An emperor in his later years is summoned by his sister to save the nation's fate.

Lu Xueyao follows the path of demonic cultivation, and her body only contains the essence of life spring and blood qi. Strictly speaking, she cannot be considered a demon tamer at all.

However, with Lu Li's double pupils, he discovered that there was a loophole in the triggering mechanism of this strange gate. By forcibly injecting divine sense, it was possible to replace the supernatural power to complete the activation!

Under Lu Li's guidance and reminder, Lu Xueyao immediately mobilized her divine sense and entered the door knocker of the Ghost Gate.

"Creak—"

A crisp scraping sound suddenly rang out, and the dark red wooden door seemed to come alive, with bloodstains beginning to flow from the door frame.

As the door slowly opened inward, the space behind it transformed into a swirling vortex of darkness.

A chilling, malevolent energy surged forth from the gate like a biting wind, instantly lowering the temperature of the entire lord's mansion to freezing point.

Outside the country, hundreds of millions of viewers who had been closely watching the Dragon Kingdom's live stream instantly erupted in excitement.

[Holy crap! What is Yao Shen trying to do? This door doesn't look like it leads to a good place!]

[S-Rank Mysterious Item! Does this mean they're going to actively explore other regions?]

【Don't be impulsive, Yao Shen! The unknown areas outside the Eternal Night Wasteland are full of terror. Wouldn't it be better to stay home and farm?】

[Are you new here? Look at Yao Shen's eyes, is she scared? She's clearly excited to see the buffet!]

Facing the surging Yin energy behind the door, Lu Xueyao showed no fear.

"Splash!"

She held a pitch-black, eerie banner of ten thousand souls in her left hand. The banner moved without wind, and countless ghostly spirits roared mournfully within it.

In his right hand, there appeared a white bone banner.

She transformed the Blood River Map of Ten Thousand Spirits into a blood-red cloak, which she tied to her shoulders. She also carried the A-grade demonic artifact, the Demon-Subduing Pestle, at her waist, and even the A-grade Glazed Purification Bowl, which could alter the patterns of murder.

After fully equipping herself, Lu Xueyao stepped into the strange gate.

After a strong feeling of weightlessness, the surrounding dark vortex dissipated.

Lu Xueyao looked closely and found that she had been teleported to a vast, but long-abandoned, unclaimed territory.

This territory is no less than the size of her current Baili Town-level territory.

But there are no city walls here, only rows of ruins.

The stone slabs on the ground were cracked with huge fissures, and the fissures were filled with strange, dark red weeds.

A building that looked like a lord's mansion had its roof blown off, leaving only half of a charred stone pillar standing alone.

The air was filled with a strange power so dense it was almost tangible.

This clearly proves that a powerful and sinister force is definitely lurking in this abandoned territory.

However, to Lu Xueyao's surprise, everything around her seemed quite peaceful.

There were no eerie wanderers, no mournful wails of ghosts; it was so quiet that even the sound of the wind blowing through the gravel could be clearly heard.

"This is unusually quiet..." Lu Xueyao narrowed her eyes slightly. Without the slightest hesitation, she slammed the White Bone Banner and the Myriad Soul Banner heavily onto the ground at the same time.

"Time to get out and work!"

A chilling wind howled, and the three-zhang-tall white bone demon general, whose bones were covered with gray demonic patterns, crashed to the ground with a thud, the giant white bone axe in his hand radiating a terrifying pressure.

Immediately afterwards, the A-level starving ghost and the A-level ghost bride in a red wedding dress and with a red veil stood guard on either side of Lu Xueyao.

With the three ferocious creatures leading the way, Lu Xueyao strode forward, beginning her exploration of the core area of ​​this unclaimed territory.

……

Meanwhile, on Blue Star, within the Dragon Kingdom, deep in a remote mountain village near Tianhai City—Black Stone Village.

The sky was overcast, with not a single ray of sunlight able to penetrate the clouds.

On the muddy dirt road leading to Blackstone Village, four figures wearing black trench coats specially made by Bureau 749 are approaching this desolate village.

These four individuals are all top-tier combatants drawn from the headquarters of the 749th Bureau of the Dragon Kingdom. Each of them is an A-level special investigator who has mastered a purple-quality ghost pet!

The team leader, who was at the forefront and in charge of leading the team, was named Xu Tianming.

A purple glint would occasionally flash deep within his eyes. The strange creature he controlled was a Nightmare of purple quality, skilled in mind control and memory probing, capable of causing people to sink into despair in their dreams.

Walking on the left was a tall, slender, and cold-faced female special investigator named Su Qingyuan.

The shadow beneath her feet seemed completely unaffected by the light, slowly twisting in an eerie manner.

Her awakened pet is the purple-quality [Shadow Cat], known as the "Shadow Overlord" in the game. She can not only control and manipulate the shadows of others to strangle them through her pet, but also use the shadows to take the fall and transfer damage when she is about to be killed.

On the right is a bald, muscular man with a towering physique, named Yan Tu.

Unlike normal ghost hunters, the purple ghost pet he awakened was actually an inanimate object-type ghost—Ghost Gate Pass.

This is an illusory and mysterious door. Once opened, it can ignore the limits of physics, amplify one's strength, mental power, and strange resistance in all aspects, and turn one into a humanoid ferocious beast.

The last young man was named Chu Jin, and he always wore a pale, expressionless mask on his face.

His supernatural pet is named "Thousand-Faced Nuo Ghost". Its ability is extremely special. It can forcefully suppress and transform supernatural beings that meet certain conditions into corresponding masks. Once Chu Jin wears these masks, he can temporarily gain all the abilities of the supernatural being.

However, due to the extremely demanding conditions for transformation, so far he has only successfully contained a C-level anomaly named Yuan Qingyi and transformed it into a blue mask.

This four-person A-level team boasts a formidable lineup, capable of overwhelming most medium-sized ghost realms.

Their objective this time is to resolve the Class A bizarre incident that has erupted in Blackstone Village.

The four stopped in front of the moss-covered stone tablet at the village entrance.

Xu Tianming looked at the file tablet in his hand and introduced with a solemn expression: "The supernatural incident that broke out in Blackstone Village has been named 'The Ghostly Trick' by headquarters. According to the information currently pieced together, this strange killing pattern is quite unique."

"It is said that the conditions will be triggered as long as the number of people required is met, or as long as a specific area is entered."

Once someone enters the "Theatrical Trick" realm, they are usually forcibly assigned a role in a Chinese theater and compelled to perform a theatrical act on stage.

Xu Tianming continued, "You must completely follow the character's role; you can't say a single wrong line or walk out of position."

Only by successfully winning the applause of the audience can they survive and move on to the next act.

Conversely, if one fails to win applause, attempts to forcibly leave the stage, or lacks someone who perfectly portrays the character…

"They will all be directly obliterated and transformed into the puppet slaves of the play, forever trapped on this stage."