Chapter 148 - 118: Physical Exorcism

Chapter 148: Chapter 118: Physical Exorcism

The temple was now packed with surviving townspeople. Cries, prayers, and curses mingled together, forming a symphony of despair.

Chen Ye saw Mr. Lu, Lu Jinghong, and Qi Nana among the crowd, but Qi Shihao was nowhere to be seen.

"Boss Chen!" Mr. Lu walked up anxiously. "Is there anything we can do? If there’s any way I can help, just say the word. I’m prepared to die trying!"

Lu Jinghong, standing behind him, didn’t speak, but her clear, bright eyes were filled with trust and expectation.

Chen Ye glanced around. He noticed the Class Leader and several famous actors from the Mingfeng Troupe were also there, along with some familiar faces from other Opera Troupes. At the moment, however, they were all sitting in a corner, their faces ashen.

"When dawn breaks and the Yang Qi rises, will these ghostly things retreat?" someone asked, clinging to a final shred of hope.

"It’s useless!"

Ge Kun cut him off despairingly. "The Evil Array at the City God Temple has already warped the heavens! Yin Qi blots out the sun, so even when the hour comes, the sun won’t be able to shine into this Ghost City!"

Just then, a government official covered in blood stumbled and crawled into the temple, bringing even worse news.

"The telegraph... the telegraph isn’t working either!"

This news was the last straw.

It meant no reinforcements would be coming anytime soon.

Inside the temple, a deathly silence fell.

Just then, a powerful, resonant shout suddenly came from outside the temple gates.

"Make way! Everyone, goddammit, make way! We’ve got a top-priority delivery coming through!"

Everyone looked over in surprise and confusion.

They saw Qi Shihao burst in, pushing a creaking rickshaw and drenched in sweat. His dark face gleamed under the firelight. A large tarp covered the cart, hiding whatever was underneath.

"Old Qi, you’re actually alive!" Mr. Lu was the first to jump to his feet, shouting with a look of pleasant surprise.

It turned out Mr. Lu had gone to the Qi Family’s home before coming to the General Temple. He had only found Nana; Qi Shihao was nowhere to be found. He’d assumed the worst and had been grieving, so he was shocked to see him here now.

"Of course I’m alive," Qi Shihao retorted with a laugh, then grinned at Chen Ye.

"Boss Chen, look what I brought."

With that, he ripped the tarp off the rickshaw, and what was revealed made everyone’s eyes go wide.

It was crate after crate, stacked neatly... of dynamite!

He slapped one of the wooden crates proudly, grinning at Chen Ye and showing off his white teeth. "Boss Chen, ever since I saw what you did at Mei Lin, I’ve had an epiphany. All these Demons and Ghosts, they’re just goddamn paper tigers! This stuff is the ultimate weapon for exorcising demons!"

"So as soon as the chaos started in the city, the first thing I did was go to the Government Office warehouse and haul all of these precious babies out!"

Someone asked in amazement how he had managed to get past the streets swarming with ghosts.

Qi Shihao chuckled, pulled a sweat-soaked Protective Talisman from the General Temple out of his clothes, and waved it in front of everyone.

"I have the General’s protection! I slapped on the talisman, stuck to the back alleys, and whenever I ran into a ghost, I’d dive under the cart. With that bit of quick thinking, I managed to muscle my way through!"

His words, filled with a fearless and reckless bravado, actually managed to dispel some of the gloomy atmosphere in the temple.

Chen Ye couldn’t help but laugh and give him a thumbs-up.

"Qi, that was brilliant!"

Qi Shihao beamed at the praise, but Chen Ye knew in his heart, ’The dynamite is useless right now.’

’These ghosts are endless. We can blow up one area, but not the entire city.’

’Besides, the "great terror" that’s awakening can’t possibly be stopped by a few crates of dynamite.’

’I have to find a fundamental solution.’

His gaze slowly swept over the faces in the temple—some fearful, some hopeful, some numb—while the piercing howls of ghosts outside echoed ceaselessly in his ears.

’This scene...’

An image suddenly flashed through Chen Ye’s mind: the time he was at the City God Temple, watching the Mingfeng Troupe perform Kaiyin Mountain.

Immediately after, an incredibly bold, even insane, plan began to form in his mind.

Chen Ye took a deep breath, turned around, and looked with a burning intensity at the General Temple’s Old Temple Priest, Ge Kun, and all the fellow members of the Peach Garden Lineage present.

"Everyone, rather than sit here and wait for death, let’s risk it all on one big gamble."

"Do you dare to join me, here in a Sea Guardian Guard overrun by the Night Parade of Hundred Demons, and perform a grand show the likes of which has never been seen before?"

As his voice fell, the entire hall fell deathly silent.

Everyone stared at him as if he were a madman.

The Mingfeng Troupe’s Class Leader’s lips trembled. He stammered, "B-Boss Chen, this is hardly the time... you can’t be serious, can you? The outside is crawling with Demons and Ghosts. How could we possibly put on a show? Who would perform? And who would be the audience?"

Chen Ye didn’t answer him. Instead, he turned and walked before the tall statue of the General, his clear voice echoing throughout the great hall.

"Who says there’s no audience? All the phantoms in this city will be our audience!"

"As for who will perform, it will be us, of course—the surviving children of Liyuan!"

"And we won’t be singing decadent music for entertainment! We’ll be singing a battle hymn to summon gods and a sacred scripture to redeem the dead!"

He whipped his head around, his gaze as sharp as lightning, sweeping over everyone.

"Rather than sit here and wait to die, let’s gather the Wish Power of all the city’s survivors, use this performance to channel the divine, and purge this city of all its demons and evil!"

Hearing this, the crowd looked at each other, still thinking the idea was utterly absurd.

But just then, someone shouted loudly, "I think this plan could work."

It was Ge Kun!

After all, using an opera to placate the Ghost King had been his idea in the first place, so he immediately spoke up in agreement.