King Ma

"Halt!!"

A Yan Man's Roar rang out, turning liver and gall into wind and thunder.

The moment Zhou Sheng realized he had been discovered, he was startled but unafraid, instinctively thrusting out his Snake Spear.

He had not yet had time to transform into Marquis Huan's Face Paint, but for a Ghost Opera Performer, the Martial Arts Skill forged through years of grueling training—tempering sinews, bones, and vital energy from childhood—was itself an art of slaughter.

Solid bridges and firm stances, the bones of dragons and tigers; real blades and real spears, real kung fu.

Thus, this thrust was swift and vicious, using Yaksha Probes the Sea from Marquis Huan's Eight Spears.

The secret of this move lay in speed and precision.

Legend had it that Zhang Fei had used this very stance to pierce the gaps in shield formations, one spear passing through three throats!

Even shield formations like walls of bronze and ramparts of iron could be shattered with a single thrust, allowing him to charge across the battlefield as though entering an empty land.

Though Zhou Sheng was still far from such a realm, his spear now shot forth like thunder startling the strings, instantly punching through the wooden door and striking his opponent squarely in the chest.

This thrust alone would have made him a rare expert even in the army.

Yet the scene he expected—his Snake Spear piercing through the enemy's chest and lifting him one-armed into the air—never came. The spear that could split steles and shatter stones seemed to have struck a block of steel forged a hundred times.

Clang!!

The spearhead trembled like a snake's tail. The shaft bent beneath Zhou Sheng's thunderous force, yet it had been clamped fast, unable to advance another inch.

What kind of monster was this?!

After just one exchange, Zhou Sheng knew his opponent possessed terrifying strength, as if he had steel sinews, iron bones, and the power of ten thousand pounds.

He raised his sleeve, ready to change Face Paint and employ the methods of Yin Opera, when a familiar voice sounded from behind the door.

"Brat, your spearwork has improved."

Zhou Sheng immediately lowered his sleeve, though he did not completely relax his guard. As he withdrew his spear, he backed away and crouched down.

That would let him flee if necessary, while also making it easier to use Mountain Collapse and Horse Turn from Marquis Huan's Eight Spears.

He had read in certain ancient records of strange tales that some demons, after devouring a person's throat, could imitate that person's voice.

But when the wooden door was pushed open, the familiar figure before him finally made Zhou Sheng let out a long breath.

An old man in cloth robes and hemp shoes emerged from the room. His beard was shaved clean, though his temples had already turned white. His complexion was rosy, his figure lean, and he appeared stern and unsmiling.

Though time had left its mottled marks all over him, that elegance and distinctive bearing had not diminished in the slightest.

This was Yu Zhensheng, the Master who had taught him Yin Opera for sixteen years.

The people of all Qinggu County called him Doctor Yu, praising his kindness and gentle refinement. He was a famed divine physician throughout the surrounding villages.

But only Zhou Sheng knew how venomous his Master's tongue could be in private, and how terrifyingly rigorous and serious he was when teaching opera.

To receive even a single word of praise from him was truly no easy matter.

"Master, just now you were..."

"Making medicine."

"A patient has been eroded by yin energy. I happened to be using Rooster blood, cinnabar, realgar, and other ingredients to make pills. Since you're back, go help me kill a rooster and collect its blood later."

Zhou Sheng nodded, but the scarlet eye and the sensation of his spear striking metal and stone surfaced in his mind.

Master was definitely lying, but...

Thinking of how his Master had wagered his own life merely to win three more years for a disciple like him, Zhou Sheng did not press the matter further.

"Danshan, don't forget the old rules."

"Your disciple remembers."

Zhou Sheng set down his Snake Spear, took out a brazier, lit it, and placed it by the doorway. When the flames burned at their fiercest, he raised his foot and stepped over them.

As he crossed the fire, the surging flames unexpectedly shrank at once.

Yu Zhensheng gave a cold laugh. "Such heavy yin energy. It seems the unclean things you provoked this time are no simple matter."

Zhou Sheng had just opened his mouth to explain when Yu Zhensheng interrupted him.

"After returning from opera, first cross the fire basin, then pay respects to the Patriarch. Those are the rules. Whatever you have to say can wait until after you have worshipped the Patriarch."

"Yes, Master."

Zhou Sheng entered the inner room and, as familiar with the way as if driving a light carriage down a well-known road, came before the statue enshrined in the central hall. He respectfully lit three incense sticks.

"Disciple Zhou Sheng of the Yin Opera lineage pays respects to Patriarch Huaguang!"

He inserted the three incense sticks into the burner and gazed through the faint rising incense smoke at the statue of Great Emperor Huaguang.

Most opera troupes among the common folk worshipped Old God Lang as their Patriarch. Legend said he was Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji. Li Longji enjoyed opera and had even played clown roles, which was why clowns held such a special position.

For example, aside from the drummer, only a clown could sit at the Nine Dragon Mouth within an opera troupe.

The Patriarch chiefly worshipped by the Yin Opera lineage, however, was Great Emperor Huaguang before him, also known as Marshal Ma, the Spirit Official, Three-Eyed Spirit Light, and King Huaguang.

Among the common folk, he had an especially resounding name—King Ma!

The statue Zhou Sheng worshipped at this moment stood a little over a foot tall. It wore golden armor and a red robe, imposing and majestic. Between its brows was a vertical mark: the closed Heavenly Eye.

Most eye-catching of all was the golden spear in its hand, coiled around by dragons and snakes. It seemed truly forged of pure gold, gleaming with the luster unique to the precious metal.

According to his Master, this Patriarch statue was nearly a thousand years old. It was extraordinarily miraculous and efficacious, the supreme treasure of their Yin Opera lineage.

Since the age of six, Zhou Sheng had come to worship this Patriarch every morning and evening. Only after turning eighteen would he stop and change it to once a month.

According to his Master, children who studied Yin Opera were more prone to dying young. The fact that he had grown up safely owed much to the Patriarch's protection.

He had once half believed and half doubted that claim, because this statue had never displayed anything supernatural to him from childhood until now. But after his Dao cultivation advanced, he had already discovered something unusual.

Within his spiritual senses, he felt that what stood before him was not a clay-and-stone statue, but a... living person?

That strange sensation had flashed by like a startled swan, but Zhou Sheng knew it was no illusion.

After respectfully kowtowing and paying his respects, Zhou Sheng was about to rise when he looked up and his heart jolted. The vertical mark between Emperor Huaguang's brows had somehow opened.

In that instant, he saw a... sun wreathed in raging golden flames!

Zhou Sheng's mind swayed, and he seemed to hear a muffled groan by his ear. Then a terrifying surge of yin energy dispersed, as though it had been burned into ashes by those blazing flames.

When he came back to himself, everything around him had returned to normal. The Heavenly Eye between the statue's brows had closed again, leaving only a faint vertical mark.

But Zhou Sheng touched his face. The tiny wound left by the ferocious god on the Yin-Yang Road had vanished.

It was completely clean, without even a scar.

"You brat, someone laid a hidden hand on you and you didn't even know it. The moment you came back, I could tell something was wrong. Your yin energy was so heavy that anyone who didn't know better would think you'd been possessed by a female ghost."

"Hmph. To alarm the Patriarch into opening his Dharma Eye, this unclean thing must possess no shallow Dao cultivation!"

"Tell me. What exactly happened?"

Zhou Sheng drew a deep breath and recounted the events in Yang City from beginning to end, including his one-year agreement with Lu Bingyuan and what he had encountered on the Yin-Yang Road.

He had considered concealing some things, because he did not want his Master, who had already washed his hands in a golden basin, to become entangled in this again.

But the waters of this matter ran far too deep. Judging from what he had encountered so far, it had already far exceeded the limits of his abilities.

If he continued to hide it, that would not be filial piety. It would be foolishness.

"Not bad. At least you know to give your Household the full story. You're not yet stupid beyond saving."

A trace of gratification flashed through Yu Zhensheng's eyes after hearing him out, but his mouth gave a cold laugh.

He took a sheet of letter paper from his robes and handed it to Zhou Sheng.

"Take a look. You went to be someone else's vanguard, and they turned around and sold you out clean as a whistle."

"What, do you want to imitate Yang Qilang and let Pan Renmei shoot you through the heart with ten thousand arrows?"