Chapter 33
Chapter 33
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 33
>Chapter Title: Keep Singing
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Feeling that something was off, Li Huowang's expression turned stern backstage. He quickly stowed the Heavenly Book in his hand and pulled back the backstage curtain to peer outside.
He saw that whether it was the performers on stage or the musicians playing beside them, all of them were frozen in place with terrified expressions, trembling uncontrollably.
His gaze shifted toward the front of the stage, and his pupils shrank to pinpoints in an instant. There, on a stool below the stage, sat the double-faced small-footed woman he had encountered in the woods that day. She had her legs crossed, watching the play alongside those black plaques.
"This thing actually followed us? Could it have latched onto us?"
"Don't stop. Keep singing." Li Huowang dragged over a wooden bench and placed it right below the stage. He sat there boldly and squarely, staring down the small-footed woman.
Li Huowang's back gave the Lv family their courage. They swallowed hard with difficulty, exchanged a glance with one another, and the suona horns and singing voices rang out once more.
The small-footed woman's gaze remained fixed on the stage the entire time. She paid no attention whatsoever to Li Huowang's hostility, as if her sole purpose in coming this time was truly just to watch the play.
"The enemy doesn't move, so I won't move. I refuse to believe this thing will stick around once daylight hits."
That was what Li Huowang thought, and that was what he did. He wasn't about to burn through his three months of lifespan unless he absolutely had to.
A faint mist began to rise from the ground inside the ancestral hall, and the atmosphere grew increasingly oppressive.
Suddenly, the small-footed woman stirred. She slowly extended her chubby right hand, grabbed two red candles from the plate, and stuffed them into her mouth, chomping away with a series of cracks.
She ate quickly. In no time at all, she had devoured every last one of the precious red candles on the Eight Immortals table beside her.
Right then, the singing on stage abruptly halted once more. Lv Xiucai, playing the young male lead, was so frightened that he burst into tears.
The paper effigies that the Hu family had placed between the Eight Immortals tables suddenly sprang to life without warning. Wearing black watermelon hats and sporting garish red blush on their faces, they reached out to the other tables, lifted plates brimming with red precious candles, and drifted over to deliver them before the small-footed woman.
"Hee hee hee~" The small-footed woman suddenly let out an utterly horrifying, shrill, piercing laugh, sending every member of the Lv troupe shaking violently.
"Don't stop! Keep singing!" Li Huowang's furious roar exploded through the silent ancestral hall, scattering the fear in everyone's hearts.
"Sing~ ah~~!" Lv Zhuangyuan, dressed as the old male lead, let out a shout, and the music swelled once more, even louder than before.
Everyone poured every ounce of strength into their singing, as if they were bellowing out the terror from their hearts. Veins bulged on their foreheads, and sweat poured down their faces.
This time, though, the small-footed woman stopped laughing. Instead, she glowered darkly at Li Huowang. Not just her—all the paper effigies did the same.
Li Huowang paid it no mind and glared right back.
The third watch of the night passed in this bizarre atmosphere, giving way to the fourth watch. The Lv troupe onstage had been singing their hearts out so fiercely that their voices were nearly hoarse, but they didn't dare stop.
"It's still trying to outlast me? How long is this thing planning to drag this out?" Li Huowang thought to himself.
Just as he hesitated over whether to simply burn three months of lifespan to summon the Wandering Lord and deal with this woman for good, the situation shifted yet again. Every single plaque below the stage inexplicably began to tremble.
"Thud thud thud thud~" The plaques knocked rhythmically against the Eight Immortals tabletop in unison, like a relentless patter of raindrops on the ground.
This time, the Lv family utterly lost their nerve. One was bad enough—this was the whole lot of them!
Seeing this, the small-footed woman began to laugh, and she laughed with abnormal glee. That piercing, thin cackle stabbed at Li Huowang's ears.
Yet as he watched the small-footed woman before him, Li Huowang's lips curved upward into a grin. "I think I've figured it out. Every one of your moves so far seems designed to make them fear you."
"If it's not some human-like twisted hobby of yours, then I've got only one guess: your food isn't those candles—it's the fear they generate in their hearts, isn't it?"
When the small-footed woman shot to her feet and glared at him with venomous malice, Li Huowang knew he had nailed it.
"Lv Troupe Leader, don't stop. Keep singing. Didn't Head of the Hu Household say it? His ancestors want something cheerful. If you're afraid the wind's shaking things and blurring your vision, just shut your eyes and keep going."
"Hee hee hee, tell me—do I look human, or like a god?" With her plan thoroughly foiled, the small-footed woman rose with a ferocious grin and began swaying her body as she approached Li Huowang.
"You look like a goddamn rotten egg turned demon!" With a sharp "clang," Li Huowang drew his sword single-handed from his back and charged straight at the woman.
Now that he understood her game, Li Huowang's hesitations vanished in an instant. This ghost-playing thing was nowhere near as formidable as he'd imagined.
Up until now, it had just been a case of a reed pole fighting a wolf—fear on both sides.
In just a few steps, they clashed. Li Huowang swung his sword down.
A flash of cold steel, and the woman was cleaved in two. The red precious candles that had been sliced apart tumbled from her belly.
The woman's upper body darted swiftly behind Li Huowang, reaching out toward his back.
But before those ghastly pale fingers could even get close, they recoiled as if scalded.
"Oh?" Li Huowang keenly noticed this and felt a surge of delight. This thing fears the Heavenly Book!
He tossed aside the sword in his hand, yanked out the Heavenly Book, and swung it roundhouse-style straight at the small-footed woman's face.
As the Heavenly Book drew near, terror flashed across the small-footed woman's face. She turned tail and fled.
In that instant, the tables turned. Now it was Li Huowang with the Heavenly Book who inspired fear in her.
Inside the Hu family ancestral hall, Li Huowang chased the small-footed woman in circles for quite a while.
But despite her tiny bound feet, she ran shockingly fast. After half a day of pursuit, he couldn't lay a finger on her.
Panting heavily, Li Huowang stared across the table at the small-footed woman. This won't do. Maybe I can just drive her off.
"Get lost! You hear me? Don't let me catch sight of you again!"
The small-footed woman fixed him with a venomous glare, then swayed her body and shrank back into the darkness of the corner.
When Li Huowang approached the corner with his lantern in hand, he found nothing there at all.
Lv Zhuangyuan picked up the sword Li Huowang had discarded from the floor and came jogging over, offering it up with both hands before him.
Li Huowang gripped the hilt and sheathed it behind his back. Then he saw Lv Zhuangyuan grinning ingratiatingly at him as he said: "Hee hee hee, tell me—do I look human, or like a god?"
Li Huowang's heart jolted. Something's wrong! The singing hasn't stopped! This Lv Zhuangyuan is a fake!
The moment he realized it, the Lv Zhuangyuan before him lunged. Those ghastly pale hands plunged straight through Li Huowang's body.
In that instant, a bone-chilling cold gripped him. His emotions plummeted, and everything around him sank into darkness.
(End of Chapter)