I am the Ruler of the Kingdom of Mysterious-Chapter 373 - 337: Formation of the Theater Troupe
When Chu Mo Wei went to write something, Sang Que called out the Yin Child to have a talk.
With He Buning’s help, retrieving the Yin Child’s tongue shouldn’t be difficult. Sang Que wanted to know if there was any ritual involved that needed to be prepared in advance this time.
Unexpectedly, the Yin Child said that within the Ghost Level, she didn’t need any ritual to retrieve her tongue and heart, but she hoped that Sang Que could take her back to Yunzhou someday.
The Yin Child’s thoughts were directly transmitted into Sang Que’s mind. Sang Que didn’t understand why the Yin Child always wanted to return, knowing very well the high possibility of being sacrificed to the Five Spirits upon returning.
But with her current understanding of this little one, she knew the Yin Child’s desire to return wasn’t merely homesickness.
Given the Yin Child’s past record, Sang Que wouldn’t step foot in Yunzhou before reaching the Sixth Level, as it was the Yin Child’s hometown!
After inquiring the Yin Child, Sang Que found a quiet place to sit in meditation and visualization.
Coming to Qinzhou this time, she had gained quite a lot; besides obtaining a puppet master like Chu Mo Wei, the Heart Lamp had also been greatly enhanced.
From the fourth layer to the fifth layer, it requires over ten thousand faithful followers to provide incense. Now, putting it all together, including both the faithful and unfaithful, she’s able to descend to the eighth thousand five hundred steps of the Ninth Floor of Nine Netherworld.
Out of those two thousand elites from Tian Xing’s group, at least half of them sincerely respect her after she fought to the death outside Tangyuan County, making Tian Xing and the others feel guilty and secretly burning paper for her, significantly boosting the incense count.
Only about one thousand five hundred more to enter the Fifth Layer.
She couldn’t be bothered to count the specific distribution and amount of incense, but recently, the incense acquired from the modern world had ceased growing, indicating the fan base her mother could draw from had basically reached saturation.
On the Deceit Dynasty’s side, she’s dead for now, with nothing much happening, so it’s time to go back and think about how to continue gathering incense from the modern world.
The modern world is the main source of incense for Sang Que. The followers there aren’t very devout, but they are numerous. The modern market cannot be abandoned.
Once decided, Sang Que exited her meditative state. The Ninth Floor of Nine Netherworld is the Mingling Prison, icy and snowy, causing her soul to ache with cold.
Sang Que arrived at the pavilion, where Chu Mo Wei had already written several pages full of information about the Ghost Opera Troupe that he could disclose.
The organizational structure of the Ghost Opera Troupe is just like that of a normal opera troupe, with seven lines and seven departments.
The seven lines are: Sheng, Dan, Jing, Chou, Wu, Popular, and Assistant.
The first five are easy to understand, even an outsider like Sang Que knew they referred to major role categories. "Popular" refers to those playing extras or crowd parts, while "Assistant" denotes hands-on assistants for the Wu line performers.
The Wuxing segments of Sheng, Dan, Jing, Chou, and Wu form the main force. Though there are more detailed divisions, entering the Ghost Level determines the leader of each line.
Within them, Dan line’s Daomadan and Chou line’s dwarf were killed by Sang Que, leaving only three Ghost Level Yin Walkers in the seven lines.
As for how many Yin Walkers below the Third Layer are still in the five lines, Chu Mo Wei wasn’t particularly clear, as each line leader managed their own.
The remaining Popular and Assistant roles are comprised entirely of ordinary performers, possibly equating to the Evil Suppression Bureau’s Day Travel level?
The seven departments handle the Ghost Opera Troupe’s logistics and operations, including Music, Costume, Makeup, Helmet and Box, Script, Recruitment, and Transportation Departments.
The naming conventions follow those of a traditional opera troupe, though specific responsibilities aren’t entirely defined by those names.
Wan Xiangtou, Wan Hongtu, is the head of the Helmet and Box Department, overseeing all kinds of props for the troupe. After entering the Fifth Layer, he temporarily became the general manager of the seven departments, directly answering to the Class Leader.
The head of the Music Department is a woman, with at least Fourth Layer strength, and has a group of musicians under her, whose numbers and strength are unknown.
Chu Mo Wei is the head of the Costume Department. He used to primarily follow Wan Xiangtou, being responsible for props, as there are only two people in Costume and Helmet and Box Departments.
The head of the Makeup Department has never been seen by Chu Mo Wei, and he didn’t know their strength level, only knowing they were deeply hidden with plenty of subordinates. If Ghost Opera Troupe members needed to carry out tasks somewhere, their identities were taken care of by the Makeup Department.
Chu Mo Wei suspected the head of the Script Department was a Daoist, proficiently using the Five Ghosts Skill, and was the main conduit for transmitting information within the Ghost Opera Troupe.
This time, in attacking the counties across Qinzhou, the people from the Script Department leaked quite a bit about the military strategies of Qinzhou’s defense forces.
Recruitment Department is responsible for bringing in new members.
The Transportation Department is essentially the administrative office of the Ghost Opera Troupe, orchestrating all logistical arrangements.
Chu Mo Wei noted on paper that the music department’s female head was the most likely to advance to the Fifth Layer, replacing Wan Xiangtou as the general manager of the seven departments.
This battle in Qinzhou also provided the head of the Wu line an opportunity to advance to the Fifth Layer. If successful, the head would become the General Chief of the seven lines.
The Class Leader of the Ghost Opera Troupe had always been a mysterious figure, likely possessing Sixth Layer or even close to Seventh Level strength.
Among the seven lines and seven departments, only Wan Xiangtou has met the Class Leader. Anyone in the troupe with strength below Fifth Layer didn’t qualify to meet the Class Leader. They had to pray to the Opera God, and if the Class Leader responded, a Judge’s Pen would appear, writing down the Class Leader’s instructions.
All Chu Mo Wei could clarify to Sang Que was this, unable to provide specific names, appearances, locations, or personal attributes.
Notably, the members of the Ghost Opera Troupe worship the Opera God without needing to carry a divine statue. They just need to sing a piece related to the Opera God to communicate with it.
All subsequent dialogue must also be sung in opera style, as only then can the Opera God receive it.
In essence, if one couldn’t sing opera, they weren’t qualified to become a devotee of the Opera God, setting a considerable entry barrier.
After recording the matter of the Ghost Opera Troupe, Chu Mo Wei continued to document things related to puppet masters.
The most he could provide were diagrams and methods for crafting Blood Puppets. He couldn’t elaborate on how he mastered the Puppetry Technique.
Inheritance is the most secretive matter within each line, and even with Ghost Eye and Qian Trigram Eye Opening, Sang Que couldn’t unravel this detail.
She could only imagine that, in this world, such secretive heritage mustn’t be devoid of bloodiness and cruelty.
Chu Mo Wei’s capability to create puppets was strong, plus the ability to merge corpses to add special effects. If various hidden weapons and weapon blueprints from Jiang Zao could be obtained for Chu Mo Wei to study, the Blood Puppets he crafted might become even stronger.
Sang Que quietly remembered this, organizing all information about the Ghost Opera Troupe, leaving Chu Mo Wei to continue writing here.
Sang Que left Taoyuan and returned to the outside world, instructing Xia Chan to take the information to He Buning. Xia Chan took a whole half day to return, looking crestfallen.
"Aunt Qiao is gone."
Xia Chan pouted; usually rolling her eyes behind Qiao Ling’s back, yet now felt sadness with Qiao Ling’s departure.
Before heading to Tangyuan County, Qiao Ling had told Sang Que she wouldn’t stay long in Dongyang County. She had already helped many guards in Qinzhou and wanted to visit Qianshou Army to aid the suffering people there, otherwise, she’d feel uncomfortable.
This time, Qiao Ling hadn’t called Xia Chan to go with her, leaving only a few medical books for Xia Chan to study on her own.
Separation and reunion are common in the world.
In the past, Nine Songs had a leading figure, and those below merely acted under their guidance. Now, with no leader to direct them, Qiao Ling found herself lost, unsure of which path to choose ahead.
By wandering about and observing, someday she would figure out which path was truly the one she wished to tread.
After Qiao Ling left, Sang Que also departed from the room where Xia Chan stayed, returning to the modern world. She carefully avoided surveillance cameras on her way back home.
Her mother was well, yet Sang Que hadn’t anticipated that people from the Wu Family had visited half a month prior. They didn’t rashly act out but left a letter for Sang Que.
