Paintings of Terror

This small internal disturbance did not affect Mu Yiran. Seeing that Shao Ling was choked speechless by his guardian corgi, Mu Yiran quickly continued the previous topic.

“Mr. Shao’s question was actually something I wanted to talk about next. Despite being isolated in another space, Ke Xun and I could still see and hear you, but we couldn’t touch you.” Mu Yiran looked at the people in front of him. “Because, at the time, it wasn’t me and Ke Xun who were in another dimension, but you.”

Everyone looked at him in surprise and shock, and Shao Ling looked at him suspiciously.

“Burning rhinoceros can connect the yin and yang realms, or it can connect different spaces,” Mu Yiran said. “Wen Qiao couldn’t see the spirits in the water because the spirits were in another space. However, after the rhino horn was burnt, the spirits appeared to put out the fire. The space where these spirits were located merged with the space where Wen Qiao was located, also called the Yang realm.”

“So, when Ke Xun and I lit the rhino horn to see the pheasant, it was Ke Xun, the pheasant, and I who were in the realm of the sun. So, given that we couldn’t touch you, it is likely that this is the space we were originally in when we first entered the painting…”

Everyone was dumbfounded and speechless.

“I think this is probably the pheasant’s most cunning scheme,” Mu Yiran continued. “From the very beginning, it set up a long-lasting illusion space for us. Within this illusion, every night, it created small illusory spaces that lasted only one night, making us think that these illusions only exist at night. And once the illusion appeared, we wouldn’t be able to see, hear, or feel one another.”

“This was the pheasant’s biggest trick. A space is a space, and an illusion is an illusion. Simply put, what it set for us was a nested illusion space.”

“This has two purposes. First, it wanted to use the embedded illusion every night to trap us, and the other is that it wanted to use the illusion to confuse us and prevent us from discovering that we were already in an illusion.”

“In our civilization of gods and ghosts, many weird and strange things can be solved, and this solution was precisely that burning the rhino horn can bridge two worlds. Coincidentally, when Emperor Qin Shihuang sent ships out to sea to look for the Island of Immortals, he filled these ships with gifts, medicinal materials, fabrics, calligraphies, paintings, literature, and precious jewels.”

“As Luo Bu said earlier, rhino horns were also very valuable in that era, so they were sent aboard as gifts, and it happened that these rhino horns are the only thing that could break though this illusion space.”

“So, I think that if we want to completely escape the phantom space we are in now, we have to light the rhino horn.”

“But we’ve lit the rhino horn more than once already, and aren’t we still in the same illusion?” Luo Bu asked.

“Remember, then, that we only lit the rhino horns on the ship,” Mu Yiran said. He took a rhino horn and walked to the ship’s gunhale. “Since this painting is called Burning Rhinoceros at Sea, we might have to use the rhino horn to illuminate the sea.”

So he borrowed the flint from Luo Bu and lit the rhino horn in his hand.

Ke Xun took a step closer to him, holding his arm with one hand. Everyone hurriedly moved to the side of the ship and looked into the dark sea that was illuminated by the light of the rhino horn in Mu Yiran’s hand.

He lifted the rhino horn above the sea, causing the light to spill onto the surface of the sea. The water waves reflected it in a strange way, and the darkness over the surface of the sea seemed to have been sucked away, gradually becoming clear and transparent.

Immediately afterwards, everyone was surprised to see several stars appeared under the sea, and there seemed to be floating clouds. And under the stars and clouds, there seemed to be another sea of ??deep blue water, which was surging slowly.

“This is…” Wei Dong leaned forward and tried hard to look into the sea. Then he looked at everyone in surprise. “There seems to be another sky and sea under this sea?”

“Is there another space under the sea?” Qin Ci looked at Mu Yiran.

Mu Yiran looked at everyone and calmly said, “I personally think that the space below is the real way out. So, we have to enter the sea.”

“Please wait,” Shao Ling finally said. “If the space below is the Yang realm, then based on what you just said, you and Ke Xun were in the real Yang realm after lighting the rhino horn and seeing the pheasant. At that time, you were still on this ship, right? What does it have to do with the space below?”

Mu Yiran looked at him. “I just said that this is a nested phantom space. Inside a large phantom space, there are several small phantom spaces, and outside this large phantom space, maybe there is a larger space, and this space is the Yang realm.”

Shao Ling was stunned. Obviously his thinking speed was still a step slower than Mu Yiran’s.

“To put it bluntly, all these illusions are actually established within the scope of the Yang realm, so when Ke Xun and I lit a rhino horn, although our position hasn’t changed, we were already in the Yang Realm,” Mu Yiran said. .

“Then, we can also directly light a rhino horn and return to the Yang realm. Why must we enter the sea?” Shao Ling asked.

“Returning to the Yang realm is not the goal. Our goal is to find the seal and return to the real world.” This time, it was Ke Xun who answered him.

Still resistant, Shao Ling asked, “If the method of breaking the game in this painting is really as simple as illuminating the sea with rhino horns, wouldn’t the pheasant worry about us using the rhino horns to illuminate the sea on the very first night?”

“At the beginning, the rhino horns were placed under the floor of the captain’s room, along with a few boxes of bamboo slips,” Zhu Haowen answered. “If we couldn’t figure out the importance of burning rhinoceros, we would never use the rhino horns to illuminate the sea, so what was waiting for us was a dead end.”

“And, even if we thought of burning rhinoceros to illuminate the monster, just like what happened on the first night, we would worry that it would lead to our deaths. After all, Wen Qian ended up dead, so we would be cautious about burning the rhino horn.”

“We can say, even if all of us are brave and we dare to illuminate the sea on the first night, we haven’t experienced the five nights of illusion and death, so how can we be sure that the images under the sea aren’t a trap? Right now, you don’t even dare enter the sea, let alone on the first day, when you would be even more confused about what’s going on. So, it’s even more impossible to enter the sea on the first night.”

“And, Ke Xun also said that, before he killed the pheasant, he heard a lot of strange sounds coming from the sea. These sounds must be auditory illusions created by the pheasant to make us fear entering the sea. After all, after hearing these sounds, who would dare enter the sea?”

“So, because the pheasant had set up such a trick, there’s nothing to worry about. The pheasant was originally a thing that used human emotions and psychology to create illusions to trap us. It also must understand our human psyche. What’s more, if on the first day, we burned the rhinoceros horn and boldly jumped into the sea to explore, in the end, we would be able to leave the painting without damage. There’s no rule that says 13 people can come in, but 13 people can’t go out.”

Although Shao Ling no longer said anything, they could see that he was still suspicious. Obviously, he was hesitant about whether it was the right move to enter the sea.

“There’s no more time to waste.” Ke Xun began to undress. “We need to dive into the space in the sea and find the seal.”

They no longer deliberated over it, and followed Ke Xun in undressing. Even Qin Ci, who had always been calm and restrained, was very passionate about taking off his clothes…

Shao Ling looked at these people and couldn’t help frowning.

These guys…both the old and young were so willful. No one looked at the team’s behavior and thought it was wrong…

He was still hesitating when he suddenly saw Ke Xun calling over Wei Dong and Luo Bu. They began to take off his clothes. He struggled but he was no match for three people. To be honest, even Ke Xun alone would be able to handle him. Calling Wei Dong and Luo Bu over to help was just to save time.

“What are you still hesitant about?” Ke Xun said. “After five days in this illusion, have you figured a way out yet? After we all leave, will you be able to find a way out by yourself? This is your last chance. Just like choosing between three shorts and one long, hurry up and come along with us!”

Shao Ling: “…”

What the fuck was with the chosing between three shorts and one long? Did it have anything to do with the choice of jumping into the sea? Who’s touching his underwear? Stop it! His underwear couldn’t be taken off!

Shao Ling was so busy with these three guys that his thinking collapsed and he was pushed to the side of the ship in a mess.

After looking intently, he discovered that Mu Yiran’s clothes were still intact, and he hurried said, “He hasn’t…”

Before the words “taken off his clothes” could be spoken, Ke Xun stuffed a rhino horn in his mouth. “Use your mouth to hold it in the sea, and use your hands for swimming.”

.

“Huh?!” Shao Ling looked at him in surprise.

The neatly dressed Mu Yiran was the one who answered his question. “We need to burn the rhino horn in the sea in order for the light to guide us to that space.”

“Huh?” Shao Ling was so surprised that he even forgot to take the rhino horn out of his mouth.

But the clever, well-dressed Mu Yiran understood his question. “Since this painting is full of magic, then we should look at everything in it with magical eyes. Here I also want to reflect on myself. As a modern person, I’m not used to thinking about divine things. So previously, my thinking was blocked by the ‘burning rhinoceros’ aspect, and my focus was only on the word ‘burning’. I didn’t think deeply about the ‘rhinoceros’ part. And just now, after illuminating the sea with the rhinoceros horn, I suddenly remembered a legendary statement regarding ‘rhinoceros’.”

“The ancients said that there was a rhinoceros who was a psychic beast that lived in the sea. Its horn could defeat water, and so it was called ‘the water defeating rhinoceros.’ I vaguely remember a few words from the Compendium of Materia Medica, which states that its horn had soared through the sky for a thousand year…and so it can vent its anger through the sky, can communicate with the gods, can defeat water, and can frighten chickens.”

“My memory of this is scattered and fragmented, so I didn’t make this connection with the rhino horns before. Now that I think about it, the so-called horn that passed through the sky should refer to this rhinoceros. Defeating water is to avoid water. So I think that when we burn the rhinoceros under the sea, the light would not be extinguished.”

Shao Ling had no words.

There were only six rhino horns left, which wasn’t enough for seven people. Mu Yiran asked, “Is there anyone that couldn’t swim?”

“I’m not very good underwater,” Zhu Haowen said.

“I… I feel weak, I’m afraid I won’t have the strength to swim after I enter the sea…” Luo Bu raised a trembling hand.

Upon seeing this, Ke Xun pointed to Zhu Haowen. “I will take…” 𝐛𝗲𝐝𝐧𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝗼𝐫𝗴

“You take Luo Bu,” Mu Yiran said lightly. “I’ll share a rhino horn with Haowen. Doctor Qin, Wei Dong and Shao Ling, you three take care of each other.”

Everyone responded, and Ke Xun honestly said “Oh”.

Without further ado, everyone lit their rhino horns one after another, and Mu Yiran and Zhu Haowen jumped into the sea first, and the others followed.

Shao Ling was still trying to stop and remind them, “You have now used up all the rhino horns. If you don’t succeed this time, your way out would be blocked and you would no longer be able to leave!”

He didn’t know who kicked him from behind, but he fell into the sea.