Paintings of Terror

“We shouldn’t stop investigating clues related to the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’ either,” Ke Xun said. “And also the coordinates of the art galleries—these might be crucial for getting through the final challenge.”

Shao Ling nodded. “You all continue with yesterday’s work. Leave investigating the Qin Dynasty to me.”

“I can help…” Gu Qingqing raised her hand.

“Alright,” Shao Ling then looked at Fang Fei and Wu You. “If you two don’t have other plans, you can lend a hand as well.”

Fang Fei and Wu You agreed.

After dinner, the girls didn’t rush to leave but instead took the time to divide the work and help with the investigation.

Everyone was engrossed in their computer, laptop, phones, and books. The room was filled only with the sounds of typing and pages turning.

Ke Xun opened his Weibo and saw that the comments had increased by over six thousand, with over a thousand reposts and hundreds of private messages. Checking them one by one would be time-consuming and exhausting, so he moved to sit by the window, looking out at the dark night and feeling the slight chill seeping through the window frame to cheer himself up before opening the comments.

Most of the comments were either people licking the screen or teasing him. The serious answers were mostly repetitive. Later, even things like Chinese knots and Yue Lao’s red thread of fate were mentioned. Ke Xun found them unreliable but noted down anything related to ropes anyway.

He kept scrolling through the comments like that until his eyes grew tired. He looked at the time and it was already past 10 PM. He glanced over at Fang Fei and the other two girls, who were still looking for information with Shao Ling and completely forgot about the time. They were really working hard.

Ke Xun stretched, preparing to ask the guys to escort the girls back to the hotel for some rest, when a message in the comment section caught his eye. He quickly focused on it and read:

“‘Huainanzi‘, chapter Patterns of Heaven, says: ‘The center is the Earth. Its emperor, the Yellow Emperor. His assistant, Hou Tu, holds the rope to govern the four directions.’ This means that Hou Tu, holding an inked rope, assisted the Yellow Emperor in managing the affairs of the four corners of the world. The inked rope is a tool used by carpenters. Whether it has any divine power, I don’t know.”

Ke Xun quickly noted down “inked rope” and continued scrolling, finding that this user, “Writing Papers Kills People,” had left not just one comment. There were several more comments.

Writing Papers Kills People: “‘Readings of the Taiping Era’ states: ‘It is said that when the heavens and earth were first created, there were no humans. Nuwa molded yellow earth to create people. But the workload was too heavy, and she couldn’t keep up, so she dipped a rope in mud and flung it around to create people. Thus, the wealthy and the nobles are those made by hand, and the poor, ordinary ones are those made by the rope.”

Ke Xun: “…” So, the three of us with rope patterns on our bones are the poor and ordinary ones?

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

He kept reading—

Writing Papers Kills People: “As for what is the Earth Cord, “Liezi“‘s The Questions of Tang says: “Later, Gonggong fought with Zhuanxu for the throne. In anger, he rammed Mount Buzhou, breaking the Heavenly Pillar and severing the Earth Cord.” This “Earth Cord” is the rope that holds the earth together. The ancients believed that the sky was round, and the earth was square, with large ropes at the four corners of the earth pulling the pillar of sky, hence the name ‘Earth Cord.’

Mu Yiran’s eyes flickered as he looked at the phone screen. After a moment, he lifted his gaze to look at Ke Xun. “Nuwa’s rope was just a single one, but the Earth Cord consists of four ropes. Now, the three of us have rope patterns. Perhaps the fourth rope pattern will appear on one of the three people outside our group of ten. So, I also believe that the Earth Cord is most likely.”

Ke Xun scratched his hair and said, “A rope that holds the earth together—this is way too… way too grand. We’re just ordinary people among billions. Having something like that imposed on us feels… like a weight that’s too heavy for life to bear.”

Mu Yiran rubbed Ke Xun’s messy hair. “Maybe it’s just a theme, like a tattoo—a symbolic way of expression. Think of it like the door gods we put up on our doors; they’re just pictures, not the actual gods. It’s the same concept. There’s no need to feel too pressured. What we need to figure out is what role this gu-xiang will play, or what it signifies.”

Ke Xun looked at his phone screen and sighed. “It’s true that the power of the people is great. I never expected the answer to come out this way. Should I ask people questions about the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’?”

“You can.” Mu Yiran looked at him and smiled. “It seems you’re more capable than the rest of us.”

“Aren’t you intimately aware of how capable I am?” Ke Xun leaned in close, his nose brushing against Mu Yiran’s, and whispered.

“That could be taken in more ways than one,” Mu Yiran gave him a sideways glance as he pinched Ke Xun’s chin and gently shook it from side to side.

Ke Xun quickly planted a kiss on Mu Yiran’s cheek, then sat back down properly. He casually said as he began typing out a new Weibo post on his phone, “If four of us have the Earth Cord gu-xiang, then the rest nine people must have the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’ gu-xiang. So why do the four of us have the Earth Cord instead of the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’? There must be a reason for this…”

“Nine people with the the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’ pattern…” Mu Yiran suddenly narrowed his eyes, and Ke Xun immediately stopped what he was doing to look at him.

“I’ve thought of a possibility,” Mu Yiran said in a low voice.

Perhaps their voices had been a bit louder in their later conversations. Everyone paused their work and turned to look at them.

“As for the origin of the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’, aside from the theory that it’s a ‘shaman drawing’, there’s another theory.” Mu Yiran said slowly, “Legend has it that at the beginning of the Xia dynasty, Yu the Great divided the land into Nine Provinces. He then ordered the governors of these Provinces to contribute bronze, which he used to cast nine cauldrons that symbolized the Nine Provinces.

“Yu the Great ordered people to draw famous mountains, rivers, sceneries, and strange creatures within the Nine Provinces. He then selected skilled craftsmen to engrave these images onto the nine cauldrons.

“Since each cauldron covered the natural scenes and creatures of its respective Province, these nine cauldrons came to represent all things in the world. From then on, ‘Nine Provinces’ became a synonym with China, and terms like ‘settling the cauldrons’ and ‘vying for the cauldrons’ became metaphors for ruling the land.

“Therefore, some scholars believe that the ancient painting of the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’ originates from the engravings on the nine cauldrons. The painting the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’ is a remnant of those cauldron engravings.

“If we are certain that there are nine entrants with gu-xiang of the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’, then we might be able to determine which version of the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’ is on our bones—Yu the Great cast the nine cauldrons and had the mountains and seas engraved on them. The mountain and sea patterns on our bones are from this most original version, the Yu version.”

Everyone was shocked, looking at each other without knowing what to do.

In the vast river of history, every individual was but a grain of sand or a drop of water, insignificant and small. Yet, at the origin of that grand and turbulent river, in that mythological era that no imagination could accurately describe, there existed an ancient divine artifact capable of stabilizing heaven and earth, safeguarding mountains and rivers, and engraving gods and spirits. And this artifact was inextricably tied to beings as tiny as they are.

This really caught everyone off guard. For a moment, everyone was overwhelmed by the same feeling of panic from the “weight that’s too heavy for life to bear” that Ke Xun had felt earlier.

“Can this really… really be true?” Luo Bu found it hard to believe that something so unimaginable would happen to him.

“There’s a ninety nine percent chance it is,” Shao Ling said, taking a deep breath. “It’s really a case of ‘one can’t see the forest for the trees.’ If Mu hadn’t thought of this, I wouldn’t have made the connection either. I recall some related information from my memory.

“‘The Zuo Tradition’ records this in detail. The content was roughly this: Yu had people carve images of evil beings and ghostly beings, as well as demons, monsters, poisonous insects, harmful beasts, and strange spirits from rivers, marshes, mountains, and forests—onto the nine cauldrons. This was done so that the common people could recognize these creatures and be prepared. When they go out on a long journey and travel through mountains and forests, they will have methods to handle them when encountering these things, such as warding off evil, driving away demons, and banishing ghosts. The ancients also believed that these nine cauldrons were imbued with various gods and spirits and possessed supernatural abilities.

“Yang Shen, a Ming dynasty scholar, also argued that the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’ was the remnant of Yu’s cauldrons. He said that the images on these nine cauldrons contained the wonders of mountains, waters, plants, trees, birds, and beasts. Once the nine cauldrons were completed, people could see the entire world through the cauldrons.

“In the Qing dynasty, scholar Bi Yuan pointed out that, in the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’, only things with the names of the provinces, or with mountains, rivers, gods, and strange creatures were depicted on the nine cauldrons. The rest, such as the Great Wilderness Classic section, were added by later generations.

“So, this further confirms that the painting of the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’ is a super painting unlike any other paintings we’ve entered before. It’s a colossal world within itself and one could “see the entire world” through it. Its world contains mountains, rivers, plants, animals, and monsters that are completely different from our world.

“And most importantly, and surprisingly, the painting of the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’ was not drawn on paper or silk—it was ‘drawn’ on the nine cauldrons.

“If the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’ painting on the nine cauldrons is the origin of this whole ‘entering the painting’ incident, then the first group of people who entered the painting would have entered the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’ painting on those nine cauldrons. As for how they entered, it might be related to the theory that the painting is related with shamanic drawings.

“The nine cauldrons were made of bronze, and bronze is a ‘divine artifact.’ The ancients believed they could communicate with the gods through it. During the Xia and Shang dynasties, bronze ritual vessels were used for worshiping spirits, conducting sacrifices, and performing shamanic rituals.

“The ritual vessels made from bronze consisted of food vessels, wine vessels, water vessels, musical instruments, weapons, etc. When using them, they must be arranged in a strict order, and this order is a rule that must be followed when performing shaman craft.

“So, can we assume that these nine bronze cauldrons, when used in a shamanic ritual, triggered divine power, and hence expanded the drawings of the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’ engraved on them into a real world that existed within the ‘painting’?”

Shao Ling’s analysis left everyone gasping for breath. Ke Xun felt like he was getting oxygen poisoning from breathing so much. He coughed a couple of times and said, “Prez Shao, your analysis seems very logical. Let me summarize: Yu engraved all things of the Nine Provinces onto the nine bronze cauldrons. Because bronze is a divine artifact that could communicate with gods and spirits, so during some sacrifices or shaman rituals, these cauldrons were imbued with divine power, making the drawings of all the things in the Nine Provinces on them manifest… Wait, that’s not right. The Nine Provinces’ sceneries existed before Yu engraved them on the cauldrons. Even if the cauldrons were activated by divine power, they couldn’t manifest another world of the Nine Provinces because—Yu and the cauldrons were already in the world of the Nine Provinces!”

Shao Ling was momentarily stunned, then realized that Ke Xun was becoming more and more like a logic genius.

This question left everyone deep in thought. As time passed, Ke Xun noticed Luo Bu yawning repeatedly and suggested they continue tomorrow and send the girls to their hotel first.

They left Luo Bu at home to sleep first and headed out together to escort the others.

Outside, the snow had piled up thickly, with flakes still falling. The streetlights in the neighborhood cast a faint yellow glow on the smooth surface of the snow, like an ancient piece of rice paper laid out across the earth.

“I have a question,” Wei Dong said, his breath forming white clouds in the cold air. “The cauldrons that could hold the drawings of everything of the Nine Provinces—just how big would they have to be? I’ve always thought that the stories in the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’ were full of myths, and that the nine cauldrons were probably just made up in those myths. In myths, it wouldn’t be surprising for something to contain the drawings of all the nine provinces. But now… it seems like the myth is being proven real, so we have to consider the practical side of things. Wouldn’t these cauldrons have to be the size of a building?”

“No one knows how heavy the cauldrons forged by Yu were,” Shao Ling said. “But since the nine cauldrons symbolize supreme power over the land, many rulers in later generations attempted to reforge a set to assert their imperial power.

“The ‘Zizhi Tongjian records that Wu Zetian reforged the nine cauldrons, with the largest one standing over 3 meters tall, and the others 2 meters tall. The nine cauldrons together used over 567,000 catties of bronze.

“As for Yu’s cauldrons, I imagine they were even heavier and more magnificent than Wu Zetian’s. As you know, during the Xia and Shang dynasties, cauldrons symbolized power, status, and wealth. The number of cauldrons one possessed reflected one’s status, and the weight of the cauldrons signified the extent of one’s power. During rituals, only the Son of Heaven, the ruler of all under heaven, could have the honor to possess nine cauldrons. Given that Yu unified the Nine Provinces, with such god-like authority, the cauldrons that represent such power would certainly not be small.

“The ‘Strategies of the Warring States’ mentioned the nine cauldrons. A single cauldron required 90,000 men to move, meaning that all nine cauldrons would need 810,000 men to be moved—though this is clearly an exaggeration. Nevertheless, their real weight must have been considerable.”

“Then where are Yu’s nine cauldrons now?” Ke Xun asked. “If we can’t figure out the origin of the painting incident, maybe we should investigate the cauldrons in person.”

Shao Ling smiled bitterly. “If it were possible to go, I would have said it long ago. The nine cauldrons forged by Yu disappeared as early as the Warring States period.”