Paintings of Terror

Mu Yiran looked at Fang Fei with a serious gaze. They had agreed to try the Shaman’s mask at an appropriate time, but this girl suddenly…

Fang Fei, wearing the mask, looked even more serious than Mu Yiran. “I have read the book. Shamans wearing the mask exist outside the cycle of reincarnation, so their lifespans are usually very long. Apart from that, there are no other dangers.”

Wei Dong wondered: Is this an important point? Does long lifespan count as a danger…

“What do you see?” Zhu Haowen asked.

Fang Fei slowly scanned the surroundings and said, “It’s very fantastical, as if I can see faraway worlds through this room, just like that wide-angle lens.” She paused for a moment, seemingly to be observing before speaking again, “I can even adjust my own perspective, it’s truly incredible.”

“The Lantern Inn is a collection of houses lit by lanterns, and in front of it is a bright world, which should be the Light Inn. Behind the Lantern Inn is a pitch-black stone house with faint green, blue, and white light spots. I think that should be the Fluorite Inn. Beyond the Fluorite Inn, it’s completely dark, illuminated only by snow. That place is probably the Cold Night Inn… On the other side of the Cold Night Inn is the Light Lodge again.”

“It’s a circle, and the four Inns form a circular pattern,” Fang Fei raised her head and slowly walked, “This circle is in the middle of the Earth’s core, somewhat like the equator on Earth. The houses of the Inns are built on the inner circle. Just as we speculated before, the Inns are inside the Earth’s core.”

“Can you talk about the Earth’s core?” Shao Ling asked.

“Like a glass egg. I can only see the inside, but not the outside of the egg,” Fang Fei paused for a long time, “Still can’t see it. But I can see that exit. It’s next to the Cold Night Inn. This exit leads to the outside, like the blowing hole of that Xun.”

Wei Dong said: “I remember someone saying it felt like swimming inside a preserved egg when we first arrived.”

Luo Bu: “Brother Dong, you said that.”

Wei Dong: “I did?”

Luo Bu nodded, “Yes, I said it felt like asphalt, while you said it was like a preserved egg. It seems you expressed it more accurately.”

Wei Dong: “……”

Shao Ling said, “So, if we want to get out, we must go to the Cold Night Inn, because that’s closest to the exit. The signature is outside of the Earth’s core. Going out of the Earth’s core is our only option.” 𝓫ℯ𝓭𝓃𝓸𝓋ℯ𝓁．𝓬𝓸𝓂

“There’s one problem,” said Zhu Haowen. “How far is the exit from the signature? From looking at the painting, the signature is on the left side of the circle, but the exit may not necessarily be right next to the signature. If we go to the wrong location, we may end up going in the wrong direction. The Earth’s core is too big, and searching outside of it may be even more difficult.”

This indeed was a problem. Wei Dong asked Fang Fei: “Can you see the outside through the preserved egg? Can you see where the signature is? Is it far from that exit?”

Fang Fei spread her hands: “I can’t see anything, can’t even sense any light.”

Wei Dong somehow wanted to draw facial features on this white mask…

Meanwhile, Mu Yiran took out a pen and paper and drew a large circle, “I’ll draw a simple sketch, an approximate reproduction of the original image: the signature is in the top left corner, and the light source is in the top right corner. These are all the contents outside the circle. Perhaps we can make some deductions from this.”

Luo Bu: “We can make deductions from this? Genius brother-in-law please solve this for us…”

Mu Yiran drew an arrow pointing toward the circle’s light source, “Light comes in from here, and we likely entered from here as well. The world we were in, at that time, should be full of light. This painting also tells us that our homeland is indeed the Light Inn.”

Mu Yiran drew a large cross on the circle and divided it into four sections, “Let’s assume the upper-right part is the Light Inn. According to what Fang Fei just said, adjacent to it are Cold Night Inn and Lantern Inn, opposite it is the Fluorite Inn.” Writing down Fluorite Inn on the part opposite the Light Inn, Mu Yiran continued, “Currently, we can only confirm the positions of these two inns. The positions of the other two are harder to determine. The only reference we might have is the sketch inside the circle.”

“But, the painting is quite abstract. It only has a house at the center of the circle, yet our four Inns are built on the inner circle,” Qin Ci felt there was no way to analyze this, “Of course, the world inside the painting may not perfectly follow its contents. Currently, the center of the circle only has a house and its shadow…”

“I think the shadow is significant!” After everyone had put their minds to it for a while, Luo Bu finally spoke up, “If it weren’t significant, the artist wouldn’t have deliberately drawn it! Earlier, my brother-in-law said that the angle of the light bulb and its shadow was wrong, which caused the confusion in time. However, I believe the shadow must have another purpose. I think the shadow represents darkness, so the lower-right corner of the circle should be the Cold Night Inn!”

This left everyone speechless and surprised. Wei Dong remarked, “Luo Bo, you really are something.”

Mu Yiran furrowed his brow but didn’t immediately write “Cold Night Inn in the lower-right corner, “If that’s the case, then the exit from here to the signature is indeed far away. It could be the farthest distance in this painting’s world. Keep in mind that once we leave from the exit, we’ll have to measure the distance on the spherical surface of the Earth’s core. And we don’t even know how many days it would take to reach the Cold Night Inn, let alone the time needed to search for the signature outside the Earth’s core. Five days is far from enough: and remember, in our current timeline, we only have 12 hours per day.”

Zhu Haowen walked over to the table and picked up the pen: “I have some thoughts. The shadows here might not be black.”

“Shadows are not black, then what color are they? Aren’t the shadows on this picture black?” Luo Bu asked.

“The house itself in the center of the circle is abstract, so the shadow should also be abstract. It only represents people’s intuitive understanding of shadows. However, the world we are in is different from the real world,” Zhu Haowen pointed to the light bulb and then to the circle, “As Fang Fei said earlier, this Earth’s core is like glass, and when we just entered the painting, we also experienced that indescribable feeling of being inside something. So, I believe the material of the Earth’s core should be glass or a transparent material similar to glass. If that’s the case, then the shadows produced by glass wouldn’t be black.”

Everyone listened attentively. Mu Yiran’s eyes lit up and showed a rare expression of anticipation.

Zhu Haowen drew a straight line with the pen near the light source, as if trying to depict the effect of a beam of light: “If that is indeed the case, it explains why the light and shadows appear so strange. We all know that glass or water can create a refractive effect, and the material of the Earth’s core is even more unique and may likely generate a very special refractive effect. This also explains why there’s such a peculiar angle between the shadows and the light rays.”

“So you mean, the shadows here aren’t really shadows?” Qin Ci asked.

“Yes, those are not shadows, but refracted light,” Zhu Haowen used arrows to indicate the direction of light refraction, “The light enters from the position of the Light Inn and then refracts out from the lower right corner. Although the refracted light might not be as intense as the original light source, it is still somewhat effective—this is why the Lantern Inn we are in only has four short hours of daytime.”

“We all know that the Fluorite Inn and the Cold Night Inn have no daylight at all, and it’s not possible that the dim light in the Lantern Inn does not have a light source. If it comes from refracted light, then this can all be explained.”

Everyone was left in awe, and secretly admired Zhu Haowen’s analysis.

Mu Yiran nodded in agreement, “Makes sense. If that’s true, then the lower right corner is where we are currently in, the Lantern Inn, and the upper left corner is the Cold Night Inn.”

“The exit of the Earth’s core is also right in the Cold Night Inn. If the signature is there too, we’ll have a much smoother journey!” Qin Ci’s voice was filled with excitement.

Luo Bu was confused by all this, but he nodded along happily, “So that means once we reach the Cold Night Inn, we’ll be able to find the signature quickly!”

Mu Yiran looked at Fang Fei, “So how do we reach the Cold Night Inn? Whether from the inner surface or the outer surface, the Lantern Inn and the Cold Night Inn are quite far away. Do we need to pass through the Light Inn to get to the Cold Night Inn?”

“Just now my vision reached its limit, my eyes got a bit tired. Now I can’t see clearly,” Fang Fei was just explaining when the room’s door suddenly opened, and the other members returned with lunch.

The sight of Fang Fei wearing the mask startled the new members, and only Ke Xun remained calm. He even made a joke, “Thought you were applying a face mask.”

Fang Fei smiled lightly. She turned toward Du Lingyu who was standing aside, and her shoulders stiffened slightly. But since the mask covered her expression, it didn’t attract too many people’s attention.

Ke Xun lit on the lanterns in the room, “I knew you guys must have come up with some important conclusions again, but for now, I want everyone to take a look at this.”

Ke Xun cleared a corner of the table and placed a large basin filled with water on it. Then, he went to retrieve his own baggage, “Yiran, take out your duck as well.”

Everyone: “…”

Two identical wooden ducks were placed on the table. Ke Xun turned both ducks over, bellies up. “There is indeed something on their bellies! The bellies of these two ducks can be connected together.”

Everyone: “…”

Immediately after that, Ke Xun placed the two ducks belly to belly and twisted them together as if winding up a toy.

Everyone: “…”

“Everyone, look closely.” Ke Xun placed one of the ducks with its head facing up into the basin, and the other duck, astonishingly, sank beneath the water’s surface like a reflection.

Everyone found it incredible. Wei Dong even said, “Is the duck below made of a different material?”

“Exactly the same material, keep watching,” Ke Xun gently tapped the head of the duck on the water surface. That duck extended its neck to lightly tap the water, and then flipped under the water. Meanwhile, the duck beneath the water floated up, appearing above the water’s surface.

“No… Brother, after demonstrating for so long, what are you trying to tell us?” Luo Bu couldn’t hold back anymore and finally asked.

“Actually I can’t figure out what’s going on either.”

Everyone: “…”

Ke Xun quickly continued, “But I feel like these two ducks wouldn’t just randomly appear in our bags. This is definitely a clue left by the other ‘us.’ Why did they choose these two ducks? Because coincidentally, Yiran and I both had this wooden duck toy when we were kids. It’s precisely because it aligns with our memory that two ducks weren’t censored by the painting.”

“However, why would they leave behind these two wooden ducks, and why do these two ducks have such a strange interaction… I believe there’s something significant here.”

Shao Ling said from the side, “Does this represent a kind of reincarnation? Or perhaps a substitution of identity?”

“The hint from the wooden duck toy is crucial. The point where the two timelines intersect is right here.” Mu Yiran’s expression was slightly excited. He rarely showed such emotions.