Chapter 1067: Chapter 66: Guiquan
The once whispering Fate Carving Shrine quickly fell silent.
Two rows of musicians wearing Noh masks took their seats one after another, each picking up their instrument,
while the dancer stood in the center of the shrine, accompanied by the sound of instruments, beginning to perform the play about the Yuan Shan myth where the samurai seeks his wife.
Wang Congshan stood in place, squinting as she watched, the form of the performance in front of her was still traditional Noh,
The dancer bent their knees, shifting their center of gravity downwards, keeping the soles of their feet glued to the stage without lifting their ankles, appearing to make slow circular movements like a compass, alternately dancing and singing.
Putting aside the so-called "poetry" and "aesthetic," Wang Congshan couldn’t fully appreciate this form of art, instead finding it somewhat eerie—
Accompanied by the desolate flute and drum sounds,
The dancers moved slowly, wearing masks that showed no change in expression, chanting obscure and difficult lines, dialogues,
while the flickering candlelight in the shrine cast bizarre shadows on the ground as it shone on them.
Even though the fireworks outside the shrine were splendid, it always felt as if there was a cold and strange atmosphere brewing inside.
However, everything seemed normal.
Wang Congshan frowned, looking around.
She saw that the villagers and tourists who had come to watch the performance in the shrine were all standing in place, remaining quiet, nothing unusual.
She hesitated for a moment, took a step forward, and like an insubstantial shadow, easily passed through the surrounding crowd, walking towards the temple entrance.
Uncertain if it held any meaning, the main hall of Fate Carving Shrine had no gate,
only a shimenawa rope hanging under the roof.
Wang Congshan approached the entrance, about to step out, but she encountered an invisible barrier.
An illusion induced by Guiquan Liquor, as if the venue was only as big as the shrine’s main hall.
Wang Congshan hesitated briefly, then turned her head, carefully observing the Noh performance and each spectator around her.
In the hall, the Noh performance had reached the scene where the samurai’s wife dies during childbirth, and the samurai goes to Feathers Zhang Mountain to ask the deity for help.
The actor playing the God of Destiny wore a mask as white as paper, with a kind and gentle smile, its upper and lower jaws broken and connected by fine hemp ropes.
Wang Congshan understood that it wasn’t because the shrine was poor and couldn’t provide a complete Noh mask—
Previously, while at the Fujimura family’s place, Li Ang had casually mentioned to her that Noh actors regarded masks as sacred, treating them as treasures stored in wood boxes lined with brocade, never to be shown lightly to outsiders. Whenever there was a performance, the actor had to face the mirror and say, "I will become you," meaning that once the mask was worn, the actor would no longer be themselves but who the mask represented.
The reason why the God of Destiny’s mask was damaged was that these types of masks, also known as "Ohn," originated from ancient kagura dances, predating Noh, and were inherently designed as "hanging jaw masks,"
with the upper and lower jaws separated and connected by ropes.
Wang Congshan only had a partial understanding of the specifics behind this, but it didn’t prevent her from noticing that the God of Destiny’s mask was incredibly detailed, making it look shockingly lifelike on the actor’s face.
Just like... the mask found in the secret room of the Fujimura family.
Realizing this, Wang Congshan suddenly understood something,
The masks worn by all the Noh actors here must have been provided by Fujimura Xiuping.
While she was deep in thought, the Noh performance on stage reached a new climax—
The samurai broke his vow, and in the great hall of the Netherworld saw in advance the decayed corpse full of maggots, terrified, he turned and ran,
And the decaying corpse (which was actually the samurai’s wife) began to give chase.
The actor playing the samurai’s wife switched from the previous [Zōtō] Noh mask to one resembling [Prajna], and wore tattered clothing.
In the circular area at the center of the hall, one actor ran, and the other chased,
The accompaniment of the musicians became increasingly shrill,
The shrine’s candle flames flickered violently,
The actors playing the samurai and his wife seemed possessed, racing wildly around the stage, disregarding the dignified posture and traditional steps of Noh dance,
In the center of the stage, sat the God of Destiny, legs crossed and head lowered, with a faint smile.
The many audience members watching the play seemed to have had their attention entirely captured by the story, standing motionless.
Everyone seemed drawn into an invisible vortex, wholly focused on the performance.
"Huh?"
Wang Congshan keenly sensed that something was amiss with the crowd,
Even with masks on, one could still see the blush on their necks and the bulging veins.
The smell of alcohol.
Wang Congshan suddenly realized why she had felt something strange all along,
After entering the illusion, she could smell a faint whiff of alcohol in the air.
This scent didn’t just come from the Guiquan Liquor she had just drunk,
but also from these Noh spectators around her, and even the performers—them too had drunk Guiquan Liquor.
Has the effect of the alcohol manifested?
Wang Congshan felt a sense of doubt, after drinking Guiquan Liquor, she had seen visions of Fate Carving Village decades before it was destroyed,
What do the others see after drinking Guiquan Liquor?
As she pondered this, the Noh performance on stage continued,
the Samurai grabbed a hemp rope hanging from above the stage and began to climb upwards,
while the Samurai’s wife revealed her identity below.
The couple reunited, and the Samurai climbed back to the human world along the rope to seek the God of Destiny’s assistance.
All those present were in some inexplicable daze,
throughout the performance, only the musicians managed to somewhat play music, producing a chaotic and disorderly symphony,
the actors responsible for the performance acted madly and erratically, unable to utter a line, only Wang Congshan, who knew the plot in advance, understood what they were performing.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
Footsteps came from outside the shrine, Wang Congshan turned her head to look,
only to see a line of people also wearing Noh masks entering the shrine one by one.
This group clearly came with some purpose,
among them, a woman wearing a "Bridge Princess" mask, supported by others, shakily walked forward,
standing at the back of all the audience, as if observing something.
"..."
Wang Congshan’s face was expressionless. She could see that the woman in front of her, wearing the "Bridge Princess" mask, was a blind person of unknown specific age and appearance—
The eyes of the Bridge Princess mask had holes cut into them,
through the holes, one could see the collapsed and sunken eyelids of the other person.
The woman’s eyes had been gouged out.
And in the Hiratsuka residence, there happened to be a demon ghost wandering around with eyes gouged out.
Were these all members of the Hiratsuka Family?
What were they planning to do?
Wang Congshan did not wait long,
the blind woman pointed distantly towards a masked mother and child, whose faces were indistinguishable among the audience.
The people on both sides immediately walked forward, gently pulling the arms of this mother and child, leading them away from the crowd, towards the shrine’s entrance.
This mother and child clearly drank Guiquan Liquor, appearing dazed and unaware, being led without realizing it,
until they were about to exit the shrine’s entrance, something fell from the sleeve of the mother, landing at the doorstep of the shrine.
"What’s that..."
Wang Congshan took a deep breath and lifted her leg to follow these people out of the shrine, but as soon as she stepped out, the surrounding scene melted away like ice in the hot sun.
The hallucinations around her gradually disappeared,
Wang Congshan blinked her eyes, regaining clarity in her vision.
She was still standing at the center of the shrine, wearing a kimono, with a Noh mask on her face, and could faintly smell the scent of liquor with each breath.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of gunshots erupted fiercely behind her,
Wang Congshan turned around abruptly, only to see Li Ang holding an assault rifle, crouching at the shrine’s entrance, firing down the mountain.
"You’ve been standing there in a daze for ten minutes, those demon ghosts from down the mountain have already come up."
Li Ang preemptively answered what Wang Congshan was about to ask, "Did you find the clue?"
"Yes."
Wang Congshan nodded heavily, removed the mask, and took off the kimono she was wearing, striding forward quickly, asking in rapid succession: "In the vision you saw when you picked up the scissors, was the mother next to the well wearing a black kimono with pink flowers?"
"And was the child she stabbed with scissors wearing a brown kimono with hexagonal patterns?"
Li Ang hit a demon ghost’s head down the mountain with a shot, not turning back as he said, "Yes, why?"
These seemed to be flytrap-like demon ghosts transformed by villagers, moving slowly, they just passed the torii and climbed halfway up the mountain now.
"That was Fujimura Masumi and her son."
Wang Congshan took a deep breath, "If I’m not mistaken, we’re about to reach the end of the script’s mission."
As she spoke, she picked up something from the doorstep at Li Ang’s feet.
It was a small wooden carving, two fingers in size, depicting a mother holding a swaddled infant.
It was the Jizo of mother and child they had seen at the village entrance before.
As she picked up the Jizo of mother and child, the system prompt sounded in both their ears.
[Stage Three mission objective completed]
[Stage Four mission objective: Enter Guiquan Well, find Ogashira Masashi, and end the Fate Carving Village incident]
