Chapter 70: Ghostly Performers, Dual Kill Under the Moon!

Su Ming slowly straightened up.

This bow is not to honor heaven and earth.

It is to honor his parents.

It is to honor the lingering souls and withered bones beneath the stage!

The foot of the stage remains empty, dead silent as a tomb.

Yet on the stage, the three interwoven vocal lines suddenly become sharp at this moment, instantly maddening!

The martial actor's grief and fury turn into ten thousand troops charging!

The lament of the green‑clad performer solidifies into a bone‑piercing ice river!

The clown's grotesque laugh pierces out like a steel knife scraping bone!

Three completely different resentments crazily tear at Su Ming's spirit.

Seeking to drag him into the endless hell!

"Bzz—!"

Beside Su Ming, the Soul Dagger whirls wildly!

Su Ming closes his eyes.

When he opens them again.

Everything has changed!

He is no longer that slender youth.

In an instant his waist and back stand upright, his shoulders flare open, solid as a mountain, overwhelmingly domineering.

Left hand lifted empty, right hand formed into a palm, held before his chest.

The standard operatic opening stance!

His posture slightly sinks, Qi flows through his dantian.

At this moment, he is no longer Su Ming.

He has come to settle grudges, to judge loyalty and treachery.

To put a period on this lingering play that has been sung for countless years—

Jing!

Jing's lips part slightly.

He utters a line full of rhyme, yet so domineering it startles even ghosts and gods!

"General, your merits are great; what crime have you committed?!"

The martial actor altar built from broken spears and shattered armor freezes, its mournful chant momentarily halted!

Jing does not look at it.

Toward the empty Audience seats.

Toward the high‑hung cold moon.

Toward a shadow in the void, a figure clad in a dragon robe, pacing slowly.

"Afraid of the king's suspicion? Hate the bird that exhausts the bow and hides?"

With each step, the stage trembles.

Under moonlight, his shadow stretches and twists.

Like a black‑faced Judge emerging from the Nine Abyss.

"You resent the Golden Hall above, slander is fearsome!"

Jing's voice suddenly rises, resentment soaring to the heavens, colliding brazenly with the White Tiger Hall altar's grudge!

"I hate the black hand that covers the sky!"

"You resent ten years of warhorses, yet cannot earn a single trust from the king!"

His stride suddenly quickens, his form leaving after‑images, bristling with the fierce clash of golden spears and iron horses!

"I hate my half‑life's loyal bones, buried in nameless dust!"

As the words fall, Jing's steps halt.

Then he whirls around fiercely, fire blazing in his eyes, staring fixedly at the shattered‑armor altar!

"Under my command, ten thousand loyal bones are buried in the yellow sand!"

"Brothers in life and death, you do not avenge them, yet you wallow in self‑pity, claiming great merit to cover the lord?!"

"Are you fit to be a General or not?!"

This booming shout no longer carries any melodic cadence.

Only pure, volcano‑eruption‑like questioning and anger remain!

The White Tiger Hall altar trembles violently.

The mournful wail that was about to resume is abruptly choked back!

Jing, heedless, spins sharply!

The cheap sportswear he wears at this moment summons a whistling gale as if a thousand‑pound black python robe sleeve were flapping!

Then, toward the altar, he thunders down onto one knee!

It is not the so‑called submission or worship!

His right fist clenches, gathering his whole body's boiling blood‑Qi and resentment.

"Bang—!!!"

Instead, he slams heavily onto the cold stage beneath his feet, bricks and stones splintering outward!

This punch condenses Su Weiguo's lifelong loyalty!

This punch also gathered Su Weiguo's lifelong unwillingness!

【Jing】 raised his bloodshot eyes.

Exerting all his strength, he let out a deafening roar at the altar representing the Sheng role.

"His hatred!"

"Could this be for you, the play 'The General's Downward'——"

"The last two words were shouted like a thunderclap!"

"Establish the cauldron?!"

Thud!!!

A muffled thud!

Far heavier and more oppressive than any previous sound!

The entire open-air theatre hummed, with echoes rolling.

Countless troops and horses, underground, let out a roar of unwillingness!

The altar piled with broken spears and shattered armor shuddered violently.

"Crack——"

The helmet atop the altar shattered outright!

The lingering resentment and killing intent above actually began to disintegrate, visible to the naked eye.

The majestic, boundless, sorrowful and indignant warble of the Wu Sheng.

In this tremendous sound, it came to an abrupt halt!

Defeat!

【Jing】 slowly rose from the ground.

That fierce, overbearing aura suddenly withdrew.

His entire posture shifted, his waist becoming impossibly supple.

His originally straight spine now bore a touch of tragic beauty.

The aura of ironclad war and slaughter that clung to him also vanished like smoke.

Only an inseparable sorrow and resoluteness remained.

【Jing】's voice also changed accordingly.

No longer the heaviness of the bronze‑hammer painted face.

But rose half a key, turning into the unique, heart‑rending sorrow of the Qingyi.

"The princess's deep affection—what wrong is there in that?"

His gaze fell upon the altar piled with phoenix crowns and hairpins, the Changmen Palace altar, filled with boundless pity.

"What is entrusted, if not a person?"

He bit open his finger, using it as a pen, and lightly traced it across the corner of his own eye.

Upon his delicate face, he drew a shocking line of blood‑tears.

The motion was gentle, yet it carried the pain of a soul torn apart.

"You mourn a vermilion tower's fleeting dream, which in the end is empty."

【Jing】's voice trembled, like the last wick of a candle about to burn out in the autumn wind.

"I lament that my practice of medicine to aid the world met no good end!"

"You grieve that your golden hairpin lies dust‑covered, your sincere affection misplaced."

He stepped with the mincing steps characteristic of the Dan role, his lotus steps light.

Step by step he walked toward the altar, his posture tragically beautiful, like a night‑blooming cereus wilting under the moon.

"I grieve that my white robe is stained with blood, my benevolent heart unrewarded!"

As his words fell, the motion of his fingertips suddenly froze!

That pity instantly turned into cold mockery.

He snapped his head toward the dark audience seats, as if gazing upon all of humanity.

"The common folk of the world cannot fill their stomachs! How many women have been reduced to weeds!"

"You dwell in splendid palaces, yet sigh only over wind, flowers, snow, and moon?!"

"Do you day‑and‑night fret over the true feelings of that illusory, ethereal sovereign?!"

"Are you even worthy to be a phoenix?!"

His reproach, like an ice‑pick, ruthlessly pierced that self‑pitying sorrow!

The radiant pearl‑and‑jade glow on the Changmen Palace altar dimmed somewhat.

【Jing】's eyes lost their mockery, leaving only a deeper sorrow.

He turned back, and gave a bleak smile toward the dust‑covered, shattered phoenix crown.

That smile…

More heartbreaking than tears.

That white‑clad angel who saves the dying and heals the wounded could not save himself.

"Her sorrow!"

"Could this be for you, the piece 'Broken Hairpin'——"

【Jing】 reached out, as if wanting to touch that icy phoenix crown.

But in the end, it was merely a press into empty air.

With the last of his tenderness and despair, he uttered the final two words.

"Join the coffin?!"

The moment the words fell.

The altar piled with phoenix crowns and pearl hairpins, the lamenting, unceasing singing of the green robe.

Unconsciously weakening, finally...

Vanished into nothingness.

Only that weeping, lamenting erhu sound remained.

Turned into accompaniment——

It sounds for 【Pure】's present sorrow, it weeps for that departed benevolent heart!

Submit!

Martial Sheng fell silent, the green robe accompanied.

However!

Hehehe... hehehehe...

In this moment of tranquility.

That altar formed from thousands of masks stacked, the All-Beings' Countenance altar.

The shrill, eerie laughter not only did not stop.

But instead grew louder, more wanton!

He laughed at the general's foolish loyalty, laughed at the princess's foolish stupidity!

It seemed more like mocking everything 【Pure】 did, all in vain!

Overestimating one's abilities!

【Pure】 slowly turned around.

The sorrow belonging to the green robe on his face quickly faded.

Only coldness remained.

He watched that altar still madly laughing.

He watched those masks of gleeful anger and scorn, twisted and false.

The atmosphere, for a moment, was lethally unmatched!

The erhu sound gradually stopped.

The entire stage, only that piercing laughter remained, echoing in the empty night.

A moment.

【Pure】 tugged at the corner of his mouth, likewise laughed.

But that smile held no warmth.

Hah——

"Laugh? You just love to laugh, huh?!"

The right hand reached out.

Soul Dagger, black qi surged to the heavens!