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Chapter 1751: Breaking the Deadlock

Jing Teng's expression turned cold. He had intended to say something but ultimately remained silent, observing everyone's reactions with a chilly gaze.

At that moment, Qiu Honglei looked at the female ghost opposite her and asked, "Why do you only want her?"

Hearing her words, Jing Teng's expression grew even colder.

"That's none of your concern," the female ghost said grimly. "Leave her here, and I'll let you go. Otherwise, you'll be trapped here forever."

Qiu Honglei sighed. "Although your offer is tempting, we can't bring ourselves to abandon a comrade."

Jing Teng was startled. Their relationship hadn't been very good due to their initial encounter, and he hadn't expected Qiu Honglei to make such a choice.

Seeing this, Zu An couldn't help but nod in satisfaction.

The female ghost shrieked, "Perhaps you don't understand your predicament! I have trapped you here forever. You will never leave unless I permit it!"

"Oh really? I don't believe you have such power," Zu An scoffed, immediately drawing his sword and unleashing a strike.

The estate was originally filled with an eerie aura, and the sky overhead was completely obscured by various greenish-gray mists, making it impossible to see the stars.

But now, a brilliant, dazzling, yet dangerous starlit river seemed to appear before everyone's eyes.

The myriad of ghouls swarming around them turned into dust and were instantly annihilated by the sword strike before they could even react.

Jing Teng's expression shifted slightly. What an incredibly powerful sword strike, especially since it seemed to have been casually unleashed.

And that sword seemed to be...

Zu An approached the ghost bride, intentionally sparing her life.

The female ghost was immobilized by the sword energy.

"Your experience is quite pitiable," Zu An said calmly. "So I'll give you one last chance: let us go, and I'll spare your life."

"Do you think you can defeat me?" the female ghost snarled.

No sooner had she spoken than she exploded into a wisp of smoke, clearly employing a self-destruction technique.

As long as her parasitic object remained, she could return again.

Zu An reacted swiftly, quickly snatching the red veil from her.

Seeing her thick ghostly aura and fierce demeanor, it was clear she had harmed countless people.

He no longer held back, immediately activating the Primordial Chaos Sutra to destroy the red veil.

However, he looked around and saw no change. "It seems she wasn't residing in this," he mused.

So, the group headed towards the back of the estate again and found the bride's room.

The female ghost was not there. She had clearly been intimidated and, knowing she was no match for them, had simply hidden in the shadows.

This was her domain; with such a large house, it would be impossible to find her if she truly wanted to hide.

Jing Teng extended his vines to retrieve the comb and scissors from the table, but there was no joy on his face. "Since she left these items here and didn't take them, it's likely they aren't her parasitic objects."

"Could it be that she just died and needs some time to regenerate?" Qiu Honglei ventured.

"That's not impossible," Jing Teng nodded slightly.

Soon, the group destroyed both items, but the surrounding ghostly aura remained, with no discernible change.

Clearly, the female ghost had not been truly destroyed.

Jing Teng looked towards the bride's boudoir and said gravely, "Unfortunately, as you mentioned before, this room seems to have a special formation, making it difficult to retrieve other items."

This was the female ghost's boudoir from when she was alive, so if there truly was a parasitic object, it would most likely be in this room.

"That's simple. If we can't get in, we'll just destroy it," Zu An said, drawing his Tai'a Sword directly. A brilliant sword light appeared before everyone's eyes.

A magical formation was clearly flickering within the room, but it couldn't withstand the power of the sword strike. It only lasted for a moment before being utterly destroyed.

Looking at the empty space before them, Wei Suo couldn't help but swallow. "Boss, that sword strike of yours was too fierce!"

After that single strike, not even a speck of rubble or debris remained; it was complete nothingness. The entire house was utterly erased, as if it had never existed.

Zu An, however, could not be happy. "But the female ghost doesn't seem to have disappeared."

He then realized why Jing Teng had mentioned that ghosts in this world were hard to deal with.

Looking around, everyone realized they were back in front of the opera stage, and their expressions immediately soured.

"I always feel like we've overlooked something," Zu An said gravely. "I've fought this female ghost. She shouldn't have such powerful abilities."

He had instantly killed the female ghost several times. While it was partly due to his Primordial Chaos Sutra suppressing her, it was also because her own strength wasn't particularly great.

How could such a female ghost possess the ability to casually transport their group into an illusion?

Zu An recalled several times he had been teleported into an illusion just as he approached the female ghost. This didn't make sense!

"Then it seems we weren't truly among those ghouls, but rather, we fell victim to some kind of spell cast by that female ghost," Jing Teng stated.

"A spell?" The others were somewhat confused.

Jing Teng explained, "Some special ghouls possess marvelous spells that can achieve effects far beyond their inherent strength. However, the conditions for casting these spells are often stringent, typically requiring a specific item or for the target to perform a particular action to activate successfully."

"Did any of us do anything out of the ordinary after entering this estate?" Zu An asked the group.

"Could it be when I just ate those peanuts and melon seeds..." Wei Suo began, then remembered what those items actually were and rushed to the side to vomit.

"Was it perhaps listening to the opera?" Qiu Honglei speculated.

"That's possible," Jing Teng nodded. "However, we just destroyed the opera stage, but unfortunately, we haven't escaped this spell."

Hearing this, Qiu Honglei couldn't help but frown, pondering what had gone wrong.

Zu An's voice rang out, "If we're talking about anything special, we did one more thing besides listening to the opera."

"What?" The others perked up their ears.

"The gift registration!" Zu An no longer looked towards the back of the estate but instead faced the front gate.

A thought struck the others. Right, when they first entered, the steward had asked them to register their gifts and write their names on the guest list.

If they were dealing with humans, such an action would be perfectly normal.

But if everyone here was a ghost, then their action was certainly worth pondering.

"But we didn't use our real names, did we?" Qiu Honglei asked, puzzled.

At this, Jing Teng frowned. "However, our fake names all contained a character from our real names. Perhaps that's how the opponent activated it."

Zu An felt a bit awkward; he had unconsciously led the others astray by setting a bad example.

Soon, the group arrived at the estate's entrance. The main gate was tightly shut, and the steward and several servants were there, packing up the gift registry table, clearly intending to leave.

"Oh, my, why are you all out here? Are you planning to leave? It's quite dangerous outside at night," Uncle Wang said, hurrying over when he saw them.

Zu An smiled. "We're not leaving. It's just that we've been so generously entertained this time, and with so many of us, we felt the initial gift registration was too small, so we came to add a bit more."

"Oh, you're too kind! Since you're already our guests, there's no need for you to add anything," Uncle Wang quickly replied.

Zu An sneered inwardly. This fellow had been so greedy just moments ago, yet now he was refusing money that was being offered. Clearly, something was amiss.

So, he didn't bother wasting any more time. He simply reached out and pulled the guest list into his hand.

He saw their names on it, as expected. The list didn't feel like ordinary paper; it felt like some special metallic material, emanating an extremely sinister aura.

"Give it to me!" Jing Teng's expression was icy as he took the guest list from Zu An's hand.

Zu An looked at him in confusion, not understanding what he meant.

Jing Teng's hands quickly formed seals. "Line up for battle, all ye warriors! Slay the evil!"

An esoteric rune appeared in the air, with several faint golden dragons visible within it. They all pierced through the guest list.

The guest list, made of special material, instantly turned to dust!

"No!" A mournful shriek echoed from the darkness.

Everyone looked at Jing Teng in surprise, seemingly able to sense the killing intent he had just momentarily exuded.

"That female ghost caused me great harm; even a hundred deaths wouldn't suffice for atonement," Jing Teng gritted his teeth.

The others were baffled, but only Zu An shrank his neck, feeling a chill.

At that moment, countless transparent vengeful spirits scattered and fled from the estate. They were likely the people who had accidentally registered their gifts over the years and had been forever trapped in this estate.

The surrounding space distorted. When they focused their eyes, they found themselves in the ruins of a desolate, dilapidated house. There was no longer any trace of the festive, lantern-lit atmosphere from before.

"Why didn't the female ghost dare to come out and stop us at the very end?" Qiu Honglei asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Because he's too strong," Jing Teng said, looking at Zu An and recalling his impressive sword strike moments ago. "The female ghost had fought him several times and knew she was no match. So she simply feigned composure, betting that we wouldn't discover the problem with the guest list. She lost that gamble."

"So that's it," Qiu Honglei said with lingering fear. "We must be even more careful from now on. We might not be so lucky next time."

They had managed to pinpoint the parasitic object this time, but who could guarantee they'd find it again next time? The abilities of these ghosts were truly unpredictable.

The group nodded in agreement. Wei Suo even secretly vowed to never eat random things again!

After a busy night, dawn was breaking. The group decided not to rest and immediately set off on their journey.

***

Meanwhile, in a certain royal city in the northern part of this world, a lavishly dressed prince anxiously knocked on a door.

After a moment, the door opened, and a woman in a blue dress emerged, a hint of displeasure on her face. "Prince, why are you looking for me so early?"

Although it wasn't his first time seeing her, a flicker of admiration still appeared in the prince's eyes at her peerless beauty. "Miss Chu, I have some leads on the people you asked me to investigate last time."

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