Chapter 44 Selenium Country 2: Flamenco Dance
"Stop!" Xiaoming shouted. But she didn't actually need to use too much force; you had already stopped.
The cave is right in front of you. You stagger, and points of light swirl in your dark pupils.
fishy.
A damp, cold wind swirled out from within the mountain walls, the dense darkness making it impossible to tell whether what lay beyond was the boundary or a hidden paradise. The ground was covered with slippery moss and murky pools of water, and sticky drops of dew fell from the walls to the ground.
Before long, some shimmering liquid flowed from the rock wall, like the candles and wax seen along the way, and gradually, the entire cave was revealed in the center.
It was a huge fragment of an eggshell, emitting a cold blue phosphorescence as if it had been activated by something.
The fragments had a translucent texture, and the internal patterns resembled a complex network of blood vessels, with faintly visible flowing liquid.
There were some dried, dark red stains in the center of the eggshell, which seemed to be the source of all the stench.
You stand frozen outside the cave, looking down at your own hands.
The skin on the back of your hand begins to blister, with a faint dark green sheen shining through the blisters. In your chaotic mind, you vaguely realize that something is breaking free from the skin's restraints.
Your arm trembled slightly, and a strange pain shot through your joint. You twisted your arm purely out of a physiological reaction.
"Look at her!" Little La exclaimed.
"She." You must be referring to her.
Your skin gradually loses its original texture, replaced by a translucent film. Beneath this film, blood vessels intertwine like vines, faintly emitting a faint green glow.
You bend over, hands on the ground, the skin on your back splits open, and the smooth, tender flesh inside vaguely reveals a gradually extending tailbone.
The coccyx seems to have its own life, constantly growing outwards.
You open your mouth, trying to shout something, but only a low hissing sound comes out of your throat.
All the peripheral nerves are incredibly sensitive, and you feel as if you are seeing yourself. The blankness in your mind is like a perfect screen, reflecting the image of your tongue gradually growing longer and forking.
He wiped them all off with one hand.
"It's alright, just hold on a little longer, just a little longer."
It's Xiaoming.
She's like someone on a cruise ship, promptly wiping away the shed skin to prevent you from successfully evolving, tearing off the newly grown tissues that shouldn't belong to you.
"Hurry up and check!" Xiao Ming urged loudly inside the cave.
Before you knew it, only you and Xiaoming remained outside the cave; the other two had already gone in and looked around.
"There's nothing here, nothing to tell, but this is the only place." Xiao Fang walked out of the small cave and gestured towards the place that looked like a python's nest.
"Nothing at all?" Xiaoming's voice sounded behind you, full of doubt.
“This cave looks dark, it’s just some puddles and seaweed inside,” Xiao La said, walking over and poking you, then sighing, “Sister Xiaoming, let’s get started.” She took out paintbrushes and a carving knife from her backpack.
What are they going to do?
You move your eyes nimbly to look at them.
"Curious?" Xiaoming still held you tightly from behind, keeping you firmly under control, always on guard, afraid you'd rush in. "'You' might know about the incantations on Ko Island... was it all arranged by 'you'? 'You' need these things, right? But they can also backfire on 'you,' so... maybe there are other secrets..."
Xiao Ming's voice became fragmented, and his tone sometimes became uncontrollably passionate.
“I will always be here, watching over 'you,' and 'you' can't just leave like this—”
"Sister Xiaoming, I've finished drawing it based on the photo. Can you check it again?" Xiaola clapped her hands, stood up, and came to find Xiaoming with a mix of nervousness and excitement.
"Ah, okay." Xiaoming was startled by her voice and momentarily lost his balance. He loosened his grip on you. However, before and after Xiaofang swiftly grabbed you again, you didn't try to run away.
You all turned your gaze to the center of the cave, where intricate runes had been carved into the ground with a carving knife and paint, just like the resurrection spell from the island of Ko.
"Sister Xiaoming, Sister Xiaofang, can we really be sure of the meaning of this incantation?" After the quick results of their work were affirmed, Xiaola was still somewhat uneasy and asked in a low voice, "In any culture, resurrection is not a purely good omen, is it? What if it brings something even worse?"
"Do you think we have any other choice?" Xiao Fang bit her finger. "You can see clearly her current state. If we don't try, we'll regret it for the rest of our lives."
"Or perhaps, we won't even have a chance to regret it."
The three people whispered about the effects of the incantation, carefully observing your reaction.
You only see the light inside the cave shining brighter, waiting for an opportunity.
Whoosh!
A gust of wind blew by.
You blinked your right eye first, then your left. You were standing in a corner outside the cave, under the blazing sun, with nothing overhead to shield you from the heat, yet feeling no warmth whatsoever.
The sunlight shone directly on the rocks and the ground, but the light was cold.
The music grew louder as it approached, and the murmurs uttered by the townspeople finally merged with the band, creating a blend of intense flamenco rhythms and a strange bass melody.
The sharp, piercing sound of the guitar strings scraping against bone; the rhythmic beat of the hand drum, sometimes slow, sometimes fast, like an irregular heartbeat; and interspersed among these instruments, a faint, rumbling noise—
That was the wailing of a drowning person.
…They've arrived. The opportunity has arrived.
One float after another slowly drove into the open space in front of the cave.
The car body, which was originally decorated with coral and seashells, is now covered with rotting seaweed and emits a strong smell of decaying fish and shrimp.
The mermaid statue's head had split open, revealing a grotesque face covered in bone spikes. Its tail was still winding, but the scales had peeled away, revealing a bloody, mangled spine, and the end of its tail was covered with iron chains.
The mermaid's eyes shimmered with a blue-green light, and no one knew who it was looking at, but everyone except you took a step back.
The white gauze curtains were torn to shreds, like the remains of a bloody battlefield. The central serpentine ring was no longer a sculpture, but a real giant serpent, its body twisted, its forked tongue flicking out, and its tail dragging a heavy iron chain.
Inside the circle, countless distorted soul shadows floated, the white phantoms resembling trapped undead, painfully stretching out their fingers and struggling to escape.
Surrounding the floats were the townspeople.
Their forms had completely changed; their skin was ashen, resembling giant corpses bloated from being submerged in seawater, their eyes gleaming with an eerie blue light. Their movements were stiff, yet they surged towards the protagonists like a tide.
“They…they’ve turned into drowned!” Little La’s voice trembled as she clenched her fists.
The drowned corpses moved their muddy throats, and a cold wave swept over them.
"Ugh!" Xiao Fang covered her mouth and nose, and the next moment she whispered to the others, "It's so cold, I feel like my legs are going to freeze."
"Move! Don't stop!" Xiaoming said, pulling at you and shaking your arm, which was chilled by the cold.
The tips of your fingers are covered with a thin layer of ice.
Xiao La's gaze shifted to the seashell in Xiao Ming's hand, then to the olive wood fire poker still in her backpack: "Now's the time! We have to do something! Xiao Ming, you decide quickly, which one should we use?"
Xiao Ming hesitated for a moment, his gaze shifting back and forth between the seashell and the fire poker.
The fire poker radiated a faint warmth, as if urging her to use it. But back in the land of Mo, a fire started by a fire poker would obviously be harmful to you outsiders.
She looked down at the seashell in her hand; its surface glowed faintly, radiating a gentle yet resolute warmth. Xiao Ming looked at you again, and you winked at her. First to the right, then to the left, and then one right and one left in succession.
Through the window of Xiaoming's eye, you see your own reflection magnified in Xiaoming's eyes.
Xiao Ming is the same.
"Use it!" she exclaimed, pinching the seashell as if to encourage herself. "It saved us before, and it will save us again this time!"
As soon as the words were spoken, the soft white light around the seashell expanded continuously, eventually merging with the blinding white sunlight.
The sunlight, the reflection on the sea, and the surface of each slippery, sticky creature reflected each other.
The ground vanished. The ocean vanished. The incantation behind you remains, emitting a faint blue light.
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—
The sea wolf has arrived, in the light.
It touched the drowned corpse's body, and the corpse's movements stopped abruptly, but it was not dispelled.
The ocean did not sweep away the drowned bodies; instead, it reshaped them.
The drowned corpse's body began to burn, but the flames did not come from hell; instead, they were a vibrant mix of red, yellow, and orange, like a set of burning flamenco dresses.
Their limbs gradually regained flexibility, and their stiff movements transformed into elegant dance steps.
Tap, tap, tap!
They lifted their skirts, or opened their arms wide, twirling in bold circles, swirling around like a vortex.
A drowned corpse stood in front of Xiaoming, extending her swollen hand, her voice low and gentle: "Dance...forget everything here."
Xiao Ming's gaze was fixed on the rope he was holding, which was being pulled by another person—you—and only then did he regain his last shred of reason.
—She could also try jumping along. She thought cautiously and restrainedly.
So Xiaoming let go of the rope, put one hand on the drowned corpse's shoulder, and loosely held her hand with the other.
"I..." Xiaoming's throat was dry, and her voice was almost inaudible. Her steps had already caught up with the rhythm.
Xiao Fang noticed the calm smile on Xiao Ming's face. Just as she was about to call out to her, she was pulled away by someone.
The lead dancer, who had grabbed Xiao Fang's drowned body, quickened her steps and stomped her heels hard on the ground, making a powerful "tap" sound.
Xiao Fang consciously restrained herself from imitating, but the rhythm of the music was just too strong.
Step one, thud! Stopped? No, don't stop, step two, step three, thud! Stop! Empty, empty, thud! Empty—no, don't be empty—empty, thud! 1, 2, snap! 4, 5, snap!
7, 8, bang!
…
12!
After 12 beats, Xiao Fang's movements began to feel like they no longer belonged to her.
As the dance steps changed, her hands involuntarily rose, her wrists gently rotating, her fingertips sketching flames in the air.
She knew something was wrong, and a voice inside her screamed, "Stop! This isn't you!"
But she couldn't stop.
The same goes for Little La.
It was all because Xiaoming chose the wrong prop!
Yeah?
You don't think so.
Yes, you're awake.
It's not 'you', it's you.
The white light in the sky and earth swallowed everything, even the drowned corpses and the floats were erased, leaving only the intense white all around and the bleak edge of a cave.
Footsteps, music, and whispers still echoed, seemingly emanating from the white entity itself, without belonging to any direction.
Standing at the cave entrance, your previously hazy consciousness finally felt a stinging pain. This pain didn't come from your body, but from the depths of your soul—a contradictory feeling of being bound, torn apart, and reshaped.
You look down at your hands, where serpentine patterns seem to appear on your fingertips, slowly writhing and faintly glowing. You tear off these growths yourself, and your previously overly sensitive senses seem rather dulled at this moment.
“Dance…join us…” The mumbled, indistinct words floated around, accompanied by the hissing of snakes and the tones of guitars.
Your feet began to move, not because of control, but because of some force surging into your body from the ground. This force extended from the cave to the white earth, then from the soles of your feet to your knees, your lumbar spine, and finally straight up your spine.
You look down and the ground beneath your feet is no longer white, but a viscous liquid, like a half-melted eggshell, from which moisture emanates.
Countless tiny snakes swam in the liquid, clinging to your legs. With each step you took, each fall, you felt a slight tingling sensation, followed by clarity.
The snakes seemed to move in sync with your steps; they were like extensions of nature, rather than independent creatures.
You feel your spine heating up, like a snake shedding its skin. Each spin, each clap, brings an indescribable pleasure, as if your movements belong not only to you, but to some greater being.
"You are my new life."
"You are me."
These words that lingered in your mind, whispering and murmuring to you all the time, became blurry for the first time.
You close your eyes, and an ancient image appears in your mind: a giant ouroboros coiled in the endless void, its eyes staring straight at you, as if piercing through time and space.
These images flash through your mind countless times.
This time, it was shrouded in a layer of white light.
"You are destined to belong to me...to become my continuation..." the snake amplified its voice, while you pondered to yourself.
Did Xiaoming choose the wrong prop? Perhaps, all the props were wrong.
This is a loop.
There is no good or bad, no beginning or end; every cause is the effect of everything.
"No..." you whispered, your wandering steps, which had been carried away by your thoughts, gradually came to a stop.
You see serpentine shadows rising from your spine, coiling above your head, trying to completely bind you. You feel your soul being squeezed and twisted, but at the same time, you also see the figures of your friends.
"You said I'm your new student?" you asked.
"Jump, keep jumping..." All the voices, including the Serpent's Tongue, were amplified once more, almost breaking through the barrier of the white light.
A sharp pain shot through your spine, each vertebra a piercing agony that felt like it would break you. But at that very moment, you suddenly raised your hands and clapped them together forcefully.
This high-five isn't about the rhythm of flamenco; it's about your own power.
Applause resounded throughout the white world, the snake shadows froze instantly, and the whispers in the void gradually faded.
Close your eyes, lift your feet again, and this time, instead of passively following, actively guide yourself.
Your steps slowed and became steady, as if you were rebuilding the rhythm of a white world. Your movements weren't as complex as those of a flamenco dancer; they were just the random, aimless dancing of an ordinary office worker.
The internal conflict gradually subsided. "It was really noisy," you whispered. "Now, I can finally think about what to do."
Since now is the time for everything to end, perhaps you should first find the time when everything began.
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