After Wei Dong pieced together the three sets of images (B, C, and D), he placed them together with the images from the rock face on side A and projected them back onto the screen.
Perhaps Wei Dong had processed these symbols too cleanly and clearly; the absence of noise and imperfections, projected onto the snow-white screen, created a stark black-and-white contrast that was almost glaring. This made the densely packed black symbols appear rigid and eerie, like thousands of zombies frozen in time, as if the apocalypse had suddenly descended upon their world, and they hadn't even had time to react before being buried deep underground in that pose.
The indescribable emotions he had felt upon seeing the rock paintings on side A were amplified once more, permeating the entire tent through the images on the screen.
Everyone remained silent, bewildered, and inexplicably sorrowful.
This emotion was thick with sorrow, misery, oppression, despair, and fear; it was as if all the negative emotions a human being could possess were intertwined, heavy and suffocating their hearts.
Wu You and Gu Qingqing suddenly burst into tears. Li Xiaochun, after tearing his hair into a mess, got up and rushed out of the tent, screaming, "I fucking don't want to live anymore!"
Mu Yiran reacted quickly, not having time to get up and chase after him. He swept out with a long leg, tripping Li Xiaochun and sending him flying to the ground. Ke Xun reacted even faster, immediately shouting, "Stop looking!" He snatched the mouse from Wei Dong's hand and shut down the image.
Everyone snapped out of their daze, immediately breaking out in a cold sweat, looking at each other, panting, the depression and despair still lingering on their faces.
"…This picture is too…too eerie…" Wei Dong clutched his chest, still shaken, wiping the cold sweat that had instantly covered his forehead. "I almost followed in Xiao Chun's footsteps just now. I just wanted to run out and shoot myself!"
"These four images together…have a bewitching power," Shao Ling's breathing was also heavy, his usually meticulously combed hair now disheveled. "While I was staring at them, I went through almost everything I've ever experienced in my life, and the worst things I feared most."
"Yes, all these things flooding into your mind at the same time is hard for the mind to bear." Yue Cen's face also carried a hint of melancholy. "It makes you feel hopeless, and that death is better than life."
"I was so upset just now…" Wu You wiped away her tears, still unable to stop crying. "So many sad things appeared so vividly in my mind, I felt like I couldn't breathe…"
"Luckily, Xiao Ke shouted that," Qin Ci pinched his brow. "These pictures are too distracting; we shouldn't look at them any longer. Everyone, take a break. I'll go get some calming medicine."
Li Xiaochun lay on the ground, unable to get up for a long time. As Qin Ci walked past him, he assumed Li Xiaochun was still immersed in that extremely depressed and painful mood and bent down to ask with concern, "Do you want me to give you an injection?"
"No...no need," Li Xiaochun's voice was full of pain. "Brother Qin, can you take a look at my knee...I think Brother Mu's kick just now sent my knee flying out of the flesh..." Qin
Ci: "..."
Mu Yiran: "..."
The group lifted the tent flap, letting the desolate and vast scenery outside dispel the oppressive and suffocating atmosphere. Three or four people simply crawled out of the tent and stood outside to get some fresh air and feel the cold wind.
"This won't work," Shao Ling said. "We need to observe these symbols to find clues, but the current situation is that once we get absorbed in them, we'll be bewitched by their power and develop strong suicidal thoughts."
"But when we looked at the rock paintings on side A alone, although we felt a little uncomfortable, it wasn't this severe," Zhu Haowen said. "Perhaps the bewitching power will be doubled if these four paintings are placed together. I think we should look at them one by one."
Hua Jiqiu looked at everyone in the tent and said, "Let's stop here for today. Everyone's emotions are still a bit unstable. Let's not take the risk. Everyone has worked very hard these past few days. Now that all the symbols have been sorted out, there's no need to rush. Let's get a good rest tonight and recharge our energy. Tomorrow we can concentrate on solving all the mysteries of the rock paintings."
Everyone agreed to this suggestion. The hard work of working day and night these past few days had left everyone exhausted. Qin Ci believed that this was one of the main reasons why the bewitching power could easily invade their minds.
Everyone packed up and dispersed, returning to their tents to rest.
Ke Xun was awakened in the middle of the night by the howling wind outside his tent. He got up quietly and peeked out through a crack in the door.
The enormous, powerful tornado column stretched all the way into the night sky, seemingly several times larger than the wind columns he had seen in the previous nights, with an almost overwhelming force.
Ke Xun looked into the distance, and what he saw made his heart pound with fear.
There were more tornado columns than in the previous nights! Before, there were only four or five, seven or eight, but now, they were densely packed—stretching from his eyes to the horizon, covering the entire landscape!
It was like the countless bloody threads of flesh clinging to the skin after someone had been skinned alive. However, unlike that, the situation before him was reversed. These bloody threads of flesh-like tornadoes seemed to be trying to firmly suck up the skin-like sky and the flesh-like earth, to stick them together again, to make them one again.
Ke Xun felt a chill run down his spine from the inexplicable thoughts surging in his mind. He rubbed his arms and was about to pull the tent shut again when he saw the tent where the girls were suddenly pulled open from the inside. Wu You walked out, trembling.
She seemed to be going to relieve herself and headed off in a slightly distant direction with a flashlight.
Ke Xun was worried about her and quickly crawled out of the tent, catching up with her in a few steps. He called out to her in a low voice, "Wu You, I'll go with you."
Wu You turned to look at him, feeling both embarrassed and happy. But the moment she saw his face, her expression changed drastically, and she screamed uncontrollably, "Ah—!"
Ke Xun was startled and quickly turned to look behind him, thinking she had seen something behind him. But all he saw were everyone's tents and the distant column of the tornado; he didn't see anything terrifying.
"Don't be afraid, it's me," Ke Xun stopped, afraid of making Wu You even more nervous, and made a pressing gesture with his hands. "What's wrong?"
Wu You not only raised his hand to cover his eyes, but also turned his head away forcefully, and said in a trembling voice, "You…your face…"
Ke Xun subconsciously touched his face. His skin was still smooth, and his features were still regular. He also touched the top of his head, but there were no strange things like horns growing there. He couldn't help but wonder, "What's wrong with my face? Is it because I'm more handsome than yesterday that you can't look me in the eye?"
"…" Wu You lowered his hand, thinking that Ke Xun really had a talent for making people relax. He took two deep breaths to calm himself down before speaking again, "Handsome guy, you have…bone structure on your face."
"What?!" This time it was Ke Xun's turn to be surprised. He asked while taking his phone out of his pocket, opened the mirror function and looked at his face, "…There's nothing there, still just a pretty boy."
"..." Wu You mustered her courage and turned back to look at him quickly again, then shuddered and quickly turned her head away again, "Yes! It's on the face! It's all dark bone structure patterns!"
Ke Xun looked at his phone carefully again, but still couldn't find any patterns on the face, so he put his hand down, thought for a moment, and said, "Right, didn't you open that 'Heavenly Eye'? You can see the patterns on our bones."
"It's not like that," Wu You shook her head. "Using the method my great-grandmother taught me requires following the incantation, circulating your qi, concentrating your mind, and then focusing your will. This process takes time. But now, I only need to look at you as usual, and I can see the bone structure on your face!"
"Congratulations on your great improvement in skill; you can graduate now." Ke Xun cupped his hands in greeting.
Wu You knew he was joking to put her at ease. She suddenly realized that her avoidance and avoidance of him was actually making him uncomfortable. She quickly turned around, looked up at him, and forced a smile. Just as she was about to speak, she saw her other companions emerging from the tent behind them—they must have heard her scream.
Wu You felt a chill run down her spine and almost turned away again—her companions, all of them, had those bone structure patterns appearing on their faces!
She didn't think it was a sudden, explosive improvement in her own skill; it must be a qualitative change in everyone's bone structure!
Thinking this, she took out her phone and shone it on herself.
Sure enough, she was the same; those dense, intricate bone patterns were faintly visible on her face.
But why was that? Why could only she see them, while everyone else couldn't?
"After all, your eyes are different from ordinary people," Shao Ling said after hearing Wu You's description, as the crowd who had come out to see what was going on.
"But why wasn't it like this before? Why is it suddenly like this tonight?" Wu You was still uneasy.
"Perhaps it's because we've organized all the symbols," Zhu Haowen pondered. "I remember you said that Great-Grandma's master instructed us not to touch the ghost script, not to try to read it, and not even to memorize it. But we not only touched it, but also organized it and consciously tried to interpret it. I think this behavior may have been implicitly considered as 'reading' the ghost script, thus triggering the power inherent in the characters themselves."
"I agree with Haowen's opinion," Ke Xun nodded, looking at Mu Yiran and Qin Ci beside him. "Remember the painting 'Funeral'? The characters on the hemp ribbon have the power to materialize the meaning of words. Perhaps that's the 'creativity' derived from the power of the ghost script. So Wu You can now directly see our bone structure, perhaps because of what Haowen said."
"So, does that mean we shouldn't have cleaned up these ghostly scripts?" Li Xiaochun grabbed his hair. "Since cleaning them will cause bad consequences, maybe we shouldn't have cleaned them. If we hadn't cleaned them, maybe nothing would have happened. Maybe, just maybe, we could have lived peacefully for a few more months, a few more years, a lifetime…"
"Newcomer, don't be so naive," Luo Tan said dejectedly, with the tone of someone who's been there before. "This matter must have a time limit. Even if we don't touch these ghostly scripts, we might all die when the time limit is up. If there's no time limit, and we can live for ten or twenty years, then what was the point of all those paintings that had time limits?"
"Radish is right," Ke Xun pointed to the tornado columns in the distance, "and see? These columns are becoming more and more numerous and larger. This didn't start today; it began after we entered the canyon. They're increasing in number and intensity every day. This has nothing to do with whether we come into contact with the ghost script. Even if we don't, these columns will still grow stronger. Perhaps, over time, they will slowly overflow from the canyon, enter major cities, and spread to every corner of the world. What will happen then?"
Everyone looked in the direction he was pointing, utterly shocked. After a long while, they turned back, their hearts heavy, and silently looked at each other.
"Our time is running out," Shao Ling sighed softly.