"Time is of the essence, so let's prepare as we go," Mu Yiran took the backpack from Ke Xun and distributed the cell phones inside to everyone. "We're going to try and capture that spacetime tunnel inside the altar now.
"It will follow the cell phones Ke Xun is carrying. I think it's because cell phones emit electromagnetic waves. Although there's no signal here, cell phones automatically search for and send signals to base stations. Each search and signal transmission generates electromagnetic waves.
"Although the electromagnetic waves emitted by the cell phones are very weak, they are affected by the strong underground magnetic field and the tornado column.
"As we mentioned before, the interaction between the ghost script, the tornado, and the underground magnetic field creates a material field that causes spacetime distortion and curvature, which is a spacetime tunnel or a spacetime rift. Cell phones, which can 'interact' with magnetic fields and electromagnetic waves, become anchor points for guiding the spacetime tunnel. We can use them to bring the spacetime tunnel out from inside the altar." "
While speaking, he directed everyone to take their positions. They formed a circle, arranging all the phones in a circular pattern on the altar floor, with the top of each phone facing the center of the circle. Following Mu Yiran's instructions, they quickly dialed 112 on each phone.
This was the only number that could be dialed without a SIM card. Of course, in this place, the number might not actually go through, but that didn't prevent it from sending a signal. The electromagnetic waves emitted by a phone while making a call are three times stronger than in standby mode.
"I apologize to you," Zhu Haowen said to Ke Xun beside him, rapidly pressing the keys on each phone in turn. "I shouldn't have thought that you were being boring and useless by charging these phones with the car's generator every day."
Ke Xun's reply at the time was that he had obsessive-compulsive disorder regarding phone battery levels; he would feel very uneasy when the battery dropped to 60%,
even for phones that might only be used once, or even never at all, intended as explosives.
"Now, shouldn't you quickly explain how you want us to travel back in time?" "Shao Ling asked Mu Yiran, "Like we said before—how can you be sure we're traveling to the past and not the future? What role would we, a few people, play in the overall situation if we went back?"
"No, it's not you who need to go back, it's me," Mu Yiran looked at everyone, "and Ke Xun."
"You mean—go back to the night you two first ascended the altar?" Shao Ling suddenly realized.
That night, the two of them had traveled through time, although only for one night, but perhaps the time tunnel from that night connected to the current time tunnel.
But Mu Yiran shook his head slightly: "No, going back to that night is useless, Ke Xun and I need to go back even further ahead."
Shao Ling and Zhu Haowen looked at him with full of doubt.
"Remember the painting 'Harmony'?" "Mu Yiran suddenly seemed to change the subject, "You once asked me about my experience in that painting. Actually, there wasn't much to mention in the world I entered, but something strange happened in the outer hall afterwards, something I only just figured out—I had a portion of my blood taken from me in that hall, and the people who took my blood… were Ke Xun and myself."
Everyone was so shocked by this last sentence that they even forgot their anxiety, despair, and grief for a moment. This suddenly revealed truth left them stunned on the spot.
"I was the first to leave my own world," Mu Yiran quickened her pace, "but because I was bitten by the venomous teeth of the Nian beast in that world, my whole body was bleeding profusely, and I was unconscious for a while because of it."
"But when I woke up from my coma, I saw my own back and Ke Xun's back as they ran away and disappeared from my sight.
"At first, I thought it was a hallucination caused by excessive blood loss, but when I tried to tell Ke Xun about it, I found that I couldn't open my mouth or use any medium to convey what I wanted to say. That's when I realized that the 'hallucination' I saw was not just a simple hallucination; it was blocked by the power behind the painting."
"I started thinking about why this was happening. Unfortunately, at the time, I would never have imagined time travel, especially not something that happened inside a painting.
"I speculated on two reasons: First, the two forces behind the painting were locked in a fierce struggle, which led to a very rare bug. Due to the error correction mechanism, the bug was forcibly modified, or rather, blocked, preventing me from revealing the 'error code' I saw.
"The second reason was that one of the two forces gained the upper hand for a moment and took the opportunity to give me some kind of hint. However, it was subsequently countered by the other force, preventing me from telling my companions about the hint I received.
"So I could only ponder this 'hint' alone. Unfortunately, I didn't get any useful insights until just now when Lao Qin opened his medical kit and I saw the IV drip bottles inside—several of those IV drip bottles that Ke Xun and I had been carrying when we ran away, filled with my blood."
"If the IV bottle might just be a coincidence, then after experiencing a night of time travel, knowing about the existence of the time tunnel on the altar, and understanding the truth behind the 'blood sacrifice,' I finally understand why and how this strange thing happened."
"You mean—you and Ke Xun have traveled back into the painting 'Harmony and Union'?!" Zhu Haowen asked incredulously.
"Obviously." Mu Yiran took Qin Ci's medicine box, took out several items from it—including the IV bottle—and put them into his backpack.
"But—why?!" Shao Ling asked in disbelief, "Why did you travel to that painting? How did you do it? Even with a time tunnel, you can't control yourself to go back to that exact time, right? Let alone travel into a painting? And even if you could control the time and place of travel, why not travel into another painting? Or another point in time? Why 'Harmony'? Why did you and Ke Xun go back to get your own blood? You almost died back then, didn't you?"
Before Mu Yiran could answer, Wu You suddenly pointed to the sky above in panic and shouted, "—That thing in the wind has come out again!"
The wind howled, and the demons shrieked, stirring up huge waves of blood-red air at the dome above. Sticky, filthy, thick black substance dripped down from the wind in another indescribable form, about to break through the dome and stick to the heads of those who had entered the painting.
"Hurry up—" Shao Ling roared, lunging forward to grab the pistol Fang Fei had used to commit suicide, which was lying not far away. But Luo Yu suddenly grabbed him by the waist and stopped him, and the two of them fell to the ground of the altar together.
"I...I'll do it..." Luo Yu's young voice was hoarse, his swollen eyes already dry from crying, his features swollen and even distorted from prolonged sobbing. He looked at everyone who was looking at him with heartache and said, "Let me do it...I can't take it anymore...Death might be a relief...Anyway...anyway, I'll die sooner or later...Brother, I'm a coward, I can't kill myself with a gun or a knife, it hurts too much...Could you...could you knock me unconscious first, and then...and then you can use whatever method you want, just don't wake me up, use whatever method you want to kill me..."
"Luo Bo..." Ke Xun came over and hugged him tightly, "Luo Bo, don't be afraid, your brother and I will go and finish that important thing first, and then we'll come to be with you. Don't be afraid, it won't be long, just wait for us, your brother will definitely come to keep you company."
"I'm sorry... Brother, I'm a coward. I can't use my consciousness to see the bugs for you anymore. I... I'll just die, okay?" Luo Yi gripped Ke Xun's hand tightly, his whole body convulsing with fear and despair.
"Okay, okay, don't be afraid, Luo Bo, it won't hurt, it won't hurt at all, it'll just feel like you're asleep," Ke Xun raised his hand behind Luo Bo's neck, tears sliding down and landing on his collar. "Maybe you'll even dream… the scenery in your dreams will definitely be more beautiful than this world, because… because at that time, you… you'll be a higher-dimensional being… much more advanced than humans… Luo Bo…"
Luo Bo slumped into his arms, as if asleep.
"Brother Qin," Ke Xun choked out, turning to Qin Ci, "I remember you had a kind of euthanasia injection."
Qin Ci nodded silently, walked over, took the needle, and slowly pushed it into Luo Bo's body.
Mu Yiran watched silently until blood inexplicably gushed from Luo Bo's face and orifices, then, as if he had received some answer, he closed his eyes and looked away.
The monster in the wind body was forcibly pushed back in once again, but everyone was somewhat distraught because of Luo Bo's death.
Until Mu Yiran's calm voice rang out: "Wu You, look carefully at the center of the phone circle and tell me what you see."
Wu You regained her composure, wiping away the tears that were obscuring her vision, and stared intently at the altar inside the center of the phone circle.
"The time tunnels are concentrated below—" she suddenly widened her eyes, "But—strange—strange—why—why is there another one below—there are two in total—"
"Have the two tunnels overlapped?" Mu Yiran also suddenly raised his voice to ask.
"No…the first one wasn't very stable, it kept moving, but the one we found later is relatively stable, it's stayed here!" Wu You, bewildered, forgot to continue her grief and couldn't help but look up at Mu Yiran.
"Don't look at me, look below." Mu Yiran said in a deep voice, "Stare without moving, and tell me immediately once the two tunnels overlap."
"Okay." Wu You quickly stared intently at the bottom of the circle.
"Now listen to me," Mu Yiran said to the others who were still in shock. "Ke Xun, come here and stand next to me. Be ready at any moment. The rest of you, after Ke Xun and I leave, you… try to wait until the very last moment each time… to buy Ke Xun and me as much time as possible. We will definitely come back and resolve this whole matter."
"Now, can you tell us what exactly happened?" Shao Ling asked him palely.
"I'll answer your questions first," Mu Yiran answered him as quickly as possible. "We already know that all the locations in the painting, when connected, form the character 'light.' It's a talisman used by demons and ghosts to try to open up the two worlds using idol curses.
"Therefore, along the trajectory of this character 'light,' the barrier, or rather, the barrier between the two worlds, becomes weak. The master of magic in the Qin Dynasty discovered this and instructed his disciples to set up a seal along the trajectory of this character 'light' to suppress the power of the character 'light' to break through to the human world."
"That's why we were forcibly drawn into the paintings. Each time we emerge alive, we break a seal. These illusory realms within the paintings belong neither entirely to the human realm nor entirely to the demon realm. They are the battleground where the forces of both sides clash. They are a third space, forcibly torn apart by the power of the ghost script and the power of the two sides' struggle, located between the two realms.
"Clearly, if it belonged entirely to the human realm, no supernatural phenomena would occur. If it belonged entirely to the demon realm, the demons wouldn't want to kill us. Moreover, each time we emerge from the paintings, the time in the outside world doesn't change, which indicates that it is a rather peculiar third space.
"Have you ever wondered why those predecessors who perished in the paintings, without reaching Kunlun Pivot, could still achieve the effect of sealing demons for a hundred years?
"Although they didn't reach the end and didn't understand the whole story, dying halfway through in a daze didn't prevent the seal from working. This can only mean that every sealing point on the trajectory of the light is connected. Once one point is sealed, all other points cannot be broken."
"To give an analogy, imagine the character 'light' is made up of a pipe, and each sealed point has a valve. Only when all the valves are open can the water flow freely; if even one valve is closed, the water will never flow out of the outlet.
This pipe has only one outlet, and that outlet is here. And if you can exit, you can also enter; entering from here connects to the other valves.
But this is the third space. Without the 'help' of those two forces, we cannot enter on our own. However, there is a substance, or phenomenon, that is not limited by this. It can transcend dimensions, traverse time and space, and become a medium for transporting any substance—that is the spacetime tunnel.
When the spacetime tunnel coincides with this pipe, we can enter the pipe through the spacetime tunnel entrance, and then go through the pipe to each of the illusory realms in the painting. The spacetime tunnel can change time, and the pipe can point to locations; we can use this to go where we need to go."
"But how can you be sure you can return to that day's 'Harmony'?" "Zhu Haowen asked.
"Remember?" Mu Yiran actually smiled and pointed to a certain place in the void, "Our brave companions can see the past and the future in a higher dimension.
"They know what will happen in the future, and therefore they also know what I will do. Although they cannot communicate with us as consciousnesses, as advanced matter with the same ability to cross dimensions and traverse everything as the time tunnel, I think they are enough to help me in another dimension, so that the time tunnel leads to that specific place on that day.
"That's why Wu You saw their consciousnesses sink into the altar quickly after leaving their bodies.
"They went to help us capture the entrance to the time tunnel. They are ready to take us back to that moment."
"Then, why does it have to be in the painting 'Harmony'?" Gu Qingqing asked urgently.
"Because they know that I happened to cause a lot of bleeding in the Nian Beast world of that painting," Mu Yiran looked at the altar stained red with the blood of his companions at his feet, "and what Ke Xun and I need to go back there to get is my blood from that time."