging high and everything was silent. Where was there a ghostly figure?

With this interruption, the four already on edge became even more serious.

Zhang Yuanqing was relatively okay as he had experienced a supernatural instance before, and being the Night Roaming God, he no longer harbored that deep-rooted fear of ghosts. To him, ghosts were no different from Transformers.

This place was filled with eerie atmosphere and Yin energy, which actually dulled his senses. He couldn't sense weak or distant spirits, but he could still use the Demon Subduing Staff. Even if the ghost bride showed up, he wasn't afraid. Zhang Yuanqing comforted his teammates while leading the way forward.

"Did you notice? The instance only gave us a hint about the ghost bride choosing a groom one hour later."

Blind fear had no meaning. He tried to divert his teammates' attention with information and ease their emotions, "My idea is that our behavior and actions in the next hour will be the criteria for the ghost bride to choose a groom."

"As for whether becoming the groom means surviving or dying... Besides, there's a heavy Yin energy here, harboring many dangers. Maybe we won't even make it to an hour, and we'll all perish."

"I wonder if the ghost bride is a fan of looks. If she is, then being the handsomest person in our team puts a lot of pressure on me..."

Soon, they arrived at the grand hall, and Zhang Yuanqing took the lead in pushing open the tightly closed lattice door.

"Creak~" The sour sound echoed in the night.

Inside the hall, candles were held high, a red carpet covered the floor, and red cloth hung from the pillars. At the end of the red carpet were two high-backed armchairs and a table adorned with candles and fruits. On the wall, there was a bright red "喜" character, symbolizing happiness.

On both sides of the red carpet stood seven or eight paper figures dressed in ancient servant attire. Their facial features looked vivid, and their lips were slightly upturned in crimson. The most eerie thing was that these paper figures had twisted their heads into unnatural angles, with their hollow eyes gazing at the entrance, at the people who had just entered.

Thump, thump, thump... Xie Lingxi's face turned pale in fear as she stepped back, covering her mouth to prevent herself from screaming.

At this moment, Zhang Yuanqing's scalp tingled, not because he was afraid, but because all these paper figures were ghosts.

After carefully sensing them, he sighed with relief as he realized that they were just small ghosts.

"If I can't handle the ghost bride, you little ghosts dare to be arrogant in front of me. This is going too far!" Zhang Yuanqing activated his power of Tai Yin, his eyes darkening. He concentrated his energy in his lower abdomen.

"Get lost!"

The paper figures in the hall fell to the ground, and a chilling wind swept through the place, accompanied by ghostly cries as they scattered and fled in fear.

Behind him, Xishi, Xie Lingxi, Fire Demon, and Monkey King were stunned by the sight.

----------