Scripture of Preserving Life

The male voice coming from the right side room at this moment unmistakably belonged to Qian Heng. Given the perilous situation earlier, with the ghost emerging from the right side room while possessing Li Yichun, Zhou Yang and the others had subconsciously assumed that Qian Heng, who had been in that same room with Li Yichun, had perished long ago! Yet the voice coming from Qian Heng now, though filled with terror, was distinctly brimming with vitality— Qian Heng was not dead either! Only, he seemed severely frightened by the ghost as well, blurting out the truth behind the death of Shitou, who had gone out with him to dig for wild vegetables. From his words, Shitou had been killed by his own hands! Shitou had fallen to his death after being shoved off a cliff by him! "He and Shitou were the closest, like father and son. Why would he do such a thing?" Both Zhou Yang and Ding Ling shared this question. "I knew it!" Just then, the two heard Chang Dafeng snort in anger beside them. Turning to look, they saw the space between his brows throbbing violently, his face brimming with uncontrollable rage, murder flashing in his eyes. Chang Dafeng bent down and reached into his boot, drawing a stabbing dagger in a backhand grip and concealing it under his sleeve, then charged furiously into the right side room! Did he guess long ago that there was something fishy about Shitou's death, and that it was inextricably linked to Qian Heng? Zhou Yang pondered internally. Without him needing to give any instruction, Ding Ling followed right behind Chang Dafeng and slipped into the right side room. The right side room was piled with all sorts of clutter. The three scanned their surroundings, unable to spot Qian Heng at first glance. Yet Qian Heng was utterly terrified at this moment, completely oblivious to the figures rushing into the room. Fully trapped in the delusion that Shitou had come to claim his life, he continued to shriek in horror: "Stay away! Don't come near me! "Shitou, don't force my hand—I taught you all those martial arts moves! "Don't come near me!" Tracing the sound, the three saw Qian Heng's back beneath two tall benches supporting clutter in the corner of the wall. He was huddled in that dark corner with his back facing outward, covering his face with both hands turned toward the wall, his shoulders shivering incessantly. Judging by his terrified screams, it seemed as if Shitou truly were hiding somewhere nearby. Yet when the others looked around, how could there be even half a ghostly shadow? "He has strayed onto an evil path!" Glaring at Qian Heng under the benches, Chang Dafeng suddenly barked out. Then his gaze shifted to Ding Ling, the accumulated murderous intent in his eyes making Ding Ling feel as though she were the one who had strayed onto an evil path. "To stay alive, you can do whatever it takes! "Except one thing: you must never tread an evil path! "You must never be like this Qian Heng—do that, and you're no longer human! Anyone would have the right to execute you!" Chang Dafeng spoke with harsh severity. Ding Ling looked bewildered and asked subconsciously, "What evil path? "What... what did Qian Heng do?" Ding Ling naturally knew what Qian Heng had done—he had killed Shitou. According to what had slipped out in his panic, the reason he had shoved Shitou off the cliff to his death was that he wanted to survive and escape Daliang Village. He needed Shitou to pave a path for him with his life. What kind of 'path' was this? Could sacrificing another's life directly serve one's own ends? —Zhou Yang thought much deeper than Ding Ling. He quickly realized that 'killing other living people' must be the path-opening ritual for the road of survival Qian Heng sought! Chang Dafeng surely knew how one stepped onto this path as well! Chang Dafeng did not answer Ding Ling's question. Snorting coldly once more, he rushed to the corner where Qian Heng hid and hauled him out with force! "Don't touch me! Stay back!" Qian Heng continued to shout wildly. In his eyes, Chang Dafeng and Ding Ling had both turned into Shitou advancing step by step. Chang Dafeng pinned a knee onto Qian Heng's back, pressing his chest and abdomen flat against the floor so that he could only flail his limbs in vain. Then, grasping Qian Heng's topknot with one hand and the dagger's hilt with the other, the troupe leader brought the hilt—inlaid with several copper-capped rivets—down hard against Qian Heng's face several times! With a few dull thuds, Qian Heng's eye sockets instantly turned black and blue, blood gushed from his nose and mouth, and several bloody teeth were spat from his jaws! This brought Qian Heng abruptly to his senses. Before he could grasp the present situation, Chang Dafeng's grim voice rang out behind him: "You killed Shitouzi! "Did you want to use his life to turn yourself into a ghost?!" Turn into a ghost? Zhou Yang immediately seized on the key phrase in Chang Dafeng's words! Was the path of survival Qian Heng found turning himself into a ghost so he could flee Daliang Village afterward? Could killing other living people, murdering those close to oneself, turn a person into a ghost?! Zhou Yang was shaken to the core! If that was true, weren't ghosts simply transformed from murderers and maniacs? Realizing this, Zhou Yang felt a chill pierce him to the marrow. Compared to the dread born from confronting ghosts, this sudden conjecture horrified Zhou Yang far more. For a moment, he could not dispel the terror in his heart! After all, in his previous understanding, ghosts might be terrifying, but they were worlds apart from human beings. The boundary between the two had been as clear as night and day. Yet the thought crossing his mind now shattered that perception. Humans and ghosts were not separated by an impassable divide; they did not belong to two completely different camps. A human could perhaps become a ghost by butchering the lives of others! Even standing in a crowd of people did not mean safety. For every person was a potential ghost. Anyone might slaughter those beside them for their own ends and become a ghost! Every person was a dark forest! Because of this, Zhou Yang even harbored a fleeting sliver of suspicion toward Ding Ling for a split second. He quickly extinguished this doubt, using Ding Ling's eyes to watch Chang Dafeng and Qian Heng. He saw Qian Heng shaking his head vehemently, flatly denying it: "I didn't! I didn't! "Shitou fell down the hillside and died while chasing a roe deer! "His head smashed open with a huge hole, and he died on the spot! "I didn't take his life! "I didn't try to become a ghost! "A ghost possessed my mind just now and made me talk nonsense—" As Qian Heng kept making excuses, Chang Dafeng, who had him pinned down, flew into a sudden rage. He slammed the dagger's hilt maniacally into Qian Heng's face: "I told you to tell the truth! "Tell the truth!" Troupe Leader Chang actually appeared far smaller and leaner than Qian Heng. Yet pinning Qian Heng down right now, he rendered the man utterly incapable of struggling, leaving him no choice but to take the dagger's pommel directly to the face. Before long, Qian Heng's face resembled a smashed persimmon, mangled with bloody flesh and too gruesome to look upon. Zhou Yang understood even better why Chang Dafeng had erupted in fury— Earlier, Qian Heng had clearly claimed that Shitou fell and snapped his neck. Now in his panic, he claimed Shitou died from a smashed head—his contradictory accounts proved all the more how guilty his conscience was. He had most likely used Shitou's life to test some method of turning into a ghost! Yet no matter how brutally the troupe leader beat Qian Heng, and though Qian Heng trembled all over in sheer terror, he stubbornly clung to his previous story, insisting that every word he spoke was the absolute truth. Hearing this, Chang Dafeng let go of Qian Heng's topknot. He tossed the dagger aside as well, his tone softening considerably: "After all, we're trapped in this ghost village right now, with no telling when we'll get out... You were panicked, and you have loved ones outside. If you took a wrong step for a moment, I can understand that. "What's more, the opera starts in three days. If only two of us are left, it'll be hard to stage. "This time you did wrong, but I'll forgive you..." At this point, Chang Dafeng's voice sank: "But tell the truth, make an honest confession to everyone— "After you shoved Shitouzi to his death, what did you do? "Did you chant that scripture?" "I didn't kill Shitou, I didn't push him down the mountain..." Qian Heng muttered in response, but his tone had already wavered. Chang Dafeng ignored his response, continuing on his own: "A while back, when the two of us went to Baligou Township for the Quail Fair to look for work, someone at the fair chanted a passage from the Scripture of Preserving Life. You were there too. "Passages like that, using human lives as a bridge to turn oneself into a ghost—hardly anyone who travels around out there hasn't come across them. "I'm guessing you took note of that passage back then, and after killing Shitouzi, you followed the steps those people described and chanted that scripture?" Qian Heng reflexively shook his head to deny it, but hearing the heavy sigh the troupe leader let out behind him, he shuddered violently. Realizing Chang Dafeng's patience was wearing thin, he immediately blurted out: "Shitou was bent on running away! I remembered your instructions and tried my hardest to stop him! "Who knew that in the scuffle, I'd end up shoving him off the cliff to his death— "With him dead, I couldn't explain myself, and whichever way I looked, it was a dead end. I don't know what possessed me, but I recalled the passage from the Scripture of Preserving Life I heard at the Quail Fair, and like a man bewitched, I chanted it aloud. "Then, following what those people at the fair said, I lit a circle of fire around Shitouzi's corpse, pressed his Eight Characters of birth over mine, plucked a lock of his hair, wrapped it in birth-chart paper, and swallowed that thing down... "But I waited there for a long time, and nothing changed in me. "What those people said at the Quail Fair was all lies! The method doesn't work..." Once Qian Heng's mental defenses broke, he poured out everything he had done like beans tumbling from a bamboo tube! He was still babbling on. Behind him, Chang Dafeng had already silently picked up the dagger from the floor. Aiming at the center of Qian Heng's back, he drove the sharp blade violently into the flesh! "Hiss—" Qian Heng drew a sharp breath of cold air! He craned his neck stiffly, his upper body locking rigid as all his muscles tightened under the excruciating agony! Yet as blood gushed from the fuller of the dagger that had pierced through his back and out his chest, his strength drained completely away through that hole! Thud! Qian Heng went limp and collapsed face-first to the floor. His eyes glazed over, the spark of life within them fading swiftly. At that moment, his lips quivered, a sound rising from his throat: "Om... Marici mam... svaha..." "Om... Marici mam... svaha..." Qian Heng's slurred voice grew increasingly distinct in the cramped room, carrying a somber and solemn resonance. Hearing this voice, Zhou Yang inexplicably imagined a dark room thick with dust, where a divine idol covered in black cloth was enshrined! He suddenly realized that the chant Qian Heng uttered before his death was a passage from that so-called Scripture of Preserving Life! A passage of scripture that initiated the ritual of turning a human into a ghost! Shhk! Chang Dafeng heard the sound escaping Qian Heng's mouth as well. Pressing down on Qian Heng's back, he wrenched the dagger free and stabbed the side of Qian Heng's neck several times in succession! Blood pooled across the floor! Qian Heng's mouth hung open, unable to utter another sound. His eyes remained wide open in death, unclosed. In the brief instant he drew his last breath, Zhou Yang vaguely saw a black shadow rise from his body and dart into the shadow beside Ding Ling. Seeing that shadow, Zhou Yang's heart stirred. Catching sight from the corner of Ding Ling's eyes, he glimpsed two faint shadows beside Ding Ling, overlapping with each other before abruptly merging into Ding Ling's single shadow. These two black shadows were visible only to Zhou Yang. Even walking in a manifestation body, I can still harvest the death afterimages of the deceased?