As far as the eye could see, the field was littered with corpses.
The group couldn't count how many lay silently on the desolate, cold sand and withered grass—rotting bodies, mangled limbs, stark white bones, fur fluttering in the wind. Corpses littered
the field, a scene of utter death; it was like a graveyard for the living.
The group remained silent for a long time. The vast, desolate mountains and the earth were as silent as the land itself. Under the heavy, dark night sky, this graveyard was quieter than the people, the mountains, and the earth. The countless unseeing eyes of these dead seemed to be silently staring back at the group, or perhaps telling of the terror they had experienced before their deaths that had haunted their souls.
"This…" Ke Xun finally spoke, his voice slightly hoarse. He had to clear his throat. "This is the Gate of Hell?"
"Then where is the gate?" Zhu Haowen moved the flashlight beam away from the ground and shone it towards the distant mountains.
Because of the fox carcass he had just seen, which had been rotting for a long time, he suspected its eyes had moved slightly.
The group searched the area again, but found no trace of the so-called "Gates of Hell." All they saw were corpses strewn across the ground and a cluster of jagged rocks in the distance.
"Are we staying here tonight?" Shao Ling asked Mu Yiran.
"We can't go back the way we came," Zhu Haowen said. "This should be the place the painting indicated we were coming from."
Mu Yiran nodded slightly: "Yes, this should be our destination, so we'll stay here tonight."
Shao Ling glanced around and pursed his lips.
Spending the night surrounded by hundreds, even thousands, of corpses was a truly unpleasant experience.
As if understanding Shao Ling's thoughts, Mu Yiran added, "Let's drive to that rocky area; there seem to be fewer corpses there."
The three cars carefully circled the bodies on the ground and slowly drove to the massive rock formation. This rock was several stories high, roughly the size of four basketball courts, with jagged, mottled walls, yet its overall shape was straight up and down, appearing from a distance like a square platform abruptly standing on the plain.
"A sky burial platform?" Ke Xun stood at the foot of the rock, looking up at it.
"You...you're scaring me..." Wu You clutched her chest.
Everyone got out of the cars and began searching around the rocky platform.
"If it's a sky burial platform, there's nothing surprising," Wei Dong said. "It just means this is another hint from the painting 'Faith.' I just hope we don't die as miserably as those in the painting."
Ke Xun was about to speak when Luo Tan sidled up to him: "Brother… come with me to pee… I'm too scared to go by myself."
Ke Xun: "…"
After greeting everyone, the two walked a short distance away until they could barely see the people by the rocks before stopping, turning their backs to each other.
Luo Tan sighed: "I was about to burst! I've been holding it in for at least two hours, I almost had a stroke. Brother, do you think this will affect some kind of ability of mine?" Ke Xun
: "…You still have the mind to worry about this right now?"
Luo Tan: "I'm just having fun in my fear."
Ke Xun: "When it comes to being fearless, I only admire you. Are you done peeing? Let's go."
The two cleaned up and walked back, Ke Xun scanning the corpses near and far with his flashlight as they walked.
Luo Tan: "...Brother, I think you're more carefree than me. What's so interesting about these corpses? You even used stage lighting effects to illuminate them, are you trying to make them 'fuck you and party'?"
Ke Xun: "......"
"You can shut up now," Ke Xun pointed to the rocks in front of him, "You go back first, I'll look around here."
"Brother!" Luo Tan looked at him in shock, "You're too brave! You?! Looking among these corpses by yourself?!"
"Stop talking nonsense, either you come with me, or you go back first, I'll wander around here." Ke Xun waved him away impatiently.
"What if there's danger?!" Luo Tan was worried.
"Didn't you see your brother-in-law watching this place from afar?" Ke Xun pointed with his chin to Mu Yiran, who was standing far away by the rocks looking this way, "If there's danger here, your brother-in-law will be the first to notice, you'd better go back quickly."
Luo Tan had no choice but to run back to the rocks.
Ke Xun didn't wander aimlessly. He simply used his flashlight to circle the rock face, using the distance as a radius and the rock as a center, before returning to his companions.
"Any findings?" Mu Yiran asked, his hand resting at his side as he gently put the safety back on his pistol.
Ke Xun walked over, took his hand, and gently rubbed it, as if to help him relax. He replied, "Indeed, there's a very surprising discovery—see? All these corpses, their heads are all pointing towards this rocky platform."
This statement indeed startled everyone. They shone their flashlights again on the scattered corpses, confirming Ke Xun's discovery—all these haphazardly scattered corpses, whether beasts or birds, large or small, carrion or skeletons, their heads were like magnets, all pointing towards the rocky platform beside them.
Even the not-yet-completely-decomposed corpses had their wide-open eyes fixed on the same direction, the same target.
Silent mountains, desolate wilderness, deathly still night. Hundreds upon hundreds of corpses in various shapes and sizes faced the abruptly rising, square rock platform. An eerie and tense atmosphere suddenly permeated the air, enveloping the thirteen people who had been drawn into the painting and everything before them.
"There's something strange about the rock platform," Qin Ci whispered.
"Is it above or below?" Zhu Haowen asked.
For the time being, no one knew the answer.
"Then, what should we do now?" Li Xiaochun asked nervously in a trembling voice.
"I suggest we don't act rashly yet," Shao Ling said cautiously. "There are still a few hours until dawn. We should explore this rock platform carefully during the day."
Everyone agreed with Shao Ling's suggestion, and they returned to their vehicles, ensuring that one person in each vehicle remained awake to keep watch at all times.
Several people slept soundly that night. As dawn broke, Ke Xun's voice boomed through the car: "Holy crap! Where are the rocks?!"
Everyone looked out the windows, only to find that the rocky platform that had stood not far from the car the night before had vanished into thin air! The spot where it had stood was now a gravelly wasteland.
Ke Xun jumped out of the car, looked around, and was even more astonished: "Holy crap—where are the animal carcasses?!"
All he could see was desolate gravel and withered grass; there was no sign of the carcasses that had littered the ground the night before.
"Was what we saw last night all an illusion?" Wei Dong, equally astonished, walked over and looked around.
"When did this illusion disappear?" Ke Xun turned to his companions, who were jumping out of the car, "Who was on the last night shift? Didn't anyone notice the rocks had disappeared?"
"Fog rose in the valley before dawn," Shao Ling said. "I was on the last shift. The fog was very thick, and visibility was only about two or three meters. For safety reasons, I didn't get out of the car to check, and I didn't expect the rocks to disappear. I think the rocks and the corpses probably disappeared in the fog, that is, before dawn. Illusions probably only appear at night."
"I don't think it was an illusion," Mu Yiran said. "Or to be more precise, it wasn't a phantom. Because last night I touched the surface of the rocks with my own hands. It didn't seem like an illusion or a fake. It had substance, and the texture was exactly the same as real rocks."
"Yiran is right," Qin Ci continued. "Last night I also observed a wild yak carcass up close. Although it had no vital signs, whether it was its exposed internal organs, its delicate connective tissue, or the details of its bones, skin, pupils, etc., it was a real 'living entity,' a tangible thing."
"Then, then why did they all disappear into thin air?" Li Xiaochun scratched his head.
"I have a guess," Mu Yiran met everyone's gaze, "I think perhaps what appeared in this canyon last night was a scenario from another world."
This guess stunned everyone on the spot.
"From a metaphysical perspective," Mu Yiran continued without giving everyone time to process their emotions, "this place belongs to the ancient Kunlun region described in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. Kunlun Mountain, the ancestor of all mountains, is a place where the spiritual energy of heaven and earth gathers. It is also known as the Valley of Death and the Gate of Hell in modern times. Both spiritual energy and yin energy reached their peak last night in this place, which may have triggered or revealed a corner of another world.
"And from a scientific perspective, the abnormal magnetic field of the rocks in the valley, and the intense and extreme storm last night, may have caused spatial distortion, intersection, superposition, or even displacement. If we understand our world and another world as the coexistence of multiple universes, then this kind of brief 'time travel' phenomenon is not impossible."
"Analyzing this using the clues from Schrödinger's Cat, our world is likely in a superposition with another world. When we 'observe' it, it collapses into the other world.
I have a preliminary guess: perhaps our next action requires an act of 'observation' to open the entrance to that other world." "
…That makes sense." After a moment, everyone finally recovered. Last night's experience of 'accidentally' being in another world left them with a belated sense of dread.
"Brother Qin, Xiaochun, Sister Cen, Qingqing, you four stay," Ke Xun immediately arranged. "Qingqing, help Xiaochun make breakfast. Sister Cen, get your gun and keep an eye on the surroundings. Brother Qin, stand guard on the roof of the car and keep an eye on the others. The rest of you, split into groups and check out in four different directions. Everyone carry your bags and guns, don't go too far, and make sure you can always see our car. If Brother Qin notices anyone is in trouble, immediately use the flare gun to notify everyone." "
Saying this, he went to the trunk to retrieve the signal gun and binoculars that Mu Yiran had brought and handed them to Qin Ci.
The members, who had already gone through many life-and-death situations together, were already in perfect sync. While Ke Xun was giving instructions, everyone began to prepare. After quickly dividing into groups, each group chose a direction and cautiously headed out into the distance.
Half an hour later, several groups returned, all empty-handed.
"There's nothing but sand, gravel, withered grass, and a few animal carcasses," Shao Ling said. "And these animal carcasses weren't all facing the direction of the rock platform from last night; they looked like they died in a very 'normal' state."
The other groups found the same thing.
"I think we probably won't find anything during the day," Zhu Haowen said. "The 'overlapping world' only appears at night, so all our actions can only be carried out at night." "
Everyone agreed, so the daytime operation was called off. They had a quick breakfast prepared by Li Xiaochun, then began unloading camping gear from the vehicle. The men pitched four medium-sized tents and one large tent; the medium-sized tents were for individual rest, and the large tent was for everyone to gather for meetings.
The women were responsible for laying out blankets and distributing sleeping bags to each tent. Finally, they piled up the collected dry grass and lit a small fire to boil water.
'Looks like we'll just have to wait until nightfall,' Wei Dong said, turning his head towards the rising sun. The blinding white light seemed like a sharp blade, slicing through the cold morning air, giving one the unsettling feeling of being cut a thousand times and stabbed by icicles.
'After drinking the hot water, everyone should go to their tents and catch up on sleep,' Ke Xun said. 'Nobody slept well last night. We need to be well-rested during the day so we'll have the energy to cope at night.'" "Let's arrange shifts, two people per shift, rotating every three hours. Dongzi and I will be on the first shift, Yiran and Luobo on the second, and after lunch, General Manager Shao and Xiaochun on the third, Haowen and Brother Qin on the fourth. Director Hua and the ladies don't need to be on duty; they can all take a beauty nap."
Director Hua: "..."
"Let's help with the cooking," Wu You said. "Although we don't dare to handle guns, we can handle kitchen knives without a problem. We'll make sure everyone has enough meat for every meal!"
"Okay, food is the second most important thing after life and death. We'll leave it to you." Ke Xun smiled.
Wu You looked at the boxes of ingredients on the ground and sighed inwardly.
Who knows how many more meals they'll survive?