Almost at the same time dawn broke, the thick, dark shadows dissipated as if smoke had been sucked away out of thin air.
Ke Xun stared, seeing that just a dozen steps to his right lay the vast ocean. Even if he could swim, he was certain that if he fell in, he would never have a chance to return to the ship.
Turning around, he saw Mu Yiran standing right behind him, barely a step away.
If he hadn't withstood the terrifying pressure from that dreadful, shaky aura on his back last night, he might have already plunged the arrow into his beloved's body.
Ke Xun dropped the crossbow and arrow, turned around, and hugged his lover tightly. His lover opened his arms to catch him, pulling his embrace closer, and placed a hand on the back of Ke Xun's head, where his hair was slightly damp from the sea.
"...Brother, brother-in-law...if you're going to kiss...please let me know in advance...I'll go back and avoid you..." Luo Yiran's trembling voice came from beside him.
Ke Xun tilted his head and saw Luo Tan lying limply on the deck, his face pale, tears still clinging to his cheeks. He seemed too weak to even lift his hand to wipe them away, his whole body limp like a puddle of radish paste.
"Are you alright?" Ke Xun asked him.
"Does wetting your pants count as being alright?" Luo Tan sniffled.
"..." Ke Xun ignored him, turned back and kissed Mu Yiran on the lips, released his arm from Luo Tan's, and pointed upstairs, "I'm going up to check on Dongzi and the others."
"I'm going to check on Shaoling and the others." Mu Yiran nodded, not giving any further instructions, as they already understood each other's feelings.
Ke Xun skipped the detour up the stairs and quickly climbed up to the second floor using the rope. He saw that Wei Dong, Qin Ci, Zhu Haowen, and Xue Ge were all "there," but their expressions were all strange.
"How are they? Are they all alright?" Ke Xun still asked.
The others responded with "uh-huhs."
"What happened last night?" Ke Xun asked.
"It's a long story..." Wei Dong's face was still full of lingering fear, and his forehead was still covered in cold sweat.
"Where's Xiao Mu?" Qin Ci asked.
"He went to see Shao Ling's group," Ke Xun said. "Let's go down and see how they are doing."
The group came down the stairs and found a group of people standing on the deck outside the main hall, looking down at the sea.
"What's wrong?" The group quickly went over.
"Li Yi fell into the sea," Shao Ling answered
. "I suspect he's in grave danger." "He fell in by accident, or... is it related to last night?" Qin Ci asked.
"I think it's related to last night," Shao Ling stepped aside to make room, revealing a piece of white robe fabric that had been accidentally snagged on the ship's side. "The clothes on the rest of us are all intact, so this must be Li Yi's. It's very likely that he fell into the sea because of a hallucination last night."
"So, we all had hallucinations last night?" Yu Long was clearly also terrified, his voice trembling with shock.
"The dead cannot be brought back, let's hurry and gather clues," Shao Ling said calmly. "Please tell us in detail about your experiences last night. If possible, please be as detailed as possible, as even the smallest detail might be related to the seal."
"Let's talk in the main hall…" Chen Xin'ai was so frightened that she could barely stand and was barely supported by Liu Yanlei.
As everyone walked towards the main hall, Ke Xun went to the stern to find Luo Jin. He found the guy still urinating on the deck, his wet pants already starting to smell.
"Get up," Ke Xun stepped forward and kicked him. "Go to the kitchen and get some water to wipe your butt. Throw away your pants, I'll find you a new one in the lower cabin."
"I really can't get up…" Luo Jin slumped down, rolling like a worm all the way towards the kitchen.
Ke Xun: "…"
When he dragged Luo Jin back to the main hall, everyone sat on the floor mats with solemn expressions, speechless.
Ke Xun pushed Luo Yi aside, sat cross-legged next to Mu Yiran, and asked him, "What did you all talk about just now?"
"After darkness fell last night, Li Yi lit the rhinoceros horn in his hand," Mu Yiran said.
"So, whoever lights the rhinoceros horn will die?" Liu Yanlei's eyes were filled with complex emotions.
"Is that so?" Xue Ge, who had been calm all along, looked up at him. "Do you think last night's hallucinations weren't enough to pose a fatal threat to you?"
Liu Yanlei choked for a moment and fell silent.
"Whether it's true that whoever lights the rhinoceros horn is destined to die is a question we'll analyze later," Shao Ling looked at everyone. "Right now, we need to recount our experiences from last night in detail, and then find commonalities or suspicious points. If you don't mind, I'll go first?"
The newcomers seemed to trust Shao Ling completely, so no one objected. The older members also didn't cause any trouble and all looked at him.
Shao Ling had even prepared blank bamboo slips and a pen to take notes at any time.
"After darkness fell last night, I seemed to be isolated from everyone else by an invisible barrier," Shao Ling said clearly and slowly. "I even suspect that I entered another parallel dimension at that time, because I was right by the door of the central hall, and when I tried to touch the door and the wall next to it, I couldn't touch them no matter what I did. It was as if I was in a black hole in the universe, surrounded by endless, empty darkness. I wonder if any of you felt the same way?"
Everyone nodded or expressed their affirmation.
Shao Ling picked up his pen and wrote the words "I. Isolated, Entering a Parallel Dimension" on the bamboo slip.
This action made him seem even more calm and reliable, and the newcomers' attention became even more focused than before, watching him intently and waiting for him to continue.
"But what happened next, I think, will not be the same for any of us," Shao Ling continued, "because I then had a hallucination. The voice in the hallucination was someone I personally knew. You could not possibly have any connection with this person, so I speculate that perhaps the hallucinations you all had were also people you were familiar with, right?"
Everyone continued to nod or respond.
So Shao Ling wrote another entry on the bamboo slip: "II. Hallucinations, involving acquaintances."
"The person in my hallucination is my friend," Shao Ling continued. "Although I can't see him at all in the darkness, his voice is very distinctive. Even if someone imitates him perfectly, I can still recognize it. And the voice in last night's hallucination was exactly the same as his.
"Of course, under those circumstances last night, I couldn't possibly believe that the voice was his own. He's in S City; he couldn't possibly be in this painting."
"But my resolve didn't last long. 'He' was terrified and panicked, constantly asking me where I was and what was going on. He said he should be sleeping in his bed at home in S City, so why was he here? Why was something so unbelievable, bizarre, and terrifying happening?
"The strange situation he described would have been unbelievable before, but entering the world of the painting completely shattered my materialistic worldview. I began to doubt whether he, like me, had unintentionally entered the world of the painting. So, my original firm belief that 'he' was really my friend began to waver."
"As you may understand, the reason why scammers can fool so many rational, clear-headed, and even highly intelligent and educated people is not because scammers are more intelligent, but because they seize upon that single moment of wavering in people's firm beliefs. Like a tiny crack in a solid wall, scammers are infiltrative, penetrating every crevice, prioritizing psychological manipulation until they eventually collapse the entire wall from within.
"So last night, I was also psychologically manipulated by this scam, almost turning from a 'slight wavering' into complete trust.
"My friend is closer to me than my own sibling; we have a life-or-death bond. Some say that almost all friendships can endure hardship but not wealth, but that's not the case with him and me.
"He can dispose of my property as he pleases; I trust him, just as he trusts me. We have never hidden anything from each other, never avoided anything; our relationship is as close as one person. We would even go through fire and water for each other at a single word."
"So, seeing the fear and helplessness he displayed last night, I couldn't help but waver. I was afraid that if it were true, if he really had been drawn into the painting by that mysterious force, then I absolutely couldn't leave him alone.
"To be on the safe side, I asked him many things that only the two of us knew, even some very small details, and he answered them all perfectly. I was almost completely convinced that he was my friend in person, until he gave himself away on the last question.
"The last question I asked him: If this terrifying world is destined to only one of us survive, do you want to live on yourself, or do you want me to live, or do you want to die here with me?
"His answer was, then I'll die here with you. As I said before, we have a life-or-death bond; we would go through fire and water for each other, even give our lives, so his answer sounded perfectly reasonable."
"But the problem is, if the other person is really him, when I ask this question, he won't just not answer, he'll curse me instead. Between friends, some things don't need to be said aloud. Once the words are spoken, even the heaviest weight becomes as light as a feather.
"Of course, every pair of friends has a different way of getting along, but my friend and I belong to this kind of tacit understanding.
"So I instantly realized that the fear and panic 'he' showed was just a facade to use my concern for my friend to lure me to his side. 'His' ultimate goal is to get me to go there. The sea is just a few meters away. Once I go there, what you'll be looking for in the sea today will probably be the corpses of Li Yi and me."
Shao Ling said, glancing at the expressions on everyone's faces, and nodded slightly: "It seems that everyone's hallucinations last night were similar. You were all almost tricked into falling into the sea. If anyone's experience was different, please point it out."
Everyone shook their heads, and Shao Ling wrote the third point on the bamboo slip: "Three, using an acquaintance to deceive and lure someone into the sea."
He then raised his head and looked at everyone: "Then let me ask you one more question. Did the acquaintances in your hallucinations, like those I encountered, know every detail and nuance of your interactions?"
This time, everyone nodded in unison.
Shao Ling then added a note to the third point: "They have the ability to read memories."
"It seems that Li Yi is the only one who failed to see through the deception," Shao Ling said. "But perhaps his death is related to him lighting the rhinoceros horn. To confirm which of these two possibilities is the direct cause of death, we need to continue to organize everyone's experiences from last night..."
"Excuse me, let me interrupt," Ke Xun raised his hand, meeting Shao Ling's gaze, "Was Li Yi lighting the rhinoceros horn something you had planned beforehand, or was it his own spontaneous act? Also, where is the rhinoceros horn that Li Yi lit?"