Wandering Gods of Day and Night

"Ping Shui Nuo? Nuoxi?"

Zhou Xuan immediately reacted.

"That’s right, it’s Nuoxi."

Zhou Lingyi said longingly, "The Ancestor Tree has always been with the Zhou Family’s Troupe. Regardless of the troupe’s prosperity or decline, no one in Jing Country ever dared to covet the Ancestor Tree,

nor did those from the Buddha Country dare to invade."

The once fierce Seeking Wave Monks from the Buddha Country, upon their first landing in Jing Country, joined forces with overwhelming might to drive the Ginkgo Ancestor Tree of Mingjiang Prefecture to retreat into the Forbidden Land,

The Ginkgo Ancestor Tree remains unseen to this day,

Yet, even these aggressive Seeking Wave Monks never dared to set their sights on the willow tree of Ping Shui Prefecture.

Zhou Lingyi said, "The Seeking Wave Monks fear, firstly, that the Nuo God could awaken at any moment, and secondly, the fearsome Nuoxi of the Zhou Family’s Troupe."

"Today, the grand Nuoxi performance of the Zhou Family’s Troupe will begin."

She lifted the red umbrella with both hands, proclaiming clearly, "I, Zhou Lingyi, Master of the Zhou Family’s Troupe, request the presence of the Nuo through performance."

As her words fell,

her red umbrella shot up to the sky, piercing the clouds,

The red umbrella, accompanied by thunder, stirred within the clouds before descending again from the sky, finally landing inside the Jingyi Hall of the Zhou Family’s Troupe, embedding itself into the offering table that honored the "Fangxiangshi" tablet.

"Dong!"

The tablet immediately flipped over, and senior brother Yu Zhengyuan, having long prepared himself with the troupe’s play masters, knelt before the offering table.

Beside each of them lay a Nuoxi mask.

These masks were extremely substantial, and with several bonfires lit in the Jingyi Hall, mingled with the thick scent of sulfur and incense, each mask reflected a solemn light and shadow.

Seeing the umbrella enter the table, Yu Zhengyuan knew it was time to request the Nuo.

He stood up and took down the scarlet command flag hanging on the south wall, first recollecting in his mind the Nuo invitation ceremony taught to him by the old master.

Those sepia-toned scenes played repeatedly in his heart.

"Yuan boy, among these brothers, you are the most promising, with a sharp mind. You must learn Nuoxi well from me. In the future, you will be the flag bearer of the Nuoxi."

The flag bearer of the Nuoxi held a status no less than the high priest in large-scale Witch Clan ceremonies, overseeing the entire ceremony’s rhythm and order.

"It has been many years since we last performed true Nuoxi. Today, let’s perform for the young junior brother. It’s a good thing, a very good thing."

Yu Zhengyuan suddenly waved the command flag in his hand, shouting, "Ping Shui out of Nuo."

His shout was like a horn signal,

The horn resounded, bringing an unshakable order,

All the play masters put on the masks beside them, then stood up together in unison.

"Woo hoo... woo hoo..."

All the play masters present simultaneously let out ghostly wails.

One might think that ordinarily, someone mimicking the sounds of ghostly cries would come off as comical and not scary, only capable of causing laughter.

But the ghostly wails within the Jingyi Hall were genuinely terrifying in their momentum,

This fearsome cry spread, causing the hearts of everyone in the outer and inner courtyards of the Zhou Family’s Troupe to shudder, as if a hundred demons had truly descended upon them.

Yu Zhengyuan, dressed in a red Nuofu, with a copper bell tied to his waist, straw sandals on his feet, and hair disheveled, wielding the command flag, shouted,

"The opening act of the Nuoxi is ’Opening Mountain’, the mighty drums like thunder, copper gongs like lightning."

He waved the command flag again,

The drum and music troupe behind the Jingyi Hall then started beating the great drums and sounding the copper gongs.

The sound of drums and gongs mixed incessantly,

With each sound and wave, everyone began to enter the play,

They bowed their heads and danced eerie steps,

Each person’s steps were exceptionally precise, hitting the drum and gong beats, and their mouths continued to wail.

"Woo hoo~ woo hoo..."

"Opening Mountain, thunder echoes, Ping Shui’s ten thousand mountains flow with electricity..."

Everyone kept shouting...

...

The Zhou Family’s Troupe had already performed ’Opening Mountain’ in the Nuoxi,

In Lotus Temple, Zhou Lingyi appeared as if possessed by some unseen force. She shook the bell in her hand, her expression filled with divinity, her words like those of a crazed local shaman,

"Lightning flows through the mountains, thunder strikes the flatlands, the Nuo has arrived... amidst the ten thousand mountains, the Nuo has arrived."

"Sky darkens, sky clouds over, southern mountains, bright mountains, summon the electricity."

Zhou Lingyi suddenly looked up to the sky, and the cow bell in her hand rang loudly,

At that moment, the sky became heavily overcast,

The clouds were thick, obscuring the daylight,

The entire Lotus Mountain dimmed,

Simultaneously,

As the darkness gathered, thunder began to roll within the clouds.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

After three continuous rolls of thunder,

A bright flash of lightning, like a white dragon in the sky, fell into Lotus Mountain, continuously flowing.

"Is this the flowing electricity in the mountain?"

At this moment, Zhou Xuan had an inexplicable feeling, as if a peculiar power rose within the entire Lotus Mountain.

This power was strong, mysterious, and simultaneously gave Zhou Xuan a sense of extreme familiarity and comfort.

He also had a strange sensation—this power was not generated from the mountains or lightning,

this power seemed to originally belong to him, scattered among the ten thousand mountains, but Zhou Xuan could not wield it.

Now, seeing the power, he could pick it up with a mere wave of his hand.

...

In Lotus Mountain, Zhou Lingyi, through the ritual of invoking Nuo, summoned thunder and lightning, causing an extremely formidable power to rise from the flat ground within Lotus Mountain.

This power came from Nuo, from the land of Ping Shui Prefecture, and was also the will of the Nuo God awakening.

But wielding this formidable power was no simple task.

Nuoxi, was the key to obtaining this power.

In the Jingyi Hall of the Zhou Family’s Troupe,

Yu Zhengyuan once again wielded the command flag, pointing it towards the red umbrella.

The red umbrella suddenly emerged from the offering table like a vermilion brush, writing a line of words in iron strokes on the north wall—

—Zhou Xuan, the descendant of the Zhou Family’s Troupe, receives the origin power of the Nuo God.

When Yu Zhengyuan saw that line of words, he knew that "Opening Mountain" had been successfully performed.

"With the mountain opened, thunder and lightning arise."

Yu Zhengyuan was about to perform the second act of the Nuoxi—"Thunder and Lightning."

His command flag pointed at three play masters, shouting, "Duke of Thunder, Nuopu, Ding God, there are ghostly disturbances ahead, troubling my village. As the Nuozhi Headman, I command you to go and expel the demon evil."

"Received~the~order~"

The three play masters simultaneously sang the tones, shouting—received the order.

The masks they wore were of Duke of Thunder, Nuopu, and Ding God respectively.

Beneath the Nuo God, there were many True Gods and Wild Immortals, and these three were the three main Erlang’s infantry under the Nuo God.

That Duke of Thunder, with an imposing expression,

Nuopu was kind and amiable,

Ding God was sinister, resembling an Evil Ghost,

The three play masters, having received the order, danced with wide, open steps moving towards the words written by the red umbrella,

When they were only two or three meters away from those words, they sprinted towards the wall,

Just as they were about to reach the wall, they suddenly stopped, shouting in unison.

"Duke of Thunder."

"Nuopu."

"Ding God, commanded by the headman, here to slay the demon."

With each shout, it seemed a soul walked out of their bodies, crashing towards that wall...

...

"Bang bang!"

The sound of crashing against the wall resonated within Lotus Temple,

Zhou Xuan saw three enormous divine shadows suddenly emerge from the flowing electricity within the mountain.

Duke of Thunder was a True God, stepping with an Eight-direction Step, guiding thunder and lightning, walking towards Zhou Xuan,

Nuopu shook an old palm fan, walking joyfully,

While Ding God, initially a Wild God of the mountain, walked with peculiar steps,

The three divine shadows drew closer to Zhou Xuan; when they were only a few zhang away, they surged together, dashing into Zhou Xuan’s body.

"Thump, thump, thump!"

After three consecutive muffled sounds,

There were fine threads of electric light flashing in Zhou Xuan’s eyes; he looked towards his own purple little sword with his hands behind his back.

"Duke of Thunder enters my body, Nuopu possesses me, Ding God empowers me."

"I am Zhou Xuan, Young Master of Zhou Family’s Troupe, all the Ten Thousand Mountains Nuoli of Ping Shui Prefecture, are at my command."

He suddenly extended his right hand, and the lightning within Lotus Mountain, like an obedient dragon, entered his palm.

"Nuoli for my sword ritual."

Zhou Xuan raised his hand again, wrapping that purple little sword in a layer of lightning,

In the world, there is the saying of the might of thunder, and at this moment, Zhou Xuan, endorsed by Nuoxi and empowered by thunder,

his sword naturally possessed the might of thunder,

Merely hearing, with a "clang," the little sword was pulled out from the Golden Body Slave’s palms, then thrust towards the Evil Ghost Slave’s brow.

"Boom!"

This time, before the Golden Body Slave could react, the little sword had already pierced a bloody hole in the Evil Ghost Slave’s brow.

"When did the Zhou Family’s Nuoxi possess such formidable might?"

The Golden Body Slave noticed the anomaly once again...