Chapter 3: Pear Garden Shadow (Part 3) She turned into a shadow puppet. …

“Ouch!”

Falling from a great height, yet feeling no pain as she had imagined, Ye Qingzhan slowly climbed to her feet in the darkness. She felt a hardness where her hands had supported her, and a prickling sensation beneath her body, as if she had stepped into some weeds. After straightening herself up, she whispered in the darkness, “Wen Gu? Wen Gu, are you there?”

The young man lying on the ground closed his eyes, trying to suppress the evil spirit coursing through his internal organs. Having just fallen from the stage, he had mobilized the evil spirit within him to protect himself, thus ensuring the safety of both of them.

However, the evil spirit, unable to control itself, pushed the troublesome woman, whose voice was filled with tears, into his arms, pressing heavily on him.

Restraining the restlessness in his heart, Wen Gu opened his eyes, thought of his previous plan, pretended to cough, and said, "I'm here."

Hearing the familiar voice, Ye Qingzhan suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, feeling much more at ease, and hurriedly asked again, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Wen Gu said, sitting up.

"I'm glad you're okay." Unable to adapt to such a dark environment for a while, Ye Qingzhan could only rely on the sound to determine the location. She felt that the person who was talking was not far away from her, so she followed the sound and groped her hands. She seemed to touch his sleeve, but the touch was not as soft and smooth as silk, but like animal skin, but a little harder.

Puzzled, she grabbed his sleeve and asked, "What's wrong with your clothes? Why are they so hard?"

Wen Gu was also puzzled, because the girl who pulled his sleeve had just touched the back of his hand with her fingertips. There was no warmth from the previous touch, only the itchy pain as if being scratched by a piece of paper.

He followed Ye Qingzhan's words and pulled his sleeve.

It was no longer cloth, but clearly a piece of leather.

"Get up first." Wen Gu said after thinking for a moment.

The young man's voice sounded particularly reliable in the pitch black. Ye Qingzhan said "hmm" and stood up from the prickly ground, climbing up his arm.

After the two stood up, Wen Gu turned the Yin Sha in his body, from the heart meridian to the eyes, trying to use its power to break through the visual obstruction and glimpse something in this dark place.

Wen Gu found that the place where the two fell seemed to be a basement. It was empty around, and the only thing placed there was the haystack under their feet. He continued to look around calmly.

Ye Qingzhan, who was standing next to him, couldn't help but think of what happened half an incense stick ago in the dark -

just now on the stage, she found that the shadow figure had no queen, and suddenly felt as if someone was pulling her ankle. She trembled and lowered her head to look for it, but saw that the shadow behind her was slowly shrinking, or to be precise, it was crawling towards her.

The one pulling her ankle was naturally the shadow that was getting shorter and shorter.

Inch by inch, wherever the shadow passed, the clothes seemed to fade and suddenly turned black, as if bitten by the shadow.

Seeing herself being swallowed by the shadow, Ye Qingzhan hurriedly tried to lift her feet, but found that she could not move no matter what. She wanted to open her mouth to call for help, but found that her throat could not make a sound, and her lips were also sealed. Only her eyeballs could move back and forth.

Ye Qingzhan hurriedly looked at Wen Gu, but saw that he was also like being stuck in a swamp, unable to move.

Then, Ye Qingzhan heard the shadow man in palace costumes raise his voice and say: "I believe that all the officials are tired of listening to the opera. I will perform a magic trick for you to relieve your fatigue."

The shadow man in palace clothes raised his hand, and another shadow man with a plain figure came up on the stage, holding a plate with a pile of red silk on it in his arms. The shadow man in palace clothes and the shadow man in palace clothes together pulled open the red silk, walked to her and Wen Gu, pushed Qinghuai away, and covered their heads with it.

If it wasn't for the wrong scene, then it would be... wrong! The two of them are here, where is Qinghuai?

Thinking of this, Ye Qingzhan hurriedly looked around, grabbing around with her hands. Wen Guben, who was using his evil spirit, noticed her movements and asked, "What's wrong?"

"You saw Qing..."

The unspoken words were stuck in her throat because of a light that lit up in the distance. Ye Qingzhan and Wen Gu looked in that direction, only to see the gap of light getting bigger and bigger.

The light came in through a door.

As the door opened, some people holding lanterns, some holding tinder, and some holding candles rushed in together, surrounding the two of them.

"Are you two okay?" The "young girl" holding a gauze lantern looked left and right at the two of them, "It seems that everything is fine, - get down from the haystack quickly."

"That's right, come down quickly!" said another "woman" with wide eyes.

"Could they have fallen down and become stupid?" A "child" laughed, "Sister Ali and Brother Lang fell down and became stupid, hahaha..."

After the words fell, there was a chatter of laughter.

Ye Qingzhan did not dare to move.

She did not dare to move among a group of shadow figures with different postures.

"Could they really have fallen down and become stupid?" After laughing, the expression of the shadow figure with a gauze lantern changed, and it was replaced by a worried look. Ye Qingzhan did not dare to breathe, only leaving a pair of eyes moving back and forth.

These shadow figures surrounding her and Wen Gu, except for their thin bodies like paper, had the same expressions as ordinary people, and they could move freely. The same was true for their postures and behaviors, and the connection between movements was smooth, unlike the stiff and sparse ones seen on the stage before.

Confused, she turned her head silently and looked at the young man beside her. Wen

Gu seemed to have noticed her gaze, and glanced sideways, and whispered: "Go down first."

Ye Qingzhan also had the same idea, blinked, and the two jumped down from the haystack.

After the two stood still, the shadow puppets moved forward and surrounded them. The light from the gauze lanterns and red candles shone on them.

Ye Qingzhan saw herself clearly.

She had turned into a shadow puppet.

In fear, Ye Qingzhan quickly glanced at the person next to her - Wen Gu was also one of them.

Suddenly, laughter came from her ears. The shadow puppets surrounded them and said in unison: "Congratulations, you two have passed the test."

Where

did the two kids go?

How could two such big people just disappear like that!

Li Zhixing slapped himself in the face and cursed himself in his heart: I let you distract me again!

At this time, only the shadow puppets in palace clothes and the shadow puppets of the young male role were left on the stage. Qinghuai was also there, but there was no sign of Ye Qingzhan and Wen Gu. Li Zhixing patted his chest again, muttering to himself, "I must remain calm, I must remain calm. I must wait and see what happens, and untie the knot in my heart..." He admonished himself while staring intently at the stage. Then, the figure in palace

robes called out, "Today's performance ends here. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll continue tomorrow!" Qinghuai, on the stage, was stunned. Someone's missing, and we'll continue tomorrow! Li Zhixing, in the audience: "???! " What's this about staying calm?! No longer watching, Li Zhixing lifted his robe and took two steps at a time, strutting into the dispersing crowd of ghost guests. The hairpins on his ears trembled with his frantic steps. Catching up with the two figures who had descended the side stairs, he called out, "Stay, please." Hearing the voice behind them, the two figures stopped, their dark eyes fixed on him. Li Zhixing looked at the two of them, smiling humbly and politely. He asked, "Excuse me for bothering you. I'm Li Zhixing. The people who were just invited up on stage are my younger brother and younger sister." He looked at their faces, which had shifted from relaxed to puzzled, and continued to maintain his standard gentle smile. "Excuse me, where are they now?"

"Brother or sister?"

Gong Yiyingren and Xiaoshengyingren looked at each other, and the former looked at Li Zhixing: "I've never heard that Alang and A Li have brothers. Are you talking nonsense?"

Gong Yiyingren's eyes rolled, and his gaze looked back and forth at the exiled immortal, and then said: "Alang and A Li are obviously the children I rescued from the Wild Grave Valley three days ago. All their family members died of illness. Where did they get a brother?" Xiaosheng

also stared at him with sharp eyes, and said calmly: "You claim to be the brother of A Li and A Lang. In this case, may I ask, what are your surnames and what are the two characters of your names?"

Li Zhixing was speechless for a moment: "This..."

He guessed that the two should be acting as characters in the environment, but there are too few clues at the moment, and the continuation of the story of their previous life in the illusion is just a fragment. It is really difficult for him to make up two correct names.

Seeing the exiled immortal remain silent, Xiaosheng's gaze sternly continued, "If you really are his brother, why didn't they say so at the beginning?" Without waiting for the exiled immortal to argue, he continued, "I'm afraid there are two reasons: either you're lying, sir, or you haven't treated them well. Ali and Ah Lang don't want to mention you."

The woman in palace clothes nodded like chicks pecking at rice after hearing what Xiaosheng said. When she looked at Li Zhixing again, her eyes were no longer gentle. She said angrily, "Go away. Whether you are Ali and Ah Lang's brother or not, I'll take care of them. You'll stay in the Suihe class from now on. Go quickly!"

With that, the figure in palace clothes shook her sleeves, pulled Xiaosheng's figure with her, and left without looking back.

The exiled immortal, left alone, smiled and watched the two leave, his mind boiling with thoughts. Qinghuai, who had been quietly standing beside him since getting off the stage, tugged at his sleeve.

Li Zhixing then remembered he still had a little ghost to ask: "Hey Qinghuai, tell me what just happened on stage?"

The handsome green-clothed ghost's face showed no emotion, but he obediently told him everything he had just witnessed.

"You mean that shadow figure draped a red silk cloth over their heads, and then they disappeared?" Li Zhixing repeated Qinghuai's words. "They called you up there just so you could see their magic up close?" Qinghuai

nodded woodenly.

"..." After staring at him for a moment, Li Zhixing turned his gaze to the empty stage.

As far as he knew, this kind of folk magic trick of "transfiguring a living person" required some kind of auxiliary setup to complete. There was certainly a hidden secret beneath the stage—most likely, the place where the two were currently located was the main venue of the illusion. However, there was a significant problem: his magic power had been largely sealed by the heavens and earth. With his current magic power, it would be impossible to directly open the realm and enter, and he would need external assistance.

External forces...

"The old scavenger picks up everything, so naturally there's everything in his shop.

" "Everything is exchanged."

Sanniang's words were lingering and uninvited. Li Zhixing immediately had an idea and said to Qinghuai: "You are wearing green clothes and have been chosen by the shadow man. This first illusion you have encountered must have been created by you. Therefore, I must bring you into the realm so that you can feel the emotions and piece together your memories."

Qinghuai listened quietly.

"Now you and I will settle the other ghost guests in the side rooms to rest, and then-"

"After what?" Qinghuai,

who was always silent, asked with a gleam in his eyes.

"Then we will go to the gambling house." The exiled immortal raised his eyebrows, and the hairpin on his ear made the man who should have been elegant look romantic and unrestrained in the moonlight.

Before he finished speaking, Qinghuai's face changed. Even as a ghost, the word "gambling house" still made him feel uncomfortable. He frowned and asked: "Why go to such a place?

The exiled immortal didn't notice the disgust in the ghost's eyes, thinking that he, like most mortals, disliked gambling houses, and said slowly, "Of course..."

"To make money."