The three of them did not linger. After all, none of them knew why the incantation Dense Forest had recited actually worked. If it suddenly stopped working, that "Zhao Qigong" was most certainly no human.
While Yu Chenglin and Zhao Qigong faced off, Qin Manjiang, Xu Yi, and Xinxin hurried away.
As they fled, Qin Manjiang could not help asking, "In your eyes, I'm Qin Manjiang, right?"
Xinxin and Xu Yi gave him puzzled looks. "Yes. Why do you ask?"
"In the time and space of a hundred years ago, I wasn't in my own body. I was someone called Xiao Qi," Qin Manjiang said. "Was that really a hundred years ago? Could we have already fallen into a trap?"
"You mean..." Xu Yi raised his eyebrows. "The Yellow Springs Opera started long ago?"
Qin Manjiang nodded and looked toward the [Southern Branch Troupe] of the Modern Era. "If there are no supernatural powers in this world besides Vengeful Ghosts, there are only two possibilities that could explain why Yu Chenglin's chanting just now made 'Zhao Qigong' suffer so much."
"Either... Yu Chenglin was using a ghost's power, and that power merely took the outward form of some Taoist spell."
"Or both Yu Chenglin and Zhao Qigong were already in the opera. It's just that, in the opera, Yu Chenglin is a Taoist who subdues demons and exorcises evil, while Zhao Qigong is the demonic ghost subdued by that Taoist."
Qin Manjiang voiced his conjecture and looked at Xu Yi and Xinxin. "It's precisely because they're in the opera that the incantation works, and that 'ghost,' Zhao Qigong, possesses humanity..."
At this point, Qin Manjiang's eyes suddenly widened. His words also jolted Xu Yi and Xinxin into realization, and all three looked utterly grim.
"Have we... been in the opera