Nightmare Apostle

After seeing the strange masks on these people's faces, as well as the colorful clothes and animal skins they wore, Yang Xiao's first reaction was the same. This seemed like a play.

Drama is called "the ancestor of white drama". It originated from the Fangxiangshi exorcism ceremony in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. It is also called "ghost drama", "tantang drama", "Dangong drama", "di drama", "yinren drama", "bianren drama" and so on. It is the oldest ritual sacrifice for worshiping gods, exorcising ghosts, avoiding plagues, and exorcising demons.

In ancient times, there were three major sacrifices, namely La Festival, Sacrifice, and Sacrifice. Among them, Sacrifice was the most influential and solemn sacrificial activity among the three major sacrifices.

The performers of drama were called witches and priests in ancient times. They were regarded as psychics who communicated between ghosts and ordinary people. When performing, they dressed up in various costumes and masks, imitated and played the actions and images of gods and ghosts, and used the names of gods and ghosts to exorcise ghosts and plagues, pray for blessings and wishes.

What Nalan Shuo said was even more accurate. There are big and small ceremonies for expelling the plague. The big ceremony is mainly popular in the palace. According to ancient books, the meaning of "big" is "to make all the yin energy into yang". Today, people beat drums to eliminate the plague the day before La Luo, which is called expelling the plague.

M7

What was presented in front of them at this moment was the big ceremony popular in the palace. There were more than a hundred people, all wearing masks and strange clothes, holding different weapons, even iron chains and heavy hammers, and the scene was gloomy and strange.

There were many red lanterns hanging in the courtyard, with different shapes and sizes. The word "longevity" was gone from the lanterns, but instead there were paper-cuts in human form, with strange movements, each different, and without exception dyed green.

Against the flames in the lanterns, distorted shadows were projected onto the ground and walls. With the flickering of the flames, those shadows seemed to come alive, giving people a feeling of a group of demons dancing wildly. The contrast with the people standing stiffly in the ceremony was obvious, and it added to the exorcism ceremony that was about to begin. A hint of ominous breath.

Manager Wu took out a wrinkled yellow paper from his bosom, which was about the same as the one he gave Xiang Fengchen last night. On it was a rough sketch with clumsy brushstrokes, marking the positions of the nine of them tonight, almost forming a circle, with the high platform behind Wei Man in the center.

"After one incense stick, you stand here, and the drum sound is the signal. The first drum, the exorcism begins. The second drum, the evil spirit will appear, and you have to chase it with the weapons in your hands. After the third drum, there may be a "robbery". Once the "robbery" appears, you must fight it back and do your best to kill the evil spirit. The fourth drum, it means that the exorcism is successful. The fifth drum, which is also the last one, represents the complete end of the ceremony. "Manager Wu's cold eyes swept over the people in front of him one by one, as if making a final confirmation, "Do you understand?"

"I understand everything else, but this "robbery" is... what is it?" Gong Banlan waited for a few seconds, and no one asked, so she couldn't help but whispered.

"'Robbery', that's 'Robbery'." Manager Wu stared at her, emphasizing each word.

Being stared at by this deadly gaze, Gong Banlan couldn't help but shudder, and she subconsciously closed her mouth. "Wait here, the exorcism... is about to begin." After saying this, Manager Wu turned around and left.

As Yang Xiao and his group were guided into the courtyard, the next second, the wooden door behind them closed. This wooden door was much thicker and stronger than they imagined, and it made a muffled "dong" sound when it closed.

A bad premonition came to mind. They were locked in here. This didn't seem like an exorcism ceremony, but rather some kind of bloody festival.

And they were the sacrifices tonight.

The sudden change inevitably caused a trace of panic in the team. Nalan Shuo looked towards the north side of the courtyard.

There was a band of percussion instruments there.

"It's the four great instruments." Xiang Fengchen whispered.

"Yes." Nalan Shuo nodded, "Big drums, big gongs, big chopsticks, it's definitely exorcism, and judging from the posture, it's martial arts."

"There are two types of opera, civil and martial arts, and it's easy to distinguish. Civil opera is often accompanied by civil dance, with dancers and priests holding feather fans, while martial arts involve the appearance of weapons, and the scenes are usually more bizarre and bloody."

"There is also a saying that the more and more bizarre weapons appear in martial arts, the more powerful and terrifying the evil spirits are expelled during the exorcism process, and the higher the degree of danger in the process." Nalan Shuo explained to everyone.

"The exorcism is divided into two schools: open-mouthed and closed-mouthed. We have been here for so long, and none of these people wearing masks to participate in the ceremony have spoken yet. This is closed-mouthed. The characteristic of closed-mouthed is that the mouth is closed during the performance, and nothing is said. Everything is expressed by hand or body movements."

"Compared to open-mouthed, the style of closed-mouthed is more rough, with exaggerated movements and sharp edges. The movements follow the principle of 'square, round, flat, and flat', and are open and closed. To avoid accidental injuries, we must be careful."

"Mr. Nalan, what exactly is the "robbery" that Manager Wu mentioned?" Chang Chuchu asked politely.

"'Tribulation' doesn't refer to anything specific, it's just an image, referring to the accidents that may happen during the exorcism ritual.

Minor ones, such as falling, or being burned by fire, or being scratched by weapons, are all considered 'tribulation'."

"Serious ones are more troublesome, such as accidental death during the exorcism process, or encountering some inexplicable mysterious events. Usually, the ancients believed that this was the work of evil spirits, and they didn't want to be expelled."

"What is the worst situation?" Lou Huiyang asked in a low voice. His face was very bad, as white as paper.

After a few seconds of silence, Nalan Shuo spoke again, "I read it in an ancient book. It is said that there was a heavy casualty during a palace ceremony in the late Song Dynasty. The cause was ominous and seemed to have attracted other evil spirits. ”

"Isn't this ritual to exorcise evil spirits? How can it attract other evil spirits?" Zhang Songde looked at the tall man with a fierce look on his face, but he was really not very courageous. He was immediately shocked by what Nalan Shuo said, and his tone of voice changed. .

"The evil spirit was not brought here. It was the expelled evil spirit that bewitched people's hearts and rushed towards the bodies of more than a dozen palace priests present. Those priests held weapons and slashed them to death. If it hadn't been for a few upright experts sitting in charge. ,

They joined forces to control the place. Not to mention that the ceremony was ruined, there were probably not many people alive in the palace. "Every line is like a mountain. Xiang Fengchen obviously knows the whole story better than Nalan Shuo, and he said coldly at the moment.

Hearing this, Chang Chuchu turned to Xiang Fengchen and said urgently: "Mr. Xiang, you are also an expert. If anything happens tonight, I will completely rely on you!"

Xiang Fengchen shook his head and said without hesitation: "Compared with those seniors, I am not even a little bit worse, unless...:

"Unless what?" Chang Chuchu asked.

"Unless the 'ancestor' takes action himself." Xiang Fengchen lowered his voice, and there was something in his words. After all, the ancestor was fake.

Not long after, with the sound of a harsh gong, the scene suddenly changed. Those who were standing stiffly turned their heads and looked at them uniformly.

"It's time." Nalan Shuo was the first to move towards his seat, followed by the rest.

Joined the battle one after another.

"Find your position, don't spread too far, the person behind you is staring at the person in front." Xiang Fengchen reminded aloud, according to what Manager Wu said, they will see the evil one with their own eyes tonight, which means they will definitely hit each other. Damn it, Xiang Fengchen doesn’t know what will happen next.

After Yang Xiao and his party had just found a place to stand, they suddenly heard a low and muffled sound of drums. The vibration of the big drum seemed to hit people's hearts directly. Yang Xiao felt as if his soul was trembling, and his blood rushed to his head for a moment. Upwelling.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

Along with the sound of drums, many masked priests present began to move, their hands and feet were synchronized, taking strange square steps, waving weapons in their hands, lanterns if they didn't have weapons, and even some crutches, pieces of cloth, Yang Xiao I even saw a priest wearing a dark red mask not far ahead diagonally, carrying a charcoal brazier.

The dress of these priests reminded Yang Xiao of the direct bloodline of the Earl's Palace, especially the strange masks. Everyone followed the steps of the priests, imitating the movements with their hands, surrounding the central wooden platform,

Spin slowly.

During this process, Yang Xiao carefully observed his surroundings. Not far to his left, there was a priest holding a red lantern. He looked like a woman. Apart from him, Xiang Fengchen was behind him, and Nalan Shuo was in front of him. There is also a lantern-carrying priest on the left side of the two people. The three priests are also dressed in similar clothes, as if they are specially watching them.

But soon, Yang Xiao discovered that they were more guiding than staring. These lamp-bearing priests were controlling their rhythm, allowing the nine of them to spread out in an even manner and distribute them in a vague circle.

As time passed, Yang Xiao's tense nerves relaxed slightly. There were about 8 people surrounding him.

There were 9 people. Each of these people looked more scary than the last, but they were like robots executing programs. Except for their weird postures and footsteps, there were no major problems. They turned a blind eye to Yang Xiao beside them.

Soon, the muffled sound of "dong, dong, dong" came again, and the second tom came.

As the drums sounded, Yang Xiao's heart suddenly lifted. According to Manager Wu, this second drumming meant that Xie Chong was about to appear.

The scene began to change. The priests in the outermost circle suddenly squatted down, and then dozens more people rushed out from unknown corners of the courtyard. They were also wearing masks and were dressed similarly to other priests. These people were extremely agile with their hands and feet. , well-trained, first erected a few logs, and then spliced ​​the pieces together slowly, and erected a barrier around Yang Xiao and the others, trapping Yang Xiao and the others, as well as the other hundred priests.

The curtain looked dirty and old, and there seemed to be some dirt stuck to it. But the next second, Xiang Fengchen, who was running behind him, shouted: "Don't look at these cloths, these are used soul-calling flags." !”

It was obviously unwise to shout in this scenario, but since Xiang Fengchen did this, it meant that these so-called soul-calling flags were very dangerous.

Immediately afterwards, the drum beat became faster and faster, and four kinds of music, drums, gongs, and hairpins, sounded together. This sudden strong rhythm gave everyone an extremely strong sense of crisis, as if something great was about to appear. .

"Tear it apart—"

The next second, a large hole was torn open in the curtain covering the high platform in the middle, and a figure rushed out. With disheveled hair, a green face and fangs, coupled with strange movements, it was clearly an evil ghost. This sudden turn of events shocked everyone.

The evil ghost was like a headless fly, walking on weird steps and kneeling towards the outside. However, it was repelled by many priests holding weapons. After getting up, it rushed forward again. This time it happened to be in the direction of Yang Xiao. .

Now Yang Xiao also saw clearly that this was not a fierce ghost, but a human, dressed like this. This person wore a green mask on his face, but it was not a heavy wooden mask like theirs, but a much thinner one, which fit his face very well. Behind his head was a silver hair with loose hair, white upper body, bright red lower body, barefoot, and dirty all over. Not to mention age, even gender could not be identified, but judging from this person's movements, it was likely that he was possessed by evil spirits.

Yang Xiao did not attack rashly, but dodged and barely avoided the opponent's collision. This person stared at the beating of the other priests and rushed to the outer soul-calling flag. But when his body touched the soul-calling flag, it was bounced back as if it hit a wall.

"Is it really a ghost?!" Yang Xiao stared in his heart.

What surprised Yang Xiao even more was yet to come. The actions of these priests became more and more rude. Ordinary weapons could no longer satisfy them. They began to pour boiling water, put a rope around the green ghost's neck and drag it, and some even carried a charcoal brazier to burn it. The green ghost was tortured to death, but in Yang Xiao's cognition, ghosts could not be harmed by ordinary means.

"Don't hit it, protect it!!" Xiang Fengchen shouted the second sentence at the risk of his life. His voice was trembling when he said this, and he obviously saw the clue.

Not hitting the ghost but protecting it made everyone more confused, but based on their trust in Xiang Fengchen, everyone still did it in the chaos.

Because everyone's range of activities is relatively limited, they can only help the green ghost after it runs to their range. Unfortunately, the green ghost is like crazy and does not appreciate it. It runs around and bumps around everywhere, and sometimes even bumps away the people who help him. Fortunately, those priests only attack the green ghost and do not attack them.

Soon, the green ghost was covered with wounds and bright red blood flowed out, staining the dirty white clothes red.

Gong Banlan was a step slower, and the green ghost was whipped in the face by a ghost-faced priest who caught up with him. He fell to the ground and lay face down on the ground. The whip was so powerful that the messy white hair stuck to the back of his head was also whipped away. At this moment, Yang Xiao clearly saw that a mess of hair was exposed behind the green ghost's head.

It was black hair with a strange bulge in the middle, like a bull's nose.