Chapter 962: Nuo

Clang—clang—

The train gradually accelerated along the tracks, having completely left Shanghai and continuing to move south.

The scenery outside the window gradually changed from high-rise buildings and cities to endless mountains and farmland. The sunlight spilled onto the empty fruit platter, shimmering with a faint silver light.

Shen Nan looked at the empty seat opposite him, feeling a bit restless... A few minutes ago, Chen Ling said he was going to the bathroom and hadn't come back yet.

"This guy... he didn't run away, did he?" Shen Nan muttered to himself.

Shen Nan couldn't figure out Chen Ling's temperament, but he felt that since this guy wanted to solve the two souls in one body, he shouldn't have run away.

Just as he was struggling with whether to get up and go to the bathroom to find someone, a strange young man in a coat sat down opposite him casually.

"Excuse me, someone is sitting here." Shen Nan said politely.

The young man glanced at him without speaking.

“……”

Shen Nan seemed to realize something and asked tentatively, "Are you... Chen Ling?"

Chen Ling didn't deny it.

"How come you've changed your appearance again after a while?"

"Is it strange? Before you met me, I had already changed three identities." Chen Ling said lightly. "Now that the train is far away from Shanghai, I should be completely safe. Next, I need a brand new identity to operate in other cities."

Shen Nan looked at Chen Ling's appearance, unable to hide his disappointment.

"?" Chen Ling looked down at himself. "Is there something wrong with this appearance?"

"No, but the beauty from just now was more pleasing to the eye."

“……”

Under Chen Ling's icy gaze that was almost murderous, Shen Nan chose to change the subject immediately:

"How much do you know about [Nuo]?"

"Nuo..."

Chen Ling thought for a moment. "Not very much..."

"Nuo Opera, also known as Ghost Opera, is a dance for sacrificing to gods, jumping ghosts, driving away plagues, and expressing peace. Its core is 'Witch'." Shen Nan said slowly,

"From the first time humans knelt down to nature, 'Witch' was born... In essence, 'Witch' is a way of communication between humans and 'gods', such as totems, shamans, sacrifices, incantations, and setting up altars to perform rituals, etc...

There are countless witchcraft rituals in ancient and modern times, but all these witchcraft rituals are because people have requests, but they cannot do it themselves, so they can only use rituals to communicate with 'gods' to satisfy the wishes in their hearts...

Nuo Opera is a way to communicate with 'gods' in the form of 'opera' and ask for miracles."

"Sacrificing to gods with opera and dance..." Chen Ling thought thoughtfully,

"But in this world, is there really such a thing as 'gods'?"

"That depends on how you understand 'gods'." Shen Nan pointed to the sky outside the window,

"Before all religions appeared, 'gods' were nature, all forces beyond human understanding, heaven and earth, thunder and fire, tsunamis, frost... Nature during this period was depicted by the ancients as totems and worshipped day and night.

But with the continuous development of human civilization, people's beliefs began to change. In addition to nature, they also began to worship their ancestors, believing that ancestors would protect their descendants in another form after death, eliminating disasters and bringing blessings.

Later, religion appeared... Based on the heritage of different civilizations, various stories full of divinity began to spread among humans. They combined their own desires with incomprehensible natural divine power to create concrete 'gods' and spread them to each other. This is people's spiritual sustenance, and it may also become a tool to control others.

There are many types of Nuo Opera performances, and the objects of sacrifice are also different, but there is one point that is the most important."

"What."

"Nuo mask."

Shen Nan took off the ferocious mask at his waist and placed it solemnly on the table.

Hum—

Almost at the same time, the train entered a tunnel, and the original warm sunlight disappeared suddenly.

This was a mask with a sense of age. Many places were full of scratches and cracks, but the surface was spotless, especially those angry eyes. Chen Ling's gaze fell on it, and he seemed to be attracted by some kind of power, unable to move away...

I don't know if it was Chen Ling's illusion, but in the dim light, the mask seemed to come alive, opening its bloody mouth, and was about to swallow Chen Ling!

Chen Ling's pupils shrank slightly.

Whoosh—

When Shen Nan's palm touched the Nuo mask, the train whistled out of the tunnel, and the sunlight shone on Chen Ling again, and the feeling that made his hair stand on end disappeared.

"Different Nuo masks will have different prayer effects, and the performance methods will also be different... It's like a facial makeup in opera performance. If you don't wear a mask, then you are yourself, a free ordinary person...

But when you wear a mask, you are the 'god' who responds to prayers."

"Wearing a mask is a 'god'?"

Chen Ling muttered to himself. He looked at the Nuo mask that was mostly covered in the sunlight and reached out subconsciously, wanting to touch it...

"Don't touch it!" Shen Nan immediately raised his hand to stop Chen Ling, but just as his hand was raised in mid-air, the mask appeared completely in front of Chen Ling again!

When those ferocious eyes met Chen Ling's again, the familiar impact surged into his heart. Under the dim light, Chen Ling only felt that scarlet pupils opened suddenly in the void, and the corners of his eyes were involuntarily stained with a touch of apricot red...

【Painting Rouge】!

The apricot-red corners of his eyes met the Nuo mask, and the next moment, the environment around Chen Ling shattered!

……

A bonfire rose in the countryside.

When Chen Ling opened his eyes again, the blinding bonfire occupied most of his vision... The evening wind in the countryside accompanied by damp soil entered his nostrils, making him dream back to the field ridges of his old home in the countryside when he was a child.

Chen Ling was stunned for a long time before looking down at his hands and muttering:

"【Painting Rouge】... activated itself?"

The last time Chen Ling activated 【Painting Rouge】 was when he was watching Lu Xun's past, but this time he didn't initiate it actively. Instead, the moment he met Shen Nan's Nuo mask, the Rouge came out by itself.

Chen Ling looked around and saw a figure sitting by the bonfire under the starry night sky, busy with something... Chen Ling walked to his side and found that it was not Shen Nan, but a middle-aged figure who was five or six points similar to Shen Nan.

He couldn't see Chen Ling, just using the light of the bonfire, holding a paint brush in one hand and a mask in the other, focusing on coloring it.

The moment he saw the mask, Chen Ling's eyes narrowed slightly...

He actually entered the past of a mask?

At the same time, a child wearing a white vest and green shorts ran quickly across the field and came to the middle-aged man.

"Dad! I've finished all my medicine!" The child leaned in front of the middle-aged man and shouted proudly, "This time I didn't vomit at all, really!"