Volume 1 Faith Chapter 5 Something fell from the sky... ?
"Sata religion." Mu Yiran's cold voice carried a hint of the remoteness and chilliness that is unique to the snowy mountains.
Ke Xun confirmed his guess, but he had more questions: "Hasn't the teaching of the Satā religion always been to persuade people to be good, to save the world, and to see through the seven emotions and six desires and achieve complete liberation? How could there be 'that kind of thing'? Could it be that the world in the painting is not all terrifying and horrible?"
"The Satya religion itself is a fusion of many religions," Mu Yiran said, "and since the 11th century, many branches have been formed. The pantheon in the Satya cultural system is not only composed of gods with great compassion and mercy who save all living beings, it also includes many pagan images and even demons. In the interpretation of Satya doctrine, as long as the pagan image is conquered by Satya teachings, it can enter the Satya pantheon, and these demons can be driven by those with high cultivation."
Ke Xun: "...I feel the sinister malice from the gods."
Mu looked at him with a smile and said, "If you knew the time when this painting was completed, you might feel it more deeply."
"...Please try to be as tactful as possible." Ke Xun said.
Mu Yiran told the truth bluntly: "At that time, there were only the church, slave owners, and slaves in the area."
"..." Ke Xun smiled tactfully, "It's not what I imagined, right?"
"From the texture and style of the clothes we wear, it's clear that our characters are not slave owners." Mu Yiran retracted his gaze, "However, even for believers in the sect, in that era, life and death were not decided by oneself."
Ke Xun raised his hand and slowly covered his head with it. "...I heard that the skinning torture used on slaves at that time was to cut a slit in the skin from the top of the head, and then pour mercury into it. The mercury would sink downwards and directly pull the entire skin off the flesh, and the person could still live for a while...I'm going to find Qin Ci."
As he said this, he was about to stand up.
"What are you doing?" Mu looked at him in surprise.
"Go ask Dr. Qin if there's any good way to kill myself painlessly in one second," Ke Xun said, "I don't want to see myself being stripped naked before I die."
Mu Yiran said calmly: "It's probably impossible to be painless for one second, but if you want to die, the gravel on the ground should be of help to you."
Ke Xun thought about it and it made sense. If all else failed, he would just take a sharp stone and cut the artery on his neck. It would hurt a bit, but it was better than being skinned alive.
He opened the tent curtain and picked for a while on the ground under the light of the snow in the distant mountains. He finally picked up two thin pieces of stone with sharp edges and showed them to Mu Yiran: "Do you want one? I'll give you one as a spare."
Mu Yiran didn't take it, and just threw him a cold sentence: "As you wish."
Ke Xun smiled, took out his cell phone from his clothes, checked the time, and saw that it was not yet the time for the ban on walking, so he got out of the tent, found the one where Wei Dong was, and gave him the stone slab: "Good things should be shared with buddies."
"What?" Wei Dong asked.
"A suicide weapon." Ke Xun said and ran away.
“Fuck,” Wei Dong cursed while shaking, and put the stone in his arms, “You’re really my good brother, you always think of me when it comes to good things.”
Ke Xun closed the curtain and asked Mu Yiran: "Do you have any ideas on how to break the impasse?"
Mu Yiran pondered: "Since the painting is called "Faith", I think this situation is related to religion. The Satya religion has many branches, and the system of gods and demons is also very large. It's a bit early to find a way out now."
Ke Xun lay on his back on the felt blanket: "It looks like someone might stay here tonight."
Mu Yiran heard that his tone was very calm, and when he looked at his face, he did not show any fear, tension or unwillingness. He rested his head on his arms, crossed his legs, and lay on his own big latex bed.
When I think of his bed, I can't help but think of the photos in the closet in his bedroom, and the photos of him from childhood to adulthood in those photos.
At that time, the little boy with a pair of curved smiling eyes and a bright smile probably never thought that his life would become like this when he grew up.
He lost his loving parents, his warm room, and finally, even his normal life.
Time passed in silence. The snow-capped peaks in the distance made the sky outside the tent dimly bright. The shadows of tents near and far were printed on the tent, which swayed slightly with the night breeze of the grassland.
If it were outside the painting, it would probably be a peaceful and beautiful night.
Ke Xun opened his eyes and looked at the shadow on the tent.
He remembered the sky outside during the day, which was breathtakingly blue and deep and profound, as if in the deepest part of the blue, countless huge and strange things were crowded together.
Ke Xun felt something was wrong.
During the day, even though the sunlight is blindingly bright, it seems... you can't see where the sun is. The light comes from the sky and is everywhere, without any concentrated source.
If these lights were not the sun, grass, blue sky and snow-capped mountains, it would seem as if there was a layer of heavy death.
Ke Xun recalled the time when he was on his way back from Wei Dong’s tent. There seemed to be no stars in the night sky, only pitch black.
Thinking about this, I feel a little breathless.
It should be the most transparent and clear place, but at this moment it is so depressing and cramped that people almost suffer from claustrophobia.
Ke Xun couldn't help but gasp heavily. The harder he tried, the harder it was to breathe. Air entered his nasal cavity and mouth, but he couldn't feel it flowing into his trachea. His lungs expanded desperately due to lack of oxygen. A sharp pain squeezed his chest and it seemed like it was about to burst.
"Ke Xun!" Mu Yiran noticed something was wrong with Ke Xun and leaned over to stare at him, "What's wrong with you?"
Ke Xun was speechless. He opened his mouth and tried to breathe like a dying fish, but he couldn't get a breath of air.
Mu frowned and stared at Ke Xun's body which was twisted and struggling due to the pain of suffocation. He suddenly turned over and pressed directly on him, forcibly controlling his rolling movements, and then reached out and covered his mouth and nose tightly.
Ke Xunlu's eyes, exposed outside his hand, stared at him intently, then slowly curved into a shallow arc and drooped his eyelids.
Ke Xun thought he was dead.
But thinking about it, dying at the hands of Mu Yiran is not bad. It is better than dying at the hands of those ugly monsters, or being cowardly and committing suicide. Looking back on the cause and effect and retribution, he still owes me a life. If I ask him for a debt in the next life, I won't ask him to pay back his life with his own. It will be enough for him to sell his body to me.
Who knew that while he was thinking about it, he gradually started to breathe again. The trachea that seemed to be blocked just now finally regained its sense of existence. A few wisps of air came in through the gaps between Mu Yiran's fingers and went into his lungs.
After getting some air, his swollen and painful lungs gradually felt better, and his heavy and rapid breathing also subsided. Ke Xun opened his eyes and met Mu's pleased eyes above his head.
Before he could see his eyes clearly, Mu Yiran had already moved his hands that were covering his mouth and nose away, and turned over and sat aside.
Ke Xun took a few more cautious breaths and found that his breathing had returned to normal. He heaved a sigh of relief and turned his head to look at Mu Yiran: "I thought you wanted to help me die quickly so that I would suffer less."
Mu Yiran didn't look at him, he just sat cross-legged with his eyes downcast: "If you want to die quickly, I can kill you in one second."
Ke Xun smiled and sat up, touching the place where he had just covered his hand: "What happened just now? I suddenly felt suffocated. Could it be that the power has already started?"
Mu Yiran finally glanced at him, expressionless: "You just have alkalosis caused by hyperventilation."
Ke Xun: "Please translate it into vernacular Chinese."
"Excessive breathing will reduce the carbon dioxide in the body, reduce the acidity in the blood, and increase the alkalinity, causing discomfort." Mu Yiran said coldly.
Ke Xun suddenly realized: "That's why you covered me up, increased the carbon dioxide content in me, and restored the pH balance in my blood - amazing, you are worthy of being a male god."
Mu Yiran ignored him and just sat cross-legged with his eyes closed. After a long while, he suddenly said, "What happened to you just now?"
Ke Xun covered his mouth and nose with his hands and continued to add carbon dioxide to himself. His voice was muffled. "I just suddenly felt suffocated, as if I was locked in a very narrow and stuffy box. The sky and mountains here are actually made of models and paint in the box. There is no sense of reality. Even in the previous painting, the locust tree and the cemetery are no different from the real ones, but here, everything seems very fake."
Mu Yiran slightly opened his eyes and stared at the felt carpet beneath him, as if he was lost in thought.
Ke Xun did not disturb him. He lay back down and looked at the shadow cast by the snow on the tent.
At some point, Ke Xun suddenly discovered that the shadows that were originally trembling slightly in the wind became motionless.
Ke Xun reached out and gently touched Mu Yiran's knee, motioning him to look, and tried to sit up, but Mu Yiran held him down with one hand. He had no choice but to continue lying there, staring at the shadow on the tent with him.
The shadow did not move at all. The snow on the distant mountains turned pale, and then turned from pale to dismal white. All the sounds in the world suddenly disappeared, and it was so quiet that it seemed as if all the air had been sucked out.
Time passed in this vacuum-like atmosphere, and just as Ke Xun's eyes began to feel sore as he stared at the tent, the shadow on the tent suddenly changed.
A huge dark shadow slowly slid down from the sky, like a big drop of thick paint, slowly, sticky, and greasy squeezed down from the sky, and when it slid to mid-air, it slowly extended its thick branches.
No, not branches, but eight arms and two legs, thick and fat, twisting and dancing in the air like a newborn baby crying and struggling.
This huge shadow kept twisting in strange postures and angles and slowly fell to the ground, like a giant god, with the sky above its head and the earth under its feet. Its thick and soft legs took uncoordinated steps and in the dead silence, it made a heavy and slow breathing sound like an obese patient.
The giant shadow slowly moved its bent legs among the tents. The top of the highest tent only reached its knees. It stopped beside each tent at its leisurely pace, as if observing and selecting carefully.
Ke Xun saw the huge shadow stay beside Wei Dong's tent for a full ten minutes, and finally moved his legs again and walked towards this side.
Getting closer and closer to him and Mu Yiran.
Ke Xun didn't know how to avoid this thing. There was no place in the tent to cover his body. And this time was obviously different from the previous painting. This thing seemed to be selecting randomly.
