The Golden Pagoda's Transformation

Zhou Yang arrived at A Fu's A Fu, but the door was tightly closed today.

He pushed hard, but couldn't open the door.

"Master A Fu, Gate of Opening!"

"I'm here for work! Gate of Opening!"

Zhou Yang arrived right on time. Usually at this time, even if A Fu wasn't home, he would at least leave the door a crack open so Zhou Yang could come in and do his work.

No matter how loudly Zhou Yang knocked on the door, there was no response from inside.

"Hey----How strange----" Zhou Yang clicked his tongue.

The door inside remained Gate of Opening; he couldn't very well climb over the wall to someone else's house.

No matter how much he loves his job, he could never have the drive to climb over the wall to work at his boss's house.

Moreover, Zhou Yang from Guan Village is not the type of person who loves to work.

So Zhou Yang just peeked through the crack in the door, and seeing nothing, he turned around and went home.

There was no work at the blacksmith's shop, but he had accumulated quite a few jobs on his own.

Taking advantage of this rare free time, I went back and took care of things.

When I got home, the Laogou and the two puppies had already gone to work in the fields.

Zhou Yang had never seen what the farmland in Guan Village looked like.

But now he learned from the dead Guan Nu that several families in the Guan Village were passing down unknown methods.

One of them, surnamed Liu, may possess some method for cultivating seedlings.

So much so that even the Guan Nu emphasized the Liu Family's offspring.

I just don't know if this seedling is the kind of crop seedling Zhou Yang understands.

Are these rice seedlings planted in the Zhou Family?

As usual, only Huang Shaozi remained at home.

She sat in front of the woodshed, diagonally opposite the door in the passageway, watching Zhou Yang walk to the door, turn his face, and his plump, white face was full of gloom.

Those eyes, widened excessively from seeing the wrong person at the wrong time, appeared even more hysterical.

But then her eyes darted around, her face darkening with a hint of ferocity before suddenly softening into a loving smile, "Yang'er, shouldn't you be working at the blacksmith's shop right now?"

"Why are you back?"

"For some reason, his house wasn't Gate of Opening today."

"I went there early to keep watch, and called for the gate for a while, but no one answered," Zhou Yang answered honestly, his eyes watching Huang Shaozi's expression. "I couldn't very well climb over the wall and go in. What if people said something was missing from the house? I wouldn't be able to explain myself."

"So we had no choice but to come back."

Compared to him suddenly going home instead of going to work, the fact that A Fu's blacksmith shop was suddenly closed today is even more illogical.

He wanted to see how the ghosts of Guan Village would react to such an absurd situation.

Especially since this matter also involves that unpredictable and elusive A Fu.

Huang Shaozi was visibly stunned when he heard his words.

After a moment, her smile widened, and she nodded, saying, "Yes, his house really wasn't Gate of Opening today."

"That's none of our business. You should just stay home and rest today."

Zhou Yang clearly sensed that when Huang Shaozi was in a daze, a chilling aura emanated from behind him.

In that brief moment of blankness, her true self seemed to detach from this human skin, to confirm whether the matter was real or not.

The ghosts of Guan Village rarely have any connection or communication with each other.

Each household is more like an independent door in Guan Village.

But these ghosts still manage to share all the news in the village according to some kind of pattern.

If even the slightest movement is seen by one ghost, it's as if all the ghosts have already noticed it.

Zhou Yang had already noticed these details, but he was more concerned about why the ghosts of Guan Village hadn't reacted much to A Fu's unusual behavior.

In the normal world, it's not a big deal to suddenly close your shop one day.

But this is in Guan Village.

Once any behavior deviates from the norm, it will inevitably attract the attention and scrutiny of evil spirits.

Until it brings death upon oneself!

But Guan Village Gui was so lenient with A Fu.

A Fu enjoys more freedom in Guan Village than Zhou Yang had imagined.

Nowadays, Zhou Yang no longer classifies A Fu as a "ghost." A Fu's various characteristics fall somewhere between a human and a ghost.

Upon closer examination, however, he is actually more like a human being.

After speaking with Zhou Yang, Huang Shaozi went to the main hall.

The scent of incense gradually wafted from the main hall. Huang Shaozi's murmured voice, like chanting scriptures, also came from inside the room.

Burning incense and chanting scriptures are an indispensable part of Huang Shaozi's daily life.

The ghost wearing the Huang Shaozi on human skin actually has a superstitious persona.

Zhou Yang took the whetstone from the woodshed to the water vat in the yard, moistened it with Shitou, and then carried out a large piece of iron from his house.

It was the piece of iron he had forged himself in the blacksmith's shop.

The iron sheet was covered with an oxide layer, and its surface was covered with uneven hammer marks, about a finger's thickness.

As expected, this was the second knife Zhou Yang was going to make.

He planned to make a flat-headed machete.

All you need to do is forge the blade into a rectangle as much as possible, then forge the cutting edge, sharpen it, quench it, and then stick the red-hot blade into a piece of wood. That's how you make a decent-looking woodcutter's knife.

This kind of knife is perfect for him to make now that his skills are still developing.

If you make good knives for credit, you can get a slightly better rating in the "Knife Credit Ledger".

At this moment, Zhou Yang could not use the blacksmith's furnace to repair the blade blank.

He merely wanted to lightly sharpen the knife twice and include all the images of the dead he had collected from the fire tower in the "Knife Credit Ledger".

"Shh----Shh----"

Zhou Yang pushed and pulled the iron sheet on the Shitou, sharpening his knife.

The writhing shadows around him, as he sharpened his knife, turned into wisps of black smoke and suddenly disappeared into the "Knife Credit Ledger" on his back belt.

Zhou Yang seemed oblivious.

He meticulously ground off the oxide layer on the iron sheet, then moved the kitchen knife from the woodshed and the sickle and farm tools from the barn, sharpening them all until they were razor-sharp.

Inside the main room.

Huang Shaozi peeked through the crack in the door at Zhou Yang's movements, and a satisfied smile crept onto his face. Tears welled in his eyes, and water dripped from his mouth.

"My good child, my darling----"

"She's truly my third child, my Yang'er, so wonderful----"

The fragrant mist curled and lingered around Huang Shaozi's enigmatic face.

After sharpening his knife for half the morning, Zhou Yang finally had a chance to go back to his room and rest for a while.

Lying in bed, I opened the book "The Knife Credit Ledger".

On the third page of "The Knife Credit Ledger", ink blots settled and solidified into clear words, spreading out in rows on the page. "A Woman Rides on a Golden Pagoda."

On the Linzang Kora Route, the owner of the "Quejicang Silversmith Stall," Queji, and his son, Aji, were ordered to go to Nengsheng Liberation Temple to "cast a golden stupa."

"Who knew that the golden pagoda would suddenly undergo a strange transformation, and then—"

"The women from the neighborhood rode on the golden tower one after another, and made love to it."

"The father and son Queji, fled on their short mules—"

The first few paragraphs of this story have been 90% completed by Mo Tuan.

Only one empty space remained—what strange change suddenly occurred to the golden pagoda?

It has not yet been presented in the book.

The later parts of the story only reveal the escape of Queji and his son.

But it is unknown whether the two of them truly escaped this calamity.

Zhou Yang guessed that the two of them probably hadn't managed to escape.

If they all escaped, he wouldn't need to borrow knives.

"A tower suddenly underwent a strange transformation, attracting women to have sexual relations with it?"

Zhou Yang imagined that scenario and felt a chill run down his spine.

His mind raced, and another question came to mind, "What kind of temples would have women?"

Where did these women come from?

At noon, the three people from Xiatian still hadn't returned home.

Huang Shaozi prepared the meal and told Zhou Yang to eat at home while she went to deliver food to the father and his two sons in the fields.

Zhou Yang volunteered to deliver food to his family in the fields, but Huang Shaozi refused.

Although she verbally refused, her expression remained gentle.

Unlike before, whenever Zhou Yang mentioned going to the fields, he was immediately met with a stern refusal.

This made Zhou Yang think that perhaps it wouldn't be long before he would be allowed to go and see the fields on the edge of the village.

Huang Shaozi leaving Zhou Yang alone to guard the house was something that had never happened before.

She trusted Zhou Yang more.

Zhou Yang ate his meal and washed the pot in the woodshed.

Stepping out of the gate and looking at the empty courtyard, a series of thoughts uncontrollably arose in my mind.

"Should we go and see those houses we've never been to before?"

"We might discover something."

"The Zhou Family may be hiding many secrets. If I can uncover even a few, my future path will be much easier."

Such thoughts swirled in Zhou Yang's mind.

But he ultimately suppressed that impulse.

Guan Village is a ghost village.

Ghosts' methods are unpredictable and cunning.

Even though Huang Shaozi has left home, it's hard to guarantee that she won't notice that a door in her house has been opened or that things have been rummaged through.

Zhou Yang's current methods are too ineffective.

He has to wait a little longer.

Even if you can't be absolutely certain, you should at least make sure you've investigated the situation at home and kept the risks within a manageable range before checking around the house.

Moreover, he had an important matter to attend to while he was alone at home, a rare occasion.

After locking the hospital door, Zhou Yang went back to his room.

He turned around and bolted the door, but still felt it wasn't enough, so he dragged over the only bench in the room to block the bolt.

"Gate of Opening to Creating a Zhen will surely attract the attention of ghosts and gods."

"Although I have a fake belly as a bridge, the abundance of bait inside will only attract the attention of certain ghosts and spirits. But I am currently in Guan Village, and there is no guarantee that unexpected situations will not occur." Zhou Yang took off his paper clothes and draped them over his arm.

He looked down at the paper garment and thought to himself, "When the Gate of Opening is opened and evil spirits Creating a Zhen, I must use ripples to hold back their shadows."

Wearing this paper garment is quite inconvenient.

"The clothes that Ding Ling gave me were indeed easy to carry; they could be cut to the length of a finger and pasted into the Knife Credit Ledger."

"If it can continue to grow as I wish, I can use it to cover my room and prevent the ghosts of Guan Village from spying on me." As Zhou Yang thought this, he saw the paper garment suddenly begin to stretch and expand!

As he watched, the paper clothes floated up, as if stuck to the beams and rafters above his head. The hem and cuffs of the clothes continued to extend, and in an instant, they covered Zhou Yang's room!

Zhou Yang never imagined that this paper garment would have such a wonderful use.

Upon further reflection, he realized that a woman as intelligent as Ding Ling must be very thoughtful in her considerations.

She thought of most things, both those she hadn't considered herself and those she hadn't.

Zhou Yang sighed softly, gathering the scattered thoughts in his mind.

He walked to the water vat in the corner of the room, hugged it with both arms, and the Ghost Mouth on his arms opened, giving him a surge of strength. He then pulled up the earthenware vat, which was half full of water.

There were signs of freshly turned soil under the water vat.

Digging through the layer of soil, Zhou Yang reached into the hole, first taking out the drawer box containing his paper money, and then bringing out a half-worn oil paper package.

Inside the oiled paper package was a fake abdomen sewn from pigskin.

The mud and ash that Zhou Yang burned in the blacksmith's shop yesterday are now all being put into this fake belly.

It is now past midnight.

He intends to Gate of Opening Creating a Zhen at the hour of Wei (1-3 PM) today!

Everything is ready!

Zhou Yang put the water vat back in its original position, took a rope, tied it to the fake abdomen, and fastened it around his waist, right next to his own abdomen.

At this moment, even without wearing theatrical costumes, the meaning is conveyed.

Whether or not there are costumes is not really important.

There were no mirrors in the room.

Zhou Yang used a water vat as a mirror.

On the dark, still water, a thin, handsome face was reflected.

Staring at his own face, Zhou Yang suddenly raised an eyebrow, recalling Chang Dafeng's demeanor and expression when he impersonated Gongsun Yan.

They also became righteous and awe-inspiring.

The writings of sages flowed through his mind like water.

"When Heaven is about to place a great responsibility on someone, it first tests their resolve, exhausts their body, starves their sinews and bones, and frustrates their endeavors."

With this unwavering spirit, Zhou Yang immediately exclaimed, "It's better to show the people what a wealth of knowledge is worth than to feed wolves and jackals!"

He wasn't as obsessed with opera as Ding Ling, nor was he as skilled Chang Dafeng, who had been immersed in the art for many years. The way he sang was completely different from Ding Ling's.

But his upright spirit imbued these two lines of dialogue, which sounded like they were being recited aloud, with an added sense of clarity and grandeur, like a scholar reciting poetry!

The lines from the play were spoken!

Zhou Yang grabbed a piece of iron that had been polished to a shine from the edge of the water vat and forcefully slit it into the fake abdomen under his clothes!

The section of intestine, stained red with pig's blood, immediately slid straight out!

Blood gushed out, spraying all over the ground!