Paintings of Terror

Chapter 43: Even If I Die, I Have to Die in a Passionate and Arrogant Way

Translated by Eve

Edited EB

When the light outside the tent turned deathly white, Ke Xun knew that it meant that Heishitian would soon descend.

Mu Yiran had said that they would only be able to make out the designs on the tents after Heishitian descended. He was right. The light had changed.

Ke Xun belatedly realized that he had sensed the change in the light at night since the first night. It was just that he had never imagined that the change would be so bizarre.

But he had no time to dwell on this. As the light turned deathly white, he began to turn the tent until he found the correct angle from which to view the design.

The first tent Mu Yiran entered was Ke Xun’s. Ke Xun didn’t say a thing, in fear of disrupting the other’s memorization. He silently ducked to the side, giving him space.

Mu Yiran stared at the top of the tent unblinkingly. His pitch-black pupils flickered quickly as he tried his best to memorize the design.

Ke Xun observed the situation outside the tent. Heishitian’s huge body had just touched the ground and was now slowly walking towards their tents.

In an attempt to avoid everyone getting caught in one fell swoop, the seven tents were not placed close together. There was some distance between each tent, but it was still possible to sprint from tent to tent.

Before Heishitian managed to reach the brink of their encampment, Mu Yiran had already left Ke Xun’s tent and headed into Wei Dong’s.

Ke Xun kept a tight watch over Heishitian. He noticed that it had started to approach Qin Ci’s tent.

Mr. Geng darted out of his tent and entered Qin Ci’s before Heishitian could.

Heishitian paused and then turned to head towards Sha Liu’s tent.

Mu Yiran, who was paired with Sha Liu, was currently in Wei Dong’s tent. Not much time had passed. There was no way he would have already memorized Wei Dong’s design.

Ke Xun ran out from his own tent and dashed towards Sha Liu’s. He didn’t shout out to Mu Yiran as he didn’t know if that would attract Heishitian’s attention.

Fortunately, he and Mu Yiran seemed to have a tacit understanding between them. The other stayed in Wei Dong’s tent and continued to memorize the design.

Ke Xun thought, since Mu Yiran had already memorized his tent’s design, there was no need to rush back into his own tent. He could temporarily form a team with Sha Liu and act according to the situation.

Right now, all four tents had two people, which meant that they all fulfilled the quota. Heishitian paused once again before changing directions. This time, it headed towards Mother Geng’s tent.

Father Geng sprinted out from Qin Ci’s tent and entered his own. Mu Yiran left Wei Dong’s tent and entered Qin Ci’s.

Heishitian shifted its trajectory. It was now heading towards Father Geng’s tent. Ke Xun took it on himself to be the pinch hitter. He ran from Sha Liu’s tent to Father Geng’s.

It was a hair-raising race against death. Under this silent, nervous, fearsome dark night, not one—not two—but three shadows continuously traversed through the seven tents. No one spoke, no one speculated. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on their destinations. Everyone gave it their all in sprinting. They had staked their lives on this and were now fighting with everything they had.

The apprehension in each person’s heart was ratcheting up as the night progressed. No one knew when Heishitian, this ‘god’ level boss, would suddenly go berserk. Every second that passed brought them all that much closer to the breaking point.

Everyone’s hopes were on Mu Yiran.

Mu Yiran had already visited all five tents but he was not even close to being done. He needed time to piece together the seven designs in his head.

It sounded easy, but because he could only do this in his head, it was actually abysmally difficult. First of all, all seven designs were extremely complicated and difficult to remember. It was practically impossible to just memorize them, let alone actually piece them together mentally. One would need much more than just one’s memory to accomplish this.

While Mu Yiran tackled the arduous task of figuring out the arrangement of the designs, the nerves of everyone else had already been pulled taut. Their hearts were beating loudly like drums out of nervousness. Everyone had to make sure that there was at least one tent that failed to meet the quota the whole time to attract Heishitian’s attention. Therefore, several people were constantly running without rest.

Both their minds and bodies were being heavily taxed, causing exhaustion to come quickly. Aside from Mu Yiran and Ke Xun, the rest of the group’s stamina had dropped dramatically. Their speed had become increasingly slow.

Father Geng, who was the oldest, was the first to fall. His legs gave up and he fell to the ground while running between two tents. His knee was cut by a sharp stone on the ground. The pain made him unable to crawl up for a moment.

Heishitian was only two steps away from him. Its eight arms spread out fiercely, looking like a giant net that spanned across the sky.

Ke Xun sprinted over. Just as Heishitian’s giant arms were about to catch Father Geng, Ke Xun pushed the older man away. However, the giant hand didn’t stop moving. Its fingers spread out and then clenched around Ke Xun.

“Ke Xun!”

Ke Xun heard someone anxiously yell his name.

It was a man’s voice, but it wasn’t Wei Dong. Wei Dong had always called him “Ke er.” It wasn’t Qin Ci or Father Geng either, as they called him ‘Xiao Ke’ and ‘Ke xiao ge’ respectively.

Ke Xun was lifted off the ground by that giant hand. The world spun all around him at a rapid pace. Nevertheless, he still tried his best to turn his head, to look for the person who had shouted for him.

“See ya.” Ke Xun grinned at him before waving.

Even if I die, I have to die in a passionate and arrogant way.

Ke Xun turned back around and stared at the giant head above him.

The eight-armed Heishitian had jet-black skin. Its humongous, red eyes popped out of its sockets. Its irises were indigo in colour and deep, slow breaths puffed out from its large, flat nose. Its vermilion lips reached its ears and four long, giant fangs protruded from its mouth. It opened its blood red mouth and the interior looked like a vast sea of blood.

It was finally time to die, but Ke Xun didn’t feel any fear at all. His body relaxed and he waved at the creature. He greeted it with a smile. “Excuse my frankness, but you’re really friggin’ ugly.”

Maybe it was its first time seeing a human sacrifice that didn’t struggle, scream or show fear. Unexpectedly, it didn’t ‘enjoy’ Ke Xun right away. It stared at Ke Xun’s face with its blood-red, protruding eyes.

Ke Xun was forced to meet its gaze, considering the fact that the other was holding him to its face. He could faintly make out something about to emerge from within that ugly, jet-black visage.

What is that? Ke Xun widened his eyes and carefully examined it. From below him, he heard Mu Yiran shout his commands in a heavy voice: “Tent 4, move to the left side of Tent 1. Tent 3, move to the east side of Tent 1. Tent 5, move to the west side of Tent 4….”

Heishitian’s face started to morph. A pair of curved eyebrows that looked like two crescent moons appeared, alongside a pair of long, kindly eyes.

It was the benevolent face of Heishitian!

The benevolent Heishitian was about to emerge!

But it seemed like the benevolent side was still too weak. The majority of the face in front of Ke Xun still belonged to the wrathful Heishitian. The benevolent Heishitian was like a fetus trying to force its way into the world. It did its best to wiggle in and take over.

The wrathful Heishitian was finally enraged. Its eight arms spread out, twisting in the air. Its hands opened and clenched in the air, as if it was trying to crush any and all powers in this world that were trying to contend against it. Two of its fingers pinched Ke Xun. It opened its blood sea-like mouth and motioned to toss Ke Xun in!

It was about to eat him alive!

Ke Xun shouted ‘fuck’ loudly. He would rather be dismembered than tumble into this thing’s stomach and end up as godly poop. He started to struggle and managed to grab onto one of Heishitian’s fangs. No matter what, he was not willing to fall into the deity’s mouth.

Heishitian stuck out its sharp, red, slippery tongue. The tongue searched around and gently scooped Ke Xun off of its fang. Just as the tongue was about to toss Ke Xun into the depth of its oral cavity, Ke Xun heard Mu Yiran shout ‘flip the tents’ below.

The black and red before Ke Xun’s eyes was swallowed up by an explosive golden light. This light blinded him, so he had no choice but to shut his eyes tightly. Unfortunately, not even his eyelids could block out the intense light. A rumble suddenly echoed in his ears. It sounded like the Heavens were murmuring to him. The sound was holy and solemn, sounding like a song from the Heavens. The scent of plants and fragrant oils wafted into his nose, making him feel good all over. It was like all his pores had been purified.

Surrounded by the sound of the heavenly music, scent of flowers and golden light, Ke Xun tried to open his eyes.

Before him was a pair of soft, beautiful, giant lips. Something gently pulled him out from between this pair of lips. Ke Xun’s field of vision changed. The jet-black, ugly wrathful Heishitian had disappeared. In its place was the dignified, kindly, Buddha-like visage of the benevolent Heishitian. It had skin like white jade and gentle and limpid features. Although there was no vitality in its eyes, unlike before, Ke Xun felt a wave of calm wash over him when he stared into them.

The benevolent Heishitian lifted him up. With a gentle turn of its wrist, Ke Xun found himself facing the ground. He saw that all seven tents had been flipped. They looked like seven shallow bowls. The designs on the bottom made for a completed picture.

The picture was of a string of Ganxiong characters made out of the tracks of plant-based and animal-based offerings. Ke Xun guessed that the characters probably made up the painter, Qiu Jian’s, signature.

Mu Yiran had said that it was theorized that the skull contained a person’s life force and spirit.

Qiu Jian was an ardent follower of Sahism. His signature, which represented his life force and spirit, had been engraved into the sacrificial bowl he wanted to offer to his god. He piously offered himself in the name of his faith.

As for whether he was a follower of Qing, which worshipped evil gods, or the original branch of Sahism, that was probably up for interpretation.

Amidst the golden light that covered the skies, something that looked like a picture frame gradually emerged around the signature. Everyone left the painting in a single file. The last one to leave was Mu Yiran. Mu Yiran stood by the picture frame and turned to look up at Ke Xun.

Ke Xun felt the fingers holding onto him let go. As his body tumbled through the air, he thought, maybe my male god will catch me in his arms and carry me in a bridal hold. Contrary to his hopes, he saw Mu Yiran shift to the side expressionlessly, freeing up his landing spot….

Everyone sat paralyzed on the ground after exiting the painting and returning to the third exhibition hall. For a long time, no one spoke.

Ke Xun rubbed his aching body. His bones had nearly shattered from that fall. He then turned to look at the painting, ‘Faith’, that hung on the wall next to him.

This was a classic painting of a deity. The majority of the painting was made up of the benevolent Heishitian. The painter had painted the god’s entire body. Flower petals, clouds and brightly-coloured jewels surrounded it. However, the god was holding a painting on a sheet of human skin.

The human skin painting depicted the wrathful Heishitian. It wore a crown made of human bones, a necklace of human heads, and had a cloak of human skin draped over it. In one hand, it held a skull cup containing fresh human brains. In it’s other hand, it held a sceptre made of human bone. It also had a bracelet made of human bone around its wrist. All sorts of bloody offerings were laid out before it, separated into six human skulls that had been made into sacrificial cups.

Ke Xun stared at the painting. He noticed that the head belonged to Tan Zheng. The human skin used to make the cloak seemed to belong to Ma Zhen Hua as well. As for the brains, flesh and bones, they probably belonged to Zhou Bin and Li Ziling.

“What are you thinking about?” Mu Yiran stood next to him as he gazed down as Ke Xun mildly.

“No wonder I felt so stifled in the painting.” Ke Xun pointed at the painting, “It was a painting inside a painting. We entered the human skin painting that the benevolent Heishitian was holding.”

“Fuck…so we were living inside human skin?” Wei Dong was greatly alarmed. He then turned around. “Urgh—”

Before leaving the third exhibition hall, Qin Ci told Sha Liu and the Geng family what to pay attention to. For example, they could not talk about the world inside paintings with outsiders. Or that they had to enter the next painting at the exact time and place indicated on the ticket in their pockets.

Sha Liu had staggered away with a pale face. The Geng Family had stayed because Qin Ci had said that he would refer their son to a psychiatrist for some counselling.

Ke Xun, Wei Dong and Mu Yiran decided to leave by taxi. Ke Xun had just been about to ask Mu Yiran if he was going to head to a hotel or immediately hop on a plane. But as soon as he turned his head, he discovered that the other was already fast asleep.

“Thanks for your hard work,” Ke Xun whispered, a smile painting his face.

Eve: And that’s the end of this painting! Onto the next~ Glad our babies made it out alive. We’re going to meet one of my favourite side characters in the next painting~