Weaving through boxes filled with props, Lu Fei strode directly to the altar table.
Incense candles flickered.
The large-mouthed trunk stood quietly on the altar, its doors tightly shut.
Lu Fei observed it briefly before cupping his hands in a slight salute.
"So you're the Eldest Martial Brother. The Lius have asked me to inform you they can no longer sustain you. You're requested to leave! Let's part amicably - I trust you'll recognize what's good for you!"
Courtesy before force.
After speaking, Lu Fei waited a moment.
The trunk remained unresponsive.
"Your silence indicates consent."
Lu Fei nodded and stepped forward, grasping the trunk's handle.
Then yanked with force.
The heavy solid wood lid slowly creaked open.
A cold, eerie aura surged out.
Lu Fei cautiously raised his guard and forcefully lifted the lid, fully opening the chest.
However.
The chest was completely empty.
"Empty?"
Lu Fei froze in confusion.
"Was there never anything inside, or did it escape..."
At that moment.
Creak!
The main door on the fifth floor suddenly slammed shut.
"Hahaha!"
A child's eerie laughter rang out among the disordered prop chests.
"Da Shige?"
Lu Fei narrowed his eyes, carefully scanning the surrounding chests.
Legends described Da Shige as having a child's form - this laughter undoubtedly belonged to it.
Meaning it was still on the fifth floor.
Dozens of prop chests, large and small, filled the fifth level - it could be hiding in any one of them.
"Seems children all love playing hide-and-seek."
Lu Fei smirked, gripping the lightning-struck wood as he approached the prop chests.
He opened each chest in turn as he passed them.
Some boxes were filled with decorative props, others with musical instruments and theatrical costumes, all stacked like toys in overwhelming abundance.
Lu Fei examined each item with meticulous patience, not overlooking a single one. When he reached the center, he discovered another large trunk.
Upon opening it, he was shocked to find what appeared to be a human head inside!
Lu Fei recoiled in alarm.
Upon closer inspection, it revealed itself not as a human head, but an oversized round mask crafted in the shape of one.
The mask faced away from him, its eerily realistic back of the head visible.
Rather than touching it directly, Lu Fei cautiously circled to examine its front—and froze wide-eyed.
The mask's front displayed a grinning visage.
A profoundly unsettling grin.
Its rosy cheeks bore two exaggerated circles of rouge, with crescent-shaped eyes and a gaping mouth stretched in laughter, resembling a oversized laughing doll.
Was this object the revered 'Da Shige'?
Heart pounding, Lu Fei tentatively extended his jujube wood staff toward the smiling mask.
The mask abruptly twitched.
Its curved eyes locked onto Lu Fei as crystalline laughter—'Ha! Ha! Ha!'—erupted from its gaping maw.
Lu Fei's knees turned to water, an irresistible compulsion to kneel surging through him.
This was Da Shige's power!
Da Shige served as the opera troupe's mascot, second only to their founding ancestor in reverence. Backstage, however, the effigy could only be stored face down, never upright.
Firstly, because anyone glimpsing its face would be compelled to kneel in homage.
Secondly, if positioned face-up, this 'elder brother' would mysteriously vanish.
'I'm not from the opera world—why should I bow to you?'
Lu Fei channeled his magic power to his knees, steadying his legs, and struck the eerie smiling face mask with the lightning-struck wood.
Flickering electric light illuminated the grinning face.
The smiling face emitted a piercing shrill laugh as the trunk suddenly snapped shut, the lightning-struck wood striking against its lid.
When Lu Fei reopened the trunk, the mask had vanished.
"Ran away again?"
Lu Fei stared at the empty steamer trunk, deep in thought.
"The senior brother lives inside the trunks, so it can move between different steamer trunks... This simplifies things!"
Lu Fei walked around inspecting all the trunks, finding seven large steamer chests in total.
Instead of hastily opening the remaining trunks, he took out the black umbrella.
"Little Umbrella, do me a favor - gather these trunks together."
After patting the black umbrella, he tossed it into the air.
Crimson flowers materialized as the canopy gracefully unfurled, tendrils of black hair extending from the umbrella to drag all the steamer trunks into a neat cluster.
"Now that they're all in one place, your jumping around won't help."
Lu Fei proceeded to open the remaining trunks one by one.
The grotesque smiling mask was indeed inside one of the trunks.
When Lu Fei opened that trunk, it instantly disappeared only to reappear in another chest the next moment.
Ignoring its antics, Lu Fei opened all the trunks in quick succession, watching the mask dart between hiding places.
After several rounds.
The smiling mask seemed to realize something was wrong. It paused inside one trunk, its fixed grin staring unnervingly at Lu Fei.
Though shaped in a smile, it emanated an emotionless, icy coldness.
"So, Eldest Senior Brother, had enough fun?"
Lu Fei gripped the lightning-struck wood, smiling equally at the headgear.
The Black Umbrella with Long Teeth and Five Claws hovered beside him, glaring fiercely at the headgear.
The headgear continued to smile quietly, the expression growing increasingly icy.
The incense on the altar suddenly burned rapidly. The headgear's smile twisted from coldness to ferocity, as a grotesque doll-like grin gradually emerged from its surface, expanding until it nearly filled the entire fifth floor.
Those crescent-shaped eyes stared down intensely at Lu Fei, sharp yin energy erupting from their depths.
Under the gaze of this colossal smiling face, Lu Fei felt his body suddenly weigh down as if crushed by a mountain.
Excruciating pain shot through his knees, forcing his legs to bend involuntarily.
"You think this pressure alone can make me kneel? Dream on!"
Gnashing his teeth, Lu Fei raised the jujube wood staff and struck.
Streaks of lightning shot forth.
Meanwhile, the black hair transformed into numerous ghostly hands, clawing viciously at the grinning visage.
Boom!
The massive smiling face exploded into countless smaller pallid grins, which swarmed towards Lu Fei like lice, landing on his body and gnawing madly.
"Hahaha! Hahaha!"
Piercing laughter reverberated across the fifth floor, stinging human eardrums.
The faces included men and women, old and young, even numerous theatrical masks.
Each grin appeared more twisted than a sob - clearly manifestations of those previously claimed by this evil entity.
They weren't biting his flesh, but devouring his yang energy!
Lu Fei immediately held his breath, circulating magical energy throughout his body.
The black umbrella was enraged, its waterfall-like hair seeming to boil as scarlet petals scattered. Strands of obsidian hair viciously entangled those smiling faces, crushing them into pieces.
Yet these grinning visages proved extremely difficult to dispel.
Even ants could devour an elephant through sheer numbers - no amount of cultivation could withstand such overwhelming quantity.
Feeling his yang energy draining, Lu Fei frowned and batted away the pallid smiling faces clinging to him with his staff, but these apparitions pressed forward with fearless, frenzied persistence.
"Little Umbrella, return!"
Lu Fei gritted his teeth and reached out towards the black umbrella.
Crimson petals drifted down as the umbrella smashed through a cluster of smiling faces, returning to Lu Fei's grasp.
Cascading curtains of black hair poured forth, enveloping both Lu Fei and the sea of grinning faces.
A thought sparked in Lu Fei's mind.
Within the floral expanse...
A blood-crimson eye suddenly snapped open!
Lu Fei closed his eyes.
The entire interior of the black umbrella flooded with sanguine light.
Bang!
The incense burner on the altar table exploded violently!