Right Thought Lock

When Zhou Yang returned home, there was unexpectedly no sign of Zhou Laogou at the front door. In the past, when Zhou Yang got off work and returned home, he could always see the other man hoe-wedging at the door, but this time he did not know where he had gone. Zhou Yang walked through the gatehouse passageway and saw a wisp of white smoke spraying from the woodshed chimney. Perhaps Huang Shaodiao in the woodshed had heard some movement; she stuck half her body out of the woodshed, looking at Zhou Yang at the entrance of the passageway, and a smile suddenly squeezed onto her plump white face, but she did not speak, waiting for Zhou Yang to speak first. "Mother, it's me, Zhou Yang." "I got off work early today, so I came back ahead of time." Zhou Yang knew how to handle such a situation, so he spoke first. The smile on Huang Shaodiao's face became a few points more genuine. Usually, she always spoke to Zhou Yang in harsh words and a stern countenance, but today she had changed her attitude—Zhou Yang guessed that his argument with her that morning had taken effect. "Where are Father and my two older brothers? Where did they go?" Zhou Yang looked around, then asked Huang Shaodiao. "They went to hoe weeds in the fields; Mother is about to boil water to send to them." "My child, what would you like for dinner? Mother will make it for you." Huang Shaodiao responded kindly, looking at Zhou Yang with a loving gaze, clearly the image of a mother who dotes on her child. But Zhou Yang had seen what she was like before, and saw that she could transform into this image overnight, so he only felt fear and dread, and would not immerse himself even a bit in this "motherly love." He shook his head and said, "I'm not picky; whatever my two older brothers want to eat, Mother should attend to them first. I'll just eat whatever follows." The Zhou family's menu was very simple; every day it was those few foods. Therefore, even if Zhou Yang made a request to Huang Shaodiao today, she would most likely not be able to make it. Instead, Zhou Yang was very likely to fall into danger because his request was "out of line." "A-Yang is really a good child, better than your two older brothers..." Huang Shaodiao stared at Zhou Yang with her mung bean eyes, murmuring softly under her breath, slowly retreating back into the woodshed. Zhou Yang then walked into his bedroom, turned back, and slid the door bolt into place. He did not take any other action for the moment; he just stood by the door, listening as the courtyard grew quiet for a while, then the sound of Huang Shaodiao pouring water into the earthenware jar, and shortly after, he heard Huang Shaodiao's footsteps gradually fade away, leaving the courtyard. At this point, Zhou Yang went out into the courtyard and walked around once, went to the outhouse to relieve himself, thoroughly confirmed that no one was home, and only then felt slightly relieved. Huang Shaodiao had indeed gone to deliver water to Zhou Laogou and the others. In Guancun, people were not like people, but the villagers' daily production and life seemed no different from those of true farmer commoners. Men plowed and women wove; they worked at sunrise and rested at sunset. From the Zhou family's ordinary conversations, Zhou Yang also knew that his family had seven or eight mu of farmland. They said three or four mu of this farmland was in the "South Fields" and over three mu was in the "North Fields." Whether South Fields or North Fields, both were outside the village. Therefore, Zhou Yang had never seen his family's fields. He could not leave the village. Zhou Yang had also hinted to his father that he wanted to go to the fields to help him with work. But Zhou Laogou was evasive about this matter and sternly refused him, at the time also warning him: "It's very dangerous outside the village; just stay in the village and don't run about recklessly." To Zhou Yang, danger and terror came from Guancun itself. Only by leaving Guancun could he be considered to have escaped with his life, like a fish entering the sea. So what was this "danger outside the village" that Zhou Laogou spoke of? What thing could make these ghosts feel danger? Was this nonsense made up by Zhou Laogou just to brush off his request to leave the village, or was there really something happening outside the village that was dangerous even to ghosts at all times? Zhou Yang slowly exhaled, his thoughts beginning to scatter: "The Knife-Credit Ledger indicates that the Ghost Breath I practice is currently at the first layer of 'Right Thought Lock.'" "Right Thought Lock... Afu mentioned it before." "Going by this name, the reason I can quickly shut the Ghost's Mouth on my arm is actually because of my Right Thought strength?" "Is using the mind to adjust the breathing frequency of the Ghost's Mouth, and turning it on and off at will, the application of 'Right Thought Lock'..." Pondering in his heart, Zhou Yang took out that wad of paper copper cash from his pocket. This wad of paper cash was more than twice as thick as what Zhou Yang usually received; he did not know whether Afu would pay him by this standard from now on, or whether Afu had given him extra paper cash because his first time practicing Ghost Breath consumed too much. Zhou Yang bent down and dragged out a dilapidated drawer box from under the bed. Inside the drawer box, bundles and stacks of paper cash were arranged neatly. "One tael of paper cash can exchange for half a jin of grease; I now have over two jin four taels of paper cash, which can exchange for twelve jin of grease." "Afu said that with a body like mine, at the Opening Rite I would need to consume at least thirty jin of grease." "There are only thirteen days left until the Opening Rite; gather more paper cash." "Not only might it be used at the Opening Rite, but practicing Ghost Breath would also consume paper cash." Grease was a specialty product of Guancun. This thing was similar to lard; after cooling, it would congeal into white grease. However, grease and ordinary lard were certainly worlds apart; although Zhou Yang could not say exactly what the difference was, relying on a normal person's intuition, he could still distinguish grease from lard despite their extremely similar smell and appearance, showing that they were fundamentally different. Moreover, the villagers of Guancun could not do without grease for their two daily meals. Today Zhou Yang personally saw Afu use soapberry to wash his piece of human skin, and had a rough idea of the function of grease at the Opening Rite: "Tanning human skin." "The people of Guancun will probably use the 'oil tanning method' to tan the living human skin of those participating in the Opening Rite." "A person whose skin is removed cannot live." "But 'things' like Afu, even after removing their human skin, apparently still retained their self-awareness." "If I can't escape the Opening Rite, prepare grease, and try to make myself like Afu, that's also a fallback option." "Only thus might I live on in the face of death." Putting half of today's wages into the drawer box, Zhou Yang hugged the box and walked around the room a few times, finally pushing the box under the bed, just pushing it in harder. He originally did not care much about this paper cash, so he casually grabbed a drawer box and stuffed it under the bed. Now that he knew the paper cash was useful to him, he naturally would not treat it casually anymore. —There was also Zhou Heigou in the Zhou family; Zhou Yang did not worry about outsiders, but he was always on guard against this black dog coming to steal things from his room. But in his room, besides a bed, a table, and a water vat in the corner, there was nothing else; there was no good place to hide things. Therefore, Zhou Yang planned to hide the money elsewhere, but for now temporarily put it in his own room. Afterward, Zhou Yang lit the remaining one or two taels of paper cash in the corner of the room. At the same time the paper cash burned, he immediately stirred that wisp of breath lingering on his skin. As Zhou Yang's mind and spirit stirred this wisp of breath, ant-hole-like holes sprouted on both arms competing with each other. Countless holes were like countless pitch-black mouths, constantly opening and closing, devouring the blue smoke diffusing in the air! That feeling of wildly expanding power filled Zhou Yang's fleshy shell! He could not help but clench his fists— On his arms, blue veins burst forth, like little snakes wriggling. Then blocks of muscle crowded out from under the skin, giving Zhou Yang's hemp-stalk-like body a sudden sense of strength. Afterward, the Ghost's Mouth breathed in and out, with a sound like ghostly wailing, constantly echoing in the room. Zhou Yang felt the eerie breath exhaled by the Ghost's Mouth; a thought suddenly flashed through his heart: "Chang Dafeng once said that Gui Silk Ghost Tone was all air exhaled by ghosts..." "I don't know whether the air exhaled by these Ghost's Mouths on my arm is similar to Gui Silk Ghost Tone?" In Zhou Yang's mind, the net of gui silk that appeared in the mirror when he combed his hair before the mirror in Daliang Village suddenly flashed. The gui silk on that net was arranged with extreme regularity horizontally and vertically. Completely different from this ghostly breath exhaled outside his body. He did not investigate deeply, but soon focused on practicing Ghost Breath in the present. When he first opened these Ghost's Mouths on his body, Zhou Yang had a premonition— He might not be able to do what Afu did, making Ghost's Mouths grow all over his body. But just opening these holes on both arms was not his own limit. Reaching "5" in Right Thought allowed him to try opening more Ghost's Mouths on his body. He closed his eyes, feeling the ghost breath exhaled by Ghost's Mouths all over his body; his mental intention flowed like water down along both legs. "Hum—" In an instant, dense black little holes sprouted on both legs! The newly born Ghost's Mouths on his legs breathed wildly; the ghost breath they exhaled puffed up Zhou Yang's trouser legs. As Zhou Yang adjusted his mental intention, the new Ghost's Mouths adjusted too, and in a moment kept pace with his breathing rhythm. His mental intention continued to circulate, and dense Ghost's Mouths began to grow on his chest and abdomen! By this time, Zhou Yang also felt the limit of Right Thought. He opened his eyes, feeling power accumulating within his body. All places where Ghost's Mouths had grown gradually had muscles bulging out. At this time, Zhou Yang turned his attention again to the Knife-Credit Ledger— In his ability column, the item 'Ghost Breath' underwent a new change. "Ghost Breath: Right Thought Lock (third layer)." "Reaching '5' in Right Thought can easily raise Right Thought Lock to the third layer." "If I risk mental exhaustion and forcibly attempt it, I should be able to push Right Thought Lock to the fourth layer." "But doing this would leave me no energy for anything else; it's truly dangerous and not worth the loss." "Right Thought Lock has a total of nine layers of realms." "After nine layers, what new abilities will Ghost Breath have?" Zhou Yang sensed the yin-cold ghost breath swirling outside his body; he turned his mind, and all Ghost's Mouths on his left arm closed. "The paper cash consumed by Ghost's Mouths has decreased..." Zhou Yang was somewhat surprised; he seemed to be confirming something, and then closed and locked more than half of the Ghost's Mouths on his right arm. As Ghost's Mouths on his body became fewer and fewer, the paper cash consumed by the remaining Ghost's Mouths also became less and less! Until finally, only the Ghost's Mouth in Zhou Yang's right palm remained; Zhou Yang could only sense its weak absorption of paper cash. But the power brought by Ghost Breath had not yet weakened! ",