"Sister Cen…" Luo Yu and Wu You cried and threw themselves at Yue Cen, but Gu Qingqing wiped away her tears and stood up, looking at everyone: "Sister Cen said, 'Insects, long insects, our faces.'"
Everyone looked at each other in surprise. In the last letter, Wan Yu also saw long insects with her and her companions' faces in her dying state. Unexpectedly, Yue Cen also saw the same insects.
But what was hard to explain was that if Wan Yu and Yue Cen saw demons, why would demons have their faces?
And if these were just hallucinations that Wan Yu and Yue Cen experienced because of their critical condition, how could they explain that the two of them coincidentally saw insects and not something else?
"Could the insects be the key?" Shao Ling's sweaty hair fell back onto his forehead, making him look anxious and disheveled.
He looked at Mu Yiran, who was still deeply engrossed in a life-or-death struggle, his brows furrowed. Mu Yiran's tall figure remained straight and resolute, while Ke Xun, standing beside him, was calmer and more composed than ever. He wiped away his tears, suppressing his usual deep affection for his comrades, and rediscovered his unwavering strength and conviction. Now, with a rationality bordering on coldness, he stood firmly beside Mu Yiran, his strongest pillar of support.
"The insects must exist in dimensions we can't see," Ke Xun answered his question with machine-like calmness. "Wu You, stop crying. Wipe your tears and check again. Can you see anything unusual?"
Wu You wiped her face with her sleeve and nodded hoarsely, "Okay, I'll keep looking at them using the bone structure method..."
looking at each of her fallen comrades.
"For now, there's nothing unusual." She carefully examined Yue Cen, then the already sacrificed Wei Dong and Fang Fei, and finally looked at the infinitely terrifying tornado that she had previously feared so much.
On the altar, Wei Dong and Fang Fei's blood was still flowing, as if trying to drain every last drop of blood from their bodies. The ghostly runes formed from their blood were spreading in all directions, and the blood from the three of them was slowly merging into a single mass.
"We have too little information..." Shao Ling scratched his head. "Why 'insects'? Insects...insects...is there any significance to insects? Insects...insects?! Could it be—could it refer to Yu the Great?!"
"Why Yu the Great?" Ke Xun asked.
"The Shuowen Jiezi (a Chinese dictionary) explains the character 'Yu' as: 'an insect, composed of the radical 禸 (yu), a pictograph.' A well-known scholar of the Doubting Antiquity School believed that Yu might have been an animal cast on the Nine Tripods.
"The Nine Tripods are engraved with wondrous creatures from all over the world, and Yu is the most powerful of all the animals on the tripods. Or perhaps its image on the tripods was depicted applying soil to control the floods, thus giving rise to the legend of Yu controlling the floods. With continuous embellishment through oral transmission, 'it' gradually became 'he,' and an animal image on the Nine Tripods became a ruler of a generation.
"Adding to the explanation in the Shuowen Jiezi, this scholar believed that Yu was a kind of insect." Shao Ling forced himself to calm down like Ke Xun, diligently searching through the relevant information stored in his mind. "However, this view is highly controversial. More scholars believe that Yu was indeed a real person—could it be that what Wan Yu and Yue Cen saw was really... Yu?"
"Then why does 'Yu' have our faces on his body?" Ke Xun calmly countered.
Shao Ling shook his head: "I can't explain it..."
"And why would Yu be in a dimension that only consciousness can reach?" Ke Xun's gaze fell on Yue Cen's pale face. "I think the key words are two: insects, and higher dimensions."
"—Insects, higher dimensions—" Zhu Haowen suddenly turned to look at him. "You know, if you were in a four-dimensional space or perhaps a higher-dimensional space looking at a three-dimensional being, you would see long, thin insects—because four-dimensional beings are not limited by time; they can see anything that happens along the entire timeline at once.
"For example, when we humans look at things, we can only see what is happening right now, not what happened in the past or what will happen in the future. But four-dimensional or higher-dimensional beings are different; they can see the past, present, and future simultaneously. They can see what happens at any point in time."
"So if they can see beings in three-dimensional space, then the form that a three-dimensional being takes at every point in time will be simultaneously presented to their eyes.
"To give another example, if I were to walk from here to Shao Ling's side, it would take three seconds. In the first second, I would step with my left leg, standing one step away; in the second second, I would step with my right leg, standing two steps away; and in the third second, I would step with my left leg, standing next to Shao Ling. In the eyes of higher-dimensional beings, the current me, the me of the first second, the second second, and the third second would all appear simultaneously. Imagine—what would it look like if all these images appeared before their eyes?
"It would be like a motion trajectory effect; all the moments of 'me' at every point in time would be connected, my silhouette forming a long trajectory—like a worm. That's why Wan Yu said the worm was covered in human faces—because this worm is made up of countless images of our bodies connected together!
"So—so after Wan Yu and Yue Cen's consciousness left their physical bodies, they arrived in a higher dimension. Looking at the three-dimensional space where our bodies reside from that higher-dimensional space, what they see is the 'full-time' behavioral trajectory!"
"—This means that when we die, our consciousness truly goes to a higher dimension; it can truly exist independently of the physical body!"
"In other words, perhaps we really can try to fight against the power of demons and ghosts in the form of a consciousness after our physical bodies die?" Shao Ling clenched his fist.
"...It's not certain. If our physical bodies are completely dead, and our consciousness still retains memories and beliefs, why can't it perceive any change in the situation?" Zhu Haowen pointed to the dark, terrifying monster that had once again emerged from the wind membrane above their heads. "At least given Fang Fei's personality, if she still has memories and beliefs, she'll do something to stop this thing. Or, even if she still has memories and beliefs, she might not be able to do anything, she can only...watch."
This disappointing statement, plunging them back into despair, was ignored by the crowd. The terrifying monster was struggling to emerge from the wind membrane again, attempting to pounce on the people below with a ferocious and violent posture!
"We need...we need to continue—" someone shouted hoarsely.
Someone needed to die next, now, immediately, right now.
"Brother Qin," Li Xiaochun suddenly gripped the butcher knife he had brought, "Get the IV ready. If one isn't enough, try two. If two aren't enough, try three. Try to give me a few more moments of lucidity before I die. I'll try to tell you as much as I can."
"Xiaochun—" everyone cried out in anguish.
But what could they do? Knowing they couldn't stop it, they could only watch helplessly.
"Brothers and sisters," Li Xiaochun gripped the knife tightly, his hands trembling, "I don't want to die, but I'm not afraid to die either. You don't need to be sad for me. I've offended you before, please don't take it to heart. I'm leaving, goodbye!"
As blood splattered, everyone turned their heads away and closed their eyes tightly.
"Wu You!" Ke Xun remained calm, shouting sharply. Wu You, who had already turned his head away, immediately reacted to the sound, quickly turning back, enduring immense grief and pain, looking at Li Xiaochun as he fell.
Qin Ci was right beside Li Xiaochun. He supported Li Xiaochun's body, carefully laid him down on the altar, then took his pulse, read his heart rate, removed the needles, injected the medicine, and removed the needles.
Another companion was forcibly pulled back from the brink of death, struggling desperately in overwhelming pain.
"Insects… Zhu… said it right…" Li Xiaochun uttered the words with difficulty, the pain causing him to groan and convulse uncontrollably. He kicked his legs in agony in the pool of blood, helplessly clawing at the ground. His blood continued to gush out without stopping, allowing him to experience the cruel process of all the blood draining from his body in the last few seconds of his life.
"…Cen… they…" Li Xiaochun struggled to move his eyes, finally stopping when he looked in the direction of Mu Yiran.
"What did he want to say last?" Shao Ling rushed over to Qin Ci's side. "What else did he say last?"
Qin Ci shook his head slightly: "He only said 'they' and then stopped."
"Too short… too short…" Shao Ling's nerves finally broke down. He shook his head and closed his eyes in pain. "Do we have to die like this one by one, slowly piecing together the truth with only three or five words we can say?"
"Did you see Li Xiaochun's hand?" Ke Xun's voice suddenly appeared beside him. He saw him squat down and look at Li Xiaochun's hand, which was tightly gripping the ground.
His hand was soaked in his own blood, turning it blood red. His fingers were twisted and clenched, digging fiercely into the ground.
"What does this mean?" Gu Qingqing asked, trembling.
"He wanted to show us," Ke Xun said. "He wanted to show us what he couldn't say in words."
"The ground? The altar?" Shao Ling looked at Li Xiaochun's blood-red and twisted fingers, his eyes burning.
"There are three possibilities," Ke Xun said, his calmness chilling. "One possibility is that he's referring to the altar. Considering his last words, mentioning Sister Cen, Dongzi, and Fang Fei, I think he meant the location of their consciousnesses. If he's referring to the altar, then perhaps their consciousnesses are attached to it.
The second possibility is that he's inside the altar, beneath its surface. His fingers are digging into the ground. If he were referring to the altar's surface, I think his hand shape would be flatter, like slapping the ground with his palm. That gesture is more like pointing to the ground. But his fingers are digging, as if he's trying to tear the ground apart, so it could also be referring to the inside of the altar.
The third possibility is blood. There's blood all around him. His fingers are bent, and his palms are hollow, like scratching, grasping, or gathering. There's nothing to gather on this flat altar except blood. What he's trying to gather is probably blood.
Wu You, did you see anything just now? At Xiao Chun… at the moment Xiao Chun left?" Wu You nodded frantically, tears streaming down her face, her voice choked with emotion. "
I saw a very faint light detach from Xiao Chun's body, but it only lasted a moment, then vanished instantly."
"How did it disappear?" Ke Xun asked. "Did it dissipate, or did it disappear in a specific direction?"
Wu You pointed to the altar floor: "It disappeared downwards."
"Downwards?!" Shao Ling repeated in surprise, expecting it to float in mid-air or fly directly into the sky like people imagine an out-of-body experience. "Could this faint light be Xiao Chun's consciousness?"
"I think so," Zhu Haowen said.
"Why downwards?" Shao Ling stared at the altar floor. "The last letter mentioned that Wan Yu's consciousness floated into the air, so why did Xiao Chun's consciousness disappear downwards?"
"Perhaps it's because when Wanyu's consciousness left her body, she was below the altar, while Xiaochun was above it," Ke Xun said. "Moreover, Wanyu's consciousness shouldn't have been at the final stage of the demons' arrival at that time, otherwise why could her consciousness still 'float' in mid-air, while Xiaochun's disappeared in a flash? I
think the problem lies on this altar that is about to open the gate to the demon realm.
Wu You, look at the altar more carefully, look down. When you observed the altar before, you didn't look inside through the blood, did you? Now look through the blood, through the ghostly runes formed by this blood."
Upon hearing this, Wu You gritted her teeth and stepped into the pool of blood of her companions, trembling, sobbing, and trying to suppress her grief as she stared intently at the blood-stained altar with ghostly runes beneath her feet.
"—It seems like there's something—" Wu You cried out, her voice distorted with urgency, "There's something under the altar!"