The appearance of the well sent every member of the [Southern Branch Troupe] into a panic again.
"T-Troupe Leader... it really is her!"
"No... I'm not going! She'll kill us!" a short but powerfully built martial performer shouted, trembling.
He turned and ran. He had to get back to the river and row away from this hellish place!
Seeing him do this, the others began to waver too. Not everyone had wanted to come. They had only reluctantly agreed because the troupe leader had said that performing an opera for her offered a slim chance of survival, while refusing meant certain death.
But nothing about their present situation suggested any chance of survival!
That ghost did not want to hear an opera at all. It wanted to kill every one of them!
Rather than walk into a trap, they might as well take a chance. There were so many of them, after all. At worst, they could spend the rest of their lives hiding in Buddhist or Taoist temples. They refused to believe this female ghost would dare enter the domains of gods and Buddhas!
Yet before anyone else could act, they saw the two orderly rows of paper figures suddenly turn their heads toward the fleeing, short martial performer. Then... their deathly pale fingers abruptly lengthened!
A dense mass of white fingers raced after him, caught up, and pierced his back with a squelch.
"Urgh..."
The short martial performer had no way to resist. Blood spurted from his mouth as he lowered his head to look at his chest...
The paper figures' fingers had pierced straight through his torso, shreds of flesh and blood clinging to their pallid lengths.
Thud.
Life rapidly drained from his body. The deathly pale fingers retracted one by one. The Paper Boy and Girl