Volume 1 Faith Chapter 8 Someone's Mentality Collapses
Qin Ci said, "We have already got the five-hui dew, five-tribute meat, libation wine and lamps. The remaining ones are the offering bowls and the things referred to by the local terms. Unfortunately, when I went to ask the villagers this morning, they all spoke the local language and it was really impossible to communicate."
"Indeed," Sha Liu nodded in agreement, "We spent a lot of effort when we went to ask for the Five Wisdom Dew. We had to use gestures to make the other party understand."
They put what they had already obtained in the tent and saw that the five tribute meats were all very stale and spoiled meats, including beef, mutton, horse meat, bird meat, fish, donkey meat, dog meat, and even wolf meat.
"Although I don't know what the five tribute meats are specifically, but with so many kinds of meat, I can always get the right five," said Qin Ci.
Sha Liu was hesitant to speak, and Qin Ci saw her and asked her if she wanted to say anything. Sha Liu hesitated for a moment, but finally spoke: "I'm a little worried that there might be... there might be... human flesh in the five tribute meats."
Everyone was shocked when they heard this. Qin Ci looked at her and asked, "Why do you say that?"
Sha Liu said, "Since the big meat in the Wuhui Dew refers to human flesh, why can't the meat in the Wugong Meat refer to human flesh?"
These words caused everyone to be silent.
Zhou Bin said with a bad look on his face: "I think the possibility of human flesh is very high. Look at what these five wisdom dews are. They are all related to humans. And as far as I know, during the slavery era in this place, it seems that human sacrifices were used."
"But where can we get human flesh?!" Ma Zhenhua took a few steps back in panic.
Everyone fell silent again.
After a long time, Zhou Bin suddenly raised his eyes and asked Qin Ci: "I remember you said that in this world in the painting, only we are real people from the real world, right?"
Everyone didn't know what he wanted to say, and they all stared at him vigilantly. Qin Ci nodded slowly.
Zhou Bin's face flashed with a trace of determination and cruelty. He gritted his teeth and pointed in the direction of the village: "In other words, those people are not real people. So if we want to get human flesh, we can use theirs. Anyway, since they are considered human in the painting, their flesh is of course human flesh. Even if we kill them, it is not really killing people. This is like a holographic game. You are just killing a lifelike virtual character, not a real person, so there is no need to have any psychological burden. What do you think?"
Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. The mother in the family of three, who had been covering her child's ears with her hands, could not help but say, "But...but they are in this world of paintings, after all, they are all living people in this world..."
"I told you this is a painting, not the real world," Zhou Bin said angrily to everyone, "Are you going to let us all die here just because of your kind heart?!"
The child's father, Geng Dad, frowned and said, "Be careful what you say!"
Zhou Bin glared at him fiercely: "What do you think? What I said doesn't make sense? If you are a coward, then don't hold us back. If you feel guilty about your saintly father and saintly mother, then don't use the human flesh we got. Let's take care of ourselves!"
Dad Geng wanted to say something more, but Mom Geng pulled him back, so he pursed his lips and said nothing.
Zhou Bin looked at the others and asked calmly, "What do you think? Do you want to get human flesh? Everyone, please express your opinion!"
Seeing that no one responded, Zhou Bin simply asked them one by one, and first glared at Ma Zhenhua: "Tell me, do you want to get human flesh? If you do, then you can partner with me. If not, you can't complete the task without the painting. Don't regret it. I won't share the human flesh I get with others."
Ma Zhenhua's lips trembled for a long time, and he finally squeezed out a sentence: "I want..."
Zhou Bin followed up with a sentence: "Then join me and do it together?"
Ma Zhenhua struggled in agony for a long time before finally nodding.
Zhou Bin couldn't force the girl to answer, so he asked Xiang Weidong, "What about you?"
Wei Dong answered quickly: "I'll follow him." He pointed at Ke Xun.
Zhou Bin stared at Ke Xun.
This kid left a very bad impression on him. He looked sloppy and dissolute. Apart from being close to the guys named Wei and Mu, he was distant and indifferent to others. Occasionally, he looked a bit naughty and really deserved a beating.
I asked him coldly: "You?"
Ke Xun was still that casual, indifferent, and arrogant person who needed to be punished: "As you please."
Zhou Bin said coldly: "Then remember, I will not share the human flesh I get with others."
Ke Xun shrugged meaninglessly and called Wei Dong: "Dongzi, let's go, don't waste time."
Having said that, he left the tent.
Wei Dong followed him out and turned to look at the tent: "You're not waiting for your idol? What if he chooses to be with Zhou Bin..."
"He won't," Ke Xun stopped and sat on a big rock, looking at the tent with a firm gaze, "Even if he really needs human flesh, I believe he must have a way to get it without killing people."
Weidong looked at Mu Yiran who walked out of the tent slowly and kicked Ke Xun on the calf: "If he knew that you trusted him so blindly, would he be so moved that he would become a bachelor?"
Ke Xun smiled, stood up and waved at Mu Yiran.
Mu Yiran looked over here expressionlessly, then turned and walked in another direction.
Wei Dong: “…”
Then he looked at his poor gay brother, who didn't seem to be shocked at all and just ran over there, yelling at him, "Dongzi, follow me."
How pitiful, Wei Dong thought, it is harder for a gay man to be a fan of a male idol than a fan of the opposite sex.
The three of them entered the village below the hillside again, and Ke Xun asked Mu Yiran, "Does everyone else agree with Zhou Bin's proposal to kill people and get the meat?"
"After all, it seems that the claim that the five tribute meats include human flesh is more credible," Mu Yiran said calmly, "When it comes to survival, the choices people make often go beyond their imagination."
"That girl named Zi Ling also agreed?" Wei Dong found it unbelievable.
Mu Yiran was too lazy to answer this question, so he just picked a Suta temple and walked in.
Mu Yiran stayed outside in the morning. This time, he walked straight to a monk in the temple, bowed, and said, "Dom, Gala, Dangka?"
These few words were mentioned by the middle-aged man, and he asked everyone to prepare sacrificial items.
Dom and others seemed to be transliterations. Even if the pronunciation was not correct, after Mu Yiran said it several times, the practitioner finally understood it. He first shook his head, said a few words in the local language, and then pointed to the north.
Mu Yiran bowed again, came out of the temple, and the three of them turned north.
To the north were rugged and steep mountains that seemed endless at a glance. Mu Yiran stood on a high place and looked into the distance for a while, his expression solemn: "It's too late today. We need to set out early in the morning to make a round trip and get back before dark."
It is already afternoon. If they go north now, they will not be able to get back before dark, and the consequence waiting for them will be certain death.
Wei Dong shuddered. "So, it is impossible for us to gather all the sacrifices required by the mission today. Does this mean... tonight, we are likely to be chosen and killed by that monster?"
The three people did not return home. Instead, they searched and asked along the way and went to nearby villages to look for clues.
It can be called a village, but it is just a small group of people living together, consisting of low adobe houses, tents and Satara temples made of a mixture of mud and grass.
The number of Sota temples is almost more than the residential houses. There is a small temple every three steps and a large temple every five steps. Looking around, in addition to the practitioners, there are also ragged, skinny villagers entering and leaving the Sota temples. Regardless of gender, age, rich or poor, noble or humble, here, all people are devout Sota believers.
"Faith is probably the most powerful spiritual force in the world." Mu Yiran suddenly said lightly.
"Oh? Then what is your belief?" Ke Xun turned his head to look at him.
Mu Yiran did not answer.
Ke Xun used his thumbs and index fingers to form a picture frame: "Art?"
Mu looked at him with a blank expression and threw a word at him: "Money."
"What a coincidence," Ke Xun pinched his thumb and index finger together, making a gesture that looked like counting money and making a heart shape, "My belief is also money."
What a coincidence! Weidong, who was listening nearby, curled his lips when he heard this. He ran a gym for ten days or half a month and never even went to check on it. He never cared how much money he made and never looked at the accounts. Whenever a friend needed money, they would come to you for one or two thousand, or occasionally thirty or forty thousand. I think you are almost squandering all the family fortune your father left you.
Before dark, the three returned to the big tent and saw that the others were already there, but their faces were pale and their eyes were filled with fear.
Ke Xun took a quick look and saw a few drops of fresh blood on the torn felt carpet on the ground. He followed the direction of the blood and found that it fell on a clay jar in the corner.
A few strands of thick blood slid down the edge of the earthenware jar. The lid was tightly closed, but one could still guess what was inside.
"Congratulations on your success." Ke Xun said to Zhou Bin expressionlessly.
Zhou Bin didn't say anything. He squatted there with his hands on his head , pulling his hair hard. Zhao Dan stood beside him with red and swollen eyes and his whole body was shaking.
No one said a word, and the tent was dead silent.
Only Ke Xun, Wei Dong, Mu Yiran and Qin Ci ate a little at dinner. No one else touched their mouths. Li Ziling even ran out to vomit twice.
After dinner, the middle-aged man entered the tent and said to everyone, "Tonight, three people per tent. Don't run around outside. Remember, there must be three people per tent."
As he was about to walk out, Ke Xun stepped forward and stopped him: "Excuse me, what does Gala mean?"
"Gala is Gala, why are you asking?" The middle-aged man stared at Ke Xun's face with his white and black eyes, "Who are you? How come you don't know Gala? Who are you! Are you a spy sent by the evil spirit?!"
Ke Xun finally discovered that, no matter in the previous painting or this one, the characters in the painting seemed to assume that they were people from their world at the beginning, and once they asked questions that they thought they shouldn't ask, it would immediately arouse suspicion.
It's like, some scary thing has used a trick to sneak into a crowd of people, and once you see through it and tell on yourself, that thing will immediately jump up and do scary things to you.
"Oh, don't get me wrong," Ke Xun made way without changing his expression, "I just wanted to find a random topic to chat with you.
"What are you talking about!" The middle-aged man glared at him fiercely, "You'd better behave yourself, or I'll complain to the elders!" Then he walked out of the tent angrily.
