A bone-piercing chill followed the palm resting on Ding Ling's shoulder and spread through her whole body!
“Crackle!”
Inside the gauze ball, the ghost candle burned more fiercely, giving off an even darker firelight.
The moment that firelight fell on Ding Ling, it bolstered the might of her warding spirit.
The warding spirit that had always clung to Ding Ling's back, fused with her as one and together performing the role of Zhong Kui, shrieked shrilly.
—Only Zhou Yang heard this needle-sharp shrieking.
When the sound spread outward, even Chang Dafeng, walking ahead, heard it as Grandfather Zhong Kui's majestic and fierce spoken lines of rebuke:
“Hah!
“Wild ghosts and thieving vermin, raise your eyes and look!
“I am the great god who swallows demons and devours ghosts, Judge Zhong Kui!”
Under the stern rebuke, the hair of the thin female warding spirit behind Ding Ling burst into disarray and seemed to catch the ghost candle's dim fire and burn, coiling round and round the palm resting on Ding Ling's shoulder!
“Sss!”
In an instant, the withered, stinking palm looked about to be burned into charcoal!
But in the next moment, an eerie, androgynous voice of spoken lines rose again behind Ding Ling!
The spoken lines sounded just as majestic and fierce.
Yet they gave one an indescribable feeling.
The voice clearly spoke a language Ding Ling and Zhou Yang could understand, human words, yet there was not the slightest human quality in it!
It was like the sound made by a tree, a corpse long dead, or a patch of mold in a corner!
“Hah!
“Wild ghosts and thieving vermin, raise your eyes and look!
“I am the great god who swallows demons and devours ghosts, Judge Zhong Kui!”
The instant that voice rose behind her, no matter how the ghost candle poured out its fire, it could no longer aid Ding Ling's warding spirit in burning that palm away!
The ghost fire had originally covered Ding Ling and her companions like a tent, shielding them from outside intrusion.
Now, that tent had been torn open by the arm reaching inside!
The opera ghost's bewitching and uncanny ghost rhythm poured in through the tear, staining the opera costumes of Ding Ling, Chang Dafeng, and Daole's warding spirit until they seemed made of paper; the opera facial makeup painted on Ding Ling's and Chang Dafeng's faces also seemed like ink and oil colors sketched onto a sheet of paper!
A terrifying pulling force came from the palm on Ding Ling's shoulder, trying to drag her, this “Zhong Kui,” out of the procession and into the pile of corpses!
Zhou Yang's heart grew heavy!
Now, Zhong Kui's marriage procession had only left the courtyard and gone out no more than one or two li!
It was still seven or eight li from the river at the village exit.
Yet at present, Ding Ling and Chang Dafeng had already used most of their respective methods!
How could they hold out until the procession reached the bridge?!
But whether the opera troupe could hold up or not, for now they had to grit their teeth and endure!
Zhou Yang steeled himself—bursts of fierce heartbeat erupted within his consciousness, and his Right Thought, like sparks in the dark night, gushed from his spirit-soul along with the violent beating of his heart, seeking to merge with Ding Ling's mind!
“Don't look back!
“Keep your head down and walk forward!”
But at this moment, Chang Dafeng, who was playing Zhong Mei at the front and bobbing up and down as if riding in a carriage, suddenly gave a deep shout!
Immediately after, Daole's warding spirit, which was leading the procession at the very front and holding up the gauze ball lantern, sprang two zhang into the air from level ground like a hopping corpse!
When it landed again, it was already planted behind Ding Ling like a driven stake!
The gauze ball lantern held in the straw effigy's hands came smashing down onto the corpse that had its hand pressed on Ding Ling's shoulder!
The corpse's exposed skin was mostly swollen and purple-black, but its face was as white as if powdered, and two smudged patches of rouge around its eye sockets lent it a touch of beauty.
—Yet its frame and bones were clearly male!
The gauze ball lantern struck this corpse with a male body and female face, and the ghost fire inside poured out, instantly setting the dead thing ablaze like a torch!
Seizing the chance, Ding Ling finally broke free!
Amid the layer upon layer of surging ghost rhythm, her mind had not become confused.
She still maintained Zhong Kui's walking gait, swaying as if riding a donkey, yet as steady as Mount Tai.
“Sir, you need to steady yourself!”
Even at a time like this, she still had the leisure to tease Zhou Yang in her heart.
Zhou Yang did not respond.
His Right Thought flowed, hidden yet unspent, but through its flow he saw the scene behind Ding Ling:
The corpse with a male body and female face was ignited by ghost fire and froze in place, unable to move.
The ghost fire blazed fiercely, in an instant blackening its corpse.
Daole's warding spirit held the gauze ball lantern and was just about to pull away when, from the dense crowd of corpses gathered around, another corpse suddenly leaped out and laid a hand on the shoulder of the burning dead one!
“Hum!”
The fire, which had been growing fiercer, was actually suppressed somewhat by that hand!
Then another dead man laid a hand on the second corpse's shoulder!
A fourth, a fifth, a sixth...
The many dead villagers, as if playing some game of follow-the-leader, laid their hands on the shoulders of those in front and formed a long dragon along the dirt village road!
The ghost fire on the first corpse was completely extinguished!
Its whole body was scorched black, except for its face, which was white tinged with red, as if powdered.
On this exceedingly pretty face, a smile suddenly blossomed—
Behind it, the corpses that had laid their hands on its shoulders also revealed in the darkness one face after another identical to it, and all began to giggle together!
The laughter rose suddenly, then abruptly stopped!
Every face turned full toward Ding Ling's departing group and spun rapidly like the blades of a desk fan.
Amid this spinning, waves of mournful weeping mixed with operatic song came from their mouths.
Androgynous, evil and uncanny:
“Severed bowels, inch by inch;
“No place to settle your old mother.
“When I think of it, I look up and see no kin; the summoning of souls must end—
“My Ding Niang'er!
“At the ends of the earth, this old life can barely last; severed bowels, inch by inch...”
This operatic voice, like a mother calling her dead daughter, spread through the void in an instant.
All around Ding Ling, for a time there was nothing but mournful cries!
“Ding Niang'er, Ding Niang'er, Ding Niang'er...”
Every sorrowful cry was calling a dead daughter surnamed Ding!
The opera ghost seemed to be calling Ding Ling herself!
Fear seeped out from the cracks of his bones and assailed Zhou Yang's mind!
Why would the opera ghost call for a woman named “Ding Niang”?
Was there originally a woman surnamed Ding in the play?
Or had it come for Ding Ling this time?
If it was the latter—why would it come for Ding Ling?!
“In that ruined house's ancestral hall... that Opera Lady seems to have been called Ding Jiu...” Ding Ling resisted the corruption of the ghost rhythm and communicated with Zhou Yang in her heart.
Her words also steadied Zhou Yang's mind for a moment.
Could this “Ding Niang'er” refer to the Opera Lady Ding Jiu?
The mournful cries, carrying the wind, circled around Ding Ling. In an instant, Ding Ling seemed to have her eyes covered by ghosts; she could not see the road ahead and was in a place dark on all sides!
In the darkness, the wind was like countless hands, constantly pushing her toward the place from which the mournful cries came!
“Don't be called away by the ghosts!”
Zhou Yang suddenly shouted!
His Right Thought abruptly transformed into a supernatural ripple, spreading slowly outward around Ding Ling!
Chapter 57