It's time to become an evil god.

"Not dead?"

Bai Ge looked enlightened and nodded quickly, saying, "I've had this experience before. I was so sleepy in the observation area after getting vaccinated that I covered my face with a white handkerchief as an eye mask and fell asleep. When I woke up, I found myself in the ICU, surrounded by a bunch of doctors who were about to insert tubes into me."

The middle-aged scholar's lips twitched slightly. He found the young man's perspective on the issue quite peculiar. He shook his head and said, "No, what I mean is that the locals now worship the Immaculate White Lady, just like the Nuo God, who is headless. Until before liberation, there was a cruel tradition in these deep mountains and forests of women being sacrificed to the Immaculate White Lady."

He pushed up his glasses and said with a mysterious expression, "So what exactly happened between the headless Nuo God and the immaculate White Lady?"

Bai Ge rested his chin on his hand, pondering the matter, and could only come to a rigorous conclusion: "He castrated himself."

"..."

The bus rounded a mountain gorge, and the road suddenly opened up to the left.

On the towering cliffs that seem to reach the sky and touch the earth, clouds and mist drift by. In the deep, knife-cut valleys, more than a dozen waterfalls surge forth like galloping horses, piercing the sun like white rainbows from the steep and precipitous cliffs, all the way to the bottom of the valley.

The cascading water, like white dragons soaring from the deep pool into the heavens, leaps through the air amidst the vast, precipitous cliffs. Water splashes everywhere, and the valley is filled with billowing steam, while the towering mountains are shrouded in a misty haze.

Looking at the precipice on one side of the road, Bai Ge said with emotion, "This deep abyss reminds me of a classmate from before. We went swimming together, and he said he was a great diver. Sure enough, I waited on the shore for thirty minutes and he still hadn't come up, so I went back first. He didn't come to school the next day, and I was quite sad at the time. A genius who could break Guinness World Records just disappeared like that."

The middle-aged scholar's assistant's lips twitched. What the hell could break a Guinness World Record? Did he drown?

The middle-aged scholar, however, was unconvinced and said, "By the way, I heard today is the annual ancient festival in Tianbin Town. If you're interested, you can go and take a look."

Bai Ge wanted to ask some other questions, but then heard the driver give a relieved reminder.

"We're here, we've arrived."

Seeing the brightly lit town in the distance, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. It was already 9 p.m. when the bus slowly pulled into the long-distance bus station. The survivors hurriedly disembarked.

The middle-aged scholar wanted to get Bai Ge's contact information, but the other party had already disappeared into the vast night, making him feel as if everything that had happened before was an illusion.

It was past 11 p.m. when we arrived at the center of the ancient town. The few shops were gradually closing their shutters, and the streets were sparsely populated due to the off-season for tourism.

Guided by the locals, Bai Ge found a traditional guesthouse. It was an old house with black tiles and white walls, guarded by a pair of marble lions at the entrance. Two blood-red lanterns hung from the eaves, swaying precariously in the dark alley.

The surrounding area is full of old historical sites, but most of them have been demolished and no longer look like they used to be. The entire ancient street is much smaller than it used to be. Apart from the stone lions in front of the door that have witnessed the changes of time, only this old house and the majestic blue stone archway at the entrance of the alley are ancient buildings that have been preserved from before the Qing Dynasty.

Upon entering, the paint on the eaves and pillars of the old house had peeled off, but the brick and wood materials and the tight construction made it look more sturdy than other newly built houses in the town, despite its age.

The receptionist was a middle-aged woman scrolling through Douyin on her phone. After impatiently registering Bai Ge's ID information, she handed over a set of keys that had developed a patina of patina.

"West wing, second floor."

After receiving the key, I climbed the dilapidated wooden stairs, each step creaking and groaning. Reaching the second floor, I opened the door. The room seemed uninhabited for a long time; it was damp and musty, with tattered cobwebs fluttering in the wind and hanging from the wooden beams.

Bai Ge stood on the second floor and opened the window. Outside was a gloomy and quiet ancient town, with the occasional bark of a dog in the distance, and a few streetlights struggling to provide the last bit of light.

"The streets are so quiet, there's hardly anyone around."

Just as he was about to close the wooden window, he suddenly heard a commotion coming from the depths of the ancient alley, mixed with eerie and sinister drumming.

Immediately afterwards, Bai Ge saw the source of the eerie drumming sound.

A procession marched down the street, led by two women dressed in black robes, wearing ferocious animal head hats, and waving banners.

The two walked side by side, chanting prayers, their white robes billowing, banners waving, and tassels swaying like long snakes. Behind them was a sacrificial procession.

Each person wore a straw raincoat and a monkey-shaped mask, singing obscure and difficult-to-understand local folk songs.

"This is... the ancient festival?"

The procession moved slowly, surrounding a square wooden sedan chair with solemnity and grandeur, like stars surrounding the moon.

The red canopy above the wooden sedan chair was surrounded by bronze bells, which made a clear, clanging sound.

Inside the wooden sedan chair sat a young girl in a proper kneeling posture.

As the group approached, Bai Ge's expression changed instantly.

The young girl was dignified, elegant, solemn, and sacred.

Above the snow-white side collar.

It was empty, without a head.

Chapter Twenty-Four: How about some weight loss and fitness tips?

The girl's corpse was draped in a dress, gauze, and belt, holding a round fan, with her hands resting on her knees. Her entire body was as white as snow, except for a pair of bright red clogs that clashed in stark contrast to her snow-white attire.

The whole scene was eerie and strange, completely lacking the solemnity of a festival ritual.

Bai Ge immediately turned and rushed out the door and downstairs, his heavy footsteps echoing down the old wooden stairs. The middle-aged woman at the front desk looked up and saw the young man who had just checked in running towards the door. Although she wasn't in a position to interfere in her guests' private affairs, she still asked a question out of curiosity.

"Sir, where are you going so late? All the shops outside are closed."

"Go after the sacrificial procession."

Bai Ge simply uttered a sentence before disappearing into the night.

"A sacrificial procession?"

The middle-aged woman at the front desk suddenly changed her expression. "Wait a minute, weren't the sacrificial processions for the ancient festival banned a few years ago because of a major accident that resulted in injuries and deaths?"

By the time she chased after him, Bai Ge was nowhere to be seen in the eerie, dark night. Sometime during the night, round coins with square holes had appeared on the street, swirling like goose feathers in the wind, creating an eerie and sinister atmosphere.

The mighty Han River waterfall brings a constant stream of moisture to the mountain town, and at night the entire town is shrouded in a layer of milky white mist.

A chilly night wind swept by, sending shivers down one's spine. The parade, though seemingly large and imposing, moved silently along the road.

The procession walked out of the ancient town. The streetlights in the ancient town had been in disrepair for many years, and only the dim and yellow lanterns in the procession could barely dispel the surrounding darkness.

Bai Ge followed at the back of the group and could still vaguely hear the woman crying and lamenting, singing softly with a ghostly and eerie voice. The melody was strange and ethereal, intermittent and seemingly there but not there, appearing ethereal and indistinct.

Upon hearing this sound, Bai Ge slowed his pace, vaguely remembering that apart from the headless female corpse, the rest of the sacrificial procession seemed to consist of men.

Where does that mournful ghostly sound come from?

"Something's not right with this sacrificial procession. Why don't they even have the suona that's played from birth to the seventh day after death?"

Bai Ge maintained a certain distance from the sacrificial procession throughout. In the blink of an eye, the procession had already left the ancient town. Looking out, one could see towering mountains shrouded in mist. To the right, the Han River rushed and meandered, and the wilderness and forests were shrouded in mist, hidden in the night. Only the sound of the water could be heard.

The procession carrying lanterns was like a cluster of fireflies in the night, illuminating the rugged and towering mountains. After an unknown amount of time, they finally stopped in front of an ancient, long-abandoned house by the river.

The white walls and black tiles were covered with weeds, and the old wooden door with peeling paint was half-closed in the early morning, creaking in the cold wind.

The procession pushed open the old wooden door, carrying lanterns, filed in, crossed the threshold, and disappeared into the depths of the ancient house.

Bai Ge waited outside for a while before finally taking out his fishing line and opening the door.

However, the abandoned old house was indeed empty. The sedan chair was neatly placed in the middle of the courtyard. Around it, in the knee-high weeds, stood lifelike paper figures with white faces, red cheeks, and blood-red lips, dressed exactly like the people who had accompanied the sacrificial procession.

Bai Ge released a paper effigy from his inventory, letting it go over and interact with the other effigy to see if it could find any clues.

The paper effigy patted its chest and made an OK sign, indicating that it was safe with the money.

He immediately strode over with an air of indifference, stood on one of the paper figures and began to seriously gesture, nodding solemnly from time to time. Finally, he floated back to Bai Ge and gave a serious reply.

After gesturing for ages without any response, these guys might be in a vegetative state.

What the hell is this? A vegetable?

Bai Ge glanced at the paper effigy, stuffed it back into the inventory, and personally approached the paper effigy. He took the glowing lantern from their hands, and upon getting closer, he could smell a burnt, foul odor.

Bai Ge curiously leaned closer for a look, and his pupils instantly dilated.

What was slowly burning inside the lantern was not a **, but a dried-up, dehydrated middle finger!

At this moment, the door to the main hall of the old house creaked open, and a mournful, plaintive ghostly sound came from inside.

Bai Ge walked in with a lantern in hand. At the entrance was a peeling and broken sandalwood screen depicting a woman with an expression like a wood or clay sculpture. She was dressed in Tang Dynasty lady's clothing, holding a palm-leaf fan, with her cherry-like mouth open and her tongue sticking out. Her skin was as white as snow.

Around her, some were kneeling in worship, while others sat cross-legged, surrounded by a group of elderly men with silver hair, their faces wicked and sinister, their bodies thin and short. The background, however, was the ancient cemetery of the underworld, with its desolate graves and ancient steles.

Upon seeing this eerie and sinister painting of a lady, Bai Ge's expression instantly changed, and even the candle in her hand flickered precariously.

He stared at the bizarre and malevolent scene on the screen, frowned, and after thinking it over, he could only come to one conclusion.

"Could the painting depict the legendary story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?"

pat.

Footsteps echoed in the main hall of the old house, instantly attracting Bai Ge's attention.

He walked around the screen and into the main hall, where he saw a grand chair placed directly opposite the entrance, with two figures standing on either side.

They are a pair of paper effigies depicting a boy and a girl in traditional ancient clothing.

However, the boy appeared swollen and pale, like a giant balloon about to burst at any moment. His two wide, bulging eyes, like those of a dead fish, stared at Bai Ge, their eyes locked, a look of unresolved death.

The girl in red clothes and green pants had a dirty white cloth covered with bloody handprints on her face.

Bai Ge hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided against the dangerous act of removing the white cloth covering the girl's face.

Nothing seemed amiss in the surroundings; it was quiet and still. Yet, upon entering the room, Bai Ge felt an unease running through his body. He took out a bronze mirror from his backpack, intending to use it to examine his surroundings.

As soon as Bai Ge took out the bronze mirror, he glanced at it and instantly felt a chill run down his spine. His expression changed drastically, and he almost dropped the mirror on the ground!

In the mirror, the eerie Tang Dynasty lady depicted on the screen, who had just been there, now lay lifelessly on my back.

He somehow managed to carry the ghostly lady from the painting on his back!

In the dim candlelight, that fair and plump face was all smiles, almost squeezing the eyes into slits. The face was heavily powdered, the makeup was garish and eerie, the pale skin was unsettling, and the strangely small features seemed to be branded onto a piece of white fat. The eyebrows and eyes were extremely thin and long, and the small, blood-red cherry-like mouth seemed to be crying but not laughing.

Eyes devoid of any human life were staring intently at me through the mirror!

Hello, beautiful lady.

Bai Ge forced a smile at the amusing soul weighing two hundred pounds behind him and slowly asked, "Interested in losing weight and getting fit?"

Chapter Twenty-Five: I Am an East Asian Powerhouse

The plump female corpse had ten white and green, hook-like fingers gripping Bai Ge's shoulders, clinging firmly to his back, smiling and silent.

Faced with this bizarre scene, Bai Ge turned his head to look behind him again, but in reality, there was nothing behind him. However, when he looked at the bronze mirror again, there was indeed a two-hundred-pound interesting soul lying motionless on his back.

Her hands rested on his shoulders, her entire body slumped against his back, her long white dress trailing on the ground, her makeup thick and flamboyant, a touch of red between her brows. Her body was all white, flabby flesh, her skin delicate and smooth, yet her eyes were cloudy and unfocused, utterly devoid of any alluring charm, only exuding a gloomy aura.

Her small feet, clad in delicate, pointed embroidered shoes, were strikingly bright red, making them stand out starkly against her snow-white ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress) and fierce attire.

The lady's head tilted slightly forward, her disproportionately small cherry lips almost touching her neck, face to face. A chilling aura emanated from her neck.

Bai Ge felt as if something was blocking his throat, making it difficult to breathe.

"You're so damn fat, are you some kind of succulent that's become sentient?"