Ke Xun stared intently at Mu Yiran's departing figure, watching him rush towards the distant tent. He watched the giant shadow reach its arm through the tent roof, then watched someone scream as it pulled them out, its eight hands simultaneously gripping the tent, a piercing scream escaping through its fingers.
Finally, he watched Mu Yiran rush into the tent, the giant shadow showering down a torrent of blood onto the tent. Then came a shattered head, its long, disheveled hair tumbling from the tent roof, crashing to the ground with a thud. Next came the jagged, broken arms, legs, and ribs, one by one falling away. The giant seemed to be dismantling a clock, patiently disassembling the human torso piece by piece.
Before dawn, the giant shadow tossed aside the mangled body it had scrambled apart. A hollowed-out skeleton with a few fluttering, cracked pieces of skin hung on the tent roof. The giant shadow, carrying the bloody entrails it had obtained, returned to the darkness above.
Ke Xun was the first to rush to that tent, lifting the blood-stained curtain to see Sha Liu vomiting violently in the corner, Geng Ma unconscious on a felt blanket, and Mu Yiran staring expressionlessly at the patterns on the tent roof.
"Any findings?" Ke Xun asked him.
Mu Yiran turned to him: "We need to gather all the small tents together."
No one had any appetite for breakfast. After Qin Ci and Mu Yiran gathered Zhao Dan's remains together and covered them with a blanket, everyone worked together to move all the small tents together.
However, the daylight was very diffuse; looking up from inside the tent, all they could see were blurry patterns.
"We need to wait until nightfall," Mu Yiran said. "Before the giant shadow descends, we must piece these tents together according to the patterns on their roofs."
"Piece together?" Qin Ci keenly sensed the implication. "You mean the patterns on the tent roofs are actually a single, complete design, broken into several parts, and then painted separately on the tops of these tents?"
"I think so," Mu Yiran nodded slightly. "Last night I observed our tent and the tent where Mrs. Geng was, and found that both were incomplete."
"It seems the key lies in the patterns on the tent roofs." Qin Ci pondered. "But I still don't understand why the four o'clock flower can ward off the giant shadow?"
"Perhaps I'll have the answer when I return from the Satuo Temple." Mu Yiran prepared to leave.
"So what do we need to do now?" Geng's father asked hurriedly. "Those offerings from before are definitely unusable, so how do we complete the task that person gave us?"
Mu Yiran looked at everyone: "What you need to do now is collect the following: First, alcohol. As far as I know, the residents of Ganxiong can make Qingsha wine, grape wine, rice wine, and mare's milk wine. Get as many of these as you can.
Second, rice, flour, and ghee. Ganxiong has millet, rice, barley, wheat, and peas. Get whatever you can find.
Third, spices. You can probably find camphor, sandalwood, pine resin, and other kinds of spices in Ganxiong. We need as many as we can.
Fourth, the vulture feathers from the sky burial platform.
"Get back before dark."
No one asked any more questions. In fact, at this point, no one had the energy or willpower to question anything. For several days, they had barely slept. At this moment, their physiological functions were only barely functioning in terms of "obeying orders."
"I'll go to the sky burial platform," Ke Xun said.
During the day, the most dangerous place is probably the sky burial platform.
Mu Yiran looked at him and said, unusually, "Be careful." Although his expression remained aloof.
Ke Xun smiled at him and turned to leave.
A round trip to the sky burial platform takes almost a whole day. Ke Xun was fast, but considering the time spent collecting vulture feathers, it was already late when he returned to the tent area. Everyone else had arrived, and Wei Dong had even taken a nap.
In the open space in front of the small tent, the things that everyone had collected according to Mu Yiran's instructions were laid out. Geng Ma and Sha Liu were kneading rice and flour and shaping them into cakes.
"Dom?" Ke Xun asked.
"Maybe." Sha Liu answered softly.
"Little Mu, now that everyone is here, can you tell us your plan?" Qin Ci looked at Mu Yiran.
Mu Yiran had just finished checking the things that everyone had brought back. Hearing Qin Ci's question, he nodded, and everyone stopped and looked at him.
Mu Yiran's gaze swept over everyone, his expression somewhat meaningful: "Our biggest challenge has always been determining which branch of the Sataka religion this painting depicts. Because the pantheons of the Sataka religion itself and its various branches differ, we also cannot confirm which branch of the eight-armed monster that appears every night belongs to.
"Different pantheons mean different attributes, and without knowing the attributes, we cannot take appropriate action.
"We know that since its inception, the Sataka religion has assimilated and integrated the doctrines and pantheons of multiple sects. After thousands of years of development and change, several branch sects have emerged, each flourishing and developing its own independent doctrines and pantheons, existing both outside and closely related to the main religion.
"Among these, several branch sects later surpassed the main religion, achieving great prosperity, their fame and influence even threatening to overshadow the main religion.
"As a result, many people have forgotten the original doctrines of the Sataka religion, one of which is non-killing."
Everyone was stunned.
The Saha sect doesn't kill living beings; in fact, it doesn't kill
living beings! Then—what have we been doing?!
"However, even in the Saha sect's original teachings, 'meat' is an item in the offerings," Mu Yiran said, pointing to a pile of things on the ground.
Several of these items were left at the Saha temple yesterday, processed by the practitioners there, and had just been brought back. "But in the orthodox Saha sect's original teachings, meat can be replaced with plants. For example, four o'clock flower represents dog meat, angelica represents horse meat, asparagus root represents elephant meat, tribulus represents peacock meat, and polygonatum root represents human flesh."
Looking in the direction Mu Yiran was pointing, Sha Liu's face turned deathly pale.
Qin Ci looked at Mu Yiran: "How did you know which plant represented which meat?"
"Last night, I saw these patterns on the top of our tent," Mu Yiran replied calmly. "The patterns are divided into two concentric circles, one with plant patterns and the other with animal patterns. At first, I didn't realize that these two circles corresponded one-to-one; I just thought it was some kind of embellishment to the main pattern. But when I continued to look, I found that some patterns depicted feces, urine, brain matter, and so on. I realized that these patterns seemed to be what Sha Liu had mentioned before: the Five Wisdom Dew and the Five Tribute Meat."
At this point, Mu Yiran looked at Sha Liu: "The bloody offerings you saw in the book aren't wrong either, but you probably forgot to tell us the name of that book. Would you mind telling us now?"
Sha Liu's lips trembled, and she didn't dare to look at the gazes of everyone staring at her. She said in a low voice, "The book title... the book title is 'The Qingjiao Ritual Items Explained'."
"Qingjiao?" Geng Ba was stunned.
"The Green Sect is a branch of what we call the Sataka Sect," Mu Yiran said expressionlessly. "Through thousands of years of development, it gradually separated from the main sect and exists independently. This sect is more inclined to worship fierce gods, and its subordinate temples mostly enshrine wrathful and fierce gods. Moreover, its sacrificial rituals and witchcraft rituals are all unorthodox and evil, extremely cruel and bloody."
As soon as she finished speaking, Aunt Geng rushed up to Sha Liu and slapped her hard across the face: "It's all your fault! You misled us! You made us do those—those inhuman things! You ruined us, you made us become like this, neither human nor ghost—"
Wei Dong and Uncle Geng quickly pulled the emotional Aunt Geng away. Sha Liu lowered her head, straightened her glasses which had been knocked askew by Aunt Geng, and said in a low voice: "But don't these offerings I mentioned also serve a protective purpose? At least Ma Zhenhua's death can prove that those who do not prepare these offerings will die."
"Even those who were prepared still died!" Aunt Geng roared. "Zhou Bin was prepared enough, wasn't he?! Wasn't he sacrificed?"
"But doesn't that also prove that this Black Corpse Heaven is indeed the evil god of the Green Cult, and that this place we are in is the territory of the Green Cult's faith?" Sha Liu argued, biting her lip.
"Then how do you explain that we survived last night without any sacrifices?" Qin Ci asked her.
Sha Liu couldn't answer.
Mu Yiran didn't look at her again, but continued, "That giant shadow is indeed the wrathful and ferocious god Black Corpse Heaven mentioned in the Green Sect. It does indeed use the bloody sacrifices that Sha Liu mentioned as offerings to strengthen its divine power. However, many people don't know, or have long forgotten, that in the original doctrines of the Satuo Sect, Black Corpse Heaven is a two-faced god. It originally had eight arms and two faces. One face was born with a wrathful appearance, and the other face was born with a benevolent appearance."
"The benevolent appearance!" Ke Xun, who hadn't spoken until now, suddenly snapped his fingers. "Before entering the painting, I vaguely saw a pair of kind and benevolent eyes in the painting. Could that be the benevolent side of Black Corpse Heaven?"
"In the doctrines of the Sataka religion, the Black Corpse God is a heretical demon who only acquires divinity after converting to the Sataka religion. His wrathful aspect retains his vicious, cruel, and murderous nature, while his benevolent aspect is tamed and guided by the highest god of the Sataka religion, becoming a guardian deity who protects believers," Mu Yiran said. "Based on the patterns on the tent ceiling, it's inferred that the offerings favored by the wrathful and benevolent gods, though named the same, differ in their actual offerings. Both offer 'five kinds of meat,' but the wrathful god requires real meat, while the benevolent god uses plants instead. This is the distinguishing feature."
"So…" Qin Ci suddenly understood, "We escaped last night's ordeal because we had the four o'clock flower. The four o'clock flower is an offering to the benevolent god, and it neutralized the wrathful god's ferocity to some extent."
"So the reason I survived alone in my tent the night before last might not have been due to any power of faith, but simply because I had Mirabilis in my arms?" Ke Xun shrugged. "Okay, failed attempt at showing off."
Mu Yiran glanced at him, pursed her lips, and suppressed the words she was about to say, then looked at everyone again: "Based on my deduction, if blood sacrifices can strengthen the wrathful aspect of the Black Corpse Heaven, then the other type of sacrifice, mainly plant-based, should strengthen the benevolent aspect of the Black Corpse Heaven. In other words, we might be able to summon the benevolent aspect of the Black Corpse Heaven, allowing this world within the painting to shift to the original scene of the painting."
"Those kind and benevolent eyes in the original painting!" Ke Xun said.
"Yes," Mu Yiran nodded, "This might be the only way for us to leave here."