I hadn't expected this green-faced ogre to have such a taste for pranks.

However, his sense of humor was rather low.

Daxiong, bristling with indignation, immediately scrambled back to his feet.

But this time, the giant blew him down in a single, mighty gust.

The giant laughed even harder this time, clutching his stomach and swaying back and forth with mirth.

I thought to myself that while this giant was incredibly strong, his weakness was also obvious; with a little trickery, getting the other two inside wouldn't be difficult.

So, I subtly signaled Daxiong and whispered, "Put on a crosstalk routine for him, quickly." Daxiong looked like an ox tied up, his every ounce of strength useless, his face turning crimson with frustration.

Hearing my instruction, he didn't stop to question the absurdity and immediately launched into the performance.

Nie Chuan, acting as the "straight man" for the routine, ducked behind Daxiong and spoke in a squeaky, conspiratorial voice, "This morning when I woke up." Daxiong, following Nie Chuan's lead, adopted an exaggerated posture of yawning as he woke up, and I actually snorted with laughter.

Because of Daxiong's burly physique paired with Nie Chuan's effeminate voice, the sight was inherently hilarious.

Yet, the giant hadn't seen a xiangsheng performance before; he merely stared intently at Daxiong, filled with curiosity.

At this point, Nie Chuan continued, pinching his nose, "I really had to pee!" Daxiong instantly switched to a miserable grimace, crossing his legs tightly and clutching his groin.

Seeing his awkward contortions, I could no longer contain my laughter.

However, the giant still didn't laugh; his expression grew increasingly puzzled, as if he couldn't comprehend why Daxiong's voice had suddenly turned so high-pitched.

Nie Chuan carried on, "I opened the bathroom door and saw a chicken.

I shooed it by saying 'shh,' but it just went 'cluck-cluck-cluck...'" Daxiong mimicked a chicken, pouting his mouth, placing his hands on his hips like wings, and flapping them up and down with astonishing accuracy.

Tears of laughter were streaming down my face, and when I looked back, the giant was indeed roaring with laughter too.

Perhaps it was because he hadn't understood the words before, but seeing Daxiong imitate a chicken made it novel and amusing to him.

Seeing that the trick was working, Nie Chuan kept up the "cluck-cluck-cluck" sound continuously.

The giant laughed so hard he ended up lying on the ground, flailing his arms and legs—completely overcome with mirth.

I caught my breath and signaled to the other two, indicating they should use this opportunity to slip inside.

Nie Chuan, still clucking, gently pushed Daxiong forward, and the two of them successfully passed the giant's checkpoint.

But just a few steps after us, a massive hand suddenly shot out from behind and snatched Nie Chuan, pulling him back.

As Daxiong was about to curse, another giant hand emerged and seized him too.

In truth, fearing some unforeseen incident from the very beginning, I had already amassed three layers of Flame Psionic Energy in my hands, and I was aiming my fist backward, ready to unleash an attack.

What I witnessed instead was the giant chuckling as he gently rubbed both of them against his face.

Clearly, the giant was thoroughly delighted by their earlier performance and was expressing his affection.

Although this display of camaraderie seemed a bit much between men, Daxiong and Nie Chuan could only endure it with grim resignation.

The giant rubbed them for a moment, then set them back on the ground.

He then fished a set of keys from his waist pouch, glanced at us, and walked forward.

Reaching the front, he gestured for us to follow.

The three of us exchanged glances, deciding to follow, as the giant's actions gave us no indication of malice.

Following the giant forward, we soon came upon a staircase winding upward into the darkness.

The surroundings were pitch-black, save for the light from the lantern the giant carried, illuminating the path ahead.

He looked back at us once, then started climbing.

We hurried to follow, noticing that the steps were much taller than normal, each riser nearly half a meter high, making the climb strenuous.

Crucially, under the giant's guidance, as we ascended, the staircase abruptly ended at a precipice of sheer, empty darkness.

The giant then waved his lantern in front of him, and not far ahead, another lantern flickered to life.

A deep, rumbling sound echoed as a section of stairs extended out from the void, connecting seamlessly with the part we stood upon.

This extension allowed us to proceed; in short, without the giant's intervention, we would have been unable to advance ourselves.

I inwardly thought how lucky it was that we hadn't tried to ascend alone; otherwise, we would have had to backtrack.

If we had gone back for the giant, with only one token between us, only one person would have been allowed passage.

It seemed the impromptu crosstalk routine had served an unexpectedly powerful purpose.

After several such maneuvers of extending stairs, we finally arrived at a wide platform.

I realized that throughout the process, I had never gotten a clear look at the person who had materialized the stairs ahead of us.

The giant led us to a massive iron door, which was bound by chains as thick as a man's arm and secured with a bronze lock the size of a fist.

"Where is this?

A dungeon?" Daxiong asked doubtfully, seeing the heavy restraints.

But we didn't need to answer him, because as soon as we approached the door, we could hear lively human chatter emanating from within.

Before unlocking the door, the giant rummaged through the burlap sack he carried and handed each of us a black cloth cloak.

The cloaks looked ancient and rather shoddy, yet they radiated a strange energy.

I wondered internally, "Could this 'thing' be the legendary, cliché invisibility cloak?" Daxiong clearly thought the same, hurriedly throwing the cloak over himself and asking, "Am I invisible now?

Am I invisible?" Nie Chuan shook his head and replied, "No, this cloak smells awful." However, I was astonished, because once Daxiong put on the cloak, the Psionic Energy signature emanating from him vanished from my sight.

It seemed this wasn't an invisibility cloak but one that concealed one's aura.

Daxiong started to pull the cloak off, but I stopped him, saying, "Don't take it off; this cloak hides our presence." Daxiong paused, asking, "That amazing?" After the three of us donned the cloaks, the giant seemed quite satisfied.

He produced a key and unlocked the bronze padlock.

Releasing the chains from the door, he pulled the heavy iron portal open just a crack.

From that gap, a cacophony of laughter and bright light immediately spilled out, piquing our curiosity.

Then, as if compelled by some unseen force, we unconsciously slipped through the narrow opening.

The moment we entered, we saw a room teeming with figures moving about.

Most were quite tall, and even the shortest among them dwarfed us.

Although the room was brightly lit, strangely, we could only perceive them as mere black silhouettes.

Daxiong and Nie Chuan also found this odd and turned to look at me.

I spread my hands, having no explanation, and whispered softly, "Maybe that's just how these people normally appear." But Nie Chuan countered, "No, these people must be real.

Even if the people are illusory, the tables and wine cups cannot both be shadows.

Look at those few people sitting at the table, clinking glasses—even their cups are nothing but black silhouettes." We looked up and indeed saw that everything in the room, including the furnishings, appeared only as ethereal shapes.

Daxiong considered this and said, "That’s easy enough!

We can touch those shadows and see if they’re solid or not!" Saying this, Daxiong started walking toward a figure approaching us.

Seeing the man's fat head and ears that drooped down his face, along with the rake-like weapon slung over his back, I quickly grabbed Daxiong and stopped him, saying, "Wait, look closely, who does this person resemble?" Daxiong froze, then studied the round-bellied, portly figure, the drooping ears, and the tine-raked weapon on his back—it was too familiar.

Daxiong exclaimed, "Holy hell, is that Zhu Bajie from Journey to the West?" Nie Chuan agreed, "He looks just like him, incredibly similar." "Why would Zhu Bajie be here?

Strange," I murmured with some surprise.

"Look at that one over there, doesn't that look like the legendary Guanyin Bodhisattva?" I pointed to a woman in the corner playing a pipa.

They looked where I pointed and immediately recognized the familiar veil-like headwear, as well as the vase placed beside the woman—it was Guanyin's Jade Pure Vase.

However, what was bizarre was that this Guanyin was missing a leg; she was lame.

The other two clearly noticed this detail, leaving them momentarily speechless.

A moment later, Daxiong added, "Look at that Zhu Bajie—it looks like he's missing two fingers too." We looked closer; the Zhu Bajie figure was grasping a wine jar and drinking heavily, and indeed, his index and middle fingers were gone.

"It's full of crippled deities everywhere..." Nie Chuan whispered, his tone bordering on horrified awe.

After a silence, I told Daxiong, "Go see if Zhu Bajie's rake is actually real." Daxiong nodded and carefully navigated through the crowd of bizarre-looking figures until he reached Zhu Bajie.

He then reached out to grab the Nine-Toothed Rake.

Unexpectedly, when his hand made contact, he actually grasped a solid object.

The strangest part was that no matter how hard he pulled, the Nine-Toothed Rake didn't budge in the slightest.

He strained with all his might, breaking into a sweat, finally drawing the attention of Zhu Bajie.

The Rake, whatever its immense weight, felt feather-light in Daxiong's grip.

With a swift motion, Zhu Bajie snatched it up, the weapon rapidly shrinking as he tucked it into his sleeve.

Seeing this divine power, we were all stunned into silence.

At this point, Zhu Bajie's hand began to grope wildly in the air, seemingly sensing something amiss.

Daxiong narrowly avoided having his collar caught and scrambled down, shuffling back toward us.

"They can't see us...

but we can see their phantom forms.

The Rake is real; my personal record for lifting was three hundred pounds, and that Rake was far heavier than that," Daxiong told me, his face pale.

I nodded, my own palms sweating, and looked at the surrounding dark silhouettes, beginning to theorize what kind of situation we had stumbled into.