Paintings of Terror

Chapter 99: The Person Without a Shadow

The people in the mirror didn’t seem to hear Ke Xun’s voice; they continued to do their own thing.

“We mustn’t let our reflection come into contact with these people.” Zhu Haowen was a little wary, and he subconsciously moved away from the gloomy Zhang Tianwei in the mirror.

Ke Xun looked at Yening Chenyi, who was trying to pull up her sleeves. “These people shouldn’t be able to harm us. Even if they’re malicious, they could only play a shadow role at night.”

He looked at his reflection in the mirror that was “disturbed” by Yening Chenyi. The girl seemed to be trying to pull herself up, but her shadow seemed to be separated from her by a layer. No matter how much she tried, she could not directly touch herself.

This reminded Ke Xun of the phrase about heaven and humans being separated forever.

Ke Xun tried to raise his arm and greeted Yening Chenyi with his reflection in the mirror. It seemed to have worked because Yening Chenyi stared at Ke Xun and smiled.

Ke Xun mouthed, “Miao Zipei.”

Yening Chenyi seemed to feel somewhat dazed and rather sad. She shook her head slightly and turned her gaze away.

“No. I’m very uncomfortable staying here.” Wei Dong smacked his own head. “I feel nauseous enough to throw up, as if my body’s about to be divided.”

The others weren’t feeling too well either, feeling as if they were all just barely holding on.

Mu Yiran hadn’t spoken all this time. He had walked completely into the mirror room and was scanning each mirror sharply. “These people in the mirror can’t hurt us. Don’t be influenced by them, and try not to look at your own reflection too carefully.”

Hearing Mu Yiran’s words, Wei Dong seemed to feel better. The discomfort just now wasn’t a physical feeling, but rather a psychological problem. In such a mirror room full of reflections, the first thing one must overcome was one’s own psychological disturbance.

The people in the mirror seemed to feel bored, and so they used their own colors to relax. He Yu had already painted a large landscape with red paint. Mi Wei had given her yellow paint a sand-like effect and was starting a sand painting. Guo Lixia didn’t know how to paint, and so she dipped her hand into the blue paint and made a lot of royal blue handprints on the mirror surface.

“Have you noticed that the mirrors are actually layered, and the world inside isn’t unified?” Zu Haowen touched his chin and carefully observed the mirror.

Indeed, those colors seemed to exist on different levels or dimensions, and weren’t affected by the refraction of the mirror at all, They were simply divided into areas according to colors.

Deep purple, bright yellow, warm red, soft green, refreshing blue, these colors flowed in various gestures, interweaving into a new world.

“Look over there!” Taking advantage of his experience as an artist, Wei Dong quickly discovered the bug in the color. He pointed to the ceiling. “There seems to be two black spots over there!”

Everyone focused their eyes on the two black dots on the corner of the mirror. As they approached slowly, they found that the so-called black dots were actually two letters. The handwriting was very casual, with both letters facing the lower right corner. Tilted, they gave out a strange, artistic aura: RR

“Is this Rong Rang’s initial?” They guessed.

Ke Xun was already lifting up Wei Dong. Wei Dong raised his hand and touched the black signature on the ceiling. Wherever his finger made contact, it seemed to create a wave that rippled out like water. The two black letters turned into faint ink stains and then spread out.

When Wei Dong lifted his finger away, the ink stains slowly gathered again, reforming the two letters.

Mu Yiran frowned. “This is…the signature’s shadow?”

“Shadow? The signature’s shadow?” Wei Dong couldn’t seem to disassociate fiction and reality in this painting.

“Everything has a shadow, especially in this world where shadows are particularly emphasized. In this sense, the artist’s signature should also have a shadow.”

Zhu Haowen looked at the window. “I think we should go into the maze immediately.”

The five members tacitly climbed back out the window one after another, even though Ke Xun didn’t understand why they had to go into the maze. Another ignorant follower was Wei Dong, who followed Ke Xun out the window.

No one noticed that the golden yellow in the mirror was partially wiped away, revealing a face inside–It was Miao Zipei, who seemed to be trying to mix the purest color. His face was solemn, like a religious devotee.

The five members climbed down to the ground along the castle wall and hurried in the direction of the maze.

When he passed by the pool, Ke Xun still paused to look inside. All the coins with the wheel-shaped pattern that was reflective of Miao Zipei had disappeared.

Looking at Ke Xun’s expression, everyone had already guessed the result. Their heart felt heavy, but this meant that they needed to act with more urgency: Tonight, the shadow had gathered the three primary colors it needed–red, yellow and blue–and it might have gained a qualitative leap in ability.

“I have an idea. Although this method of walking through the maze might be breaking the rules, right now, we can only do this.” Ke Xun’s expression took on a slight rascally air.

Seeing that Mu Yiran had also cast his gaze over, Ke Xun continued, “We don’t have to walk in the dark, staying within the lines, when we can fly over the walls like Night Rangers.”

“What you mean is that we can walk on the walls of these bushes, so that we can see the situation in the maze at a glance?” Mu Yiran looked at the bushy walls of the maze, thinking that this method might actually work.

Ke Xun skillfully climbed to the top of the bush wall, which was very strong and could bear the weight of an adult man. He looked into the distance. “The distance one can see is quite good. At least three turns can be seen clearly.”

The others also quickly climbed to the top of the bush wall one after another, with the exception of Wei Dong, who was slightly afraid of heights.

“Tell me, why are you so sure the signature is in the maze?” Ke Xun’s sense of balance was very good. To him, standing on top of a tall wall was like walking on flat ground.

“While you were working, we made some new discoveries in the maze.” It was Qin Ci who answered Ke Xun. “We found a man hidden in the maze. He was very fast and we couldn’t manage to catch up. But that person is different–He has no shadow.”

This discovery was unexpected to Ke Xun. “What does that person look like?”

“There are colorful patterns on his clothes. He ran too fast and so we couldn’t see him clearly. But we’re certain that he has no shadow.”

Ke Xun felt that they were getting closer and closer to the truth. “In other words, this person without a shadow is the dark shadow’s material body?!”

Everyone tacitly agreed. They began to walk slowly forward on top of the wall, watching the situation down inside the maze.

Wei Dong walked the slowest, for fear that he would take a wrong step and tumble down. “My cerebellum seems to be hindering my brain’s ability to guide my movements. Just now, I feel like I’m walking on tightrope…What did you just say? There’s a person living in the maze? And his shadow lives in the castle? How did he become separated from his shadow?!”

Mu Yiran was watching when Wei Dong was walking carelessly, and he stretched out his hand to help him. “That mirror room is definitely not pointless. It should be the place where the shadow meets his material body.”

This was the first time that Wei Dong had made “contact” with Mu Yiran. Suddenly, he felt that the other person wasn’t so cold, and this gave him a rare sense of intimacy. “Thanks…Then according to you, the signature should be the same, with the shadow in the house and the real signature in the maze!”

Mu Yiran realized that after he’d pulled Wei Dong, the other party didn’t let go. He was clutching him hard with sweaty palms.

Just when Wei Dong was feeling that Mu Yiran was getting more and more kind, he suddenly heard the other person coldly say, “You sit here and wait.”

Wei Dong, who was already lowering his body for fear of falling: …..

From a distance, Ke Xun said, “Dongzi, you stay outside and observe!”

Dongzi, who might have planted down the side if he had taken one step further, nodded hurriedly and squatted tremblingly on the wall.

“I saw that person!” Qin Ci moved forward quickly, pointing to the path ahead.

.

Four people cooperated and tacitly surrounded the person in the maze along the outer path. The person was very fast and very familiar with the layout of the maze. But he seemed to gradually realize that it would be difficult for one person to beat four, and so he simply stopped running.

By this time, everyone had already pushed the person to the center of the maze. The person stopped walking and sat down directly on the lawn at the center of the circle.

Ke Xun dropped down from the wall, maintaining a safe distance from the man.

Zhu Haowen and Mu Yiran also came down, with only Qin Ci remaining on a commanding height, keeping a vigilant observation of their surroundings.

This man wore a large robe embroidered with patterns in four colors: blood red moon, blue circles and diamonds, goose yellow wheels, and orange maze.

If the moon represented Zhang Tianwei, then the circle represented Guo Lixia, the diamond Xin Beibei, and the wheels Miao Zipei. These were the members whose colors had been absorbed. Then, who did this orange maze pattern belong to?

“No wonder we’re divided into five colors. In addition to the three primary colors, there are also two intermediate colors: purple and green. The only missing color is orange.” Zhu Haowen’s eyes landed on that person. “It turns out that you’re the orange.”

This person was very thin, but had piercing eyes. His entire person looked a bit weird, probably because he had no shadow.

The person didn’t say a word.

“Actually, I think all colors have their own beauty. People like all kinds of color, and there are also many who like colors like duck feces yellow and bile green,” clearing his throat, Ke Xun made his opening remark. “Anyway, all the colors added together make black, so why not enjoy the process of these colors. Divide them as you want and combine them as you want. Why not give yourself some freedom?!”

The shadowless man looked at Ke Xun indifferently and said nothing.

This was the first time Ke Xun received such thousand-year-old cold eyes. Compared to this person, Mu Yiran’s coldness was at best a box of ice cream, of the lemon vanilla flavor kind.

The signature must have been hidden by this person. Judging from his cold eyes, even if he was tortured all the way, he would not say a word.

“I am willing to contribute part of the purple,” Mu Yiran finally opened his mouth. “So that you can gather six colors to get the black you wanted.”

“Don’t be foolish!” The big glass jar used for soaking people appeared in Ke Xun’s mind, and for the first time in his life, he shouted at Mu Yiran.

“We have already searched all the places we can find, and now we can be sure that the signature is on this person.”