Chapter 13: This Venerable One's Bride

Of course Chu Wanning had already noticed that without Mo Ran's comment.

The guests chattered cheerfully, but there was no way to tell where the voices came from. The people sitting, standing, playing party games or making toasts, every single one of them had a completely blank face, as if made of paper.

"What should we do? Don't tell me we should go in there and drink with them?"

Chu Wanning did not laugh at Mo Ran's bad attempt at a joke, and focused instead on the matter at hand, head lowered as he thought.

Suddenly, scattered footsteps came from a distance away, and two long lines of people appeared out of the fog, moving in procession and heading slowly toward the manor.

Chu Wanning and Mo Ran moved reflexively to hide behind a large rock in the garden. The lines approached, led by a smiling golden boy and jade maiden[6] with clear and colorful facial features; in the dim light of the night, they looked just like the little boy and girl paper dolls that were burned for the dead.

They each held a red candle; the candles were as thick as their arms and decorated with a dragon and a phoenix intertwining, and gave off a strong scent of Butterfly Town's powder as they burned. Mo Ran nearly lost his senses to the smell again, but thankfully the dull ache from the wound on his hand where Chu Wanning had stabbed him earlier kept him grounded. He jabbed at the injury again for good measure.

Chu Wanning glanced at him.

Mo Ran: "...ahem, this is pretty effective."

He paused, then asked, "Shizun, how come you don't need to poke a hole in yourself to maintain your consciousness?"

Chu Wanning: "The scent has no effect on me."

"Ah? Why not?"

Chu Wanning, with an air of frost, "My cultivation base is strong."

Mo Ran: "..."

Led by the golden boy and jade maiden, the twin lines walked slowly up a flight of steps. Chu Wanning watched them for a while before quietly uttering a "Hm?"

He was rarely ever surprised; Mo Ran followed his gaze curiously, and was shocked as well.

The lines were made up of corpses. They retained their facial features from life, but their eyes were closed and their skin was deathly pale, and they swayed as they walked. Most of them were fairly young, likely below twenty, both male and female, and a silhouette among them looked especially familiar——  

The eldest Chen-gongzi, who had been in the coffin earlier, had somehow appeared in this procession, and was walking slowly behind the strange scent of the candles with his eyes closed. All of the others in the lines were paired up, only he was different—there wasn't a person beside him, but a ghost bride made of paper instead.

As if Chen-gongzi wasn't enough, when the procession advanced further and they saw the people at the very end of the lines, color instantly drained from Mo Ran's face.

Shi Mei and Chen-Yao followed behind the lines of corpses with their heads hung low. Their eyes were also closed, faces pale, walking in the exact same manner as the corpses before them, and it was impossible to tell if they were still alive or not.

Mo Ran was about to lose his mind. He leapt up and tried to rush forward immediately, but was stopped by Chu Wanning's grip on his shoulder. "Wait."

"But Shi Mei——!!"

"I know." Chu Wanning watched the lines slowly advance, and whispered, "Don't be hasty. Look over there, there's an enforced barrier in place. If you rush over, it will start wailing, and things will be out of our hands if all the faceless ghosts in the courtyard attack at once."

Chu Wanning was a master in barriers; his barriers were formidable, and his eyes were sharp. Mo Ran looked over, and saw that there was indeed a nearly transparent veil at the entrance to the courtyard.  

When the golden boy and jade maiden arrived before the courtyard, they blew softly at the candles they were holding to make the flames burn even higher, then slowly stepped through the barrier and into the yard.

Behind them, one by one, the men and women followed them through the barrier without any interference. The faceless people drinking inside the courtyard turned to watch them enter, and began to cheer and clap.

Chu Wanning spoke, "Go, follow behind them. Close your eyes and don't breathe when you cross the barrier. Copy what the corpses do no matter what happens, and absolutely do not speak."

Mo Ran was anxious to save Shi Mei and didn't need him to say any more. The two slipped into the group of corpses.

Each line had the same number of corpses. Chu Wanning took his place behind Shi Mei, so Mo Ran could only line up behind Chen-Yao. The procession moved at an agonizingly slow pace. Mo Ran kept looking over at Shi Mei, but could only see the side of his pale face and a bit of snow-white neck drooping helplessly.

Finally reaching the barrier at last, they both held their breath and passed through without incident. The courtyard was even bigger from the inside than it looked from the outside. Aside from the three-storey manor decorated with lanterns and colored banners, the sides of the courtyard were also densely packed with at least a hundred small side rooms, each with a large scarlet Xi character on the window and a red lantern hanging by the door.

The faceless guests suddenly all stood up at once to the sound of firecrackers and shawms.

A faceless ceremony official stood before the manor, announcing with vacillating intonation, "The auspicious hour is upon us, the grooms and brides have arrived——"

Mo Ran was astounded, wha? These lines of corpses are grooms and brides?

He hurriedly looked to Chu Wanning for help, but the Beidou Immortal's brows were tightly furrowed, lost in his own thoughts, and he didn't even spare Mo Ran a glance.

…Mo Ran thought to himself that his uncle's efforts were truly misdirected;

going down the mountain to gain practical experience with this kind of teacher was doing more harm to his pride than not bringing the teacher along at all would have.

Suddenly a group of giggling children darted into the yard, dressed in bright red but with their hair tied in white strings. They crowded around the two lines of people like so many little fish, each tugging a person toward one of the rooms on either side.

Mo Ran, at a complete loss, mouthed toward Chu Wanning: Shizun, what to do?

Chu Wanning shook his head and pointed toward the corpses in front that followed obediently behind the little boys and girls. His meaning was clear——go along with it.

Having no other options, Mo Ran could only stumble behind as a little boy with a topknot led him into one of the rooms. As soon as they entered, the boy waved his arm and the door slammed shut.

Mo Ran glared at the child, wary of what the faceless little ghost was going to do to him.

In the last lifetime, Chu Wanning had rescued Shi Mei and broken through the illusory realm all on his own. Mo Ran hadn't needed to do anything at all and the evil had already been vanquished. Afterwards, he'd been too busy dwelling on the sweet aftertaste of Shi Mei's lips to even pay attention to Chu Wanning's explanation.

That's why, with the situation having turned out differently, he had no idea what to expect next, and could only brace himself for whatever might come.

There was a dressing table in the room with a copper mirror, and a set of intricately embroidered black and red wedding clothes hanging neatly on a rack.

The child patted the bench, gesturing for Mo Ran to go sit.

Mo Ran observed that the ghosts here weren't too clever. Rather dumb, actually. As long as he didn't speak, they couldn't even tell the living from the dead. So he sat before the dressing table as directed, and the child toddled over to help him wash and change…

Suddenly, a haitang blossom[7] floated in from the window and gently landed on the water inside the wash basin.    

Mo Ran's eyes brightened. That haitang was also known as Yuheng of the Night Sky, used specifically by Chu Wanning for silent communication.

He scooped the flower out of the water, the haitang blossoming andunfurling instantly in his palm to reveal a speck of mellow golden light in its center.

He picked up the speck of light between his fingertips and placed it in his ear. Chu Wanning's voice came from inside.

"Mo Ran, I used Tianwen to confirm that this illusory realm was indeed set by Butterfly Town's ghost mistress of ceremonies. It's managed to cultivate into an actual deity due to receiving the villagers' incense and worship for hundreds of years. Every ghost marriage makes it more powerful, so it delights in presiding over these ceremonies. The corpses in the lines are likely Butterfly Town's ghost couples from these past couple hundreds of years whose weddings it witnessed. It likes the merriment, so it calls the corpses back into the illusory realm every night to do it all over again, growing stronger each time."

Mo Ran thought——what a deviant!!

If other deities got bored, they might at most play matchmaker with young men and women. But this ghost mistress of ceremonies sure was something else; it might have the body of a deity, but it must have forgotten to grow a head, to have this kind of hobby, playing matchmaker with corpses, and not even just once, but to summon them from their graves every night to do it over and over and over again.

Are corpse orgies that riveting?  

This spinster deity, what a damn headcase.

Chu Wanning: "Its real body is not here. Don't act carelessly, just follow the golden boy and jade maiden later, it will have to appear in person to absorb energy from the ghost weddings."

Mo Ran wanted to ask, what about Shi Mei? Is he ok?

"There is no need to worry about Shi Mei. He and Mistress Chen are both just temporarily unconscious due to the powder." Chu Wanning was very thorough, and had anticipated everything Mo Ran might ask. "Take care of yourself. I will handle everything."    

The voice faded away after that.

At the same time, the child also finished fussing over Mo Ran's outfit. His reflection in the mirror was handsome; the corners of his lips curved naturally upwards, his facial features clear and bold. The collars of the fiery red wedding garment were neatly folded, and his long hair was done up with a white hairband, looking quite the part of the ghost groom.

The child made a gesture of invitation, and the tightly closed door creaked open.

A line of corpses dressed in wedding clothes stood in the corridor, male and female both. It looked like this ghost mistress of ceremonies and its mud head really didn't understand the way of things, it just grabbed any random pair to perform the wedding ceremony, not caring in the least if the couple was male and female, male and male, or female and female.  

There was only one line of corpses in this corridor, the other line was across the courtyard on the other side, too far away to see if Chu Wanning and Shi Mei had come out yet.

The line moved slowly forward, and the ceremony official's voice could be heard now and again from the manor as the pairs completed the wedding ceremonies one by one.

Mo Ran looked at Chen-Yao standing in front of him, and felt that something wasn't quite right. He puzzled over it for a long while, the line growing shorter and shorter the whole time, and when only the last few pairs were left, this dumb scoundrel finally figured it out——

Ah! With the lines ordered like this, didn't that mean the woman in front of him was gonna get married with Shi Mei? And wouldn't he himself get matched with that wretch Chu Wanning? That wasn't acceptable!

This ex-emperor of the human world immediately grew upset. Lips pulling downwards, he yanked Chen-Yao back unceremoniously and jumped the line to stand in front of her.

The child next to him was flabbergasted, but Mo Ran immediately lowered his head and made like a hanged ghost, drooping along with the other corpses. The golden boy and jade maiden's cultivation wasn't high; they were baffled for a bit but couldn't even figure out where the problem had happened, and so they ended up doing absolutely nothing about it, like a pair of dimwits.

Mo Ran was quite pleased with himself, and followed the line cheerfully as he waited to meet up with Shi Mei.

Concurrently.

Chu Wanning looked at Shi Mei standing in front of him. There was no way to tell what dangers might lie ahead.

He'd always had a sharp tongue but a soft heart; regardless of how much he might be resented for his harshness, in actuality, as long as he was here, he was not going to allow his disciples to be put in danger.

Thus, he also reached out and pulled the befuddled Shi Mei behind himself, switching their places.

It was his turn.

At the end of the corridor, an attendant stood holding a black and red tray, giggling as Chu Wanning approached, the tinkling of a young woman's voice coming from that face devoid of features.

"Congratulations my lady, felicitations my lady, first meeting yet as old friends, serenity until old age."

Chu Wanning's face darkened instantly.

L-lady…?? Do you not have eyes?

Taking another look at the ghost attendant's blank face, he restrained himself.

It, in fact, did not fucking have eyes.

The ghost attendant continued giggling as it lifted the red veil in the tray and covered Chu Wanning's face. Then its ice-cold hand reached over and gripped him lightly with a delicate laugh. "My lady, this way please."  

Author's Notes:

Next chapter we enter the bridal chamber. If there is no bridal chamber I will livestream me eating turd. If you dare!

Let's answer yesterday's question [Who did Mo Ran kiss in his past life?]

First, nothing changed on Chu Wanning's side. The order of actions is the same as the previous life. This means since he first saved Mo Ran in this life, and in the past life it was also in this sequence.

In Mo Ran's memory, his mentality was [Defeating monsters depends on Shizun, flirting depends on yourself]. Chu Wanning had taken care of everything, and then came to look for him after saving Shi Mei.

If the two men's paths took a divergence here, then the following possibility is very high:

At that time, Chu Wanning actually searched for Mo Ran first. However, for some reason, he left under circumstances that Mo Ran was not aware of, and went to save Shi Mei instead.

Combined with the sequence of actions done by Chu Wanning in this life, then… it can only mean that the Mo Ran at that time, just like this time, mistook Chu Wanning as Shi Mei. After being kissed, Chu Wanning immediately broke free. Since he was easily embarrassed, he couldn't calm down right away. He decided to not show himself just yet, as Mo Ran was out of danger anyway, he went to save Shi Mei instead. After this, he brought Shi Mei and met up with Mo Ran with feigned calmness. Since Mo Ran had all his attention on Shi Mei, he didn't notice the subtle unusual behaviour from Chu Wanning.

This also explains why after the illusory realm disappeared, Shi Mei acted like nothing had happened. Because to him, nothing really had happened…

So that year, the one who broke free from you was actually Shizun, Mo Ran you stupid top! Pitiful Shizun's first kiss in both lifetimes was stolen by you, while you thought the one you kissed was your Shi-Ge. Bye.jpg. Crying.

[6] 金童玉女 attendants of Daoist immortals with childlike appearances

[7] 海棠花 crab-apple blossom, crab-apple looks too stupid in english I can't