Underworld Player Chapter 66 – Rainfall Pavilion

The fourth shop was called Rainfall Pavilion.

It seemed completely different than the previous three shops. Even the name gave little indication of what kind of challenge it might hold.

Also unlike the previous three shops, the entity in charge of the Pavilion looked almost normal—emphasis on "almost"—she was a nubile young lady dressed in traditional Chinese clothing with long, raven-black hair down to her waist.

While the other shops had looked like normal rooms on the inside, this one looked less like a typical shop and more like a peaceful, quiet bamboo grove, albeit one where the plants looked sickly and yellow instead of the normal vibrant green. The ground in this space seemed to be earth, unlike the sticky, squishy stuff outside, but bore the same unsettling, reddish hue...

Bai Zhi could not help thinking that the place was the perfect location for a ghost movie.

As he stepped deeper into the bamboo grove, Bai Zhi spotted the ghostly girl sitting amongst the tall stalks, gently running her fingers along a zither*. She had stopped plucking when he entered, but the lingering reverberations of the final notes echoed around him.

From behind her instrument, the girl raised her eyes slowly to look at him. In an unusually airy voice, she said, "Sire, the test of the Rainfall Pavilion doth musicality be. If thine tune canst best the sound of mine own zither, 'tis but meet to name thee the victor.

"You got any instruments here that I know how to play?"

Bai Zhi quirked an eyebrow as he scanned the modestly-sized bamboo grove.

"Any instrument that thou desireth, sire, shall thee find at hand," said the girl, fixing him with a placid gaze. "One need only give it form in the mind's eye."

"Oh..."

Bai Zhi gave it a shot and focused his imagination. Looking down, he found that an erhu** had materialized from out of nowhere in his hands, and he turned his attention eagerly to the ghostly girl.

"If winning means besting the sound of your zither, what happens if I fail to do so?"

Based on his experiences at each shop so far,

…