"As for what use accumulating all this Right Thought has..."
Chang Dafeng seemed to recall something and suddenly chuckled. "When a living creature meets an evil ghost, it's just like a mouse seeing a cat—that terror is buried right in the creature's bones, impossible to dispel.
"Someone without a single strand of Right Thought on them might be frightened to death even if they only run into a gui.
"The impact a ghost has on a person's mind and spirit is that immense. Once you reach the level above gui, where true ghosts roam, the ghost rhythm they give off can directly drain the vitality of living beings, rotting fresh meat in moments and withering grass and trees...
"Yet if you possess Right Thought, you can withstand the ghost's myriad influences.
"Even someone with only a single strand of Right Thought facing a gui will at most be rattled out of their wits and left entirely at its mercy, rather than literally dying of fright.
"Naturally, being left at its mercy isn't much better than being scared to death.
"Still, the more Right Thought one accumulates, the more resistance one develops against the ghost's influences.
"And by holding fast to Right Thought, man can ultimately subdue ghosts—"
Here, Chang Dafeng paused and fixed his eyes on Ding Ling before continuing:
"Once the accumulated Right Thought exceeds nine strands, breaking through the pinnacle of numbers, it can condense into a 'Right Mind' at any moment!
"Once the Right Mind forms, a person becomes like a pillar in a river; no matter how fierce the surging torrent, it cannot easily wash that pillar away. From then on, you can use your settled mind like a hitching post for a beast. Treat that ghost as a beast, and use the methods you've learned to lash it to your post.
"The Right Mind is the post, the cultivation method is the rope, and the ghost is treated as a beast."
Ding Ling's heart stirred upon hearing this. She asked Chang Dafeng, "Is the Draft of Playing Gods and Painting Ghosts the rope that binds ghosts?"
"I don't know."
Chang Dafeng's eyes flickered. "I never finished training the entire draft myself. It's only a draft—nobody can say whether one can truly practice it all the way to the end."
"What happens after you bind a ghost?" Ding Ling asked again.
"I suppose you can wield the ghost's methods? That's a level far beyond my reach. Even if I were to guess blindly, I wouldn't know where to begin," Chang Dafeng said with a click of his tongue, sounding deeply regretful.
Accumulating Right Thought and breaking through the pinnacle of numbers corresponded, on Zhou Yang's knife-credit ledger, to transcending the bounds of an ordinary mortal.
Beyond that threshold, Right Thought would condense into a Right Mind.
A man subduing a ghost with a Right Mind!
Zhou Yang felt a surge of excitement.
Though Chang Dafeng did not know what it was like after binding a ghost, just the realm he had described gave Zhou Yang a direction. He felt as though a crack had finally appeared along the pitch-black road ahead, letting light pierce through the fissure!
*The combined Right Thought Ding Ling and I possess has already exceeded the pinnacle of accumulated Right Thought.*
*Yet no Right Mind has condensed.*
*Does superimposing two people's Right Thought merely increase the quantity in the end, without triggering a qualitative change?*
Zhou Yang pondered in silence.
Then he heard Chang Dafeng say to Ding Ling, "Accumulating Right Thought requires surviving life-or-death trials or attaining profound enlightenment just to gain a strand or two.
"It demands both innate talent and experience; accumulating it is no easy feat!
"What's more, the more Right Thought you have, the harder it is to add another strand!
"For now, don't waste time daydreaming about what comes after forming a Right Mind. Check your own pulse first and see how many strands of Right Thought you possess."
"Yes!" Ding Ling nodded in agreement.
Following the method Chang Dafeng had explained earlier, she extended three fingers and laid them against the pulse of her other wrist.
At first, she could not even feel her own pulse.
After searching several times and finding the exact spot, Ding Ling closed her eyes.
Feeling the slow, steady throb beneath her fingertips, she noticed several strange ripples suddenly emerge beyond the pulse. These distinct ripples were entirely unlike the heartbeat, defying verbal description, yet each was unique, allowing Ding Ling to distinguish them at once!
*Four strands!* she gasped inwardly. *Mister, I actually have four strands of Right Thought now!*
*Mm,* Zhou Yang acknowledged.
Ding Ling's Right Thought had broken through again tonight, increasing to four strands. Zhou Yang's own Right Thought had also grown by one strand during tonight's crisis after absorbing the ghost candle's smoke, reaching seven strands.
*Chang Dafeng is sure to ask how many strands of Right Thought you've accumulated. How do you plan to answer him?* Zhou Yang asked.
*I'll say... I have three strands right now?* Ding Ling replied immediately. *If I say too few, he won't believe me; if I say too many, he'll be even more wary of me. Three strands should be just right, shouldn't it, Mister?*
*That works. Say that,* Zhou Yang smiled.
She truly was quick on the uptake.
Just as Zhou Yang had anticipated, the moment they finished conversing, Chang Dafeng—who had been observing Ding Ling for quite a while—asked, "Well? How many strands of Right Thought did you feel?"
"Roughly... roughly three strands?" A hint of hesitation lingered on Ding Ling's delicate, pretty face. Her fingers remained on her wrist as she spoke with great uncertainty. "Beyond my pulse, there seemed to be three different ripples... I can't be sure either. Why don't you check my pulse for me?"
As she spoke, she stretched out her fair, slender wrist directly toward him.
Her reaction showed not the slightest hint of pretense; everything appeared entirely natural, earning Zhou Yang's silent admiration for her performance.
Chang Dafeng had previously said that one could only know their own accumulated Right Thought by taking their own pulse. Aside from directly exchanging blows to gauge an opponent's depth, an outsider could never probe how much Right Thought another had gathered.
Ding Ling had capitalized on this very fact, boldly extending her wrist for Chang Dafeng to inspect.
Even if Chang Dafeng had lied before and someone else truly could take her pulse to detect it, Ding Ling could easily excuse it by saying this was her first time probing for Right Thought and a careless slip had caused her to miscount, thus keeping the situation well in hand.
Looking at the wrist extended before his eyes, Chang Dafeng's eyelids twitched. He shook his head and said, "I just told you: only you can know how much Right Thought you've gathered.
"Others can't detect it.
"Unless they're heroic champions who have tempered their Right Mind to the point of affecting their surroundings.
"Unfortunately, we aren't, or why would we be trapped in a desolate village like this?
"Let's get down to business!"
Chang Dafeng braced his hands against his knees and pushed himself up.
He stepped out of the main hall, took down the roe deer hide Ding Ling had hung beneath the eaves outside, dragged it back in, and spread it out over the opera trunk.
The membrane on the inner side of the hide was slightly dry, with dried blood clinging to it, and a pungent, musky odor emanated constantly from the pelt. Because the deer hide had not been tanned and had only been air-dried for four to six hours, it was already somewhat stiff and difficult to roll up.
"Singe off the hair, soften the hide with heat, and then cut out a piece to sew into a false abdomen.
"A ball the size of a fist will do; don't make it too large," Chang Dafeng instructed Ding Ling. "Originally, practicing the Eight Doors in the Draft of Playing Gods and Painting Ghosts required heading to different directions during their respective double-hours to 'create a curse.' This first door, the Opening Door, requires creating a curse in the northwest direction of the Qian Sixth Palace during the Wei hour.
"Moreover, the entire curse-creating ritual takes three days to complete.
"But time is pressing, and we don't have three days to take our time crafting the curse.
"It just so happens that two men died here recently, which works to our advantage. We can directly create a curse using the dead men's names.
"That will be much faster!"
"What does creating a curse mean?" Ding Ling asked, cutting the hide with a knife as she looked up at Chang Dafeng. "And why does having two recently deceased men mean we don't need to follow the draft's rules and can create a curse directly?"
Chapter 35