In the resplendent wedding hall, great red wedding candles burned with crackling pops, casting peanut-length flames onto the western window. Light and shadow swayed, like ghostly children dancing one after another.
There were clearly eight wedding attendants dressed in festive colors, and the atmosphere should have been one of joy and happiness. Yet their faces were smeared thick with white powder, each of them wearing a dead-fish expression. An uncanny sense of utter death seeped from their bodies, making one feel deeply uncomfortable.
Lu Jiuling stood solemnly among the crowd, his brows slightly furrowed.
Change clothes?
Change into what?
Lu Jiuling looked toward one of the wedding attendants. On the red wedding tray it held with both hands lay a neatly folded set of bright red ceremonial wedding robes.
Though the outfit had not been unfolded, judging from the black gauze cap placed on top of it, with two wild-goose feathers inserted into it, Lu Jiuling’s store of knowledge told him that this was the ceremonial attire worn by a groom.
Could Tang Weimin be making me get married?
“Lu Jiuling, what are you dawdling for?” Tang Weimin’s expression was stern, his tone threatening. “Get over here!”
“Brother 69!”
Tang Lei’s face was full of nervousness. He wanted to help, but had no idea what he could do, so he could only plead with Tang Weimin. “Class… teacher, Xu Shuo… is second in the grade. Why don’t you choose him?”
When Xu Shuo heard this, he whipped his head around and glared at Tang Lei, wishing he could tear his mouth apart.
“Shut up!” Tang Weimin shot Tang Lei a glare. “Without my orders, none of you are allowed to speak out of turn!”
“Class teacher, I also think Xu Shuo is more suitable!”
Xu Shaowei mustered her courage and tried to persuade him. She did not want anything to happen to Lu Jiuling.
“Student Lu!”
The baby-faced girl nervously clenched both hands together.
“Lu Jiuling…”
Jiang Shan looked at Lu Jiuling in astonishment.
In this eerie ancient mansion’s wedding hall, to act as the groom and hold a clearly abnormal wedding—anyone, even a fool, would know that this was dangerous!
And yet Jiang Shan could not see the slightest hint of cowardice or fear on Lu Jiuling’s face. There was only that faint furrow of his brows.
Lu Jiuling definitely wasn’t slow-witted. Then did that mean he was naturally exceptional at withstanding pressure?
Jiang Shan suddenly felt that Lu Jiuling, standing there silently with his brows slightly drawn, was very handsome, and gave people a great sense of security!
“…”
Lu Jiuling did not panic because he had more or less expected that he would be an important role.
A few days ago, when he had asked for leave, Tang Weimin had refused to approve it. He had even specifically called him out of the classroom during morning reading and reminded him that he absolutely had to come to the ancient town.
Then there was the red envelope at dinner that night. Tang Weimin had immediately taken one out and handed it to him, while he had to rummage around for everyone else’s.
That meant his red envelope had been prepared in advance.
“Lu Jiuling, behave yourself and do as you’re told. Once this wedding is over, I’ll let you go back. Otherwise, I’ll have those wedding attendants eat you alive!”
Tang Weimin was unbearably anxious and shook the golden ritual bell in his hand.
Four wedding attendants immediately walked toward Lu Jiuling to help him change.
Lu Jiuling knew he could not avoid it, so he stepped forward on his own initiative, changing clothes while thinking of countermeasures.
If nothing unexpected happened, this was Tang Weimin’s advancement ritual!
He just did not know what extraordinary profession Tang Weimin was trying to advance into.
Xu Shuo watched Lu Jiuling change clothes under the service of the four wedding attendants, the corners of his mouth twisting aside.
“What makes him qualified?”
Xu Shuo did not want to be the groom, but seeing someone else become the groom made him unhappy. Yet when he thought that this wedding was probably dangerous, Xu Shuo felt extremely relieved that it was not him.
In short, his feelings were very conflicted!
Tang Weimin held his work bag in his left hand and the golden ritual bell in his right, carefully sizing up this student of his.
Tall, long-legged, and so handsome he could deceive rich women with perfect accuracy, Lu Jiuling put on the ancient-style wedding robes Tang Weimin had meticulously prepared, and his entire bearing instantly soared. He looked simply like an elegant young nobleman who had stepped out of ancient times.
Dashing and handsome, suave and graceful!
He really had not chosen the wrong person!
This advancement ritual would definitely succeed!
Tang Weimin’s heart could not help but leap with excitement.
After obtaining the specific steps for advancing into “Yue Lao” from the “Professor,” Tang Weimin had begun preparing all the potions required.
It had taken him a full year and a half, along with a great deal of help provided by the Professor, but he had finally gathered everything.
Afterward, after careful selection, Tang Weimin chose this Fan family mansion as the site for the advancement ritual.
This location had not been picked casually. If it were not an ancient mansion more than a hundred years old, one that ancient people had lived in, then the probability of the advancement ritual failing would be extremely high.
Next came confirming the groom and the guests.
The guests had to be people the groom knew. Then there was the choice of groom. The Professor had said that, according to the information he had gathered, the groom had best be somewhat handsome. Otherwise, the ghost bride might refuse the marriage, causing the advancement ritual to fail.
When Tang Weimin heard this requirement at the time, he immediately thought of Lu Jiuling from his class and was delighted on the spot.
Aside from being somewhat thin and bashful, Lu Jiuling’s looks were such that even a picky ghost bride should not be able to find any fault with him.
The heavens were truly helping him!
Once he became “Yue Lao,” once he became an extraordinary who had stepped into the divine sequence, then staying up late to prepare lessons, KPI, benefits and bonuses—all of it could go to hell!
He would never again need to care about any of that. He could live however he wanted!
According to the “Professor,” the lowest rank was Sequence 9, and after advancing step by step, one could rise to Sequence 0 and become a god.
Becoming a god?
That should feel even better than being an emperor or president, right?
Tang Weimin imagined his beautiful future life, and the more he looked at Lu Jiuling, the more satisfied he became.
What a pity!
You are the stepping stone for me to enter the divine sequence. After the wedding ends, I must personally cut off your head. That is the most important step of the advancement ritual. Otherwise, I really would have liked to spare you.
Forget it.
I can only say sorry!
Watching Lu Jiuling put on the groom’s wedding robes and the official cap with wild-goose feathers under the service of the four wedding attendants, Tang Weimin coughed lightly twice and cleared his throat.
“Ahem!”
“Jiuling, come here. Stand properly before the offering table!”
Tang Weimin set down his briefcase, took a silver pocket watch from his trouser pocket, and pressed the button on top. With a snap, it opened.
Click! Clack!
Amid the rhythmic turning of gears, the second hand drew circles in an unchanging motion.
“Jiang Shan, Xu Shuo, all of you take your seats!”
Tang Weimin instructed the whole class as if he were teaching as usual. “Be quiet and obedient. Once you have witnessed this wedding, if fate brings us together again in the future, we shall meet another day!”
“If you are willing to call me Teacher Tang, I will do everything I can to help you solve one difficulty in life!”
“But if you delay my great undertaking, then I’m sorry. I see this wedding hall is still short a few human-skin lanterns.”
By the end, Tang Weimin’s tone was murderous. In particular, the four words “human-skin lanterns” carried a chill that seeped into the students’ ears.
No one dared make even the slightest sound. Heads lowered, they hurriedly found empty seats beside the Eight Immortals tables and sat down.
Everyone wanted to get as far away from Tang Weimin as possible. Those with some cunning, like Zhang Shuai and Xu Shuo, even sat at the table closest to the wedding hall’s main doors, making it convenient to flee at any time.
Night had fallen, ethereal and deathly silent.
The wedding hall was clearly almost full of people, yet it was as soundless as a graveyard.
“Why are you all being so reserved? Crack sunflower seeds, eat peanuts, drink tea!” Tang Weimin swept his gaze around. “Don’t you know what you’re supposed to do at a wedding banquet?”
Xu Shuo was stared at by the class teacher and had no choice but to grab a small half-handful of sunflower seeds.
Crack!
Xu Shuo timidly cracked seeds while looking ingratiatingly at Tang Weimin.
Seeing this, Tang Weimin shook his head.
Good thing he had not chosen Xu Shuo as the groom. Otherwise, with this cowardly appearance of his, he would definitely make the ghost bride dissatisfied, which would then lead to the wedding being called off.
If the advancement ritual could not be completed, he naturally would have no way to step into the divine sequence. More terrifyingly, he would also be contaminated by the ritual. At best, he would go mad; at worst, he would die.
At this thought, Tang Weimin looked toward Lu Jiuling again.
Tsk, tsk!
He had never noticed before, but Lu Jiuling’s mental state was actually so steady. He was someone capable of great things.
Time passed second by second in this oppressive atmosphere.
Tang Weimin kept his eyes on the pocket watch at every moment.
When he saw the minute hand move to twelve, the instant eight o’clock arrived, Tang Weimin, who had long been prepared, called out loudly!
“The auspicious hour has arrived!”
“The wedding begins!”
“Music!”
After shouting, Tang Weimin solemnly held the golden bell and shook it hard three times!
Ding-a-ling! Ding-a-ling! Ding-a-ling!
No one knew when the band had taken seats in the side hall, but as the sound of the golden bell fell, two suonas immediately picked up the tune, playing a desolate and eerie melody.
Then the erhu, golden gong, and bronze cymbals joined in one after another, composing a grand wedding movement.
“Holy shit!”
Zhang Shuai, who had always been recklessly bold and often got into fights, felt his scalp go numb when he heard this wedding music and shivered violently.
Because there was not the slightest trace of festivity or joy in this wedding music. It was all bleakness and sorrow, like a band playing at a mass grave in the middle of the night for a newly dead couple who had just been buried together.
Even Zhang Shuai was like this, and the others were even worse. One by one, they hunched their shoulders and fearfully stole glances around them, afraid that something filthy would come looking for them.
The baby-faced girl pressed half her body against Jiang Shan, her right hand gripping Jiang Shan’s sleeve tightly.
“What kind of ghostly music is this?”
Jiang Shan’s fine brows were tightly knitted, panic appearing on her small face as well.
Although she had guessed that this wedding might be abnormal and had mentally prepared herself, when this wedding music that was clearly meant for the dead began to play, it still gave her a huge fright.
Tang Weimin twisted his body uneasily and nervously.
This was his first time conducting an advancement ritual. Although the Professor had told him the specific process and warned him that strange and terrifying phenomena would occur during it, and that he absolutely must not panic,
emotional fluctuations were not something one could control just by saying so. Otherwise, people would not perform abnormally during important occasions such as the college entrance exam or job interviews.
“Tang Weimin, hurry up and calm down!”
Tang Weimin took two deep breaths, then quickly closed his mouth, because the wedding attendant at the very front had come over holding a great red wedding tray and was now standing before the offering table.
Everyone’s gazes immediately turned toward the wedding tray held by the attendant.
No one knew what was placed on it, only that it was covered by bright red silk embroidered with golden thread and mandarin ducks.
“Lu Jiuling, step forward!”
Tang Weimin stared at Lu Jiuling with a fierce gaze and pointed to the spot in front of the offering table, beside the wedding attendant.
Next, the groom and bride were to bow to Heaven and Earth here.
“…”
Lu Jiuling glanced at the golden ritual bell in Tang Weimin’s hand and walked to the offering table.
He had not thought of making a move now, because he knew nothing about Tang Weimin’s situation. He did not know his miracles, did not know his sequence level, and did not know how many forbidden artifacts he possessed…
Better to wait a little longer and do his best to find the most perfect opportunity to kill him in one strike!
Tang Weimin reached out and removed the gold-threaded silk from the wedding attendant’s tray.
Quite a few people were curious. Their eyes widened, wanting to see what was underneath.