Chang Dafeng's eyes were wide open, and his gaze toward Ding Ling was filled with disbelief.
Ding Ling's Ghost's Mouth had been sealed once more by the ghost Daole, and now Zhou Yang could not borrow her mouth to speak either. He could only stare back at Chang Dafeng, cold and grim.
A flicker of fear passed through Chang Dafeng's eyes.
He looked toward the dark river flat behind Ding Ling and muttered:
"A slip of a girl like you—who would have taught you such a perilous breathing method? And you really dared to learn it, and hid it so deep in our opera troupe. I underestimated you after all—
"So bold, so reckless...
"And don't go counting on reciting a scripture to change anything.
"Qian Heng killed Shitouzi, used a human life as a bridge, and still couldn't turn himself into a ghost. You think reciting a passage from the Scripture of Preserving Life will do it?
"Heh heh..."
"Just a little short!" Zhou Yang spoke to Ding Ling in his mind. "That incantation in the Scripture of Preserving Life might really be of use!
"Just now I seemed to see something, but Chang Dafeng cut me off.
"Find a chance one more time—as long as we get another opening to wield Ghost Breath and recite that passage of scripture again, we can surely throw the situation into chaos!"
The passage in the Scripture of Rearing Sacrifices was said to be scripture that turns a person into a ghost.
This incantation was part of the rite by which a person becomes a ghost. To set that rite in motion, the one reciting must actively offer up others' lives as sacrifice—using others' lives to bridge the way to his own transformation into a ghost.
When Zhou Yang recited this incantation through the Ghost's Mouth, he certainly was not hoping that he and Ding Ling would turn into ghosts.
What he truly wanted was to see whether the incantation might have some small effect—to pry loose, or even throw off, the outcome that had settled over this moment.
If the situation dissolved into a muddle of muddy water, though it would not necessarily be free of danger for Zhou Yang and Ding Ling, it would still be far better than the present dead end.
Though this attempt had failed, Zhou Yang had still keenly sensed something.
Whether the incantation in the Scripture of Rearing Sacrifices could take effect seemed to have nothing to do with whether the one reciting it had "killed to make a bridge."
He had harmed no one, yet after reciting the scripture, he had seen some blurred visions.
"Sir, once one turns into a ghost, one loses the feeling and sense of a human too," Ding Ling said softly. "Would you be willing to befriend a ghost?"
Her words carried a hidden meaning.
But Zhou Yang thought: he was in Guancun—which of his parents or brothers was not a ghost now?
Befriending a ghost was nothing much at all.
So he said, "If a ghost holds strictly to its principles, does not slaughter the innocent, and does not bring harm to human lives—
"what difference is there between a ghost and a human?
"Befriending a ghost is nothing much, either."
"Holds strictly to its principles, does not slaughter the innocent, does not bring harm to human lives..." Ding Ling murmured in her heart.
But just then, Chang Dafeng across from them suddenly cried out in alarm: "It's here!"
Chang Dafeng had been staring past Zhou Yang all this time, and now he clearly saw something. After that scream, he turned his gaze toward Ding Ling—toward that 'ghost Daole' stuck to Ding Ling's face.
He looked at the face grown upon the sun-shading paper, at a loss, his eyes brimming with anticipation.
And at this moment, the only one who could be coming from behind Zhou Yang was naturally that opera ghost.
The sound of opera singing drifted over from afar, ethereal and illusory.
Cool as the moonlight: "The lord is set in my fair heart, and I am in my hour of heartbreak; the moon knows the feelings I have wronged...
"Meeting is hard, parting is easy—all of it comes back, now, to how late it is for regret;
"Do you not remember that day the phoenixes paired in joy...?"
Along with that opera singing, an ice-cold palm came to rest once more upon Ding Ling's shoulder.
In an instant the void, illusory ghost rhythm enveloped Ding Ling's body!
Under the rendering of the opera ghost's ghost rhythm, Ding Ling's complexion grew ever whiter, her cheeks ever redder, and the opera costume on her body grew ever brighter in color—so bright it no longer seemed to be cloth, but rather some kind of gleaming oiled paper!
Even the folds in the garment looked like the creases in the pages of a book!
That opera ghost's ghost rhythm was gradually eroding Ding Ling into a paper figure!
"Sir, sir..."
Ding Ling called out to Zhou Yang again and again.
Zhou Yang answered again and again: "I'm here, I'm here."
Right Thought flowed round and round, the ripple tried to open time after time, and his thoughts turned through a hundred twists and turns, desperately seeking some method he could try.
But Zhou Yang found nothing.
At this time, the ghost Daole pressed against Ding Ling's face also gave off a cold, dark, decayed ghost rhythm.
That ghost rhythm likewise washed across Ding Ling's form, tangling and wrestling with the opera ghost's ghost rhythm. Ding Ling's eyes were covered by the sun-shading paper, so Zhou Yang could no longer see what was happening outside.
In a restless darkness, Zhou Yang felt the 'ghost Daole' on his face trembling without cease, as if undergoing some kind of change.
Across from him, Chang Dafeng saw it plainly—
On the yellow paper bearing the 'ghost Daole', a second face suddenly appeared.
That fair, lovely face, red through its whiteness, was lined up beside the face of Chang Dafeng's senior apprentice on the sun-shading paper!
Both faces stared fixedly at Chang Dafeng.
That flower-like pretty face was exactly the opera ghost's face!
For this moment, Chang Dafeng had schemed for who knows how long!
When he saw those two faces lined up on the paper, he trembled all over with excitement, and even his breathing went ragged—he swayed on his feet, adjusting himself several times over before he managed to even out his breath. Then his upper body shook, swinging his two dead arms, and, steadying his breath, he sang:
"Ever since I followed the great king on his campaigns east and west, bearing wind and frost and toil year on year.
"What day will at last free us from the turmoil of war, and wipe away the suffering and hardship of the common folk...?"
What Chang Dafeng sang was an aria from Farewell My Concubine.
As he gradually drew his voice to a close, on the sun-shading paper the opera ghost too turned its eyes and chanted aloud: "Ever since I..."
It had directly copied the opera Chang Dafeng had sung.
Even its singing voice was exactly the same in tone as Chang Dafeng's.
Lured on by this singing, the opera ghost's ghost rhythm grew ever fiercer, and for a time it actually overwhelmed the ghost Daole's ghost rhythm.
On the sun-shading paper, the face of Chang Dafeng's senior apprentice, lined up beside the opera ghost's face, was twisted by the ghost rhythm, gradually growing to resemble the opera ghost's face!
Chang Dafeng stared fixedly at the changes in the two faces on the yellow paper.
He watched as both faces turned into the opera ghost's face, and the delight between his brows and eyes could not be held back at all!
In his design, now was the time to set the two ghosts against each other, to bring the Death Door crashing against its counterpart, and to let the opera ghost overpower the ghost Daole.
So, then, he could create the chance for his senior apprentice to be reborn out of death.
With the ghost Daole unable to move for a time, Chang Dafeng would open his own 'Life Door', and in this moment of life and death trading places, shift his senior apprentice—sealed within the Death Door—into the Life Door, to be resurrected in Ding Ling's body!
At present, the ghost Daole had already been temporarily suppressed by the opera ghost!
Chang Dafeng turned his head, presenting his profile to the opera ghost across from him.
Then he sang out noisily: "Arrayed are the broken umbrella and the lonely lamp;
"facing that peace and auspicious joy;
"bright and gleaming, the sword spits cold stars..."
He was playing the dan role, yet what he sang from his mouth at that moment were Zhong Kui's lines!
As he sang, Chang Dafeng turned his head back, facing the opera ghost full-on.
No movement could be seen in him; he merely slowly turned his head, and Chang Dafeng's rotted face became Zhong Kui's hooked-flower ingot facial makeup!
To open the Life Door, one must master 'face-changing'.
Change, and there is life!
"Arrayed are..."
The operas of all the various schools—the opera ghost could summon any of them with perfect ease.
Under the spreading ghost rhythm, in an instant it spat out from its own mouth Chang Dafeng's singing tone and aria.
Only, though it could sing this opera, its face did not change in the slightest.
It could not, as Chang Dafeng did, flick its head and produce a Zhong Kui facial makeup!
From the corner of his eye, Chang Dafeng stole a glance at the second face on the yellow paper.
The opera ghost could not change its face at will; the ghost Daole, influenced by its ghost rhythm, was now singing the opera, its face twisting, trying to twist its face into the hooked-flower ingot face.
The flesh of its face split open, and buds of flesh bloomed in clusters from beneath the split skin.
Most of its facial skin gradually pieced itself together, forming a blurred hooked-flower ingot face;
the remaining smaller portion of flesh, at the edge of the sun-shading paper, slowly formed a third face.
That face vaguely resembled the senior apprentice's face.
Chapter 61