Chapter 20: Ghost Animal (17)

13-16 minutes

Carrying the bride into the wedding hall should be a normal thing, but what if one bride was a 500-600 pound cow, and the other was a sturdy man standing at 188cm tall? Both grooms did dare not approach.

The crow’s voice sounded again, urgent and restless, with a sense of oppression. “Please carry the bride into the wedding hall.”

The two grooms stood tremblingly.

As the groom on the left took a step closer, the black cow stared at him in his red wedding gown, seemingly greatly stimulated, perhaps thinking of its life before. The cow hooves grinded backwards and suddenly charged forward.

Fresh red blood splattered on the sedan chair and its black fur.

The sharp bull horn pierced the groom’s neck.

He was lifted by the cow horn, staring at the bright yellow sun with wide eyes, and the next moment, he was thrown more than ten meters away.

At the same time, as Bai Xiangning took a step closer, the scarred man suddenly erupted.

He pulled out a golden hairpin from his head, pinched the groom’s neck, and crazily plunged it into his face.

Blood filled the wedding scene, together with heart-wrenching screams and crazy laughter.

The surrounding ghosts seemed to be accustomed to such things, indifferent and unmoved. Even those few ghosts who were shaking their heads and swaying their bodies started to play eerie music.

The only four real people present were in shock and silent.

Ning Su said, “They have blood.”

“What?”

At first, they didn’t react, and only after a while did they understand that Ning Su was talking about the groom’s blood.

Did normal ghosts have such fresh blood?

If they had blood and flesh, were they still ghost?

But they really didn’t have shadows, and Bai Xiangning was indeed dead.

Thinking of having shadows, Zhu Shuangshuang looked to the right and said, “Scarface has no shadow.”

The few people fell silent.

In this world, all five of them have shadows, but the scarred man did not.

Although he was here with them, he was already dead and could never leave the game.

Thinking like this, the groom in the distance, whose neck was pierced by a black bull’s horn, and whose fresh blood soaked the wedding gown, stood up intact.

The groom paused for a long time and then walked towards the black bull in despair.

The black bull seemed even angrier when it saw him still moving, and charged forward, piercing the groom’s neck again and slashing his side.

His head tilted, and blood sprayed all over the ground.

For the third time, the groom stood up, crying as he took off his red wedding gown, realizing that the color was agitating the black bull.

After taking off his gown, he crawled carefully on the ground, finally not agitating the black bull again.

On the other side, the groom who had been stabbed and cut in the face by the scarred man also quickly recovered.

But the scarred man was still very insane. Not only did he randomly stab and insert the groom’s face with a gold hairpin, but he also reached out to pull the groom’s tongue out forcibly and continued to stab it with the hairpin.

Su Wangsheng said, “This bull seems to be the one that was slaughtered by the butcher at the slaughterhouse.”

They all remembered that bull. That day, they went to the slaughterhouse to find the black dog, and the butcher slaughtered the black bull on the spot. They also remembered what the head of the bull looked like when it was chopped off.

It vented all of its anger from having its head cut off unexpectedly on the groom, using its horns to stab and tear at the groom’s neck, trying to get rid of his head."

The black bull was like this, not to mention the scarred man.

Zhu Shuangshuang couldn’t stand being forced to bow and kowtow, so one could imagine the terrifying experiences the scarred must have endured considering his crazed and sinister expression right now.

They vented their anger on the two grooms.

The scarred man hated the groom because of the ghost marriage.

The slaughtered animal’s resentment towards humans was taken out on the closest person.

When it had lived long enough in this eerie world and gained consciousness, what would happen when it learned that this person was bound to it was unimaginable?

The groom had flesh and blood, and would heal from injuries immediately, making it something that would make the ghosts despair.

They would experience torture repeatedly and never be able to escape it.

This world was hell for them.

As they looked at the scene before them and recalled the ghost marriage in the living world, the five of them felt extremely complicated.

Ning Su, Chen Tian and Chen Qing thought of the abused male ghost, realizing that what he said was true.

Zhu Shuangshuang said, “Isn’t Yin Daijun the ghost master? The world’s malice towards the groom seems particularly strong.”

Su Wangsheng said, “It’s not Yin Daijun, but it’s likely someone close to her.”

Chen Tian immediately thought of the butcher. “Could it be the butcher? He travels between two worlds, and it was he who replaced the ashes at the funeral home with those of the animals.”

Chen Qing said, “For now, besides Yin Daijun, the only one we can think of is the butcher.”

They talked for a while, but noticed that Ning Su had been silent the entire time, staring ahead without blinking.

The scarred man had let go of the groom and was looking at them with a strange and insane smile.

Ning Su reached out and waved at him. “Didn’t expect to see you again in a place like this.”

“......”

It took more than four hours for the two grooms to invite their brides into the wedding hall.

The two grooms nearly lost their dignity countless times along the way, kneeling and crawling to carry their brides into the hall.

The hall was decorated with red “mourning” on the left, white “double happiness” on the right, and red veils filled the air.

In the center sat a real bride.

She sat on a black antique carved chair, wearing a red wedding gown and a red veil covering her head, which fell all the way down to her hands resting on her lap.

She sat quietly, and all the surrounding ghosts became quiet when they approached her.

Even the crows’ voices seemed gentle: “Bow to heaven and earth.”

The black bull even kneeled down.

The scarred man did not kneel down. Suddenly, his body trembled, and he knelt down with a grunt.

“Kowtow to the parents.”

Both pairs faced the bride in the seat, and all the ghosts in the room faced her, including the red-lipped male ghost and the long-haired ghost standing at the center of the square.

All five people realized that this red-dressed bride had an extraordinary identity.

They suspected once again whether she was Yin Daijun or the ghost master.

After the couple bowed to each other, these two strange “couples” were sent back to their respective homes.

When they left, both grooms had pale faces and lifeless eyes.

The scarred man’s terrifying face showed an excited and strange expression. When he walked to the door, he turned around and gave them a grin.

After the newlyweds left, the male ghost with red lips said to them, “Next up is the wedding feast. After you finish eating, will you stay here?”

Of course, they had to stay. They didn’t have much time left and they had to investigate this place.

They just didn’t know if staying here meant they would have to stay here forever.

Su Wangsheng asked, “Can we stay here for the night?”

The male ghost nodded, and Ning Su asked, “Can we stay in this room?”

“...”

The smile on the male ghost’s face disappeared, and his mouth twitched.

The atmosphere suddenly became terrifying.

After a while, he smiled and said, “You can, but there are only two rooms available.”

Ning Su happily nodded. “Thank you, big brother.”

The male ghost said, “Let’s go eat the wedding feast now.”

As soon as the other four people heard the wedding feast, their scalps tingled. Only Ning Su followed the male ghost actively.

He asked the male ghost, “Big brother, were you also deceived into coming to Huaiyang Village for a ghost marriage?”

“...”

It turned out that being a social butterfly was not limited to humans.

The male ghost’s glamorous red lips curved slightly. “Hmm.”

He looked up at the sky and met the pale yellow sun for a few seconds, feeling emotional. “I used to be a little star, and I had a fan who liked me very much.”

“That fan was the only daughter of a big shot who died young. I received an invitation to audition for a ghost marriage movie and came to Huaiyang Village. While filming, I got into the coffin and saw my fan.”

Ning Su said, “No wonder you put on lipstick. Turns out you’re a celebrity.”

The male ghost turned to look at him. “Is it pretty?”

Ning Su nodded. “It’s red and looks good.”

The male ghost chuckled. “Because I wanted to be famous.”

“Otherwise, I wouldn’t have auditioned for an unknown movie, climbed mountains and crossed rivers to come to Huaiyang Village, and filmed a scene 19 times.”

Ning Su made a sound of agreement.

As they listened to him speak in a gentle, low voice, the other four players fell silent.

They continued on in silence.

They dared not eat the wedding feast, and it was even more obvious that the animals held a higher position than the humans here.

The only one worried was the foodie, Ning Su, who still wanted to eat.

Zhu Shuangshuang turned to look at Ning Su and saw him holding his chopsticks, head bowed, murmuring quietly.

Only when they came closer, could they hear what he was muttering.

It was like chanting a mantra: “Human flesh is poisonous, human flesh is poisonous, human flesh is poisonous...”

“?”

Looking at the table full of meat dishes and recalling the scene at the slaughterhouse, the four people suddenly felt an uncontrollable urge to vomit.

They only ate a few bites of vegetables before rushing back to the villa in a sorry state.

The red-lipped male ghost had prepared a room for them on the second floor. The five of them went to the relatively large one to discuss the current situation.

As they were about to close the window, Chen Tian saw the bride in red in the backyard.

The others also saw her.

The backyard was still full of lily flowers. These flowers were different from the real world. The petals were rich in color like blood, and the vines were green with red infiltrating, making them appear black.

A bride in a red wedding dress was standing still with a red veil over her head. Beside her feet was a black dog, also silently watching her.

“This is Yin Daijun’s villa. Could she be Yin Daijun?”

“If she is Yin Daijun and the ghosts here respect her so much, is she not the ghost master?”

Chen Tian frowned, “If she is both Yin Daijun and the ghost master, we should get a prompt that we can leave this instance.”

Chen Qing understood his thoughts and added, “We are decoding the mystery and relationships inside of Huaiyang Village. According to the current situation, it is the relationships of the animals to this village.”

“They are the unique ecological feature of this world.”

All five people agreed with this.

Chen Qing continued, “I think we have seen the reason for their formation. The Huaiyang Village in the outer world holds underground Yin weddings. The butcher replaces the bone ashes they use for the wedding ceremony with those of animals. In this strange world, anyone who marries the groom becomes an animal.”

“After humans marry animals, under some strange rules or experiments in this ghost world, the beast people are then formed. They are also ghosts, and the instance name is Ghost Animal.”

This line of thought was also valid.

“So, we have basically decoded the ecological formation reason of Huaiyang Village. We just need to find the ghost master and understand the story behind them.”

“If this is Yin Daijun, and she is the ghost master, according to our speculation, we also know that her story is about a ghost wedding. Now, we can move on to the next level.”

The other three people understood what the siblings meant.

The bride in the red wedding dress below, if she was Yin Daijun, then she was not the ghost master.

If she was the ghost master, then she was not Yin Daijun, and they must explore who was under the red veil.

They just arrived in this eerie world, they could recklessly lift the red veil of the bride who was respected by the ghosts here.

Besides, who knew what’s under this red veil.

“I think she is Yin Daijun, besides the fact that she currently lives in Yin Daijun’s villa,” Zhu Shuangshuang said, “there is one more thing.”

“Do you still remember when we first discovered Yin Daijun in the outer world, there was a photo of her back, just like this, she and a black dog were standing in the backyard.”

Zhu Shuangshuang and Chen Qing were the ones who first discovered Yin Daijun. They lived in the master bedroom of the villa and discovered that the woman who lived there was called Yin Daijun.

Later, they were shown two photos, one of her facing the camera and the other of her back.

The photo of her back was like this, Yin Daijun standing in the yard with a black dog looking up at her.

The one of her facing the camera was her sitting on the grass in the yard with a man, and the black dog was lying on her lap rubbing her belly.

This problem feels like it had come to a dead end unless they lifted the red veil of the bride now.

“Let’s put the bride aside for now,” Chen Tian said, “the other NPCs worth researching now are the butcher.”

He pulled the curtains and said, “We’ll split into two groups, one to go to the butcher’s place and the other to explore this eerie inner world of Huaiyang Village.”

“Ning Su and Chen Qing go to the butcher’s place.”

The two nodded, and there was no problem.

It took four hours for the groom to invite the bride into the wedding hall. It was already afternoon at this time.

After assigning the tasks, they began to prepare without delay, not noticing that the black dog in the yard had turned into a phantom and disappeared.

Only the bride in the red wedding dress remained, standing there silently and lonely, until the blood-red moon replaced the wax-yellow sun.