New Times, New Hell

There were people coming and going in the mall, and the sun was shining outside the mall, but the moment Yu Zhengdu put on his mask, all of this changed.

The shopping mall suddenly turned into ruins, the white walls all turned into smoky black, the smooth floors were all cracked, revealing the gray cement underneath, the gaps between the crawlers of the escalators were filled with gravel and dust, and the surrounding shops were all empty Yes, only broken merchandise scattered on the ground, as if it had been ransacked.

Broken bricks and broken glass continued to fall from the ceiling, causing dust and smoke to fly.

The air is a dim yellow color, and the glass walls are full of cracks and holes. Through the huge glass walls, the street outside the shopping mall is another scene.

The figures walking on the street, or the faces full of smiles, or faces in a hurry, suddenly turned into blue-white and gray-purple colors. When they turned their heads occasionally, they could still see open wounds, open flesh, and blood dripping from the seven orifices. Down, Linlin's eyes also lost their spirit, their arms were lowered, their steps were slow, like aimless wandering spirits.

The background behind them is a city that is constantly falling.

The bright light was blocked by layers of lead clouds, and the whole city fell into a sudden gloom, mottled everywhere, and the magnificent buildings kept breaking, shattering, collapsing, and sinking.

Broken bricks, broken steel bars, cut concrete blocks and modern industrial waste litter the streets.

The street lamps are broken, the city's wire network is half-hanging like a spider's web, and the abandoned and dirty cars are parked halfway, and the tires are all dry.

The wind was howling, and yellow round paper and white square pieces of cloth were floating in the air. If you look carefully, they are all paper money and face clothes.

As the city gradually collapsed, the "rumble" trembled under the feet, and the ground appeared in a net shape and split into countless pieces. The ground rolled, and then, dark red viscous blood surged out from the gaps.

Yu Zhengdu's breathing suddenly became rapid, cold sweat broke out uncontrollably on his forehead, and the sweat slipped into his eyes, blurring the scene in front of him. He wanted to reach out to wipe it off, but inexplicably, his hands seemed to be trapped Suppressed by force, unable to move at all.

Through the distorted mirror image formed by sweat, he saw a monstrous red.

A vast, boundless, boiling sea of ​​blood.

The former urban civilization plunged into the sea and turned into blood in an instant.

In the boiling blood, countless skinny and ferocious arms stick out. The arms are densely packed and extend to the farthest place that the naked eye can reach. , It seems to want to escape from this sea.

Those struggling ghost hands were in vain, the sea of ​​blood was churning, the turbulent waves receded slowly, and under the surface of the sea, a brand new city gradually revealed its outline.

The tall city walls, the continuous villages, and countless soul lamps floating in the air, converging into a sky full of stars, illuminating the scene in the besieged city.

There are countless shadows of strange shapes, such as ox head, horse face, impermanence, yaksha... There are more blue and purple ghosts in paper clothes and sackcloth. Cats with flesh and bones, dogs with their intestines dragging on the ground, rats with their mouths slit all the way to their stomachs, and chickens and ducks with their heads chopped off, leaving only a layer of skin dangling around their necks.

The huge city is full of traffic and crowds, but it is strangely lifeless, everything is silent and dead.

Yu Zhengdu's arms were covered with goosebumps uncontrollably, and his heart seemed to be tightly grasped and squeezed by ferocious ghost hands, giving birth to boundless sadness and pain.

He wanted to press his heart, but his whole body seemed to be pinned tightly by an invisible force, and he couldn't move even the slightest bit.

Shang Que...

He tried hard to call out the names of the people around him, but every little movement made him feel extremely exhausted. He felt as if he had opened his mouth, but he couldn't make a sound.

Shang Que, help me take off my mask...

An overwhelming feeling of depression enveloped him, and he fell into an emotional black hole from which he could not save himself.

But he couldn't make a sound, so he could only try hard to raise his hand, his eyes turned downward hard to see his movements, and then he saw that his hand was finally raised slowly.

He was overjoyed, but soon the slight joy faded away again, and there was another hand hanging down under the raised arm, maintaining a motionless posture.

What he lifts up is only the soul separated from the body.

Yu Zhengdu felt a bone-piercing coldness, and his throat seemed to be tightly strangled by an invisible hand in a trance, making him unable to breathe.

The feeling of suffocation spread all over his body, his eyes began to faint, and then at this moment, he saw an even more astonishing sight.

Outside the vast city walls, where the sea of ​​blood had receded, monstrous waves suddenly rose, and then a huge phantom, almost as huge as a mountain, climbed up from the sea.

Yu Zhengdu felt that he was on the verge of fainting, but the phantom still made him tremble involuntarily. He tried his best to take a breath of air, blinked his eyes vigorously, trying to squeeze the sweat out of his eye sockets, so that he could The scene in front of him became clearer.

But in vain.

He could only vaguely see the long, heavy iron chains on the phantom's hands. As he climbed up from the bottom of the sea, he raised his hands high up, raised his neck like a wild beast, and let out a long roar to the sky. , and then swung his arms forward vigorously, and the huge, powerful iron chain was thrown towards the silent city.

At this time, Yu Zhengdu suddenly saw clearly that the iron chain was burning red, and sparks kept splashing in the process of swinging, turning into huge fireballs and rolling towards the city.

Inside the fence, the strange-looking people and animals seemed to sense the danger, and they all stopped silently and raised their heads slowly.

run...

Yu Zhengdu wanted to shout, but couldn't make a sound.

Sparks, iron chains, and giant footsteps fell overwhelmingly towards the city——

"Why don't you speak?" Shang Que's voice suddenly sounded.

Then the mask was taken off, and the scene in front of him suddenly changed.

The shopping mall is still the same shopping mall, clean and bright, with people coming and going, outside the huge glass wall, the sun is shining brightly, the sky is clear and bright, the crowds on the road are laughing or making noise, or walking in a hurry, or walking leisurely, and there are occasional car sounds, The color of the signal lights on the side of the road changed, and a large group of people hurried across the zebra crossing, creating a world of fireworks.

The feeling of suffocation faded away, and Yu Zhengdu gasped heavily.

It was only at this moment that Shang Que realized that something was wrong, and he quickly stretched out his hand to support him. Whether the support didn't matter, Yu Zhengdu's entire arm was covered with a fine layer of cold sweat, and Shang Que stretched out his hand to probe Yu Zhengdu again. Back, only to find that his clothes are almost soaked.

"What's wrong with you?" Shang Que frowned. He just took a photo of Yu Zhengdu according to his request. After the photo was taken, Yu Zhengdu still didn't move. He didn't respond to his words, so he took off the mask. It's unbelievable what's going on under the mask.

Yu Zhengdu felt a little out of strength all over his body, leaning his body halfway on Shang Que's body, panting for a long time before he recovered, and then waved his hand to comfort Shang Que: "It doesn't matter."

But his pale face was unconvincing, Shang Que half hugged him, and wiped off his sweat: "What happened?"

Yu Zhengdu shook his head, everything he saw just now seemed to be an unreal illusion, but for a moment, only a vague impression remained, he hesitated and said: "I seem to have seen... Strange things. "

Shang Que: "What?"

"I can't remember clearly." Yu Zhengdu shook his head, the nerves in his brain were still tense, but the memory was like a nightmare when he was about to wake up in the morning, with only a few fragments left, "It seems that there are many dead people... Lots of dead people, strange cities, strange seas."

There is only one thing he is certain of, "They are all dead, there is no breath of living people... I seem to die at any time."

The eyes of the two moved to the mask held by Shang Que tacitly together.

Shang Que lowered his eyes slightly: "Nuo mask."

In many ancient ceremonies in China, masks often have special symbolic meanings. When large-scale sacrificial ceremonies are held in the world, the chief priests representing gods or ghosts need to wear masks, and the masks used in the ceremonies are Often endowed with divinity, it is generally believed that a person endowed with divine powers can see through the eyeholes of the mask what mortal eyes cannot see.

Before the Dharma-ending era, dancing Jiaguan was a typical Nuo dance ceremony.

It's just that they didn't expect that today, through the Nuo dance mask, they can still see things that ordinary people shouldn't see.

Although Yu Zhengdu didn't remember very clearly what he saw just now, he still reminded him with a throbbing heart that it was definitely not a good thing.

He asked Shang Que: "Then what exactly did I see?"

Shang Que's eyes darkened, "It's the world after death."

"The world after death?" Yu Zhengdu repeated his words in puzzlement.

Shang Que nodded.

The mask in the Nuo ceremony usually represents the ghost being played, but this Tiaojiaguan uses the mask of Zhong Kui, which is likely to see the world through the eyes of a ghost.

In this way, Yu Zhengdu's uneasy mood seemed to be explained. The world of dead souls must make people uneasy, but he vaguely felt that it was not just that, but he couldn't think of it again.

Yu Zhengdu gritted his teeth, suddenly took the mask from Shang Que, and put it on his face again.

"What are you doing?" Shang Que quickly reached out to take off the mask.

Yu Zhengdu's breathing had just calmed down, his lips were still pale, and his forehead was still sweating, so it was naturally impossible for Shang Que to let him put on the mask again.

"I want to see clearly what it is." Yu Zhengdu said, "I don't think it's that simple...just take another look."

Shang Que paused, and then slowly let go, Yu Zhengdu put the mask on his face, but this time, the scene in front of him didn't change at all.

It was still the same shopping mall, still the same crowd, Yu Zhengdu waited for a while, making sure he couldn't see anything, and was about to continue trying, Shang Que had already reached out and took off the mask: "How?"

Yu Zhengdu shook his head: "Nothing."

Shang Que glanced at the mask and said, "The divine power is gone."

What the hell is going on with this mask?

Yu Zhengdu clenched his palms and said, "Go and find the person who jumped into the official position."

The two went to the staff of the mall, using the excuse that they liked the mask, and hoped to ask the dancers where they could buy it. The staff didn't think too much about it. Seeing that the two of them were good-looking, they immediately took them to the lounge to find the mask. actor.

It's a pity that the actor was just an ordinary young man, and he didn't know anything about the vision produced by this mask, and he was a little embarrassed. He only said that it was his first official performance, and he was still very worried. There will be mistakes.

On the contrary, after he finished speaking, several lion dancers who were with him laughed and said: "He is like this, he is so modest, he is the one who studies the hardest and has the most standard movements among the group of people in our institution. Praise him for the best performance."

As soon as they made fun, the young actor had to scratch his head in embarrassment.

Yu Zhengdu asked a few more insinuating words, making sure that the other party was indeed just an ordinary performer, so he had no choice but to look at Shang Que in doubt.

Shang Que thought about it: "The aura of heaven and earth is recovering."

In just one sentence, Yu Zhengdu suddenly understood.

The aura of heaven and earth is recovering, so many phenomena that should have disappeared have reappeared, such as the drought in Siling and zombies all over the mountains and plains, such as the revived Wuqi citizens, such as Hu Xiaoyue who became a spirit after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

The modern Nuo dance should be just a wishing performance, but maybe the young man's movements are particularly standard, and maybe the mask itself is also unusual, so after the dancing and official performance, the mask has won the original in a short period of time. Deserved divinity.

Figured this out, Yu Zhengdu remained calm and asked the young man, "Where did you buy this mask?"

"I didn't buy it, it belonged to our institution." The young man explained, "Our institution specializes in this business. This mask has been used for a long time. My master's master used it when performing."

Yu Zhengdu was startled, but there is an explanation for this. If this mask has been used for a long time, maybe it also has special powers?

He thought for a moment and asked, "Can you sell me this mask?"

"Ah?" The young man was puzzled, "What do you want this mask for?"

Naturally, Yu Zhengdu couldn't tell the truth, but only vaguely said that he liked it very much, and offered to pay a higher price, not to deceive the young man. From what he understood just now, the young man didn't understand deeper things at all. The vision of God is just a result of accidental collision.

The young man scratched his head again, as if he couldn't make up his mind, "This belongs to our organization, I can't make the decision."

On the contrary, the colleague next to me drooled when he heard the price, and actively expressed his willingness to call the company back to ask about it.

The institutions they work in mainly perform opening and festival performances for people. Nuo dance is just one of their many performances, and it has no special meaning. There are also many masks of this kind, which are not valuable at all. That is to say, it has been used for a longer time. When I heard that someone wanted to buy it at a high price, I agreed without hesitation.

Yu Zhengdu transferred the money on the spot, and the young actor who jumped into the official position looked a little bit reluctant, but he only told him: "This mask was used by my master, please take good care of it."

Yu Zhengdu nodded: "I will definitely."

Saying goodbye to the youth and walking out of the lounge, Yu Zhengdu still felt an indescribable feeling of oppression in his heart.

He glanced at the mask and said casually, "Zhong Kui is really scary."

Shang Que followed suit with a glance: "It's not bad, I'm even more ferocious."

"Do you know Zhong Kui?" Yu Zhengdu's depressed mood was swept away by his gossip about historical celebrities and ghosts, and he became excited all of a sudden, and asked Shang Que, "How is he himself, ah no, Ben Is the ghost as powerful as the story says?"

"Absolutely." Shang Que's tone revealed a touch of contempt, "He has never won a fight against me."

Yu Zhengdu pondered for a while when he heard the words: "Do you often fight?"

"Yeah." Shang Que said, "This ghost has a bad mentality, and if he loses a fight, he will do it."

Yu Zhengdu: "..."

So, the boss has been arguing with people since before?

The author has something to say: "Speaking of the Soul" by Luan Baoqun, the teacher who set the reference in this chapter

Aoi: No rivals.

I find that everyone's imagination is much richer than the author's now... The Zhong Kui mask is used only because the jumping to add officials is part of the Zhong Kui ceremony.

Jumping Zhongkui, also known as jumping judgment, generally has six jumps: jumping Wufu, jumping Jiaguan, jumping Pantao, jumping Kuixing, jumping God of Wealth, jumping dragon and phoenix, that is, jumping Fulu Shouxi Caizi Opera. (The above is from Baidu)