Opening Door

Before Zhou Yang could lower his gaze to inspect the ghost shadow he had stamped upon, an inexplicable sensation suddenly welled up within him. He felt as though somewhere—either inside or outside his body—had suddenly been "opened." It was like a patient who had suffered from a congested nose for days on end suddenly throwing off the illness; nostrils that had long been blocked cleared in an instant. A clear nasal passage was ordinary enough, yet after recovery, it felt extraordinary— as though the gates to a brand-new world had been swung wide open! The moment this sensation arose, Zhou Yang immediately understood: the Opening Door among Ding Ling's Eight Doors had finally opened! From the corner of his eye, Zhou Yang caught sight of a slender, frail ghost shadow mincing toward him in tiny, hurried steps! "The Opening Door warding spirit!" A surge of joy rose in his heart. Immediately after, from the periphery of his vision, he saw Chang Dafeng standing a few paces away, holding the ghost candle. Chang Dafeng wore an eerie expression, his lips squirming as though silently reciting some chant. Standing beside him, the Bloated Aspect—a corpse-form bloated like a giant drowned cadaver—suddenly began to tremble. Gaps split open across its livid, blackened skin, and purplish-red corpse water poured from the ruptured wounds! The corpse water pooled into a trickle across the floor, rapidly slithering and closing in toward Ding Ling's Opening Door warding spirit! In the blink of an eye, the foul trickle submerged the slender ghost shadow's ankles. Zhou Yang saw several purplish-red livor mortis spots quietly bloom across the ankles of Ding Ling's Opening Door warding spirit. Meanwhile, the corpse water shed by the Bloated Aspect had already vanished completely, as if it had never existed at all. Zhou Yang's eyes flickered, and he turned his face toward Chang Dafeng. He caught Chang Dafeng blowing out the ghost candle in his hand, beaming as he spoke to the person he believed to be Ding Ling: "I truly didn't expect that at the critical juncture, you'd still manage to stamp down on a ghost shadow! "No matter how you tried, you couldn't land a foot on the ones nearby, yet this ghost shadow was so far away, and you stamped right on it. "It seems it was fated with you after all..." As he spoke, Chang Dafeng's sidelong glance swept beside Ding Ling. A ghost shadow of the same build as Ding Ling—equally slender and frail—stood there with its head hung low, completely silent. The ghost shadow was barefoot, its feet pale blue-grey, with several purplish-red corpse spots faintly visible around the ankles. "It is indeed rather strange," Zhou Yang replied on Ding Ling's behalf. "I'd already given up hope on this ghost shadow, yet when I walked over, my foot came down right upon it. "It's as if that was how it was meant to be—not that I stamped on it, but that it chose me... "Creating a warding spirit... is it possible that I wasn't the only one selecting a ghost shadow to forge into a spirit, but that those ghost shadows were filtering me as well?" Even as he spoke, Zhou Yang perceived a wisp of gloomy, cold qi lingering within Ding Ling's Opening Door. Its nature clashed with Ding Ling's warding spirit, yet subtly resonated with Chang Dafeng's Bloated Aspect. "This is Chang Dafeng's method to keep you in check... "The moment your Opening Door swung wide, he used the corpse water oozing from his Bloated Aspect warding spirit to taint the spirit about to solidify within your Opening Door. "He might be able to manipulate your warding spirit through this. "It's even entirely possible he could turn your warding spirit against you to harm you." Zhou Yang communicated with Ding Ling in her mind. "Mm..." Ding Ling acknowledged softly, hesitating as if holding back words. "Are you wondering why, when I noticed Chang Dafeng plotting to set a trap for you with his Bloated Aspect, I didn't dodge it and spare you from harm?" Zhou Yang asked Ding Ling with a faint smile, sensing her troubled tone. "Perhaps Mister's power was also stretched thin, and you couldn't avoid the trap he laid deliberately," Ding Ling reasoned on Zhou Yang's behalf instead. "It's not that I couldn't evade such a petty trick," Zhou Yang refuted. "Rather, dodging the trap right then would surely have alerted Chang Dafeng. "In that case, his wariness toward you would only have deepened, and he would have resorted to all sorts of secret ploys against you later on. "An open spear is easy to dodge, but a hidden arrow is difficult to guard against. "Since that's the case, we might as well let him leave this shackle upon your warding spirit. What harm can it do? Dispersing this trick won't cost me the slightest effort. "He will believe he has you firmly in his grasp and can sit comfortably in the driver's seat, while we won't have to worry every day about his 'hidden arrows.' "Everyone's happy. "Only when he tries to use this trick will he find out who's going to suffer." Hearing this, Ding Ling chuckled aloud, the gloom in her heart sweeping clean away. "Mister is truly thorough in his considerations. "I already can't wait to see what kind of expression Troupe Leader Chang makes when he tries to use his trick to force our submission, only to find it completely useless." "There might be only the two of you left alive in Daliang Village. Let's hope it won't come to that," Zhou Yang sighed. "If you can both save face for each other, there's no need to tear away the veil of civility." Naturally oblivious to the thoughts stirring in the girl before him, Chang Dafeng scoffed and told Ding Ling, "Whether ghosts possess intelligence remains inconclusive to this day, so why speak of their shadows? "If these ghost shadows have no mind, how could they possibly filter you? "The way I see it... you stamped upon this ghost shadow simply because under the press of danger, you finally achieved complete focus, thereby stirring your Right Thought to bring your foot down upon it. It had nothing to do with anything else. "When my Bloated Aspect attaches to a living person, it causes their qi and blood to wither day by day until death, leaving their flesh bloated like a drowned corpse. "Merged with my own body, it makes me indistinguishable from a dead body, allowing me to evade the incursions of ghosts and gods. "What about this warding spirit of yours? What can it do? "Now that it has solidified within your Opening Door, you should understand it in an instant." Zhou Yang's awareness retreated to the background, letting Ding Ling familiarize herself with the use of her warding spirit. Frowning as she sensed it for a moment, she told Chang Dafeng, "My warding spirit seems to alter my voice." With that, the warding spirit beside her suddenly attached itself behind Ding Ling. Looking at Chang Dafeng, her voice shifted: "Troupe Leader! Troupe Leader! "I died such a horrible death! I was wronged so deeply—" A somewhat tender, youthful voice spilled from Ding Ling's mouth. Chang Dafeng recognized the voice at once—it was Shitou's voice! A jolt went through his heart. Looking across at her again—where was there any trace of Ding Ling? All he saw was Shitou, his neck twisted at more than a ninety-degree angle. "He" had his head crooked sideways, the back of his head pressed against his chest. Blood trickled down from jagged bone fragments that pierced through the torn flesh of his neck. His face was a ghastly blue-grey—the unmistakable look of a dead person. "Shitouzi" stared fixedly at Chang Dafeng, sending a chill through his heart. He instinctively reached for his weapon. Yet when his hand groped down toward his trouser leg, it grabbed empty air! That stabbing dagger had been handed to Ding Ling! "Ding Ling!" Only then did Chang Dafeng snap back to reality, barking sharply. A burst of girlish giggles drifted from across the room. Ding Ling stood there gracefully, her warding spirit upright beside her. She chuckled, "Troupe Leader, this warding spirit of mine is quite fun." A flash of shock and suspicion flickered in Chang Dafeng's eyes, quickly followed by a cold scoff: "It merely lets you produce another's voice and tricks others into perceiving you as the owner of that voice... Once one channels the divine through opera, such skills come along with it naturally. "This warding spirit of yours somewhat overlaps with the ability of Opera Spirit-Communion. "Still, you are only just learning to sing opera, so there will inevitably be many times when you perform poorly. With only three days left, it would be difficult for you to master the play Zhong Kui Marries Off His Sister completely. Having this warding spirit now actually saves a lot of trouble." "Mm, mm!" Ding Ling nodded repeatedly. "I was thinking the same thing." She explored the nuances of her warding spirit with keen interest. A moment later, she suddenly asked Chang Dafeng, "Troupe Leader, now that I have created a curse in the Opening Door, can I create another curse in the Life Door? "If so, once I've learned all the arts in the draft, will I be able to forge eight warding spirits across all Eight Doors?" "Indeed," Chang Dafeng said. "Once the warding spirits of the Eight Doors are cultivated, they must still battle one another until all eight doors converge into one. "I merely walk outside with the Bloated Aspect most of the time, keeping the warding spirits of the other doors in reserve as trump cards." Light danced in Ding Ling's eyes. She smiled and went back to familiarizing herself with her warding spirit. Zhou Yang spoke in her mind: "Troupe Leader Chang's hidden cards certainly aren't many. "Otherwise, when the ghost entered the door earlier, he wouldn't have been in such dire straits. "I'd guess he has cultivated three doors at most, or perhaps he only has two warding spirits on him." "Biting off more than you can chew will choke you," Chang Dafeng added a few words. "With your current level of Right Thought, controlling a single warding spirit is already no easy feat. Raise your Right Thought first before talking about commanding a second or third warding spirit!" "All right," Ding Ling agreed with a smile. From his vantage point as an onlooker, Zhou Yang observed that warding spirit ghost shadow with disheveled long hair and a slender build matching Ding Ling's. A doubt suddenly sprang up in his mind: "Why is this warding spirit's ability so similar to the opera ghost's?"