You made all the streamers on the internet kneel before you when you were asked to make a game.

"snort."

A cold snort suddenly came from deep backstage of the stage.

That voice seemed to resonate directly in the depths of everyone's soul.

A ghostly hand made of black shadows suddenly reached out from the darkness backstage and grabbed the armored corpse that was still in mid-air!

That ghostly hand was enormous.

A single finger was thicker than the entire body of the armored zombie.

The armored corpse was like a tiny insect being squeezed in that ghost's hand.

It struggled and roared frantically, drawing sparks from the shadowy ghost's hand with its sharp claws.

But it was to no avail.

The shadowy ghost hand slowly tightened.

"Click...click..."

A sickening sound of bones cracking rang out.

The once majestic and invincible armored corpse was forcibly crushed into an irregular lump of minced meat.

Then the shadowy ghost hand, dragging the lump of flesh, slowly shrank back into the darkness of the backstage area.

The theater fell silent once more.

It was as if nothing had happened.

Only the pool of blood and flesh on the ground testifies to the horrific scene that had just unfolded.

The shock of the armored zombie being instantly killed lingered in everyone's hearts for a long time.

The enormous, ghostly hand reaching out from behind the scenes weighed heavily on their hearts.

too strong.

So strong it's despair-inducing.

Brother Long even felt that even if his wife, the Ghost Bride, went all out, she probably wouldn't last a single round against that ghost hand.

This is not in the same league.

Inside the theater, all the ghostly audience members seemed to have been put on pause, remaining motionless with their heads turned towards the first row.

On the stage, the paper figures stopped all their movements, standing like statues.

Time seems to stand still at this moment.

I don't know how much time has passed.

"when--"

A long, drawn-out gong, carrying a hint of finality, shattered the deathly silence.

Immediately afterwards, a cold system notification popped up in everyone's field of vision.

[System notification: The special event "Guanyin Mountain Ceremony" has ended.]

[System notification: Articles 4 and 5 of the "Soul Sealing Village Rules" have been completed.]

ended?

Is that all?

The crowd was still somewhat taken aback.

As the gong fell, the entire theater began to undergo strange changes.

First, there are those ghostly audience members.

Their pale, swollen, and rotting faces began to rapidly lose moisture, becoming shriveled and yellowish.

Their flesh and blood are weathering at an incredible speed.

Eventually, they became terracotta figures in various poses, covered in thick dust.

Those lifelike ghosts, who even had a greedy desire for elixirs, all turned back into lifeless inanimate objects the moment the play ended.

From beginning to end, they were only a part of this huge magic array.

It is the firewood for the alchemy furnace.

Once the show is over, their energy is depleted.

Seeing this, Brother Long and his men felt a chill run down their spines.

If they hadn't broken the deadlock just now, they would probably be one of those hundreds of terracotta warriors by now.

Next came the lights.

At the same time, all the human skin lanterns hanging in the village, emitting a ghastly green light, went out with a "snap".

The entire Fenghun Village was once again plunged into pitch-black darkness.

The only source of light was the few dim yellow stage lights still lit on the stage.

The lights divided the stage and the dark audience seats into two completely different worlds.

"We...survived?"

The experienced driver asked weakly, his voice filled with uncertainty.

"temporary."

The scalpel's voice remained calm.

She stood up, her gaze sweeping over the desolate audience of terracotta warriors, and finally settling on the enormous stage.

At this moment, the paper figures on the stage had also lost their vitality and turned back into ordinary paper figures.

Then, two new paper effigy servants, who came out from backstage, carried it away expressionlessly.

The entire stage became empty.

"Let's go," Liu Yedao uttered a single word.

"Where to?" Brother Long asked instinctively.

"Come up on stage."

Go on stage?

Brother Long's heart skipped a beat.

In his eyes, that stage was a death trap; nothing good ever came of going up there.

"Right now, only that area is lit."

The reason for using the Lancet is simple and direct.

In this darkness that could devour everything, the only source of light was their only option.

Professor Chen nodded in agreement.

"The play is over."

"Next, it's our turn to go backstage and see what secrets this stage holds."

The group helped each other out of the cemetery made of terracotta figures.

Their feet sank into the bluestone slabs, producing hollow echoes.

In the surrounding darkness, it seemed as if countless eyes were watching them.

Soon, they arrived at the edge of the stage.

The group carefully made their way up the steps to the stage, a place stained with countless resentments and deaths.

As soon as you step onto the stage, a strange smell mixed with blood, decay, and sandalwood hits you.

The stage floor was paved with huge bluestones.

It was covered with countless incomprehensible blood-red runes.

These runes formed a huge and complex array.

The center of the formation is where the armored corpse was instantly killed.

There, a pool of dried, dark bloodstains remained.

Just then.

"Squeak—"

At the deepest part of the stage, the two huge wooden doors that had been tightly closed, serving as the backstage backdrop, slowly and automatically opened to both sides.

Behind the door was revealed a bottomless, dark passage leading to the unknown.

On both sides of the passageway hung a couplet written in blood.

The first line of the couplet is: "The living enter and live forever."

The second line is: The dead go out and attain immortality.

Horizontal scroll: Paradise.

Looking at this couplet, Brother Long's eyelids twitched uncontrollably.

Every single word of this exudes a sinister "come and die!" vibe!

"Let's go." Professor Chen took a deep breath. "Once the arrow is released, there's no turning back."

"All the secrets of Fenghun Village must be hidden behind this."

The people had no other choice.

With no other choice, they braced themselves and, under the protection of the ghost bride, entered the deep darkness that symbolized the backstage area.

The moment I stepped into the backstage corridor, the surrounding light dimmed again.

The few dim, yellow stage lights on the stage were now behind them.

The only source of light was the faint, blood-red glow emanating from the ghost bride.

The passageway was long and quiet.

All that could be heard were the footsteps and heartbeats of the group.

The stench of blood and decay in the air grew even stronger.

It even has a hint of... the tanning smell unique to leather processing plants.

"This place...it looks like a slaughterhouse."