Welcome to the Bizarre Games

Chapter 102 Huang Tian
The singing style grew increasingly shrill, yet it only drew people in more and more. It was like the seductive music of a legendary demon, irresistibly drawing anyone who heard it into its embrace.

There was no longer any commotion under the stage.

Those who fawned over the performers, those who were wary and suspicious, those who wanted to run away—all beings, whether human or demon, stopped what they were doing, and then raised their heads to look at the stage.

And so, it seemed that in the whole world, only that dancing and singing actor remained.

"Such an opportunity is rare to come again; the path to immortality is before us! We offer our flesh and blood as offerings and our bones as incense, and all the people offer sacrifices to Heaven!"

Suddenly, all the drumming and music became extremely intense, and the drama was about to reach its climax.

Zhou You's gaze gradually began to wander, as he seemed to become engrossed in the drama. Even the calls of Xuan Yuan Dao Ren became barely audible, and all he could see and hear was that vividly present figure.

But the next second, a voice struggled to emerge from between the teeth.

——That was his own voice.

"Enter a state of selflessness and meditation, now open."

This should have been his last chance to use this skill, but it came at the perfect time.

In an instant, everything seemed to shatter like a bubble.

"Nephew, nephew!"

The anxious shouts of Xuan Yuan Daoist also reached their ears.

"Uncle-Master, I'm fine."

Zhou You wiped his nose and found it was covered in blood. Looking at his sanity, he realized that in just a short while, it had already dropped below sixty.

Fortunately, it seemed that after breaking free once, the ear-piercing demonic sound could no longer affect him. After the duration of his selfless meditation, the singing and drumming were still jarring, but they no longer had any alluring power for Zhou You.

So he simply raised his eyes and continued listening to the drama unfold.

At this point, the story gradually reached its climax. It was said that after receiving guidance from the immortal, the spirit transformed and left the vast mountains. Originally, it was confused about how to complete the ascension to immortality. However, due to a severe drought in the prefecture, order collapsed and the government was in chaos. It happened to meet a greedy magistrate. After discussing for a while, the two hit it off. It would help the magistrate make money, while the magistrate would instruct the yamen runners and soldiers to remove its biggest obstacle—the Taoist Xuan Yuan.

Upon hearing this, Zhou You's cheap uncle chuckled coldly, but said nothing, simply continuing to listen to this dramatic scene.

Things went very smoothly. Caught off guard by the sneak attack and the use of humans as shields, Xuan Yuan Dao Ren was quickly killed. The only unexpected thing was that the four ghost heads he had cut off in his early years escaped in the chaos. But that was insignificant. After sealing the remaining body and keeping it for future use, the monster sped up its plan.

First, it invited Lady Bone, a famous animal-making expert in the state, to teach it the magic with a large sum of money. Then, it used its own method of transforming Tai Sui meat to quickly produce a batch of animal meat and ripe fruit. Then, it used the animal meat and the gimmick of establishing a demon kingdom on earth to attract a large number of demons to join it. Then, it used the ripe fruit to gradually accumulate power for itself.

Finally, not long ago, all the preliminary preparations were completed.

So, after secretly altering the county magistrate to prevent any unforeseen circumstances, the spirit came to this valley to prepare for this ascension performance, in order to guide the immortals to arrive.

The story suddenly came to a halt here.

All the drumming and music suddenly stopped, and after a few seconds of silence, a high-pitched suona horn sound suddenly rang out.

"Now that the immortal gate has reappeared, all people are welcome to enter. There is no more sorrow or grief, and all those who were separated by life and death are reunited!"

Then the actor covered his face with his long sleeves, and when he put them down again, the bare mask had been replaced with a face.

Zhou You recognized that face.

That was the face of the caravan leader I encountered in the wilderness.

In Sichuan Opera, there is a technique called "face-changing." By simply covering or concealing the mask, the mask worn can instantly transform into another one, eliciting cheers from the audience.

But this one is different.

completely different.

The reason is simple—the actors on stage are not wearing masks, but real, tangible human faces.

Right at this very moment, right before Zhou You's eyes, the face seemed to be an extension of the mask itself; pulsating blue veins could be seen at the joints. The mouth opened and closed in time with the lyrics, but the eyes darted around uncooperatively, and one could even discern a multitude of emotions in those pupils: fear, terror, pain, and some unspeakable warning—

"help me."

...That face is still alive.

Moreover, Zhou You wasn't the only one who realized this.

All beings below the stage, whether demons or humans, alive or dead, witnessed this scene, and all of them showed horror in their eyes—but it was too late at this moment.

Their bodies no longer belonged to them. Even though their minds kept warning of danger and their consciousness frantically urged them to escape, their bodies were already unable to move an inch.

Even their eyes, the expressions on the faces of those demons remained those of rapture—as if they were still engrossed in the performance.

The accompaniment music gradually became shrill, the sharp melody impossible for a normal person to play, yet the lyrics continued, and the actor on stage covered his face with his sleeve again, revealing another face.

That was the face of the restaurant owner in the county town.

...and they are alive too.

Then, the music changed, and the melody gradually became more urgent. At this moment, it was difficult for one person's voice to continue, but the thing on the stage did not care at all. It simply pulled open its robe little by little, and more faces appeared on its body.

The rest of the caravan.

An old man taking a leisurely stroll in the city.

A woman I happened to pass by.

And the county magistrate who perished in the fire.
It was as if all the 'ripe fruits' that had been forced to ripen had appeared on that body—no, not only that, among those faces, Zhou You even saw Lady Bone's extremely beautiful face.

But in any case, all the faces are telling the same story.

That was utter despair.

At this moment, only half of the robe had been removed, but there were already enough of them.

And so all the faces began to sing.

"How can one speak of a dream that has lasted for ten thousand years? When I awoke, this world had already changed. Since this being calls me an immortal, then I shall have mercy and save the world!"

The drumming suddenly intensified, and the curtain behind the stage was pulled back by an invisible hand, finally revealing the musicians to Zhou You.

There were no musicians.

All that could be seen were countless feet connected to countless hands, with no body or head in between. Everything seemed to be like the tentacles of a centipede constantly striking musical instruments. Only at the very back was a bare mouth, still blowing a high-pitched suona.

At this moment, the robes were finally completely removed, and the full appearance of the "immortal" was finally revealed to Zhou You.

It was a worm-like, bloated body, with hundreds of faces layered upon each other. At the worm's tail was a bright red vein—Zhou You initially thought it was silk—connecting to the densely packed hands and feet behind the curtain. Accompanied by chaotic music, all the hands and feet began to dance wildly, and the faces began to sing together again.

“隞砲，閫坿頝煺劐，葵鈭閙糓餈諹睭拇鞱，凒韐宣峕鞾睃末惩銝芣糓！

“揻皜揻隞鸌，皜拍鸌鞾郎訫牐葵，鸌瑚枏裦憸睃。銝急亦鸌鸌撠望糓!” The singing was no longer audible to the human ear; it was merely a jumble of noises belonging to another world.

And only now could Zhou You finally understand what Lady Bone meant by that.

"—The old man, Star Lord, was extremely majestic in appearance, yet also extremely terrifying."

At that moment, Master Xuanyuan's voice rang in his ears.

But unlike before, the sound had become extremely difficult, like a small boat struggling in a storm.

“Nephew, we’ve all miscalculated. This Tai Sui is no longer itself. Its intelligence has been largely corrupted, and it’s already halfway into the demonic path. It’s about to become the catalyst for guiding the ‘Immortal’!”

"—Uncle-Master, what do you mean?"

"It means," Xuan Yuan said through gritted teeth, his voice barely audible, "that we two are going to fight to the death!"

In the short time it took to say those few words, the surroundings changed again.

The stunned demons and ghosts began to melt as the song played, like butter meeting fire. The faces that were intoxicated by it finally showed other expressions—extreme pain, fearful pleas, desperate roars—but none of them made a sound.

Finally, they could only watch helplessly as they turned into a pool of flowing flesh and blood, then, with silent cries of despair, gathered in a low-lying area on the platform.

Then, the area in front of me suddenly became dark.

Zhou You looked up and saw that, at some point, the bright moon that had been hanging in the sky had disappeared without a trace, replaced by pure blackness—but this was not a dark cloud, but rather as if the entire sky had become a black curtain.

Then, a smooth, hairless head emerged from the black mass.

That head had no normal human features, only a bald patch of white.

A chilling feeling crept over his entire body. This one head alone instilled in Zhou You a fear that even surpassed that of the Auspicious and Tranquil Ghost Mother Bodhisattva—it went far beyond an instinctive warning and was purely a form of interspecies pressure.

"Click."

The brass bell that had accompanied Zhou You through the two scripts shattered.

But Zhou You had no time to feel sorry for him. Instead, he looked up at the smooth head and uttered a few words softly.

"The Great Emperor Huangtian Zhensheng"

He had never met the other person, but he already knew his name.

At that moment, the thing on the stage also bowed down devoutly.

"The ascension ceremony is complete. Your servant, the Grand Duke, respectfully invites the venerable immortal to descend!"

The next second, all the faces joined in singing.

"We respectfully invite the celestial being to descend!"

Just then, Zhou You heard Xuan Yuan Daoist's urgent words.

“Nephew, the Yin energy at the final array eye has finally accumulated enough, but it's no longer effective against the Grand Duke Jupiter. Let's find a way to stop the ritual first—otherwise, once this thing actually comes down, not only you and me, but everyone in Cangzhou will die!”

Upon hearing this, Zhou You immediately crushed a shriveled organ from his sleeve, made a hand seal as instructed by Xuan Yuan Daoist, and then whispered.

"open!"

In an instant, all the jars he had buried over the past few days exploded together, and countless streams of yin energy gathered together, turning into a towering column of smoke!

At the same time, not far from the valley, Wu Wenqing, who had been up all night, looked at the plume of smoke and shouted loudly to the yamen runners around him.

"The Taoist priest's signal has arrived. Activate the outer formation!"

All the men who were specially selected and born on a day, month, and year of Yang (positive energy) simultaneously cut open their arms. Their faces showed no hesitation or doubt as they let their blood gush out and splatter onto the altar of the magic array that had already been set up.

In an instant, under the operation of the external magic array, the column of smoke changed from extreme yin to extreme yang, and endless light poured down from it—but the target was not the bald head.

It was a pool of blood on the stage.

—This was Zhou You's deliberate act.

After all, the power of that thing seemed to have far exceeded the limits of the script, and it was still unknown whether Xuan Yuan Daoist's rudimentary magic array could stop it.
"To shoot a man, first shoot his horse; to capture a thief, first capture his king"—this is a saying our ancestors have used for countless years.

Before this thing is fully revealed, let's stop the ritual to summon Him for now!
The Tai Sui on the stage understood this as well, and with a roar, it immediately tried to block the beam of light with its body.

But just then, a knocking sound rang out.

The sound was like pearls falling onto a jade plate, crisp and clear, yet incredibly melodious.

It even stands out vividly amidst this chorus of drums and music.

This was the first time Zhou You had rung the bone jade chime since acquiring it.

In an instant, the surroundings became incredibly bright. Although the sky was still pitch black, the valley seemed to have entered daytime, and everything became clear and distinct.

Only the Tai Sui star god seemed to be enduring some extreme pain. The actors singing and the drums and music behind them emitted wisps of smoke, but it still struggled to crawl forward and was about to cover the turbid blood pool.

Just then, another voice suddenly rang out.

"Om".

The illusion of the sea of ​​blood reversed, and the Tai Sui froze for a moment.

It only took the blink of an eye.

But that's enough.

The beam of light struck the blood pool, and the demons that had turned into flesh and blood instantly evaporated and disappeared without a trace.

The head that was peeking out from the sky paused abruptly. Then, the darkness surged back like a tide. It only had time to 'glance' at someone's face before disappearing into the sky with the darkness.

The Grand Duke Jupiter was left staring blankly at this clearly failed attempt at ascension, when he suddenly vomited a mouthful of thick, black blood and abruptly turned his head away.

"Who are you! How dare you ruin my path to immortality!"

Zhou You released the spell, dispelling the already shattering pillar of light, then stood up, sword in hand.

"who am I?"

He grinned widely.

"It's very simple, it's your grandfather Xuan Yuan who's above!"

(End of this chapter)