Chapter 1 The Yuzukiri Shrine, Once Abuzz with Whispered Conversations, Quickly Fell Silent

Two rows of musicians wearing Noh masks took their seats in order, each picking up their instruments.

The dancer stood in the center of the shrine, and, accompanied by the sounds of the instruments, began to perform the Noh play about the Yuzukiri Mountain myth of the samurai searching for his wife.

Wang Congshan stood where she was, squinting her eyes to watch. The form of the performance before her eyes was still traditional Noh.

The dancer bent her knees, shifting her center of gravity downward, pressing the soles of her feet firmly against the stage, not lifting her ankles, appearing like a compass drawing slow circles. Sometimes dancing, sometimes singing.

Setting aside the so-called "poetry" and "beauty," Wang Congshan couldn't appreciate this art form at all. On the contrary, she found it a bit eerie—

Accompanied by the desolate sounds of flutes and drums,

The dancers moved slowly, wearing masks with no change in expression, their mouths chanting obscure and difficult verses and stage directions.

The candlelight in the shrine flickered, and the light shone on them, forming bizarre and grotesque shadows on the ground.

Clearly, fireworks were brilliant outside the shrine, but she always felt that a cold and strange atmosphere was brewing within the shrine.

However, everything seemed normal.

Wang Congshan frowned and looked around.

She saw that the villagers and tourists who had come to the shrine to watch the performance were all standing in place, remaining quiet, with no abnormalities.

She hesitated for a moment, took a step, and, like an insubstantial phantom, easily passed through the surrounding crowd and walked toward the entrance of the shrine.

Perhaps it was some kind of implication, but the main hall of the Yuzukiri Shrine had no doors.

Only a shimenawa (sacred rope) hung under the roof.

Wang Congshan walked to the entrance, and just as she was about to step out, she touched an invisible wall.

The illusion caused by the Kisen sake seemed to be confined to the main hall of the shrine.

Wang Congshan hesitated for a moment, turned her head, and carefully observed the Noh play performance and every audience member around her.

In the hall, the Noh play performance had already reached the scene where the samurai's wife died in difficult childbirth, and the samurai went to Mount Habari to ask for help from the gods.

The actor playing the Mount Habari god of matchmaking wore a mask with a paper-white face and a benevolent smile. The upper and lower jaws of the mask were broken apart and connected with thin hemp ropes.

Wang Congshan understood that this was not because the shrine was poor and could not provide a complete Noh mask—

Before, at the Fujimura house, Li Ang casually mentioned to her that Noh actors revered masks as sacred objects and kept them as treasures in wooden boxes lined with brocade cloth, not allowing outsiders to see them casually. Whenever there was a performance, they had to face the mask and say, "I will play you," meaning that after the actor put on the mask, they were no longer themselves, but the character represented by the mask.

The reason why this god of matchmaking's mask was damaged was because this type of mask was also called "Okina," which originated from the Kagura dance, even older than Noh. The setting itself was a "hanging jaw mask,"

That is, the upper and lower jaws were broken apart and connected with ropes.

Wang Congshan only understood a smattering of the specific details behind this, but that didn't stop her from noticing that the god of matchmaking's Noh mask was extremely detailed. When worn on a person's face, it actually looked like a real human face.

Just like... the mask found in the secret room of the Fujimura house.

Thinking of this, Wang Congshan suddenly realized something.

The provider of all the masks worn by the Noh actors here should be that Fujimura Shuhei.

Just as she was lost in thought, the Noh play performance in the hall reached a new climax—

The samurai violated his promise and saw the rotting corpse full of maggots in the hall of the underworld in advance, terrified. He turned and fled,

And that rotting corpse (actually the samurai's wife) chased after him.

The actor playing the samurai's wife changed from the previous 【Young Woman】 Noh mask to a mask similar to 【Hannya】, and changed into tattered clothes.

The two actors, one running and one chasing, were in the circular area in the center of the hall.

The musicians' accompaniment gradually became shrill.

The shrine's candlelight flickered violently.

The two actors playing the samurai and the samurai's wife seemed to be possessed, running around the stage at a rapid pace, completely disregarding the dignified demeanor and traditional steps of Noh dance.

And in the center of the stage was the god of matchmaking, sitting cross-legged on the ground, lowering his head, with a smile that was not a smile.

The many audience members watching the play seemed to have had all their attention stolen by the plot, standing motionless in place.

Everyone seemed to be caught in an invisible vortex, focusing all their minds on the performance.

"Hm?"

Wang Congshan keenly noticed something. The state of the people present was not right.

Even with the masks on, she could still see the reddened skin and bulging veins on their necks.

The smell of sake.

Wang Congshan suddenly woke up. No wonder she had been feeling something was strange.

After entering the illusion, she could smell a faint scent of sake.

This scent did not only come from herself, who had just drunk Kisen sake.

It also came from the audience of these Noh plays, and even the performers of the Noh plays—they had all drunk Kisen sake.

Had the effects of the sake taken hold?

Wang Congshan became suspicious. After she drank the Kisen sake, she saw the illusion of Yuzukiri Village decades ago, when it had not yet been destroyed.

So, what would others see after drinking the Kisen sake?

Just as she was thinking, the Noh play performance on the stage was still continuing.

The samurai grabbed a hemp rope hanging from the top of the stage and climbed upward,

While the samurai's wife revealed her identity below.

Husband and wife recognized each other, and the samurai climbed back to the human world along the hemp rope to ask for help from the god of matchmaking.

Since everyone present was in some kind of muddled state,

Throughout the entire performance, only those musicians were still barely playing music, making chaotic and disordered music.

The actors responsible for the performance were acting crazily and randomly, unable to even say a line. Only Wang Congshan knew the plot in advance and knew what they were performing.

Ta ta ta ta.

Footsteps came from outside the shrine. Wang Congshan turned her head to look.

She saw a team of people also wearing Noh masks, walking into the shrine one after another.

This group of people clearly had some purpose in mind.

One of them, a woman wearing a "Hashihime" (bridge princess) mask, walked forward tremblingly with the support of others.

Standing behind all the audience, as if observing something.

"..."

Wang Congshan's face was expressionless. She could see that the woman in front of her, wearing a "Hashihime" mask, of unknown age and appearance, was blind—

There were holes in the eyes of the Hashihime mask.

Through the holes, she could see the other party's collapsed and sunken eyelids.

The other party's eyes had been gouged out.

And in the Hiratsuka mansion, there just happened to be a Yōkai (supernatural being) wandering in the room with gouged-out eyes.

Were these all members of the Hiratsuka family?

What were they going to do?

Wang Congshan did not wait too long.

The woman without eyes pointed remotely at the audience, pointing to a mother and child wearing Noh masks, whose appearances could not be seen clearly.

People on both sides immediately stepped forward, gently pulling the arms of the mother and child, separating them from the crowd, and walking towards the shrine gate.

The mother and child were clearly under the influence of the Kisen sake, appearing muddled, and were unaware as they were being led away.

Until they were about to walk out of the shrine gate, something fell out of the mother's sleeve and landed on the shrine threshold.

"That is..."

Wang Congshan took a deep breath, raised her leg, wanting to follow this group of people out of the shrine. As soon as she took a step, the surrounding scenery melted like ice and snow under the scorching sun.

The surrounding illusion gradually disappeared.

Wang Congshan blinked her eyes, her eyes regaining clarity.

She was still standing in the center of the shrine, wearing a kimono and a Noh mask. With each breath, she could vaguely smell the scent of sake.

Bang bang bang bang.

Intense gunshots rang out behind her.

Wang Congshan suddenly turned around, but saw Li Ang holding an assault rifle, squatting at the shrine gate, shooting at the base of the mountain.

"You stood there in a daze for ten minutes. Those Yōkai at the foot of the mountain have already come up."

Li Ang knew in advance what Wang Congshan wanted to say. "Did you find any clues?"

"Yes."

Wang Congshan nodded heavily, took off her mask, took off the kimono she was wearing, strode forward, and asked with a very fast voice: "In the illusion you saw when you picked up the scissors, was the mother next to the well wearing a black kimono with pink flowers?

And was the child she stabbed to death with scissors wearing a brown kimono with hexagonal patterns?"

Li Ang shot a mountain Yōkai in the head without turning his head and said, "Yes, what's wrong?"

These flytrap-like Yōkai, seemingly transformed from villagers, were moving slowly, having just passed through the torii gate and climbed halfway up the mountain.

"That's Fujimura Masumi and her son."

Wang Congshan took a deep breath, "If I'm not mistaken, we're about to usher in the ending of the script mission."

As she spoke, she picked up something from the threshold at Li Ang's feet.

It was a small wooden carving the size of two fingers, depicting a mother holding a baby in swaddling clothes.

It was the mother and child Jizo statue that the two had seen at the entrance of the village before.

At the moment she picked up the mother and child Jizo statue, a system prompt rang in their ears.

[Stage Three Mission Objective Completed]

[Stage Four Mission Objective: Enter the Kisen Well, find Ogasawara Masayuki, and end the Yuzukiri Village incident]