Chapter 14 A Fine Play
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"What kind of abilities does Nuodai have?"
Zhou Xuan was a pragmatist. He wasn't fond of vague explanations; he preferred specifics.
"Summoning gods into one's body,
for a Nuodai, a mask is akin to a god,
the higher the Dao Level of the Nuodai,
the more masks they could wear,
the more gods they could summon,
other Divine People borrow the power of gods,
but Nuodai,
are the gods themselves!"
Zhou Lingyi's answer remained obscure, like what kind of Dao Level was required to wear a mask, or, for instance, what the gods they summoned actually looked like...
There were too many unclear aspects, making her words sound like hollow concepts.
*But what could be done?*
The last Nuodai to emerge from the Zhou Family's Troupe was a hundred years ago. Time had eroded memories, or perhaps, there were no memories at all.
The legacy of Nuodai was passed down through silent transmissions of thought. After worshipping the Ancestral Nuomian and gaining the ancestors' acknowledgment, one would be guided into a certain Secret Realm.
Those who entered the Secret Realm rarely spoke of its mysteries to outsiders, who, having never been in, naturally couldn't unravel its secrets.
The Zhou Family's Troupe, in its quest to understand Nuodai, could only seek clues in the cryptic words of family manuscripts or catch glimpses in ancestral stories passed down through generations.
"No wonder there are so few Nuodai successors. It's hidden so deeply; who could learn it? We're all family, so why not be more generous."
Zhou Xuan criticized the Nuo God for being stingy in front of the Ancestral Nuomian.
Quite bold.
"Heh."
Zhou Lingyi let out a snort, not fully agreeing with Zhou Xuan's "family" perspective.
The abilities of Divine People were learned from gods,
while ghostly people's abilities were learned from Evil Ghosts.
The relationships between Divine People and gods, ghostly people and Evil Ghosts, could take many forms, intertwining a myriad of strange emotions.
But they certainly weren't "family" relationships, nor were the emotions linked to them tender.
"Brother, why don't you go worship the Ancestral Nuomian? Maybe... I mean maybe, you'll be able to enter the Nuodai Secret Realm... Hey... I haven't even finished speaking, and you're already worshipping? Why so eager?"
Zhou Xuan worshipped with such steadiness, hands pressed together, eyes closed, silently chanting, *"Greetings, ancestors, I am your devoted Xuan."*
Such an attitude, anyone would praise as devout.
Yet he changed his face so quickly.
One moment, he was critiquing the Nuo God, and the next, he was so eager to gain the ancestors' approval and inherit the power of the Nuo God.
"Sister, it's not that I'm impatient; I just really want to progress!"
"Well... first, you should face the right direction when you worship."
Zhou Xuan opened his eyes, and surprise! There wasn't a single hole in the wall in front of him, naturally meaning no Nuomian was placed there.
The Nuomian was to his right.
"That was hasty, I neglected the details."
Zhou Xuan changed his direction and worshipped devoutly once more.
This time,
there was no response,
like worshipping a clay idol sitting silently in a temple,
you perform your rites, I remain seated, neither party disturbing the other.
"Sister, if the ancestors acknowledged me as a Nuodai, what kind of sign would there be?"
"The masks would tremble and hum together, and regardless of whether it was night or day outside the hall, a ray of heavenly light would shine in.
The heavenly light would repair the damaged parts of the masks, restoring the glory of our ancestors."
*Is it really that extravagant?*
Zhou Xuan stared at the unmoving Nuomian, unable to believe the scene his sister described.
Wait...!
The Ancestral Nuomians began to make a sound.
The mask on the wall, black like charcoal, seemed to shiver, like a patient with a severe fever and chills. Most of the time, it seemed fine, but it would suddenly twitch.
Gradually, the trembling grew more intense. It jumped and bounced, and with a slight mishap, it tumbled sideways into the wall hole,
even then, the Nuomian continued to twitch like a fish flopping on dry land.
"Thud, thud!"
The twitching made loud, pounding noises, which, if listened to closely, sounded like an angry person.
The Nuomian's movements grew ever more vigorous, this fish seemed to be gathering its strength, attempting to leap back into the water, to regain its freedom.
Finally,
the mask gathered enough force, and with a sudden jump, it flipped upside down.
With its forehead down, mouth up, it stood upright.
The expressions of the masters observing Zhou Xuan's worship in the Silent Hall turned unpleasant.
An inverted mask was something everyone in the Zhou Family's Troupe knew the significance of.
A diligent master focused entirely on the corpse before him, missing the scene. Another master gave him a nudge in the waist, then, raising his eyebrows and giving meaningful looks, signaled him to turn around and see.
Upon seeing the inverted Nuomian, the diligent master murmured softly, "It seems the rumors are true! An inverted Nuomian, hehe."
Everyone stayed silent in agreement, except for a scant few whispering, all coldly observing.
The Zhou Family's Troupe was in for some drama...
As the people in the hall waited silently for the show to unfold, Zhou Xuan suddenly complained to Zhou Lingyi, "Sister, why are the ancestors cursing people?"
"Cursing?" Zhou Lingyi was quite puzzled.
She had worshipped the Nuomian more than once or twice, and she'd never heard any curses from the ancestors through the Nuomian.
"They said I was unfilial, already an adult and only now thinking to worship them... Ah, they even told me to get lost? Haha... fine, I'll get lost!"
Zhou Xuan was furious,
feeling the Zhou Family's ancestors lacked class!
"Heh... cough." Zhou Lingyi was amused by Zhou Xuan's way of speaking the toughest words in the most cowardly tone.
In such a solemn setting for worshipping the Nuomian, she couldn't help but laugh out loud. Fortunately, she immediately realized the inappropriateness after a chuckle, and quickly coughed twice, using a decorative fan to cover her mouth and nose to hide the embarrassment.
Zhou Xuan huffed angrily and strode out of the hall.
...
Once outside the hall,
Zhou Xuan let out a sigh of relief, *phew*, fortunately, I acted decisively.
Earlier, he had lied to Zhou Lingyi.
The ancestors did curse, but the content was entirely different from what Zhou Xuan had shared.
The truth was,
when the charcoal Nuomian trembled, Zhou Xuan's ears were flooded with a cacophony of curses.
"He's not of the Zhou Family's blood! He's a ghostly creature."
"A cuckoo in a robin's nest!"
"How can the Zhou Family's lineage be used as a garment for another!"
"Impertinence! What manner of little ghost, show your true form."
Almost all the Nuomian perceived Zhou Xuan's true identity.
The chaotic voices enshrouded Zhou Xuan, leading his mind toward confusion.
Luckily, the white noise kicked in.
"Shh~ shh~ shh."
The white noise acted like an impenetrable wall, with Zhou Xuan and those abusive voices separated on each side.
*Neither could affect the other.*
*His mind regained clarity, and in that moment, he had but one thought—do not stand under a crumbling wall, especially when the wind beckons you to leave.*
The Nuomian cursed so fiercely, anything could have happened if he lingered a moment longer.
But leaving the Silent Hall required a reason.
Leaving without a word might help him avoid the Nuomian's situation, but how to explain it to Zhou Lingyi?
*His sister was a formidable person,*
*the scene where she lured Wu Yun and extracted the Ghost baby's heart was still vivid in his memory.*
If she began to suspect, given her methods, it was only a matter of time before his identity was exposed.
Once she discovered he was an impostor brother,
*his end would likely be no better than Wu Yun or the Ghost baby.*
Zhou Xuan quickly devised a plan, deliberately recounting the "ancestral cursing" incident, but reinterpreting the content to make his departure seem reasonable.
"In the future, I must limit my visits to the Silent Hall. It doesn't matter if I don't become a Nuodai. What's crucial is my life." Zhou Xuan was truly someone who had died before; those who have died once cherish life more than ordinary people.
...
As Zhou Xuan exited the Silent Hall, the people's gaze remained fixed on the inverted Nuomian on the wall.
An inverted Nuomian signaled an intention to the people in the Zhou Family's Troupe, usually pointing out wronged injustices within the troupe.
If the rumors about Zhou Xuan were true, it was the gravest injustice in the Zhou Family's Troupe, and all the Nuomians would invert.
Zhou Lingyi could never tolerate the Zhou Family's bloodline being tainted by outsiders, and she would certainly take measures to remove the wandering soul occupying Zhou Xuan's body.
This was the drama everyone anticipated.
Minute by minute passed,
three minutes,
five minutes,
ten minutes,
the scene everyone awaited did not occur, apart from the charcoal Nuomian inverting; the rest of the Nuomians were as immovable as if nailed to a board.
Gradually,
everyone's interest waned, the burning hearts for gossip cooled one by one, fewer watched the Nuomians, and more focused diligently on their tasks.
Ultimately, there was no drama to see,
but still,
the old Class Leader was a higher being,
the Ancestor Tree had protected the Zhou Family's Troupe for many years,
with the old Class Leader as the sacrifice, awakening the Ancestor Tree that had lain dormant for a century, how could there be errors in the souls summoned?
"These days, I'd let lard cover my heart. For some unknown reason, I believed someone's rumors and even doubted the old Class Leader's Dao Level." Such thoughts spread rapidly within the Silent Hall.
The Silent Hall resumed its usual operation, with Zhou Lingyi reclining on a chair, closing her eyes for a rest, her fan still resting on her abdomen, her right hand clenched at her waist as if holding onto something.
The masters continued handling the six bodies of the executed felons.
They preserved them as needed, scented them where necessary,
though the masters felt that today's six bodies clutched their right hands unusually tight, impossible to pry open.
If they couldn't pry them open, they wouldn't try,
just a minor part omitted in handling the palm; after the two ceremonial plays tomorrow, they'd be sent up the mountain, and that would suffice.
...
Working late into the night, the handling of the six bodies concluded, awaiting tomorrow when the stage's makeup artists would dress the bodies for the ceremonial play.
It was time to wrap up.
Lv Mingkun, with clasped fists, greeted everyone, then with a cheerful smile, handed out small envelopes to each person, "Thank you for your hard work, truly."
The envelopes contained thirty-three pieces of Jing Country Currency—a modest sum, for good fortune.
Everyone accepted the envelopes, thanked Lv Mingkun, and returned to their quarters for sleep.
"Class Leader, the task is done."
The masters had all left, Zhou Lingyi seemed to have fallen asleep, remaining motionless.
Lv Kunming, concerned about the cool night, gently reminded her.
Zhou Lingyi opened her eyes, gazed at the empty Silent Hall, and pointed at the inverted Nuomian, resembling a block of black charcoal, saying, "Fifth Brother, you go back first. My brother upset the ancestors; I need to say something nice to them."
"Understood."
Lv Mingkun exited the hall, lantern in hand, lighting his path back to his room.
As the lantern's glow grew ever dimmer in the distance, Zhou Lingyi finally burst into a heartfelt laugh.
She had overseen the Zhou Family's Troupe early on, ordinarily keeping her emotions hidden, neither laughing nor being wrathful. Over time, she cared less about expressing emotion, but today was a rare occasion of genuine laughter and emotion.
All because of Zhou Xuan.
Thinking of her brother,
Zhou Lingyi's lips curved into another smile as she spoke to herself, "Brother, in many ways you're not like him, but when you lie... Hmm... you're still not quite like him. Your way of lying is far more amusing."
As she spoke,
Zhou Lingyi's gaze shifted once more to the masks adorning the wall.
In the eyes of ordinary people, these masks naturally held no particular significance, but in Zhou Lingyi's eyes, each mask was bound by an invisible red string.
The hall had twenty-seven Nuomian masks, thus there were twenty-seven red strings.
The red strings binding the Nuomian extended outward, first held by Zhou Lingyi's right hand, the ends clutched tightly by the six corpses.
Zhou Lingyi addressed the six corpses, saying, "Everyone's gone. You can stop straining the strings now."
The six corpses, upon hearing this, suddenly loosened their tightly curled right hands.
Zhou Lingyi also let go, and the tension from the strands instantly disappeared.
Instantly, the sound of clattering collisions was incessant.
The twenty-seven ancestral Nuomian masks in the Silent Hall, free from the confinement of the red strings, all began to leap like jumping fish.
First, they trembled, then leveraged the force, and finally, with a sharp turn, flipped upside down, without exception.
"Without you six helping hands, to steady so many ancestral Nuomian masks and prevent outsiders from noticing, I fear I would've faced many hardships."
All the masks should have turned upside down, but Zhou Lingyi stopped them.
The six corpses had served as laborers, assisting her in pulling the strings tight.
Without these six helpers, Zhou Lingyi could still manage the situation, but not with the same ease. It might have exposed the flaws to the masters.
The six corpses were no mere freeloaders, helping was not without compensation.
Though they laid prone, their arms reached toward the ceiling, straight as beams.
When the hands of the dead do not rest, it indicates intrigue in their deaths... They sought Zhou Lingyi's aid for the mysteries surrounding their demise.
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