Supernatural Ripples

Zhou Yang returned to his room, full of doubts.

New chains, old chains, bells... These things all seemed to be various tools used on dogs, ordinary at first glance.

But judging by Zhou Laogou's words and Zhou Heigou and Huang Shaozi's reactions, they did not seem to be the ordinary objects used to tether dogs that Zhou Yang understood them to be.

Even A Fu's smithy needed a bell from the Zhou family before he could forge Zhou Yang a new chain.

And that chain still could not restrain the Dog King family's hound pup.

A Fu ought to know what these dog chains really meant, but he might not tell Zhou Yang the truth.

Even though he had taught Zhou Yang Breathing of the Ghost, he had no friendship with him. Zhou Yang even had to be on guard against him at all times.

Zhou Yang could only wait for the right opportunity to make indirect inquiries and see if he could learn anything about the dog chains from A Fu.

As he pondered, Zhou Yang crouched beside the bed and dragged the old drawer box out from underneath it.

Bundles of joss paper were stacked inside. Zhou Yang had used some the last time he practiced Breathing of the Ghost, and now two jin and three liang remained in the drawer.

He set aside most of today's wages and stacked them in the drawer, bringing the total to two jin and five liang.

Now that he had officially started forging iron at the smithy, he earned three liang of joss paper a day.

There were twelve days left until the Revelation Ceremony. Based on his current daily wages and his own savings, by the day of the ceremony Zhou Yang would have saved six jin and one liang of joss paper, just enough to buy thirty and a half jin of fat.

A Fu had once estimated that someone of his size and build needed exactly thirty jin of fat.

By that reckoning, he only had to go to work as usual each day, and he would naturally have saved enough joss paper by the time of the Revelation Ceremony.

But things could not be reckoned that way.

Each time he practiced Breathing of the Ghost, he still consumed one liang of joss paper.

He might need to buy things in the future, so he would have to set aside some joss paper for that too.

By this rough estimate, his current wages alone would barely cover his living expenses.

For now, Zhou Yang did not know where to get more joss paper, so he made a mental note of the matter. He moved the clay stove to the corner of the room, crumpled the liang of joss paper in his hand, tossed it into the stove, and lit it. Then, with a thought, he activated Breathing of the Ghost-

"Wuaaah..."

Pitch-black anthills opened one after another on Zhou Yang's scalp, face, arms... all over his body!

The sound of ghosts wailing drifted from the Ghost Mouths all over him!

He now poured all seven strands of Mindfulness into Breathing of the Ghost, covering his entire body with Ghost Mouths. An explosive sense of power surged through him, and thin wisps of smoke rose from the joss paper burning in the corner, all of it streaming into those Ghost Mouths.

Most of the joss paper was sucked up and consumed by the Ghost Mouths. A little remained inside Zhou Yang, turning into strands of chilling energy that seeped into his limbs and bones.

Seven strands of Mindfulness are enough for me to lock down ninety percent of the Ghost Mouths all over my body. Only the Ghost Mouths in my mouth, on the soles of my feet, and in a ring around my navel are ones I don't dare try to open. My use of Mindfulness has reached its limit; I can't lock down the Ghost Mouths in those three places...

As Zhou Yang pondered, he closed most of the Ghost Mouths on his body with another thought.

He fetched the Knife Credit Ledger, turned to the first page, and checked his personal record:

Name: Zhou Yang.

Mindfulness: 7.

Identity: Blade-Credit Merchant.

Abilities: Smithing, Breathing of the Ghost-Right Mindfulness Lock (eighth layer)... (Imprinting).

Good Karma: eight.

Seven strands of Mindfulness had pushed Zhou Yang's Breathing of the Ghost straight to the eighth layer, close to perfection.

Each strand of Mindfulness is a step. The further I go, the harder it is to advance. It's no surprise that seven strands raised Right Mindfulness Lock to the eighth layer. Zhou Yang casually turned the Knife Credit Ledger to the second page and looked at Ding Ling's personal record displayed there.

This is what happens when I use all my Mindfulness on Breathing of the Ghost.

So what would I gain if I used Imprinting on Ding Ling's Breathing of the Ghost?

Would I open the Ghost Mouths around my navel, in my mouth, and on the soles of my feet ahead of time, and be able to lock them down with the Mindfulness I have now?

Or something else?

Zhou Yang focused his gaze on "Breathing of the Ghost" in Ding Ling's abilities field.

Ding Ling's Right Mindfulness Lock had now also reached the fourth layer.

As Zhou Yang focused his gaze, the words "Breathing of the Ghost" quickly broke apart into blobs of ink, which wriggled into new words before his eyes:

Imprint the Karmic Retribution Body "Ding Ling's" ability, "Breathing of the Ghost"?

Given the extremely poor quality of the blade extended on credit, one deed of Good Karma can imprint only one-tenth of the Karmic Retribution Body's original ability.

Investing more Good Karma can imprint more of the Karmic Retribution Body's original ability.

The eight deeds of Good Karma Zhou Yang had accumulated were not even enough to fully imprint Ding Ling's Breathing of the Ghost.

He had uses for each of those eight deeds of Good Karma and could not spend them all on imprinting Breathing of the Ghost.

Thus, Zhou Yang thought, Three deeds of Good Karma to imprint the Karmic Retribution Body's ability, Breathing of the Ghost.

Karmic retribution arises, cause and effect flourish.

Do you create karma without regret?

The rows of ink characters suddenly trembled and turned into ten blood-red characters spread across Zhou Yang's vision, making his heart tremble!

His pupils contracted slightly. After pondering for a moment, he thought, I create karma without regret!

The moment the thought came!

On the second page of the Knife Credit Ledger, the words "Breathing of the Ghost" in Ding Ling's personal abilities field suddenly turned into pitch-black Ghost Mouths. They opened in a scramble, as though tearing through the page!

Ghosts wailed all around him in an instant!

Amid the wailing came an intermittent sound of operatic singing, seemingly real yet illusory, too indistinct for Zhou Yang to hear clearly:

"...My wife... rides a white horse..."

He had only managed to make out a few words before the singing was completely drowned out by the ghosts' wailing. Even the words he had picked out grew hazy, floating in and out of his memory, half-formed and elusive.

Before Zhou Yang could understand what was happening, the strange phenomena on the Knife Credit Ledger vanished.

Holding the ledger, he looked up and suddenly saw a distinct human figure standing before him!

The figure was exactly the same size and build as him.

Zhou Yang recognized the shadow at a glance!

When he had first broken A Fu's control over him and shut the Ghost Mouths on his body through sheer willpower, he had sensed this figure. But it had been blurry then and had never appeared again after that, leading him to think he had been hallucinating at the time, with no way to investigate further.

Now, however, the figure was unusually distinct.

It stood before Zhou Yang, and suddenly, blood-red Ghost Mouths opened all over its body!

Those Ghost Mouths breathed in and out blood-red Ghost Qi. The currents joined and alternated in time with their breathing, forming a palm print!

The palm print expanded outward. Within it, the alternating currents of Ghost Qi joined to form another palm print, which continued expanding outward. Layer upon layer of palm prints expanded endlessly like concentric circles, and the "palm" at their center was the figure!

This is...

Zhou Yang looked at the handprints expanding layer upon layer around the figure, and something seemed to dawn on him.

A thin sheet of window paper lay before him; with a slight effort, he pierced through it. The Ghost Mouths all over his body opened again, each one exhaling invisible Ghost Qi. Guided by the figure as it gradually approached and aligned with Zhou Yang, the currents joined and alternated...

At last, the figure merged completely with Zhou Yang, and every Ghost Mouth on it aligned perfectly with an open Ghost Mouth on his body-

A layer of handprints slowly spread open around Zhou Yang...

These are... ripples.