58 Silk Road 18
◎Brother Zhu, what is painted on the mural is the final destination of all of us.◎
"Is this really okay?" Everyone drank it doubtfully, holding it in their mouths without swallowing.
Zhu Heng took the lead, and just as he was about to take action, Helan Dao stopped him.
Without a word, Helan Dao dipped his hand into the earthenware jar, dipped it in the wine, and then held it up in the air. After a few seconds, he withdrew his hand, his palm soaked in blood.
"No, we can't leave." Helan Dao said.
"Is this the only way we can go?" someone asked worriedly.
Zhu Heng stared at the city above his head in a daze, when suddenly a white shadow flashed before his eyes - it was a white butterfly.
He was stunned for a moment, watching it slowly fly away and go upwards.
Zhu Heng had a strange feeling in his heart, and he didn't even realize it. He had unknowingly followed the butterfly and followed its guidance to the fifth world.
Everyone was startled. The knight raised his sword hilt to stop Zhu Heng, but was interrupted by Helan Dao: "No, let's follow him."
Helan Dao's expression was unusually solemn. He put his right hand behind his back and held down tightly the mechanical butterfly that had become restless due to the appearance of the white butterfly.
Under the guidance of the butterfly, Zhu Heng reached the fifth floor safely and landed safely with everyone else.
However, the moment he came up, Zhu Heng was stunned.
The fifth layer was not a city, but a whitewashed cave that was only big enough for a few people to stand.
Everyone was forced to huddle together, with a cave ceiling above their heads that was so low that it almost oppressed their nerves. There was no new "city" covering the entire sky. This should be the last layer.
"Why is there nothing on the cave wall?" someone asked.
-
Data monitoring hall of the Central City Archaeological Team.
"What is that? Why are there murals?" Wang Kunshu looked at the cave where Zhu Heng and his group were, pointing at the cave wall and said.
Xu Wenjun's gaze shifted from Tao Ran's surveillance screen to Zhu Heng's.
The murals that Tao Ran couldn't see were clearly visible to Zhu Heng, yet the people involved were completely unaware of it.
From the cave where Zhu Heng was, they could see a "Zhu Heng", a "Helan Dao", and a lifelike dead person's hand hanging down painted on the wall.
Wang Kunshu was surprised and said, "We can't see the murals that Tao Ran can see, but we can see them clearly even though Zhu Heng and others can't. Why is that?"
"It's the world of twins." Xu Wenjun suddenly said.
"What is Twin World?"
Xu Wenjun explained: "It can be thought of as two mirrors, the inside and the outside of the mirror are symmetrical. The two worlds are not necessarily identical, but they are definitely complementary, just like all gears fit together perfectly."
Wang Kunshu suddenly realized: "So if you have it, I don't have it; if you are big, I am small?"
"Yes, that's why there are murals on Tao Ran's side, but not on Zhu Heng's. Tao Ran's place is big enough for him to roll around freely, but Zhu Heng's space is so small that he can only turn around."
Wang Kunshu began to ponder a question: "In a twin world like this, are there any special things that require special attention?"
"There is one very important thing: the balance cannot be broken."
"What happens if it breaks?"
Xu Wenjun said: "It needs to be rebalanced, otherwise someone will have to pay the price."
-
Inside the cave.
The butterfly fluttered in the air.
Zhu Heng watched it fly from the entrance to the innermost end of the cave, circle around the cave, and then fly to the other side of the entrance.
From Xu Wenjun and the others' perspective, what they saw was the butterfly flying over Zhu Heng's portrait, stopping for a moment next to Helan Dao's portrait, then flying to the strange hand in the cave, and finally returning to the door and hovering in front of Zhu Heng.
As if possessed by some mysterious force, Zhu Heng stretched out his hand and let the butterfly land on the back of his hand.
The butterfly kissed him gently, then continued to fly into the cave. After flying for a distance, it stopped and looked at him, as if to show him the way.
Zhu Heng followed.
The butterfly finally landed on a blank wall.
From the display screen in the monitoring hall, you can see where it stops, which is the back of the drooping hand.
Zhu Heng reached out to touch the wall, but suddenly, he pulled his hand back as if scalded by boiling water.
"What's wrong?" Helan Dao looked at him.
Zhu Heng shook his head: "Nothing, I just had some... not-so-good premonitions."
He Landao pushed through the crowd and stood next to Zhu Heng: "Is there anything wrong with this wall?"
"I don't know." Zhu Heng said.
The moment he touched the wall, he felt an immense sorrow in his heart, a sorrow so great that it seemed to engulf the entire universe.
At this moment, the white Zhuang Zhou butterfly suddenly flew up and crashed into the wall. The moment it touched the wall, it was instantly annihilated into thousands of sparkling white points of light.
"What does it mean?" Helan Dao asked.
“It…” Zhu Heng clenched his fists and hid them behind his back, “It wants me to smash this wall.”
Helan Dao looked at Zhu Heng.
He slowly bent his index finger, raised his hand to the same height as Zhu Heng's cheek, and quickly wiped it across Zhu Heng's eyes.
He gently wiped the tears from the back of his index finger with his thumb, then raised his fist and slammed it hard against the wall.
"don't want!"
"don't want!"
The two voices of restraint came from Zhu Heng and Xu Wenjun respectively.
Zhu Heng didn't know why he wanted to stop it. He just had a premonition that something sad would happen if he broke down the wall.
However, nothing could withstand Helan Dao's full-strength attack. The wall cracked and the world behind the wall slowly unfolded towards them.
Xu Wenjun slammed his fist on the table and smiled bitterly: "The balance between the two worlds has been broken."
-
Tao Ran stared blankly at a hand extending from the wall, and then the wall in front of him cracked, revealing a group of people standing behind the wall.
Leading the group were two familiar figures.
Tao Ran suppressed the scream that was about to burst out of his throat. His shock turned into surprise. His eyes flashed with horror and he shouted out in ecstasy, "Brother Zhu Heng!"
Helan Dao coughed lightly, and the air pressure around him dropped.
Why do you only call out Zhu Heng? It's strange that you leave him aside.
Tao Ran then noticed that He Lan Dao was also there. He called him "Brother He" perfunctorily and turned around to stick to Zhu Heng again.
"Brother Zhu, you know, I saw your mural in this cave!"
"My mural?" Zhu Heng frowned slightly, "Where is it? Let me see."
Tao Ran turned his head and pointed towards the inner wall near the door: "There... huh? It was just there, how come it suddenly disappeared?"
Zhu Heng looked in the direction Tao Ran pointed, and saw that the wall there was blank, just like the cave they had just been in.
He turned his head: "Maybe I saw it wrong."
Tao Ran was very sure: "Impossible! It's obviously there..."
At this moment, the wall showed new changes. A portrait of Zhu Heng gradually emerged. Tao Ran's pupils suddenly dilated. "It's appeared! Look! It's appeared!"
He suddenly screamed and motioned Zhu Heng to turn his head to look. However, when Zhu Heng looked again, there was nothing on the wall.
Tao Ran rubbed his eyes carefully. What was going on?
"The two twin worlds are merging." Xu Wenjun said outside the screen.
Wang Kunshu asked, "Are they repairing themselves and trying to return to their previous state of balance?"
"That's right. They might be searching for a certain equilibrium point. Once they find it, the fusion process will stabilize."
“What if you can’t find it?”
"Then it might randomly select one of the objects present that is out of equilibrium to fill the two ends of the scale."
"Objects outside of equilibrium..." Wang Kunshu murmured softly, then exclaimed, "Isn't that a human? They should be able to find a balance point, right?"
Wang Kunshu wanted to get a reassuring answer from Xu Wenjun, but Xu Wenjun shook her head. "It can't be leveled. Have you forgotten? They destroyed the mural with the hand. No matter which world it is, there's a wall and a painting missing now."
Wang Kunshu's face turned pale in an instant.
-
Helan Dao looked at the changes in the cave, his expression becoming more solemn.
Could this be... a twin world?
His glass-like pale pupils suddenly dilated, and he cried out in his heart, "Oh no!"
Helan Dao immediately turned around and called out to everyone: "Follow the way we came, run!"
Everyone was a little confused.
"What's wrong?"
"What happened?"
Without saying anything, Helan Dao grabbed the people by the collar and threw them out of the hole in the wall: "Go up! Up there is the east where you want to go."
He threw everyone back into the hole in the wall one by one. However, behind the hole was no longer the cave they had been in a few minutes ago, but a dark vacuum space.
Once outside, they lost all gravity and floated in the air as if they were walking in the universe.
Everyone was astonished when they heard He Landao's explanation: "This is a twin world. It is not the same concept as parallel time and space. Parallel time and space are two parallel lines that do not intersect each other. Under normal circumstances, they will repel each other. But the twin worlds, which are two sides of the same coin, are different. They are on the same line and usually do not disturb each other. However, once the connection point is broken, they will automatically merge and will continue to be in a state of disordered change until a new balance point is found.
"We must leave here before this newly merged space closes, otherwise we will be used as weights on their scales, becoming part of maintaining the balance of their space."
"I understand, Brother Helan." Tao Ran stared at the shrinking hole in the wall and suddenly said to Helan, "We just destroyed a mural, so theoretically, this world will never be balanced again, right?"
Helan Dao was just about to throw the priest out when he heard this. He glanced at Tao Ran and said, "At this critical moment, you are quite smart."
Now there are only four people left in the cave, besides Helan Dao, there are only the high school student, Zhu Heng and Tao Ran.
The hole in the wall became smaller and smaller, and Helan Dao's eyes swept over the remaining three people one by one.
Tao Ran immediately said, "Let the child go first."
"What else do you want me to say?" He Landao picked up the high school student and threw him out, then tried to pull Tao Ran away, "But you're also a child."
Tao Ran suddenly took two steps back, looking around as if he was searching for something: "My bead!" he said, "My bead is not with me! Brother Helan, please let Brother Zhu go first, I have to go get my bead."
"Why are you so troublesome?" He Landao said unhappily. He turned to look at Zhu Heng and tilted his head towards him. "Do you want me to throw it or do you want to go by yourself?"
"Do I need to choose?" Zhu Heng looked at him coldly and jumped straight out of the hole in the wall, but he suddenly stopped when he was about to step out of the hole.
Zhu Heng put his hands in his pockets, and at the bottom of the pockets, he felt a round, hard object.
The beads were in his pocket, so what was Tao Ran looking for?
He suddenly turned his head to look at Tao Ran.
The child was facing them at the moment, with a person standing behind him. The cave wall behind him was filled with gods and Buddhas.
Zhu Heng suddenly had an illusion, as if Tao Ran was also a part of those gods. With a slight smile on his face, he seemed to be about to merge into them!
Tao Ran rushed up from behind, pressed down on Zhu Heng and He Landao's backs with both hands, and pushed them forward with all his might: "It's too late!"
"Tao Ran!" Zhu Heng shouted fiercely. He twisted his body to a strange angle and stretched out his hand straight out, "Catch me!"
Tao Ran frantically hugged Zhu Heng's hand: "Brother Zhu, I'll hold you tight!"
The moment Tao Ran hugged him, Zhu Heng breathed a sigh of relief, then couldn't help wanting to laugh. He let him grab his hand. This kid really cherished his life, hugging him directly...
Suddenly, the faint smile on Zhu Heng's lips froze on his face again.
He looked at Tao Ran's lower body. The gradually sealed hole in the wall trapped his feet firmly at the entrance.
"Hold on tight! I'll pull you out!" Zhu Heng shouted at him, and stretched out his other hand to hold Tao Ran tightly.
Zhu Heng turned his head and met Helan Dao's eyes. He immediately looked away and lowered his head to look at the child trapped at the cave entrance.
However, Tao Ran showed his teeth and smiled at them. He took the initiative to let go of them and said, "Brother Zhu, there is a mole on my right little finger. Have you seen it?"
A mole on the little finger, a mole on the little finger...
Zhu Heng hurriedly searched his body for something to save Tao Ran. He even took out the datura flower, but he didn't hold it firmly. The flower fell into Tao Ran's hand, and he reached out to hold it. At this time, the hole in the wall had been sealed to his waist.
"I've seen it! I've seen it!" Zhu Heng remembered.
He had seen it on the pale hand that flashed in the darkness when he fell from the crack in the floor of the waiting room.
"I've seen it in the mural, too." Tao Ran said, picking up the datura flower. "I won't mistake my own hand. I know it's my hand in the painting."
"Brother Zhu, what's painted on the mural is the final destination for all of us."
The hole in the wall blocked Tao Ran's throat and slowly closed, sealing his face in the wall.
Only the hand holding the flower slowly drooped.
The datura flower finally fell down.
Zhu Heng stared at the flower, watching it fall into endless darkness. Then he raised his head and looked upward.
"We have one last task to do," he said to Helan Dao. "We need to poke a hole in the ground above us and let those two half-dead idiots fall through the cracks, completing the cycle."
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