Chapter 13: This Venerable One’s Bride

Of course, Chu Wanning had already noticed that without Mo Ran's comment.

The guests chattered cheerfully, but there was no way to tell where their voices came from. Every single last one of those people sitting, standing, playing party games, and making toasts had a completely blank face, as if they were made of paper.

"What should we do? Don't tell me we should go in there and drink with them."

Chu Wanning didn't laugh at Mo Ran's bad attempt at a joke and focused instead on the matter at hand, his head lowered in thought.

Suddenly, scattered footsteps came from a distance away. Two long lines of people appeared out of the fog, walking in procession as they headed slowly toward the manor.

Chu Wanning and Mo Ran moved reflexively to hide behind a large rock in the garden. The lines approached, led by a smiling golden boy and jade maiden.13 Unusually, the pair had heavily painted facial features, which stood out in sharp relief. In the dim light of the night, they looked just like the little boy and girl paper dolls that people burned for the dead.

Each of them held a red candle, and each candle was as thick around as a child's arm. These candles were decorated with an intertwining dragon and phoenix, and as they burned, they released the strong scent of Butterfly Town's signature perfume. Mo Ran nearly lost his senses to the smell again, but thankfully the dull ache of the wound on his hand where Chu Wanning had stabbed him kept him grounded. He jabbed at the injury again for good measure.

Chu Wanning glanced at him.

"Ahem, this is pretty effective." Mo Ran paused. "Shizun, how come you don't need to poke a hole in yourself to maintain your consciousness?"

"The scent has no effect on me."

"Ah? Why not?"

"My cultivation base is strong," Chu Wanning said frostily.

Mo Ran fell silent.

Led by the golden boy and jade maiden, the twin lines processed slowly up a flight of steps. Chu Wanning watched them for a while before quietly uttering a quiet sound of surprise. He was rarely ever surprised. Mo Ran curiously followed his gaze, only to be just as surprised himself.

The lines were made up of corpses, who swayed as they walked. They retained their facial features from life, but their eyes were closed, and their skin was deathly pale. Most of them were fairly young, likely below twenty, both male and female, and one silhouette among them looked especially familiar.

The eldest Chen-gongzi, who had been in the coffin earlier, had somehow joined this procession. Eyes closed, he walked slowly in the trail of the strange candle scent. Everyone else in the lines was paired up, but he was different—he wasn't accompanied by a person, but a ghost bride made of paper.

As if Chen-gongzi's presence hadn't been odd enough, when the procession advanced far enough for Mo Ran and Chu Wanning to see the people at the very end of the lines, the color instantly drained from Mo Ran's face.

Heads hung low, Shi Mei and Madam Chen-Yao followed along at the end of the corpse procession. Their eyes were also closed, their faces pale, and they walked in the exact same manner as the corpses before them. It was impossible to tell if they were still alive.

Mo Ran was about to lose his mind. He leapt up and tried to rush forward but was stopped by Chu Wanning's grip on his shoulder. "Wait."

"But Shi Mei—!"

"I know." Chu Wanning watched the lines slowly advance and spoke quietly. "Don't be hasty. Look over there—there's a barrier in place. If you rush over, it'll sound an alarm. If every faceless ghost in the courtyard attacks at once, things will get out of hand."

Chu Wanning was a master of barriers; his own were formidable, and his eyes were sharp. Mo Ran looked over and saw that there was indeed a nearly transparent veil at the entrance to the courtyard.

When the golden boy and jade maiden arrived before the courtyard, they blew softly at the candles they were holding to make the flames burn even higher, then slowly stepped through the barrier and into the yard.

One by one, the corpses followed behind them through the barrier without any interference. The faceless people drinking in the courtyard turned to watch them enter and began to cheer and clap.

"Go, follow them," said Chu Wanning. "Close your eyes and don't breathe when you cross the barrier. Copy what the corpses do no matter what happens, and absolutely do not speak."

Mo Ran was anxious to save Shi Mei and needed no further urging. He and Chu Wanning slipped into the corpse procession.

Each line had the same number of corpses. Chu Wanning took the place behind Shi Mei so Mo Ran could only line up behind Madam Chen-Yao. The procession moved at an agonizingly slow pace. Mo Ran kept looking at Shi Mei but could only see the side of his pale face and a bit of snow-white neck that drooped helplessly.

When they finally reached the barrier, they both held their breath and passed through without incident. The courtyard was bigger on the inside than it had seemed from without. Aside from the three-story manor decorated with lanterns and colored banners, the left and right ends of the courtyard were also densely packed with at least a hundred small side rooms. Each of these was decorated with a large scarlet Xi character on the window and a red lantern hanging by the door.

There came the sounds of firecrackers and suonas, and the faceless guests stood simultaneously.

A faceless ceremony official appeared before the manor, voice sweeping high and low as he announced, "The auspicious hour is upon us. The brides and grooms have arrived."

Mo Ran was astounded. Huh? These corpses were supposed to be grooms and brides? He hurriedly looked to Chu Wanning for help, but the Beidou Immortal was lost in his own thoughts, his brows tightly furrowed. He didn't even spare Mo Ran a glance.

Uncle's efforts are sincerely misguided, Mo Ran thought to himself. Going down the mountain to gain practical experience with a teacher who ignored him was doing more harm to his pride than not bringing any teacher along at all.

A group of giggling children darted into the yard, dressed in bright red but with their hair tied in white strings. They swarmed around the two lines of people like so many little fish, each tugging a person toward one of the rooms on either side of the courtyard.

Mo Ran, at a complete loss, mouthed toward Chu Wanning: Shizun, what do we do?

Chu Wanning shook his head and pointed toward the corpses in front of them. These followed obediently behind the little boys and girls. His meaning was clear: Go along with it.

Left with no choice, Mo Ran could only stumble along, following a little boy with a topknot who led him into one of the rooms. As soon as they entered, the boy waved his arm and the door slammed shut behind them.

Mo Ran stared at the child, wary of what the faceless little ghost was going to do to him. In his last lifetime, Chu Wanning had rescued Shi Mei and broken through the illusory realm all on his own, vanquishing the evil without Mo Ran ever having to lift a finger. Afterward, Mo Ran had been too busy dwelling on the sweet aftertaste of Shi Mei's lips to even pay attention to Chu Wanning's explanation. As such, with the situation unfolding differently, he had no idea what to expect and could only brace himself for whatever might come.

The room came with a dressing table and a copper mirror, as well as a set of intricately embroidered black and red wedding clothes that hung neatly on a rack. The child patted a bench, gesturing for Mo Ran to sit.

Mo Ran concluded that the ghosts here weren't too clever. Rather dumb, actually. As long as he didn't speak, they couldn't even tell the living from the dead. He sat before the dressing table as directed, and the child toddled over to help him wash and change.

Suddenly, a haitang blossom floated in from the window and delicately landed on the water in the wash basin. Mo Ran's eyes brightened. That haitang was named Yuheng of the Night Sky, and it was a technique used specifically by Chu Wanning for silent communication.

He scooped the flower out of the water, and the haitang instantly blossomed and unfurled in his palm to reveal a speck of mellow golden light at its center. He plucked the speck of light between his fingertips and placed it in his ear. Chu Wanning's voice started speaking into it.

"Mo Ran, I used Tianwen to confirm that this illusory realm was indeed created by Butterfly Town's ghost mistress of ceremonies. After receiving the villagers' offerings and incense and worship for hundreds of years, the mistress has managed to cultivate into an actual deity. Every ghost marriage contributes to its power, so it delights in presiding over these ceremonies. The corpses in the lines are likely Butterfly Town's ghost couples from these past couple centuries, whose weddings it witnessed. It likes the merriment, so it calls the corpses back into the illusory realm every night to do it all over again, growing stronger each time."

What a deviant! thought Mo Ran.

If other deities got bored, they might at most play matchmaker with young men and women. But this ghost mistress of ceremonies sure was something else; it might have had the body of a deity, but it must have forgotten to grow a head, if this was the kind of hobby it entertained. Playing matchmaker with corpses! And not even just the once, but summoning them from their graves every night to do it over and over and over again! Were corpse orgies that riveting?

This spinster deity—what a damn headcase.

"Its real body isn't here," said Chu Wanning. "Don't act carelessly now, just follow the golden boy and jade maiden after this. It will have to appear in person to absorb energy from the ghost weddings."

Mo Ran wanted to ask, What about Shi Mei? Is he okay?

"There's no need to worry about Shi Mei. He and Mistress Chen are both just temporarily unconscious due to the perfume." Chu Wanning was incredibly thorough and had anticipated everything Mo Ran might ask. "Take care of yourself. I will handle everything."

After that, the voice faded away.

At the same time, the ghost child finished fussing over Mo Ran's outfit. Mo Ran glanced at the mirror to see his own reflection. The man reflected there was handsome, with clear and refreshing facial features, and lips that curved naturally upward at their corners. The collar of the fiery red wedding garment he wore was neatly folded, and his long hair was done up with a white hairband, making him look quite the part of the ghost groom.

The child made a gesture of invitation, and the tightly closed door creaked open.

A line of corpses, male and female both, stood in the corridor, all dressed in wedding clothes. It looked like this ghost mistress of ceremonies and its mud for brains didn't really understand the way of things and had just grabbed any random pair to perform the wedding ceremony, not caring in the least if the couple was male and female, male and male, or female and female.

There was only one line of corpses in this corridor; the other line was across the courtyard on the other side, too far away for Mo Ran to see if Chu Wanning and Shi Mei had come out yet.

The line moved slowly forward. Now and again, he heard the ceremony official's voice from the manor as, one by one, the pairs completed the marriage ceremonies.

Mo Ran looked at Madam Chen-Yao standing in front of him and felt that something wasn't quite right. He puzzled over it for a long while, the line growing shorter and shorter the whole time. Only when the last few pairs were left did this dumb scoundrel finally figure it out.

Ah! With the lines in this order, didn't that mean the woman in front of him was gonna get married to Shi Mei? And wouldn't he himself get matched with that wretch, Chu Wanning? Unacceptable!

This ex-Emperor of the Mortal Realm instantly grew upset. Lips pulling downward, he unceremoniously yanked Madam Chen-Yao back and jumped the line to stand in front of her.

The child next to him was flabbergasted, but Mo Ran swiftly lowered his head and made like a hanged ghost, drooping along with the other corpses. Neither the golden boy nor the jade maiden's cultivation was terribly high; they were baffled for a bit but couldn't even figure out where the problem had occurred. And so, like a pair of dimwits, they ended up doing absolutely nothing about it.

Mo Ran was quite pleased with himself and followed the line cheerfully as he waited to meet up with Shi Mei.

At the same time, Chu Wanning was looking at Shi Mei standing in front of him. There was no way to tell what dangers might lie ahead.

He'd always had a soft heart behind his sharp words. Despite how much he was resented for his harshness, in truth, as long as he was present, he would not allow his disciples to be put in danger. Thus, he also reached out and pulled the befuddled Shi Mei behind himself, switching their places.

His turn arrived.

At the end of the corridor, an attendant stood holding a black and red tray. It giggled as Chu Wanning approached, and the tinkling of a young woman's voice came from that blank, featureless face. "Congratulations, my lady. Felicitations, my lady. May your first meeting be as soulmates. May your happiness be everlasting."

Chu Wanning's face instantly darkened. L-lady…?! Do you not have eyes?

When he took another look at the ghost attendant's blank face, he restrained himself. It did not, in fact, have any fucking eyes.

The ghost attendant continued giggling as it lifted the red veil in the tray and covered Chu Wanning's face. Then its ice-cold hand reached over and gripped him lightly with a delicate laugh. "My lady, this way, please."