Volume 1 Faith Chapter 16 Skull Bowl
Qin Ci lowered his eyes, thinking and muttering to himself: "It seems that we will face the death of one or even several people tonight. Is there really no way out..."
Mu Yiran said: "I don't know much about the culture of the Satā religion. My limited knowledge is just a few words I've heard from others. I think if I want to find the seal or avoid being hurt by it, I still need to find a way to learn more about the Satā religion.
"And the difficulty lies in the fact that there are many branches of the Saṃsāra religion. Each branch has a set of doctrines and gods and demons that are almost independent and separate from the religion itself. Sometimes, the definitions and settings of the doctrines and gods and demons are exactly the opposite. For example, a demon in the religion becomes a god in a branch. There are countless such cases.
"For example, this giant shadow, we speculate that it is the Eight-Armed Black Corpse God, but the Eight-Armed Black Corpse God has different good and evil in different branches, and there are many different images. In some branches, it is a female god, in some branches, it is a guardian god, and in some branches, it is simply a human form during the day and an animal form at night.
"If we don't know its origin, we won't be able to find the right clues. I think this is the key to finding clues."
Shaliu next to him opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but hesitated and closed his mouth again.
Everyone ate dinner in a miserable manner, and Geng's mother didn't eat a single bite, crying silently.
Before dark, the middle-aged man came in and said, "Tonight, three people share one tent. Remember, there must be three people in one tent."
Everyone fell silent.
Now there are nine people left. Although one tent for three people can be divided equally, it also means that three people are likely to die tonight.
"Then," Qin Ci said in a low voice, "Brother Geng and his family of three will have one tent, and we can divide the rest."
"No! No, no!" Geng's mother suddenly shouted, picked up her child, rushed to Ke Xun in a few steps, and pushed the child towards Ke Xun, "Young man, I beg you, let my son follow you tonight, okay? I beg you, it doesn't matter if I die, I just hope my son can get out alive - young man, you have the mental strength, I beg you, please protect my son, he is still young, he is still so young, please be kind..."
As Geng's mother said this, she was about to kneel down and kowtow to Ke Xun, but Ke Xun stopped her.
"Okay, let him follow me." Ke Xun lowered his eyes and looked at the mother in front of him, remembering that he also had a mother who loved him dearly.
Ke Xun did not say anything else. He turned his eyes away from the mother and son who were crying and hugging each other, and looked up at the dark night sky outside the tent. The snow-capped mountains in the distance were reflected in his eyes, and when the wind blew, the snow-capped mountains flickered slightly in his eyes.
Mu Yiran stood in the shadows where the snow could not reach and looked at him. The young man had restrained his casual and playful attitude, his eyebrows were like the sea, and his profile was like a peak.
"Brother Ke..." Sha Liu was about to talk to him, "Can I also..."
"Dongzi will also be in my group." Ke Xun spoke calmly without even turning towards her.
Shaliu bit her lip and said nothing more.
Ke Xun pulled the child over and told Wei Dong to walk out of the tent. When he passed by Mu Yiran, Ke Xun stopped and turned his head to look at him: "Sorry. Take care."
Mu Yiran didn't say anything.
Ke Xun had said long ago that if it came to a life-or-death situation and he had to choose between him and Wei Dong to live, he would choose Wei Dong.
Of course, Ke Xun also said that when it came to the moment of life and death, if Mu Yiran chose to save himself and sacrifice him, Ke Xun, he would never blame him.
For the remaining six people, Mu Yiran suggested that Geng's father and mother form groups with the others respectively.
Dad Geng was stunned for a moment before he understood that Mu Yiran's suggestion was obviously to save at least one of the couple, so as to prevent the thing from happening to choose the couple's tent and causing the child to lose both parents at once.
"Thank you." Dad Geng whispered to Mu Yiran.
"No need." Mu Yiran's face was calm, "I just don't want to see another person hiding family photos in a closet."
I don’t want to see another child who will always have a missing piece in his heart.
The remaining six people were eventually separated by gender and each walked towards the small tent outside.
Before Mu Yiran was the last one to enter the tent, he saw Ke Xun coming out of the tent next to him with the child and Wei Dong, directing the two of them to pull the tent over here.
Mu stood outside the tent and looked at him until he saw him too.
"Guess what I thought of," he smiled at him, his facial features no longer as cold as the mountains and sea, and his eyes curved up, "Why don't we move the tents closer together? If the three tents are next to each other, the distance between our hearts will be closer, what do you think?"
Before Mu Yiran could say anything, Sha Liu from the tent a little further away poked his head out, looking a little horrified: "Will you get implicated if you stay too close? What if that thing kills everyone in the two tents? It's better to stay away and be safer."
"What she said seems to make sense," Ke Xun stopped and looked at Mu Yiran, "What do you think?"
Qin Ci's voice came from the tent: "I think it's better to be closer. When the time comes, I might have to trouble you to be a firefighter. If we are in danger, come over and fight that thing."
Qin Ci made a joke to make the best of a bad situation, but Dad Geng also agreed with Ke Xun's idea. He was willing to be closer to his child, just in case... just in case that thing unfortunately chose Ke Xun's tent, even if he knew he was overestimating his own abilities, he would still fight that thing for the sake of his child.
Neither side objected, so Ke Xun and Wei Dong dragged their tent next to the tent of Mu Yiran and the other two. The openings of the two tents were close to each other, so they could just lean over and climb from one tent into the other.
Geng's mother in Shaliu's tent also wanted to be closer to her son, but she didn't know how Shaliu dissuaded her, and she ended up staying farther away .
Ke Xun let the child lie in the middle of the tent, with himself and Wei Dong on both sides. He was next to the tent door and could reach out to open the curtains of the two tents. He saw Mu Yiran was also on this side of the tent door.
It was not yet time to ban walking, and based on past experience, there was no danger at this time. Ke Xun did not want to lie down, so he sat up, pushed the two curtains aside, and talked to Mu Yiran, who was also sitting cross-legged.
"Do you really believe that the power of my faith can fight against that monster?" Ke Xun held his chin with one hand, his voice sounded hoarse because he lowered his head, and it sounded like he was indulging someone's wild imagination.
"Don't think that you can sit back and relax now," Mu Yiran said coldly, "Spiritual power is like potential. It can't burst out all the time, nor can it burst out whenever you want. It may depend on opportunities, it may depend on luck, and maybe you will only have that one chance in your life."
"You are so mean," Ke Xun sighed, "You just don't want to give me some encouragement. Maybe if you encourage me, I will explode and last longer."
Wei Dong: “Haha.”
Ke Xun: "Shut up."
Qin Ci: "Xiao Ke, love and grief are the two ways to stimulate potential. You can choose the one and give it a try."
Ke Xun looked at Mu Yiran and said, "Look, love can stimulate potential. The doctor said so."
Mu Yiran stared at him coldly and said, "Pain can also stimulate potential. Do you want to give it a try?"
Ke Xun: "Look at this tent. It's big and round. Doesn't it look like an upside-down bowl?"
Ke Xun was just changing the subject casually, but he didn't expect Mu Yiran's eyes to suddenly freeze, and he stood up and walked out of the tent.
Ke Xun hurriedly followed him out and saw him walk about ten steps away from the tent, then turn around and stare at the tent.
"Yeah, like a bowl, right?" Ke Xun said.
"Maybe this is the bowl." Mu Yiran said this and turned back to the tent.
Ke Xun did not return to his own tent, but followed Mu Yiran's tent. Four people were crowded inside. Mu Yiran looked up and looked closely at the top of the tent.
"I've noticed these tent roofs, too," Qin Ci said. "They have some intricate patterns on them, but because they have faded over the years, most of them are hard to see clearly. Xiaomu, do you think there's anything wrong?"
"The skull bowl that Shaliu mentioned is indeed an important magic weapon for certain factions of the Suota religion," Mu Yiran answered Qin Ci while staring at the tent. "The brain under the skull is believed to contain all of a person's soul and vitality. Most gods in certain factions like to use skulls to hold fresh human brains for consumption, so that they can possess the person's soul and vitality."
Qin Ci was shocked when he heard this, and quickly moved towards the tent, then took a closer look. After a while, he said in surprise: "This tent... is made of thin human bones and skin! Could this be..."
"Skull?!" The expression on Geng's father's face was disgusted and disgusted.
"So we were actually the food for that thing from the beginning," Ke Xun said. "The tent is a skull bowl, so we are the food in the bowl. The human brain and body are inside it. There is a soul, vitality, and even a set of sewage."
"Then if we don't stay in the tent, can we avoid becoming food for that thing?" Geng's father said quickly.
"Obviously not," Ke Xun said, "Li Ziling was not in the tent when she died."
Geng's father said sadly: "That's right, food that falls out of the bowl can still be picked up and eaten."
Mu Yiran didn't pay attention to what the others were saying. He was always carefully distinguishing the patterns on the top of the tent. Unfortunately, the patterns were too blurry.
Time passed quickly and as it was getting late at night, Ke Xun had to return to his tent and lie down near the door curtain.
Leaning sideways, looking across the curtains, under the light of the snow, Mu Yiran's profile curve was like a majestic and quiet mountain range. Ke Xun couldn't help but stretch out his fingers and trace along his shadow on the tent. Starting from the forehead, it was a round arc, then sinking, it was a slightly deep eye socket, rising, tall, it was a straight nose peak, and then sinking suddenly, the fingertips stopped on two soft small arcs.
Suddenly, he saw Mu Yiran move, so he quickly withdrew his hand, coughed lightly with a guilty conscience, and then continued with a question that made things even more obvious: "Have you put the sacrifice in your tent?"
It was Qin Ci who answered: "No, nothing was left, but I think Sha Liu still left all the offerings."
Father Geng seemed to have just learned about this and could not help but become furious: "She is simply seeking death! She will harm my wife!"
