“Bai Sha! I’m asking you a question!”

“Why are you desecrating his corpse!”

Troupe Leader Yu’s face was a mask of anger. He squatted down, grabbed Wu Wang by the throat, and lifted him from the ground.

But Wu Wang’s gaze remained fixed on Prince Xiang’s massive corpse, or rather, on the skeleton he had just carved out of it.

He didn’t speak. He just kept smiling.

The scholar boy stepped forward, also squatting to touch the skeleton. It was still steaming, dripping with thick, viscous blood. A hint of confusion flashed in his pensive eyes.

“Troupe Leader, we’ve all been through a fierce battle. Are you really trying to start more trouble now?”

Xiaoxiao and Zi Jin moved to stop him.

Troupe Leader Yu shot them a vicious glare. In his eyes, these Descenders were nothing more than materials for completing the 【Five-Flower Melody】.

Five Ghostly Shadows immediately materialized beside him, making everyone shudder.

Were they really going to fight Troupe Leader Yu right after finishing off the Prince?

This man was clearly a boss with complex mechanics. If there was some special condition required to defeat him, starting a fight now would be an incredibly stupid decision.

At that tense moment, Wu Wang finally spoke.

“Don’t be so hasty… I have my reasons for doing this…”

Hearing this, Troupe Leader Yu said coldly, “And what would those be?”

Wu Wang pointed to his own throat, which was still caught in the troupe leader’s grip. His face was already turning the purplish-red of an eggplant from the lack of air, as if he might suffocate at any second.

Even so, the smug, cheeky grin on his face didn’t fade in the slightest.

Xiaoxiao was actually impressed with the bastard. She’d never seen a player who would risk his life just for a stunt. She then remembered that the version of “Besieged on All Sides” that had played when the guards attacked was Jay Chou’s version.

Even though she didn’t have the requisite organs, she still felt a phantom ache in her balls.

Pa—

Troupe Leader Yu let go. He lifted his head, looking down on Wu Wang, waiting to see what kind of explanation this man could possibly offer.

“Cough, cough… Please, take a look over here.”

After a few coughs, Wu Wang walked over to the skeleton. He disdainfully kicked away the scholar boy who was still squatting pensively beside it.

He pointed a finger at the skeleton’s skull and began to lecture in a steady voice.

“First, let’s look at this head.”

“Everyone should still remember how big the Prince’s head was, right?”

Everyone nodded silently. The Prince had been a stalwart giant, nearly three meters tall. His head had been perfectly proportioned to his limbs. His skull, therefore, must have been much larger than an ordinary person’s.

“Now, look at this. The forehead is steep and vertical, the frontal eminences are relatively prominent, while the superciliary arches are not. The nasal bones are narrow and small, the root of the nose is wide and flat, and the piriform aperture is short and wide. The orbital cavity’s entrance is high, small, and nearly round, while the supraorbital margin is thin and sharp. The vertex is underdeveloped, presenting as a flat, straight line. The cranial cavity, if scaled proportionally, would be considered small.”

A stream of professional terminology suddenly flowed from his lips. While everyone else was stunned, Troupe Leader Yu’s eyes filled with even more confusion.

Eminences? Cavities? What was any of that?

The scholar boy sighed from the side.

“What he means is that, from a cranial analysis, the skull has female characteristics.”

Hearing this, everyone pictured Prince Xiang’s majestic, domineering appearance from before.

You’re telling me this Overlord, who could crack the earth with his bare hands, was a woman?

What kind of joke was this?

“Absolutely absurd! We spent years together, day and night. Are you saying I couldn’t even tell his gender?”

“Besides, the corpse still has a male member! Bai Sha, stop spouting nonsense!” Troupe Leader Yu furiously rebuked him.

Everyone glanced at the corpse. It was true; a male appendage was still attached to the dissected lower half of the body. As players accustomed to gore, Xiaoxiao and Zi Jin felt no embarrassment.

When the lower body was mentioned, Wu Wang only grew more excited. He quickly pointed to the lower part of the skeleton.

“Hey, hold on a second. Look at this pelvis.”

“The pelvic inlet is a large oval, relatively straight, wide, and shallow, and the promontory isn’t prominent. The greater sciatic notch has a wide angle, and the subpubic angle is wide, around ninety-two degrees. The iliac wings are also nearly horizontal.”

Pa—

As he spoke, Wu Wang slapped a hand on the pelvis. He rubbed it carefully for a moment before speaking with a serious expression.

“The wall of this pelvis is smooth and thin. It really doesn’t seem like a man’s.”

“I’ll bet my medical career on it and guarantee it from a professional standpoint.”

“This skeleton is definitely female!”

A heavy silence fell over the battlefield, so contagious that everyone shut their mouths. A moment later, Wu Wang’s gaze swept over the crowd.

Seeing the strange expressions on their faces, save for the scholar boy’s, he frowned.

“What’s with those looks? You all look like you just saw a pig fly and are about to post it on your socials.”

“Cough, cough. It’s nothing. It’s just that the contrast is a bit much,” Zi Jin said, coughing twice.

Xiaoxiao whispered from the side, “You’re the one who’s ‘a bit much,’ you bastard. You sounded so convincing, your medical career is toast.”

Unexpectedly, Wu Wang overheard her and just shrugged.

“Doesn’t matter. I’m not a doctor anyway.”

Fuck! Then why the hell did you bet your medical career!

Veins bulged on the two women’s foreheads. They still thought Wu Wang was just trying to trick the troupe leader. His acting skills, they had to admit, were shocking. He had projected an abstract, neurotic vibe for this entire Instance. Now that he was being serious, he actually seemed convincing. He reeled off each professional term without a hint of hesitation, as if he truly knew what he was talking about. They had to admire his thick skin.

However, just then, the scholar boy stood up. He nodded to Troupe Leader Yu.

“He’s telling the truth.”

“Hmm?”

“Huh?”

Now Xiaoxiao and Zi Jin were truly dumbfounded. Wu Wang being a psycho was one thing, but was the scholar boy going mad along with him?

Had he really been analyzing the Prince’s sex just now? But what was the point?

“What a coincidence. Before, at the bottom of the well in the Nuo Opera Garden…”

The serious look on Wu Wang’s face turned back into his usual smile.

“I saw a corpse there, too. Its skeleton was identical to this one. Even the feel of the bones was the same, you know.”

Finally, his gaze landed on Troupe Leader Yu. He said, word by word, “Then may I ask, are you also a woman?”

Whoosh—

Two Ghostly Shadow claws shot toward Wu Wang’s face like a gale, but he skillfully melted into his own shadow to escape the attack.

Troupe Leader Yu gritted his teeth.

“Nonsense… I should have never let you live!”

The situation was now tricky. If he wanted the 【Five-Flower Melody】 puppets, he couldn’t personally kill these players. He could only capture them, and he had to ensure their limbs were intact. The difficulty of that was much greater than simply killing them.

“I know you’re anxious, but don’t be anxious just yet.”

Wu Wang took the 【Divine Persona Mask】 from his pocket and put it on. His tone became mysterious and unfathomable.

“Why don’t you take a trip to the Nuo Opera Garden with me? Seeing is believing, after all.”

With that, he smiled and leaped backward, jumping directly from the stage of Farewell My Concubine into the audience seats.

The surrounding battlefield began to dissolve. Soon, everyone was back on the opera stage. On the ground, only a tattered Overlord’s Kao remained as proof of the Prince’s former existence. His corpse had vanished forever in Gaixia with the final curtain of Farewell My Concubine.

“Ah! Qiao Biluo, she…” Xiaoxiao’s gaze sharpened.

Only then did she notice that Qiao Biluo, who had been lying in a corner, was no longer breathing.

Everyone looked at each other, seeming to understand. It must have been the Prince’s final Corporeal Liberation, the skill that used ground vibrations to destroy a person’s body with internal force. Qiao Biluo had been heavily injured and unable to move. No one had been able to spare a thought for her.

In the end, the annoying fat girl could only struggle in agony on the ground until her meridians ruptured and she died.

Unfortunately, her corpse only held their attention for a moment.

In the audience seats, Wu Wang didn’t pause at all. He turned and ran toward the Nuo Opera Garden. Seeing this, the other players and Troupe Leader Yu all followed.

This time, when they arrived at the entrance, the original sinister, oppressive feeling was gone. There was no Ghost Wall. They walked in smoothly.

At the entrance, Troupe Leader Yu glanced toward the rockery and pond. Only a broken iron chain remained.

The players were still cautious, expecting to face the masked ghosts again. But upon entering, they found no ghosts at all, just as it had been when they first arrived. The ground was covered with opera masks and large, torn red cloths.

The scholar boy pensively picked up a white robe from a corner. It was the one he had discarded to escape earlier. The White Dragon had long since moved to the clothes he now wore, but a few faint dragon scales still remained on the discarded robe.

The scholar boy picked off the scales, placed them in his mouth, and swallowed them. A flash of surprise appeared in his eyes.

“So that’s how it is. Pending Death, you really are something…” he muttered to himself. “This time, I’ve truly lost…”

He then followed the others to the small courtyard with the well.

Returning here, Troupe Leader Yu’s expression became exceptionally ugly. It was here, all those years ago, that he had lost his beloved forever. Lou Yu had been harmed by ghosts from the Yin World, lost her footing, and fallen into the water. She had vanished, leaving only a slip of paper with the three words 【Five-Flower Melody】 written on it.

After learning from Prince Xiang that the purpose of the 【Five-Flower Melody】 was to pull souls from the Yin World, the troupe leader believed it was a clue Lou Yu had left for him. It told him she was trapped behind the Ghost Gate Pass in the Yin World, and only puppets refined with the 【Five-Flower Melody】 could free her.

“Wait! Pending Death!”

The scholar boy suddenly rushed forward to stop Wu Wang. He had a grave expression.

“I don’t know how you avoided the contamination from that existence, but how are we supposed to see the skeleton at the bottom of the well?”

Wu Wang shrugged.

“I’ll just carry it up. Besides… you’re too cautious.”

The scholar boy didn’t understand. Wu Wang couldn’t be bothered to explain that the Abyss God’s Mark here was merely a reflection; the real one was in the real-world Yi Garden.

With that, he leaped into the well. A moment later, he tossed up two dirty bones. They were the skull and the pelvis.

Xiaoxiao, standing nearby, caught them in a panic. When she looked at the remains, a flash of surprise flickered in her eyes.

“It seems… they really are similar…”

Even though she was no expert, the skull and pelvis in her hands were basically a scaled-down version of Prince Xiang’s skeleton.

“This is impossible! What kind of sorcery did you use!”

Troupe Leader Yu shoved Xiaoxiao aside. He snatched the two bones and examined them closely, but his hands began to tremble uncontrollably.

Was Prince Xiang really a woman? How could he not have known? Even if she could deceive the entire nation, could she also deceive The Supreme Ruler in the imperial palace? As the ruler of a nation, how could that supreme sovereign possibly allow a woman to become a Prince of the frontier? And even command all the nation’s troops, becoming a grand marshal second to only one man and above ten thousand?

This was simply preposterous!

Wu Wang’s voice echoed up from the well.

“‘Chirp, chirp, and again chirp, chirp. Mulan weaves at the household loom. One does not hear the shuttle’s sound, only the maiden’s sighs.’”

“You aren’t really thinking along those lines, are you?”

His sopping wet body leaped out of the well. He crouched on the edge in a comical pose, balancing as if walking a tightrope. Paired with the dark green hair and purple tuxedo of his Joker makeup, his entire being exuded madness.

“The shackles of the mind are far heavier than the imprisonment of the body.”

“You’re all clinging to preconceived notions, even with ironclad evidence right in front of you.”

“The only thing you could think of was that the Prince was a woman.”

“Why can’t you think of it this way?”

Looking at Troupe Leader Yu’s stupefied gaze, Wu Wang grinned and said, word by word, “That was not the real Prince.”

Crack—

The skeleton in Troupe Leader Yu’s hands was crushed to dust. He glared viciously up at Wu Wang, but though he opened his mouth to refute him, no words came out.

Incomprehensible confusion also flashed in the players’ eyes.

“The Prince isn’t the Prince? Then who could it be?” Xiaoxiao asked.

Wu Wang didn’t answer her. Instead, he continued to lock eyes with Troupe Leader Yu as he advanced step by step. Now it was his turn to look down on the man.

He produced a cane from somewhere and tapped the ‘Ruyi Crown’ on the troupe leader’s head. It was the exclusive headdress for the Beijing opera character, Yu Ji.

His tone grew colder.

“It’s not over yet. You think the Prince was the only fake?”

“And you, the troupe leader. Are you really the troupe leader?”

“Or should I say… are you really Yu Ji?”

“At this point, must the show go on?”

“He was the fake Overlord, but you are the real Yu Ji.”

“If you ask me, there is only one true Opera God in this Opera God’s Righteous Garden.”

“And that is you, Lou Yu.”