Chapter 175 Old Theater

Zhang Hai dropped Jiang Ying off by the side of the road. Her two companions had arrived long ago and had been waiting for her at a street-side snack shop.

Three people? The maximum party size for Players was also three.

Yin Zhen carefully observed the trio—two women and one man. They were carrying red candles and joss paper, their gazes drifting intentionally or otherwise toward the western side of town as they spoke.

Their car was also heading west now. Yin Zhen checked her watch; it was past eleven at night. Had they not run into a ghost wall on the mountain road, they would have arrived before ten.

"We’re picking up the goods right now, and then we leave immediately," Yin Zhen said expressionlessly as she quickly saved a new file.

"Huh?" Zhang Hai glanced back in surprise.

Liu Hua looked at Yin Zhen through the rearview mirror. "It’s almost midnight. That’s when yin energy is at its heaviest. Aren’t we just asking for death by going to fetch that thing now? The earliest we should go is after seven tomorrow morning. It’d be best to wait until noon when the yang energy is at its peak; that’s the safest."

Even though the incense master hadn’t explicitly said it, Yin Zhen knew the "goods" were supernatural items—or perhaps, just like at Renxin Hospital, a ghost he had painstakingly cultivated.

Qiao Yun was emotionally cold and wouldn’t be affected by the "goods," ensuring they could be brought back safely. But Yin Zhen was not Qiao Yun, nor was she bold enough to claim she could retrieve the goods alone.

"Where are the goods?" Yin Zhen asked again.

Liu Hua suddenly spun around, evidently misunderstanding Yin Zhen’s intention as wanting to go alone. "Don’t be reckless. The boss said that once we arrive, we need to find someone named Chen Laogun. He’ll take us to retrieve the goods. I’ll give him a call first."

Yin Zhen leaned back and opened the forum to ask Bai Qiang where she was right now. She was genuinely afraid the damn system would play dirty and hit her with a "gathering of heroes."

Bai Qiang quickly replied that she was still in Beiling City doing a quest, and asked if Yin Zhen needed anything.

Yin Zhen replied that it was nothing and turned to look out the window. According to the information A had gathered for her, Sanmen Town was a mandatory stop on the national highway to the neighboring city, and tourists frequented the area.

At this hour, however, most of the shops were closed. The central area of the town was deserted and mostly pitch-black, without even a single streetlamp. Many stalls still lined the road, mostly selling souvenirs for puppet shows and Shadow Puppetry.

"That’s weird. No one is answering Chen Laogun’s phone. Why is it so dark here? Is there a power outage?" Liu Hua had also noticed that something was amiss.

Zhang Hai grumbled, "You city folks have never lived in a rural mountain village. Don’t you know some of these places restrict electricity at night?"

"What era are we in for that to still happen?" Liu Hua dismissed his comment and continued dialing. "We’ve arrived at the guesthouse run by Chen Laogun’s family. Let’s just go in and find him."

Zhang Hai pulled the car to a stop in front of the old theater on the west side of town. Opposite it stood a three-story building that looked quite old, with a vintage red neon sign on its roof.

Yin Zhen stepped out of the car and looked toward the adjacent old theater. The courtyard next to it was packed with various trucks and pickup trucks, as well as an RV.

The heavy doors of the theater were tightly shut, and the place was dead silent. A red-papered sign stood at the main entrance, featuring brush calligraphy that read: "Filming in Progress. No Visitors. Thank You for Your Understanding."

Yin Zhen took two daggers from her backpack and slipped one into each side pocket of her sweatpants. Both daggers were sheathed, and her pockets were deep enough to hold them perfectly.

One was an ordinary dagger, while the other was given to her by the incense master before she left that morning. With its white bone handle and a curved, pitch-black blade, it looked extremely sinister.

The antique dagger was a sacrificial vessel from ancient times. In the instant it came into contact with a ghost, the user could use their own body as a medium to injure the spirit.

The incense master had originally intended to give it to Liu Hua, but she was terrified of the dagger and didn’t dare to take it. Yin Zhen had simply snatched it up as she walked past.

In addition to the daggers, she also had a bottle of spray, three Yellow Talismans, and a spool of red thread, all stuffed into her jacket pockets. The spray was for her eyes; once applied, it would allow her to see ghosts for at least half an hour. The three Yellow Talismans formed a set of Ghost Suppression Talismans. She was supposed to use them in conjunction with the red thread after retrieving the goods.

Yin Zhen had also learned quite a bit about talisman drawing from Grandma Bai’s memories at the Paperman shop. However, she lacked the so-called "Taoist" cultivation, so she couldn’t draw genuine talismans. Setting up arrays with red threads, opening an altar for rituals, chanting incantations to invoke deities—all of these required "Taoist" cultivation.

She had asked Grandma Bai what "Taoist" cultivation was, but Grandma Bai had said it couldn’t be explained and had to be comprehended on one’s own. Yin Zhen had immediately suspected that the dog of an author just hadn’t fleshed out the setting and used this vague explanation as a cop-out.

The guesthouse lobby was pitch-black, illuminated by only a few white candles. A young female receptionist sat on the front steps, enjoying the cool night air. She was looking down at her phone, the screen’s light reflecting off her face in an eerie, ghostly manner.

Liu Hua walked over and asked, "Miss, we’re looking for Chen Laogun."

The young woman stood up. "My grandpa is in the theater across the street, watching the film crew shoot. What do you need him for?"

Before the girl could even finish her sentence, Yin Zhen lunged forward, swiping her blade cleanly across the receptionist’s throat.

Blood sprayed all over Liu Hua’s face. She stood frozen for a full three seconds before finally snapping out of it and screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Are you crazy?!"

She thought Yin Zhen truly was a psychopath to randomly murder someone out of the blue!

Liu Hua frantically wiped the blood from her face and body, trembling uncontrollably. Her hair and makeup couldn’t be messed up, and her clothes couldn’t be dirty. If she wasn’t perfect, her ghost would start eroding her.

A loud gulp came from Zhang Hai nearby. He patted Liu Hua’s shoulder. "Take a closer look."

Liu Hua looked up again at the girl whose throat had been slit. Her head sagged to the side, but there was no blood at the severed stump—only dry wooden splinters and a few connecting threads.

The unsupported head dangled limply against her shoulder, yet the mouth continued to open and close. "My grandpa isn’t here... isn’t here..."

The terror on Liu Hua’s face froze instantly. She looked down at her hands again; they were perfectly clean, without a single drop of blood on her body.

Liu Hua took a deep breath. When she looked at Yin Zhen now, whatever lingering defiance she held due to her own age and seniority had completely vanished, replaced by a trace of awe.

"How... how did you notice?"

"She wasn’t breathing," Yin Zhen said expressionlessly.

Liu Hua composed herself, quickly checking the situation inside and outside the guesthouse alongside Zhang Hai. Everything had been fine when they drove over. Yet now, in the blink of an eye, the sky had turned a dark, murky red. A massive black cloud loomed incessantly over the area, like a monster hiding in the blood-colored sky, peering down at the earth.

"It’s a Ghost Realm. What do we do now?" Liu Hua asked.

Yin Zhen’s tone was icy. "Where are the goods?"

Liu Hua didn’t dare hide anything this time. "They’re buried beneath the stage of the old theater. The incense master didn’t say exactly what they are; he just told me to ask Chen Laogun for them."

"To the theater!"

Yin Zhen turned on her heel and left, with Zhang Hai and Liu Hua hurrying to keep up.

The trio arrived at the entrance of the old theater. The heavy wooden double doors were tightly shut. Zhang Hai stepped forward and pushed with all his might, but they didn’t budge an inch.

Liu Hua was about to suggest another method when her gaze inadvertently swept across the street. She immediately gasped in horror.

"Look!"

In the blink of an eye, faint, shadowy figures had appeared on the previously deserted street.

Like sleepwalkers, the townsfolk emerged one by one from alleys and doorways. Their movements were stiff and perfectly synchronized, their joints seemingly rusted. Stumbling and lurching with every step, they all converged toward the old theater.

They looked exactly like marionettes being controlled by invisible strings!

"Dammit!" Zhang Hai ruthlessly rammed and kicked the door. "Stupid woman, hurry up!"

The two hesitated no longer, simultaneously activating the Fierce Ghosts sealed within their bodies.

The aura around Zhang Hai abruptly turned violent, and a vague, masculine phantom flashed behind him.

A flawlessly dressed pretty boy materialized beside Liu Hua as well. Two pairs of Ghost Hands pressed against the door simultaneously. The icy yin energy acted like a corrosive liquid, rapidly eroding the wood. The doors visibly aged and rotted before their eyes.

Just as their Strength reached a critical point, the previously immovable wooden doors were violently shoved ajar, and the three of them filed inside.

Outside, the marionette-like townsfolk had already swarmed the bottom of the steps. Pushing and shoving, they extended their arms and began rhythmically slapping the theater doors.

A deathly silence pervaded the interior of the theater. A sparse scattering of silhouettes sat in the audience seats, their postures rigid and motionless.

Up on the stage, bathed in an eerie red glow, a group of actors in vibrant theatrical costumes were performing a live-action puppet show, their arm joints suspended by visible strings.

Zhang Hai and Liu Hua froze completely where they stood. Their faces were identically pale, and a fine layer of cold sweat broke out across their foreheads. It was glaringly obvious that they were seeing something Yin Zhen couldn’t.