Republican China: The Last Jianghu Mystic

The Turtle Chancellor scratched his chin. "Yes, you can't get out either..."

"Staying here to keep this official company wouldn't be so bad. If the Jidu Shrine finds a suitable chief officiant, then in a thousand years or so, my lord will return to life. One little Malevolent Flood Dragon will be nothing then. We'll all be able to leave."

Cui Jiuyang pressed a hand to his forehead. "A thousand years? I'm hungry now!"

From the moment they entered the water until now, Cui Jiuyang and Ninth Lady had eaten and drunk nothing except a gourd of liquor in the cave.

Their stomachs were empty. Though Ninth Lady said nothing beside him, worry showed on her face as well.

The two humans and the turtle sat facing one another in silence.

Outside the palace, the Malevolent Flood Dragon was growing impatient.

It wheeled through the air, sometimes roaring, sometimes swooping down to send the Divine Attendants flying with a sweep of its tail.

It had already destroyed the Offering Platform, scattering the rare treasures displayed there across the stone terrace. These treasures, dropped into the lake by visitors over a thousand years or offered to the giant softshell turtle lake god by the aquatic clans around Lake Taibai, were the last remnants of the Water Palace's dignity.

That put a vicious edge on the Turtle Chancellor's temper.

The Water Palace was gone, but he was still its chancellor. He could not let a Malevolent Flood Dragon turn its domain upside down.

He stood and paced around the empty palace, occasionally giving a cold, savage chuckle.

Finally, after the Malevolent Flood Dragon tentatively raked a claw across the palace doors...

The Turtle Chancellor seemed to make up his mind. He turned to face Cui Jiuyang and Ninth Lady.

First, he stared silently at Cui Jiuyang for a long while, then shook his head. "Not you. Your cultivation method is extraordinarily profound. In rank, it is no lower than the Water Palace's secret inheritance. There could be a conflict."

Then he studied Ninth Lady, walked over to her, and circled her once in each direction. "Ninth Lady, where... did you learn your Nuo Mask ritual arts?"

His scrutiny made Ninth Lady uncomfortable. "Lord Chancellor, this humble woman's meager skill in Nuo Mask rituals was passed down by our troupe master. He said anyone capable of performing rituals with Nuo Masks possesses a special, inborn soul that can commune with them."

"But... the troupe master doesn't know these ritual methods himself. He merely follows his ancestors' instructions, seeking out and training those who can commune with Nuo Masks."

The Turtle Chancellor waved a broad hand. "No need for him to train you anymore. This official will give you something new."

He scurried behind a pillar, muttered something unintelligible to himself, then pulled an iron box two feet square out of thin air.

The little chancellor struggled toward them with a box several times his size on his back. Ninth Lady hurried over to take it.

The Turtle Chancellor pointed at the iron box. "Fortunately, it wasn't lost during the war back then. Open it and look."

Chapter 39: Nuo Masks

Ninth Lady took the iron box. It weighed heavily in her hands.

Countless aquatic motifs decorated its front... At a glance, she spotted dragon patterns, turtle patterns, fish-scale patterns, and more.

Across its four sides ran a continuous image of a great river, with countless people kneeling in worship along both banks.

The iron box had no lock. A gentle lift was all it took to remove the lid.

When Ninth Lady saw what lay inside, she gave a soft cry and covered her mouth, disbelief spreading across her face.

Curious, Cui Jiuyang leaned his head over for a look. His eyes widened too.

These truly were extraordinary treasures!

Rows of exquisite miniature Nuo Masks, each no larger than the pad of a thumb, lay neatly arranged inside the iron box.

Every Nuo Mask was exceptionally crafted. Some had blue faces and fangs, some gilled faces and red eyes, others broad mouths and wide noses...

Anger, laughter, sorrow-all manner of emotions were concentrated in these Nuo Masks. Each was lifelike, yet transcended reality, possessing the distant, mysterious beauty of ancient myth.

The Nuo Masks were arranged in rows across several layers inside the iron box. A rough count put their number at over a hundred.

Cui Jiuyang asked, "Chancellor, these are..."

The Turtle Chancellor allowed himself a little pride. "The Ji River Ghost Masks!"

He shook his head. "Across the Central Plains, people know only of the yellow river nine-bend nuo. They do not know that the ji river hundred ghosts also possesses a complete secret Nuo Mask inheritance."

He climbed into the iron box and stood beside the first Nuo Mask. "From this Flower-Blade Carp to the final Ghost-Mask Chi Dragon, all one hundred and eight Ji River Ghost Masks are here."

His expression turned solemn. "Ninth Lady, from the moment you take up the first Nuo Mask, your soul will be bound to the Ji River. You will never be able to leave it in this lifetime. Even in death, your soul will return to the Jidu Shrine."

From her first glimpse of the Nuo Masks, Ninth Lady had been unable to look away.

She could no longer make out the Turtle Chancellor's warnings about souls bound together and allegiance in life and death. The sound of endless crashing waves filled her ears.

Her fingertips trembled. Unable to resist, she reached out. The instant her fingertip touched the first Flower-Blade Carp mask, the waves in her ears erupted into a roar.

In a daze, she seemed to be swept deep into the current of a magnificent river-

Countless blurred faces emerged from the rapids.

A priest wearing a dragon-patterned Nuo Mask raised a bronze wine vessel above his head, pale yellow wine spilling over his trembling hands.

Dancers wearing fish-scale masks trod barefoot upon the waves, their twisting waists raising curtains of water more than ten feet high.

The worshippers kneeling along both banks became blue-black silhouettes. Their chants mingled with the waves, forming streaks of dazzling light above the river that shimmered against the surging water.

In the deepest reaches, a Ghost-Mask Chi Dragon mask suddenly opened its gilded eyes.

Ninth Lady's breath caught. She saw herself reflected in those slit pupils-the Ghost-Mask Chi Dragon was on her face.

All one hundred and eight Nuo Masks in the iron box trembled at once. The image of the Ji River flowing into the sea inside the box glowed a faint, ghostly blue.

Ninth Lady jolted out of the vision to find Cui Jiuyang's face right before hers.

"Ninth Lady, what did you see?"

"I... I saw... the Ji River."

The Turtle Chancellor laughed heartily. "Good! Good! Good! Ninth Lady has exceptional talent. After a thousand years, the ji river hundred ghosts has a master again!"

He pointed to a fish-faced Nuo Mask with a large mouth and flared gills. "Put it on, put it on! I have a way to deal with that big loach outside!"

Ninth Lady hurriedly pinched the thumb-sized mask between her fingertips. Miraculously, the moment she lifted it from the box and exposed it to the air, it began to grow. In the blink of an eye, it had become a full-sized mask.

The Turtle Chancellor urged her on. "Put it on, put it on! This one is called Drum-Thunder Sink. It was modeled on the Drum-Striking Snakehead, one of the Ji River's hundred aquatic clans.

"Drum-Striking Snakeheads live on the riverbed year-round and never surface. If a fisherman catches one or two in his net, the moment they leave the water, they make an extraordinarily loud, muffled sound like a drum being struck."

"But if his net is full of Drum-Striking Snakeheads, he's in trouble. Their rolling drumbeats resound through heaven and earth and can rupture his eardrums. At best, his ears bleed and he goes deaf. At worst, he faints on the spot, tumbles over the railing into the water, and becomes a water ghost."

"That was how Drum-Thunder Sink came into being, and how it got its name."

Ninth Lady put on Drum-Thunder Sink and instinctively understood its wondrous properties. She felt that activating the spell within the Nuo Mask would send its sound shaking across a hundred miles.

Nuo Masks came with several spells, each producing its corresponding effect when activated. This mask contained three: Sudden Rain Rush, Wind and Cloud Roll, and Vajra Reversal.

The Turtle Chancellor led Cui Jiuyang and Ninth Lady to the center of the palace, where a fist-sized sphere of water revolved continuously.

He instructed Cui Jiuyang, "In a moment, grip the water sphere and channel your power to resonate with the palace's spiritual energy. I'll handle the connection between Ninth Lady and the palace."

"Once Ninth Lady activates Drum-Thunder Sink's Sudden Rain Rush, we'll work together to amplify the sound through the palace's spiritual resonance. The drumbeats will torment the Malevolent Flood Dragon and leave it in unbearable agony.

"Above the cave ceiling lies the Ji River's ancient riverbed. Years of erosion have made it much thinner than the ground elsewhere.

"The Malevolent Flood Dragon will naturally break through it."

Outside, the Malevolent Flood Dragon was growing ever more impatient. It had swept the Divine Attendants aside countless times, breaking bones and snapping tendons, and had torn innumerable blue tiles off the palace roof. If it kept testing the defenses, sooner or later it would thrust its fangs through the palace doors.

Ninth Lady pressed her hand against the water sphere and gave the Turtle Chancellor a questioning look.

The Turtle Chancellor glanced at the Malevolent Flood Dragon wheeling outside, spat, and nodded viciously. "Get it."

Ninth Lady closed her eyes and immersed herself completely in Sudden Rain Rush.

The instant her mind sank into the Nuo Mask, silence fell around her, as though every sound had been stripped away. After a long while, a pulse deep within the mask's spiritual essence slowly began to synchronize with her heartbeat.

A faint drumbeat sounded, as though from the edge of the sky.

Then another.

The drumbeats followed one after another, growing faster and closer together.

Holding the water sphere, Cui Jiuyang felt it begin to vibrate with every drumbeat. A savage smile spread across the Turtle Chancellor's face as he slowly brought those vibrations into alignment with the fluctuations of the palace's spiritual energy.

Boom, boom!

The air visibly warped and trembled around Ninth Lady. Rings of blue-black ripples burst outward, and the palace amplified them into the cavern beyond, transforming them into echoing drumbeats.

Shaken by the drumbeats, the Malevolent Flood Dragon grew even more agitated. It rampaged across the stone terrace, sending shattered stone flying.

Cui Jiuyang felt his entire body begin to vibrate with the water sphere. The injuries the Divine Attendants had inflicted on his chest and abdomen throbbed with the vibrations. He gritted his teeth and kept his grip tight.

At last, Ninth Lady's drumbeats fell like a sudden downpour, running together into an unbroken sound of water being struck. Endless blue-black ripples reverberated through the underground space.

Sudden Rain Rush-complete!

The Malevolent Flood Dragon let out one piercing roar after another. Blue-black ripples struck its skull, making its head feel ready to split.

But there was no escaping the drumbeats. They bored into its brain without a moment's respite.

The Malevolent Flood Dragon screamed and abandoned all thought of finding an exit. There was none to be found.

It hooked all four claws into the cave ceiling. If it couldn't find a way out, it would dig one itself. Otherwise, those rainstorm drumbeats would torment it to death.

Earth and stone shattered. The Malevolent Flood Dragon soared out, daylight poured down, and the sand and gravel accumulated over a thousand years in the Ji River's ancient riverbed came crashing in.

The cave collapsed.

Chapter 40: Reaching the Top

The Malevolent Flood Dragon soared away, churning up clouds that drifted apart.

The ground here caved into a sinkhole. Tens of thousands of tons of yellow sand poured like a waterfall through the great hole the Malevolent Flood Dragon had torn open.

At last, Cui Jiuyang no longer had to endure the agony of his whole body resonating with the hall. He spat out a mouthful of blood that had seeped from his gums, released the water sphere, and straightened, then swallowed another metallic mouthful rising from his chest.

Damn it, my injuries are getting worse.

Beside him, Ninth Lady nearly collapsed from exhaustion. Cui Jiuyang caught and supported her. "Ninth Lady, how are you?"

The Nuo Mask detached itself from Ninth Lady's face, shrank to the size of a thumb, and flew into the iron box. Having now recognized its master, the box automatically shrank to palm size and flew into the Treasure Bag at the back of her waist.

Her face was pale and her breathing weak. "Thank you, Mr. Cui. I'm all right, just a little drained."