The eerie white light of the lantern flickered, and dozens of people stood neatly on the high bed covered with red gauze. They stood together as if posing for a group photo, their backs facing Bai Liu outside the bed curtains.
These brides wore bright red dresses and trousers of different styles, standing motionless like wax figures, with red veils on their heads and embroidered shoes on their feet. The thick, vivid veils were embroidered with exquisite dragon and phoenix patterns.
These veils seemed to have been soaked in water, with droplets dripping from the pale yellow willow fern decorations around them, pitter-pattering onto the sheets.
The water seeped through the bedding and slowly spread throughout the tomb.
A strong smell of water and blood wafted through the air.
What was even more bizarre was that, although these brides were facing away from Bai Liu, the toes of their embroidered shoes pointed backward while the heels faced forward, as if their heads were twisted 180 degrees—an unsettling sight that sent chills down one's spine.
Bai Liu lowered his eyes and searched among the group of brides.
The group stood clustered in the lower right corner. Bai Liu spotted a bride wearing black sneakers. This "bride" had long, broad, pale hands with distinct veins.
These were clearly a pair of men's hands. The fingernails had turned greenish-black and grown very long, with water dripping from the fingertips.
Mu Sicheng followed Bai Liu's gaze and held his breath, carefully mouthing to him: Those are my sneakers. Just like you guessed earlier, it really displayed my body right in front of us!
Bai Liu stared motionlessly at the "bride" wearing sneakers.
According to Mu Sicheng, his evil spirit was playful and arrogant. After stealing something, it wouldn't carefully hide it—it would definitely take it out to show off and tempt others to steal it, like a mischievous child.
So what was the most dangerous way to tempt them into retrieving it?
Naturally, it was to place it among the most dangerous spirits.
Aside from the zombie Taoist priest, the most dangerous spirits in this tomb were the brides who had died on the road with deep resentment.
Bai Liu bent one knee, stepped onto the edge of the bed, and climbed up. Mu Sicheng was so startled that he gasped.
The wooden bed, which supported more than thirty figures, creaked as Bai Liu stood on it.
The brides standing on the bed swayed slightly with the movement. Their heels, originally facing inward, shifted and slowly turned toward Bai Liu.
During the rotation, their upper bodies remained completely still, as if their feet were detached from their torsos. Their veils fluttered as though caught in a breeze, and a soft, coquettish giggle echoed from beneath them.
Mu Sicheng stood beside the bed. He had wanted to pull Bai Liu down, but stopped when he saw what was happening. He asked nervously, "Bai Liu, what are you doing up there?! Shouldn't I be the one going up?!"
"Your body is among these thirty or so brides." Bai Liu was about to move forward when he turned back and looked down at Mu Sicheng, who was gripping the hem of his shirt, signaling him to let go. "What you need to do now is not pull me down, but quickly find your body during the chase and then jump into it."
Mu Sicheng pointed at the bride in sneakers in confusion. "Isn't my body that one? I just need to jump in, right?"
"Although you are not very smart," Bai Liu said indifferently as he turned back and pulled out a wedding pole from his waist, "I don't think you would so blatantly expose something you like and are good at stealing and hiding."
Mu Sicheng was baffled. "Where did you get that wedding pole?!"
"I took it from the coffin at the temple last night. I think it might be useful. We can't just lift the veil by hand. Otherwise, when Kong Xuyang tried to stop us from lifting it, he would have said not to touch it at all, instead of stopping the bride from lifting it herself."
Before Bai Liu finished speaking, he reached out and pulled at the veil of the bride in front of him.
He tugged the bride's head back, but the veil did not come off, as if it had fused to her scalp.
Mu Sicheng watched in shock as Bai Liu released his grip and the bride's head slowly returned to its original position. Bai Liu turned and said calmly, "As expected, this veil can only be removed with a wedding pole or by the bride herself."
Before Mu Sicheng could react, Bai Liu raised the wedding pole and, without hesitation, hooked it under the veil of the burly bride in sneakers, lifting it.
The water-soaked veil fell, and blood splattered everywhere.
Mu Sicheng and Bai Liu fell silent for a moment as they stared at the unveiled bride.
There was no head beneath the veil. Only the cross-section of a neck remained above the shoulders, pale flesh faintly bleeding. The bulging shape that had propped up the veil like a head was actually a tangled mass of black hair growing from the back of the neck.
Mu Sicheng couldn't help but cry out in shock.
Bai Liu remained calm. "This is not your body. These sneakers are a decoy."
"What should we do now?" Mu Sicheng looked at Bai Liu. "Remove their veils one by one?"
Bai Liu lowered his eyes to the bed. "I don't think your spirit would be kind enough to let us do that."
The moment the headless bride's veil hit the ground, the giggles of the remaining brides suddenly sharpened. At the same time, their toes began to move faster, almost instantly turning to point directly at Bai Liu.
As they turned, their upper bodies swung violently, and after a series of crisp sounds of bones crisscrossing, their torsos aligned with their toes as they moved swiftly toward Bai Liu.
"Run!"
Bai Liu jumped down from the bed without hesitation, and the brides followed closely behind. After glancing back, he pulled Mu Sicheng along and began circling the bed before throwing the wedding pole to him. "You lift."
Mu Sicheng hurriedly caught the wedding pole. He ducked to avoid a bride approaching from behind and asked in confusion, "Why am I the one lifting them?"
"Among these thirty-plus brides, your body is definitely one of them." Seeing that Bai Liu was about to be caught, he dove diagonally under the bed, took a shortcut, and emerged from the other side.
Bai Liu crawled out from under the bed and knelt on one knee, looking up at Mu Sicheng. "I can't tell these brides apart for now, so lifting their veils is like opening blind boxes. I vaguely recall that my luck is atrocious; therefore, I'm not suitable for this kind of task."
"Or are you afraid and need me to do it?" Bai Liu smiled and pretended to take the wedding pole from Mu Sicheng's hand. "If you don't mind me uncovering all thirty or so of them and having them chase us, then I don't mind."
Mu Sicheng cautiously pulled the wedding pole back and climbed onto the bed frame in desperation as the brides chased him on tiptoe. He clung to the bed curtain, took a deep breath, then turned around and used the pole to hook open a bride's veil.
"It's not this one either!" Mu Sicheng was starting to panic.
Bai Liu leisurely reminded him, "Be careful. The bride whose veil you uncover will probably chase you."
Mu Sicheng was dumbfounded. "Why didn't you say that earlier?!"
Bai Liu shrugged innocently. "The one I uncovered was headless. Her movements seemed irregular because she had no head. I only just realized she was chasing me."
"I suggest you uncover them quickly." Bai Liu dodged the headless bride trailing him as if taking a stroll. He remained calm, though his tone carried faint urgency. "It's almost midnight."
Mu Sicheng nimbly climbed up a pillar at the side of the tomb chamber, locking his legs around it. He looked down at the group of brides crowding and piling up beneath him. Gritting his teeth, he bent down and used the wedding pole to hook open the veils of six brides in succession.
"Shit! Not these six either!" Mu Sicheng snapped. "Is that spirit messing with me?! There's no way my body isn't here, right?!"
Bai Liu squatted lightly beside the bed while the headless bride circled it in search. He smiled and looked up at Mu Sicheng hanging from the pillar. "I think your body is here."
"But which one is it?" Mu Sicheng groaned, overwhelmed. "This is like Tang Bohu picking Qiuxiang—except I have twice as many 'Qiuxiangs' to choose from!" [1]
"You flatter yourself. Tang Bohu got a wife after choosing Qiuxiang, but you won't get a wife after choosing." Bai Liu added calmly, "You'll only find your own corpse."
Mu Sicheng: "…"
I may not be human right now, but Bai Liu, you really aren't human.
"But you have a wedding pole." Bai Liu rested his chin on his hand lazily. "You're still more capable than your [spirit]. Keep lifting the veils. The body is still yours—it can't defeat you."
Mu Sicheng sulked as he bent down to continue lifting veils.
Bai Liu's gaze remained fixed on the brides below. He noticed that one of the brides curled her fingers and raised her hand when Mu Sicheng's wedding pole came down.
It was a subconscious hooking motion, commonly seen when a thief spots something desirable—a gesture Mu Sicheng himself often used.
A faint smile curved at the corners of Bai Liu's lips.
It seemed that, under his manipulation, there was a restless "bride" eager to snatch the wedding pole.
Bai Liu spoke quickly, "Mu Sicheng, third one at nine o'clock."
Hearing Bai Liu's instruction, Mu Sicheng didn't hesitate. Almost instinctively, he hooked the pole and lifted the veil in one swift motion—so fast it was nearly invisible.
The veil lifted, revealing a "Mu Sicheng" with a vicious expression, blackened eyes, and fangs more than an inch long. He glared fiercely at Mu Sicheng on the pillar, straightened his knees, and lunged forward, opening his mouth to bite him.
Mu Sicheng instinctively prepared to counterattack.
Bai Liu ordered coldly, "Don't fight back. Let him attack."
Mu Sicheng froze. The "Mu Sicheng" bit viciously into his neck—but what it drained was not blood, but his soul. Mu Sicheng's face twisted in agony, becoming so distorted that he seemed on the verge of disappearing.
Finally, he vanished completely from the pillar.
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[1] The Romance of Tang Bohu and Qiuxiang tells the story of Tang Bohu, a talented scholar of the Ming Dynasty, who disguises himself as a servant named "Hua An" to enter the Hua household in pursuit of Qiuxiang, a maid. Using his wit and intelligence, he overcomes numerous challenges and eventually wins Qiuxiang's heart. This most likely references how Tang Bohu picked Qiuxiang out of all the girls that Madam Hua offered to him for her beauty.