TGCF reaction to the series (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 18

As Xie Lian looked at his surroundings, he noticed he was standing by a building a short distance away.

Since that young man- no teenager had brought him here into this maze, he had to take a look around.

He stepped forward again before stopping. He contemplated for a moment and turned back to pick up that veil that had been dropped.

"No ghost bridegroom, no face reveal, I can't have anything!" Shi Qingxuan ranted, crossing his arms.

The walls of the building were red and high, with wooden tiles and building bricks that were blotched. It appeared to be the temple of a local god that had been there for several years. To Xie Lian's own expertise, it was probably a martial god's temple.

And sure enough, he looked up and spotted diamond and golden engraved text at the top of the entranceway,
"Ming Guang Temple."

General Ming Guang, the martial god of the north, was the same martial god Ling Wen had mentioned in the communication array! Of course they couldn't find any Ming Guang temples and could only find a Nan Yang one.

It turns out that there was one in Mount Yujun. But it had long since been sealed off in this array. Is it possible that the Ghost Bridegroom had relations with General Ming Guang?

'You would, unsurprisingly, be correct.'
Shi Wudu thought, the heavens should've predicted it had something to do with him if it was related to vengeful spouses at all. But, aside from that, there was something else that needed to be addressed, what is Hua Cheng's relationship with His Highness?

General Ming Guang was said to be a great and almighty cultivator. Naturally, he had a steady position as the god of the north. Xie Lian wouldn't think that such a powerful cultivator would have anything to do with the Ghost bridegroom.

Shi Wudu was staring at Pei Ming in a
judge-mental manner, Pei Ming noticed,
"What? It really wasn't my fault this time, well, not all of it!"
Shi Wudu shook his head,
"You never change."

But it wasn't unheard of for a cultivator to be secretly poisoned by another cultivator. As for what the truth was, he could only wait and see.

He walked towards the door and pushed it open. Immediately, a peculiar scent wafted his senses. It wasn't the gas that was lightly shaded gray, but a subtle foul odor.

Xie Lian closed the door behind him, making it look as if no one had entered. He entered and in the middle of the hall was a statue of Pei Ming. Statues were usually a target for possession and evil spiritual power.

Xie Lian meticulously studied the statue. His overall conclusion was this: It was finely-crafted statue. Along with a jade belt, it wielded a sword. A good-looking face and imposing aura. The statue was completely fine, and the scent wasn't being emitted from there.

Xie Lian began towards the farther end of the main hall. He turned back and froze in his tracks, his eyes widening.

'What? What is it?' Shi Qingxuan thought. Normally, if the heavenly officials had been at the scene their senses would be very precise, but since they were only watching it from afar, they were very limited.

Women adorned in bright red wedding dresses with veils were standing in front of him. The foul odor seemed to be coming from them, it was a rotting smell.

They were the missing brides!

He concentrated and counted each bride.... seventeen of them.

Some of the dresses were tattered and faded, which belonged to the brides who had been taken much earlier. The scent was very subtle, they must be the brides taken most recently.

"That's... so sad. They were just getting married, they never asked for any of that. That's so unfair." Shi Qingxuan said softly. After being a god- no even just a cultivator, you get used to seeing things like this. But, it never gets any less tragic. The world is full of unfairness and injustice, that's why there's gods, right? But, no matter what, there never seems to be any shortage of suffering.

Xie Lian thought for a second before lifting a veil off of a corpse's face. Beneath the veil was sickly pale face, with a green tint to it. Under the light of the moon, it was a disturbing sight.

This woman's face was already contorted, in her face was a stiff smile. He took off another veil. This temple was full of corpses, corpses dressed in wedding dresses with smiles on their faces.

In Xie Lian's ears rung that song that was sung by that fetus spirit, the one about crying not smiling.

The reason they were killed was because of the fact that they were smiling. That was what took their lives. That was the condition they had broken. Just for the simple fact they smiled in what could've been the most joyous moment of their life. What a pity, that's all that could be said of their situation.

'I wish that things had been different, I wish that those maidens didn't have to die.' Xie Lian thought, praying for them.

He then heard a sound from outside of the temple. It was a strange sound, one hard to describe. Like two sticks wrapped in cloth thumping around. It came from far away and was at great speeds.

In a split-second, it reached the entrance of the Ming Guang temple. And with a long creaking sound, the doors to the main entrance of the temple opened.

Whether it was a person or a ghost didn't matter, it was probably the Ghost Bridegroom! And now it had returned! There was no place to run, so he could only hide. He put the veil over his face and stood as still as he possibly could.

If there were only a few corpses standing here, like three or four, it would be easy to tell if the number was wrong, like if there was too much or too little. But there was seventeen, so unless the spirit was carefully counting each one like he did, it most likely wouldn't notice the actual number.

Listening to each movement, he was pondering what would make that kind of sound. "What kind of sound is this? Thump, thump, thump. It resembles the movement patterns of footsteps." He thought. These sounds were way different than how the teenager's steps had sounded, there had been a light jingling sound with each carefree and certain step.

"No, this is all wrong!" Xie Lian thought.

Author's note: I'm trying my best to upload whenever I can, I know this chapter is very short, but please be patient with me. Thank you, have a nice day.