Acai's Sky

Chapter 988: Embers of Night Corridor: Ghosts on the Stage 3

The moment Liu Fengqi's tactical boots rolled over the threshold, the entire theater suddenly fell into silence.

The blood-red ball of light that was roaring just now suddenly stopped like a beast with its throat strangled.

Moonlight filtered through the broken carved window lattices, cutting out interlaced light and dark lines on the beams and pillars of the stage. The faded opera scripts loomed in the shadows like dormant poisonous snakes.

"hiss--"

He Youxing's tactical breathing mask made a slight sound of air leaking. "This silence is abnormal, as if it has been forcibly silenced by something."

The holographic map he called up suddenly began to ripple, and the originally clear outlines of the buildings began to distort, as if the entire space was melting.

Liu Fengqi's interstellar glasses suddenly lit up with a dazzling blue light, and a stream of data scrolled frantically in his pupils: "Psychic interference waves detected, frequency 0.7 Hz, slowly eroding the nerve center."

Before he could finish his words, Wang Changming suddenly clutched his temples, and the mace fell to the ground with a clang: "My head... feels like it's been shoved into a live gear!"

"Activate the neural shield immediately!"

He Xin's fingers tapped rapidly on the wrist terminal, and the circuit interface on the surface of the tactical armor lit up with a faint blue light.

The moment everyone activated the protection system, the opera script on the beams of the stage suddenly glowed with scarlet fluorescence. The lyrics of "The Injustice of Dou E" twisted like a living thing, and tiny black threads seeped out of the ink, weaving into densely packed spells in the air.

"These words...are devouring consciousness!"

Liu Jialiang's energy shield suddenly sounded an alarm, and the rune light was obviously dimmed under the shadow of the play.

Qi Kai's alloy double swords burst out with lightning, but were mysteriously absorbed when approaching the opera text. The lightning on the blades turned into sparks and dissipated in the air.

He Xin half-knelt on the ground, his smart glasses projecting a 3D scan model. "Look! The codes interspersed within the opera form a Möbius strip structure, with each character acting as a gear in a combination lock."

His fingertips slid across the data stream, and hundreds of spinning binary symbols suddenly appeared in the air. "But the triggering sequence... there's absolutely no pattern!"

Amidst the silence, the faint strains of opera singing suddenly rang out. The sound seemed to come from deep underground, carrying the damp, rotting woody scent, and every drawn-out chorus set everyone's teeth on edge.

Wang Changming suddenly grabbed his mace and said, "Don't waste time with it! At worst, we can just smash all these broken pillars!"

"no!"

Liu Fengqi's interstellar glasses suddenly picked up a subtle fluctuation. "The singing frequency and the opera text flashing frequency are synchronized. This is a clue!"

He pulled up the historical database, and countless images from ancient books flashed through his eyes. "In ancient opera, there were records of 'sound pattern lock arrays', which unlocked the mechanism through the emotional resonance of opera characters!"

"The passionate Sheng role corresponds to high-frequency percussion, while the gentle Dan role uses low-frequency percussion..."

He Xin pushed his smart glasses, and a sound wave analysis graph immediately appeared on the lenses. "The Jing role is as majestic as a bell, the Bo role is vicissitudes and trembling, and the Chou role is humorous and jumping!"

Wang Changming had already swung his war hammer and smashed it at the gongs and drums.

The rusty gong surface was engraved with a hideous opera mask. The moment the hammer fell, the corners of the mask's mouth opened and blood oozed out. The dark red liquid flowed along the lines of the gong, emitting a strange phosphorescent glow in the moonlight.

The faded silk ribbons wrapped around the drum suddenly came alive, transforming into swimming snake-like bands of light that wrapped around everyone's ankles.

“Keep the pace!”

Liu Fengqi's tactical gloves brushed against the ghost money on his waist. The touch of metal reminded him of the look in the eyes of Liu Rushuang's shadow in the locker room.

As the sounds of gongs and drums rang out in the order of "sheng, dan, jing, mo, chou", the dome of the stage began to distort, and the reflections of the stars shattered and reassembled in the void.

The ground suddenly cracked into spider-web-like cracks, and dark red data streams gushed out like boiling magma.

"Hurry! The secret door is..."

He Xin's voice was drowned out by the violent vibration.

The entire theater began to flip over, the ceiling became the ground, and everyone fell rapidly in a state of weightlessness.

Liu Fengqi threw out the grappling hook to wrap around the beam, but found that the wooden surface was disintegrating into pixels.

At the critical moment, a secret door emerged from the data stream, and everyone rolled in on the edge of the abyss.

The moment the secret door closed, the roar of the giant gears meshing was deafening.

A wall of fire composed of red light balls brushed past Liu Fengqi's back, and the shoulder armor of the tactical armor instantly vaporized. The smell of burning mixed with the stench of burnt electronic components spread.

He Youxing's detector suddenly issued a shrill alarm: "The spatial coordinates are abnormal! We are not inside the theater, but..."

Before he finished speaking, the scene in front of everyone suddenly distorted.

Damp moss covered the metal floor, rotten costumes hung like stalactites, and dense opera lyrics floated in the air.

Liu Fengqi's prosthetic eye scanned the surroundings, and his pupils suddenly contracted. "Is this... a time rift? We've fallen into the fragments of the theater's memories!"

The sound of silk rubbing against each other could be heard from the darkness, and hundreds of translucent shadows of actors emerged from the walls.

Their movements were in perfect unison, as if they were re-enacting an ancient play.

Liu Rushuang's shadow stood in the center of the stage, waving her sleeves, scattering starlight, but the moment it touched the crowd, it turned into sharp fragments of code.

"Be careful! These are afterimages of consciousness!"

He Xin's electromagnetic rifle switched to scattering mode, but the purple energy beam passed through the shadow and hit the wall.

Countless tiny cracks suddenly appeared on the wall, and different opera excerpts were heard from each crack, interweaving into a deafening wave of sound.

Wang Changming suddenly threw an ingot of gold to the ground.

The moment the golden light exploded, the phantoms' movements froze, and a hint of clarity flashed in Liu Rushuang's eyes.

Her sleeves suddenly pointed to the corner of the wall, where a half-rolled, yellowed opera score was faintly visible in the shadows.

"The Fragments of the Colorful Clothes!"

Liu Fengqi's tactical gloves radiated electricity, "This is the key to breaking the barrier!"

Before he finished speaking, black mist suddenly emerged from the ground and condensed into the shadow of a guard holding a judge's pen.

The shadows moved more agilely than before, and the Judge's Pen left burning trails as it passed through the air.

A sharp whistle came from He Youxing's headset, "These guards are learning three times faster than before!"

On his holographic map, countless red light spots formed a complex attack matrix.

Liu Jialiang immediately deployed an energy shield, and runes on the thick metal surface lit up, but the moment it came into contact with the mist, it emitted an unbearable buzzing sound.

"Use ghost money to disrupt their data link!"

Liu Fengqi threw out five ghost money, and the fluorescent banknotes turned into streams of light in the air, resonating like quantum entanglement with the judge's pen in the guard's hand.

The moment the purple energy ripples spread, the guards' movements became slow, and the flames on the guard judge's pens began to flicker.

Everyone took the opportunity to rush to the corner.

The moment Liu Fengqi's fingers touched the "Rainbow Skirt Fragments", the entire space began to vibrate violently.

The ink marks on the incomplete score moved like living things, piecing together a complete star track map.

Liu Rushuang's shadow suddenly spoke, her voice a mix of electric noise: "Use the soul as the guide, the song as the key..."

The fragment of the score suddenly transformed into a stream of light that sank into Liu Fengqi's brow. His artificial eye erupted with a blinding light, and the true structure of the theater unfolded on his retina.

It turns out that the time gap they are in is the second layer of the three-layer barrier of the theater - the memory cage.

"We found the exit!"

Liu Fengqi's voice trembled with metal. "But we must do this before the barrier is completely closed..."

His words were interrupted by a sudden scream.

The entire space began to collapse, and the shadows of the actors turned into a data stream storm, sweeping over with countless opera lyrics.

Wang Changming swung his mace at the nearest data vortex: "Who cares about the barrier? Let's smash our way out first!"

His attack sparked blue arcs of electricity in the void, but also attracted more dark energy.

He Xin suddenly ripped open his collar, revealing a neck covered in talisman paper. "Use resonant frequency! Reflect these data streams back like sonic weapons!"

Liu Fengqi called up the sound pattern of "The Fragments of Colorful Clothes" and directed everyone to tap their equipment according to a specific rhythm.

The sound of metal clashing, the hum of energy shields, and the sound of electromagnetic rifles intertwined into an eerie war song.

As the pace quickened, the storm of dark energy began to become disordered, revealing a space-time rift leading to the upper level.

"Charge!" Liu Fengqi's command exploded with the noise of electricity.

The ten-man team rushed towards the rift like an arrow, and the memory cage behind them collapsed under their impact.

When they finally leaped into the upper space, they were greeted by an even more bizarre scene—the entire stage was suspended between the star tracks, and the phantom of the Night Pearl Crown flickered on the dome, but was bound by countless chains.

And deep in the shadows, the shadow of Liu Rushuang was watching them, with a meaningful smile on her lips.

In her hands, she slowly unfolded a scroll of opera that emitted a faint glow...