"According to the speculations of our ancestors in the lost manuscripts, the 'Shan Hai Yin Jing Tu' is actually the location of all the places depicted along the trajectory of the character 'light.' Furthermore, some ancestors have already pieced together the images on the rock wall, confirming that the images on the rock wall are indeed the 'Shan Hai Yin Jing Tu,'" Mu Yiran said slowly and clearly.
"If, as we previously speculated, the shamanic images on the rock wall come from an underground otherworld, the world where demons and ghosts now live, then what was their purpose in carving the 'Shan Hai Yin Jing Tu' on the rock altar?
"I think that those who can use idol curses may not only be humans on the surface."
"There must also be powerful shamans among the demons and monsters beneath the earth, as evidenced by the eye-shaped symbol we noticed in the rock paintings. In many ancient cultures around the world, the eye has been worshipped as a totem or a symbol of high status, such as the 'eye that sees the sun and moon' in ancient Egypt, the sun god Surya in India, and the eye-shaped artifacts from Sanxingdui.
"Even stronger evidence is that, as we know from the painting 'The Funeral,' the original meaning of the character '民' (min, people) is that the eyes of commoners are pierced by a sharp object, implying that most commoners are 'blind' and need leaders with broad vision and foresight to guide them. Therefore, in Chinese culture, the eye is a political organ symbolizing ability, power, and status."
"Furthermore, in ancient times, the high status of the great shamans, coupled with their ability to communicate with heaven and earth, meant that the eyes, a deified organ, were typically bestowed upon them. Therefore, this symbol with eyes represents a great shaman among demons and ghosts.
"Idol curses are an ancient form of witchcraft that was prevalent worldwide, and it's not surprising that both human and demon shamans possessed this art.
"The demon shamans used a rock altar as an 'idol,' and the 'light' character carved on the altar as an 'image.' Through shamanic rituals, they performed curses, striking the strata between the human and demon realms, thus creating a massive, 'light'-shaped 'weak point where yin and yang meet'—the *Shan Hai Yin Jing Tu* (Classic of Mountains and Seas).
"The purpose of using curses was, of course, to break through the barrier between the two realms, allowing their kind to emerge from the earth and return to the human world."
"As for why it's the word 'light' and not another, I think, like the hint given by the painting 'Funeral,' words possess a magical power.
"This magical power, I prefer to call it the power of thought, or the power of intention, the power of consciousness. Like Buddhists reciting the six-syllable mantra, gaining peace or achieving certain wishes.
"To put it bluntly, it's roughly equivalent to a kind of self-suggestion. When this suggestion is very strong, it often achieves unexpected results, even truly fulfilling desires.
"So words also have this power, a kind of psychological suggestion, a kind of intentional power.
"The reason demons chose the word 'light' is because they were driven by 'heavenly sounds,' forced to hide deep underground. They originally lived on the surface like humans, enjoying the sun, air, and beautiful scenery, but after hiding underground, all of that was gone.
"Perhaps the absence of sun and air wouldn't kill these special species, but I think species that originally lived under the sun wouldn't like or get used to darkness." They were plunged into an endless darkness, longing for and yearning for sunlight.
Therefore, sunlight became their most desired thing, their faith and totem, their strongest and most persistent desire.
So they chose the word 'light,' a word that could mobilize the strongest mental power to achieve maximum effect, using idol curses to strike and weaken the strata of the earth that separated the human and demon realms.
"Then, the biggest mystery of the four rock paintings is solved—in the 'Prayer' rock painting, the blank space surrounded by offerings arranged in a circle, which is also what they are worshipping, is not an invisible object, nor a god, but—light.
"From this, we can now reinterpret and rearrange these four shamanic prayer paintings from the demon world beneath the ground:
"All living beings—the former demon race, lived on the ground with the gods, humans, and beasts, enjoying sunlight, air, mountains, and rivers, and everything was thriving;
"Disaster—a great flood descended, lightning destroyed the gods, infrasound drove the demons underground, and humans and beasts were able to survive in the world;
"Now—that is, what we define as 'death,' the demon race now lives in the darkness underground, without the light of day, having lost the freedom of the sun, blocked by human seals, unable to return to the human world, gradually despairing, without hope, living like walking corpses, the strange actions shown by the symbols in the rock paintings are perhaps an image of a life worse than death."
"The ritual—the high priest of the demon realm performs a ritual, using sunlight as a totem of worship, the character 'light' as a symbol of attack, and the demon race's extreme thirst for light as the source of his power, to launch an attack and breakthrough against the human world.
"Therefore, the order of these four rock paintings is: all living beings → flood (disaster) → death (present) → ritual.
"It can also be inferred from this that the character 'light' spanning most of the land area was not drawn by humans, but rather created by demons. The seals humans created on it were merely set up along the trajectory of the demons' attacks.
"As for this bronze script character 'light,' I think its appearance time may far exceed human speculation. Perhaps it was already created in the so-called mythological era of ancient times, and at that time it became a word, or rather a symbol, used by gods, demons, and humans, possessing powerful mental energy."
After listening to Mu Yiran's analysis, everyone remained silent for a long time.
After a long while, Wu You murmured, "Why do I feel... these demons are actually a little pitiful?"
"Pitiful for what? If they return to the surface, we humans will no longer be at the top of the food chain. They'll eat us like we eat pigs and sheep, slaughtering us however they want. Aren't you scared?" Li Xiaochun asked.
"Scared," Wu You said. "I'm so grateful to Yu the Great and Gaoyang. They allowed the human species to thrive and maintain our dominant position in the biological world."
"But this advantage is about to disappear; the demons are about to rise from the ground." Luo Yu tiptoed, as if demons were reaching out their sharp, ugly claws from the ground beneath his feet, trying to drag him back down.
"Mu's analysis corroborates the account in the lost letter," Shao Ling said. "The 'Shan Hai Yin Jing Tu' carved on the rock wall is actually a location map used by demons to attack the earth's strata using idol curses.
"And the map pieced together from the 'Shan Hai Tu' on the Nine Cauldrons, which is the 'Shan Hai Yang Jing Tu,' points to this Valley of Death, or rather, the 'Kunlun Pivot' as defined by our ancestors.
"So its purpose in pointing here is also clear: to use idol curses to attack the altar set up by the demons here. Destroying the altar would destroy the idol curses from the demons, completely cutting off their attempt to enter the human world through the 'weak point where Yin and Yang meet' on the trajectory of the character 'light.
' "As for why the demons set up the altar here, I have a question: Is it because the demons set up the altar here first, so this place is called 'Kunlun Pivot', or is it because this place was called 'Kunlun Pivot' first, so the demons deliberately set up the altar here?
"This question may help us solve the final ultimate problem."
"Our ancestors said in their dying words that 'shu' (枢) means pivot or overturning, and they guessed that the Yin and Yang realms are separated by the Kunlun Shu (昆仑枢) as the central axis and the earth as the dividing line. This matches our speculations," Qin Ci said. "The human realm and the demon realm are currently two worlds separated by the ground. This 'shu' is very likely the rock altar that our ancestors guessed was high above the ground. In fact, if we want to overturn Yin and Yang and bring demons back to the surface, this rock altar plays a decisive role. Only by destroying it can we completely sever the demons' curses."
"That's right. Now we have basically figured out the cause and effect of the whole incident," Hua Jiqiu said. "There is only one problem left to solve, which is how to destroy that ghost altar. Neither explosives, gunshots, nor manual sabotage can damage the ghost altar in the slightest. I think the way to destroy it must not be by violence."
"But what can we do besides using physical force?" Zhu Haowen pondered. "From these last notes, we can see that among these pioneers who entered the painting, there were many from the Xuanmen sect. Some of them could observe celestial phenomena, perform divination, and even set up spells and hand seals, but all of it was useless. In the end, they still had to sacrifice themselves. As for us, the only thing we have over our predecessors is martial arts. If martial arts are useless, I don't know what abilities we can offer that our predecessors didn't have."
"Brother Wen'er, what you said makes me feel so hopeless." Luo Yi sighed, staring blankly into the distance. "Perhaps we can leave here for a few days. I'll call my dad and see if he can find someone to buy the equipment to create infrasound?"
"I'm afraid not," Shao Ling said. "We don't have time anymore. The ever-growing tornado columns are like death warrants. They don't allow us to make full preparations. Maybe tonight, or tomorrow night, they will connect into one."
"It seems that every step has been calculated by Hua Tui," Zhu Haowen said with a hint of sarcasm. "If we could have arrived at Kunlun Hub earlier and discovered the last words of our ancestors earlier, we might have had enough time to prepare the infrasound equipment. However, if we couldn't gather thirteen people, we wouldn't have obtained the complete skeletal map pointing to Kunlun Hub
, and we wouldn't have been able to arrive here in time. "But once we gathered thirteen people, the time for opening the Demon Realm would begin its countdown. Once we arrived at Kunlun Hub, it would be too late to leave and make preparations.
"Now that I think about it, perhaps every batch of Hua Tui ancestors who came here before was also trapped in Kunlun Hub in this way, until the last moment, when they had to sacrifice themselves here, unable to leave to make preparations.
"I even have a guess that perhaps at the moment of their death, they found the real way to stop this event, but by then it was too late, so this answer could only be buried here with the Hua Tui once and for all."
These words left everyone stunned and disheartened, their spirits sinking once more. "
If that's the case," Ke Xun rallied, "then let's bring our phones. When we discover the real answer at the last moment, let's record it quickly. At least in this respect, we have a better opportunity than our ancestors. They couldn't manage with writing, but we might be able to with speaking."
Everyone nodded haphazardly, holding little hope.
"Then it seems destroying the altar is still the most likely, and only, solution," Ke Xun steered the conversation back on track.
"Could we try using the infrasound from a gunpowder explosion to destroy the altar?" Wei Dong suggested.
"We don't have any gunpowder," Ke Xun said.
"Blow up a car," Fang Fei suggested.
Ke Xun: "..."
Ke Xun: "Fei-ge, can you not be too reckless? Using a car worth over ten million as explosives!"
Wei Dong: "Damn, we're about to lose our lives and you're still stingy with money?"
Ke Xun: "...Sigh, I've been bullied by the Dongfang CP!" "
Mu Yiran said, 'Bombing a car might generate infrasound, but its frequency might not be suitable, so it would mostly be a waste of effort.'
Ke Xun shrugged at the Dongfang Goose couple: 'Think of another way.'
'Perhaps... our bone structure can play a role.' Gu Qingqing bit her lip and said, 'After all, it's something that combines the essence of heaven, earth, and man. I wonder if it's possible that the human body itself also has infrasound, but human infrasound cannot affect demons and ghosts. We previously deduced that the undulating texture of the 'Mountain and Sea Map' cast on the Nine Cauldrons was to adjust the frequency of infrasound to a channel that could strike demons and ghosts. So, can we similarly speculate that the reason why our ancestors transformed the 'Mountain and Sea Map' into bone structure and put it into the human body was also to adjust the frequency of infrasound in the human body to a channel that could strike demons and ghosts?'
This statement shocked everyone, and Li Xiaochun clapped his hands forcefully: 'That's very possible!'
'But does the bone structure of the 'Mountain and Sea Map' also have undulating textures?'" "Ke Xun looked at Wu You, "Master, please take a look."
Upon hearing this, Wu You stared intently at Ke Xun, and after a moment, shook her head and said, "No, bone structure isn't what everyone imagines—a three-dimensional texture attached to the surface of bones. It actually has no height or three-dimensionality. It's like... like the tan lines on your skin in summer—it's the same skin, just different colors. Bone structure is the same; it's imprinted on the bone, the same bone, different colors. It doesn't protrude from the bone at all. I don't think it should interfere with infrasound or anything like that."
Gu Qingqing and everyone else looked deeply disappointed.
Ke Xun patted her shoulder and said, "Weren't we wondering earlier why the *Shan Hai Tu* itself possesses magical power? Perhaps its function isn't just changing the frequency of infrasound, but also has effects we don't know about, and this effect might be what the *Shan Hai Tu* bone structure can do. I have a guess, but I don't know if it's reliable."