Chapter 94 - 91 The Fated Death

Chapter 94: Chapter 91 The Fated DeathLi Shuangyi was asleep, and there were only the faint sounds of snoring in the room. Zhou Xuan’s feelings toward Third Brother were slightly complicated. He admired Li Shuangyi’s dedication to the art of opera and appreciated his patience when teaching his disciples. But there seemed to be a barrier between him and Li Shuangyi; no matter what, they just couldn’t get along. As Zhou Xuan got closer to the Third Brother’s room, he saw the hidden images in Li Shuangyi’s heart. [Huimin Inn, hot pot restaurant, private room. All five brothers gathered together, Yu Zhengyuan raised his glass and congratulated the beaming Li Shuangyi and Liu Jiaotian, saying, "Old Third! Congratulations on your opportunity with Liu Jiaotian to join the pear garden. From now on, sing well and make a name for yourself without bringing shame to the Zhou Family’s Troupe!" Lv Mingkun raised his glass too and said, "Congratulations, congratulations." Second Brother Zheng Jiujang, who had the best relationship with Li Shuangyi, said, "It’s about time. That Zhou Xuan is like mud that can’t stick to the wall and following him will lead to no good end." Yu Jia became furious at the mention of "Zhou Xuan," lifted his glass, and complained, "If you’re congratulating Old Third, just do that—why mention Zhou Xuan and spoil the mood." "I have loved opera since childhood, and this time, I am grateful for the Class Leader’s kindness. In the future, we should continue to gather often. We five brothers are as close as real brothers." Li Shuangyi tilted his head and drank his wine in one gulp. Just at this moment, the door to the private room was kicked open, Zhou Xuan barged in with a mob of fierce servants. "Ha ha, all five brothers are here! You must have a strong bond. Li Shuangyi, sign this document." Zhou Xuan slapped a contract, black on white paper, onto the table. The contract demanded that Li Shuangyi continue singing with the Zhou Family’s Troupe for twenty more years. "I won’t sign." Li Shuangyi said, "Thanks to the old Class Leader’s kindness, the contract term was short when I first learned opera. My contract for learning opera is up now. The old Class Leader awoke yesterday, and I have already submitted my resignation to him. The old Class Leader even encouraged me to explore the pear garden." "My grandpa was muddle-headed. Do his words even count? Sign it!" Zhou Xuan threatened Li Shuangyi. "I won’t sign. I absolutely won’t sign." "You won’t sign? I’ll make you sign." Zhou Xuan slammed Li Shuangyi’s head onto the table. "The Zhou Family’s Troupe spent money to raise you, and now that you’ve developed a bit of a voice, you want to part ways with us? Who do you think you are!" Li Shuangyi, who learned martial arts roles since childhood, was inherently stubborn and retorted, "I will always remember the kindness of the old Class Leader from the Zhou Family’s Troupe, but I won’t sign for you. Look at what you’ve turned the Zhou Family’s Troupe into. You don’t deserve to speak of the Zhou Family’s Troupe." "Still talking back?" Zhou Xuan punched Li Shuangyi in the mouth. Yu Zhengyuan attempted to mediate but was pushed away by Zhou Xuan. "Since all you brothers are here, I’ll make an example of you to show that the Young Master is not easy to bully!" "Hold him down for me!" Two fierce servants held Li Shuangyi’s arms and legs down. Zhou Xuan lifted some burning charcoal with chopsticks, grabbed Li Shuangyi’s mouth with his left hand, and shoved the charcoal in. Zheng Jiujang jumped in to try pulling Zhou Xuan away but took a knee to the groin, writhing in agony on the ground. Liu Jiaotian wept as he tugged at Zhou Xuan’s hand, "Let my brother go. I’ll sign the contract with the Zhou Family’s Troupe for 20 years, 30 years—whatever it takes." Zhou Xuan ignored him, and as the first piece of charcoal burned out, he went for a second. Li Shuangyi’s mouth was scorched, covered in blisters! It was only when the third piece was being picked up that a small knife was nailed to the table. Lv Mingkun’s patience had reached its limit. "Young Master, enough!" "You son of a..." Zhou Xuan was about to curse at Lv Mingkun. Lv Mingkun, eyes reddened, pulled out the knife and said, "I have paid respects to the Ancestor Tree as the Grand Master. The old Class Leader’s kindness is heavier than a mountain on my shoulders. I should not lay a hand on any member of the Zhou Family, but I can’t stand this anymore. If you touch Third Brother again, I’ll kill you! At worst, I’ll let the Grand Master take my life—whatever the punishment is!" This was the first time Lv Mingkun showed anger toward anyone from the Zhou Family’s Troupe! Zhou Xuan felt the surging murderous intent and dared not act tough any longer. He grunted and left the Huimin Inn with his men. Li Shuangyi cried bitterly, "I can never sing again..." After seeing what happened to Li Shuangyi, Zhou Xuan recalled when he was driving Third Brother home, and upon discussing Li Shuangyi’s voice, Third Brother suddenly looked at him with "hatred." "Third Brother doesn’t like me, and now I understand him." *Ruining the voice of someone obsessed with opera would indeed create a deep grudge.* *Suddenly,* Zhou Xuan understood many things. *No wonder Fourth Brother Yu Jia called me Young Master and was reluctant to call me Little Brother.* *Even just the way he addressed me revealed a significant rift between us.* *At that tragic banquet where Li Shuangyi’s voice was destroyed, Yu Jia probably already lost hope in the Zhou Family’s Troupe and the former Zhou Xuan.* As Zhou Xuan walked past Second Brother Zheng Jiujang’s room, he saw Zheng Jiujang’s hidden image. His image was simple—standing up for Third Brother and getting kicked in the groin by the former Zhou Xuan, writhing in pain on the ground. "That kick probably left Second Brother..." Zhou Xuan then understood why whenever Second Sister-in-law Song Jie talked a little more with the other masters and brothers, Zheng Jiujang turned green. *A man’s problem in that department causes loss of dignity and leads to excessive suspicion and inferiority.* The outermost room in the inner courtyard belonged to Fifth Brother Lv Mingkun. Senior Brother Lv was asleep, sleeping very peacefully, with even his breathing barely audible, but the lights in the room were on. "Now I know, Senior Brother Lv, who usually appears to be a good-natured person, is actually a tough guy and truly loyal! Unfortunately, a few days ago, I didn’t have a good drink with Senior Brother Lv!" As Zhou Xuan walked under the house, he also saw the hidden image in Senior Brother Lv’s heart. [In front of a wooden house stood a large pagoda tree, On the tree was a human skin, about thirty years old, with a bamboo leaf-shaped small knife piercing the forehead, nailed to the tree. The wind blew, making the human skin flutter in the wind, This human skin had been carefully peeled, leaving barely visible wounds. A young boy silently knelt before the human skin. "Child, your grandfather knew your third uncle..." the old Class Leader approached the boy, sighing. The boy was not truly silent; his tears had long dried up over two days. "It was my third uncle who raised me." The boy said sadly, "He offended someone..." "I know, he was a good man who shouldn’t have died. You come with me, and I’ll take you to a place called the Zhou Family’s Troupe!" "Grandpa, can you avenge my third uncle?" "Not for now..." "Then can you teach me the skills? I heard that the people who killed my third uncle belonged to a Tangkou called ’Wuzuo.’ When I grow up and master the skills, I will kill all the bad people in their Tangkou and avenge him myself." "What kind of skills do you want to learn?" the old Class Leader asked the boy. The boy thought for a moment, climbed up the tree quickly, took down the bamboo leaf blade from his third uncle’s human skin, stood before the old Class Leader, and gritted his teeth, saying, "Those people used this knife to kill my third uncle. I’ll use the same knife for revenge. I will use their skills and methods to kill them." "Good child!" The old Class Leader patted the boy’s head. This boy was now the current Lv Mingkun.] Zhou Xuan silently praised Lv Mingkun, "Fifth Brother, you’ve always been a brave guy since you were young. I don’t know if you’ve avenged your third uncle. If not... if fate allows, and we meet again after my rebirth, I’ll help you avenge him! For now, I have to go, Fifth Brother." The five brothers of the Zhou Family’s Troupe each had hidden pasts that were extremely difficult to talk about. "Brothers, goodbye. Sister, Master, goodbye." Zhou Xuan stood at the gate of the inner courtyard, straining to control himself for one last look, then his body lost control entirely, walking numbly in the direction summoned by the will. Leaving the inner courtyard of the Zhou Family’s Troupe, out to the outer courtyard, onto the street, walking two hundred meters west, he entered "Back Mountain Lane." He kept walking to the end of Back Mountain Lane and began climbing the hill. After crossing two hills, he entered a wilderness. *"Why is the will drawing me to the back mountain, strange."* Zhou Xuan felt something was odd as he continued walking. As he emerged onto a small path through the wilderness, he entered a bamboo forest. *"This place is so familiar."* When Zhou Xuan performed the Blood Well Divination, he saw his own "rebirth through death" elevation ceremony image— —he lay on the ground with two fist-sized blood holes in his chest, head tilted, lifeless, surrounded by a bamboo forest and scattered gray-white bones. Now, the bamboo forest was here, and the bones were here too. As Zhou Xuan walked deeper into the bamboo forest, he heard sounds of chewing bones and tearing flesh. Taking a few more steps toward the sound, he saw a naked man lying on the ground, greedily eating a corpse. Zhou Xuan recognized the man as Jiwawa, a disciple from the Zhou Family’s Troupe’s Water Room. Jiwawa’s ears were deaf to his presence, engrossed in his meal, but the human face on his back noticed the noise. The Human Turtle emerged from Jiwawa’s back, looking at Zhou Xuan, "Someone came, and I didn’t predict this?" "Huh... Zhou Xuan..." "Ah? Young Master?" Jiwawa heard the Human Turtle’s voice, turned his head, and froze. Seeing Jiwawa there made something clear to Zhou Xuan about an Alien Ghost in the Zhou Family’s Troupe and the Human Turtle emerging from Jiwawa’s body. One was the Alien Ghost, and the other was its vehicle. At that moment, Zhou Xuan realized he could move his body again; the will’s summoning had ended. The "rebirth through death" dictated his destined death was within the Secret Realm. The will’s sensing led him to the most dangerous place nearby, bringing him here to die. "I was looking for an opportunity to kill you but couldn’t find it; you came to me on your own." Initially, the Human Turtle feared that Zhou Xuan had brought reinforcements when he arrived alone. He performed several Predictions but couldn’t figure out why Zhou Xuan came alone, though no help indeed accompanied him. "Since you’re here, don’t think about leaving." The Human Turtle had a turtle body with a human face, with an Eight Diagram on its back shell. The turtle shell on its forehead spun rapidly, activating the Eight Diagram, flashing with blood-red light. When the blood-red light reached a certain saturation, a blood-red Eight Diagram shot up into the sky and transformed into an overturned blood-colored bowl, enclosing Zhou Xuan and itself within. This was how the Human Turtle sealed the senses—the Mysterious Formation Map, a method of its four incense. With this map, Zhou Xuan’s Perception was cut off from the outside world. He couldn’t call for help, and the God Traveling Department wouldn’t detect the Human Turtle. At the Nujizhu banquet of the Zhou Family’s Troupe, he hid within Lao Ma using this formation to help Li Shuangyi steal Zhou Xuan’s soul. "Zhou Xuan, I, Lord Buddha, have awaited you for a long time." The Human Turtle tilted its head, crawling toward Zhou Xuan. Zhou Xuan did not panic. He now understood that the bamboo forest was where he was destined to undergo "rebirth through death"; there was nothing to fear anymore. Zhou Xuan stared at the advancing Human Turtle, slowly speaking. "Seven years ago, my sister said there was an Alien Ghost in the Zhou Family’s Troupe, which tainted her father with a drop of its brow blood. Was that Alien Ghost you?" "You’ve been hiding in this bamboo forest for years. Must have been repressive..." Zhou Xuan spoke while putting his hands behind his back, undoing his Bodhi Bracelet from his right hand. This bracelet was a Buddha Artifact given by Lady Lianhua. He planned to use it to face off with the Human Turtle for his life. Though destiny dictated he would die in this bamboo forest, he refused to die in vain. Whether or not he could defeat the Alien Ghost, he at least intended to take a bite out of it before dying. Zhou Xuan had already broken the string of the Bodhi Bracelet, grasping a handful of the beads in his hand. ps: Brothers, there are only two updates today, more will be written tomorrow.