Paintings of Terror

Chapter 205: No Anger and No Desire, The Path To Immortality

“There’s no need for a knife,” Fang Fei said. “Diving all year round requires physical fitness and strength training.” Pointing to Luo Bu and Wei Dong, she added, “My strength is no less than yours. I will try to fight against that ‘chicken.’ If I can’t resist it, then probably even a knife will be useless.”

Wei Dong and Luo Bu: “….Okay.”

“Then, let’s agree on a set of simple marks.” Mu Yiran looked at Fang Fei.

“Xue Ge didn’t have enough time to leave more information. I suppose it was because we didn’t consider it enough.” Mu Yiran took the bamboo slips and the brush. “Let’s agree on some quick and easy writing marks that will have different meanings. Use them if you can and leave as much information as possible about what you saw. Sorry that I have to say this.”

“It’s okay,” Fang Fei said calmly, like a warrior about to undergo a mission with no chance of return.

“If you see a real ‘chicken’, please draw a √ on the bamboo slips.” Unwilling to waste time, Mu Yiran quickly got on topic. Writing it on the bamboo slip, he said, “If it’s just something that starts with the word ‘chicken’, and you can’t write its full name, please write ‘o’.”

“If you think it can be eliminated by human power, please write a ‘one’ above √ or O. If you’re not sure, write a ‘one’ below.”

“If you are convinced that the person who lit the rhino horn would definitely not survive, put a right slash on √ or O. If you think that only the person who lit the rhino horn can find the signature, but the person who lit the rhino horn will die, draw a left slash. If it is useless to look for the signature, put neither √ nor O, and instead mark an X.”

“If you see the signature, please copy it down as much as possible, but if it is too late to copy it, draw a ‘△’. If the signature is in the sea, draw a wave line above the △. If it is on the boat, draw a straight line above the △. If…”

In this way, Mu Yiran prescribed corresponding marks for almost all possible situations, and asked Fang Fei to memorize them. Even after she had learned it, she still asked Wei Dong to help her improve her memory by randomly asking her questions.

For everything else, it seemed that they had to wait for night to arrive. Ke Xun cooked, and after they had all eaten, they used the entire morning to catch up on sleep.

In the afternoon, they all gathered together to briefly narrow the illusions they each had experienced last night. It turned out that all the illusions they experienced had tried to deceive them into getting angry.

“It’s worth noting that the rope Luo Bu was tied with last night disappeared in the illusion, only to reappear at dawn,” Shao Ling said. “However, Wei Dong’s brush didn’t disappear. The fact that mobile phones did not disappear could be attributed to them being something outside the setting of the painting. Then, why didn’t the brush, which holds the similar status as a rope, disappear?”

“It was probably because the rope restricted Luo Bu’s movements, this hindering the illusion’s goal of tricking him into jumping into the sea. As such, the illusion had to take it away,” Ke Xun said. “It’s just like the walls. The illusion will remove or alter the things that could prevent us from jumping into the sea.”

“Luo Bu is amazing.” Wei Dong patted Luo Bu on the shoulder. “He used a rope as a warning object, but the rope was taken away. Although he lost his warning object, he could actually still hold on.”

“Maybe because of the illusion last night. It didn’t make me so angry that I couldn’t control myself.” Luo Bu scratched his head. “I really don’t have much of a temper. Even when I was little, I rarely got angry. I have never quarreled with anyone before. When someone provoked me, I would either ignore them or apologize directly, regardless of whether it was my fault or not. Anyway, I couldn’t get angry, and I have no interest in being rude to others.”

As Luo Bu was talking, he suddenly noticed that Mu Yiran, Shao Ling, and Zhu Haowen were staring at him. He was so scared that he stopped and blinked at the three of them.

“Then please think about it now. Is there anything that will make you angry enough to lose control?” Shao Ling asked him.

Luo Bu thought for a long time and finally shook his head in embarrassment. “I can’t think of anything. I even imagined that I was forced by a man, and even that didn’t make me feel very angry…”

Everyone: “.….”

“Then what if someone abuses your parents in the most vicious language?” Wei Dong asked.

“Look, even if I told the other person not to scold me, they obviously wouldn’t listen to me. Scolding the other person back would be meaningless. If I want to use physical violence, he would probably continue unless I killed him, wouldn’t he?” Luo Bu said lightly, “And the fundamental reason why someone would insult someone else’s parents is to provoke that person. So why should I let them get to me? It’s fine if I turn a deaf ear to these things. If the other person wants me to get angry, then I just won’t get angry. The other person wants me to be unhappy, so why should I give him the satisfaction of getting what he wants?”

“…Damn, this kid has a really good mentality,” Wei Dong said to Ke Xun. “I’m starting to like him.”

“But what if the other party puts the insulting content into action?” Shao Ling further asked. This was very tactful, but everyone understood what he meant.

No one could stand this happening.

Luo Bu thought about it for a while and replied, “If that is the case, I might only hate myself. No matter what the reason is, the end result was that I am a son who has no ability to protect his parents. However, this emotion isn’t anger, but self-blame.”

Everyone was quiet for a moment, until Shao Ling looked at Mu Yiran and said, “Luo Bu is a person who hardly produces anger, so he survived the illusion more easily than the rest of us last night.”

“In other words,” Qin Ci said, “Among the seven emotions of human beings, the emotion mostly likely to kill us is the one that has a stronger grip on us. Otherwise, we have a chance of survival.”

“So the only way to survive is not to have the seven emotions and six desires?” Zhu Haowen said with a slight irony. “That is probably something that only Buddhist monks can do.”

“No, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we must completely eliminate our seven emotions and six desires,” Shao Ling said. “It may only be necessary to achieve a level like Luo Bu. He did not lack anger, but this anger was shallow. If a person is very indifferent in these seven basic emotions, then this can be regarded as having attained detachment and impassivity. Therefore, if the illusion is screening us this way, then the best mentality to have is one that is good, or better yet, one that is exceedingly good.”

“Screening?” Ke Xun’s eyes lit up, and he met Mu Yiran’s gaze. “Yes, we’re being screened! Isn’t this painting about Xu Fu taking virgins and going out to sea to find the Island of Immortals? Not all mortals can see what they want to see. If they want to see the immortals, they must be different from ordinary people, and so they must be tested, right? Don’t immortals have to abandon the seven emotions and six desires of mortals before they can become immortal? Therefore, to reach immortality, one must go through many layers of trials, and so the illusions encountered by this ship at sea must be the trials of the immortals.”

“This is very possible,” Mu Yiran said. “This ship probably isn’t the one with Xu Fu in it,”

“At that time, according to records, Xu Fu took two to three thousand boys and girls, plus eight hundred crossbow soldiers, and no hundreds of technicians. Even with a conservative number, there must be at least five thousand people. This meant that several or even hundreds of ships had formed a huge fleet for this sea voyage.”.

“The navigating technology at the time was limited. And things beyond their control can happen at sea. As a result, not all ships can eventually reach the end goal.”

“There is no conclusion as to where Xu Fu’s ship finally landed. Some said he reached Japan, some said he reached the Korean peninsula, and some said he reached the Americas. The most common view is that he reached Japan.”

“However, in view of the fact that ancient arrows and other cultural relics inscribed in seal script were also unearthed near San Francisco, America, we may think that this fleet of ships was once displaced on the endless and dangerous sea, and finally went in different directions.”

“So there may be such a ship, like this one, that found the right path by accident, entering the route to the Island of Immortals, and thus accepting the trials set by these ‘immortals’.”

After saying this, Mu Yiran suddenly fell into thinking, and Shao Ling took his words and said at the end, “So this trial is based on humans’ seven emotions. Those who are irritable and easy to hate, easy to be happy and easy to sorrow, are easy to fall into love and desire, such people do not have a relationship with immortals, as they are too weighed down for immortality. They are screened and eliminated in the trial of the seven nights, and the remaining talents are ultimately qualified to become immortals.”

“Just like what the Taoists often say, ‘One’s nature makes up seven points, and one’s fate makes up three points.’ The cultivation of one temperament is very important to cultivating Taoism and immortality. If there is no cultivation foundation, it would be very difficult for this person to undertake any major events, while increasing the danger to his life.”

“So, embodied in this painting is the story of the eastern crossing in search of the Island of Immortals, while at the same time, people with unstable seven emotions, or nature, would have no chance of seeing these immortals.”

“Therefore, if we don’t want to die in the trials of the next few nights, we must try our best to be calm and not allow emotions to influence our actions and thoughts.”

“Unexpectedly, we ran into the painting to cultivate immortality.” Wei Dong was a little bit dumbfounded, and looked at Luo Bu beside him. “So, I think Radish is most likely to last until the end.”

Luo Bu said, “…Brother, are you complimenting me? Why can’t I be happy at all?”

“No, Luo Bu is timid, and is committed to ‘fear’.” Shao Ling looked at Luo Bu, “I want to ask Mr. Luo, what is the greatest fear in your heart?”

Luo Bu thought for a while, and shivered. “I am most afraid of Sadako and Kayako. If the illusion makes a ghost like this come after me, even if I know it’s just an illusion, I would still become so scared that I will run away anyway….I think I might not be able to survive the night of fear…”

There was a tremor in his voice, and his eyes were wet.

“So I think what we need to do most now is to find a way to overcome our most vulnerable emotions,” Shao Ling looked at everyone grimly. “Although psychological problems take a long time to slowly adjust, there is one method that may work when pressed for time. I think we can try it.”

“What method?” Luo Bu asked hurriedly.

As everyone watched, Shao Ling replied word by word, “Crash therapy.”