Paintings of Terror

Chapter 29: An Offering that is Hard to Explain in a Few Words

Translated by Eve

Edited by EB

Wei Dong looked at Ke Xun, surprised. “When did you become such an eloquent speaker?”

Ma Zhenhua shouted: “I don’t agree! I want to be in the same team as Mu xiaoge. Mu xiaoge, please—”

Li Ziling’s eyes were full of tears. “I also want to be in the same team as Xiao Gege….”

Ke Xun smiled. “It’s not like we’re people who can’t be reasoned with. How about we go by majority vote? Those that don’t agree with my way of splitting the teams, please raise your hand.”

Mu Yiran once again cast an emotionless glance in Ke Xun’s direction.

This fellow knew that he wouldn’t raise his hand regardless of his opinion. That’s why he had chosen to ask those that didn’t agree to raise their hand.

As a result, only Ma Zhenhua and Li Ziling raised their hands.

Ke Xun looked at everyone. “Nine versus two. We’ll split the teams according to what I said. Let’s not waste anymore time. My team’s going to search the east side.” As he said this, he looked towards Mu Yiran.

Li Ziling was a bit angry. She glared at him. “What are we looking for? If we don’t know what we’re looking for, how are we supposed to find it?!”

The father of the family of three was named Geng Zhigang, He hesitantly asked, “The five tribute meats that person mentioned, could they be some kind of food? Since it’s going to be presented during the sacrificial ceremony, it should be some kind of offering. Offerings are usually fruits, pastries or meat.”

His wife nodded. “There are a lot of dwellings nearby. Maybe we can find everything by borrowing them from the nearby homes.”

Zhao Dan asked, “What are the five Dews of Wisdom then? A drink? Or just water?”

Zhou Bin thought it over. “Where would we find five different drinks in a place like this?”

Qin Ci said, “In any case, each team should gather some household supplies. We’ll do our best to make do.”

As he said this, he pointed to a corner of the tent. There were bottles and pots over there.

Everyone walked over to take a few before filing out of the tent. Everyone headed indifferent directions.

Ke Xun’s team headed east. Mu Yiran took the lead. In the back, Wei Dong elbowed Ke Xun: “Look at you, Ke er. Staking your life to defend what’s yours. You’re full of fighting power. I didn’t expect this of you.”

Ke Xun ignored him. All he said was: “Although my personal feelings constitute part of the reason, there are logical reasons for why we should do everything we can to be in the same team as the Boss. I think that he’s already deduced a few things about this painting. It won’t be a bad thing to follow him.”

Wei Dong: “You’re right. Ai, why are those two girls following us?”

The two of them stopped and turned around. They saw Li Ziling and Sha Liu coming over. However, Qin Ci, who was supposed to be with them, was nowhere to be seen.

“What’s going on?” Wei Dong looked at Li Ziling.

“Nothing. We also want to search over here.” Li Ziling gave Ke Xun an unfriendly look.

“Where’s Qin Ci?” Ke Xun asked Sha Liu.

Sha Liu glanced at Li Ziling a bit awkwardly before replying. “Dr. Qin said that he would search the south side on his own.”

Ke Xun understood what had happened. Li Ziling had probably insisted on following Mu Yiran. When Qin Ci failed to persuade her, he let the two of them do as they wished and went off on his own.

“Then let’s go together. The more people we have, the more manpower we have,” Wei Dong said as he gave Ke Xun a signal with his eyes.

Ke Xun didn’t say anything. With quick strides, he caught up to Mu Yiran who was already far ahead of them.

Somehow, Li Ziling was faster than he was. In a blink of an eye, she appeared next to Mu Yiran. She looked like she wanted to paste her body onto his. She tilted her head and looked at him with a wronged expression. “Xiao Gege, I’m scared. Can I walk with you?”

Mu Yiran ignored her and continued to advance. Li Ziling decided to treat it as silent agreement and stuck to him closely.

“Cough.” Wei Dong patted Ke Xun on the shoulder before quickening his pace. Wei Dong, Li Ziling and Mu Yiran walked shoulder-to-shoulder, leaving Ke Xun and Sha Liu trailing behind.

Sha Liu seemed unaffected. She pushed her glasses up and asked Ke Xun: “Have you guys found any clues?”

“Not yet,” Ke Xun said.

“I have an idea, but I don’t know if it’s right.” Sha Liu replied.

“Try me,” Ke Xun said.

“My mom has an old classmate that was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a few years back,” Sha Liu said, “This classmate was tormented by the cancer until he was more dead than alive. Originally, he had thought that he was a goner. But a Sahism practitioner he knew would occasionally visit him. That practitioner gave him a few ‘Dews of Wisdom pills’. The classmate would vomit incessantly after ingesting those pills. But miraculously, it cured his cancer. From then on, he became a devout follower. He then used almost all of his savings to establish a Sahism Church.”

Ke Xun: “So what you’re saying is that you think there’s a correlation between the Dews of Wisdom pill and the five Dews of Wisdom?”

Sha Liu nodded. “I had looked up the Dews of Wisdom pill after hearing about it. I found a rumour that the Dews of Wisdom pill was created from the five Dews of Wisdom. I hadn’t made the connection in the beginning —I had only thought that it sounded familiar. Now, I’ve remembered what I had read.”

Mu Yiran, who was at the front of the group, seemed to have heard her words. He suddenly stopped and turned around. “What do you remember?”

Sha Liu was a bit nervous facing the grave Mu Yiran. She pushed the bridge of her glasses up again and said, “The five Dews of Wisdom are kind of gross. Online, it’s said that four of the five Dews of Wisdom refer to the greater aromatic, the lesser aromatic, red essence and white essence. The greater aromatic and lesser aromatic actually refer to…the practitioners feces and urine.

Ke Xun: “….”

Li Ziling furrowed her brows: “That’s so freaking disgusting!”

Wei Dong: “The greater ‘aromatic’ and lesser ‘aromatic’…how did they come up with these names?”

Ke Xun: “No wonder he threw up after eating the Dews of Wisdom pill….”

There was still no expression on Mu Yiran’s face. He simply asked Sha Liu, “What are the other three?”

Sha Liu seemed to be embarrassed. “Red essence and white essence…refer to…the essence of men and the blood of women.”

Ke Xun reacted quickly. “…Sperm and menstrual blood?”

Sha Liu nodded, embarrassed.

Wei Dong’s lips twitched. “This won’t be that easy to get.”

“What’s the last dew of wisdom?” Ke Xun asked.

“We already have the essence of men and the blood of women. I bet the fifth one is even more shameful,” Wei Dong said.

Sha Liu’s expression changed. “Different doctrines cite different things regarding the fifth dew of wisdom. Some say it’s meat, some say it’s phlegm and mucus. Some split it into three grades: the lowest grade is fat, the middle level is bone marrow and the highest grade is the meninges.”

Wei Dong rubbed his cloth satchel. “I have some meat in my bag, so we don’t have to worry about that. Mucus and phlegm is definitely not as good as meat. I don’t think we need to get that.”

Sha Liu bit down on her lips. “…By meat, they’re referring to human flesh.”

Wei Dong shivered. “Then the bone marrow and meninges…you don’t mean to tell me that they refer to humans too?”

Sha Liu didn’t respond. The answer was obvious.

Wei Dong looked at Ke Xun and Mu Yiran. “Are we going to have to kill someone to prepare the offerings?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the painting assigned us with a mission like that,” Mu Yiran said in a flat voice, “If we were to say that ‘those things’ were meant to rob us of our lives, then the vote and this kind of mission is meant to rob us of our humanity. These ‘paintings’ aim to turn us into devils.”

There was no expression on Ke Xun’s face. “A devil is probably behind this kind of world. Only a devil would want to turn humans into devils too.”

“Regardless of whether or not it’s a devil, can we talk about the more pressing issue at hand? Do we really have to go kill someone?”

Li Ziling’s face paled. “We don’t necessarily have to use human flesh, right? Can’t we use mucus and phlegm? That’s better than having to get human flesh.”

Wei Dong: “Ziling’s right! We can just use mucus and phlegm. Who cares if it’s the lowest grade? What’s there to be picky about?”

Ke Xun looked at him expressionlessly. “Where should we get the five things from?”

“Cough,” Wei Dong looked at Sha Liu. “What do you think?”

Sha Liu pointed at the scattered tents and the Sahism temples located on the plains beneath the slope. “The greater aromatic and lesser aromatic can probably be collected from the temple as there has to be Sahism practitioners there. As for red and white essence….”

Wei Dong coughed. “We’ll get the white one. You guys get the red one.”

Ke Xun glanced at him. “Feces, urine, mucus and phlegm, which one do you want?”

Wei Dong’s face twisted as he deliberated over this. In the end, he grit his teeth and said, “Urine. I’ll get the urine.”

Ke Xun kicked him. He didn’t say anything else except for: “I’ll get the rest then.”

When Wei Dong heard this, he glanced at Mu Yiran discreetly and then threw a thumbs-up in Ke Xun’s direction.

Mu Yiran didn’t say a thing. All he did was follow the rest of them down the slope, towards the temples and tents.

Everyone split up and got to work once they reached their destination. The two girls went to ask the residents for ‘the blood of women’ while Ke Xun and Wei Dong went to get the remaining four things at the temples. Mu Yiran searched the area on his own.

A little over half an hour later, Ke Xun, and a disgusted-looking Wei Dong exited the temple. In his hand was a jar held far away from his face. He looked like he wanted to chuck it far away as soon as possible.

Wei Dong’s eyebrows were furrowed as he muttered, “I think that practitioner must have been suffering from excessive internal heat.”

Ke Xun ignored him, face expressionless.

They then saw Mu Yiran bend over, seemingly picking something off the ground a distance away. Ke Xun placed down the jar in his hands and then ran over. “What did you find?”

Mu Yiran glanced at him and then opened up his hand. Through the cracks of his finger, Ke Xun saw petite, bright purple flowers.

Ke Xun: “….” Male god, you’re really romantic. While I go get feces and urine, you’re picking flowers.

“Marvels of Peru.” The male god didn’t forget to imbue him with knowledge either.

“It smells great,” Ke Xun said.

.

“Did you get everything?” Mu Yiran asked casually.

“Yeah. Just don’t ask me how we got them.” Ke Xun didn’t want to recall it. “Especially the male essence.”

Mu Yiran looked at him coldly. Ke Xun immediately clarified: “Don’t worry, it’s not mine.”

Mu Yiran’s expression grew dark and he walked away.

Sha Liu and Li Ziling took a long time before they came out from the tents. Sha Liu had a pot in her hand and Li Ziling looked like she wanted to vomit.

Wei Dong: “Did you get the goods?”

Sha Liu nodded: “Yeah.”

It was like some illegal dealing.

“Is Ziling okay?” Wei Dong expressed his concern.

Li Ziling didn’t want to speak. She shook her head, a hand over her mouth.

By the time they got back to the large tent, it was already approaching noon. Lunch was the same as breakfast.

The three teams all made their way back. None of them came back empty-handed. They brought meat and locally-brewed wine with them. Mu Yiran had also gotten a lantern from one of the temples.

“Xiao Mu’s team collected the five Dews of Wisdom?” Qin Ci was rather surprised upon hearing Sha Liu talk about the five Dews of Wisdom.

No one had much of an appetite to begin with, but after they listened to her story, everyone felt their stomachs roll. Zhao Dan and Zhou Bin cast sympathetic gazes towards Ke Xun and Wei Dong.

Eve: LOL Mu Yiran picking flowers while Ke Xun gets the dirty stuff. There’s a reason though.