Paintings of Terror

The foreboding of their own destiny made everyone feel heavy for a while, and no one spoke for a long time, until Yue Cen suddenly opened his mouth to break the extremely uncomfortable silence: "Let’s not forget that there are still two unsolved problems in these four rock carvings. .

"One is the order in which the four paintings are arranged. This issue is very important. The content and meaning expressed by the different orders may even be very different, which also affects our judgment of the final truth;

"Another question is the content on the rock wall with the theme of'Sacrifice Prayer'. What does the blank space at the center of the circle surrounded by these symbols for worship mean."

"Xiao Yue is right," Hua Jiqiu said, "The order of the rock paintings is very important. Xiao Shao's view is sentient beings → flood → death → prayer; my view is flood → death → prayer prayer → sentient beings.

"Look, these are two different trends. The sequence of Xiao Shao has left the entire incident recorded on the rock paintings at an uncertain stage. What is the result of prayer? Is it a god-given rebirth or death? Peace?

"And my order may be more idealized. I gave them a new ending, but it is difficult to say whether reality can be so beautiful.

"And what if you change the order? For example... sentient beings → prayer → flood → death.

"Look, this is another story, full of conspiracy, cruelty, and violence. In the world where all living beings were prosperous, there are people born with desires, which can be greed, power, or any kind of desire to control sentient beings. Or the desire above everything else, or even the extinctionism against humanity and society.

"So this person, or this group of people who share the same beliefs, used sacrificial prayers to perform witchcraft, for selfishness or individual extreme convictions, making this world flood.

"Finally, this reckless catastrophe caused by selfish desires brought death to the world, or, in other words, it was the evil result of disastrous life.

"The story described in this sorting fits the clues implied by the painting "Restart" you told me. The demise of every civilization is inseparable from the advanced intelligent creatures that dominate it. War, power, wealth, greed, and hostility can all be the culprits to destroy your own civilization.

"A civilization destroys itself, and accordingly, another new civilization will take over it and replace it. Therefore, after this death, perhaps a new world will be ushered in, just the one that carved these rock paintings. People of this age have no way to see the birth of a new civilization."

"Curator Hua's statement is very reasonable," Shao Ling said. "Some people say that our current civilization is not the first generation of human civilization on earth. It is said that more ancient civilizations have been discovered in many parts of the world.

"I remember that it seems to be in Africa. A nuclear reactor was discovered 2 billion years ago, and some scientists have speculated that the last human civilization was destroyed by a nuclear war.

"So can we infer that the world of mountains and seas is probably the real last civilization between 2 billion years ago and modern human civilization?

"It may not be regarded as a human civilization, but it must be an advanced intelligent civilization that dominated the world, and then it was destroyed by the prehistoric flood. After that, it did not take a long time for human civilization to be born. , It’s even very possible... human beings are actually the descendants of Shanhai civilization!"

"So... the wall carvings on this rock platform are probably recorded by the ancestors of mankind, the ancestors of mountains and seas, in order to prevent people from forgetting that period of history and that world?" Gu Qingqing's eyes were a little sad.

"In order to prevent future generations from forgetting that period of history, do you have to use the form of painting to harm your children and grandchildren?" Ke Xun propped his chin with one hand and raised his eyebrows. "It doesn't make sense. And don't forget, they prayed. It’s a blank space. If they want to ask for a big flood, it’s better to draw a flood symbol in the middle. They don’t know how to draw, or it’s not straightforward. You can draw a dragon or something, right? Dragons don’t manage water. God? Anyway, I feel that this blank is not because I can’t paint, nor is it because I can’t paint. It must be of ulterior motives.”

"Will they actually pray for...death?" Qin Ci said, "Death also means nothingness, so the center of the prayer ceremony is blank, and the flood is just a means to cause death. If it is not a flood, there may be other ways, such as an earthquake, such as a tornado, but it just happens to be a natural disaster like a flood. If you look at it this way, the order of the petroglyphs should be sentient beings → prayer → flood → death. "

"Then why do they pray for death to come?" Wu You asked, "Is it really like Uncle Hua said, is a group of anti-human and anti-social guys who want to die with everyone?"

"I really want to know how these four petroglyphs are related to another world," Ke Xun sat up straight. "Remember Yi Ran's previous guess. The scene in the Death Valley is probably a superposition of two worlds. In other words, it is our world during the day and another world at night. The two worlds appear alternately-don’t forget the clues that every painting we have summarized earlier suggests to us. It is already certain that there are two worlds. Thing.

"And that rock platform, it comes from another world. Why is there another half of "Mountain and Sea Map" on its rock wall? Why is "Mountain and Sea Map" half in our world and the other half in that world?

"Why are the contents of these four paintings portrayed in half of that world?"

"On this question, we can use common sense to try to push it," Shao Ling said, "After the flood, many people and animals died. What kind of mental state would people be like at that time?"

"Of course it is sad and sad," Wei Dongdao, "it is very likely that my family and friends were all buried in the flood, their homes, fields, and property were gone. The feeling must be very desperate. For a moment, I may feel that I don't know how to live anymore, helpless and sad."

"But compared to helplessness, grief must have the upper hand." Ke Xun's voice was a little dull.

Wei Dong looked at him and knew that he had touched the most painful scar in his heart again. He was thinking about how to comfort him, but when he saw him scratching his hair, his face continued to say with confidence: "They will definitely be incomparable. Missing your loved ones who have passed away and wishing them to come back to life is the strongest wish. If this wish cannot be fulfilled, we will retreat to the next level. I hope that even if we can see our loved ones again, it’s okay to have a look and say a word. , In short... just hope to communicate with relatives again... ahem."

Mu Yiran, who had been listening to the analysis of the crowd without a word, heard that he was using a cough to cover up his somewhat changed voice, reached out and patted him on the back lightly, and then stopped his hand on his body. , Gently hold the back of his neck and pass the temperature of the palm to him.

Ke Xun took a deep breath without showing a trace, and said: "If the desire to communicate cannot be realized, you can only choose the last wish, which is to hope that your loved ones will live well in another world, and pray for them."

"So—" Shao Ling said, "The hearts and feelings of people have been the same throughout the ages. After experiencing the great flood, the mental states of the surviving people must be those mentioned by Ke Xun.

"Then the point is here. The ancients believed in the power of ghosts and gods. Perhaps they would believe that the power of ghosts and gods can bring their loved ones back to life and allow them to communicate with their loved ones in the dead world. Or, at least They must also be asked to pray and pray for their dead relatives.

"The great witch in ancient times did this kind of business, so this grand prayer on the rock carvings happened naturally.

"If the ghost text is the text or medium of another world, then the ghost text is engraved on the altar and the sacrificial vessel, depicting the cause and effect of the whole event, and it is used to convey the grief and wish of the living to the dead, or even the ghost text. It is a very reasonable explanation for the master of another world to communicate, discuss, and beg to achieve the desire to come back from the dead.

"So these four paintings were carved on the rock platform and transmitted to another world in some way, which is the proof of the use of witch prayers to connect ghosts and gods. And I still insist on my previous view of the order of rock paintings, which is sentient beings → flood → Death → Prayer."

"What then? Your reasoning can't explain the follow-up question," Zhu Haowen said. "The prehistoric flood suddenly broke out in the mountains and seas when all living creatures prospered, causing lives to be devastated. The human beings who survived the flood prayed and cherished the memory of the dead relatives and friends. And hope to use the power of ghosts and gods to resurrect relatives and friends, or hope that they can live well in another world.

"In order to achieve this goal, they divided a "Mountain and Sea Map" into two parts. One part was cast on the Jiuding as a sacrificial vessel, and the other part was carved on the rock as an altar. Then they used a certain method to Taiwan is sent into another world, echoing with the Jiuding of this world, achieving the effect of connecting the two circles.

"So far, everything seems to make sense, but what about the follow-up? Why did the "Mountain and Sea Map" on Jiuding become our bones? Is it because we want to replace Jiuding to keep in touch with another world? After passing, does this prayer still refuse to stop?

"And why should we be drawn into the painting? Why are the tornado pillars getting bigger and bigger every night? The clues hinted by each painting mentioned that another world wants to replace this world. What is going on?"

A series of questions made it difficult for Shao Ling to answer for a while, Hua Jiqiu also fell into thinking. After a period of arduous silence, Shao Ling raised his eyes and looked at Mu Yiran, who has always been listening and meditating alone, and said: "I should also say Speaking of your thoughts, I don’t believe you haven’t figured out your own thoughts.

"I do, I have my own context, which is completely different from the views of all of you." Mu Yiran finally spoke. Everyone looked at him and heard him say clearly, "I think this The'protagonist' is not Dayu, nor is it a leader or great witch in the world, but a great witch from another world, with the'power of observation'.

"This rock altar does not belong to the human world, it belongs to another world.

"The petroglyphs on the rocks do not record human sacrifices or witch prayers, but-from another world, witch prayers."