Chapter 56 The Sleeping Curse (20) The mountains were covered with hanging coffins. ...
Ahhhh, Tan Tan is so handsome!
[So effortlessly cool... All that hair of yours must be a nuisance, can I have a piece to put around my neck? Okay.]
[It made me laugh so hard, it made my McDonald's side explode!]
Why does Ah Tan seem so excited, like he's been waiting for this moment?
Compared to that, pretending to be a young master was really perfunctory; this time, drawing blood was his real intention.
[OMG, so Ah Tan really is a black goat, he always had a hair knot!]
[It should contain black goat blood, but the family probably didn't know; perhaps it was left behind?]
[This doesn't seem like someone returning to their ancestral home; it seems more like they're seeking revenge... Unbelievable! Some of the sisters guessed that Ah Tan and the Black Goat had a grudge against each other in Bubble's story, right?]
[Strangers participate in the sacrifice, while family members preside over it, huh? And you even try to turn the tide? What kind of nonsense is that? Su Han even called Lao Jing a cultist. You two are truly two of a kind.]
[Wasn't this just a normal counterattack? Ah Tan only asked one question, "Did you make the coffin?"]
[It's obvious that Su Han made the coffins for all of them; Ah Tan definitely wasn't asking about those coffins.]
[Su Han said she's made coffins her whole life, and that sacrificing family members is a long-standing tradition. Could it be that someone who was sacrificed in the past was connected to A-Tan, and A-Tan is avenging that person?]
If it's a family business, Su Han wouldn't be the only one making coffins. Su Han is the master's follower; what kind of apprenticeship did he complete? It must have been a long-standing craft.
So, Ah Tan has confirmed that Su Han made someone's coffin, right?
[And that last sentence before leaving, oh my god, gave me goosebumps. Before, the club went to the theater at night, and then they went on a vacation in the town. I subconsciously felt that since this was the source of the slumber, everyone must have come here to break the curse.]
But Ah Tan wasn't like that... He knew that not only would it not break the curse, but it would also affect the entire town. And what was he going to do at sea? So it was best if the whole town stayed asleep and didn't disturb him.
Looking back, his attitude towards the siren was indeed to let it do whatever it wanted, and he even went along with it to some extent.
[Both inside and outside the mirror, he and the woman didn't exchange a single word, but was it really just a secret signal exchanged with the coffin shop...?]
He probably knew back then that the girl's singing voice would never "die."
Thanks for the invitation. I had no idea. Who would have thought that one death would lead to so much gossip? Luckily, he ran away quickly.
Xie Tan didn't really intend to break the curse, because he knew his own limitations and couldn't pretend to be something he'd never done. He was just asking a question casually, trying to put the riddle to the riddle.
As a result, he succeeded in his act again. It seems he's become quite adept at the popular character development program; the cat should award him a progress award.
However, when he looked at himself in the comic, he was still a little surprised. He felt that what he said and did did not have much profound meaning, but he seemed to have a story-telling face with something to say but not quite.
In addition, there were some special circumstances on site, such as the conversation at the dinner table, he was too sleepy, and he was listening to the hypnotic wind chimes, so he was not in good spirits.
The coffin shop was constantly plagued by the stench of blood, and the old man kept nagging. He was also quite irrational and acted on a whim.
Then there's the added power of the Sword God. Whether it's the composition, camera work, lighting, color, or the foreshadowing and rendering of the plot, the atmosphere is full of allure and hints, as if he really has many stories.
Every word and action is connected to a certain moment in the past, and they are also trying to win something or gamble something on the future.
The comic artist may see that there is still room for development in this storyline, and is willing to put more effort into it, which is also a reflection of his steadily rising popularity.
Ultimately, it is the bystanders who fill in the blanks with cause and effect, love and hate for him.
He racked his brains, but felt that he was a blank person with nothing to show for his past, so where did he get any sense of stories?
Calling him a "blank slate" is the most apt description.
He often felt that he, along with other characters, comic book authors, and forum readers, were shaping the character named "Xie Tan".
Moreover, the one with the long hair had the strongest reaction when Su Han locked her in the coffin.
Not only to save him, but also because it simply disliked the coffin.
A blood feud...
He might actually follow this path, and his goal is to create a "black-and-white" character as part of his grand plan to cultivate a popular figure.
If you live in someone else's house and use their experiences as a storyline, and if you really have a grudge, it's your duty to avenge them, and you still have to pay back the rent, right?
Xie Tan looked up and could vaguely see the rocks behind the rain and mist. They were almost at the shore. There seemed to be something being carved among the dark rocks, indistinct and shadowy.
[When the cult leader learned that the old sheep was going to sacrifice the young sheep, I was worried, but now I'm relieved.]
Good morning. There's still Wolf Daddy. It's his job to oversee the completion of the sacrifice, right? Since Rarity couldn't find him, he's probably on the hill too.
That little hill is also eerie; it only appears on rainy days and is intricately linked to the black goat. It might be the site of their long-standing scheme in the town, definitely dangerous. Two people are still missing up there.
[And Rui Rui must have seen it in her dream too, judging by how surprised she was. It must be different from the real Xiao Shan.]
[I agree with the comment above. Like the rain, the small hill in the dream is very likely the real thing.]
[And that song, every lyric has a metaphor, right? "The sun is underground"—there's a sun god stirring things up underwater, and going out to sea at this time...]
[And what about the cult leader! I think the girl guessed right, the cult leader really hates sheep. He probably wants to wait for the old sheep to sacrifice the two of his people, and then kill the old sheep from behind.]
Now that the old sheep has been killed, it's fortunate that Ah Tan was an imposter, but he truly has the blood of the Black Goat...
【Oh no, this is a disaster! Ah Tan, let's turn back. What lies ahead is hell!】
Xie Tan ascended to "hell" amidst the rain and fog.
The hill is about a hundred meters high, with a strange and unpredictable shape. Some of its peaks are like sharp teeth, while others are like dragon pillars. They seem to be randomly haphazardly put together, so the mountain roads are as rugged as the town itself, like a maze. Once you reach the shore, you don't know where to go next.
He blinked slowly, and the gaze that had followed him all the way off the shore disappeared.
No...it didn't disappear. It's as if it went into the mountain before he did.
But putting aside the stalker for now, this mountain was indeed strange—it was the only mountain where it never rained, like the calm eye of a storm.
But the blackened rocks looked as if they had been washed by rain, with a shine like inkstone.
There are many caves in the cliff face, with coffins embedded and placed horizontally, vertically, and diagonally, all of which are at least half exposed outside, hanging precariously, like needles inserted into the mountain, only to be inserted and never to be removed.
Coffins were made of cedar, cypress, nanmu, and ebony, which was specially used by the Black Goat tribe for their own people.
When the wind blows, the rotten and decaying planks creak and groan, like the mountain muttering and grinding its teeth in the night, which is quite eerie.
The mountains are covered with hanging coffins.
Xie Tan put down his umbrella and quietly scanned the terrifying mountain valley. The places where these coffins were placed were quite ingenious, seemingly at the "joints," piecing together these haphazardly growing rocks to barely form a "mountain" shape, so that it wouldn't fall apart.
He walked into the narrow valley path, where white bones were still mixed in with the rocks that had been washed clean by the rain. Some places oozed an unknown viscous liquid, which smelled of corpses. There were also some soft, rotten flesh-like substances hiding in the crevices, pretending to be mushrooms.
On this side of the mountain facing the town, only the path where he docked his boat was still within the "walkable" range. There were some more forks in the road after that, but it wasn't completely devoid of any trace of other people, and there was no rain here.
But there was nothing there; no one knew where those people had gone.
The mountain wasn't particularly big, because the passable area was very limited, but it wasn't small either. They were just searching for the other two people, and they didn't know how long it would take.
What's worse, this mountain is like the eye of a storm, detached yet affecting the whole situation, only when it rains. It doesn't participate in the boiling of the sea at all—the mountain is also shaking.
It's not the kind of violent shaking that makes people die quickly like a landslide or earthquake. It's mostly quiet, but then suddenly one or a few localized areas start to tremble, like a cold branch shaking off the frost and snow, eerily quiet.
The alternation between quiet and trembling places, like the twinkling stars on a clear night, creates a sense of rise and fall.
This mountain is "rhythmic".
Xie Tan didn't feel cold while he was floating on the sea because the rain from the sky and the waves churning in the sea were somewhat warm... probably because it was "the bathwater of the sun god".
But after walking in the mountains for a while, he felt cold because there was always wind coming and going from all directions.
Those winds were extremely strange; they didn't come from anywhere in the world, but rather they emerged from the caves in the cliffs where coffins were embedded in the mountains. They only went out and never came in, so they caused chaos and were everywhere.
Since Xie Tan left the shore, Cat No. 7 has not disappeared. It seems to have developed a bit of a trauma from its host's reckless behavior and is worried about leaving him alone. After getting enough sleep, it stays by his side and Xie Tan can't get rid of it.
"No bravado, meow! Please follow Fantastic 7 forward, meow!"
In the terrifying valley, the little leopard proudly raised its paw and walked away, guiding its host. The system cat had become directionally aware; Di Da relied on it, and now, in the maze-like mountains, it still relied on it.
But soon, Xie Tan discovered that feeling the direction of No. 7 was one thing, but knowing that every road was different was another.
They certainly didn't repeat the same path.
But similarly, the roads in the mountains are constantly changing.
Those tremors were not just tremors; they were like a pair of invisible hands weaving a maze, shifting the rocks back and forth in the rain and mist. He only managed to walk three paths, and all the scenery in the mountains that he could refer to was completely transformed.
Xie Tan was able to notice this because his flower wreath was unexpectedly blown away by the wind. He was stunned for a moment, but his body had already run back to retrieve it, chasing after it for half a distance... only to find that the road had disappeared.
He stood frozen in place, somewhat at a loss, his gaze still darting between the bones and rotting flesh buried in the rocks, searching for a glimmer of bright floral color.
Not far behind him, something suddenly broke apart with an ominous "crack". Xie Tan turned his head and saw that a coffin on the cliff had been pushed off by the evil wind and crashed onto another section of rock that was lower.
Xie Tan thought this was a reminder to him to come back to his senses. He pursed his lips, walked a little further with the cat, felt the rocks tremble, and suddenly felt that something was wrong, so he turned back.
The empty cliff cave where the coffin had just been lost vanished into thin air, and a new cliff cave miraculously sprang up from the spot where the coffin had crashed, right at the junction of the two small mountain peaks.
It looks as if the coffin has nailed the two sections of the mountain together.
Xie Tan pondered. Of the people who might exist on the mountain, Su He was none of his concern, Lu Jinzhao... he shouldn't need to worry about him, but Xue Hong was the most dangerous. If he was by Lu Jinzhao's side, that would be fine, but if they were forced to separate, and if he wasn't dead, he would either still be lost or locked in a coffin.
Xie Tan thought it was probably the latter.
The mountain doesn't appear unless it rains.
The mountain appeared, but it didn't rain in the mountain.
It doesn't rain in the mountains, but the landscape is full of traces of rainwater washing away the soil.
The rocks were mixed with the flesh and blood of corpses, like solidified amber, freezing together with other lives over a long period of time.
Xie Tan had a bold guess.
Where should the black goat be sacrificed? Should it be brought up the mountain by boat on a rainy day?
It shouldn't be, because the sun god is in the water.
It is more likely that it was a sea burial.
He wondered if this mountain... might have "grown" from the sea, like rainwater being stirred up.
Xie Tan raised his head and looked at the highest point of the hill, where a lone coffin hung on the only peak.
Only it remains unchanged.
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