Peking Opera Cat: I Became A Zi's Brother

"Ha ha……"

The blood-patterned lanterns dyed the Tibetan sect's festival square dark red. The Xingluo troupe was hung on the four corners of the stage by puppet strings, and the ropes made the hair on Wu Song's neck stand on end.

The fake Rong Yin leaned against the carved main seat, tapping her knees with a replica of the Frost Flower fan, the gray mist on the fan billowing with her laughter:

"After sacrificing you, the Chaos Beast of the Body Sect will open its eyes—"

"Just you?"

Bai Tang tugged at the puppet strings and growled, his prayer beads rubbing against his chest, sparks flying.

"You're even holding your fan upside down, you fake!"

"Humph……"

The counterfeit's face darkened and she smashed the fan handle hard on the pillar. The gold powder that fell off was mixed with her fake nails that had broken off in panic.

Rong Yin sat at the edge of the crack in the Forbidden Palace and suddenly laughed softly. His old voice was covered with ten years of dust:

"Chaos can't even choose a 'sacrifice'...it's really going backwards."

"Ah."

She tapped the totem on the stone wall with her fingertips, and rust fell on the back of her dark purple hand.

In the distance, the blood-patterned cauldron suddenly hummed, and the cauldron reflected the frightened image of the imposter - the chaos tentacles on her wrists were curling up uncontrollably, revealing her instinctive fear of the true master's bloodline.

"shut up!"

The fake Rongyin waved his hand and tightened the puppet string. Xiaoqing was hoisted off the ground with a muffled groan. Suddenly, Baitang was covered in golden light, and his rosary beads were stretched straight like steel cables.

"Running Dragon—Break!"

"Roar!"

Golden light exploded like a volcanic eruption, and the shadow of a running dragon leaped out from behind Bai Tang. The moment the dragon claws tore through the puppet strings, Wu Song's whistle stick had already smashed onto the stage.

Amidst the "boom" vibration, Dafei used the air wave to pounce on Xiaoqing, and his sharp claws cut through the blood silk around her neck;

"..."

When Xiaoqing landed, she threw out an ice spike, which accurately nailed the fake Mo Zi's ankle. The puppet's skin was peeling off because of fear, revealing a hole with gray fog swirling underneath.

The five cats gathered back to back in the center of the stage. Wusong's heavy hammer was burning with red flames, Dafei's claws were shining with cold light, Baitang's rosary was shining with golden light, and the ice crystals condensed on Xiaoqing's fingertips reflected the morning light outside the crack.

"What a bunch of disobedient children!"

The imitation of Rong Yin's Frost Fan cracked with a "crack", revealing her true appearance in the gray fog - half of her face was still Rong Yin's flesh and blood, and the other half was a web woven by chaotic tentacles.

"You think... you can stop the festival like this?

"She roared and rushed towards the blood-patterned cauldron, but screamed when she touched the cauldron - Rong Yin (Zhen)'s pale golden blood had climbed up the cauldron pattern at some point, and every drop was burning Chaos's pseudo-skin.

The fog in the square suddenly turned into a clear green, which was the color of the orthodox rhythmic power of the Chang clan.

"Dong dong dong..."

The copper bells on the eaves of the stage rang automatically without wind, and the ding-dong sound was mixed with the sound of a flute coming from deep within the Forbidden Palace - the real Mo Zi was holding the sect-protecting token thrown by Rong Yin (Zhen). The ice-blue spell patterns on the remaining patterns of the token echoed with the light on the weapons of the Xingluo Squad.

……

“What an interesting bunch of little guys!”

Fake Mo Zi walked forward slowly, and when the corner of his robe swept across the ground, blood streaks spread like spider webs under the feet of the four cats.

As soon as Bai Tang's rosary shone with golden light, his wrist was entangled by chains condensed from gray fog. The light of the Xiuwen Mirror sizzled under the erosion of chaos, and not even a spark was emitted.

"what happened?"

She tilted her head to look at Wu Song, flicked her fingertips, and the shadow of the heavy hammer suddenly changed direction, and the hammer head hit him hard in the chest.

"Uh--"

Wu Song groaned and flew backwards. The puppet strings took the opportunity to wrap around his throat and dangled him from the beams of the stage.

The red light of the blood-patterned lamp shattered into dust in his pupils, reflecting the gray mist swirling in the fake dark purple sleeves - the mist was mixed with real dark purple broken hair, each strand was stained with the bloody smell of ten years in the forbidden palace.

“Wow…”

Da Fei rushed forward with a punch, and the shadow of the tiger claw froze three inches in front of the fake Mo Zi.

She raised her hand and pressed it between his eyebrows. The moment the gray mist seeped into his fur, Dafei saw the scene of the Forbidden Palace:

Zhen Mozi's back was nailed to the blood pattern formation by iron chains, and every time the puppet string twitched, blood foam came out from the back of her neck.

The copper bells on top of the stage moved automatically without wind, producing a broken rhythm that strangely coincided with the frequency of Zhen Mo Zi's pulse.

"see it?"

Fake Mo Zi chuckled,

"Your 'resistance' is nothing but rubbing salt into her wounds."

"Ah--"

Xiaoqing swung her sleeves towards the other person's neck, but the ice pattern shattered into powder the moment it touched the fake Mo Zi.

She stared at the ice-patterned red rope on the other person's wrist. The knot was woven exactly like her real sister's, but the silver ornament at the end was gray, as if all the warmth had been drained away.

"boom!"

Fine ice chips seeped out from under the tiles of the stage, climbing along the cracks in the blood veins, but suddenly collapsed when they touched the soles of the fake Mo Zi shoes - those were the remnants of the real Mo Zi's rhythmic power hidden under the tiles of the Forbidden Palace, which even the shadow of the Chaos Puppet could not tolerate.

"Why...why did it have to go this far..."

Xiaoqing's voice was broken by the puppet strings.

"Because of your 'sister',"

Fake Mo Zi suddenly grabbed her sleeves, and the blood silk crawled along the sleeves into her meridians.

"The perfect vessel for Chaos. And you—"

She swept across the messy Xingluo Squad, and the puppet strings rolled up Wu Song's heavy hammer and Da Fei's tiger claw phantom and threw them towards the Blood Pattern Cauldron. The sound of metal and stone colliding was mixed with the muffled sound of Zhen Mo Zi being strangled by the chains and bleeding.

"It's just a snack to supplement the container."

"Weng—"

The blood-patterned cauldron made a hungry hum.

"what--"

Wu Song's shadow melted into golden liquid in the cauldron, and the lines on Da Fei's body were eaten away by the gray fog, leaving only fragments. Every crack reflected the screams of Xing Luo Ban.

"..."

Xiaoqing's sleeves were condensed into ice spikes and pressed against her throat, but she was shocked to find that the temperature of the fake Mo Zi's fingertips was abnormal - there was no rhythmic power flowing under the skin, only the rustling sound of chaotic tentacles wriggling.

The fog surrounding the stage had turned indigo at some point, exactly like the color of the robes Zhen Mo Zi often wore before he was imprisoned.

"Now,"

The fake Mo Zi stepped on Bai Tang's back, and the replica of the Shuang Hua fan pressed against his back. The gray mist on the edge of the fan bone was crawling along the back of his neck.

"Look at me obediently as I use your rhythmic power to replace the real Mo Zi with a more obedient set of bones."

"Sister Xiaoqing, we absolutely cannot give up!"

Bai Tang was pressed against the edge of the altar, and his nose rubbed against the bloodstains on the surface - there were actually tiny ice patterns hidden in those patterns, like hibernating seeds waiting to wake up.

"..."

Xiaoqing closed her eyes and let the blood silk tighten her throat, but at the last moment she heard the fake Mo Zi's groan.

"Uh--"

presumptuous! "

A thunderous shout came from the direction of the Forbidden Palace, mixed with the loud sound of iron chains breaking.

At this moment, the real Mo Zi rushed over here with absolute rage, and the chains on his wrists were still struggling to break free!

But behind him, there was another woman who quickly rushed over. One could faintly see that her appearance was slowly recovering, and the scars on her face were gradually diminishing...