Chapter 97 - 94 The First Mask

Chapter 97: Chapter 94 The First MaskThe Exorcism was initially a helper Zhou Lingyi summoned to deal with the Demon Clan’s Alien Ghost, but now it was hindering her revenge. "Ah Jing, why didn’t you come sooner?" Zhou Lingyi’s hands didn’t stop moving. "I came as fast as I could." "If you had come sooner, my brother wouldn’t have died." Zhou Lingyi gazed upwards. "The person who died, was it your brother?" Ah Jing sighed, the red lantern floated away, leaving behind a fleeting message: "Zhou Lingyi captured the Alien Ghost Man Ao, he resisted, and when I arrived, I had no choice but to kill him." With one sentence, the blame for breaking the rules of the God Traveling Department was shouldered. Zhou Lingyi continued to slaughter Man Ao, squeezing his blood, flesh, and bones into liquid! Even his soul was ground to ash. Yuan Buyu also joined in, carrying Zhou Xuan. He struck the gavel, dreaming up Ancestor Master Bi Fang. A god descended from the heavens and stomped Man Ao’s turtle shell into bone powder! "You rotten bastard, dying ten thousand times wouldn’t compare to a single finger of my apprentice!" Yuan Buyu exited the dream, stomped Man Ao’s head flat with one more step, and descended the mountain carrying Zhou Xuan. ... "Elder Yuan, let me carry him." Before going down the mountain, Zhou Lingyi said to Yuan Buyu. Yuan Buyu was reluctant, he wanted to carry his apprentice back to the Zhou Family’s Troupe, but on second thought, the sister is the closest kin. Let Zhou Lingyi carry him back for the final leg. Zhou Lingyi carried Zhou Xuan’s body, her gaze hollow as she walked downhill. As she walked, Zhou Lingyi seemed to recall childhood days, taking her brother to the big market, After returning from the market, her brother had a high fever, and it was Zhou Lingyi who carried him back home. Her brother, young and afraid of dying, lay weakly on her back and asked, "Sister, will I die?" "How could you die, you’ll live to at least a hundred." Zhou Lingyi, a bit dazed, spoke to Zhou Xuan on her back: "Brother, did you fall asleep on my back? You surely won’t die; you’ll live to at least a hundred..." As she spoke, Zhou Lingyi felt a layer of mist forming in the air. ... Back at the Zhou Family’s Troupe, Zhou Lingyi said to Yuan Buyu, who was secretly wiping tears, "Elder Yuan, go and rest; I’ll handle my brother’s affairs." "Let’s go together, I want to spend more time with him," Yuan Buyu followed along. Zhou Lingyi did not persuade him further and carried Zhou Xuan to Yu Zhengyuan’s house, knocking on the door. Xu Li opened the door, she hadn’t slept for long, yawning and asked Zhou Lingyi, "Leader, what’s up?" "Sister-in-law, my brother is dead, light the lanterns." Xu Li felt surreal about what she heard, she had just seen Zhou Xuan last night, how could he now be... But she believed it couldn’t be a lie. With how much Zhou Lingyi loved her brother, she wouldn’t joke about his death. After an inner struggle, Xu Li just let out an "Ah," her mind blank, and said, "I’ll... go to Luoying Hall... go to Silence Hall... Oh right, oh right, I remembered, go home and prepare something." The impact of Zhou Xuan’s death hit too hard, leaving Xu Li in chaos, not knowing what to do. When she got back inside, Yu Zhengyuan in the bedroom asked Xu Li, "Who was it?" "Ah?!" "Who came looking for us?" "That person." "Why can’t you speak clearly, tell me who it was?" Yu Zhengyuan sat up. This shout, which was not really a scolding, but felt like one, suddenly woke Xu Li up. Her eyes reddened as she said, "Lao Yu, Xuanzi... is dead! The leader told me to light a lantern!" Yu Zhengyuan was stunned immediately, pacing around the room several times before pulling out a chair, lighting a cigarette, and writing at the desk. Already having found the white lantern in the cupboard, Xu Li said to Yu Zhengyuan, "Lao Yu, go see Xuanzi..." "I have to write an epitaph and eulogy for Xuanzi first. If I see him first, I’m afraid I’ll be too sad to write anything..." Yu Zhengyuan told Xu Li, "Go light the lantern, make sure to inform every household, don’t miss anyone." "Okay, I know." Xu Li carried the lantern and exited the door. Just at the doorway, she saw the Ancestor Tree, remembering the scene under the tree where she sought Zhou Xuan’s help to write the epitaph. At that moment, the sadness welled up intensely, Xu Li carefully placed the white lantern on the flower bed and covered her face, crying uncontrollably. ... Zhou Xuan’s consciousness entered the secret realm. In the distance, the second incense was already extremely bright, and the "Bi Fang" mask beside it was gently trembling. "Master, death will bring you true power, you are only one step away from completely dying!" "Let my bone pole, through your chest, pierce your soul, at that moment, your ascension ritual in dying will be truly completed!" "As your loyal servant, devour me to your heart’s content, I will offer you the darkness from the depths of the earth, and rebirth after death!" "Master, open your arms and prepare to embrace rebirth." Zhou Xuan closed his eyes, opened his arms, like a standing cross. The Helmsman’s face suddenly twisted into a sinister smile, raising the bone pole high with both hands, thrusting it toward Zhou Xuan’s chest! When the tip was only three inches away, it suddenly stopped, as the bone pole was gripped tightly by Zhou Xuan’s hands. "Master, what are you...?" "Do you know what your previous words sounded like? Like the things I say to corrupt Alien Ghosts, very false, not sincere, but very provocative." Zhou Xuan secretly exerted strength, controlling the bone pole in his hands, The Helmsman smiled and said, "I am very sincere. I wouldn’t deceive you, for I am your Dark Consciousness." "You certainly are my Dark Consciousness, but like me, you think, deceive, and have desires. I believe my Dark Consciousness has developed intelligence similar to mine." Zhou Xuan pulled up the boat pole and stabbed it into the Helmsman’s chest! Thunk! The Helmsman was nailed to the boat, and countless black mists poured from his chest, entering Zhou Xuan’s body. "When did you start doubting me?" The Helmsman knew his defeat was sealed. He had always been deceiving Zhou Xuan because he wanted control over this body. If Zhou Xuan had been careless just now, allowing the Helmsman’s bone pole to pierce him... then the body’s master would be the Helmsman instead of Zhou Xuan. "I always doubted you, doubted the way you spoke, doubted why you appeared in my secret realm, doubted why you already knew of the resurrection before dying." "Then I began to think that your Perception was stronger than mine, and you could think, but I never spoke of it." "Hehe... hehe... You are smarter than I thought, but surviving may not be a good thing! When I am completely fused with you into a new soul, the ritual for resurrection into life has mostly been completed, but—did you think you gained greater power? You’re merely formally becoming food for the god in the secret realm! Hahaha!" The Helmsman sneered, transforming entirely into black mist for Zhou Xuan to devour— And the distant second incense flew to Zhou Xuan’s shoulder and stopped, while the Bi Fang mask hung on Zhou Xuan’s waist! At this moment! The mist in the sky suddenly receded completely, The sky was emerald, with no moon, no stars, it was just a vast—expanse of grassland. The sky and earth had reversed. Zhou Lingyi once said, Nuo God was the inverted god! The place where the boat sailed was not the Black Water but through the Starry Sky in the darkness. As for this grassland, it seemed very familiar to Zhou Xuan, where had he seen it before? Zhou Xuan pondered, suddenly, a projection appeared on the far water surface. The first scene—Zhou Xuan walking outside Soul Shepherd City. The second scene—Zhou Xuan inside Luoying Hall, when his finger was pricked by the phonograph’s needle, the Fangxiang wood plaque on the wall buzzed lightly. Fangxiang was a Nuo God worshipped by the Zhou Family’s Troupe for over two thousand years! The third scene—Zhou Xuan, inside the Earth Temple, when he was bewitched by the stone Buddha, relaxed his body and mind and entered a secret realm. This secret realm was the emerald grassland, which was now "the sky" of Zhou Xuan’s Divine Revelation Secret Realm. "It turns out I was chosen by the Nuo God of the Zhou Family’s Troupe from the moment I set off from Soul Shepherd City! I thought I was merely a storyteller, but I have long been the ’Nuodai.’" Zhou Xuan recalled his oddities after worshipping at the incense hall, and all of it had an answer now. "When I ignited the fragrance into Divine Revelation, why could I extinguish the storytelling god’s flame testing me, because my secret realm had already opened, with the presence of the Nuo God, it was the Nuo God’s doing." "Why could I master one method with just an inch of incense?" Zhou Xuan remembered his sister’s words: "For Nuodai, a mask is a god. The higher the Dao Level of a Nuodai, the more masks they can wear, and the more gods they can summon. Other Divine People borrow the power of gods, while Nuodai are gods themselves!" Zhou Xuan self-dialogued, "Originally, accumulating one incense stick was actually refining a divine mask. By wearing the mask, I could use all the god’s methods." "My first Nuodai mask was... the storytelling Bi Fang." "I am the first Nuodai in a hundred years of the Zhou Family’s Troupe." Nuodai only had a secret realm and did not light incense themselves. The first mask to be repaired as a god of a certain Tangkou required the burning of incense in that Tangkou. Zhou Xuan’s Light and Dark Consciousness were still merging, and during the merging process in the secret realm, he gained many insights. "The emergence of resurrection is related to me being a dead person." Zhou Xuan looked at the emerald sky. He was someone who had been resurrected by summoning the soul, and the soul and body were not truly compatible. They needed to merge again by expelling all the remaining incompatibilities to achieve true unity of spirit and body. His consciousness, because of having a soul for both the Light and Dark, was also incompatible and needed to merge again. Thus, two deaths were required to gain rebirth—once with the death of the flesh, and once with the Death of Dark Consciousness. "So, my rebirth will probably take two days. After my consciousness completely merges, I’ll still need to complete a merge of body and soul to achieve oneness of body and spirit." "The first incense refined the mask of the storyteller Bi Fang, what should the second incense refine, which Tangkou’s mask should it be?" Zhou Xuan looked down at the Black Water’s Fei Yue, contemplating. ... In Luoying Hall, where Zhou Xuan’s body was temporarily placed, the tip of his index finger twitched slightly, but only twitched, then stopped moving. ... In Zhou Xuan’s bedroom, the diary automatically flipped open, and the handwriting in the diary was gradually disappearing. The rate of disappearance matched the rate of Zhou Xuan’s dual consciousness merging. PS: More than ten thousand words updated, the hint for the Fangxiang wood plaque was at the end of Chapter 4, and the first appearance of the secret realm hint was in Chapter 29, it has been a while. I was afraid good brothers might have forgotten.