Chapter 1756: Breaking the Deadlock

Jing Teng's expression turned cold. He had intended to say something but ultimately remained silent, merely observing everyone's reactions with a cold gaze.

At this moment, Qiu Honglei looked at the female ghost opposite her and asked, "Why do you specifically want her?"

Hearing her words, Jing Teng's expression grew even colder.

"You don't need to worry about that," the female ghost said grimly. "Leave her with me, and I'll let you go. Otherwise, you'll be trapped here forever."

Qiu Honglei sighed. "Although your offer is tempting, we cannot abandon our comrades."

Jing Teng was taken aback. Their relationship hadn't been very good initially, due to events when they first met, and he hadn't expected her to make such a choice.

Seeing this, Zu'an couldn't help but nod in satisfaction.

The female ghost shrieked, "Perhaps you don't realize your situation! You are already trapped here forever by me. Unless I agree, you will never leave!"

"Is that so? I don't believe you possess such power," Zu'an scoffed, and with a direct swing of his sword.

The manor was originally filled with an eerie, ghostly aura, the sky above obscured by various greenish-grey mists. It was impossible to see the sky, let alone the stars.

But now, a brilliant galaxy seemed to appear in everyone's eyes—enchanting and dazzling, yet full of danger.

The numerous ghosts densely surrounding them, faced with this sword strike, turned into dust and were instantly destroyed before they could even react.

Jing Teng's expression subtly changed. What immense power this sword strike possessed! The crucial point was that he seemed to have swung it casually.

And this sword seemed to be...

Zu'an approached the ghost bride, having intentionally spared her life.

The female ghost was restrained by the sword energy, unable to move.

Zu'an said indifferently, "Your experience is quite pitiable, so I'll give you one last chance: let us leave, and I will spare your life."

"Do you think you can defeat me?" the female ghost said grimly.

As soon as her words fell, her entire being transformed into a wisp of smoke and exploded. Clearly, she had used a self-destruction technique.

As long as her parasitic object was not destroyed, she could return again.

Zu'an reacted quickly, swiftly removing the red bridal veil from her.

Seeing the opponent's dense ghostly aura and fierce appearance, he wondered how many people she had already harmed.

He no longer held back, directly activating the Primordial Chaos Scripture to destroy the red bridal veil.

However, he looked around and saw no changes. "It seems she wasn't residing in this," he remarked.

So, the group headed towards the back of the manor again and found the bride's room.

The female ghost was not there. Clearly, she had been frightened away; knowing she was no match for them, she simply hid in the shadows.

This was her home ground. In such a large house, if she truly intended to hide, she would be impossible to find.

Jing Teng extended a vine and retrieved a comb and scissors from the table, yet there was no hint of joy on his face. "Since she left these items here and didn't take them," he mused, "it's likely they aren't her parasitic objects."

"Could it be that she just died, and it will take some time for her to regenerate?" Qiu Honglei tentatively suggested.

"It's not impossible," Jing Teng nodded slightly.

Soon, the group destroyed both items, yet the ghostly aura around them remained, with no apparent change.

Clearly, the female ghost had not been truly destroyed.

Jing Teng looked towards the bride's boudoir and said in a deep voice, "Unfortunately, as you said earlier, this room seems to have a special array, making it difficult to retrieve other items."

This was the female ghost's boudoir when she was alive, and if there was truly any parasitic object, it would most likely be in this room.

"That's simple. If we can't go in, we'll just destroy it directly," Zu'an said, then directly drew his Tai'a Sword, and a brilliant sword light appeared before everyone's eyes.

There was clearly some array flickering in that room, but it could not withstand the power of this sword strike. It only lasted for a moment before being utterly destroyed.

Looking at the empty area before them, Wei Suo couldn't help but gulp. "Boss, that sword strike of yours was too fierce!" he exclaimed.

With that one sword strike, not even a single piece of rubble or debris remained—complete nothingness. The entire house was completely erased, as if nothing had ever existed there.

Zu'an, however, could not be happy. "But the female ghost doesn't seem to have disappeared," he noted.

Only then did he realize why Jing Teng had said that the ghosts in this world were difficult to deal with.

Everyone looked around. They had all returned to the front of the opera stage, and their expressions immediately turned grim.

Zu'an said in a deep voice, "I always feel like we've overlooked something. I've fought with this female ghost; she shouldn't possess such powerful abilities."

He had instantly killed the female ghost several times. Although partly due to his Primordial Chaos Scripture having a suppressive effect on her, it was also related to her own strength not being particularly strong.

How could such a female ghost have the ability to casually bring their group into an illusion?

Zu'an recalled several times he was transported into an illusion just as he approached the female ghost. This was illogical!

"Then it seems we weren't truly among the ghosts," Jing Teng said, "but rather fell victim to some sorcery of that female ghost."

"Sorcery?" The others were a little confused.

Jing Teng explained, "Some special ghosts possess magical sorcery that can achieve effects far beyond their actual power. However, the conditions for casting these spells are quite strict; they often require specific items or for the target to perform certain actions to be successfully activated."

"Did any of us do anything unusual after entering this manor?" Zu'an asked everyone.

"Could it be that I just ate those peanuts and melon seeds..." Wei Suo said, then remembering what those things actually were, he rushed to the side to vomit.

"Could it be that we watched that play?" Qiu Honglei speculated.

"That's possible," Jing Teng nodded, "but we just destroyed the opera stage, and unfortunately, we haven't escaped this sorcery."

Hearing her say this, Qiu Honglei couldn't help but frown, pondering what had gone wrong.

Zu'an's voice rang out, "If we're talking about anything special, we did one other thing besides watching the play."

"What?" The others all pricked up their ears.

"Signing the guestbook!" Zu'an no longer looked towards the back of the manor but instead towards the front door.

A thought struck the group. That's right, when they first entered, the steward had them register their gifts and wrote down their names on the guest list.

If they were humans, such behavior would be normal.

But if everyone here was a ghost, then their action was worth pondering deeply.

"But we didn't use our real names just now, did we?" Qiu Honglei asked in confusion.

At this moment, Jing Teng frowned and said, "However, our false names all contained one character from our true names. The other party might have activated it through that."

Zu'an felt a bit awkward; he had set a bad precedent and unconsciously led the others astray.

Soon, the group arrived at the entrance of the manor. The large gates were tightly shut, and the steward and several servants were there, packing up the gift collection stand, clearly intending to leave.

"Oh dear, why have you few come out?" Uncle Wang exclaimed, seeing them, and quickly came over. "Are you planning to leave? It's very dangerous outside at night."

Zu'an smiled. "We're not leaving. We've just received such warm hospitality, and we feel that with so many of us, the gifts we registered earlier were too little, so we've come to add a bit more."

"Oh, you are too kind!" Uncle Wang quickly said. "Since you are already our guests, why would we need you to add more?"

Zu'an secretly sneered. This fellow had been very greedy for money just moments ago, but now, with money delivered to his doorstep, he was refusing it. Clearly, something was amiss.

So he didn't bother wasting time. He reached out and, with a sucking motion, pulled the guest list into his hand.

He saw their group's names on it, as expected. It didn't feel like ordinary paper to the touch, but rather some special, metallic material, emitting an incredibly sinister aura.

"Give it to me!" Jing Teng's expression was grim as he took the guest list from the other person's hand.

Zu'an looked at her in confusion, not understanding what she meant.

Jing Teng quickly formed hand seals with both hands and chanted, "May all warriors form a line and proceed forward! Slay the evil!"

A mysterious rune appeared in the air, with several golden dragons faintly visible within it. They then all passed through the guest list.

The guest list, originally made of special material, instantly turned to ashes!

"No!" A piercing shriek came from the darkness.

Everyone looked at Jing Teng in astonishment; they all seemed to feel the killing intent emanating from her in that instant.

"This female ghost caused me great harm; she can't redeem herself even with a hundred deaths," Jing Teng gnashed his teeth.

The others were bewildered, but only Zu'an shivered, feeling a chill down his spine.

At this moment, countless transparent wronged souls scattered and fled from the manor. Presumably, these were the people who had inadvertently signed the guestbook while passing by over the years and were then trapped forever in this manor.

The surrounding space twisted. Everyone looked closely and found themselves in the ruins of a desolate and dilapidated house, completely devoid of the festive atmosphere with lanterns and decorations they had seen before.

"Why didn't the female ghost dare to come out and stop us at the last moment?" Qiu Honglei was somewhat puzzled.

"Because he is too strong," Jing Teng said, looking at Zu'an and recalling his valiant posture when he drew his sword moments ago. "The female ghost had fought with him several times and knew she was no match for him. So, she simply pretended to be calm, betting that we wouldn't discover the problem with the guest list. She lost her bet."

"So that's how it is," Qiu Honglei said with lingering fear. "We must be even more careful from now on, or we might not have such good luck next time."

This time, they were able to accurately find the parasitic object, but who could guarantee they would find it next time? The abilities of these ghosts were truly impossible to guard against.

The group nodded in agreement. Wei Suo even secretly swore that he must never eat random things again!

After a busy night, dawn was just breaking. The group decided not to rest and immediately set off on their journey.

Meanwhile, in a certain royal city in the northern part of this world, a richly dressed prince urgently knocked on a door.

After a moment, the door opened, and a woman in a blue dress emerged, with a hint of displeasure on her face. "Prince, what brings you here so early?" she asked.

Although it wasn't the first time he had seen her, a trace of astonishment still flashed in the prince's eyes upon seeing her peerless beauty. "Miss Chu," he began, "I've found clues about the people you asked me to investigate last time."