A minor internal strife didn't affect Mu Yiran. Seeing Shao Ling momentarily speechless after being silenced by his loyal dog, Mu Yiran quickly picked up where he left off.
"Mr. Shao's question is exactly what I wanted to address. It's about why, after Ke Xun and I were isolated in another space, we could still see and hear you, but couldn't touch you." Mu Yiran's clear eyes gazed at the group before him. "Because, at that time, it wasn't Ke Xun and me in that other space, but rather, you."
The group looked at him with surprise and shock, even Shao Ling looked at him with a puzzled expression.
"Burning the rhinoceros horn can connect the Yin and Yang realms, or rather, 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. But after burning the rhinoceros horn, a spirit appeared to fight the fire. The space where this spirit was located was already the space where Wen Qiao was, which is what we call the Yang realm.
"So, when Ke Xun and I lit the rhinoceros horn to illuminate the pheasant, the ones truly in the Yang realm were me, Ke Xun, and the pheasant. Therefore, given that we cannot touch you, and that the space you are in is the space we have been in since entering the painting, we can deduce…"
Mu Yiran looked at everyone and said, word by word, "From the very beginning of entering the painting, the place we were in was not the Yang realm. We have always lived in another space." "
Everyone was speechless, their jaws dropping.
"I think this is probably the most cunning part of the pheasant," Mu Yiran continued. "From the very beginning, it set up a long-lasting illusionary space for us, and then within this illusion, it created smaller illusionary spaces each night, each lasting only one night. This made us preconceived that the illusions only existed at night, and that once the illusions appeared, we couldn't see, hear, or feel each other.
"This is the biggest trick the pheasant designed—space within space, illusion within illusion. Simply put, what it set up for us was a nested illusionary space. "
Its purpose is twofold: first, to use the embedded illusions each night to lure and kill us; second, to use the embedded illusions to confuse us, preventing us from discovering that there's another layer of illusions on top of this."
"But in our civilization of gods and ghosts, many strange and wondrous things have ways to be broken. And the only thing that can break the pheasant's illusion is probably the rhinoceros horn, which, when lit, can connect the two worlds. Coincidentally, these ships that set sail to seek immortality on the orders of the Qin Emperor carried gifts prepared for the visit and pilgrimage: medicinal herbs, fabrics, books, paintings, documents, jewels, and rare treasures.
"As Luo Jin said earlier, rhinoceros horn was also a very valuable item in that era, which is why it was brought on board as a gift for the visit. It just so happens to be the only item that can break the illusion space.
"Therefore, I believe that the only way to completely escape the illusion space we are in now is to light the rhinoceros horn."
"But we have already lit the rhinoceros horn more than once, and aren't we still in this illusion?" Luo Jin asked.
"So think back, from the beginning, we've only ever lit rhinoceros horns on the ship," Mu Yiran said, taking a rhinoceros horn and walking to the ship's side. "Since this painting is called 'Burning Rhinoceros Horn at Sea,' we should at least use the light from the rhinoceros horn to illuminate the sea."
He then borrowed a flint from Luo Yiran and lit the rhinoceros horn in his hand.
Ke Xun quickly stepped to his side, grasping his arm with one hand, and the others also hurried to the ship's side. Using the light from the rhinoceros horn in Mu Yiran's hand, they all looked down at the dark sea below.
The rhinoceros horn was held high above the sea, and the light that fell on the surface was strangely refracted by the waves and scattered in all directions. The dark, dense color of the sea, which was scattered by the light, seemed to be absorbed, gradually becoming clear and transparent.
Then, to everyone's astonishment, they saw several stars appear beneath the surface of the sea, and there seemed to be clouds floating faintly. Beneath the starry sky and floating clouds, there seemed to be another vast, deep blue sea, its waves gently surging.
"This is..." Wei Dong leaned forward, peering intently into the sea, then looked at everyone in surprise, "If I'm not mistaken, there seems to be another sky and sea beneath this sea?!"
"Could it be another space beneath the sea?" Qin Ci asked Mu Yiran.
Mu Yiran looked at everyone and calmly said, "Personally, I believe that the space below is the real way out. Therefore, we must go into the sea."
"Please wait a moment," Shao Ling finally spoke again, "If the space below is the Yang Realm, then what about what you just said, that you and Ke Xun were in the true Yang Realm after lighting the rhinoceros horn and seeing the pheasant? At that time, you should still be on this ship, right? What does that have to do with the space below?"
Mu Yiran looked at him: "What I said earlier is that this is a nested illusionary space. Inside a large illusionary space are several smaller illusionary spaces, and outside this large illusionary space, there may be an even larger space. This space is the Yang Realm."
Shao Ling was stunned, clearly his thinking was a step slower than Mu Yiran's.
"To put it bluntly, all illusions are actually built within the Yang Realm, so when Ke Xun and I lit the rhinoceros horn, although our location didn't change, we were actually already in the Yang Realm," Mu Yiran said.
"Then why don't we just light the rhinoceros horn and return to the mortal realm? Why go back to the sea?" Shao Ling asked.
"Returning to the mortal realm isn't the goal. Finding the seal and returning to the real world is." This time, it was Ke Xun who answered him.
Shao Ling, still unwilling to give up, asked again, "If the solution to this painting is really as simple as just using the rhinoceros horn to illuminate the sea, isn't Zhi worried that we'll use the rhinoceros horn to illuminate the sea on the first night?"
"The rhinoceros horn was initially placed under the floorboards of the captain's cabin along with several boxes of bamboo slips," this time it was Zhu Haowen who answered him. "If those of us who entered the painting don't connect it to the burning of the rhinoceros horn at Niuzhu, we will never use the rhinoceros horn to illuminate the sea, so we will face certain death.
"But if we can connect it to the burning of the rhinoceros horn to illuminate the monster, we will be like us on the first day, worried that burning the rhinoceros horn will bring about our deaths. After all, Wen Qiao used the rhinoceros horn to illuminate the sea, and he died, so he won't easily use the rhinoceros horn to illuminate the sea."
"Even if we were all incredibly brave and dared to use the 'Burning Rhinoceros to Illuminate the Sea' on the very first night, without experiencing five nights of hallucinations and the deaths of members, how could we be sure that the underwater scenes we saw upon entering the painting weren't a trap? You still don't dare enter the sea now, let alone us, who were completely bewildered on our first day.
Furthermore, Ke Xun said that before killing the pheasant, there were strange sounds in the sea. These sounds were likely auditory hallucinations created by the pheasant to prevent us from entering the sea and finding the real way out. Hearing these sounds, who would dare enter the sea?"
"So there's nothing to worry about with this setup. It's designed to use people's emotions and psychology to create illusions and traps, and it must have a good grasp of our minds. Even if we're lucky enough to ignite the rhinoceros and illuminate the sea on the first day, and boldly jump into the sea to find a way out, ultimately leaving the painting unharmed, it's not surprising. The painting doesn't seem to stipulate that thirteen people can't enter and thirteen can't leave."
Shao Ling didn't speak again, but the older members could tell that his paranoia had returned, and he was clearly hesitant about whether going into the sea was the right thing to do.
"There's no time to waste," Ke Xun began to take off his clothes. "We need to dive down to that space before the voting ends, and find the seal there."
The others didn't think much of it and followed suit, taking off their cumbersome robes. Even the usually calm and reserved Qin Ci was taking off his clothes with great enthusiasm…
Shao Ling frowned as he looked at the group.
These guys… young and old alike were so willful; this team's behavior seemed completely skewed…
He was still hesitating when Ke Xun called Wei Dong and Luo Jin over and started tearing at his clothes. Shao Ling struggled, but he was no match for the three. Frankly, Ke Xun could have easily dealt with him alone; he only called Wei Dong and Luo Jin to save time.
"What are you still thinking about?" he heard Ke Xun say as he stripped him. "You've been in this illusion for five days. Have you figured out a way out? Now that we're all gone and you're alone, do you think you can find a way out? Choose the longest of the three short ones—that's the last choice. Hurry up and follow us!"
Shao Ling: "…" What the hell is "choose the longest of the three short ones"? What does it have to do with jumping into the sea?! Whose lewd hands are touching my private parts?! Stop! You can't pull down my underwear!
Shao Ling was so flustered and disoriented by these three that he was shoved haphazardly to the ship's side.
He glanced at Mu Yiran and noticed his clothes were intact. He quickly said, "He hasn't even..."
Before he could finish the word "take off," Ke Xun shoved a rhinoceros horn into his mouth: "Use it in your mouth when we go into the sea, and use your hands to paddle."
"Huh?!" Shao Ling looked at him in surprise.
The answer came from the perfectly dressed Mu Yiran: "We need to burn the rhinoceros horn underwater to use its light to get to that space."
"Huh?" Shao Ling was so surprised he forgot to take the horn out of his mouth before asking again.
The clever and impeccably dressed Mu Yiran understood his question perfectly: "Since this painting is full of mystical elements, then we should view everything in it with a mystical perspective—here I also need to reflect on myself. As a modern person, I'm not used to using divergent thinking to consider mystical things. So, my previous thoughts were confined by 'burning rhinoceros,' focusing only on the word 'burning,' without delving deeper into the nature of 'rhinoceros.' It was only after shining the rhinoceros horn over the sea that I suddenly remembered a seemingly plausible, legendary saying about 'rhinoceros.
' Ancient legends say that rhinoceroses are spiritual beasts living in the sea, and their horns can repel water, hence they are also called 'water-repelling rhinoceroses.' I vaguely remember a few lines from a book, recorded in the *Compendium of Materia Medica*: 'The horn of the rhinoceros that reaches the heavens, after a thousand years… can exhale breath that reaches the heavens, thus enabling communication with gods, breaking through water, and frightening chickens.'"
"I remember these details in fragments, all broken into sentences, so I didn't connect them to rhinoceros horns before. Now that I think about it, the so-called 'horn on the brain marrow of the one who reaches the heavens' should refer to a rhinoceros, and breaking through water means avoiding water. So, I think if we burn rhinoceros horns underwater, the light shouldn't go out."
Shao Ling was speechless.
There were only six rhinoceros horns left, not enough for seven people to have one each, so Mu Yiran asked, "Is there anyone who can't swim?"
"I'm not a very good swimmer," Zhu Haowen said.
"I… I feel weak, I'm afraid I won't have the strength to swim after going into the sea…" Luo Cheng raised his hand tremblingly.
Seeing this, Ke Xun pointed at Zhu Haowen: "After going into the sea, I'll take…"
"You take Luo Cheng," Mu Yiran interjected calmly, "I'll take Haowen and share one rhinoceros horn. Doctor Qin, Wei Dong, and Shao Ling, the three of you should look after each other."
Everyone responded, and Ke Xun also obediently said "Oh."
Without delay, everyone lit the rhinoceros horns. Mu Yiran and Zhu Haowen were the first to leap into the sea, followed by the others.
Shao Ling was about to stop them and remind them, "You've used up all the rhinoceros horns. If you don't succeed this time, it's like cutting off your own esca
pe route. You'll never be able to leave again!"—when someone kicked him from behind, sending him crashing into the sea.