Old-time musicians

"You can open your eyes now."

Fan Ning slowly opened his eyes: "We should have passed the passage filled with contaminated visual beings. In the normal state of the astral realm or migration, there is no substantial difference between opening our eyes or not."

The two of them followed his steps and moved a few steps, and began to further examine their surroundings.

In addition to the green night and the pitch-black platform, there are also some vague things that were not noticed at first glance.

Behind the platform is an abyss of nothingness, and in the distance ahead you can see the endless outline of ruins.

Collapsed bell towers, twisted city walls, upside-down sculptures and trees, overturned tower houses...

"This should be the remains of the 'Great Court School' of the 3rd Sturungarian Dynasty, and it is the real third level in the deep well."

Fan Ning looked at the desolate and grotesque ruins in the distance. They were fragmented and swaying irrationally in the depths of the black-green mist, like a bunch of broken toys floating on the water.

Sheeran tried to confirm: "...So, the 'Grand Palace School' did build a symbolic tower-shaped building, and painted a 'dome door' at the bottom of the cave, and the upper two floors were a metaphor for the testimony. The origin of the Lord, and set the entrance to the core area on the third floor of the tower... Then, the gallery and the room with all kinds of weird things that we saw when we entered on the third floor are indeed the "Continental Alchemist" The association was built over a thousand years, and the other was a mixture of two or three hundred years? "

Fan Ning nodded slightly: "Yes. Including the deep well, it should have been built by the alchemists. This will make it easier for them to explore this third tower-shaped building..."

"Sorry, I forgot..." At this point, Fan Ning let go of the two girls' hands and touched the tip of his nose awkwardly.

He continued to explain: "The mixing of world representation and will should begin when we descend into the deep well. Of course, there is only an initial transition state, and the components of 'representation' or 'waking world' account for the vast majority. , under the influence of the entanglement law of the secret history, only a few candlesticks overflowed the boundary and grew onto the deep wells built in different historical periods. "

"The further you go in, the greater the component of 'will' or 'dream world', so there are more and more unreasonable things, such as the characters that affect sanity in the halls on the first two floors, and the ever-changing spiral staircases, such as those on the third floor. All kinds of horrible things in galleries and underground buildings... But in the passage we walked with our eyes closed at the end, the proportions were completely reversed - most of them were things from the astral plane or the migration plane, and the waking world was only I have a weak proportion..."

"Of course, this does not mean that they are illusory. Everyone who studies hidden knowledge knows that representation and will together constitute the real world, and their pollution and dangers really exist."

But what Fan Ning was puzzled about was that he had never directly heard the kind of dense sound they described in his ears. It seemed that he had some characteristics that could resist this kind of pollution.

Is it something that I have always been accustomed to carrying with me? It can’t be a baton, but it’s possible that it’s an art museum key?

"What about the painting? What's going on with the painting?" Qiong looked up at the sky.

There was still a strong sense of disbelief in her eyes: "I have finally figured out the reasons for a series of abnormal things before, but why is there a 'green night' above our heads? Why did Mr. Cumier's oil painting disappear? Are you here? What does Benjamin mean by ‘appreciating many and remembering deeply’?”

"This phenomenon..." Fan Ning also looked up at the strange green mist and pale light in the night sky, "I have done many thought experiments before, because of a question that has puzzled me for many years -"

He asked the low sky: "Does the existence of a work of art necessarily presuppose the existence of an appreciator?"

"Not necessarily, right?" Sheeran tried to answer, "Art works have historical limitations, and so do appreciators... An oil painting has received a lot of slander and criticism at the moment, but it may become an immortal work a hundred years later and become a A priceless pearl in the history of human civilization... Of course, just because it is temporarily unappreciated, its existence and artistic value cannot be denied.”

"No." Fan Ning shook his head, "You may have misunderstood my proposition. The 'appreciation' I am talking about here is different from what you understand. It is a neutral verb, which means 'knowing', 'observing' and 'leaving an impression'" "Carry out aesthetic activities" and so on... As for the result of aesthetic judgment, is it an 'outstanding work' or a 'bad work'? That's a story later..."

“If a poet writes a long poem and then abandons it in a country where no one can read, does this long poem count as a literary work?”

“If you paint an oil painting and cover it with a black curtain after the creation of the work, never letting the second person see it, and you will stop appreciating yourself, it is a real object, but is it a work of art? "

"If I spent my whole life's efforts and inspiration to compose a magnificent symphony before my death, but its manuscript is lost and no one has ever performed it or listened to it, is this a work of art?"

"A little more extension: This symphony had a successful premiere, but then stopped circulating due to some changes. A hundred years later, the musicians who remembered how to play it and the fans who listened to it have all passed away. Later generations only know that such a piece of music existed from historical materials... This symphony is a historical thing, but it will no longer have an audience. Is it still considered a work of art? Is it still considered a work of art? Count it, don’t count it now?”

"Carlon... the example you just gave has a black screen covering it." Joan said, "This reminds me of the five paintings that Benjamin stole. When we saw them in the trunk, they were also covered with black screens. Including the "Pain Room" he mentioned inadvertently, the Special Patrol Office used the same treatment method to place it in the sealed room."

"I want to discuss this matter next." Fanning nodded, "The pigments in the Langefni Workhouse are problematic, and even have some homology with the pigments in the gallery... Kumier used special pigments to paint "Green Night". This work did not have extraordinary properties at first, and at best there was only a small amount of phase hidden knowledge, but after a certain period of exhibition, the aesthetic impression it left in the minds of the audience broke through To a certain extent——"

"So, it became a migratory substance, sublimating from the appearance of the world on its own."

"So that's why, no wonder there was only a canvas left in a painting at the auction house fire scene, and no burnt paint residue could be found." Joan was stunned, "I didn't expect Benjamin to summarize the reason why 'it ran away' so accurately and concisely... They are the people of the 'Harmony School' who are really crazy and different..."

Fanning looked far away: "This may show that the existence of a work of art requires the existence of the audience as a prerequisite, just like the definition of 'alive' for migratory creatures. The sublimation of the artist's artistic personality also depends on the judgment and memory of history. At least in this world." At the end, his tone was close to a whisper.

"Now there are more realistic problems." Shiran reminded the two, "How do we get out?"

It is not difficult to get out of an ordinary dream or astral layer. Distract your attention, relax your thoughts, curb the burning of inspiration, and imagine the fall of the spirit body at the same time, so that you can control yourself to wake up. This is the basic ability of a knowledgeable person who is proficient in dream control.

But in the migration, you must return to the path you came from, so that you can use this method to control the spirit to fall out. Otherwise, once the inspiration is exhausted, you will be lost.

The three people have already consumed a lot of inspiration...

Qiong curled her lips and said, "The question is, if the entire underground building is a mixed area of ​​appearance and will, how did we get here? When did we enter the migration?... And I think this place is not like a regular wasteland, mountain or basin, it is very likely to be a secret place of migration."

"I don't understand this question either. The mapping relationship between migration and the waking world is difficult to understand." Fan Ning stared at the black ruins floating in the distance, "For example, I brought the migration material into Lianmeng, and then gave it to you in another place to take out. It is difficult to understand why the material moved out of thin air in the world's appearance... And according to some documents, in some rare cases, those who know will find that they are not in the place where they once dreamed after waking up..."

As he spoke, a cold wind suddenly blew, and the fog curtain in the low green night began to roll.

Fan Ning suddenly felt a little chill on his elbows, neck and ankles.

…It’s raining?

He was thinking this, and glanced at Xilan, and saw that the girl’s white forehead and cheeks were suddenly stained with several red and green stains!

Several people subconsciously raised their arms, and when they saw several needle-like paint stains on them, their faces changed.

“Let’s go to the ruins ahead to have a look.” Fanning made a prompt decision, “There is still a problem with this place. Continuing to discuss on this empty platform is waiting for death.”

The three of them ran forward lightly. Although the floating ruins seemed far away on the horizon, the distance was shortened in an instant.

The paint rain outside gradually became a patter, and the sound of rain was clearly audible, with a sticky texture. Several people looked at each other, and their bodies were already stained with fine colors.

After hundreds of breaths, they entered the black mist, passed by the upside-down dead trees and stone tablets, and collapsed from the top window of a fallen tower-shaped building.

The building structure in this ruin is very abnormal, completely contrary to the aesthetics of today's human beings. Various gray columns, stone statues, and reliefs all suggest the structure of human facial features, but the stone is tall and smooth. From the overall point of view, it is completely unlike the materials that can be found in this world. If you stare at it for too long, you can hear a hollow continuous sound like wind and whisper, which makes people feel dizzy and disgusted. And standing in it is like floating on the water. Just like what you saw when you looked from a distance before, people swayed slightly with the whole building.

They gradually experienced an inexplicable horror, which was the instinctive trembling of human beings for strange and ancient historical things. Fan Ning suppressed his mind and led the two through the endless ruins, carefully avoiding the holes where the paint rain was sprinkled, and many areas that looked very strange - these places were abruptly separated from the surrounding environment: either an inexplicable void, or a completely irrelevant and difficult to see scene, or although it was consistent with the adjacent things, it showed a festering state like a dense cochlea.

The paint rain was falling harder and harder, seeping in from all over the ruined buildings. The places that were stained were like blooming poisonous and colorful fungi. Fanning was getting more and more anxious. Although the speed of the few people was increasing, they did not find anything substantial. The places they saw were either dilapidated and desolate or chaotic and unclean.

"Carron, I have a guess..." Xilan said at this time, "Just now, Joan said that this is a secret realm of the 'Grand Palace School'. I think it's only half right. This should be just some incomplete form of a secret realm..."

"Not completely? You mean, because there is only one painting that has been sublimated after being transformed into turbulent matter?" Fan Ning's eyes lit up, "It's very possible... the sky in the secret place here clearly fits the title characteristics of "Green Night" , I suspect that when other paintings are sublimated, more things will change here, and then it is very likely that this place will show some connection with the 'Gate of Seven Lights'..."

It was a reasonable guess, but Fan Ning's expression still returned to anxiety as he spoke.

He was not interested in this moving secret realm related to the "Fountain in the Painting". He just wanted to get out.

The walk through the ruins did not stop, and after hundreds of breaths, the three of them broke into a strange and broken tower. It may have been very tall, but now it collapsed to only an empty shell of one and a half layers, with paint raining on it. Splashes of colorful smudges.

The environment exuded an unclean aura like festering pus, but the three of them were attracted by the huge stone monument in front of them. It hung vertically in a strange and chaotic mid-air. The body of the monument was sometimes soaked inside, and sometimes emerged. , like a drowning person who is constantly struggling.

Fan Ning ignored the dripping of colorful slurry all over his head and carefully observed the strange relief carvings on the stone tablet. It seemed to have been severely weathered. The traces of the reliefs were very shallow, but its style could probably be seen.

A human wearing a crown and a starry cape sits on the back of a cow. He lifts the cow's head high with his left hand and stabs the cow's body with a knife in his right hand. A bunch of grapes hangs from the wound, and the cow's tail is painted like rice. The appearance of ears. There are hounds and snakes biting the cow on its side. In addition, crows, bottles, lions, torch-bearers and other things can be vaguely seen around the relief.

Fan Ning had no clue about interpreting this relief. Just as he and Sheeran were puzzled, Joan's voice came from behind the relief and the void: "Look, there is something on this side too."

The two walked around through the sticky slurry on the ground and saw seven symbols lined up.

"Is this the 'Fountain in the Painting'?" Everyone first focused on the fountain pattern that ran through the inside and outside of the square frame. "It seems that He is really the Lord of Witnesses. Could it be said that the symbol group on this stone tablet is exactly Do they represent the type of witness masters followed by the ‘Great Court School’? There are seven in total?”

Some of the symbols are too concise and abstract, making it difficult to identify. For example, the symbol on the far right is just a diagonally drawn line segment, but the other symbols can vaguely identify the characteristics of things: spark gears, arc knives, lamps, spring water, and hands extending from the liquid. , distorting mirror.

"Hey, look here and there seems to be the signature of the stone tablet sculptor." Sheeran pointed to the lower left corner of the row of symbols.

"Let me take a look." Fan Ning carefully approached the chaotic scene at the edge of the stone monument.

The two of them spelled out scrawled Tulungarian together, and as the syllables slowly came out of their mouths one by one, their tone became more and more suspicious.

"Guido Dallezzo?"

Qiong asked curiously: "Caron, look at Sheeran's tone, do you know who he is?"

"Of course I know." Fan Ning took a deep breath.

"He is the first generation leader of the Guidance School."