Rules-related weird stories: 4016

Lin Yi pursed his lips, not responding, because he knew things were rarely that simple.

Soon, the wooden sign nailed to the stone pillar at the beginning of the stone bridge quickly appeared before him, the words on the sign making it difficult for him to distinguish between dream and reality—

[Welcome to the Art Building!]

In just a moment of distraction, he was awakened by a clanging sound, which came from the tetanus-ridden iron sheet hanging from the rusty iron chain below the sign.

The content on the iron sheet was the notice for the Art Building.

Old Mo didn't stop, directly leading Lin Yi onto the stone bridge.

Through the dense rain and white mist, Lin Yi could still see the arch above, supported by huge stone pillars on the other side of the stone bridge, and the outline of the Art Building hidden in the depths of the storm and mist behind the arch.

In that outline, he could vaguely see a clock tower and many watchtower-like turrets, the ancient buildings and thick stone walls intertwined, the eerie atmosphere making one shudder.

The dim yellow candlelight flickered through the glass, this only warm color appearing particularly strange and terrifying in this dim and dark rainstorm.

In the storm, Old Mo and Lin Yi, carrying two strings of large eyeballs, were like adventurers and their apprentice on a temple run, advancing step by step.

Around them crawled purebred Nightwalkers, who were even more fanatical about extraordinary power than the Pseudo sculptures, but also more afraid of light. They dared not approach the field formed by the light, just as ice and snow could never face the sun directly.

They shrank to the side, following furtively, constantly locking onto Old Mo and Lin Yi with their instinctive desire, trying to find any exploitable flaws.

In addition to the purebred Nightwalkers, there were also a large number of Grinning Angels hovering around them. Apparently, after the example of the first Grinning Angel being killed by Old Mo, the other Grinning Angels were not in a hurry to attack, but drew all kinds of curves in the air, locking onto them like experienced hunters, yet not rushing to act.

Below the stone bridge was a cliff, with some areas hollowed out and filled with pillars for support. The storm swept the black tide, striking the cliff and pillars again and again, as if trying to destroy them.

The salty, humid, and cold air seemed to penetrate the storm and reach Lin Yi's bone marrow, causing bursts of stinging pain.

Swept by the gale, the candlelight on both sides of the stone bridge flickered, making a "whoosh" sound, as if it would go out at any moment.

"Whish—whish—whish—"

In the tide and gale, there seemed to be some strange chanting, like a demonic monk holding an evil scripture, chanting some kind of musical canon in Sanskrit. This strange sound was so familiar to Lin Yi, it was the chanting from the Pseudo sculptures, Nightwalkers, and Memorial Stele Forest:

"I AvgruNnen av tKe og…… mrke jaGer…… for……Tapte Sjeler…… fanTome……"

"I…… Avgru……Nnen av…… tKe og mrke jaGer…… forTa……pte Sjeler fanTome……"

As the chanting appeared, endless gray mist began to涌出来from the storm, as if to submerge him and Old Mo on the stone bridge.

The Grinning Angels flying everywhere seemed to become more excited, but still showed no intention of attacking Old Mo and Lin Yi.

Just then, a twisted beam of light suddenly shone from behind him, like the bat-signal that Commissioner Gordon lit into the clouds in Gotham, tearing a hole in the storm and landing on Old Mo and Lin Yi.

"This is…!" Lin Yi was startled, and turned his head sharply, seeing the art teacher "Big Golden Hair" standing on the top floor of the watchtower behind him.

It had to be said, experiencing this firsthand from the perspective of a Russian, there was no time he could feel the shock of the scene more.

The art teacher "Big Golden Hair" was holding a huge searchlight, his waterproof leather jacket flapping in the rainy night. At this moment, it wasn't a ship in the Caribbean Sea, but Batman.

However, the light didn't stay on them for too long, as it had done when escorting the Russians, but immediately pointed to a certain place in the Art Building.

"Big Golden Hair is pointing the way for us, let's go."

On the top floor of the watchtower, the art teacher "Big Golden Hair's" gaze fell on Lin Yi, his brow furrowing slightly, muttering to himself: "It's really strange, why does that faceless student give me a familiar feeling?"

On the stone bridge, Lin Yi looked at the Grinning Angels hovering around and asked softly, "Old Mo, does the golden aura have a certain restraining effect on them?"

"Not really," Old Mo said. "The golden aura is a kind of extraordinary power with a relatively high purity. If everyone has it, it's basically a matter of who has more. The golden aura in the Grinning Angels' bodies isn't as much as ours, so they don't dare to act rashly."

"The one who ambushed you before also wanted to take you by surprise, so after it was killed by me, the rest didn't dare to act rashly."

"Oh, I see…" Lin Yi realized.

The two continued to move forward, towards the end of the stone bridge after the watchtower, "nailed" to the huge stone archway engraved with mysterious symbols.

The closer they got to the Art Building, the more terribly gloomy the sky became. The whole world seemed to be crushed to death by a huge lead plate, the heaviness making even breathing feel suppressed.

Thick dark clouds rolled, opaque, as if to devour the entire world. Cold rain poured down, and with the blessing of the gale, every drop of rain was like an ice锥般刺骨, the howling gale carried the surging and shattering sound of the sea waves in his ears, like countless demons wailing.

The candlesticks on both sides of the stone bridge were like giant beasts whose vitality had been drained by the storm, with only the last glimmer of starlight left, stubbornly supporting them. The walls were mottled and pitted, covered with scars. The further they walked, the more they could feel a desolate atmosphere.

Lin Yi soon smelled a faint bloody and rotten odor in the wind. These odors seemed to be飘来的from the Art Building. Originally, they should have been very strong, but because of the storm, they had shattered into wisps of thin气息.

Lin Yi could hardly imagine what kind of human tragedy was inside the Art Building.

"These candlesticks…" Old Mo saw that Lin Yi was observing the surroundings, so he walked and talked to him, "These are all products of the Black Moon Outpost period. The appearance of the creatures carved on these candlesticks is the 'Apostles' initial understanding of the form of the 'Source' based on their explorations at sea…"

"The reason why those carvings have differences in form is because, as the number of explorations increased and the times progressed, the 'Apostles' understanding of the 'Source' also differed…"

Old Mo pointed to one of the candlesticks. The carving on the candlestick was somewhat abstract, like some kind of long, winged creature: "Look at the form at that time, that's the 'Feathered Serpent God'…"

"During a certain period, the 'Apostles' developed such a perception of the 'Source'. After they went to sea, some were lost in the depths of the ocean, slowly multiplying and giving rise to the later Mayan civilization…"

Old Mo pointed to a carving of a creature that was hard to tell whether it was an octopus or something else. The creature seemed to have many tentacles, or perhaps many heads.

"That's 'Hydra'... a monster from Greek mythology, killed by Heracles."

"In reality, Heracles failed because he never approached the 'Source'. What he killed was the 'Serpent's Nest' within the alien sculpture."

Lin Yi became interested and couldn't help but ask, "How was 'Hydra' killed?"

"In Greek mythology, Hydra was the second of the twelve arduous tasks that Heracles needed to complete."

"When Heracles fought Hydra in the swamps of Lake Lerna, he discovered that whenever he cut off one snake head, two new snake heads would grow back in its place. To overcome this difficulty, he had his nephew Iolaus burn the wounds on the snake heads with torches to prevent the growth of new snake heads. Finally, Heracles cut off Hydra's immortal head and buried it deep underground… This is the myth that has been passed down."

"But think about it, the torches used to burn the wounds, and the swamp where Hydra lived… What does that make you think of?"

Lin Yi was taken aback for a moment, "Firelight… something with the characteristics of sunlight? The swamp, could it be terrain mixed with extraordinary power?"

Old Mo nodded, "Hydra grew in the swamps of Lake Lerna, which is actually mud mixed with solid extraordinary power. Remember the fanatics and the Matrix? It's that kind of thing… Every time Heracles cut off Hydra's head, Hydra needed to absorb extraordinary power from the swamp to repair its body. In the end, he curbed Hydra's extraordinary characteristics and successfully beheaded it."

"Even so, it was only under the right circumstances that he managed to kill it successfully."

"And Heracles also absorbed a large amount of extraordinary power in this process, exceeding the pollution threshold he could bear as a 'Demigod'…"

"Heracles' death was dramatic. Legend has it that his wife Deianira, worried that he would fall in love with another woman, was deceived by the centaur Nessus and smeared his clothes with blood full of poison, and in the end, he could not bear the pain caused by the poisonous blood and burned himself to death."

"But think about it, 'self-immolation', this way of sublimating using the power of firelight…"

Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat, "Sacrifice?"

Old Mo smiled, "After Heracles killed Hydra, he became an 'Apostle', becoming forbearing and crazy, and eventually walked towards destruction step by step. Deianira and Nessus also failed to use the correct method to save him… Of course, unless the 'Apostles' consciously awaken, there is basically no other possibility of redemption."

"In order to touch a deeper level of the extraordinary, Heracles sacrificed himself, thinking that he could gain eternal life and become a god on Mount Olympus…"

Lin Yi asked, "Did he succeed?"

"I don't know." Old Mo shook his head and said, "If you have the opportunity to access the official 'Secret Archives', you might have a chance to know some secrets related to it…"

As he spoke, he pointed to another candlestick not far away, "Speaking of 'Hydra', we have to mention those two things…"

"That is…?"

"'Xiang Liu' and 'Yamata no Orochi'."

Lin Yi quickly looked over, but the carvings on those candlesticks were all very abstract. Imagine symbols similar to cuneiform and oracle bone inscriptions, and you can understand that it is really difficult to distinguish who is who without explanation.

But Old Mo also shrugged his shoulders and said, "Of course, in fact, I can't tell which is 'Xiang Liu' and which is 'Hydra'. Just listen to it as science popularization. It doesn't matter if the 'goods don't match the description', anyway, they are all here."

"The places that 'Xiang Liu' passes through will set off floods and poisonous swamps, which is very similar to Hydra, right? Because they are essentially the same thing."

"Alien sculpture 'Serpent's Nest'?"

"That's right, there will be some differences in extraordinary characteristics, but the essence will not be too different…"

"'Yamata no Orochi' too?"

"Speaking of this, it's very funny…"

"Oh?"

Old Mo sneered, "The civilizations derived from the 'Apostles' have large and far-reaching roots, not like the small days… The culture of the small days originated from the prosperous Tang Dynasty of China. Famous monsters such as 'Yamata no Orochi' and 'Nine-Tailed Fox' were all passed down from there."

"The reason why I say it's funny is because when the X999 big event broke out, a 'Serpent's Nest' appeared on the small days side, which is the 'Yamata no Orochi' that they have been thinking about… Do you understand this concept? But 'Yamata no Orochi' exists, but 'Susanoo' does not…"

"The final result is that we in China have Principal and his group standing up and guarding some key 'Dark Zones', but the small days have nothing, so they were completely destroyed by a 'Serpent's Nest' without any resistance."

"Oh…" Lin Yi showed a look of realization, then nodded seriously again, "Serves them right. Then is that one over there 'Jormungandr'?"

"That's right, that's 'Jormungandr'." Old Mo nodded without even looking, because anyway, he didn't recognize it, so he just pointed to the candlestick in front, "Its existence embodies the fear and strange worship of the mysterious power and great danger in the ocean in Norse mythology."

"In Norse mythology, when Ragnarok descends, the world-encircling serpent 'Jormungandr' awakens from the endless abyss and fights Thor to the death… The core of Norse mythology is that a new world will be born after the old world is destroyed…"

"And this point is extremely consistent with the meaning of 'Doomsday'…"

"Similarly, the Ouroboros in Indian mythology has a similar meaning, cycle and eternity, destruction and rebirth, self-devouring and evolution…"

Hearing this, Lin Yi suddenly felt a trace of doubt, "Old Mo, did our Chinese mythology also come from this?"

"'China'?" Old Mo raised his eyebrows when he heard this, with a smile that was not a smile, "What do you think the 'Classic of Mountains and Seas' came from?"

"The oldest 'Apostles' compiled the 'Classic of Mountains and Seas' based on the experience of countless returnees, which is why the terrain in the 'Classic of Mountains and Seas' does not correspond solely to the landform characteristics of the Chinese region, but the whole world…"

"Look at some of the text symbols on this bridge, can you find that the embryonic form of the writing of almost any country with cultural heritage in the world can be reflected in it?"

"Of course, not only here, there are more embryonic forms of writing in art."

"Even the many great voyages in later generations were related to the actions of the 'Apostles', such as Magellan, Columbus, Zheng He… and so on."

"But I haven't done an in-depth understanding of those things…"

Lin Yi opened his mouth, not knowing what to say: "So, those major events that affect the world, are they all related to the 'Apostles'?"

"It's not related to the 'Apostles,' but to the extraordinary," Old Mo said. "Just like using physics to patch up the world, the initial group of Apostles messed up this world, and then began a long process of patching it up..."

"As the saying goes, five years of simulation, three years of exploration, and another three years of patching."

"Wait, hold on!" Lin Yi raised his hand to interrupt, "What you're saying... it seems like it's not just about the art building, uh, I mean, not just about the campus anymore?"

Old Mo said: "You need to understand one thing, fanatics are fanatics, apostles are apostles, the art building belongs to the campus, but the Black Moon Outpost does not."

"The history of the Black Moon Outpost can be traced back to a very distant era, far more ancient than the origin of world culture... Its architectural form is not influenced by the Nordic style, but its architectural style influenced Europe and even the origins of other civilizations..."

"The reason why the art building was selected and built on the site of the Black Moon Outpost is not because the art building is special, but because the Black Moon Outpost is special. In official construction tasks, there are very few sites that require such a large amount of manpower and resources to complete the construction."

"And in that period, the Black Moon Outpost, which should have been permanently buried, resonated with the campus in terms of its path due to certain location reasons. If it is not anchored by the campus and allowed to drift freely, it will easily attract disasters more terrifying than the Day of Destruction..."

"Otherwise, there would be more relatively safe choices for the location of the art building."

"The art building... no, the Black Moon Outpost, will bring misfortune?" Lin Yi asked in surprise.

Old Mo looked around: "Look at the environment where this art building is located... endless night, continuous mountains, vast sea, the only 'vitality' in the whole world. Its existence is itself a lighthouse in the dark. If it drifts arbitrarily in the layers and accidentally creates a path for the 'Source' to invade, then what penetrates into the campus will not be as simple as 'Gray Mist' ..."

"You encountered seawater in the gymnasium today, right?"

"That's just the manifestation of this storm permeating the layers. If the seawater floods back and directly penetrates the campus, a mere S City University, no, even an S City, cannot withstand it... And that's just seawater in the physical sense, the extraordinary power is not even included..."

"This is just a simple example. There are more complex factors that I can't explain to you clearly... But you should at least know the strategic positioning of the art building, right?"

"I... understand a little," Lin Yi said thoughtfully.

He thought of the gymnasium's manifestation in the layers, the city wall rampart inserted into the endless dark clouds like a great sword, but the root was surging with endless black sea tides... Is that seawater the result of the layer's permeation?

Does 'City Wall Barrier' refer to that meaning?

With some heavy thoughts, Lin Yi and Old Mo crossed the stone bridge under the surging gray mist storm and arrived in front of the huge arched stone gate on the opposite bank.

After passing through the arch, Lin Yi immediately saw the mysterious inscription symbols carved on the arch, which looked very much like cuneiform writing.

On the ground behind the arch, the shadows of the stained-glass windows full of religious color in the art building were projected onto the area in front of the stone gate with the amber candlelight, looking like some kind of ancient, strange and mysterious ancient totem.

This ancient totem seemed to carry some kind of special aura, once blocking the invasion of abnormal weather on the castle, but at this time, their characteristics seemed to have become extremely weak, and they were no longer enough to effectively intercept the storm and the gray mist.

"Sha sha sha... Sha sha sha..."

The tidal wave of purebred Nightwalkers followed closely behind them at a distance, while the Grinning Angels lowered their flying altitude, each drifting there like a ghost.

After Old Mo led Lin Yi across the arch, the Grinning Angels and purebred Nightwalkers swarmed up, closely following behind them into the art building.

Beyond the archway was a quiet corridor filled with dim candlelight. The storm didn't follow, but the howling wind couldn't stop pouring into the corridor. Lin Yi was soaked all over, and when he was blown by such a wind, his body temperature was taken away at an extremely fast rate.

The wind also made the candlelight in the corridor shake violently, and some curtains were also lifted fiercely, making a rustling sound, intertwined with the rapid wind, making the entire corridor feel shaky.

Walking through such a corridor is like walking in the passage of a giant ship sailing at sea.

Sensing the relentless pursuit of the Grinning Angels and Nightwalkers behind him, Lin Yi lowered his voice and exclaimed, "Old Mo, they're catching up!"

"I know," Old Mo said, "It doesn't matter... As far as the art building is concerned, it doesn't matter how much debt it has."

What a sentence of 'it doesn't matter how much debt it has', the corner of Lin Yi's mouth twitched fiercely, thinking that if the art building had a soul, it would definitely give Old Mo a thumbs up and a '6'.

However, Old Mo proved his words with action. He suddenly raised the string of big eyeballs, and the range of light instantly slashed out like an invisible sharp blade. Some purebred Nightwalkers hiding in the dark corners of the corridor were illuminated by the light, and their sharp, pale nails suddenly emitted white smoke like they had been splashed with sulfuric acid. They let out a scream and curled up into the deeper darkness.

"I don't even bother to kill these things," Old Mo said coldly.

Lin Yi nodded. He knew that Old Mo was exaggerating. For Old Mo, the time wasted in killing them would be better spent on increasing efficiency by hurrying on the road.

This corridor was very spacious, but there was almost no candlelight, so it became the best lurking place for purebred Nightwalkers. If they were lucky, these purebred Nightwalkers could even poach a few careless art students.

However, the string of big eyeballs in Old Mo's hand became a torch in the darkness, illuminating a large area.

Although Lin Yi had already been here with Mao Feiyang, coming in person always gave a kind of real feedback on the senses.

There were not many wooden structures in the corridor. More of it was piled up with large yellowish-brown square stones, so the stone walls were not smooth and flat, but rather had some pitted traces. At this time, it even exuded a chilling feeling that touched the soul.

Walking in the corridor for a long time, Lin Yi gradually felt a strange feeling in his heart, as if something invisible was hidden in a dark corner of this empty corridor echoing with yin wind.

And he could be very sure that this thing was not a Nightwalker, nor a Grinning Angel!

When he had this idea, a sense of discomfort of being peeped at suddenly fell on him, making him feel creepy.