Right Mindfulness Lock

When Zhou Yang returned home, Zhou Laogou was unexpectedly nowhere to be seen by the door.

Whenever Zhou Yang came home from work before, he would see Zhou Laogou at the door, sharpening a hoe. This time, he had no idea where the man had gone.

Zhou Yang walked through the gateway and saw a plume of white smoke billowing from the woodshed chimney.

Perhaps Huang Shaozi had heard some movement inside the woodshed. She leaned halfway out and looked at Zhou Yang at the entrance to the passage. A smile suddenly spread across her plump, pale face, but she said nothing, waiting for Zhou Yang to speak first.

"Mom, it's me, Zhou Yang.

"I got off work early today, so I came back ahead of time."

Zhou Yang knew how to handle a situation like this and spoke up first.

The smile on Huang Shaozi's face grew a little more genuine.

In the past, she had always spoken harshly to Zhou Yang, but now her attitude had changed. Zhou Yang guessed that their argument that morning had had an effect.

"Where are Dad and my two older brothers? Where did they go?" Zhou Yang looked around and asked Huang Shaozi.

"They went to weed the fields. I'm just about to heat some water and take it to them.

"My son, what would you like for dinner? I'll make it for you." Huang Shaozi responded warmly. She looked at Zhou Yang with affection in her eyes, the very image of a loving mother.

But Zhou Yang had seen what she was like before, and now that he had seen her transform into this image overnight, he felt only fear. He would not let himself be drawn into this "motherly love" in the slightest.

He shook his head. "I'm not picky about food. Whatever my two older brothers want, Mom, take care of them first.

"I'll just eat what they're having."

The Zhou family's diet was very simple. They ate the same few things every day.

So even if Zhou Yang made a request of Huang Shaozi now, she probably would not be able to make it.

Instead, Zhou Yang was highly likely to land himself in danger by making an "out of line" request.

"A-Yang really is a good boy, better than those two older brothers of yours..." Huang Shaozi's beady eyes stared fixedly at Zhou Yang as she murmured and slowly retreated into the woodshed.

Zhou Yang turned and entered his bedroom, then bolted the door behind him.

He did nothing else for the moment, simply standing guard by the door. The courtyard was quiet for a while, and then he heard Huang Shaozi pouring water into a clay pot. Before long, her footsteps gradually receded as she left the courtyard.

Only then did Zhou Yang go out and walk a circle around the courtyard, using the latrine as well. Once he had confirmed that no one was home, he felt slightly relieved.

Huang Shaozi really had gone to take water to Zhou Laogou and the others.

The people in Guan Village were unlike people, yet the villagers' daily work and lives seemed no different from those of real farming folk.

The men farmed and the women wove; they worked at sunrise and rested at sunset.

From the Zhou family's usual conversations, Zhou Yang also knew that the family had seven or eight mu of farmland.

They said three or four mu were in the "south fields," and a little over three mu were in the "north fields."

Both the south and north fields lay outside the village.

That was why Zhou Yang had never seen his family's fields.

He could not leave the village.

Zhou Yang had once hinted to Father Zhou that he wanted to help him work in the fields.

But Zhou Laogou had been deeply reticent about the matter and refused him outright. He had also warned him, "It's dangerous outside the village. Just stay in the village and don't go running around."

To Zhou Yang, the danger and terror came from Guan Village itself.

Only by leaving Guan Village could he escape with his life, like a fish swimming into the sea.

Then what was the "danger outside the village" that Zhou Laogou had spoken of?

What could make these ghosts feel threatened?

Had Zhou Laogou made it up just to brush off his request to leave the village, or was something truly dangerous even to ghosts happening outside the village all the time?

Zhou Yang slowly let out a breath, his thoughts beginning to wander:

"The Knife Credit Ledger says that the Ghost Breathing I learned is currently at the first layer of Right Mindfulness Lock.

"Right Mindfulness Lock... A Fu mentioned it before, too.

"Judging by the name, was I able to close the Ghost Mouths on my arms so quickly because of the strength of my right mindfulness?

"Is using my thoughts to adjust the Ghost Mouths' breathing rate and open and close them at will an application of Right Mindfulness Lock...?"

As he considered this, Zhou Yang took the stack of paper copper coins from his robes.

The stack of paper money was more than twice as thick as what Zhou Yang usually received. He wondered whether A Fu would pay him this amount from now on, or whether A Fu had given him extra because his first practice of Ghost Breathing had consumed so much.

Zhou Yang crouched down and dragged a battered drawer box out from under the bed.

Inside, bundles and stacks of paper money were arranged in neat rows.

"One liang of paper money can be exchanged for half a jin of fat paste. I have a little over two jin and four liang of paper money now, enough to exchange for twelve jin of fat paste.

"A Fu said that someone with a build like mine would need to consume at least thirty jin of fat paste at the Revelation Ceremony.

"There are only thirteen days until the Revelation Ceremony. I need to get more paper money.

"I might need it not just for the Revelation Ceremony; practicing Ghost Breathing consumes paper money too."

Fat paste was a specialty of Guan Village.

It resembled lard and congealed into white grease when cold.

Yet fat paste and ordinary lard had to be worlds apart. Although Zhou Yang could not say exactly how they differed, his instincts as a normal person still allowed him to tell them apart despite their extremely similar smell and appearance. Clearly, the two were fundamentally different.

Moreover, the villagers of Guan Village could not do without fat paste for either of their two daily meals.

Today, Zhou Yang had seen A Fu wash his human skin with soapberries. He now also had a rough idea of what the fat paste was used for at the Revelation Ceremony:

"Tanning human skin.

"The people of Guan Village probably use the 'oil tanning method' at the Revelation Ceremony to tan the skins of the living people taking part.

"A person can't possibly survive being skinned.

"But a 'thing' like A Fu apparently retains its own consciousness even after taking off its human skin.

"If I can't escape the Revelation Ceremony, preparing fat paste and finding a way to make myself like A Fu is a fallback option.

"Only this way might I be able to find life in death."

Zhou Yang put half of today's wages in the drawer box and carried it around the room several times. In the end, he pushed it back under the bed, only shoving it farther in with more force.

He had not cared much about the paper money before, so he had casually grabbed a drawer box and stuffed it under the bed.

Now that he knew the paper money was useful to him, he would no longer treat it so casually.

There was also Zhou Heigou in the Zhou family. Zhou Yang did not worry about the others, but he had to guard against that black dog coming into his room to steal things.

But apart from a bed, a table, and a water vat in the corner, there was nothing else in his room, and no good place to hide anything.

So Zhou Yang planned to hide the money somewhere else, leaving it in his room only for the time being.

Afterward, Zhou Yang lit the remaining liang and more of paper money in a corner of the room.

As the paper money began to burn, he immediately stirred the wisp of breath that remained on his skin.

As Zhou Yang stirred the wisp with his mind, holes like anthills sprang up all over both his arms.

The countless holes were like countless black mouths, opening and closing as they devoured the blue smoke spreading through the air!

A wildly swelling sense of power filled Zhou Yang's flesh!

He could not help clenching his fists-

Blue veins bulged across both arms, winding like little snakes.

Then lumps of muscle crowded up beneath his skin, giving Zhou Yang's stick-thin frame a sudden, lean toughness.

The Ghost Mouths then inhaled and exhaled, and a sound like the wailing of ghosts echoed constantly through the room.

Feeling the eerie breath exhaled by the Ghost Mouths, a thought suddenly flashed through Zhou Yang's mind. "Chang Dafeng once said that Puppet-Thread Ghost Rhyme was all breath exhaled by ghosts...

"I wonder if the breath from these Ghost Mouths on my arms is similar to Puppet-Thread Ghost Rhyme?"

In Zhou Yang's mind, the net of puppet threads that had appeared in the mirror as he dressed before it in Daliang Village suddenly flashed into view.

The puppet threads in that net had been arranged in a highly regular pattern, horizontally and vertically.

They were entirely different from the breath these ghosts exhaled around him.

He did not investigate further, quickly turning his attention to his current practice of "Ghost Breathing."

When he first opened the Ghost Mouths on his body, Zhou Yang had had a faint premonition-

He might not be able to make Ghost Mouths grow all over his body as A Fu did.

But opening these holes on his arms alone was not his limit, either.

With his right mindfulness at "five," he could try to open more Ghost Mouths on his body.

He closed his eyes and felt the ghostly breath exhaled by the Ghost Mouths all over him. His thoughts flowed down his legs like water.

"Buzz-"

In an instant, countless tiny black holes appeared on both his legs!

The newly formed Ghost Mouths on his legs breathed frantically, and the ghostly breath they expelled billowed out his pant legs.

As Zhou Yang adjusted his thoughts, the new Ghost Mouths adjusted as well, soon falling in step with his breathing.

His thoughts continued to flow, and dense clusters of Ghost Mouths began to appear across his chest and abdomen!

At this point, Zhou Yang also felt the limit of his right mindfulness.

He opened his eyes, feeling power build up inside him.

Muscles gradually began to swell wherever Ghost Mouths had appeared.

Zhou Yang then turned his attention to the Knife Credit Ledger again-

In the abilities section, the entry for Breathing of the Ghost had changed once more.

"Breathing of the Ghost: Right Mindfulness Lock (third layer)."

"With right mindfulness at 'five,' I can easily raise Right Mindfulness Lock to the third layer.

"If I force myself to try at the risk of exhausting my mind, I should be able to push Right Mindfulness Lock to the fourth layer.

"But doing that would leave me with no strength to do anything else. It's too dangerous and not worth the cost.

"Right Mindfulness Lock has nine layers in all.

"What new abilities will Breathing of the Ghost gain after the ninth layer?"

Zhou Yang sensed the icy ghostly aura swirling around him. With a turn of his thoughts, all the Ghost Mouths on his left arm closed.

"The Ghost Mouths are consuming less paper money..." Zhou Yang was a little surprised. As if confirming something, he closed most of the Ghost Mouths on his right arm as well.

As the Ghost Mouths on his body grew fewer and fewer, the remaining Ghost Mouths consumed less and less paper money!

Finally, when only the Ghost Mouth in his right palm remained, Zhou Yang could barely sense it drawing in paper money.

But the power granted by Breathing of the Ghost had not diminished!