Paintings of Terror

“We all know that the death conditions in this painting are compounded,” Mu Yiran said, “The first condition is the failure to fulfil the tent quota. On the first night, there were thirteen of us and we were told that we had to have two people in a tent. With that premise, one person would inevitably be excluded. If we look at this from a religious point-of-view, what do you think this looks like?”

An idea flashed through Qin Ci’s mind: “The exclusion of a dissident.”

Sha Liu’s eyes widened in understanding. “That’s right! That’s it! No religion tolerates disloyal followers. It is essential to maintain the purity of their faith. If they don’t have any faith, why should they be allowed into the religion? Dissidents should obviously be excluded!”

“The tent quota is thus a symbolic representation of the exclusion of non-believers in a religion,” Mu Yiran continued. “After the dissidents are removed, the second selection criterion comes into effect—that is, what occurred on the second night. On the second night, dissidents were once again eliminated as this wouldn’t be a one-off event. This is reflective of the practices of actual religions. But at the same time, this ‘religion’ started to take steps in cleaning out their organization. This consisted of removing members whose faith had been found to be lacking. In our case, it refers to people who did not participate in the preparation of offerings.”

Qin Ci nodded. “That also happens in actual religions.”

“After getting rid of the unfaithful followers, the third selection criterion came into effect. Yesterday, everyone had helped to gather all of the offerings. Supposing that we acquired all of the correct offerings, I think that we must have shifted the ceremony forward,” Mu Yiran continued.

“I agree,” Qin Ci murmured. “That person said that the ceremony would be held on the seventh day. If we had taken six days to gather all the offerings, then the ceremony would have been held on the seventh day. But we had finished our preparations yesterday. We’re able to conduct the ceremony at any time now.”

Mu Yiran’s gaze was enigmatic. “According to what I know, there is a denomination of Sahism that necessitates a human sacrifice prior to each ceremony. The sacrifice is the most devout follower within the religion. After all, sacrificing oneself is the greatest embodiment of one’s faith to these believers. It is seen as their greatest honour in both this life. It is also what they believe to be the most glorious of ways to attain enlightenment and transition to the Pure Land.”

Sha Liu nodded. “That’s right. They also believe that being chosen is a favour bestowed to them from their god. The gods don’t see this as killing their believer. They see it as giving them enlightenment and transcendence.”

“S-so what you’re saying is that the giant shadow has good intentions?” Wei Dong was stupefied. “Is this painting portraying a desire to pray piously and voluntarily abandon one’s ego?”

“But we’re not believers.” Mother Geng said furiously. “There’s no point in killing us!”

“Isn’t converting non-believers into believers the goal of all religions?” Sha Liu said sullenly.

“So what you’re saying is that our efforts in gathering the offerings was in fact an invitation to Heishitian to take us as a sacrifice?” Qin Ci’s expression was complicated and difficult-to-describe.

“Once the gatherings had been assembled,” Mu Yiran said, “As a show of its favour, Heishitian had chosen the most devout follower to be the human sacrifice. At the same time, the dissident exclusion and internal cleaning criteria were still in effect. That’s why Li Ziling had been chosen as well.”

Everyone was frightened. Qin Ci’s voice was quiet. “It makes sense that Zhou Bin was chosen as the most devout follower…. Zhou Bin was indeed the one to take the most initiative. He… did a lot of the work.”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

“….” There was no expression on Mu Yiran’s face. “I’ve said it before, faith may very well be the strongest power in existence. Deities depend on faith to survive. Faith can also be seen as a kind of psychic power. I think that as long as your mental fortitude is high enough, it can be considered a type of psychic power. Perhaps it sensed a power that was strong enough to rival its own while hovering over your tent.”

“So what you’re saying is that I used my own psychic powers to defeat it?” Ke Xun raised a brow.

“You caught it off guard,” Mu Yiran said with a cold expression. “A faithless person with strong mental fortitude is like an impenetrable rock to a god that depends on faith for survival.”

Ke Xun had on a doting look on his face. “You’re right, Handsome.”

Mu Yiran’s expression worsened and he ignored the comment.

Sha Liu couldn’t help but ask Ke Xun: “You must believe in something. Are you religious?”

Ke Xun looked up at the sky and then smiled. “My faith might not be suitable for you. Besides, regardless of what religion or god you worship, you have to strengthen your mental fortitude first…in other words, you have to turn yourself into an impenetrable stone.”

Sha Liu bit down on her lips before shifting her gaze onto Mu Yiran. “I don’t want to die. Is my intense desire to live also a form of psychic power?”

Mu Yiran replied to her in a flat voice, “No one wants to die. Everyone desperately wants to survive. I doubt that Zhou Bin’s desire to live was any less than yours. The Geng couple’s desire to protect their child and survive is likely many times greater than yours as well.”

Sha Liu paled. “Then…how can I be like Ke Xun?”

Mu Yiran didn’t want to respond to this. But when he saw everyone turn to him for the answer, he could only speak with an expressionless face. “I think that faith—otherwise known as psychic power or psychokinesis—refers to one’s mental strength that is hidden beneath one’s surface.

“It is not until a crucial point in time that we are able to measure how strong our own strength is.

“Maybe you’re stronger than you think. People say that human potential is limitless. We simply do not know what our limits are.

“But on the other hand, you might be weaker than you would like to be. Maybe you’ve been overestimating yourself.

“So I can’t tell you whether or not you can resist that thing like Ke Xun had. If you want an answer, you’ll have to try it yourself. There’s a fifty percent chance of succeeding.”

Sha Liu didn’t have the courage to try. She could only turn a pleading gaze towards Wei Dong as she felt like he was in a similar situation as her.

Wei Dong: “….”

“I think Xiao Ke is a special case,” Qin Ci said after pondering over it. “If just anyone could defy a demonic god’s power, then there would be no point in its existence. I think that there is no one aside from Xiao Ke who would be able to do it. Therefore, what we should focus on instead is what we should do tonight. We should also try to find clues pertaining to the signature/seal as quickly as possible.”

“He’s right. I lost focus easily in school. There’s no way my mental strength would be a match for a demonic god.” Wei Dong followed suit. “We should hurry up and come up with a plan. Who knows if another sacrifice will be chosen tonight? There’s also the tent quota to worry about. There are nine people left. If it’s three to a tent, three people might end up sacrificed tonight.”

The Geng couple started to fret when they heard this. Mother Geng stamped her foot. “What should we do? According to what you guys said, we’ll die if we participate in the preparation of offerings but we’ll also die if we don’t. There’s no way out!”

Wei Dong laughed bitterly. “That’s to be expected. Don’t forget, we’re in a painting. The whole point of bringing us in here was to kill us. It’s unreasonable to expect it to give us an easy way out. We only have a slim chance of survival. A wrong step forwards or back will lead to death. We have no choice but to find the sole, narrow path within this road to death that will lead to survival.”

Sha Liu looked at Mu Yiran: “Regarding the signature, do you have any ideas, Mu ge?”

Mu Yiran said, “All I know is that the painter, Qiu Jian, was a fanatic believer of Sahism. His signature is likely hidden in a place related to this religion.”

“Would it be in one of the temples?” Father Geng asked.

“It could also be on a certain ceremonial instrument,” Qin Ci added.

“There’s also…the sky burial platform?” Sha Liu said, “After all, that is where the souls of the believers are said to ascend.”

Qin Ci nodded slightly. “We can’t just stay here and flap our lips. We have to put our plans into action and search every place we can think of. Geng ge, you and your family can try to search the nearby village. Zhao Dan will rest here for now. I don’t think she’ll be able to overcome her grief over Zhou Bin in such a short amount of time. The remaining five will be split into two teams. One team will search the sky burial platform while the other team will search the temples. We will meet back here in the afternoon as soon as possible. If we don’t find anything, we’ll brainstorm as a group what we should do tonight.”

No one had any objections. The sky burial platform was rather far and it would be the best if the guys with the best stamina and speed were to go. Qin Ci volunteered and then asked the rest of the guys on their plans.

Mu Yiran said, “I have things I want to ask at the temples.”

Ke Xun glanced at him and then glanced at Wei Dong. He smiled. “Dr. Qin, I’ll go with you. The three of them can head to the village.”

After the teams were divided, everyone threw themselves into their work because their lives depended on it.

Some time before the sun set, Ke Xun and Qin Ci returned to the tent area. Everyone else had already returned, save for Mu Yiran.

Zhao Dan seemed to have fainted after crying for so long. She was settled down at a corner of the tent.

“Where’s Mu Yiran?” Ke Xun asked Wei Dong.

“He ditched the two of us after we left here,” Wei Dong said sullenly, “I don’t know where he went off to. Sha Liu and I searched the nearby temples but we didn’t find anything that might be related to the signature.”

“Geng dage, what about you?” Qin Ci asked.

Father Geng’s eyes dimmed as he shook his head. “We searched all of the tents and residences nearby. There was nothing.”

Sha Liu asked Qin Ci, “What about you? Did you search the sky burial platform?”

“Yes. Nothing turned up,” Qin Ci said in a heavy voice.

“What should we do…?” Mother Geng panicked, “Where else could it be? Where could the signature be?”

No one could give her an answer. The main tent fell silent.

Just before darkness befell the land, Mu Yiran returned. Faced with everyone’s expectant gazes, he said in a mild voice, “We should throw away the offerings we prepared.”

Qin Ci’s eyes narrowed. “What did you find out?”

Mu Yiran said, “Nothing. The language barrier is a huge issue. But I did take the plants Ke Xun and I picked yesterday to the temples. The elder at the temple wanted the plants I had. It seemed like he had a use for them. Unfortunately, there was no way for me to find out prior to nightfall so I have no choice but to wait until tomorrow morning.

“The reason I think we should get rid of the offerings is that, on my way back, I thought about it once more and decided that I still believe that these offerings do not benefit us in any way.

“I’ve said it before: that thing relies on these offerings to strengthen itself. We have no way of knowing what will happen once it reaches its final state. We don’t know if it might lead to total massacre.

“We already know that there is still a chance of being chosen regardless of whether we gather the offerings or not. Rather than keep the offerings and contribute to its building of power, we might as well throw it all away.”

Sha Liu looked at him hesitantly. She gulped. “But…I think that with the offerings, that thing might decide to only choose one of us. Or at least fewer than if we were to throw the offerings away. If we throw them away, it’s really likely that we might all end up dying….”

Mu Yiran’s expression didn’t change. He calmly said, “It’s up to you all whether we throw them away or not. I was just raising a suggestion.”

Sha Liu didn’t speak. She lowered her head and used the hem of her shirt to clean her glasses.