Chapter 1

The moment Jiang Cheng's hand touched the girl's body, she stiffened. After all, being touched by a ghost was probably something she had never imagined. The next second, her mouth widened, and she looked like she was about to cry. "Esteemed guest, I... I may be from the Liyuan opera troupe, and I know I am of low status, but I only sell my art, not my body. Please forgive me for being unable to comply."

What was all this about? Jiang Cheng frowned slightly. Surrounded by a dense circle of charred ghosts, he had no other thoughts. He pushed the girl gently, signaling her to leave quickly.

Whether she understood or not, she continued walking, repeating those words, but her voice was much softer, like the buzzing of a mosquito.

Jiang Cheng glanced at the play on stage, his gaze focusing on the shadows of the performers. Fortunately, the shadows were all there, with no abnormalities.

Perhaps because they were holding back, the fighting scene on stage looked like a game, but it was filled with an indescribable feeling of strangeness, as if the people were all puppets on strings, their movements revealing an eerie stiffness.

"Thank you for your patronage, thank you, thank you... Ah!"

The girl suddenly cried out briefly. Jiang Cheng immediately turned his head and saw a charred black arm being withdrawn from the girl's body. At the same time, the last incense pouch in the gong was burned.

But there was still half the distance left to complete a full circle.

According to Jiang Cheng's experience, the second half of the journey was the most dangerous.

It was almost impossible for the girl to leave safely on her own.

But the chain reaction caused by this brief cry was far more than that. One of the actors on stage, holding a gun and with several black flags stuck behind him, was clearly distracted by the cry and stared blankly in the girl's direction.

Then, the actor froze, his eyes began to tremble uncontrollably, and finally rolled upwards, leaving only the whites of his eyes visible.

This sudden movement interrupted the rhythm on stage. The other person fighting him seemed not to have noticed the abnormality in his teammate and continued to circle closer.

As he approached, he opened his mouth wide, singing strange opera lyrics.

But the next second, he could no longer speak, because a long spear pierced through his mouth and out his back, the force pinning him directly to the stage.

In the last few seconds of his life, he opened his mouth wide, spitting out a large number of blood bubbles, and blood gushed out along the spear shaft as if it were free.

There was not much fear in his eyes, but more incomprehension and disbelief, because he had not reacted at all.

Then, the actor who had stabbed his teammate with the spear stiffly took the long sword from his teammate's hand, twisted his wrist, and with an incomprehensible angle, placed the sword across his neck, then suddenly exerted force, cutting off his own head.

The head fell to the ground with a "thud" and rolled until it hit the corner of the stage, stopping with its face facing Jiang Cheng's direction.

In an instant, the stage was covered in blood, becoming a scene of carnage.

The last surviving actor seemed to be frightened, his mouth wide open, his whole body trembling, unable to say a word.

The ghost opera... had stopped.

Jiang Cheng's heart tightened. He remembered some rules about the ghost opera from the newspaper articles: the actors on stage should not look at the audience below, the blades of swords should not be pointed at the stage, and most importantly, the ghost opera must not stop under any circumstances!

This was a major taboo!

At the same time, Jiang Cheng also noticed that the originally quiet charred ghosts began to stir, their bodies twitching as if they were about to pounce on the stage and tear the people there to shreds.

Several restless gazes were fixed on him.

Now one thing was clear: tonight, his fate was tied to this opera troupe. If this ghost opera failed, more than just the opera troupe would die—he would die too!

A way out... where was the way out?!

Having lingered between life and death many times, he was able to calm down in the most critical moments. After all, panic would not help solve the problem, it would only make him die faster.

The real danger was these charred ghosts, and the killings on stage must be related to them. Jiang Cheng shifted his attention to the charred ghosts and, sure enough, discovered a clue.

In the rearmost right position, there was actually an empty seat.

But Jiang Cheng clearly remembered that all these seats were occupied, none were empty!

Thinking of the strange posture of the person on stage when he committed suicide, a guess emerged in Jiang Cheng's mind. The way that person held the sword when he committed suicide was very strange. A normal person could not exert any force holding the sword that way, let alone cut off his own head with a single stroke.

Besides, this was just a prop sword, not a sharp treasure sword!

The terrifying scene on stage was still unfolding. The headless corpse did not fall, but instead, carrying the sword, walked step by step towards the last survivor on stage.

Blood kept pouring out from the severed neck, leaving a bloody footprint with each step, creating a sense of oppression even more terrifying than the event itself.

Jiang Cheng also couldn't help but hold his breath.

He knew that if all the actors on stage were killed, then tonight's ghost opera would end there. Next, they would face the pursuit of all the ghosts, and none of them would escape.

At this moment, Jiang Cheng had figured out what the corpse's strange movements meant. The corpse was being controlled, or rather, it was like an invisible person was holding it up with their hands.

It was the same with the suicide: it was as if there was an invisible person standing behind him, grabbing his hand, then placing the sword on his neck, and then pulling hard.

Thinking of this, Jiang Cheng looked at the incense pouch in his hand. Although the incense pouch was precious, he couldn't care about anything else at this moment. As the headless corpse stood in front of the last survivor, raised its sword, and prepared to strike, Jiang Cheng threw the incense pouch with force.

His target was not the headless corpse, but a point slightly behind the headless corpse.

The next second, accompanied by a strange sound, the incense pouch struck something in mid-air, bounced away sharply, and then burned, turning into black ashes.

And even more shocking was yet to come. Where there had been empty space behind the corpse, a tall charred corpse suddenly appeared out of thin air, a corpse even two heads taller than the headless corpse.

The charred corpse stood there, motionless, as if everything before had nothing to do with it, and the blood-soaked stage was not its doing either.

Although the charred corpse had stopped, the crisis had not been resolved. The only survivor on stage was frightened by this scene, collapsed on the ground, covered his eyes, and trembled, unable to continue acting at all.

And the surrounding charred corpses could no longer restrain themselves and stood up one after another.