A Feast Without Guests: "He's dead, wouldn't it be a shame not to eat?"...
Yan Huanyue concealed the burning lotus between her brows, leaped out of the ancient forest in a few steps, and heard the sound of wind and the tinkling of copper coins behind her.
In the blink of an eye, they entered the secret realm. Looking around, the surrounding area was quiet, and a crescent moon hung high in the sky.
She made a hand seal to wipe the blood off the sword, then slowly walked forward, gripping the blade.
The blade, gleaming with a cold light, sliced through the wild grass that stretched freely on the ground, making a soft rustling sound.
The fire lotus imprints of Yu Zhao and the others had reached a main road not far ahead.
Yan Huanyue hadn't taken more than a few steps when she heard a burst of loud drumming and music.
A long wedding procession appeared in the distance through the thin night fog on the main road.
The lanterns were deep red, the bridal sedan chair was deserted, and at the front of the procession, someone wearing a mask of gods and demons, holding a ritual implement, waving his sleeves and kicking his robe, spewing flames from his mouth, and jumping as he walked.
The bells jingled and rattled, the wooden clappers clattered in the distance.
Never having seen such a spectacle before, Yan Huanyue paused slightly, half-crouching on the ground as she disappeared into the night.
He made a hand seal to catch the sound from that direction, and watched as the four fire lotus imprints neatly moved aside by the roadside.
The wedding procession stopped in front of Yu Zhao and his companions. Several people dressed as gods and ghosts jumped around them as they walked, spewing flames from their mouths filled with strong liquor.
Unsure whether this eerie scene held any danger, the group secretly formed hand seals, preparing to strike and kill each other instantly.
Wei Qingpei timidly shrank behind Yu Zhao and cautiously called out, "Young Master Yu, this is my first time away from home for a trial, I've never seen anything like this before..."
Yu Zhao frowned imperceptibly. He never liked weak, incompetent people who dragged others down, especially at times like this.
But he had just brought Wei Qingpei into the team out of spite of Tan Guiyi, so he couldn't say much, lest he appear irresponsible.
Moreover, protecting someone was not difficult for him, so he tacitly approved of Wei Qingpei's approach and did not speak.
Tan Guiyi glanced at him expressionlessly.
Lin Xiaofeng held a longbow, arms crossed, watching the people jumping around with a leisurely air.
A short while later, a man dressed in a red robe stepped out of the wedding procession. He approached the four people, bowed slightly, and said cheerfully:
"Gentlemen, my young master is celebrating his wedding today. Since you are all travelers, why not go and have a drink to celebrate?"
He then cheerfully handed each of the four a red envelope and a wedding invitation.
Regardless of whether the others wanted to go or not, he continued on his way, urging the masked dancers to continue.
Yan Huanyue lay in the grass waiting for them to pass by, when suddenly a series of copper coins jingled as Lu Shenchu, with a fiery lotus blooming between his brows, rushed past her.
He ran ahead, then suddenly turned back, looking at her with an innocent and carefree expression, and said, "Fellow Daoist, what are you doing here?"
A small golden snake coiled on his head peeked out from his hair ribbon, silently watching her.
Those who had been dancing earlier all came towards this place as they danced, and Yu Zhao and his companions on the main road all noticed them.
Yan Huanyue breathed slowly for a while, got up from the ground, patted the dirt off her body, and said, "I tripped and fell when I came in."
Lu Shenchu reached out to help her, but she flinched and said, "No need."
A group of people danced around the two of them, and the people handing out wedding money and invitations also came up to give them to the two of them.
Yan Huanyue walked onto the main road with her things. When Yu Zhao saw her, he said, "Since you've come with me, why bother hiding?"
Yan Huanyue smiled and said, "Choosing this place was really an accident. I was afraid that people would say I came here to steal things from you."
Yu Zhao felt that her excuse was somewhat clumsy. She hadn't wanted to come in with him before, but today she probably secretly saw that he had chosen that path, so she deliberately followed him.
Previously, he didn't quite understand the girlish nature that Gui Yi despised, but Junior Sister Yan really made him understand more clearly what that kind of nature meant.
The things that Gui Yi really dislikes, he doesn't seem to... dislike at all.
Tan Guiyi saw that Yan Huanyue was clearly up to no good, yet she could walk up to them so easily and make up a lie so casually. She was really shameless.
However, it would be best if Yan Huanyue only came to get close to Yu Zhao; it would be absolutely unacceptable if she wanted to steal anything.
The wedding procession was quite grand, and it took a long time for the last person to pass by them.
Holding the red envelope and wedding invitation, Yan Huanyue asked Lu Shenchu, "Fellow Daoist Lu, is there any explanation for this in your Xuanjiang sect?"
Lu Shenchu was about to ask Wei Qingpei, who was hiding behind Yu Zhao, a question when he heard this and said:
"This is called 'borrowing money for good luck.' There are such customs in folk traditions. However, if the money is wrapped in thread in the red envelope, it means that the family is not blessed enough and is afraid that they will not be able to bear the death of a person during a happy occasion. So they borrow the luck of a passerby to bring good luck."
Tan Guiyi once saw Lu Shenchu's figure from afar in the mountains of Yongbei.
Upon hearing Yan Huanyue ask him about the Xuanjiang, he immediately tensed up, walked to Lu Shenchu's side, looked at him carefully, and asked, "You are... a member of the Xuanjiang sect?"
Lu Shenchu said, "I am Lu Shenchu, a rogue cultivator from the Xuanjiang realm. Fellow Daoist..."
Tan Guiyi had been searching for him since that day and had not been able to find him. Now that they had met unexpectedly, how could her heart not be stirred?
She reached out and patted Lu Shenchu on the shoulder, introducing everyone present to him, and then asked, "Fellow Daoist, do you have any companions?"
Lu Shenchu glanced at Wei Qingpei, who hid behind Yu Zhao, and said, "If you are alone, you can come with us."
Yu Zhao thought she was being nosy and was about to refuse when Tan Guiyi said, "Yes, let's go together."
Yu Zhao's expression darkened. He looked at Yan Huanyue and asked, "Junior Sister Yan, would you like to come along?"
Yan Huanyue smiled slightly, turned around and leaped into the night sky to catch up with the wedding procession.
They were going to follow the wedding procession anyway.
As soon as she left, Lin Xiaofeng immediately followed, and the rest of the group also stayed a little distance away from the wedding procession, following at a moderate distance.
Yan Huanyue looked at the bridal sedan chair in the procession and saw that the interior of the sedan chair, illuminated by the slanting light of the lanterns, was empty.
She took another half step forward, but suddenly saw red gauze fluttering in front of her and her body swaying slightly. She found herself inside a bridal sedan chair.
She immediately lifted her veil and looked out the window, only to find the area behind the wedding procession completely dark, with no sign of Yu Zhao or the others.
She tried to get out of the sedan chair but couldn't step out of the door. She made a hand seal and tried to strike the sedan chair, but it seemed to have lost its power and she couldn't move it at all.
Outside, people were dancing and singing in unison: "The bride is boarding the sedan chair, time to return!"
The sedan chair turned in a different direction and sped forward, making Yan Huanyue dizzy from the jolting.
After things calmed down a bit, the sedan chair came to a stop.
Someone outside the sedan chair called out, "Please alight from the sedan chair, Madam."
Yan Huanyue was helped down by two women and handed to a man with cold palms.
The man was dressed in a wedding robe and had a handsome appearance.
He stared at her for a long time, but didn't mention her taking off her veil herself. Instead, he led her into a large house that was decorated in a very festive manner.
The mansion was filled with lanterns and banquet dishes, with a group of servants moving about pouring wine and serving food. It should have been a lively scene.
The courtyard was eerily quiet, and there wasn't a single guest at the banquet. Even the servants pouring wine had blank expressions and stiff movements.
They neither worship heaven and earth nor their parents.
Yan Huanyue was led to the bridal chamber, where the red candles burned exceptionally brightly. The man closed the door, told her to sit on the bed, and then turned and left.
Yan Huanyue got up and looked around the room, but found nothing unusual. However, the seemingly busy but empty banquet outside the courtyard was really eerie.
She turned around and carefully broke apart the two pairs of chopsticks on the table, then put them into her sleeve.
A short while later, the man returned to the room carrying a bright red box.
The man said to her, "Take off your clothes."
Yan Huanyue said coldly, "What exactly are you?"
In the flickering candlelight, the man smiled and gently opened the box, "I'll give you a new skin that I like."
Yan Huanyue looked up and saw a neatly folded, waxy yellow human skin inside the box.
The lips on the topmost face opened and closed as it said, "Ugh, I wasn't satisfied with any of the bodies you found before. They all melted away after a few days. I'm angry. I'm not ready to marry you yet!"
What the hell is all this stuff?
Yan Huanyue held the broken chopsticks hidden in her sleeve.
As the man approached her with a knife in his hand, she suddenly stepped back. The man's eyes turned cold, and he kicked her sharply in the chest.
Fortunately, he cultivated diligently in the Heavenly Stele Secret Realm, and his body did not rely solely on spiritual power.
Yan Huanyue dodged with lightning speed, but the man threw down the box, brandished his knife, and attacked with swift and deadly moves.
Yan Huanyue was caught off guard and was struck by a palm, causing her throat to taste sweetness. She suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, her steps became extremely unsteady, and she couldn't help but fall to the ground, clutching her chest and coughing incessantly.
The man strode towards her, grabbed her by the collar, and dragged her onto the bed.
Yan Huanyue, her face pale, cried out weakly, "Young Master, spare my life..."
To avoid harming her body, the man raised his knife and stabbed at her skull. As he raised his hand, a broken chopstick was already stuck in his throat.
It was pulled out suddenly, and hot blood spurted out.
The human skin inside the box let out a scream.
Yan Huanyue took a candle and threw it into the box. The box instantly burst into flames, and the human skin screamed shrilly. The servants in the courtyard, who were busy but numb, continued their work with blank expressions.
The man who had been lying on the bed got up, panting heavily, and hurriedly tried to grab the human skin from the box.
Yan Huanyue walked over, stepped on the back of his head, and shoved his face directly into the burning box.
The human skin, curled up in the flames, covered his head and slurped down the melted oil. He struggled painfully for a long time before gradually stopping.
So easy to deal with?
Yan Huanyue waited for a long time, but saw no movement from the human skin or the man. She took the man's knife and walked out of the bridal chamber. The people in the courtyard seemed to ignore her and let her pass through the courtyard.
After she stepped out of the mansion, she saw Yu Zhao and the others standing in the black mist outside the door.
The spiritual energy around her seemed to have returned to her body.
When they turned around again, the mansion was nowhere to be seen, replaced by a thick, unfathomable black mist.
Wei Qingpei was the last to emerge. Still shaken, she said, "It was terrifying! We were almost skinned alive and replaced. What happened to you?"
Lu Shenchu said with a smile, "My first marriage turned out to be that of a bride, and I almost ended up with a woman's skin. I had to kill my husband to prove my Dao. Fellow Daoist Yan, what about you?"
Yan Huanyue said, "Me too."
She always felt like something was coldly watching her.
She followed her senses and looked over, only to see that above Lu Shenchu's head, the little snake was raising its head slightly, blinking its bright black bean eyes, flicking its bright red tongue, and looking at her coolly.
The people of Xuanjiang are truly strange; I wonder what the significance is behind having a snake coiled around their heads.
Golden snakes are rare; she had dreamed of them.
But in her dream, it was a giant snake, as thick as a bowl, pressing down on her, so heavy it was suffocating. She was drenched in sweat, and the cold snake scales ground against her waist and legs. Later, it became Xuanzhi...
This made it difficult for her to face Xuanzhi for a time.
These thoughts flashed through her mind in an instant. Yan Huanyue withdrew her gaze and asked, "Fellow Daoist Lin, do you know what the current situation is?"
Lin Xiaofeng said, "That was just the beginning. Only by handling this matter when spiritual energy is suddenly depleted can one be qualified to enter the true small world. From now on..."
An empty human skin floated out of the black mist, laughing loudly:
"We meet again, my bodies. Liu Lang was devoted to me, but I will not easily forgive you for the crime of killing your husband. The magic array suppressed you just now, so now I will send you to your deaths, hahahahaha."
Lin Xiaofeng said, "But you swallowed him too."
"If I've eaten too many people and he dies, wouldn't it be a waste not to eat him?"
"After I die, he will skin me to find a new person to replace my skin. I was forced to do it. The guests invited today have not yet had a chance to eat the feast. You evil people who ruined other people's good things should make it up to the guests."
As soon as the words were spoken, the black mist dissipated, and hundreds of evil and monstrous creatures surged towards them like a tide, surrounding only a few of them.
Yan Huanyue summoned her sword and instantly soared into the air, slashing straight at the human skin.
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