Chapter 970: Dancing

Dancing

The sky gradually darkened.

This was not a natural phenomenon. It was only around four in the afternoon, and the sun should have been bright and hot... Heavy dark clouds shrouded the sky, as if some unseen power had already begun to interfere with the weather here.

Chen Ling looked up at the clouds. He remembered that when Shen Nan came to save him, the weather also gradually turned like this, followed by rolling thunderclouds and howling gales.

Is this the power of Shen Nan's Nuo Mask?

Thud——thud——thud...

A faint sound echoed by Chen Ling's ears. He was slightly taken aback and turned his head to ask Yang Xiao and the others:

"Did you hear that?"

"What?"

Yang Xiao and the others were stunned for a moment and listened carefully, but their hearing was, after all, inferior to Chen Ling's. In the end, they shook their heads: "No, didn't hear anything."

Is it my illusion?

Just as Chen Ling was pondering, Shen Nan slowly raised his hand and put that hideous Nuo Mask on his face.

Crack——

A streak of pale lightning instantly slashed across the sky.

Shen Nan's black-and-red Theatrical Robe fluttered in the wind. Under the lightning's reflection, that hideous mask seemed to come alive, making one's heart race just by glancing at it.

Thud——thud——thud...

The moment Shen Nan put on the mask, the dull sound of drums became increasingly clear, as if someone was striking everyone's chest hit by hit with a drumstick, making their hearts tremble along with it.

"I heard it!" Lu Xun immediately looked around. "Where is the drum sound coming from?"

Within several miles, there was no one beating a drum, yet the drum sound rang out from the void behind Shen Nan, as if coming from another world.

"This is what Teacher Xiao called, [Nuo]?" Su Zhiwei murmured, recalling Xiao Chunping's previous description.

Shen Nan was the only true [Nuo] in this world who possessed heaven-reaching power. His success couldn't be replicated, and it was almost impossible to pass down... It was like an epiphyllum flower blooming in the torrent of the era, blooming briefly, and destined to wither.

Faint thunder rumbled amidst the clouds.

That hideous Nuo Mask slowly turned its head and glanced at Chen Ling. The next moment, he waved the Black Flag and his figure rose with the wind!

Chen Ling knew this was Shen Nan telling him to keep up. He immediately stepped on Cloud Steps and followed that black figure soaring up toward the clouds... At the same time, Chen Ling had already activated [Secret Pupil], closely watching Shen Nan's every move.

When he was being hunted down by Bureau 749 before, Chen Ling simply had no time to pay attention to Shen Nan's movements. But looking at it now, Shen Nan's figure was indeed dancing in a bizarre and unpredictable posture, sometimes hopping on tiptoes, sometimes flipping his hands continuously, sometimes bending over and spinning...

Every one of his movements perfectly hit the beat of the dull drum sound in the void, as if completing a mysterious and inexplicable dance amidst the accompaniment coming from nowhere.

Chen Ling had learned "Singing," "Speaking," "Acting," and "Fighting" in the Ancient Vault of the Drama Path. He had quite a strong memory and imitation ability for body movements. Shen Nan's dance steps might be incredibly complex and forgotten by others right after seeing them, but for Chen Ling, it wasn't anything difficult.

Just as Chen Ling stepped on Cloud Steps and focused intently on learning Shen Nan's dance, the latter suddenly waved the flag and slowly fell downward.

Below was the small town Chen Ling had passed by when he came.

The scale of this small town was not large, with only a few streets in total. The sides of the roads were a mix of small shops and residential houses. There were no designated driving lanes, only a relatively spacious road that could accommodate two cars passing side-by-side.

At this moment, on the edge of the road, a disheveled woman was dragging an iron cart, moving forward bit by bit.

Curled up on the iron cart was a figure entirely wrapped in dirty bedding. It was a skin-and-bones child. His whole body shrunk into the blanket, only revealing a pair of dark eyes to size up the outside. His face was ugly and deformed, making one's scalp tingle at a glance, simply not daring to approach.

A conspicuous poster reading "Show your love, save the child" hung in front of the woman. She was begging door-to-door, but as she approached, whether it was the shops or residential houses along the way, the doors were immediately closed.

"Please have mercy, save the child..."

"Go, go, go elsewhere, we don't have money for you."

"Please have mercy..."

"These are all scammers. Who knows, the child might have been abducted. Stay away from me, truly bad luck!"

"..."

Doors closed one after another in front of the woman. Pattering raindrops fell from the clouds, soaking the earth beneath her feet.

The woman seemed to have become numb to this. She pulled out a sack from somewhere, covered it over the child's bedding, and then continued to slowly move forward, braving the rain herself.

Right at this moment, the sound of drums came from afar.

"Where is that sound coming from? Is someone getting married?"

"I don't think so, this drum sound doesn't seem like a wedding drum... Feels like someone parading the streets singing opera?"

"At a time like this, who would be singing opera?"

"Look over there, isn't that it?"

"..."

Misty rain slid down from the gloomy sky. A figure, seemingly crazed and mad, danced out from the rain, carrying a flag in one hand and holding a Ritual Bell in the other.

The rain slid across the hideously terrifying Nuo Mask, making everyone who saw him tremble. Its face was too scary; under the lightning's reflection, it simply looked like a demon. The commoners who originally intended to watch the show by the street were all frightened by this person and retreated into their respective houses in doubt and fear.

In the blink of an eye, the street was swept clean...

Only the woman stood blankly in place dragging the cart. Watching the hideous Nuo Mask hop toward her, she didn't move an inch.

She stared blankly at that scary face, and hazy moisture rose in her eyes. With a plop, she knelt down on the spot in a puddle, kowtowing and bowing to Shen Nan.

Shen Nan's mask scared away all those with fear in their hearts, but it couldn't scare away a devoutly praying Mother;

After clearing all the streets, the only one left was a believer driven to desperation.

"I beg you to save my son... I beg you..."

The woman kept kowtowing to Shen Nan. She might not know what Nuo was, but along this journey, she bowed at every temple and kowtowed at every shrine. She had crawled under Lord Guan's broadsword and prayed to the earth gods in the countryside. No matter what kind of god or ghost was in front of her, as long as it could save her child, she was willing to kneel.

Jingle——jingle——

The black-and-red Theatrical Robe danced in the rain, hopping on tiptoes to the woman's front. He bent down like a snake, twisted his neck, and the hideous mask swayed eerily in front of the woman, accompanied by bursts of bell rings, as if conducting some kind of ritual.

Then, he stepped over the body of the kneeling woman, waved the flag in his hand, and approached the curled-up child on the cart.

The waving flag was like a knife, severing all the misfortune surrounding this mother and son. Under the child's terrified gaze, the hideous mask raised its hand and reached toward the top of his head...