"We know that the conditions for death in this painting increase night by night," Mu Yiran said. "The first condition is not meeting the prescribed number of people per tent. We have thirteen people, but we are only allowed two people per tent, excluding one person. What kind of behavior is this in a religious context?"
Qin Ci's eyes flashed: "Eliminating dissidents."
Sha Liu suddenly realized: "That's right! Exactly! No matter what sect it is, they will not allow dissident members to exist. They want to maintain the purity of their faith. If you don't believe, why join the sect? Dissidents must be excluded!"
"Using the number of tents to express the act of excluding dissidents is a symbolic manifestation of sectarian behavior," Mu Yiran continued. "After the dissidents are eliminated, the second selection process begins, which is the second night. On the second night, the act of excluding dissidents continues. It cannot be limited to one night. This also conforms to the actual practice of the sect. At the same time, to further purify the sect, those who are not sincere, that is, those who did not prepare the offerings themselves, are selected and eliminated."
Qin Ci nodded: "This also conforms to the actual practice of the sect."
"After eliminating those who are not sincere, we move on to the third level of selection. And just yesterday, everyone prepared all the offerings—assuming all the offerings are correct, I think this situation has brought forward the preparations for the sacrifice," Mu Yiran continued.
"Indeed," Qin Ci pondered, "that person said the sacrifice would be held on the seventh day. If we only prepare the offerings on the sixth day, then the sacrifice will immediately follow on the seventh. But we prepared the offerings yesterday, so we are currently in a state of readiness to perform the sacrifice at any time."
Mu Yiran's gaze was deep: "And as far as I know, there is a branch of the Sataka religion that has a procedure for human sacrifice before the sacrifice, and the person chosen for human sacrifice is the most devout believer in the religion. After all, for believers, personally offering sacrifice is the ultimate expression of piety, the greatest honor, and the most glorious way to be guided and converted."
Sha Liu nodded repeatedly: "That's right, this is also a grace given to believers by God. From God's perspective, it is not killing believers, but fulfilling, guiding and converting them."
"So, so that thing was actually well-intentioned?" Wei Dong was dumbfounded, "The original intention of this painting has also become a devout prayer and a willingness to sacrifice oneself?"
"But we're not believers," Geng Ma exclaimed in shock and anger. "What good will it do if it kills us!"
"Isn't the purpose of proselytizing to convert non-believers into believers?" Sha Liu said dejectedly.
"So, our act of preparing sacrifices has become an implication to the Black Corpse Heaven that we should become offerings?" Qin Ci's expression was complex and difficult to describe.
"After the offerings were prepared," Mu Yiran continued, "as a grace, last night, the Black Corpse Heaven chose the most devout believer to sacrifice himself. At the same time, the selection criteria of eliminating dissidents and purifying believers still exist, so Li Ziling was not spared either."
Everyone was shocked. Qin Ci's voice was low: "So, Zhou Bin was chosen as the most devout believer… Thinking about it, it makes sense. Zhou Bin was indeed more proactive and more… ruthless in preparing the offerings than us."
Sha Liu glanced at Ke Xun hesitantly and stammered, "But Ke Xun didn't meet the tent's number requirement last night, yet he was unharmed. How do you explain that?"
Everyone looked at Ke Xun and Mu Yiran.
"Yeah, why? That guy stared at me from above for ages, clearly wanting to drag me out." Ke Xun looked at Mu Yiran. "Could it be that he, like you, despises me?"
"..." Mu Yiran remained expressionless. "I've said it before, perhaps no power is stronger than faith. Gods exist through faith. Faith is a kind of spiritual power, and I think what can counter spiritual power is spiritual power itself. Last night, it was on top of your tent, perhaps sensing a power that could contend with it."
"So you mean, I defeated it with my spiritual power?" Ke Xun raised an eyebrow.
"Or perhaps it's the absence of technique that wins," Mu Yiran said coldly. "A person without faith or spiritual power is probably an impenetrable rock to a god who needs faith to exist."
Ke Xun said indulgently, "You're handsome, so whatever you say is right."
Mu Yiran ignored him with a sullen face.
Sha Liu, however, took his words to heart and couldn't help but press Ke Xun, "You must have a faith, right? Are you religious?"
Ke Xun looked up at the sky, then smiled, "My faith might not apply to you. Besides, no matter which religion or god you believe in, first you have to strengthen your spiritual power... or, turn yourself into a stubborn rock."
Sha Liu bit her lip and looked at Mu Yiran, "I don't want to die. I have a strong will to live. Does that count as spiritual power?"
Mu Yiran answered her calmly, "Nobody wants to die, nobody..." "We all want to live, and I believe Zhou Bin's willpower is no less than yours. As parents, Mr. and Mrs. Geng's willpower to protect their child and live is probably several times stronger than yours."
Sha Liu's face paled. "Then...how can one achieve what Ke Xun did?"
Mu Yiran refused to answer, but seeing everyone looking at him expectantly, he could only say expressionlessly, "I think this so-called power of faith, or spiritual power, or willpower, refers to the full spiritual power a person truly possesses, hidden beneath their outward appearance.
"This power, until a specific time, even we ourselves cannot estimate its strength. "
Perhaps it is stronger than you expect, just as people often say, human potential is limitless, you just don't know it. "
Or perhaps, it is so weak that it cannot satisfy you at all, you have simply overestimated yourself.
"So I cannot be certain for you whether you can fight against it like Ke Xun. If you want to be certain, you can only try it yourself; success and failure are each 50% possible."
Sha Liu dared not try, and could only look to Wei Dong, seeking someone who shared her fate.
Wei Dong: "..."
"I think Xiao Ke is just an exception," Qin Ci said after deep thought. "If everyone could contend with the belief in the Demon God, then the existence of gods would be meaningless. I don't think any of us can be like Xiao Ke, so the most urgent thing is to think about how to deal with tonight and find clues related to the seal as soon as possible."
"Yes, I've been prone to mental distraction since I was in school, so it's impossible for me to contend with any Demon God with mental strength," Wei Dong quickly followed up. "Let's think of a plan quickly. Tonight, we'll probably have to choose another person to sacrifice, and we also need to divide the tents. There are only nine people left now. If we're still in groups of three, we might have to choose three people to sacrifice."
Geng's parents also became anxious upon hearing this. Geng's mother stamped her foot: "What are we going to do? From what you're saying, we'll die if we don't prepare a sacrifice, and we'll still die if we prepare a sacrifice. There's simply no way out!" Wei Dong
smiled bitterly. A voice said, "It's normal not to give us a way out, okay? Don't forget this is a painting. We were brought in here to be killed in various ways. Giving you a wide-open path to survival is unrealistic. Basically, all of us need to find a way out of a nine-out-of-ten chance. Going forward or backward is a dead end. You have to carve out a path to survival from the dead ends."
Sha Liu looked at Mu Yiran: "What are your thoughts on the seal, Brother Mu?"
Mu Yiran said, "I only know that the painter, Qiu Jian, is a fanatical follower of the Satya Namgyal. His seal is likely hidden in a place related to religion."
"Could it be in a Satya Namgyal temple?" Geng's father asked.
"It might be on some kind of ritual implement," Qin Ci said.
"And… could it be at the sky burial site?" Sha Liu said, "After all, that kind of place is where the souls of these believers are sublimated."
Qin Ci nodded slightly: "We can't just talk about it here; we have to take action and search every place we can think of. Brother Geng and his family of three can try searching in the nearby villages. Let Zhao Dan stay here for now; I think she'll have a hard time getting over Zhou Bin's death anytime soon. The rest of us five will split into two groups: one to search at the sky burial site, and the other to search at the nearby Suo Tuo Temple. We should try to get back as early as possible this afternoon. If we don't find anything, we'll need to think together again about how to get through tonight."
Everyone agreed. Since the sky burial site was far away and required men with good stamina and quick legs, Qin Ci volunteered and asked Ke Xun and the other two who wanted to go with him.
Mu Yiran said, "I need to go to the temple to inquire about some things."
Ke Xun looked at him, then at Wei Dong, and smiled, "Dr. Qin, I'll go with you, the other three will go to the village."
The group split up and immediately set to work, giving their all for their lives.
With some time still remaining before dark, Ke Xun and Qin Ci returned to the tent area. Most of the others had returned, except for Mu Yiran.
Zhao Dan seemed to have fainted from crying and was being placed in a corner of the tent.
"Where's Mu Yiran?" Ke Xun asked Wei Dong.
"He left us here this morning and then abandoned us," Wei Dong said dejectedly. "We don't know where he went. We searched all the nearby temples ourselves, but didn't find anything that looked like a seal."
"What about Brother Geng?" Qin Ci asked.
Brother Geng's father shook his head, his face grim. "We searched all the tents and houses nearby, but found nothing."
Sha Liu then asked Qin Ci, "What about you? Did you search the sky burial site?"
"Yes, we searched, but found nothing," Qin Ci said in a low voice.
"What should we do..." Aunt Geng said anxiously, "Where else could it be? Where else could the seal be?"
No one could answer, and the tent fell silent.
As dusk approached, Mu Yiran returned, meeting everyone's expectant gazes, and said calmly, "It would be best to dispose of those offerings you prepared."
Qin Ci's eyes narrowed: "Have you found out the exact situation?"
Mu Yiran said, "No, the language barrier is the biggest obstacle. However, I took some local plants that Ke Xun and I collected yesterday to the temple, and the elders there asked me for them, seemingly wanting to use them for something. But I probably won't know until tonight, so we'll have to wait until tomorrow morning.
"I told you to dispose of those prepared offerings because I considered it on the way back, and I still believe that these offerings are of no benefit to us."
"As I said before, that thing grows stronger with these sacrifices. We can't be sure what will happen when it grows to its desired size, or whether it will be a catastrophic disaster for us.
"Since we know that we could be chosen and killed by that thing regardless of whether we prepare sacrifices or not, it's better to get rid of these things than to let them grow stronger."
Sha Liu looked at him hesitantly and said, "But… I think that if we keep the sacrifices, that thing might only choose one of us, or a few of us, but if we get rid of all the sacrifices, we might all die…"
Mu Yiran's expression remained unchanged as he said calmly, "Whether you keep them or not is your decision. I'm just offering a suggestion."
Sha Liu stopped talking and lowered his head to wipe his glasses with the corner of his clothes.