CH 121

With the sound of the second hand in the sky, the entire desert began to reverse. Xu RenDong grabbed Lian Qiao’s hand and jumped onto the pipe. As soon as he got to the center of gravity, he became a little unstable and was hugged by Lian Qiao.

“Stay steady.” Lian Qiao tied the end of the climbing rope in a dead knot on his wrist and then taught him how to lower his center of gravity. “The pipe will slowly fall down in a while and we can start running up.”

Xu RenDong suddenly became enlightened.

Yes! Last time the hourglass was turned upside down and they watched the pipe slant. This should be an optical illusion, because they use the sand they are in as a frame of reference and so when the sand flowed, it caused them to look at the pipe from a different angle.

However, as the sand moved, the direction of gravity they felt also changed.

Xu RenDong remembered that when the hourglass turned over last time, the first thing they felt was the suction from the back—no, or rather, it’s the gravity from the back!

It stands to reason that if the direction of gravity does not change, it should always remain perpendicular to the pipe. They should always feel a downward force. But in fact, when the hourglass flips, the direction of gravity suddenly changes ninety degrees.

And the hourglass turned exactly ninety degrees in the end!

This shows that the source of gravity is the bottom of the hourglass! Once the hourglass starts to reverse, gravity will turn first! That’s why they have the illusion of being “pulled back by some kind of gravitational force”!

In fact, it is no longer from “behind”, but from “below”!

So, this time the gravity flips – it will be perpendicular to the pipe again!

Lian Qiao was really smart. Although he didn’t solve the puzzle this time, as long as he lightly thought about it, he was instantly enlightened and had already figured out a solution.

Sure enough, as the clicking sound became more frequent, Xu RenDong felt that his body was slowly getting lighter.

The change in the direction of gravity made both of them feel light on their feet and  they lost their balance. Fortunately, Lian Qiao was already prepared. He used the climbing rope to go around the pipe, tied a knot in the middle and the two people held both ends in their hands. This way, even if you lose your balance and fall off the pipe, you can pull back against the climbing rope.

“Run!”

Lian Qiao gave an order and the two began to run up the pipe.

This feeling was amazing. Xu RenDong felt like an astronaut, just without the uniform. Even though the pipe was standing upright, he was able to step on the pipe and run up instead of sliding down.

He heard the sound of sand flowing behind him and couldn’t help but turn his head to see an extremely spectacular sight.

The whole desert was floating upwards.

Sand rose slowly, swaying at first, like thousands of dandelions scattered in the air. With the inclination of the angle and the increase of gravity, the sand became like rain falling to the sky, flying straight and fast into the sky.

The whole world was falling upwards.

The two were shocked by this breathtaking beauty and they kept turning back while running, staring at the magnificent sand and rain.

Yes, the desert has become sand rain. One after another, falling into the sky.

Inadvertently, Xu RenDong met Lian Qiao’s gaze. Both of them saw the uncontrollably excited smiles on each other’s faces.

“I suddenly want to sing you a song!” Lian Qiao shouted with a smile.

“Go back and sing—” Xu RenDong also responded with a smile, “Wait for us to go out together!”

“Okay—” Lian Qiao frowned.

So the two stopped being distracted, but took the time to run towards the other end of the pipeline.

The change in the direction of gravity made walking on the pipe wall similar to walking on the ground. The wall of the pipe was very smooth but luckily they had Lian Qiao’s climbing rope for protection. Xu RenDong slipped down several times but was dragged up by Lian Qiao, avoiding the tragedy of going up with the sand rain.

Running on the pipe wall is much easier than trekking in the desert but, after all, it is still a desert climate, dry and hot. The two ran all the way, panting like dogs. After an indeterminate amount of time, their eyes lit up.

It’s the door!

They saw a dark golden door, floating out of thin air on the edge of the pipe. The metal texture was warm and cool, standing in the middle of the scorching flames, looking out of place.

The scorching sun scorched the wind and the sand to a very high temperature. The two of them had been running wildly and their dry mouths were indescribable. They only felt that the lobes of their lungs were about to be scorched, and the cells in their bodies were like sizzling poached eggs on a frying pan.

“What’s written on the door?” RenDong panted slightly, his vision blurred.

“He…fire…it’s ‘autumn’!” {LQ is reading the two parts of the character separately, Chinese characters are often made up of other characters next to each other or on top of each other.} Lian Qiao murmured thoughtfully after confirming the words on the dark gold gate, “It really is the four seasons…”

RenDong said in confusion, “Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. If you add ‘Long Summer’, it is obviously five seasons, so why is it four?”

Lian Qiao said, “If there was no ‘Long Summer’, I would also think that what is written on the door was just the ordinary spring, summer, autumn and winter. But since there is ‘Long Summer’, then it corresponds to the five internal organs.”

RenDong was still at a loss.

At this point, the clicking sound in mid-air was over and the desert was calm again. Standing on the metal platform, Lian Qiao felt that there was no danger here, so he patiently explained to RenDong.

He took out his mobile phone, quickly typed in the five words “spring, summer, long summer, autumn and winter”, then pointed to “spring” and said, “In ancient times, the four seasons corresponded to the south, east, and northwest respectively. For example, spring corresponds to the east, and the corresponding color is green.”

RenDong nodded. He has also heard something about north east south west, green dragon, white tigers or something like that. The question was why was there an additional “Long Summer”?

“As for this Long Summer…” Lian Qiao thought about it, and wrote “中” {means midde} under the word “Long Summer” {长夏}.

As soon as he finished writing, RenDong couldn’t help but recite: “North east south west… white in the middle?”

Lian Qiao laughed out loud: “No, no, this is not mahjong… Well, not entirely. The north east south west in mahjong actually corresponds to ancient Chinese philosophical thoughts. In fact, it’s like this, there are indeed only four of these directions and seasons, but in order to correspond with the five elements, ‘Long Summer’ and ‘中’ are added to them.” {I’m not too sure what they mean sorry… maybe something to do with mahjong.}

RenDong suddenly felt enlightened: “This also corresponds to the five internal organs?”

“Yes. .” Lian Qiao showed a happy smile of “I’m a good partner”, “In this case, we can make up this kind of correspondence.”

He wrote these five lines on the sand:

Spring – wood – liver – east .

Summer – Fire – Heart – South.

Long Summer – soil – spleen – central/middle.

Autumn – Gold – Lung – West.

Winter – water – kidney – north.     

Xu RenDong stared at the five-line characters for a long time: “No wonder there are so many corpses with their guts hollowed out along the way.”

Lian Qiao sighed: “I’m afraid they have all been sacrificed.”

He subconsciously looked at the door. In the engraved pattern, the scarlet blood was shocking. The blood must have been stained not long ago. Xu RenDong stretched out his hand, the dark brown blood was still a little sticky.

He suddenly remembered the message that the fresh dead ghost who died tragically in the bathroom in the fire mall gave before he disappeared.

It turned out that it was not “South/南”, but the unfinished “Offering/献” character! That person wanted to remind them that only the sacrifice of organs can open the door to the next level and,  at the same time, he was also alerting them that someone was going to harm them!

Where do the organs come from? Of course from the living!

They didn’t know how many players there were in this instance. Regardless of the total number, it’s likely most of them have died in the dark forest. There were very few people who can enter the second “heart” gate, not to mention that there were still three more gates of “earth”, “gold” and “water” left.

No wonder Lian Qiao collects fresh corpses by the pipe, because you could never have enough organs.

It can be seen that the murderer who hollowed out other’s internal organs must be waiting for them out front!

Thinking of this, Xu RenDong froze suddenly.

In this instance, in addition to the gentleman, there was another murderer.

He recalled the excited, bloodthirsty look in the gentleman’s eyes when he saw the dismembered corpses. At this moment, he suddenly understood the gentleman’s thoughts.

This is a serial killer who sees another serial killer, emotional tears springing into their eyes.

It’s unknown if these two murderers will sympathize with each other or kill each other, or could they hold some kind of perverted killing competition?

RenDong told Lian Qiao what he thought. Lian Qiao shook his head and said, “Don’t try to understand what the killer is thinking. When you fully understand him, you are not far from being a pervert yourself.”

He made a lot of sense.

Behind the golden gate was still a thick white fog that can’t be opened. There was no sense of danger behind the white fog.

Lian Qiao looked at the door and lowered his head in dejection: “Oh, I thought we were fast enough but I didn’t expect someone to be faster than us!”

Xu RenDong said: “The front two doors were opened long ago by others and now they are kept open. It’s expected that someone is leading from the front.”

Lian Qiao: “I wonder if the first person to open the door can get the hidden reward…”

Xu RenDong was stunned, and suddenly remembered that they hadn’t gotten any hidden items for a long time.

Except for the brass key in the first doll instance and Lamia’s eyeballs in the second instance, they came out empty-handed the following times.

Don’t kid, you have to do your best just to come out alive, how can you find the hidden props?

Xu RenDong and Lian Qiao have been together for some time and they have also played a lot of games together. At this time, he understands Lian Qiao’s obsession with hidden items and achievements. What’s more, Lamia’s eyeballs were so easy to use. If there was no such thing, he might have had a nervous breakdown in the butterfly instance.

So he thought for a while and said, “Why don’t we just walk through the pipeline for a while without entering the door?” 

The Gold gate was not at the end of the pipeline. There was more pipeline behind it, which extends into the cloud layer. It’s unknown what’s beyond the cloud layer.

Lian Qiao’s eyes lit up with eagerness written all over his face. But soon he shook his head again.

“No, it’s too late. If we continue to run forward, we won’t be able to turn back before the hourglass flips again. The direction of gravity will change again and we won’t be able to come back.”

Xu RenDong thought to himself: What are you afraid of, at most I’ll die and we can restart.

But he couldn’t say it.

So he looked into Lian Qiao’s eyes and said earnestly, “With me here, you don’t need hidden props. I am your strongest prop.”

Lian Qiao was amused by his sudden confession and reached out to rub his hair, Sweetly said: “Well, it’s enough for me to have you, my Nine Level Boss.”

Xu RenDong: “…” When you worship your boss, how dare you rub the boss’ head! What ill manners is this!

The two men dithered for a while in front of the door. After going through everything, they stepped into the mist side by side.

The cool and humid mist permeated the skin, and was indescribably cold.

Lian Qiao shrank his neck and stuck out his tongue: “Fortunately, it was late autumn when we came in and we wore a lot of clothes, otherwise… uh!”

He stopped abruptly before he finished speaking.

The white fog just dissipated in front of him. RenDong looked around in surprise, only to see Lian Qiao covering his mouth with a strange expression.

“What’s wrong?” Seeing his strange expression, RenDong became alert subconsciously. Looking around, it was a wilderness. The wasteland is littered with sparse stone and dead trees, the weeds are chlorosis, and it looked bleak.

The view of the wasteland is surprisingly wide. At a glance, RenDong didn’t see anything that could pose a threat but Lian Qiao’s face became worse and worse, and his expression became solemn.

Without waiting for RenDong to ask again, Lian Qiao spread out his palm covering his mouth. When RenDong looked down, there was actually a small pool of blood in the palm of his hand!

RenDong was startled and was about to speak when he heard a whimper of wind. Then there was a pain in his face. He reached out to touch it subconsciously, and his expression changed greatly.

Blood.

There was a slash across his face!

“…Someone was waiting and ambushed us?” Xu RenDong looked around in amazement. However, with them as the center, in a radius of several hundred meters, there was nothing but dry grass. There were no rocks or trees to hide in.

Lian Qiao slowly shook his head: “It’s not a human being.” 

RenDong: “A ghost?”

“I’m afraid… I’m afraid it’s not…” Lian Qiao suddenly covered his mouth and coughed. Soon, blood oozed from his fingers.

RenDong turned pale with fright. He just opened his mouth when suddenly he felt like his throat was cut by a knife. A tear-like sore stretched from the throat all the way into the lungs. He also covered his mouth and coughed violently.

“Cough, cough, cough…” 

The two coughed for a while, blood in their hands. After finally coughing for a while, the two were surprised to find that there were several more bloody slashes on each other’s faces.

The wounds were very shallow, like being scratched by a cat. It’s just that this cat has a very bad temper. In the blink of an eye, it scratched the faces of the two of them more than a dozen times, and blood was drawn every time.

Lian Qiao was stunned for a moment. Then he suddenly thought of something, took off his jacket decisively and pulled RenDong to his side:

“Quick! Get in!”

RenDong reacted quickly and hid in his coat along with Lian Qiao.

The two seemed to be sheltering from the rain at this time but, apart from the whistling wind, there were no raindrops in the wilderness. Still, every now and then, the bare palms felt tingling. Occasionally there was a sound of torn fabrics on the coat, as if invisible knives were flying in the air.

“Sure enough…” ‘’

The two were so close that Lian Qiao’s lips almost rubbed the earlobe of RenDong. The slightly deep voice caressed his eardrum.

“…It’s the wind.” Lian Qiao said.

At this time, the wind blew out more than a dozen holes on their faces and their bodies were not doing much better. In fact, these superficial wounds were all fine. The key is that the air inhaled into the lungs also seems to carry a knife, scraping the lobes of the lungs alive, so they kept vomiting blood.

Xu RenDong couldn’t help but want to sigh but he didn’t dare to take a deep breath, so he could only whisper, “Is autumn so scary?”

Lian Qiao said, “I can’t see like this.” He tried to pull his jacket away a little but as soon as he showed his head, a slash appeared on his forehead, which made him quickly retract his head.

Xu RenDong frowned: “This wind is too evil. Be careful, don’t hurt your eyes.”

Lian Qiao: “I’m not worried about this wind.”

“Huh?”

“I’m thinking, the person walking in front of us, where are they hiding?”

In an instant, Xu RenDong’s mind was like a flash of lightning. Many clues were connected in series, pointing to the same answer.

He couldn’t help but blurt out: “The gentleman and the murderer are waiting for us to deliver…”

Before he finished speaking, Xu RenDong suddenly felt a chill in his heart. Immediately afterwards, Lian Qiao’s terrified and angry expression came into view.

Xu RenDong touched his back subconsciously, the blood was hot. He touched a knife.

Unlike the invisible blades in the wind, it was a real sharp knife. The blade completely sank into his back, almost rubbing his spine. In an instant, he seemed to have been drained of all his strength and his whole body fell down softly.

Before he fell, Lian Qiao jumped up and hugged him, and at the same time let out a roar that didn’t sound like a human voice from behind him.

“You actually – I’m going to kill you! I’m going to kill you!”

Seeing Lian Qiao’s instantly soaring murderous aura, Xu RenDong suddenly felt extremely distant. He felt like a bystander, feeling no pain, no sadness and unwillingness. He saw Lian Qiao’s eyes redden with anger and murderous intent and he felt like he was looking at a stranger.

He even thought with some self-deprecation: Now I’ve put my foot into it. {Uh what’s the saying where you say something and then it tends to come true?}