Paintings of Terror

Chapter 40: Ke Xun’s Impressive Operation

Translated by Eve

Edited by EB

The giant shadow hovered over Ke Xun’s tent for a very long time. Many times, Ke Xun had thought that it would reach into the tent. But it never took the next step.

Ke Xun had no idea what it was waiting for or looking for. It stood above them, its breaths long and drawn-out. It was like it was combing through their past lives, current lives and future before making its decision.

Ke Xun didn’t know how much time had passed when the giant shadow stood up. It then moved away from the pair of tents.

Ke Xun heard Father Geng sob in grief. “Hui Xin….”

Hui Xin was Mother Geng’s name. The giant shadow was gradually making its way to the women’s tent.

“Mommy…I want Mommy…” The boy could no longer hold it in anymore. He struggled, wanting to leave the tent.

Ke Xun pressed the boy down and called out for Wei Dong quietly. “Dong zi, watch over him. I have a plan.”

Wei Dong held onto the boy at once. He was about to ask Ke Xun what his plan was but the other rolled into the neighbouring tent before he could spit out his question.

Mu Yiran was caught off guard as Ke Xun rolled onto his body. His expression was chilly and he was about to kick the other back into his own tent when he saw the other hold his finger up in a ‘shh’ gesture. Ke Xun then looked at the giant shadow.

The giant shadow seemed to have sensed something. It slowly turned around.

Upon seeing this, Ke Xun flipped over again and nimbly returned to his own tent.

He watched as the giant figure came to a sudden halt, before turning in the other direction once more.

Ke Xun watched the giant shadow carefully. After it turned to face the women’s tent, he once again rolled into Mu Yiran’s tent. This time, Mu Yiran didn’t let him roll onto him. He sat up quickly and made space for him.

Wei Dong realized what he was doing by the time Ke Xun returned to their tent for a second time. He was flabbergasted. They could actually use such an awesome move?

Mu Yiran’s emotions were complicated as he sat in the tent next door.

The first death condition was the failure to meet the tent quota.

Although other conditions would be continuously superimposed on this, this was obviously the primary factor in deciding who would die.

When there were two conditions met, it seemed like the giant shadow would act upon the first death condition first. After dealing with that, it would move onto the second and third respectively.

It seems like eliminating dissidents would forever be the most important issue in a group.

It was just that, Mu Yiran had never expected for Ke Xun to have such an unpredictable mind. He didn’t expect that he would be able to use such a method to restrict the enemy. It could even be said that he was currently toying with the demonic god and gaining the advantage over it with absolute control.

He even dared to toy with a demonic deity.

Which begets the question: was there anything he wouldn’t do? Mu Yiran subconsciously clenched his hand that was held by the other just now.

Ke Xun continued to roll back-and-forth between the two tents. Although the giant thing was superior in terms of power and form, it had a weakness—it was slow to turn. The motion of its rotations were big so they took a long time to complete.

But that didn’t mean that it was stupid. If Ke Xun was the same size as it, the demonic god would probably be considered fast. The issue was, they weren’t the same size. A housefly would always be able to raise its hand faster than a human could.

Ke Xun obtained a good grasp of the discrepancy in their speed and continued to play with the giant fellow, forcing it to spin ‘round and ‘round.

Ke Xun had no idea how long he could keep this up for. Perhaps that giant fellow would come up with a way to teach him a lesson. After all, it was a deity. Even if it was demonic in nature, it was unlikely for it to fall so low as to end up played in the hands of a human.

Nevertheless, he gave it his all in continuing his actions. He would keep this going for as long as he could. It would be best if he was able to keep it going until dawn.

“Xiao Ke, can you keep going?” He heard Qin Ci ask this in a hushed voice.

“As long as that fellow doesn’t have any tricks up its sleeve,” Ke Xun said after rolling into their tent, “I can keep doing this for two of three hours.”

Two or three hours wouldn’t last until dawn. Qin Ci was about to speak up out of concern, but Mu Yiran beat him to it. “I’ll take over after two or three hours.”

“That is, as long as that thing continues to fall for this.” Qin Ci shared Ke Xun’s worries.

“Don’t just sit there,” Ke Xun said the next time he rolled over, “Yiran….”

Mu Yiran: “Call me by my full name.”

Ke Xun: “I can barely catch my breath from all the rolling around, give me a break. Anyway, you guys should research the pattern on the roof of the tent….”

Qin Ci didn’t get why he was saying this. “The pattern’s too fuzzy. It’s also nighttime. We can’t make it out.”

Ke Xun rolled over again and quickly shot a look in Mu Yiran’s direction. “It’s light. I think it has to do with light. Try to use the light. Look at it from a different angle.”

Mu Yiran’s gaze sharpened. He immediately looked up. He then continued to stare at the ceiling unblinkingly. The pattern was still fuzzy from where he stood so he changed positions. He took into account from where the light came from and kept on changing his stop, adjusting continuously. Finally, he stopped moving.

“See anything?” Ke Xun asked.

“Yes.” Mu Yiran sounded like he was deep in thought. “It’s an exaggerated, complicated design. It kind of looks like animals and plants. I think I see horses, dogs, elephants, peacocks, humans, something that looks like puncture vines and….”

When Ke Xun rolled over for the nth time, he heard Mu Yiran calmly spit out: “Marvels of Peru.”

The giant shadow that had been made to dance like a rattle drum finally flew into a rage. It didn’t turn away after turning towards Ke Xun’s and Mu Yiran’s tents. It started to walk over to their tent with its pillar-like legs, its eight arms waving in fury.

“What should we do?!” Father Geng was alarmed.

“Ke Xun, Marvels of Peru!” Mu Yiran shouted before pulling out the bouquet of flowers Ke Xun had given him. He quickly divided it into three bunches and handed them over to Qin Ci and Father Geng.

Ke Xun instantly understood what Mu Yiran was getting at. He had a few Marvels of Peru that he had taken from Mu Yiran’s bouquet the night he had presented them and worn them over his ear. He hadn’t thrown them away. They had been tucked into his clothes all this time.

He pulled two flowers out and held them over to Wei Dong. Wei Dong pointed to his waistband at once: “I have some. I had gotten some the day you gifted the Boss that bouquet and had kept them attached to my waistband all this time!”

Ke Xun thus shoved the two stalks into the collar of the boy’s shirt. The three of them then laid down and watched as the giant shadow gradually came closer.

No one knew if the Marvels of Peru would be effective, or what kind of effect they would have. But there was no time to think of anything else. They had no choice but to stake everything in one throw and wait for the demonic god’s sentence.

The giant shadow arrived before their tents, its humongous body comprising its eight thick arms and giant head. It covered the sky and brought with it an oppressive air. Its eight arms did not hesitate in spreading out. A second later, they darted towards their tents in a quick and violent motion. It blocked all of the light with its body, causing everything to go dark in front of them. It was like the world had been engulfed by darkness.

Ke Xun gripped the flowers in his hand tightly amidst the darkness. Suddenly, the bright purple flowers mysteriously began to shine in the darkness.

The giant shadow’s eight arms scratched at the tent, creating the bone-scraping sound once more. The sound made one want to pierce their own eardrums and go deaf. It made one’s gums go numb.

Ke Xun felt like there was a prickly, numbing feeling in his bones as he listened to this sound. It felt like thousands of cracks here forming over his skin, like his skin and flesh were peeling off, revealing layers and layers of bloody flesh. It was like they were curling up, forming an intricate web of sanguine shredded pork.

This nauseating pain became increasingly clear and real. Ke Xun felt like he was about to go crazy. He would rather die than become like that. He didn’t want to live anymore—he wanted to die! He couldn’t stop himself from wanting to die!

Just as Ke Xun was clenching his teeth and taking one last stand against death, Wei Dong suddenly sat up. He tore at his hair and dug his nails into his face, leaving deep scratches on his skin.

Ke Xun instantly snapped out of the hallucination and threw himself onto his friend. He pressed Wei Dong and the boy, who was twisting in pain between them, beneath him. He used both hands to subdue the two others and spoke into Wei Dong’s ears with a low voice. “Dong zi, calm down. It’s a hallucination. Don’t think about it. Dong zi, think about your parents. Think about your dumbass boss. Think about your dumbass clients who pretend they know shit while giving you impossible demands.”

Wei Dong slowly calmed down. He bit down harshly on Ke Xun’s sleeve that dangled before his mouth and forced out: “Right…both my boss and my clients are dumbasses…. God save me….”

Ke Xun: “….” Looks like his boss and clients’ dumbassery won over the demonic god.

No one knew how much time had passed while they suffered through this unbearable sound. Gradually, the sound grew fainter and the giant shadow stood up straight. Its head and arms shifted away from the two tents. It then left and headed towards the women’s tent.

“I’m going to save the mother of my child—” Father Geng stood up. He wanted to rush out with his flowers but Qin Ci and Mu Yiran stopped him.

“You’ll die of suffocation out there in no time at all.” Mu Yiran had already picked up on that when he had gone to drag Ke Xun back.

“That’s right.” Qin Ci also tried to persuade him quietly. “It would be fine if the tent was closer to ours. Ke Xun’s tent was close to the one I was in yesterday, which was why I was able to carry Zhao Dan over. But it was still hard to breathe. The missus’ tent is too far. You’ll die from lack of oxygen far before you make it there.”

“Well—let’s try the method again! Lead it back this way!” Father Geng turned to look at Mu Yiran.

Father Geng laid in the innermost section of the tent. All he could do was give Mu Yiran a pleading look.

Mu Yiran pursed his lips. He parted the tent’s flaps and rolled over to the tent next door.

Ke Xun had just rolled off of Dong zi and the boy. He was laying on his back when Mu Yiran came rolling into his embrace.

Ke Xun was taken aback when he saw Mu Yiran’s cold face as he laid on top of him. “A sudden strong ambush. That’s the deadliest attack you can use.”

Wei Dong was still panting, having just escaped from the claws of death. He peered to the side and asked, “Touched?”

Ke Xun: “I don’t dare to move.”

Mu Yiran ignored him with a frigid expression. He turned to look outside, watching the giant shadow. Unfortunately, the giant shadow didn’t turn around. It continued towards the distant tent.

“No—I have to save my wife—” Father Geng panicked and tried to leave the tent.

When Ke Xun heard this, he sat up after Mu Yiran shifted away and said, “I’ll go.”

Mu Yiran glared at him coldly. “You used up too much energy. You won’t make it in time.”

The giant shadow had yet to make an appearance when Ke Xun had run over to the other tent. That’s why he hadn’t been bothered by the lack of oxygen. But on his way back, the giant shadow had already been in the midst of descending. Despite Ke Xun’s abundance of energy, he had nearly died outside. At present, he already wasted a lot of energy. The likelihood of him succeeding now was even lower.

“I’ll go. You wait here.” Mu Yiran glanced at him before returning to the tent next door.

He didn’t immediately run over to the other tent. This was because the giant shadow had yet to reach its destination. If he were to go now, there was a high chance of being scooped up by it while he ran.

.

Based on the fact that Qin Ci had been able to escape with Zhao Dan during Zhou Bin’s death, it could be deduced that the giant shadow wouldn’t pay attention to other people while it was in the middle of killing. That’s why Mu Yiran only left the tent when the giant shadow was just about to reach the women’s tent. He managed to make it into the tent the moment the giant shadow picked up one of the three people.

That’s right. It was inevitable that one person would still have to die. But this was already the best case scenario with the least number of casualties.

Eve: Ke Xun’s mind…astounds me. Also the rolling around cracks me up because it reminds me of the ‘rolling around in bed’ scenes in anime.