Peking Opera Cat: I Became A Zi's Brother

"boom……"

The roar of the dungeon collapsing shattered the deathly silence in the west of the city. Wu Song rushed out of the ruins holding the dying old sect leader, the flame pattern on his tiger claws throbbing violently with anger.

"Return it to me..."

Yun Bai followed closely behind, and the flames drew a warning arc in the air, dispersing the remaining chaotic fog.

"Cough cough cough..."

The old sect leader's prison uniform had long been soaked with black blood, and the wounds eroded by the chaotic rhyme continued to emit purple smoke. Every breath was accompanied by a painful groan, and his ribs rose and fell slightly with each breathing, as if they would break at any time.

"We must warm up the meridians immediately!"

Yun Bai ripped open his clothes and tore off strips of cloth to bandage the old sect leader.

The moment the cloth touched the wound, it made a "sizzling" corrosion sound and turned into ashes in an instant.

Wu Song swung his tail hard to the ground, shaking up a cloud of gravel.

"Go get all the old rice wine from the warehouse! And find thirty kilograms of mugwort!"

He remembered that when he was seriously injured as a child, his grandfather used boiling rice wine mixed with herbs to force out the coldness in his body.

At that time, the old master would always cook the medicine soup while muttering

"The brat of Da Zong has bones harder than iron."

"Hurry up and get the things! The old master is back!"

"What? The old sect leader is back! That's great! The more hope there is for rebuilding the sect..."

As the news spread, the remaining disciples of Da Zong took action.

The white-haired cook limped and dug out a wine jar from the collapsed cellar that had been sealed for many years. The red cloth on the jar had long since rotted away.

The young disciples held torches and went into the weeds to look for mugwort. The thorns tore their clothes and they were unaware of the blood oozing out.

Wu Song placed the old clan leader in the only remaining half of the stone house, and heated the wine jar with a flame whistle stick. The strong aroma of wine mixed with the bitterness of mugwort spread.

The flames licked the pottery jar, illuminating the entire room red, as if returning to the lively days of Da Zong in the past.

"..."

When the first spoonful of warm medicine was fed, the old sect leader's sunken throat moved with difficulty, and a tear slipped from the corner of his cloudy eyes and slowly flowed down his wrinkles.

……

Three days later, the old master finally woke up. He looked at the disciples gathered around his bed and trembled as he grabbed Wu Song's paw:

"Go...find the elders..."

His voice was weak but firm, and his skinny fingers tapped lightly on Wu Song's palm.

"Elder Lu of the Punishment Hall is skilled in breaking seals and is likely trapped at the bottom of the Molten Abyss. Elder Lin of the Law Enforcement Hall is skilled in concealment and may be deep in the Misty Forest..."

"Cough cough..."

At this point, a violent cough interrupted his words, and black blood splattered on the coarse cloth sheets, staining them with strange purple spots.

"it is good!"

Wu Song and Yun Bai exchanged a glance and immediately began deploying. Wu Song selected ten elite disciples and draped their waists with specially crafted fire-repellent beads—forged from millennia-old volcanic rock by Da Zong's ancestors, these beads could withstand three days and three nights of intense heat.

The team reached the edge of the Molten Abyss, where they were met by a wave of scorching air. Dark red magma was surging and roaring in the abyss, and every surge was accompanied by a tremor in the earth.

"Roar……"

Suddenly, an earth-shaking roar sounded, and a lava beast wrapped in the aura of chaos broke out of the ground. Its body was made of hot rocks, dark purple flames burned in its eyes, and a half-broken flame whistle was held in its mouth.

“Protect the other cats!”

Wu Song shouted loudly, and the flames suddenly exploded.

"Let me meet you! I didn't expect that besides Chaos Beasts, there are species like you..."

He rushed towards the giant beast, waving the flaming whistle stick. Sparks flew all over the sky with every collision, and the whistle stick collided with the rocks, making a harsh metal friction sound.

The lava beast opened its bloody mouth and spewed out extremely corrosive purple fire, burning deep pits in the ground. The scorched earth was melted into glass-like lumps.

Wu Song cleverly dodged the attacks while looking for the monster's weaknesses.

"!"

He noticed that the rock on the lava beast's belly was lighter in color, and there was a scar there that had not fully healed.

"Ten thousand soldiers march out at once!"

Finally, he found the right moment, poured all his strength into the whistle, and stabbed it hard at the scar.

With a mournful cry, the lava beast fell to the ground, revealing the elder of the Punishment Hall trapped by the chaos chains below.

"Ahem, where is this?"

At this time, Elder Lu was already breathing weakly and his body was covered with scars.

His beard and eyebrows were singed by the high temperature, and his armor was twisted and deformed, but his eyes were still sharp:

"Quick...unlock the chains..."

Wu Song raised the flaming whistle stick, and the orange-red flame fiercely confronted the chaotic rhyme on the chains.

The runes on the surface of the chain kept changing, releasing cold mist, trying to extinguish the flames.

It wasn't until the seventh full-strength attack that the chains finally broke apart bit by bit, accompanied by a crisp breaking sound.

Elder Lu collapsed to the ground, still clutching half of a token engraved with the Punishment Hall's seal.

……

On the other side, the team led by Yun Bai was struggling to move forward in the foggy forest.

The strange fog not only blocks vision, but also corrodes rhythmic power.

Every time the disciples inhaled a breath of mist, they felt a sharp pain in their dantian.

"The clouds follow the dragon, the wind follows the tiger..."

Yun Bai swung the whistle stick with great force. Every whip could disperse a cloud of fog, but the moment the flame touched the fog, it made a "hissing" sound, like a hot iron sword piercing into ice.

"boom……"

Suddenly, a faint sound of metal collision was heard from the front.

Everyone approached cautiously and found that Law Enforcement Elder Lin was fighting fiercely with three Chaos Puppets.

"Humph, I'm not afraid of you!"

Elder Lin's iron fan was full of holes and looked tattered, but his moves were still fierce.

His footwork was mixed, and the opening and closing of his iron fan created gusts of wind, but he seemed powerless when facing the Chaos Puppet.

Yun Bai immediately joined the battle, wrapped his arms around the neck of a puppet, and threw it towards the rock wall with force.

The puppet crashed into the rock, its body shattered into pieces, but it quickly reassembled.

Other disciples also took action, and the flames and chaotic aura clashed fiercely.

Elder Lin seized the opportunity and slammed the iron fan heavily on the crown of the last puppet, completely shattering it.

"Yun Bai girl..."

Elder Lin was breathing heavily, and when he saw the familiar face, tears welled up in his eyes.

"I've been hit by the Chaos Frost Curse and can't hold on for much longer..." His lower body was covered in a layer of frost, which was slowly spreading upwards. The surface of the frost was covered with dark golden lines.

Yun Bai quickly took out the flame token he had taken from the old sect leader. The flame pattern on the token came into contact with the frost on Elder Lin's body, making a crackling sound.

Flames and ice devoured each other, and the air was filled with a large amount of white mist.

After half an hour's effort, the frost finally dissipated completely. Elder Lin leaned weakly on Yun Bai's shoulder, his fingers unconsciously stroking the gap on the iron fan, which was a souvenir left by him when he fought side by side with Wu Song's grandfather when he was young.

……

When the two elders were brought back to the camp, the old sect leader struggled to stand up to greet them.

The disciples quickly brought a bamboo couch and carried him to the open space. The old sect leader shook the hands of the two elders with trembling hands:

“It’s good to be back… It’s good to be back…”

The three old men cried to each other, which moved all the disciples present.

Elder Lu took out half of the token from his pocket and fitted it perfectly with the token on the old sect leader's neck.

Elder Lin unfolded a secret letter, which was an analysis of Chaos' weaknesses that he had carved with the tip of his iron fan while he was trapped.

……

In the following days, Da Zong entered a period of intense reconstruction.

The old sect leader held on to his body and instructed his disciples to use the sect's unique "fire therapy method" to warm the meridians of the injured elders.

They built huge earthenware vats, poured in aged rice wine and hundreds of herbs, and simmered them over low heat, flames dancing beneath the vats and the aroma of the herbs filling the air.

Wu Song and Yun Bai led their disciples to clean up the ruins and repair the martial arts hall.

They found the buried Wujing Pavilion in the ruins. Although most of the books were burned, some precious martial arts insights were still preserved.

The young disciples sat around the old sect leader and listened to him tell stories about his ancestors. When he got to the emotional part, the old sect leader would struggle to stand up and personally demonstrate the long-lost moves.

As more and more missing elders and disciples were found, Da Zong gradually regained its vitality.

The whistling sound of flaming batons could be heard again in the once silent training ground; beside the dilapidated streets, the aroma of food wafted from the newly erected tents.

The old master stood on the temporary platform, looking at the busy disciples, his eyes full of hope:

"The fire of fighting will never be extinguished..."