Ke Xun crouched down beside the dead pheasant. Opposite him were Zhu Haowen, Shao Ling, and Qin Ci, who were also crouching there, carefully observing the pheasant.
Ke Xun nudged the pheasant's carcass. Zhu Haowen, Shao Ling, and Qin Ci, seeing the carcass suddenly sway, jumped up in surprise and cautiously took a few steps back, staring at it.
—It worked!
Ke Xun saw hope and instantly perked up. He grabbed the pheasant's carcass, twisted its legs, and slammed it onto the deck in a split position.
Mu Yiran: "..."
Zhu Haowen: "..."
Qin Ci: "..."
Shao Ling: "..."
Luo Yiyuan: "..."
"...It seems like an unseen force is manipulating it," Shao Ling said hesitantly.
"...Could it be one of those unseen things in the sea?" Qin Ci guessed uncertainly.
"Would those things be this silly?" Zhu Haowen pointed with his chin at the dead pheasant's perfect split position.
Qin Ci and Shao Ling exchanged a glance, seeing disbelief and hope in each other's eyes.
The three stared at the dead pheasant, unsure how to react.
Ke Xun, not wanting to waste time, dipped his finger in the blood flowing from the pheasant's head and began writing on the deck.
However, the deck was too dark, and after writing a few words, he realized the three hadn't noticed. He stopped, thought for a moment, then plucked several of the pheasant's long tail feathers and tucked one behind each of his ears.
Zhu Haowen, observing the height and distance between the two feathers, suddenly spoke: "Ke Xun, is that you?"
Ke Xun nodded quickly, the two feathers swaying back and forth with his head.
"It really is you, Xiao Ke?!" Even the usually composed Qin Ci showed a rare expression of joy. "Where's Xiao Mu?"
Ke Xun plucked a feather from behind his ear and pointed the pointed tip to where Mu Yiran was standing.
"What happened?" Shao Ling asked. "Can you speak?"
Ke Xun shook his head.
"Then, how about writing? Should I go get the bamboo slips and ink?" Shao Ling said.
Ke Xun shook his head, pointed a feather at the dead pheasant on the ground, then pinched the feather, dipped it in the pheasant's blood, and scribbled it a few times on the deck.
Zhu Haowen shone his phone's light on the deck and saw what appeared to be some bloodstains. He said, "I can't see clearly, wait a moment." He
then tore off most of the hem of his white robe and spread it on the deck: "Write it here."
Ke Xun dipped the feather in blood, and when the blood-stained feather touched the white robe, the robe no longer turned into ripples. He wrote: "Burning the rhinoceros horn."
"Does it mean we should burn the rhinoceros horn?" Zhu Haowen asked.
Ke Xun drew a checkmark on the cloth.
Shao Ling immediately turned to go to the central hall to get the rhinoceros horn, Qin Ci went to wake up the unconscious Wei Dong, and Luo Yi shuffled over step by step, staring into the void and asking, "Brother, are you invisible?"
"..." Ke Xun wrote on the cloth: (-_-).
Zhu Haowen: "..."
Luo Yi: "What time is it for you to still be using emojis? Dong-ge is crying his eyes out. What happened to you and my brother-in-law? Why can't we see you? Are you alright? Did you find the seal? You, you're not going to become invisible from now on, are you?"
"This guy talks too much." Ke Xun was annoyed and wrote on the cloth: shat up!
Luo Yi: "Brother, you misspelled 'shut'."
Ke Xun: "..."
Zhu Haowen: "..."
Shao Ling brought all the rhinoceros horns onto the deck. Wei Dong also returned with Qin Ci, his eyes swollen. Shao Ling asked Ke Xun: "Should we light them with our phones or do we light them ourselves?"
"Phone." Ke Xun wrote, "Light one first, to test it."
Everyone understood what he meant; he wanted to light one first to test it. As for what they would test, it was still unclear.
Shao Ling was about to take out his phone when Zhu Haowen beat him to it, almost impatiently using his own phone to ignite the rhinoceros horn.
Bright light illuminated a small area around them. The group, standing cautiously outside the light, all looked towards the location where the two feathers floated. From the interplay of light and shadow, two tall, slender figures slowly emerged – Ke Xun and Mu Yiran.
"Ke'er!" Wei Dong roared, rushing forward to embrace his long-lost brother.
Ke Xun hugged him tightly for a moment, then pushed him away: "You've got your snot all over my face! Let's get down to business first—wait." He strode over, first touching the unlit rhinoceros horn in Shao Ling's arms, finding that he could finally touch people and objects. To confirm, he picked up the bamboo slips lying on the ground. "Alright, you're back!"
"What happened? Is it related to killing the pheasant?" Shao Ling asked Mu Yiran.
Mu Yiran quickly and briefly explained the situation to the group, then said, "Hurry up and try to find the seal before dawn."
Everyone understood the meaning behind his words—no one had died tonight, and if the seal wasn't found before dawn, there would be a vote.
Shao Ling asked Mu Yiran and Ke Xun, "So, you two didn't see any illusions just now?"
Mu Yiran replied, "I speculate that only those illuminated by the rhinoceros horn's light were unaffected by the illusions and could see the pheasant."
Shao Ling said, "Then what happened to Li Yi, who died on the first night, Xue Ge, who died on the third night, and Fang Fei, who died on the fourth night, if they didn't see any illusions either?"
"Could it be that the pheasant attacked them?" Qin Ci guessed.
"I don't think this thing can kill a person with a single blow," Ke Xun glanced at the pheasant's corpse on the deck. "If it could kill people with its attacks, what would be the point of illusions? Even if it were an illusion, it could only lure us into the sea; it couldn't actively come up and forcibly change our course of action."
Mu Yiran continued, "Li Yi, Xue Ge, and Fang Fei, when they lit the rhinoceros horn, they probably didn't see the illusions, just like Ke Xun and I, but they did see the pheasant. Fang Fei's ability to shoot the pheasant's tail feathers is an example.
"Since we've concluded that the pheasant can't attack people with its physical form, I think there are probably two reasons why these three died. The first is that these three, like Ke Xun and me, were isolated in another space and couldn't return to the world we're in now, so they lost their lives in some way just before dawn."
"The second possibility is that we should refer to the story of the burning rhinoceros horn at Niuzhu. In the story, Wen Qiao lit the rhinoceros horn, which attracted a sea monster to leap out of the sea and extinguish the fire. The mirage comes from the sea and lands on the ship, transforming into a pheasant. Could we speculate that although these three people were not affected by the illusion when they first lit the rhinoceros horn, the pheasant extinguished the fire? Although the pheasant cannot attack us, the story of the burning rhinoceros horn at Niuzhu proves that it can extinguish the fire. After extinguishing the fire, it could then cast the illusion on these three people again. Therefore, it is very likely that these three people still died from the illusion."
Everyone nodded in agreement after hearing Mu Yiran's analysis.
"So, what do you think caused you and Mr. Ke to be isolated in another dimension?" Shao Ling asked. "After you killed the pheasant, you were still in another dimension, so it shouldn't have been the pheasant's doing. Then who, or what, did it?"
"—Could there be other strange things in the sea besides the pheasant?" Wei Dong shuddered, and Luo Xun beside him shuddered as well.
"Before killing the pheasant, I did hear many other strange sounds in the sea," Ke Xun said.
"So…we have to wipe out everything in the sea to find clues?" Wei Dong and Luo Xun looked despairing.
Mu Yiran lowered her eyes in thought, then looked up at everyone after a moment: "In fact, after darkness falls every night, we are all actually in another dimension, aren't we?"
Everyone's gazes froze, as if they had grasped a key point, but couldn't quite put their finger on it.
Fortunately, they had Mu Yiran.
"To be more precise, each of us exists in a different space," Mu Yiran continued in a deep and clear voice. "It's not just one alternate space, but several different alternate spaces. Zhi uses these alternate spaces to separate us, and then uses the illusions it creates to lure and kill us. So here's the question: if Zhi created the alternate spaces, why did the alternate space separating me and Ke Xun still exist after we killed it? If Zhi didn't create the alternate spaces, why can it use them to separate us at will?"
"Are there other ghostly things in the sea working with it at all times?" Wei Dong guessed.
"Or, the spaces it creates don't disappear with its death, but can still continue to exist?" Zhu Haowen said.
Mu Yiran looked at him and said, "We previously deduced that the illusions we experience every night are formed from mirage energy. Since mirage energy is the condensed energy of a thousand-year-old spirit, it cannot dissipate so easily, so it can persist for a period of time. I think this is correct." "
So you mean that the space we were isolated in when we experienced the illusions, as well as the space you and Ke Xun were isolated in after killing the pheasant, were all created by the pheasant?" Shao Ling looked at Mu Yiran. "But there is something I need to remind Mr. Mu. When we experienced the illusions, we could not see, hear, or feel each other in the isolated space. But according to your description of you and Mr. Ke, you could see and hear the space we were in. How do you explain this?"
Mu Yiran was about to speak when Ke Xun suddenly said, "Shao Ling, are you doubting me and Yiran?"
Everyone fell silent upon hearing this and looked at Shao Ling and Ke Xun.
Shao Ling's expression remained unchanged as he calmly looked at Ke Xun: "Yes, I'm truly sorry to say this, but given the nature of the death rules in this painting, it's hard for me not to suspect that you two are manifestations of an upgraded illusion. After all, it's not dawn yet, and this night isn't over. Isn't it?"
Ke Xun chuckled speechlessly: "You know, you're too clever for your own good."
Shao Ling remained unmoved, still calm and composed: "I'm not smarter than anyone else, I'm just more cautious."
"Quite interesting," Ke Xun looked into his eyes with a half-smile, "Someone as cautious as you would be hard to trust completely, so I'm curious how you manage to have a friend you can completely trust and entrust your life to. Mr. Shao, forgive my wild guess: after the first night, the illusions you described to us were probably fabricated, weren't they? You don't actually have such a friend. The reason you made up such a person was simply to portray yourself as very loyal, thereby gaining the trust of us—especially those who have just entered the painting and don't yet have a leader." "The trust of the newcomers. Let me guess one more thing—you're actually a very controlling person, aren't you? You don't like being controlled, and obviously, we old members can't obey you, so you need to control the newcomers and make them do what you say. Of course, that doesn't mean you're a bad person; controlling people are everywhere. But I advise you, caution is good, but too much caution becomes paranoia. Not only will you have no friends, but you'll also easily make mistakes, really."
Shao Ling didn't speak this time; his tightly pursed lips showed that his mood was not as calm as his expression suggested.
Wei Dong quietly asked Ke Xun, "How do you know his first night's experience was fabricated?"
Ke Xun gave a light snort, "You forgot? The hallucinations each night are themed around the seven emotions. The first night's theme was 'love,' but we didn't guess that at the time, so he made up a story about a friend. After a few nights, he finally deduced that the hallucinations were themed around the seven emotions. By then, he couldn't change his story. Fortunately, no one paid any more attention to it—whose 'love' would be with their friend? He's not gay!"
Wei Dong looked at him, "Spending so much time with the big boss has rapidly improved your intellectual combat power, you're r
eally something!"
Ke Xun glanced at Shao Ling, "You can doubt me. But you can't doubt my boss who's been working so hard to find a way out for everyone."