Health Preservation Scripture

The man's voice coming from the right side room was unmistakably Qian Heng's.

The situation earlier had been so dangerous, and the ghost had emerged from the right side room possessing Li Yichun, that Zhou Yang and the others had instinctively assumed Qian Heng, who had been in the room with Li Yichun, was already dead!

But though Qian Heng's voice was full of terror now, it was unmistakably full of life, too-

Qian Heng was alive as well!

He seemed to have been badly frightened by the ghost, though, and had revealed the circumstances behind the death of Shitou, who had gone out with him to dig up wild vegetables.

From what he said, he had killed Shitou with his own hands!

He had pushed Shitou off a cliff to his death!

He and Shitou were so close, like father and son. Why would he do that?

Both Zhou Yang and Ding Ling wondered the same thing.

"I knew it!"

Just then, Chang Dafeng gave an angry snort beside them. They turned to see his brow twitching, his face filled with barely suppressed rage and killing intent flashing in his eyes.

Chang Dafeng bent down, reached into his boot, and drew a dagger. Concealing it beneath his sleeve, he stormed into the right side room!

Had he already guessed there was something suspicious about Shitou's death, and that Qian Heng was involved?

As Zhou Yang pondered this, Ding Ling followed close behind Chang Dafeng into the right side room without needing to be told.

The right side room was piled with all sorts of odds and ends.

The three looked around, but for the moment, none of them could see Qian Heng.

Qian Heng, however, was so terrified that he failed to notice the two figures rushing into the room. Convinced that Shitou had come to claim his life, he was still screaming:

"Don't come over here, don't come over here!

"Shitou, don't make me fight you-you learned all your fighting skills from me!

"Don't come over here!"

Following the sound, the three spotted Qian Heng's back beneath two tall benches in the corner, both piled with odds and ends.

He was huddled in the dark corner with his back to the room, facing the wall with both hands over his face. His shoulders trembled nonstop.

From his terrified screams, one might have thought Shitou really was hiding somewhere nearby.

Yet when they looked around, there was no sign of a ghost anywhere.

"He's taken the evil path!"

Chang Dafeng glared at Qian Heng under the benches and suddenly blurted out those words.

He turned to look at Ding Ling, and the killing intent in his eyes made her feel as though she were the one who had taken the evil path.

"You can do whatever it takes to stay alive!

"But there's one thing you mustn't do: take the evil path!

"You mustn't be like this Qian Heng-he's no longer human, and anyone would be justified in killing him!"

Chang Dafeng spoke sternly and forcefully.

Ding Ling looked bewildered and asked instinctively, "What evil path?

"What... what did Qian Heng do?"

Ding Ling knew perfectly well what Qian Heng had done-he had caused Shitou's death.

From what he had revealed, he had pushed Shitou off the cliff because he wanted to stay alive and escape Daliang Village.

He needed Shitou's life to pave the way for him.

What kind of "path" was that?

Could he really accomplish his own goal simply by sacrificing someone else's life?

-Zhou Yang thought much further than Ding Ling did.

He quickly realized that "killing another living person" had to be the "path-opening ritual" for the path to survival Qian Heng was pursuing!

Chang Dafeng surely knew how to set foot on that path too!

He did not answer Ding Ling's question. Instead, he snorted again, rushed to the corner where Qian Heng was hiding, and hauled him out with all his strength!

"Don't touch me! Don't come over here!"

Qian Heng was still shouting at the top of his lungs. In his eyes, Chang Dafeng and Ding Ling had both turned into Shitou, closing in on him.

Chang Dafeng knelt with one leg on his back, pinning his chest and belly to the floor so that he could only flail his limbs. Then the troupe leader seized Qian Heng's topknot with one hand and, gripping the dagger by its handle with the other, repeatedly struck Qian Heng in the face with the handle, which was studded with copper-capped rivets!

A few thuds rang out, and Qian Heng's eye sockets turned black and blue. Blood streamed from his nose and mouth, and he spat out several bloodied teeth!

Qian Heng abruptly came to his senses. Before he could figure out what was happening, he heard Chang Dafeng's ominous voice behind him:

"You killed Shitouzi!

"Were you trying to use his life to turn yourself into a ghost?!"

Turn into a ghost? Zhou Yang immediately seized on the key words in what Chang Dafeng had said!

Was the path to survival Qian Heng had found to turn himself into a ghost and then escape Daliang Village?

Could killing other living people, taking the lives of those close to you, turn a person into a ghost?!

Zhou Yang was shaken!

If that were true, didn't that mean ghosts were made from "murderers" and "serial killers"?

The realization sent a chill through Zhou Yang to his core.

Compared with the fear he felt when facing a ghost, this sudden speculation filled Zhou Yang with even greater horror. For a moment, he could not shake the terror in his heart!

After all, he had previously understood that, however frightening ghosts were, they were fundamentally different from humans.

The line between the two was clear.

But the suspicion that had just occurred to him shattered that understanding.

The line between humans and ghosts was not clear; they did not belong to two separate camps.

A person might be able to turn themselves into a ghost by taking another person's life!

Even surrounded by people, you were not necessarily safe.

Because everyone was a potential ghost.

Anyone might kill someone close to them for the sake of something and turn themselves into a ghost!

Everyone was a dark forest!

For an instant, Zhou Yang even felt a flicker of suspicion toward Ding Ling.

He quickly snuffed it out and, through Ding Ling's eyes, watched Chang Dafeng and Qian Heng.

Qian Heng shook his head repeatedly and vehemently denied it. "I didn't! I didn't!

"Shitou fell down the mountainside and died while chasing a roe deer!

"He smashed a huge hole in his head and died on the spot!

"I didn't kill him!

"I wasn't trying to become a ghost!

"The ghost bewitched me just now and made me talk nonsense-"

Qian Heng was still trying to explain himself when Chang Dafeng, who was holding him down, suddenly flew into a rage and struck his face even more wildly with the dagger's handle. "I told you to tell the truth!

"Tell the truth!"

Troupe leader Chang actually looked much smaller and thinner than Qian Heng.

Yet as he held Qian Heng down, the man could not struggle at all and could only take the blows from the dagger handle to his face.

In no time, Qian Heng's face resembled a crushed persimmon, a bloody mess too gruesome to look at for long.

Zhou Yang understood better why Chang Dafeng had suddenly flown into a rage-

Qian Heng had clearly said before that Shitou had broken his neck in the fall.

Now, in his panic, he had said Shitou had smashed his head instead. The inconsistency only showed how guilty Qian Heng felt; he had most likely used Shitou's life to test some method of becoming a ghost!

Yet no matter how Chang Dafeng beat him, Qian Heng, trembling all over and more terrified than ever, stubbornly stuck to his story and insisted that every word he had said was true.

Hearing this, Chang Dafeng released Qian Heng's topknot.

He tossed the dagger aside as well, and his tone softened considerably. "We're trapped in this ghost village, after all, and we don't know when we'll get out... You felt uncertain, and you have someone waiting for you outside. I can understand you taking a wrong step for a moment.

"Besides, the performance is in three days. With only two people left, it won't be easy to put on the show.

"You did wrong this time, but I'll forgive you..."

At that, Chang Dafeng's tone darkened. "But you have to tell the truth and come clean with everyone-

"What did you do after you pushed Shitouzi to his death?

"Did you recite that scripture?"

"I didn't kill Shitou. I didn't push him off the mountain..." Qian Heng murmured, though his tone had begun to waver.

Chang Dafeng ignored his response and continued, "Some days ago, when the two of us went to the Quail Fair in Baligou Township to look for work, someone at the fair recited a passage from the Health Preservation Scripture. You were there too.

"Almost anyone who gets out and about enough will come across that scripture, which uses human lives as a bridge to turn oneself into a ghost.

"I'm guessing you made a point of memorizing that passage then, and after killing Shitouzi, you recited it, following the steps those people at the fair described?"

Qian Heng instinctively shook his head in denial, but when he heard the troupe leader sigh heavily behind him, he jolted and realized that Chang Dafeng's patience was about to run out. He immediately said:

"Shitou was determined to run. I remembered your instructions and did everything I could to stop him!

"I never expected that, while we were shoving each other, I'd push him off the cliff to his death-

"Once he was dead, I had no way to explain it, and every way I looked, I was at a dead end. Somehow, I remembered that passage from the Health Preservation Scripture I'd heard at the Quail Fair, and as if possessed, I recited it.

"Then I did what those people at the fair said: I lit a ring of fire around Shitouzi's corpse, put his birth date and time on top of mine, pulled out a lock of his hair and wrapped it in the paper with our birth details. Then I swallowed the thing...

"But I waited there a long time, and nothing about me changed.

"Everything those people at the Quail Fair said was a lie. The method doesn't work..."

Once Qian Heng's defenses broke, everything he had done came pouring out of him!

He was still babbling on.

Behind him, Chang Dafeng had silently picked up the dagger from the floor. Aiming at Qian Heng's back, over his heart, he plunged the sharp blade into his flesh!

"Hiss-"

Qian Heng drew a long, sharp breath!

He strained his neck and stiffened his upper body, every muscle in him tensing with the agony!

But as blood gushed from the groove in the dagger that had pierced through his back and chest, all his strength drained away through the hole in a steady trickle!

"Thud!"

Qian Heng went limp and collapsed to the floor.

His eyes stared blankly as the life in them rapidly faded.

Just then, his lips moved, and a sound emerged from his throat. "Om... Marichi mang... soha..."

"Om... Marichi mang... soha..."

Qian Heng's muffled voice grew clearer in the cramped room, carrying a dark yet solemn quality.

Hearing it, Zhou Yang inexplicably pictured a dark, dust-filled room with a statue of a deity standing inside, covered by a black cloth!

He suddenly realized that the words Qian Heng was uttering before his death were a passage from the so-called Health Preservation Scripture!

A passage that initiated the ritual to turn a person into a ghost!

"Shhk!"

Chang Dafeng heard the words coming from Qian Heng's mouth too. Holding Qian Heng's back down, he pulled out the dagger and stabbed him several times in the side of the neck!

Blood covered the floor!

Qian Heng's mouth hung open, but he could no longer make a sound.

His eyes remained wide open in death.

At the instant Qian Heng breathed his last, Zhou Yang dimly saw a black shadow rise from his body and dart into the shadow beside Ding Ling.

The sight of that shadow stirred something in Zhou Yang's mind.

Out of the corner of Ding Ling's eye, he glimpsed two faint shadows overlapping beside her. Then they suddenly merged into Ding Ling's shadow.

Only Zhou Yang could see the two black shadows.

Even while moving about in a Manifestation Body, can I collect the lingering shadows of the dead?