Chapter 874: Drama

"Opera music?" Li Huowang was startled. He hadn't heard opera since the Lu Family Troupe disbanded.

Quickly, Li Huowang realized the sound was emanating from the massive landscape painting right in front of him.

Just then, the huge landscape painting in front of Li Huowang opened like a beaded curtain, and a figure emerged from within.

This figure had a red cord tied around their neck with a green tassel on top, and white feathers draped over their body. Their face was painted with bright white opera makeup, resembling a performer on stage.

However, the creature's appearance was utterly bizarre. Its sunken head was nearly as large as its body, its face was long and narrow, and its eyes were mismatched, one large and one small. It had numerous other deformities.

To call it human would be a stretch; it looked more like a grotesque, severely deformed cripple.

This bizarre appearance, combined with the opera makeup, produced an uncanny valley effect, creating an indescribable sense of unease.

Li Huowang no longer cared about its appearance, for his gaze was now fixed solely on its hands, which were made of jade.

This time, he was close enough to see clearly: the creature's fingertips were almost transparent, gradually turning green further up before disappearing into the opera costume.

"It's it! It can touch the 'real' things I cultivate with its bare hands! What exactly is it? A Heavenly Aristocrat or the Unspeakable Army?"

Footsteps sounded, and Zhuge Yuan, holding a fan, stood in front of Li Huowang, looking at the creature with a slight frown.

Before Li Huowang could speak, the creature opened its blood-red mouth, revealing one upper and two lower fangs, and began to sing.

"What talk of blooming flowers and full moons, and a long life for humanity? How much sorrow lies within a thousand miles of mountains and rivers!"

The singing only intensified the bizarre nature of the creature, deepening Li Huowang's sense of unease and making his already throbbing headache even worse. "Damn it, what in the world is this!"

Zhuge Yuan, pen in hand, charged forward. But before he could draw, the creature simply lay back and transformed into a portrait within the landscape painting.

While Zhuge Yuan was engaged in combat in front, Li Huowang suddenly heard a new sound behind him—a woman's low sobbing.

He quickly spun around and saw a large-headed woman with her face obscured by black hair, her back to him, drifting past quickly while shaking two white water sleeves. Simultaneously, a mournful opera voice began to sing.

"Oh, Heaven and Earth, you fear the strong and bully the weak! Oh, Earth, you fail to distinguish good from bad, causing hardship for the land! Oh, Heaven, you wrongly judge the wise and the foolish, acting as Heaven in vain!"

For some reason, Li Huowang felt he had seen this scene before, though he was certain he had never encountered such a creature.

Before he could fully process it, the woman, still singing, began to glide rapidly towards him with tiny, shuffling steps!

At Li Huowang's roar, Zhuge Yuan, who had been battling in the sky, swiftly descended, drawing a line directly in front of the woman with his brush.

After briefly repelling the enemy, he quickly turned, dipped his brush in the celestial colors, and rapidly drew a magical array on Li Huowang's Daoist robe to prevent another sneak attack.

"We need to finish this quickly. I can't hold on much longer if this drags out," Li Huowang said through gritted teeth, his hands clamped tightly around his head.

Cultivation was already difficult, and cultivating *this* Zhuge Yuan was even harder.

Zhuge Yuan nodded, but when he turned around again, he found that the two creatures had become five, representing all the traditional roles of Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mo, and Chou.

They ignored everyone else, positioning themselves around Li Huowang to prevent his escape.

Zhuge Yuan glanced at Li Huowang, then cautiously pulled an old almanac from his robes, preparing for a serious fight. "Brother Li, hold on. I'll create an opening for us to escape first. I've never encountered such a creature in Great Qi; I don't know its true nature."

"I'm afraid this is a trap; they might have set this ambush specifically for you." With that, Zhuge Yuan tore off a page from the almanac, tossed it into the air, and began writing with his brush.

But just then, a gust of wind blew the almanac page slightly aside, revealing a large, painted face of a female opera role (Hua Dan) appearing from behind.

The woman flicked her right water sleeve, throwing it towards Zhuge Yuan while singing, "Looking back, prosperity is like a dream, a meager life clinging to a thread amidst surging waves."

Zhuge Yuan stamped his feet, soaring into the air to dodge, his lower robes brushing past the water sleeve.

What happened next caught everyone by surprise: the water sleeve stuck directly to Zhuge Yuan's lower robes.

As the water sleeve was pulled down, Zhuge Yuan's lower body was effortlessly torn away.

As the water sleeve twitched rapidly from a distance, Zhuge Yuan's lower body quickly shrunk, eventually forming a small mass.

The woman then opened her mouth and simply swallowed the mass.

Witnessing this, Li Huowang's expression turned grim. As his headache began to subside, he instantly understood that the Hua Dan had consumed the "truth" he cultivated—she had actually devoured the "truth" from Zhuge Yuan's body!

As the Hua Dan retreated, the Sheng, Jing, Mo, and Chou roles quickly surrounded Zhuge Yuan, who, with only half a body remaining, found himself outnumbered.

After barely managing to toss his spine back to Li Huowang, he was torn in half.

"Brother Li, be careful! This creature seems capable of touching the heavens and altering its paths!" With these final words, Zhuge Yuan vanished completely.

The Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mo, and Chou roles stood still, surrounding Li Huowang once again.

Li Huowang looked at them, his face extremely grim. Whatever they were, one thing was certain: this situation was going to be difficult.

"Ji Zai," Li Huowang whispered, "Ji Zai! Help! If you don't help now, you'll die too!!"

But no unusual phenomena occurred; everything remained calm.

Just as the Old Sheng, stroking his long beard, threw his head back and let out a booming laugh—"Wuhahahahaha"—sounds echoed from both sides of the valley.

The Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mo, and Chou roles simultaneously turned their heads to look behind them, seeing a vast, surging crowd approaching.

This included the newly established Heavenly Monitoring Bureau and the Military Strategists of Great Qi, followed by the common people of Great Qi, who had recently enjoyed a meal.

From his vantage point in the valley, the crowd seemed endless, as if the entire population of Youdu had relocated.

"Benefactor, do not panic! We have come to help you!" shouted Abbot Chandu, who stood at the forefront.

"Has Great Qi gathered so many people without me realizing?" A hint of relief touched Li Huowang's face. The five creatures in front of him were formidable, but with such a vast number of people from Great Qi, they could simply overwhelm them.

However, just as Li Huowang thought this, the surrounding environment changed back into a forest, and one by one, Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mo, and Chou figures slowly walked out from within.

Ten, fifty, a hundred!

They were all similarly deformed, and each wore an opera costume.

At this moment, Li Huowang finally understood their identity: they were the Unspeakable Army!