Creating a Zhen

"In Creating a Zhen, 'Zhen' refers to the Art of Cursing.

"The Art of Cursing uses specific mediums to curse or bewitch others, causing them to suffer frequent misfortunes and even death!

"For example, making a straw figure to curse someone, or sticking their name to the sole of a shoe and beating it hard... These are all forms of the Art of Cursing.

"And the Art of Cursing works because ghosts and gods interfere!

"Human malice draws the gaze of ghosts and gods, and those watched by them naturally suffer frequent misfortunes.

"Creating a Zhen means taking the gaze of some ghost or god drawn by human malice and completely fixing it within the practitioner's Eight Gates. This preserved 'gaze of a ghost or god,' this 'shadow of a ghost or god,' is also called an 'Averting God.'

"So Creating a Zhen can also be called 'Curse Creation God'!"

Chang Dafeng spoke with a cold look in his eyes.

A gust of cold wind brushed past, and the "Corpse Bloat Form" appeared silently beside him.

The shadow that took the form of a dead giant was Chang Dafeng's Averting God.

Ding Ling could only catch occasional fleeting glimpses of Chang Dafeng's Averting God from the corner of her eye, but from Zhou Yang's perspective, it was glaringly conspicuous. It stood not far in front of Ding Ling, and Zhou Yang could see it at all times without even trying.

"My 'Gate of Opening Corpse Bloat Form' Averting God is right in front of you. Can you see it?" Chang Dafeng asked Ding Ling.

Ding Ling hesitated and shook her head. "I have a vague feeling that something's wrong.

"But I can't see it clearly."

She described what she felt truthfully.

Chang Dafeng smiled strangely. "Once your Mindfulness grows a little stronger, you'll be able to see my Averting God.

"When an Averting God lingers on an ordinary person, it can give them a cold, or leave them like a frightened child, crying day and night and delirious. At worst, it can make them seriously ill and shorten their lifespan. With it at your side, even tall, burly men will avoid you like the plague.

"But its most important use isn't bullying ordinary people.

"You can use it to imbue the gods you portray onstage with all kinds of spiritual power, allowing the characters in the opera to commune with the divine, just as if you had invited a god to possess and assist you!

"Then you'll have the confidence to perform alongside ghosts."

"An Averting God is the shadow of a ghost or god, or a single glance from one, that remains inside the Eight Gates. Now Li Yichun has been harmed by a ghost, and Qian Heng also encountered the ghost in Daliang Village before he died..." Ding Ling pondered for a moment. "Can I use their names now to directly draw the shadow of a ghost or god?

"Then could I skip the procedure in the draft and create an Averting God faster?"

Ding Ling had arrived at this conclusion entirely on her own.

Zhou Yang had not offered her the slightest hint.

Chang Dafeng nodded at her words and gave a smile that did not reach his eyes. "You're clever, all right!

"But the names of Qian Heng and Li Yichun are tainted with the aura of that ghost in Daliang Village.

"If you use the ghost's aura directly to Create a Zhen, aren't you afraid you'll draw it here again?"

Ding Ling's expression froze.

Zhou Yang also frowned inwardly.

Every procedure in the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting had its own purpose, and none could be omitted lightly.

Chang Dafeng was guiding Ding Ling now, and even so, a little carelessness could lead her astray. Zhou Yang, who was studying the draft alone, would have to be even more careful and follow its procedures strictly.

Just now, Ding Ling had thought she saw a shortcut.

In truth, that shortcut was very likely to lead to another danger.

"Have you finished sewing the false belly?"

Chang Dafeng offered Ding Ling no further explanation. He lowered his eyes to the false belly she was nearly finished sewing.

Although Ding Ling had been talking to Chang Dafeng the whole time, her hands had not slowed in the least.

By now, she had singed the hair off the piece of muntjac hide she had cut and sewn it into a small pouch the size of a fist.

Only the last few stitches remained, leaving a gap through which the pouch could be stuffed.

Seeing this, Chang Dafeng opened several opera trunks, picked out some clothes and gathered them in front of him. He instructed Ding Ling, "Pick out a few pieces of clothing Qian Heng and Li Yichun used to wear and tie them around your waist.

"Then go stand at the northwest corner of the courtyard and silently repeat to yourself: I am Qian Heng, I am Li Yichun.

"Keep repeating it. When you happen to glance out of the corner of your eye and see Qian Heng and Li Yichun standing somewhere else, looking as though they might or might not be real, don't make a sound. Come to the main room and throw the clothes around your waist into the brazier to burn to ash.

"Then I'll teach you what to do next."

What Chang Dafeng described was already different from the "Gate of Opening Ritual" recorded in the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting.

The first step of the Gate of Opening Ritual required the practitioner to write a person's name on a slip of paper, stain it with their own blood, and hide it during the Wei hour in the northwest position of the sixth Qian palace, along with the person's underclothes, hair, skin flakes and the like.

The procedure Chang Dafeng was teaching Ding Ling omitted the steps of writing the names and applying blood.

Nor did Ding Ling need to bury Qian Heng and Li Yichun's underclothes specifically during the Wei hour.

Instead, she had to wear the dead men's clothes, stand in the northwest corner and repeatedly call their names.

Could doing this draw out the aura of the ghost in Daliang Village directly, without actually disturbing the ghost itself?

Zhou Yang pondered.

Neither he nor Ding Ling knew what Chang Dafeng was up to.

But Chang Dafeng was currently their guide on the path of Curse Creation God.

Even if they had doubts, they could only brace themselves and follow his instructions.

Fortunately, aside from the Curse Creation God method, Zhou Yang and Ding Ling still had Breathing of the Ghost at their disposal.

If they discovered that Chang Dafeng had concealed something and laid a trap while passing on the method, Zhou Yang was confident that, by using Breathing of the Ghost with their combined Mindfulness exceeding the limit, he could escape Chang Dafeng's trap.

Ding Ling picked out several garments that Qian Heng and Li Yichun had often worn from their piles of clothes and tied them around her waist.

Following Troupe Leader Chang's instructions, she stood beneath the courtyard wall in the northwest corner, lowered her eyes and began repeating the words silently, free of distractions:

I am Qian Heng...

I am Li Yichun...

She was Ding Ling, of course. Even if she repeated the dead men's names eight hundred times, she could never possibly become them.

But as she repeated the words over and over, constantly suggesting it to herself, there were moments when her mind wandered and she truly felt as though she had become the dead Qian Heng and Li Yichun.

The dead men's faces and voices flitted through her thoughts.

The two faces moving through her mind changed from lifelike to lifeless, finally settling into the forms they had taken after death.

A bone-chilling aura swept across Ding Ling's back like a gust of wind.

It also felt as though two cold, stiff hands had settled on her shoulders.

These are Qian Heng's and Li Yichun's hands!

Ding Ling shuddered, her eyes moving as she involuntarily glanced behind her from the corner of her eye. There she saw the two dead men, Qian Heng and Li Yichun, standing there with sinister expressions.

At first glance, she did not recognize the two dead men.

By the time she did, their figures had already vanished from the corner of her eye!

A layer of cold sweat broke out on Ding Ling's back!

Although she could no longer see any trace of the two dead men out of the corner of her eye, the sensation of two cold, stiff hands gripping her shoulders never faded!

"Don't make a sound. Go to the main room.

"They're standing right behind you."

Mr. Zhou's timely reminder sounded in Ding Ling's mind.

She stared at the tips of her shoes, held her breath and slowly walked to the entrance of the main room.

Throughout this, Zhou Yang could see the figures of Qian Heng and Li Yichun, each resting a deathly pale hand on one of Ding Ling's shoulders. They followed her with a ghostly air and filed into the main room behind her.

Something about the "bearing" the two dead men's shadows gave off felt deeply familiar to Zhou Yang.

After a moment's recollection, he remembered that this bearing came from the "opera-singing ghost" in Daliang Village!

So this is the "opera ghost's" Ghost Rhyme.

When people read poetry and books, are tempered by life's experiences, or immerse themselves in a particular line of work, they gradually develop a certain "bearing." Though intangible, it makes its influence felt silently, leaving a deep and lasting impression on anyone they meet.

Ghosts have a similar bearing.

It is equally difficult to describe, yet equally memorable.

A ghost's bearing is its Ghost Rhyme.

The opera ghost's Ghost Rhyme clung to the two dead men's names. Even though the opera ghost isn't here, its Ghost Rhyme still hasn't dissipated. Curse Creation God requires something like this Ghost Rhyme or a ghost's aura!

A sudden realization dawned on Zhou Yang.

Once inside the main room, Ding Ling untied the clothes from her waist and threw them all into the brazier by the door.

As the flames engulfed the clothes, the two dead men's shadows behind Ding Ling melted as if they were candles, and the smell of burning incense and candles filled the air!

Chang Dafeng, who was also standing by the door, took out the Ghost Candle.

The swirling scent of burning incense and candles in the air gathered toward the Ghost Candle, and a green flame suddenly sprang up on its wick.

The flame flickered fiercely, casting two figures on the wall, one tall and burly, the other tall and thin.

Judging by their builds, they were the dead Qian Heng and Li Yichun!

"I've held them in place!

"Quick, use your blood to press a few fingerprints inside the false belly!"

Chang Dafeng held the candle and shouted hoarsely.

Ding Ling did not dare hesitate and immediately did as she was told.

She bit through her fingertip, reached inside the false belly and used the blood on her fingertip as ink to press down several fingerprints in quick succession.

When she withdrew her finger, Chang Dafeng flicked the Ghost Candle's wick and split the ghastly green flame in two. One flame remained burning atop the candle, while he quickly tossed the other into the false belly in Ding Ling's hands!

The originally shriveled false belly suddenly bulged as though stuffed full, resembling a clenched fist!

"Pin the opening shut with a needle!"

The thing inside the false belly kept trembling, and the opening Ding Ling had deliberately left unsewn was about to be forced wider. Chang Dafeng hurriedly called out another reminder.

By now, the dead shadows of Qian Heng and Li Yichun had vanished from the wall.

They must have been taken into Ding Ling's false belly along with the candle flame.

Ding Ling reacted swiftly and immediately fetched a needle and thread. Without taking the time to sew the opening shut, she looped the needle through it several times, pinning it closed for the moment.

Now, no matter how the "thing" inside charged about, it could not find a way out.

"Sing after me!"

Chang Dafeng bent down, pulled a dagger from beneath his trouser leg, straightened up and handed it to Ding Ling.

His other hand still held the burning Ghost Candle steadily. His expression turned solemn, and an air of righteous resolve immediately radiated from him as he opened his mouth to sing, "Rather than feed the jackals all the learning in my belly, I'd sooner cut it out and show it to the people-"