The three did not linger. After all, none of them knew why the incantation Dense Forest had recited worked. If it suddenly stopped working, that "Zhao Qigong" was 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 a puzzled look. "Yes. Why do you ask?"
"When I was in the time a hundred years ago, I wasn't in my own body, but in someone called Xiao Qi," Qin Manjiang said. "Was that really a hundred years ago? Could we already have fallen into a trap?"
"You mean...?" Xu Yi raised his brows. "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 other than vengeful ghosts, then there are only two possibilities that could explain why Yu Chenglin's chanted incantation put 'Zhao Qigong' in such agony."
"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 are already in the opera. It's just that, in the opera, Yu Chenglin is a Taoist who vanquishes demons, while Zhao Qigong is the demon subdued by that Taoist."
Qin Manjiang voiced his conjecture, looking at Xu Yi and Xinxin. "It's precisely because they're in the opera that the incantation worked, and that 'ghost,' Zhao Qigong, possessed humanity..."
At this, Qin Manjiang's eyes suddenly widened. His words brought Xu Yi and Xinxin to the same realization, and all three looked utterly grim.
"Have we... been in the opera all along too?"
Xinxin asked quietly.
Neither