“What… what is he doing?”

“Has this kid finally gone insane?”

The other players endured the pounding drums. They watched as Wu Wang’s wild dance grew more twisted, the gun and pipe in his hands striking everything around him.

He even fired his gun, riddling the surrounding ground with craters. A few shots were aimed almost directly at them.

He radiated a bizarre, absurd energy.

【Elemental Gun (Epic). It can create and manipulate the four elements of earth, water, fire, and air without reloading. The amount of element creation is theoretically infinite, but due to the gun’s flaws, over-extracting a certain element in a short period will also lead to devastating consequences.】

【When equipped, the holder receives +5 to Strength, Agility, Stamina, and Charisma.】

【Remark – Who stole my gun! This is the personal sidearm of the greatest Star-Lord in the entire universe!】

This was the equipment the Xiezhi had given him.

Only the book boy was frowning. He muttered to himself.

“Sacrifice is a means of observation, of conveying human affairs to the gods…”

Understanding flashed in his eyes, and he began to take a few strange dance steps of his own. He then explained to the other players.

“I know what Pending Death is trying to do!”

“The essence of a sacrifice is to present human events to ghosts and gods.”

“To make that communication more efficient, theatrical forms like Nuo Opera were created. They use speech, hand gestures, and dance all at once.”

“He wants to use the Nuo Dance to communicate with the ghosts and monsters!”

“We should follow his dance steps and move too!”

To be honest, this was just a guess on the book boy’s part. After all, he could only vaguely see the outlines of the ghosts.

Only Wu Wang, wearing the human-skin mask, could see what was truly happening.

In fact, the book boy had guessed correctly. Wu Wang was witnessing an extremely strange and absurd story.

The Nuo Dance of the ghosts and monsters looked utterly bizarre. But for some reason, after watching for a while, he found he could understand the ideas they were trying to convey.

Of course, his first focus was still the large, tattered red cloth in the sky. It was not a real Abyss God’s Mark.

Wu Wang confirmed it with a single glance. The Vertical Pupil on this cloth was identical to the one on the red cloth that had concealed him in the abandoned warehouse when he first entered the Instance.

It had the form of the mark but none of its corrupting power.

Otherwise, the players would have been wiped out the moment they entered the Instance.

Or perhaps neither of the red Vertical Pupils had been created by the Abyss God’s corruption at all. They had been drawn by human hands.

That was why Wu Wang had used the first red cloth to cover himself, turning the side with the drawing inward. He didn’t want the other players to see the mark and alert the enemy.

It was also why the book boy hadn’t noticed the Abyss God’s Mark at first.

As for the book boy now, he was simply suffering from PTSD induced by the mark. How could he dare to look up and confirm if it was real?

That thing would literally make you explode if you stared at it for one second too long.

Not everyone had a safety net like 【Undying】 to let them court death.

Now that he had discovered the Vertical Pupil was man-made, Wu Wang began to deduce.

Since the red cloth was in the Nuo Opera Garden, the artist had to be someone who could get in and out.

It was either one of the ghosts, the Master, the Prince… or the missing Lou Yu.

Therefore, he focused on listening to the story the ghosts were telling with their dance.

At first, he only wanted to snatch Power King’s mask and blend in to hear better. But he discovered that when he started dancing himself, the story became much clearer.

So, he went with the flow and kept dancing.

But after listening to the whole story, Wu Wang’s expression turned strange.

“The Yellow Emperor killed Chi You in Zhongji. His body was dismembered, and his blood transformed into brine, creating the salt pond of Xie Prefecture.”

“During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty, the pond produced no salt for eight years. They suspected Chi You’s spirit was causing trouble. So, a Celestial Master Zhang invited the Revered Lord with the Beautiful Beard to descend and slay the chaotic god and end the Scourge…”

Hold on, Wu Wang thought. Wait a minute. Something that doesn’t belong here just got mixed in!

The story was simple. The Yellow Emperor had executed a being named Chi You in a place called Zhongji.

After Chi You was dismembered, his blood turned into brine, forming a salt pond in Xie Prefecture.

But during the Song Dynasty, the pond stopped producing salt for eight years. The people suspected the restless spirit of Chi You was to blame.

So, they had a Celestial Master Zhang invite the deified Lord Guan to descend and slay Chi You’s remnant soul for the good of the people.

This was too ridiculous.

Putting aside the power levels of Lord Guan and Chi You, they weren’t even from the same era.

Wu Wang had never expected this. After his own performance of Ah Dou’s Great Battle against Zhao Zilong at Changbanpo, he was now getting a rendition of Lord Guan’s Great Battle against Chi You at the Salt Pond.

For a moment, he wasn’t sure if his own brain had short-circuited or if the ghosts’ logic was just as strange.

He finally understood. The ghosts were treating the players as sacrifices for Lord Guan.

They would be used to 【Bless】 the local people, allowing them to live in peace.

And the large, tattered red cloth in the sky, the one painted with the Abyss God’s Mark, was what they believed to be a channel to the heavens.

This meant his actions—firing his gun while performing the Nuo Dance—were a direct threat to the ghosts.

If you dare turn us into offerings, he conveyed, I will shatter your stairway to heaven with a single shot.

He fired a few more shots to demonstrate his weapon’s power. The shots aimed toward the other players carried their own message.

I’m so ruthless I’d even attack my own people. You think I wouldn’t dare shoot your precious cloth?

As if sensing Wu Wang’s malice, the ghosts quieted down.

Their Nuo Dance ceased, and the 【Blessing】 paused.

The players were stunned to find the mutations on their hands gradually disappearing.

“These… these ghosts… they’ve been around us this whole time?” Xiaoxiao exclaimed.

A flash of terror appeared in her eyes. To think that so many sinister Fierce Ghosts had been right in front of her all along.

Her words stunned everyone.

Wait. Why could Xiaoxiao suddenly perceive the Yin World?

Her vision was even clearer than before. She hadn’t just heard the drums; she could now see the ghost-faced monsters.

At that moment, Wu Wang’s brow furrowed. He looked at the remark section of the 【Divine Persona Mask】.

【Remark – The way of theater is to portray gods and interpret ghosts. Never forget who you are.】

“Never forget… Crap! So that’s what it means!”

He instantly understood the remark’s true meaning.

Wu Wang was wearing the mask, but everyone had been affected by it when they entered the Nuo Opera Garden.

All signs indicated this place was a haven for the Yin World. Living people shouldn’t have been able to enter at all, which was why they’d been blocked by the Ghost Wall.

After stepping into the Nuo Opera Garden, their souls were being slowly influenced by the Yin World.

If they stayed too long, they might never return to the Yang World.

They would end up just like Power King, their souls trapped here as lonely ghosts.

Never forget who you are didn’t mean his name or identity.

It meant, don’t forget that you are a living person!

The Yin and Yang worlds were separate. This was not a place for the living to linger.

The players’ time here was limited!

Damn that Master! Wu Wang cursed inwardly. Would it have killed him to be direct? Enough with all the riddles!

With this thought, Wu Wang moved to retrieve the blue-haired executioner’s corpse. He had to get everyone out of here, fast.

But the moment he approached the corpse, the surrounding ghosts bristled.

Hundreds of ghost-faced monsters radiated an ominous aura, their eyes locked on Wu Wang.

It was clear that if he made a single rash move, they would rush forward to stop him, disregarding his earlier threat.

They couldn’t kill him, but he couldn’t fight his way out while carrying a corpse, not with so many ghosts in his way.

This new development made the other players’ faces turn pale.

The corpse… couldn’t be retrieved?

Just then, the book boy spoke up.

“The story from the Nuo Dance might have a special meaning. Perhaps we can start from there.”

His words sent Wu Wang into deep thought.

True. An Instance wouldn’t provide useless information. Especially a story so abstract it was cringeworthy. The Spirit Calamity Game wasn’t doing this just to amuse them.

How could such a bizarre story inspire hundreds of monsters to perform a ritual sacrifice?

This wasn’t even the salt pond of Xie Prefecture. All this trouble had to point to a clue within the opera garden itself.

A moment later, a lightbulb went off in Wu Wang’s head.

He suddenly raised his middle finger.

“I have an idea!”

Everyone turned to look at him.

They all hoped he wasn’t about to say something that would make their vision go black.