Dream Guide

Aoki walked among the piles of bones, and the pulleys made a sound like a monk's wooden fish. It was monotonous but had the power to soothe the soul.

He climbed onto the altar and saw that the altar had been filled with rainwater and turned into a square pool. The water in the pool is crystal clear, and you can see the shadows of black stones at the bottom of the pool. Some larger stones have their tips exposed on the water, like small islands on the sea.

Aoki looked around, feeling familiar. He walked around the edge of the altar and then remembered that the distribution of the stones above the water was exactly like the location of the Tabu Island marked on Petru's chart. This sacrificial pond filled with rainwater has become a microcosm of the waters in the South Pacific.

He finally understood why the Swordfish had not rotted before. Ronald Cohen activated the Altar of Fire, which corresponds to the Pyramids of Giza, which is the Sahara Desert. So after the altar is activated, will it gradually be covered by wind and sand and become a microcosm of the Sahara? In this way, the phenomenon of the Swordfish's hull being incorruptible can be explained. But how did that boat of people survive the dilemma of lack of water?

Aoki returned to the lake, found some new rosin as torch materials, made several torches, and then returned to the Swordfish.

The moment he entered the hangar, he saw that other people still retained the same posture and eyes as when he left, as if they were frozen photos. It wasn't until he walked in that they suddenly started to move.

Aoki felt like he had walked into a painting.

The only thing to worry about now is whether the ship outside will rot and sink. If the ship sinks, water will come in. They are not sure how long it will take for the ship to escape from the well of time and space.

Next, based on Situ's consciousness atomic clock, they went out every two hours to observe changes in the external environment and the condition of the ship's hull. Of course, meals and internal emergencies are also dealt with outside, while the food stored in the hangar is reserved for final emergency backup.

The first time we went out, there was little change from what we had seen before. Everyone had a picnic on the rusty deck, and brought some more fresh water and dried food back to the hangar, because no one knew what they were waiting for. What happens outside in time.

When they went out for the second time, they found that the hull was corroded even more, many hatches could no longer be opened, and the deck was so rusted that no one could stand on it, making people worried that a hole would break at any time. Fortunately, the steel plate of the Swordfish's hull is thick enough and is still strong despite corrosion.

When they went out for the third time, they found that the water level of the lake had risen, and the Swordfish, which had been stranded, was floating again. It's a miracle that a ship so badly corroded can still float on the water.

But when they went out for the fourth time, they discovered that the hull seemed to be filled with water. Fortunately, the water level dropped again at that time, and the boat ran aground on the lake again. The lake water only submerged one-third of the bottom of the boat.

When I went out for the fifth time, the entire lake had dried up, leaving only the mud at the bottom and some very shallow pools. This allayed their fears of the ship sinking and completely rotting away, but they were immediately troubled by water problems. If the lake disappears, they have to go to distant mountains to get water, and they don't have good water storage tools.

Later, the environment seemed to be evolving irrevocably toward dryness, and access to water became increasingly difficult. By the time they came out for the sixteenth time, the entire lake had completely dried up, leaving only cracked earth. The originally dense mountain forests were gone, and as far as the eye could see were all bare barren mountains.

It has been difficult to find direct water sources and food nearby, and the fresh water stored in the hangar is only enough for them to use frugally for three days. If they do not exit the deep well of time and space after three days, they will face the dilemma of water and food shortages and have to go Further away, there is no way to hide in the time bubble and wait to return to normal time and space.

God did not bring them manna and rain, but he gave them another way to survive. When they arrived at the original site of the Ulakan tribe three days later in search of water and edible food, they found that the place had been surrounded by a patch of yellow sand, with no trace of anyone ever living here. Only the black altar remained. Standing conspicuously on the ground.

Fortunately, the water in the altar has not dried up, and the stones above the water still retain the appearance of those islands in the South Pacific. In the square in front of the altar, there were originally piles of white bones of thousands of Itesans. Now the bones have been buried by the wind and sand, but many green succulent plants like cactus have grown in the sand.

After some bold experiments, they confirmed that the water in the altar and the cacti growing outside the altar were non-toxic and edible. They searched the nearby mountains and fields, made crude transportation tools, and transported water and cacti back to the time bubble on the Swordfish that had stopped rotting in the dry.

Although no one could tell, everyone knew in their hearts that the place where these cacti grew must be related to the dead Itsa people. Perhaps their rotting bones and flesh and the blood seeping into the ground nourished these strange plants.

They killed all the Itsa people, but in the end it was the Itsa people who saved their lives. This world is so magical and so retributive.

The water from the altar and the plants grown from the bones and blood of the Itsa people finally supported them through the most difficult moment.

When they walked out of the dark cabin for the last time, they didn't need Situ's consciousness atomic clock to calibrate it. They also knew that Ramla had silently left the deep well of time and space, because the first time they walked to the deck, they saw the bright light in the sky. There are four suns, and the starry sky has disappeared.

At this moment that should have been cheering, no one spoke. People remained silent, feeling the hardship of crossing the river of hell and passing death countless times.

The bitter aftertaste of cactus still lingered in their mouths, and inexplicable disembodied sounds sounded in their ears, like the whispers of ghosts.

Aoki thought of the night when the Itesans chanted prayers, and those generous words echoed in his mind:

…

I use my body to become the pillar of heaven;

I use my eyes to become the eyes of the sky;

I use my hands to turn them into fighting;

I use my blood to turn it into a sweet spring.

I will be with the Holy Land,

from generation to generation,

Until the day God returns.

…

He found that this prayer had been engraved into his memory unconsciously, shining with a strange brilliance in his consciousness. He began to feel that the world might not be as simple as it seemed, and that the creator and savior might not be the same person.

Next, they will face a new problem: How to get out of here?

If they cannot leave here, it will be no different from living in a static zone of time and space. They will still die of old age in this desolate place.

They must leave here and go to the next altar. Only when all five altars are activated can they have any hope of returning to Earth.

"Fog, we have to wait for the fog to start." Situ said.