Ghost Opera (Today's Follow-Through Is Crucial!)

"Heavens!"

Qian Heng stared blankly at the courtyard gate. Suddenly, he jolted and let out a howl at the top of his lungs. He turned and bolted into the main room, ducked into the right side room, and curled up tight behind several chests!

Clang!

After him, a tall, thin figure rushed into the right side room in a panic, wrapped in the scent of rouge.

Panicked though he was, he still remembered to shut the door to the right side room.

He even turned back and fastened the bolt!

A glow shone in through the window opening, falling squarely on the man's deathly pale, rouged face.

In that dim light, Li Yichun no longer quite looked like himself.

Not far from Qian Heng, Li Yichun also curled up, hugging his arms.

The sweet scent of rouge mingled with a heavy stench of decay, wafting in and out of Qian Heng's nostrils. His vision kept darkening, and he could not slow his heartbeat at all. It pounded violently in his chest like a drum!

An unspeakable terror made him go weak all over, in waves!

Just then, an intensely piercing operatic voice drifted from far outside the house.

The singing was mournful and chilling. Carried on the whistling cold wind, it sounded even more eerie and sinister:

"Pity me, my three souls are scattering,

"My seven spirits are grieving and lamenting.

"My one essence drifts and wanders...

"All scattered on the wind... scattered on the wind..."

That passage again...

The mournful singing slipped through the crack under the door into the left side room. As Ding Ling listened, her body trembled uncontrollably, her mind thrown into confusion. It was like a deer's instinctive reaction on seeing a tiger, filling her with fear and leaving her unable to respond effectively.

Zhou Yang, who resided in her body, was scarcely affected.

He recognized the passage sung by the ghost outside the courtyard. He had heard it when Ding Ling first "saw a ghost in the mirror."

Could this ghost only sing the same few passages over and over?

Zhou Yang remembered that he and Ding Ling had managed to break the mirror serving as a medium and stop the ghost's continued assault after seeing it in the mirror because he had mustered a reckless burst of courage and sung a different passage.

Could that passage have been unfamiliar to the ghost?

Had it been unable to sing it, and retreated in surprise for a moment?

Was that why Chang Dafeng wanted to use Opera Communion with Spirits to sing Zhong Kui Marries Off His Sister to the ghost, using an opera unfamiliar to it to break the stalemate and escape with his life?

Was that also the real reason Troupe Leader Chang had refused to go along with the ghost's choice of Three Battles with the White Bone Demon when it picked the opera?!

Zhou Yang had a hunch that he had grasped the key.

The next moment, the mournful singing outside the courtyard abruptly changed.

The female voice sounded even younger, but its delivery was quite forceful: "With my steel whip in hand, I'll strike you down, beat you to death, you living bastard-"

As the operatic passage suddenly changed, all manner of traditional instruments began playing beyond the courtyard wall!

On this cold night, the clamor of the music sounded all the more chilling and terrifying!

That female voice-

Hearing the familiar passage and the voice the ghost outside had changed to, Zhou Yang's heart gave a sudden jolt!

The operatic singing the ghost outside the courtyard now produced was precisely the passage he had sung while using Ding Ling's body to break the mirror!

The voice was Ding Ling's, but the force behind it was his!

The two were identical!

The ghost had perfectly copied the passage he had sung through Ding Ling!

Was it a ghost that could copy operas sung by others?!

Just as thoughts raced through Zhou Yang's mind, Ding Ling suddenly moved-

Her body jerked. She turned sideways into a bow stance, grasped her right wrist with her left hand, and glared ahead, singing in a tone identical to the ghost outside: "With my steel whip in hand, I'll strike you down, beat you to death, you living bastard!"

An icy aura emanated from her.

Her skin gradually turned a bluish white!

Zhou Yang noticed the change in Ding Ling at once. The opera sung by the ghost outside had directly affected her!

The operatic voice coming from Ding Ling's mouth plainly carried a sinister ghostly aura!

Was this ghost killing people by singing opera-through sound?!

"Waaah!"

A blurry figure lunged straight at Ding Ling and seized both her hands!

Faint ghostly wails instantly came from the palms of Ding Ling's hands!

Seeing Ding Ling's movements grow increasingly stiff and twisted, like a ghost's, Zhou Yang did not hesitate for a moment. He used Breathing of the Ghost on the spot!

He opened Ghost Mouths only in Ding Ling's palms, so that Breathing of the Ghost would not deplete her too severely.

A completely different, yet equally icy aura flowed from Ding Ling's palms and swept away every trace of the ghostly aura swirling around her in an instant!

Ding Ling's face turned slightly pale. Having regained her senses, the first thing she said was, "Sir, the stench of decay is very strong. It seems to be nearby!"

At that, she suddenly paused and sniffed hard. Her eyes flew wide, and she stared fixedly at the door. "That stench of decay is right across from us!"

"Across from us?"

Looking at the pitch-black door, Zhou Yang immediately made a connection.

The room opposite the left side room was, of course, the right side room.

Following his instructions, Ding Ling had run into the main room close behind Qian Heng and Li Yichun after the ghost outside knocked on the gate, then hidden in the left side room.

Qian Heng and Li Yichun were in the right side room!

Li Yichun had become a ghost.

Ever since Li Yichun had fled back to the opera troupe, he had been somewhat abnormal.

Most of the time, however, he acted normally, making those occasional signs easy to overlook and dismiss as the result of his fright after encountering a ghost.

But Zhou Yang had remained on guard against him. Hearing what Ding Ling said now, his first reaction was naturally that Li Yichun had shown his true colors!

Ding Ling pressed her ear against the door and listened carefully for sounds from the right side room.

Amid the blare of instruments and the clamor of gongs and drums, the right side room remained utterly silent. Not a sound came from it.

Such dead silence was highly abnormal in itself.

Even Ding Ling had been affected by the ghost singing outside the courtyard and had sung a few lines along with it.

As for the two in the right side room, Zhou Yang judged that neither had Mindfulness anywhere near as high as Ding Ling's. How could they possibly remain unaffected by the ghost's aura and make no sound at all?

Chang Dafeng hasn't sung along with the ghost outside the courtyard either.

At a time like this... can he still refrain from showing any of his methods?

Zhou Yang noticed another detail then and immediately told Ding Ling to approach the side room's window.

The bamboo paper pasted over the lattice had long since rotted away, so Ding Ling did not need to poke a hole in it. She quietly straightened up a little, just enough to see the scene outside:

The candles in the courtyard were still burning, but their flames were hemmed in by the surrounding darkness and looked to be in imminent danger of going out.

Everything from the main room's doorway to the courtyard gate was as black as spilled ink.

But the courtyard gate and the area beyond the wall were brightly lit.

It looked like a fine moonlit night, a rare sight.

The moonlight shone, bright and clear.

The gongs and drums continued to sound outside the brightly lit courtyard.

It was so lively over there that one wanted to push open the courtyard gate, leave the courtyard's cold stillness behind, and join in the excitement, listen to a fine opera, and attend a grand gathering.

Thoughts surged through Ding Ling's mind.

She cast a hasty glance outside and, seeing no sign of the troupe leader, lowered her eyes and prepared to pull her head back. But then, out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a bloated, bulky human figure standing in the middle of the courtyard, giving off an eerie feeling.

Startled, she looked straight at the middle of the courtyard-

But where was the bloated, bulky figure?

"It went into the main room."

At that moment, Zhou Yang suddenly conveyed the thought to Ding Ling.

Ding Ling had not seen where the "Corpse Bloat Form" went, but Zhou Yang had seen it clearly.

Through the corner of Ding Ling's eye, he too had seen the Corpse Bloat Form that had once appeared behind Chang Dafeng enter the main room.

This Corpse Bloat Form could only appear in the corner of a person's eye when they happened to cast a hasty glance, like an illusion.

But Zhou Yang was certain it really existed.

He also concluded that it was some method under Chang Dafeng's control.

Could it be some kind of "Averting God" that the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting was meant to cultivate?

Chang Dafeng is about to act...

The thought had barely passed when a heavy stamp of a boot rang out from the main room beyond the door: "Thud!"

Then a fierce and commanding operatic voice rang out at the main room's doorway:

"Heeding the thunderous fire signal!

"I hasten to ready the Ten Thousand Crows Pot, the bows, crossbows, and smoke darts.

"And surround the gates!"