Lighting a Candle with a Glance
Chang Dafeng claimed that anyone with a "divinity" in their soul could light this "ghost candle" with a glance.
Zhou Yang did not know what he meant by "divinity," nor did he know how having it in one's soul would manifest outwardly.
But considering how Chang Dafeng's gaze had nearly made him hallucinate and had even frightened Little Stone into wetting his pants, he surmised that this so-called divinity in the soul might have a great deal to do with "righteous thoughts."
Or perhaps the divinity in the soul was simply righteous thoughts.
With that in mind, Zhou Yang used Ding Ling's body to lower his eyes to the ghost candle.
Staring at the waxed wick, he asked Chang Dafeng, "Do I just have to look at it? I don't need to do anything else?"
For some reason, Chang Dafeng was a little nervous now too.
He first nodded, then shook his head. "You have to imagine it-imagine the candle bursting into flame!
"Picture it!
"If this candle really can do what you imagine-"
The troupe master's words caught in his throat. His eyes suddenly widened as he stared at the ghost candle in his hands-
The yellowed wick burst into flame!
An eerie green ghost fire burned upon it!
The flame flickered for several breaths before Chang Dafeng abruptly came to his senses. He opened his mouth and sucked away the invisible qi rising from the ghost candle, extinguishing it.
He then turned back to Ding Ling, whose outline was all he could see in the darkness. Indistinct syllables came from his throat, and he looked like someone was strangling him, leaving him unable to speak!
Zhou Yang smiled faintly.
Since being trapped in Guan Village, he had rarely seen real people who looked full of life at a glance.
Although he was still in a dangerous situation among the opera troupe, the people around him were all real people who looked vibrant and alive at a glance. Dealing with people was much easier than dealing with ghosts!
Because of that, he could handle things with ease and composure.
"How could you light that candle?!"
Chang Dafeng spoke in a sharp, fierce voice!
His tone was full of resentment at a reality he could not accept.
Zhou Yang lowered his eyes and quietly said a few words to Ding Ling in his mind. "He just said that if you could light the candle, he'd take you as his godson and not only teach you the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting, but also pass the troupe on to you.
"From the looks of it, everything he said was a lie.
"Don't believe a single word."
"Mm!" Ding Ling responded solemnly.
"I lit the candle as you asked.
"Whatever else happens, you have to teach me your signature skill now, don't you?" Zhou Yang pressed Chang Dafeng.
Chang Dafeng took several quick breaths. He got to his feet with a rustle in the darkness and used a fire starter to light an oil lamp nearby.
When the lamp flared to life, it illuminated his exceptionally sinister, contorted face.
He glared viciously at "Ding Ling," as though he wanted to eat her alive.
But he did keep his word in the end. He felt around at the bottom of the chest where he kept the ghost candle and took out a shrine. He removed the divine painting from it, folded it, and handed it to Ding Ling. "The Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting is on the back of the divine painting!
"Memorize it quickly. Give the painting back to me after one day!"
The instant Zhou Yang touched the folded painting, he was seized by a sudden, familiar sense of dread.
The painting felt as though a venomous snake had slithered into his sleeve, its cool, slippery scales pressed against his skin, making his whole body prickle.
It was much like the feeling the villagers of Guan Village gave him.
On that basis, Zhou Yang was certain that Chang Dafeng had not deceived him this time.
What he had given "Ding Ling" was the real thing.
Zhou Yang quietly withdrew his consciousness, letting Ding Ling take control of her own body again.
Chang Dafeng was still talking. "There are more than two shichen until midnight, so you still have a little time to study the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting.
"But I should warn you: don't try using the methods in this divine painting on the method for seeing ghosts.
"Otherwise, if you end up attracting something else... you'll really have thrown your own life away.
"All right, I won't say any more. No one else will come into this room before midnight."
His last words still lingered as Chang Dafeng left the room.
A short while later.
Only Ding Ling's slightly heavy breathing remained in the room.
The oil lamp's flame flickered, and Ding Ling's heart thumped along with it.
Her eyes were fixed on the folded divine painting in her hands, but her mind was clearly elsewhere.
Suddenly, she straightened her back, making her chest appear somewhat fuller beneath her coarse clothes. The flame beside her cast a peach-blossom flush on her cheeks. She said nothing aloud, but her thoughts rang out to Zhou Yang. You, you...
You can actually control my body?
The female voice that had previously been so crisp and clear was now as faint as a mosquito's whine, shy and hesitant.
Ding Ling now remembered something else.
Just before she woke up, her hands had been feeling all over her body.
She had originally thought she had done it unconsciously, but now...
Hearing Ding Ling's stammered question, Zhou Yang felt a little awkward too.
As Ding Ling was his Karmic Retribution Body, it was perfectly normal for him to be able to control her.
But even if that were true, how could he explain it to her?
And if he did not explain, Ding Ling was clearly inclined to let her thoughts wander elsewhere. If she thought too deeply and suspicion arose between them, what followed would be difficult to handle.
Zhou Yang's thoughts raced.
Fortunately, his mind was quick, and he soon gave a lofty, righteous reply. "You and I are one. We share both glory and hardship.
"Naturally, there's nothing more normal than my being able to control this body."
"Does that mean... you and I are grasshoppers tied to the same rope?" Ding Ling blinked.
In the darkness, her phoenix eyes looked alluring and full of feeling. The light flickering in them lent her a touch of slyness.
"That's a rather unpleasant way to put it," Zhou Yang had to reply, "but the principle is the same."
The light in Ding Ling's eyes grew brighter. "So you'll help me from now on, right?"
"Haven't I already helped you?"
"Mm!" Ding Ling nodded even harder, as though she were pressing her fingerprint on some important contract. "You'll stay with me the whole time, won't you?
"My mother said everyone has a hard life in this world, but women have it a little harder than men.
"So at certain times, heaven will find someone to help a woman.
"When that person appears, the woman has to stay alert and grab hold of them as soon as she can.
"If she can't, she'll regret it for the rest of her life."
Your mother sounds like a woman who got love-brained after reading too many stories about scholars and female ghosts, young masters and beauties... Zhou Yang silently grumbled for a moment, then asked Ding Ling, "Where is your mother now?"
"Dead." Ding Ling's face showed little emotion as she spoke. "She died with my father."
"That's good, then," Zhou Yang said. "Though it's been hard on you."
Ding Ling smiled.
Zhou Yang went on, "There are bound to be several difficult hurdles ahead.
"Don't worry. We'll get through them together.
"I'll stay with you until the moment before you die."
He was first giving his Manifestation Body a few reassuring words.
He had only this one Karmic Retribution Body right now. He did not know when he would be able to gather enough last words, forge a blade, and bring forth the next one.
For now, he had to cherish this one.
Ding Ling smiled again at his words,
But after smiling, she frowned and suddenly asked Zhou Yang, embarrassed again, "Then, then what happens when I go to the latrine?"
Zhou Yang was at a loss for words.
Only after a long while did he say, enunciating each word, "Don't sully my reputation.
"I'm not some lecher who goes out of his way to spy on people using the latrine!"