Curse of Aversion
"Ding Ling, come back!"
A thunderous shout suddenly rang out in Ding Ling's mind!
As the chilling voice sounded, Ding Ling's Averting God involuntarily manifested behind her.
The purplish-red corpse spots on the ankles of the slender, gaunt, long-haired figure suddenly spread, covering the ghostly figure's pale, bluish skin in an instant. Immediately afterward, the Averting God flung out both hands and clamped its ten fingers, tipped with sharp, dark-blue nails, around Ding Ling's neck!
"Come back!"
The Averting God's hair flew wildly as it shrieked!
Yet the voice it made was Chang Dafeng's!
"Hah!"
Zhou Yang had been on guard against Chang Dafeng's tricks. Seeing the change in the Averting God, he let out a cold shout and instantly took control of Ding Ling's body.
He too spread his hands-
Rows upon rows of Ghost Mouths erupted across both arms!
"Waaaah..."
Ghostly wails surged like a tide!
Zhou Yang reached behind his head and seized the Averting God's hands where they gripped Ding Ling's neck!
Averting Gods were ethereal things, without physical substance.
Those with somewhat weaker Mindfulness could catch only fleeting glimpses of them.
To seize one with flesh-and-blood hands required even greater Mindfulness.
With the current boost from Breathing of the Ghost, Zhou Yang did not even need to combine his Mindfulness with Ding Ling's. Using only his own seven strands of Mindfulness, he could seize the Averting God's wrists directly with Ding Ling's hands!
The instant the hands covered in Ghost Mouths seized the Averting God, the Breathing of the Ghost flowing in and out of those mouths seemed to sprout eyes and find its target. Strand after strand plunged into the Averting God's form, making it considerably more solid in an instant!
As its form grew more distinct, the purplish-red corpse spots covering its skin steadily faded!
In a few breaths, the corpse spots had receded to the Averting God's ankles and were still shrinking. They were about to vanish completely!
Chang Dafeng, who had used a method akin to "suppression" on Ding Ling, seemed entirely unaware. He made her Averting God shriek again, "Ding Ling, come back!
"If you don't come back, you'll die!"
"Hum!"
As the shriek ended, the Averting God's hair suddenly burst outward!
Its hair exploded in every direction, dancing wildly and exposing the ghostly face beneath!
Pale and gaunt.
Slender brows and almond-shaped eyes.
Zhou Yang turned and saw the face of Ding Ling's Averting God, and was struck speechless with shock!
The Averting God looked exactly like Ding Ling!
There was no difference whatsoever!
Why did this Averting God look exactly like Ding Ling?
Even Chang Dafeng's Averting God was not modeled on his own appearance!
And this Averting God's ability was remarkably similar to the Opera Ghost's!
The Ghost Rhyme the Opera Ghost had left on the names of the two dead people, Qian and Li, had long since combined with the blood from Ding Ling's fingertip, turning into intestines that spilled from the false belly and were devoured by a horde of ghosts. Ding Ling's Averting God had been among them.
The ability it displayed should not have resembled the Opera Ghost's power!
Yet that was precisely what had happened...
Ding Ling, the Averting God, the Opera Ghost...
Zhou Yang dimly sensed something.
But the idea was too absurd for him to accept.
At that moment.
The Averting God's hair fell, covering its face once more.
Not a trace of the purplish-red spots remained on its ankles.
Zhou Yang made all the Ghost Mouths on Ding Ling's body close, his expression silent.
Ding Ling sensed the change in his mood and asked nervously, "Is something wrong, sir?"
"I've completely removed the suppression curse Chang Dafeng left on you.
"There won't be any more problems." Zhou Yang shook his head. The thought that had suddenly occurred to him still troubled him, leaving him unable to settle.
He took a deep breath and decided to ask Ding Ling, "Your Averting God's appearance...
"Why does it look so much like you?
"No, it's not just similar...
"It looks exactly like you..."
"Oh? Did you see that the Averting God's face was just like mine?" Ding Ling sounded surprised. "But the Averting God's face looks different to me. It doesn't look like mine..."
"Hm?" Zhou Yang raised an eyebrow. "Then what does the Averting God look like to you?"
"It looks like a man!" Ding Ling said with certainty.
But then she began to hesitate. "I-I saw that person in a dream. I don't even know if someone with that face really exists.
"Anyway, the Averting God doesn't look like me!
"Maybe the Averting God looks different to everyone who sees it?"
"That's possible." Zhou Yang nodded.
He looked at the slender ghostly figure beside him, then suddenly reached out and brushed aside the hair covering the Averting God's face again.
Ding Ling held her breath along with him, only to see a blank space beneath the hair.
The Averting God's face had no features at all!
"How strange..."
Zhou Yang smacked his lips.
The thought that had arisen in his mind moments ago quietly dispersed after all this.
"Ding Ling!
"If you don't come back, you'll die!"
Chang Dafeng's eyes reddened, and his voice grew shrill and fierce!
The Bloated Aspect standing beside him tightened its swollen hands around its own neck. It seemed intent on strangling itself and twisting its head off!
Correspondingly, Ding Ling, whom it had cursed and suppressed, would also be strangled to death by her own Averting God!
Even so, as far as Chang Dafeng could sense, the force of Ding Ling's resistance had not weakened. Instead, it was growing stronger-she would rather die than come back!
"You lowly girl!
"Useless thing without a cock!"
Chang Dafeng's face flushed red as he cursed!
But even as he cursed, he suddenly raised a hand, and the Bloated Aspect beside him immediately dropped its arms.
At the critical moment, he had made the Bloated Aspect let go.
He had not actually cursed Ding Ling to death.
And because of that, he failed to notice that the "suppression corpse water" the Bloated Aspect had left on Ding Ling's Averting God had been completely erased.
"You're just a young girl. Why be so stubborn?"
Chang Dafeng's expression softened as he muttered to himself.
Something seemed to occur to him, and he suddenly chuckled twice. He rose from the wooden board, gathered his belongings, and left the courtyard, heading down the slope as the eastern sky began to pale.
"This Breathing of the Ghost will remain on your skin.
"It's easy to open its mouths, but hard to close them.
"You need to think carefully about how to shut the Ghost Mouths on your body. Only when you've locked them can you be said to have truly mastered Breathing of the Ghost..."
Zhou Yang's thoughts flowed through Ding Ling's mind.
At that moment, however, Ding Ling had no attention to spare for the thoughts Zhou Yang sent her.
Pitch-black Ghost Mouths covered her body, making a chaotic jumble of breathing sounds. They were nothing like the Ghost Mouths Zhou Yang had made let out those soul-shaking ghostly wails while controlling her body.
After opening the Ghost Mouths on Ding Ling's body, Zhou Yang had returned control to her, leaving her to work out for herself how to close them.
He should have seen the task through. Since he had taught Ding Ling how to open Breathing of the Ghost, there was no reason not to teach her how to use Breathing Lock.
The key, however, was that if he taught Ding Ling the Breathing Lock he had comprehended, the lock would indeed let her close the Ghost Mouths on her body effortlessly, but it would also place her under his control.
Then, with a single thought, he could open the Ghost Mouths all over her body at will.
He could even make them operate beyond the limits of her flesh.
Ding Ling's life and death would be subject to a single thought of his.
That was what A Fu had wanted to do to Zhou Yang using Breathing of the Ghost.
Zhou Yang felt that his cooperation with Ding Ling rested entirely on mutual trust. If he played tricks in a matter like this, it would inevitably damage the foundation of their cooperation, so he would not do it.
Besides, if Ding Ling learned Breathing Lock on her own, Zhou Yang wanted to see whether he could copy it through the Knife Credit Ledger, and what benefit it might bring to his own Breathing of the Ghost.
Ding Ling's lips trembled, and cold sweat broke out on her back.
Her eyes were wide, and her fear was plain to see.
Her reaction was exactly the same as Zhou Yang's when he had been forced to open Breathing of the Ghost.
"What do you see, Ding Ling?" A thought occurred to Zhou Yang, and he asked her again.
"A... a flayed ghost...
"Sir, this breathing technique is too frightening...
"I have my Averting God, and that's enough. Could I... could I not learn this breathing technique?"
Ding Ling answered instinctively. The fear filling her thoughts was so intense that Zhou Yang felt it too.
She was a very courageous woman.
She had faced hardships time and again, and had always had the courage to confront and try them herself.
But now, the moment she saw the flayed ghost's figure, she wanted to shrink back!
The flayed ghost she saw was the same one Zhou Yang had seen when he first came into contact with Breathing of the Ghost. He naturally knew that this was a critical moment for Ding Ling, and immediately said, "Treat it as though it's not real. Don't be afraid of it.
"When two meet on a narrow path, the brave prevail!"
"It is real. How can I not be afraid of it?
"Sir, it's turning into me-"
Ding Ling was in a daze. She had always trusted Zhou Yang's words completely, yet now, in her extreme fear, she argued back!
Zhou Yang had watched Ding Ling create her Averting God and open the "Gate of Opening" outside her body. He had thought she had passed the greatest hurdle, and that learning Breathing of the Ghost, which had already been used on her many times, would pose no problem at all.
But he had never expected that the greatest hurdle before Ding Ling was not the first part of the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting!
It was "Breathing of the Ghost" itself!
Was that flayed ghost even more frightening than the Opera Ghost?
Enough to terrify Ding Ling so badly?!
Why hadn't he felt that way at the time?