Death was the only option left for those who entered the painting.
Even escape seemed impossible, for the suicide notes mentioned that some had tried to flee but returned to the altar.
Like each time one entered the painting, reaching its edge meant returning to the starting point, unless they could find the painter's seal to escape forever.
But this was the real world, not a painting.
All the speculation had confirmed it was a real world; those bizarre, magical, and unbelievable events were the influence of ancient creatures buried deep underground, using abilities unique to their advanced species, on the human world.
Therefore, this was not a painting; there was no painter's signature or seal, no way for those who entered to escape. Here, only cruel death and reality existed.
Those who entered didn't even have a moment longer to bid a final farewell to this real world. As the daylight completely vanished into the darkness, bone patterns, darker than darkness itself, clung to everyone's skin, dense, twisted, and hideously ugly.
They hadn't spoken to each other for a long time, silently preparing their gear for the altar.
Ke Xun stuffed a photo album and the chocolate box Mu Yiran had given him into his backpack, wore the platinum pendant that matched Mu Yiran's around his neck, and slipped the ring they both owned onto his finger.
"Wear this." Ke Xun pulled two sets of clothes from his pocket and handed one to Mu Yiran.
It was a matching outfit.
"When someone finds our bodies, they'll definitely point at us and say: 'Hey, these two are a couple!'" Ke Xun mimicked the imagined reaction of those who discovered the bodies, pointing to the ground, "Then they'll take pictures and post them on Weibo. A lot of people will come to light candles for us then, haha."
Mu Yiran laughed, took the clothes, and changed with him. Then the two looked at each other. They
remained motionless for a long time.
"I must look really ugly right now," Ke Xun rubbed his face, which was already covered with black, asphalt-like bone.
Mu Yiran reached out and pulled him into his arms, embracing him, kissing him, and listening to his heavy, choked breathing.
"Yiran... Yiran..." Ke Xun gripped his clothes tightly, burying his face in his shoulder. "I'm not afraid of death, Yiran, but I'm afraid I'll never see you again."
Mu Yiran cupped his hand around the back of Ke Xun's head, gently rubbing it, then tilted his head, bringing his lips close to Ke Xun's ear, his voice soft and deep as he whispered, "Don't be afraid. Even if we end up as consciousness without bodies, we'll still be together. Remember, Chengshi used this method to find his son. No matter where his son was, he wouldn't encounter any obstacles. He would definitely find him, just as you would definitely find me, and I would definitely find you. Because consciousness is..."
At this point, Mu Yiran suddenly paused. Ke Xun looked up at him, seeing him deep in thought, and remained silent, simply gazing at his profile.
"Consciousness is," Mu Yiran said, her eyes gleaming like the summit of a snow-capped mountain, as she looked back at Ke Xun from her reverie, "unaffected by space and dimensions. It can exist across dimensions and traverse time and space."
"You mean…" Ke Xun vaguely understood what Mu Yiran was thinking, "'What the body cannot reach, only the mind can'?"
Mu Yiran nodded: "I think that's what that senior master meant. What the body cannot reach, the mind, or rather consciousness can, is different times or dimensions.
"Ancient metaphysicians believed that the power of thought is the most powerful force in the universe, and there is no place that thought cannot reach. In a single thought, one can travel through the past and present, roam the universe, and reach no distant place."
"The phrase 'sincerity brings miracles' refers to the powerful force of intention. If intention is strong enough, it can change the cause and effect of events. This 'changing the cause and effect of events' might refer to the characteristic that intention is not limited by time and space."
"So," Ke Xun's eyes lit up, "since it's confirmed that entering the painting happens once every hundred years, it means that the method of using consciousness as a seal is also confirmed to be effective, right? That is to say, consciousness can truly exist independently of the body, right? Is there a possibility that after our bodies die, we can control our consciousness, travel through time, and return to... that real world of mountains and seas thousands of years ago?"
"I think there are two possibilities," Mu Yiran said. "One possibility is, as you said, that we can control our consciousness to travel through time. But we can't rule out another possibility, that after a person dies, everything is nothingness. Although the consciousness can still exist, it is no longer the form it took when it existed in our bodies.
"Our thoughts and memories are likely to be left in the body and die with it, while the consciousness, although still 'alive,' is no longer the original us."
"It's like a CD. A CD with the data erased is still a CD, but it's become a blank CD without any data."
Ke Xun shuddered. "What you said gives me the creeps. It feels like a zombie with a consciousness. It can still move, but it has no thoughts."
"That's quite an apt description." Mu Yiran even had the mood to laugh, reaching out to pat Ke Xun on the head. "So, if the consciousness still retains our thoughts and memories, what do you want to do when you travel back to the Mountain and Sea World?"
"I was thinking, isn't the Great Witch Gaoyang Clan particularly powerful? Can he see people's consciousness?" Ke Xun blinked. "Then we can ask him to help us find a body to possess, and then we can tell him to find a way to make the Nine Cauldrons more sturdy, preferably firmly fixed, so that the Nine Cauldrons won't disappear again, and we, the generations of those who entered the painting, won't have to go through this again. The Nine Cauldrons will continue to play the role of suppressing demons and ghosts. We'll cut off this painting event at its root. What do you think?"
"Although I think your idea is unlikely to succeed," Mu Yiran laughed, "we can still give it a try."
Ke Xun couldn't help but laugh too: "Am I particularly naive and cute? You've struck gold, haven't you? Well then, let's make a deal. I'll tell everyone in a bit. We've agreed that if there really is a complete consciousness after death, we'll try to travel through time."
"According to you, there would probably be a lot of cases of reincarnation in this world." Zhu Haowen's voice came from the tent entrance, lifting the tent flap and peeking halfway in. "If everyone can control their own consciousness after death, then they can just go back to their own body, or find a new body to possess, right?"
"The original body is already dead. The bodily functions have all stopped. There's no way to control the body again if you go back," Ke Xun said. "There are other consciousnesses in the living body, so of course there's no way to accommodate another consciousness. But I think the Great Shaman Gaoyang will definitely have a way to solve this problem."
"He might just kill you as a demon." Zhu Haowen poured cold water on him without any mercy.
"Brother Wen'er, we're about to die, can't you let me hold onto a little bit of naive hope for what's to come?" Ke Xun shrugged.
"Fine, Ke the Naïve." Zhu Haowen stood at the tent entrance with his arms crossed, looking at him. "Then tell me, if the Gao Yang clan is powerful enough to control human consciousness, why doesn't they let their own consciousness find a human body to possess, and then keep choosing physical bodies to resurrect over thousands of years, thus achieving immortality?"
"Ouch, my stomach hurts," Ke Xun said.
Zhu Haowen ignored his feigned ignorance and continued, "As we've said before, consciousness is matter of another dimension. When it's combined with the body, the two exist together in our dimension. But once it separates from the body, it immediately goes to another dimension.
"Although it can exist across dimensions, I believe a higher-dimensional matter cannot reunite with a lower-dimensional matter.
"My personal view is that consciousness is a magical substance. It originates from the physical body of a three-dimensional being, but it is a higher-dimensional matter. Once separated from the body, it becomes purely higher-dimensional matter and cannot reunite with a three-dimensional object.
"However, Gao Yangshi and that sorcerer from the Qin Dynasty were perhaps among the very few who knew how to establish a connection with consciousness. That's why the 'Mountain and Sea Map' on the Nine Tripods possesses consciousness energy, and why the bone-shaped 'Mountain and Sea Map' has the power of inheritance."
"But I don't think they can do the 'fusion of matter from different dimensions' operation of combining consciousness and body. What they do is simply use the huge energy field generated by consciousness to attack or control three-dimensional beings like demons and humans.
"To put it simply, they found a high-end weapon to deal with low-level beings, but they can't possibly combine the high-end weapon with a low-level being to create a low-level being."
"It's... very simple and easy to understand." Ke Xun gave him a thumbs up, then curled his lips into a smile, "So, in that case, we still can't completely end this matter. We still need to... die."
"Yes." Zhu Haowen was as cold as ever about his fate, "We die, and then become bullets for high-end weapons. These bullets are used up every hundred years, and then new bullets are replenished."
Ke Xun rubbed his hair, spun around twice, then stopped and looked up at Mu Yiran and Zhu Haowen: "Then tell me, is this whole 'Entering the Painting' incident a metaphysical event or a scientific event?" "
The end of science is philosophy, and the end of philosophy is theology," Zhu Haowen shrugged. "Phenomena that science cannot explain are easily dismissed as metaphysical phenomena, but this is perhaps because the scientific knowledge currently possessed by humankind is far from sufficient to explain many unknown scientific phenomena."
"Then how did Gao Yangshi and that metaphysical predecessor acquire this knowledge?" Ke Xun asked. "In their era, there were no scientific instruments, and not much mathematical and physical knowledge. What did they use as a basis to create advanced weapons?"
Zhu Haowen looked at him: "Are you saying that as long as we find the methods they used, even if we don't have scientific instruments and theoretical basis now, we can try to create an advanced weapon?"
"Yes." Ke Xun nodded.
Zhu Haowen, however, shrugged: "The answer to your question may only be found after you die, when you use your consciousness to travel to the Mountain and Sea World and ask Gao Yangshi directly." Ke
Xun frowned slightly and thought for a moment: "But I suddenly remembered a time paradox in Doraemon..."
Mu Yiran: "Doraemon is..."
Ke Xun: "It's Doraemon."
Mu Yiran: "...Isn't it Doraemon Mu?"
Ke Xun: "..."
Zhu Haowen: "..."
Author's Note:
Boss: ...Why are you being humiliated in your knowledge blind spot before you die? Is this something a human would do?
Ke Xun: The user consciousness you mentioned has flown to a higher dimension and is currently not in the physical realm. Please mention it again later.