I Use Nuo Opera to Contain Ancient Evil

[The eerie show begins, with human skin for a stage curtain. The soul-subduing Nuo opera you requested will cost you your life to perform.]

A Nuo mask covered his face, and corpse-oil lanterns flared to life.

Qin Yan painted a vermilion opera mask with blood. An ancient shamanic curse rolled from his throat as the earth trembled and swallowed the Qing-dynasty zombie.

He was breaking the shadow puppeteer's spine and stuffing it into the Thousand-Mechanism Box. Every time he contained an eerie being, the Nuo god tattoo on his face burrowed three parts deeper into his flesh.

As the Mute Spring flooded the opera troupe, he stepped through the ritual movements on cinnabar, but the song suddenly caught in his throat. What was writhing inside the mask: a Nuo god who drove away evil, or the shamanic lord who devoured human nature?