Chapter 89 - 86 Human Turtle

Chapter 89: Chapter 86 Human Turtle"Father was contaminated by a drop of blood between the brows, which caused him to lose his last principles. Since then, he indulged my brother, and my brother no longer acted recklessly but instead became arrogant and domineering! In the years that followed, my brother treated the masters, apprentices and even his senior brothers in the troupe as lowly servants, beating and scolding them at will, entirely based on his mood. He befriended many disreputable associates, frequented brothels, gambled and smoked opium. What didn’t he do? He became the infamous Evil Young Master of Ping Shui Prefecture. Afterward, the spirit of the Zhou Family’s Troupe began to disperse, and our business started to decline." Zhou Lingyi pointed east and west, saying, "The hundred-meter-long street to the east and the dozen or so residences to the west, they were all once properties of the Zhou Family’s Troupe. In recent years, they became chips, opium, and tips for brothel women in my brother’s hands. The wealth earned by our ancestors was not easily gained but was squandered in just a few years." Zhou Xuan asked, "Did Grandfather not intervene? He was sometimes clear-headed, despite being confused most of the time." "Having been confused for so long, his occasional clarity lasted only half a day before being deceived by Father, who was contaminated by Alien Ghost blood, to take medicine. After drinking it, Grandfather would soon fall into a sleep, returning to his confused state, until two years ago, when he woke up in the middle of the night. Father, stepmother, and brother were not by his side, so he went into the courtyard and found that the Ancestor Tree had withered terribly!" Zhou Lingyi stood up, gently touching the Ancestor Tree, and said, "The Ancestor Tree is the root of the Zhou Family, nourishing many wandering souls, but it too needs to be nourished. What nourishes it is the vitality of the Zhou Family’s Troupe. My brother was tyrannical in the troupe. For the first two years, the troupe members endured for the sake of their livelihood, but people are not beasts; enduring too long under oppression has its limits. Finally, third and second senior brothers left. Fourth senior brother was on and off with the Zhou Family’s Troupe, and only the first senior brother continued to struggle to support it! The senior brothers were like this; the masters left in even greater numbers. The Zhou Family’s Troupe declined, with so few people, which caused the Ancestor Tree to wither. Grandfather finally realized what had happened, cried like a child, and then sought out the first senior brother, taking a train to Mingjiang Prefecture to desperately beg me to come back and take charge of the Zhou Family’s Troupe!" "The Zhou Family’s Troupe treated you this way, yet you came back, sister. You are too kind-hearted..." Zhou Xuan finally spoke up for his sister. "If I didn’t return, the Ancestor Tree would die... If the Ancestor Tree died, many people would be buried with it, not just our family, but Grandfather too, he is my family!" Zhou Lingyi suddenly bowed her head and said, "After coming back, I sent Father and stepmother to the God Traveling Department on the grounds that they were contaminated by the Alien Ghost! I disciplined my brother with a firm hand. As long as he dared to act recklessly, I would beat him, but every time I beat him, it only made him hate me more... I could feel his hatred, but the only way to discipline such a thoroughly corrupt Evil Young Master, who disregarded life, was through beating! For the masters, senior brothers, and apprentices, I didn’t have many methods to win them over other than to raise their salaries a bit, make their work easier, and let them suffer less bullying." Zhou Xuan thought to himself, no wonder the people in the troupe all respected his sister! By using both tough and gentle methods, she forcibly revived the declining Zhou Family’s Troupe. How could people not admire her? "Sister, everything is in the past." Zhou Xuan poured two glasses of wine, handing one to Zhou Lingyi and holding the other himself. "Brother, you are the hope of the Zhou Family’s Troupe." Zhou Lingyi clinked glasses with Zhou Xuan: "Brother, let me know when you’re ready to take charge of the Zhou Family’s Troupe. You are not an Evil Young Master, you are more like a businessman than I am... It’s rare to drink so much, I’m sleepy now." As she left, Zhou Xuan was overcome with complex emotions. So, the reason his sister willingly recounted the past and revealed that he wasn’t her real brother was actually to make him take over the Zhou Family’s Troupe! "Alas, through death to life, this damned advancement ceremony... but if not for it, I would only cause my sister more suffering." Zhou Xuan was initially angry but suddenly understood the situation and began to mumble. Blood Well Spirit Communicators, who give up incense offerings, are reduced to being tormented daily by side effects, preyed upon by various powers. Could he really have his sister take care of and protect him for a lifetime? She had already suffered so much! "Tomorrow, I must tell the story of Lady Lianhua wonderfully. It’s the last small thing I can do for my sister before my promotion." Zhou Xuan poured himself a glass of wine and drank it before returning to his room. ... At one-thirty in the morning, Ji Wa was walking along the main street in front of the Zhou Family’s Troupe. He had agreed with Lord Buddha to take him for a meal at two in the morning. Therefore, he had taken a leave from the Zhou Family’s Troupe for the entire day, not returning once, because leaving at two in the morning without an excuse like Lao Ma’s coal run would raise suspicions. He went to Back Mountain Lane, entered the back mountain, and after crossing two ridges, he found a small path, winding around until he reached the well, the well of blood and corpse oil. Kneeling on the ground, he bowed three times and said, "Lord Buddha, it’s two in the morning, time to eat." "Strip." In the well, the blood bubbled twice, and a hoarse voice emanated. Ji Wa stood up, taking off all his clothes and folding them neatly under a thick bamboo pole. Then he took out a prepared vine, gripping one end with both hands, swung it behind him, and as it arced through the air, it bent downward, striking his back. "Smack!" The vine left a shocking bloody welt on his back. He swung again; the vine struck again, leaving another bloody welt. Like a masochist, he lashed his own back a dozen times, then lay prone at the edge of the well, pressing the ground with all four limbs, immediately causing a commotion in the well as a giant turtle emerged, climbing onto Ji Wa’s back, transforming into a stream of black smoke and burrowing into the bloody welts on Ji Wa’s back. Ji Wa’s back injuries visibly healed, but a human face appeared on his back, with a turtle shell pattern on the brow of the face. "Thank you, Lord Buddha." Ji Wa dared not stand, fearing to disturb Lord Buddha as if he were a human sedan chair, crawling on all fours toward the bamboo forest’s depths—where the actor had placed "food" in advance, a family of three alive! ... While Ji Wa chewed and swallowed blood and flesh, the face on his back looked skyward, and the turtle shell pattern on its brow kept rotating. It was predicting, calculating whether the God Traveling Department had traced it. The God Traveling Department knew its name, which wasn’t really Lord Buddha, but "Human Turtle." "Seven years, I’ve been plotting for seven years within the Zhou Family’s Troupe. As soon as I kill Zhou Xuan and the moment his soul dies and is buried, that thing can appear, and I will never have to lead this life of hiding. That wandering soul from who knows where ruined my plans!" The Human Turtle was cautious, not daring to vent even in words, only daring to curse silently in its mind. Born eight years ago, the Human Turtle predicted the treasure’s trail, located in the Blood Well. With that, it could bid farewell to the days of evasion. However, ordinary people couldn’t obtain it, yet Zhou Xuan of the Zhou Family’s Troupe could! The Zhou Family were descendants of Nuodai, Zhou Xuan’s blood and flesh contained the aura of the Nuo God, though weak. Beyond the Nuo God’s aura, intense resentment was also needed. Only an heir to the Nuo God teetering on the brink of madness with overwhelming resentment would possess the requisite aura to retrieve the object from the Blood Well. At that time, Zhou Xuan’s resentment was woefully insufficient. So, leveraging its predictions, the Human Turtle began its plotting. The catalyst was the expulsion of Zhou Lingyi by Zhou Xuan from the Zhou Family’s Troupe seven years ago... Seven years ago, the Human Turtle first made its move in the human world, polluting Zhou Xuan’s father with a drop of blood from between its brows. It didn’t need to overly control him, just have him do two things. First, indulge Zhou Xuan in his wrongdoing, allowing him to morph into a thoroughly corrupt Evil Young Master, hastening the Zhou Family’s Troupe’s decline! Second, have him administer medicine to the old man during his waking moments, delaying the old man’s comprehension of the troupe’s decay. Over the ensuing years, Zhou Xuan’s nature evolved compliant with the Human Turtle’s machination, laden with vice and arrogance. Two years ago, the Human Turtle deliberately refrained from having Zhou Xuan’s father administer medicine to the old Class Leader, awakening him that very night to summon Zhou Lingyi back to helm the troupe. In the subsequent two years, Zhou Lingyi adopted incredibly stern methods against Zhou Xuan, mercilessly beating him for any misstep. Heh, an Evil Young Master had lost normal human empathy and wouldn’t reflect. Beatings from Zhou Lingyi didn’t make him see his faults, only that he lacked the strength to resist her! His resentment quickly festered. The Human Turtle’s scheme took effect. Thinking the pace wasn’t fast enough, it dispatched one of its few followers, the incense master of the Ping Shui Prefecture branch, Li Jintang, to win over Zhou Xuan, pamper him with drinks, and brainwash him daily on how malicious and hard-hearted Zhou Lingyi was. "Mr. Zhou, without your sister, the Zhou Family’s Troupe is yours; she’s usurped everything from you." "The monthly pittance she grants you, Mr. Zhou, is less than what beggars receive at my doorstep. Were I in your position, I couldn’t endure it." "Just watch, now Zhou Lingyi’s tenure has been short, but once her position’s cemented, she’ll sooner or later kill you." "She’d never dare kill me!" "Not dare? As long as you live, her title as the Class Leader remains questionable!" "I... I... I will kill her first!" That day, Zhou Xuan resolved to kill Zhou Lingyi! And that day, his heart swelled with resentment. The Human Turtle’s arrangement came to fruition. It instructed Li Jintang to set up an ancient sacrificial array in the basement of a Western-style house in West Jiamu District, opening the Blood Well, and dispatching the resentful Zhou Xuan to retrieve the item! The events unfolding should have proceeded smoothly — Zhou Xuan’s death leading to the Human Turtle retrieving the object. But unfortunately, a major glitch occurred, allowing Zhou Xuan to escape. Henceforth, Zhou Xuan stayed secluded within the Zhou Family’s Troupe, the Human Turtle didn’t dare to make a frontal assault on the troupe with Zhou Lingyi and the Ancestor Tree in command, let alone with the aid of a nearly Seven Incense Sticks’ level Divine Person. Not to mention, it didn’t possess the necessary Dao Level, nor could Ping Shui Prefecture muster more than a handful of Yin spirits and Divine People capable of directly attacking the Zhou Family’s Troupe. Fortunately, a hidden move remained. Li Shuangyi struck during the Nu festival, collaborating with the Human Turtle. The Human Turtle concealed its aura so effectively that it evaded years of pursuit by the God Traveling Department, assisting in cloaking the commotion of Li Shuangyi’s Ghost Play in the Zhou Family’s courtyard, a trivial task. That day, it took the risk of occupying Lao Ma’s body, appearing at the banquet table, successfully drawing out Zhou Xuan’s soul. Assuming the mission was accomplished, only awaiting the object Zhou Xuan possessed to manifest within the Zhou Family’s Troupe. What the Human Turtle had never accounted for was—both the old man and the Ancestor Tree of the Zhou Family’s Troupe awoke, unbeknownst to it, they summoned a wandering soul from somewhere, replacing Zhou Xuan! Zhou Xuan merely had his soul switched, but the item acknowledged not the soul, but the essence of the Nuo God within Zhou Xuan’s body. The object still hadn’t surfaced! "Drawing water with a bamboo basket to no avail!" The Human Turtle aimed to kill the current Zhou Xuan but found him significantly more challenging than before, and impossible to predict! No matter how the turtle shell on Human Turtle’s brow turned, it could not deduce the past life or current life of Zhou Xuan’s soul. "Not good, the God Traveling Department’s monitors appeared." The turtle shell on Human Turtle’s brow suddenly halted, realizing things had gone awry... PS: Good brothers, I’ve written nearly ten thousand words today, will write more updates tomorrow.