Chapter 28: The oldest culture in the East
Looking at the strange altar that is gradually taking shape in front of me, it makes people feel uncomfortable no matter how they look at it.
Whether the silk and satin are twisted together, the color of the composition, or the layout of the entire altar, they are all different from the scene everyone imagined.
When the sky turned completely dark, the four rows of candles placed around the altar were lit one after another. The weak firelight gathered together and could barely illuminate the entire altar.
Following Zhao Qi's instructions, the fox came to the center of the altar and knelt down.
Due to the dim light of the fire, people who didn't know what was going on could barely see a figure kneeling in the center of the altar, but they couldn't clearly see its true appearance.
Seeing this strange scene, Cai An and others felt chills running down their backs.
Under Zhao Qi's arrangement, the entire atmosphere gradually became bizarre.
On the other hand, the theater troupe has also completed all preparations.
Behind the makeshift translucent curtain, the faint light can illuminate figures.
Lake and others stood on one side of the stage, waiting for the ceremony to begin.
As the moon began to rise, the temperature in the forest dropped a lot. Except for the faint firelight on the stage, the surrounding area was swallowed up by darkness.
All the dressed-up old people have already taken their places, just waiting for the arrival of midnight.
"clang!"
Along with the sound of the big gong, it penetrated half of the forest, startling countless birds in the forest.
Behind all the translucent curtains, those motionless figures finally changed significantly.
An old man came out first, wearing strange clothes sewn from a mixture of green cloth, floral cloth, red cloth and other colored cloths.
The dress was wide and had big sleeves, and many parts of it were even hanging on the ground.
There is a token on the old man's waist, with the words "Tai Shang Lao Jun urgently like a law" engraved on it.
This token has always been believed to be able to alarm the gods in the Nuo altar and kill ghosts and plague gods.
It is said that ghosts who disobey will be beaten with a token, so the token also shows that the identity of the old man at this moment is the master of the Nuo altar.
The old man twisted and danced strangely step by step to the beat of the drum. In his raised hands, he held a riding whip made of bamboo roots and a hard wooden stick with a special shape.
The riding whip held in the left hand is made of thirty-six bamboo roots, and the ends of the bamboo roots are tied with red and white cloth strips.
The old man quickly inserted the riding whip into his neck, and the strange tone in his mouth, accompanied by the inexplicable wind, resounded through the entire mountain forest.
"The Queen Mother carries bamboos, and bamboo shoots grow on Kunlun Mountain. The skin is green, and the bamboo is green, and the Nine Palaces and Bagua are in the center.
Lishan Balang rode by, cut a stick and dragged it out of the forest. Bamboo roots are used to make horse whips and bamboo heads are used to make hexagrams.
The bamboo ya is used to sweep the Nuo hall, and the bamboo body is used to tie up the Nuo altar..."
This weird sound, like the sound of rotten wooden boards squeezing, came from the old man's throat. The joints seemed to be moved by invisible ropes, dancing like a puppet.
Cai An and others couldn't help feeling a little uneasy.
The old man gradually walked into the firelight. Only then did everyone see clearly the mask on the old man's face.
This mask seems to be the image of a ghost king, with wide-open eyes and a dozen exposed fangs on the open mouth.
The shape of this mask makes it even more terrifying in such a gloomy environment.
Cai An and others subconsciously took a few steps back, not daring to make a sound.
During this process, the old man always waved the wooden stick in his hand, which was also called the ancestor stick.
The Dharma skirt he wore was embroidered with images of ferocious monsters, which made him look mysterious and majestic.
When the old man came to the open space directly in front of the altar with weird steps, Zhao Qi also slowly lit three sticks of incense and inserted them into the incense burner.
In a paper bag next to it, there are incense, paper, candles and other yin money objects, which are used to offer sacrifices to gods, ancestors and ghosts.
Gradually, more and more old men gathered towards the person in charge of the altar from different directions. Everyone's movements were twisted and weird, and there were even many movements that made people feel that this was not something that the human body could do. of.
Some of these old men wore black long-sleeved coats, with sleeves that stretched one meter behind their backs.
Some are wearing robes of various colors mixed together. Whether it is the movements of their hands or the steps of their feet, they are more open and closed than others.
Whether it's a gong player or a drum player, everyone has a different singing style.
Some of the tones are melodious and melodious, while others are dull, heavy and full of momentum.
The old man holding two hammers walked the sixteen steps of Tiangang while chanting a special tune.
"This hammer is not an extraordinary hammer. The Supreme Lord gave me the hammer to recruit troops.
The world will fall with one strike, the sun and moon will grow with two strikes, and the Palace of Hell will be struck with three strikes..."
In these lyrics, there is often no rhythm that modern people pursue. Instead, they just express the core idea in the most down-to-earth way.
After seeing the old man with two hammers appear, Zhao Qi seemed to have received some kind of signal. He immediately picked up the brush on the table and dipped it in the black dog's blood in the bowl.
Then in the strange firelight, Zhao Qi came to the fox demon kneeling in the center of the stage.
The low humming sound was covered up by those weird singing voices.
Witchcraft is mysterious because people know so little about it.
The reason why Nuo opera is weird is the same reason.
"call……"
An old man wearing a red mask of the Ghost King picked up a torch and blew it hard, and flames shot up into the sky.
Another old man stepped on the steel knife with his bare feet, as if he couldn't feel anything, and was still changing his strange steps.
Both the music and their movements were getting faster and faster, as if they were about to reach a certain peak in the entire ceremony.
"Boom--boom--boom!"
The rapid drum beat caused everyone present to breathe faster.
Those weird movements began to become dazzling, and in the firelight, it was difficult for these people to distinguish reality from reality.
"clang!"
As a crisp sound of gongs and drums came, in an instant, the originally rapid music stopped suddenly, and everyone's movements also stopped.
In this dense forest, it seems like time has frozen.
But within a few seconds, the last curtain fell, and then a slim figure dressed in red appeared in front of everyone.
You can tell from her figure that this is the girl who has always covered her face. Her steps are enchanting and there is an indescribable sense of charm.
But what really chilled everyone's heart was that the red dress the girl was wearing was covered with a white faceless mask!
