Kaleidoscope of Death

The night was dark and the crowd walked with torches in the bitterly cold wind.

The snow that had been drifting before had stopped, but the wind was still frighteningly cold, and Lin Qiushi's feet crunched on the ground. He was wearing thick clothes, had his hat pulled up to cover his ears and the lower half of his face, his body slightly bowed, and was carrying a beautiful girl behind him.

There was no conversation on this journey, and the atmosphere was terribly quiet.

When the temple that the carpenter was talking about appeared in front of everyone, someone finally broke the silence.

"This is a temple?" Zhang Zishuang spoke, "This temple looks... too odd."

The temple at night did look very odd. At first glance, it looked very old, but if one looked closely, they would find that the temple was actually very exquisite. The relief carvings on the two pillars at the entrance alone didn't seem like mere mortals.

Lin Qiushi put Ruan Baijie down and held the torch up to see the specifics of the relief carvings on the pillars, he found that the relief carvings on them were about the eighteen layers of hell, whether it was evil ghosts or suffering souls, they all looked lifelike on the pillars.

"This pillar is beautiful." Ruan Baijie suddenly quipped.

"It is quite beautiful." Lin Qiushi also agreed.

These bas-reliefs were not at all like the products of the backward mountain village in front of them, and they were even on the verge of being called crafts.

If it wasn't for the fact that everyone had more important things to do right now, perhaps Lin Qiushi would have taken the time to observe them properly.

"Who's first?" Bear Paint asked questions.

He asked who would go in first, but no one answered. This kind of thing was too dangerous, and if entering the temple was the condition that triggered death, wouldn't the one who went in first be the victim.

"Why does one have to go in alone." Ruan Baijie suddenly said, "What if that old man is lying to us?"

Bear Paint said, "But it's better to listen to him than to confront him."

Ruan Baijie: "That's not necessarily true." She turned her head and looked at Lin Qiushi, "Qiushi, I'm scared, let's go in together."

Lin Qiushi was slightly hesitant at the words, "But what if two people entering the temple is the trigger condition?"

Ruan Baijie said, "Now that all the answers are unknown, I'd rather take a gamble, after all, no one knows what will happen if I go in alone, if something does happen." She said, looking at the temple in the darkness in front of her, "After all... it's a person who goes in, but it's not sure what else will come out."

Her words caused goosebumps to form on everyone, even Lin Qiushi. He stretched out and rubbed his arms, looked at Ruan Baijie's expression, and finally gritted his teeth: "Good."

Xiong Lacquer frowned, "Do you guys know what you're doing, if two people are..."

He seemed to be trying to persuade, but was interrupted by Ruan Baijie, "What if a talent is? Who's to say about that?"

That was indeed the case, and the bear painted silent.

"We don't care how you guys arrange the order." Ruan Baijie's voice was soft, "It's too cold this day, Qiushi, let's go in first and go home early to sleep."

Around the mention of the word sleep, it reminded the crowd that the horrible night was coming soon. If they dawdled here any longer, there was a high possibility that the whole thing would be wasted, and what they would encounter by then was completely uncontrollable.

"Let's go." Ruan Baijie took Lin Qiushi's arm, and her entire body was attached to his.

Lin Qiushi had gotten used to Ruan Baijie's clingy nature, and after nodding his head, he bit his teeth and said go.

The two of them then took a step and headed towards the temple.

The others fell into a brief silence as they watched their backs.

The temple was a wooden door, half-hidden, and it was pitch black inside, so nothing could be seen. Ruan Baijie reached out her hand and gently pushed open the door in front of her.

There was a creaking sound and the door opened in response, the air inside puffed out.

Lin Qiushi smelled an aroma that belonged to a faint scent, which was very faint but very out of place in such an environment.

Lin Qiushi was able to see the temple's decorations clearly by the faint light of the torch.

The temple wasn't large and was very simple in construction, with an incense case and some statues of immortals in the center, and next to it was a huge merit box. There seemed to be something engraved on the merit box, as it was too far away for Lin Qiushi to see it clearly.

"Let's go." Ruan Baijie said.

The two of them continued forward, heading towards the futon in front of the god statue.

The statue of the god was a Buddha, what Buddha Lin Qiushi didn't know, but it looked benevolent and breathed the smell of universal sentience.

Ruan Baijie's expression was calm as she knelt down on the futon and paid her respects towards the Buddha statue.

Lin Qiushi stood beside her and held his breath.

After the quiet wait, nothing happened. The Buddha statue was still compassionate, its half-closed eyes silent as it looked at the devotees before it. Apart from the whistling wind, there was a reassuring silence in the temple.

Lin Qiushi let out a sigh of relief.

"It's fine." Ruan Baijie stood up and drained the dust from her knees, "You do it."

Lin Qiushi nodded, handed the torch to Ruan Baijie, and knelt on the futon to pay his respects. What Ruan Baijie thought as he worshipped Lin Qiushi didn't know, but anyway, he worshipped with great devotion, praying for the protection of the god in front of him.

"Alright." A few short movements, but it seemed as if it had exhausted one's strength, and when nothing happened after the worship, Lin Qiushi was greatly relieved.

"Let's go." Ruan Baijie turned around, "We should get out."

So the two of them slowly left the temple.

The people standing outside revealed surprised expressions when they saw the two of them come out intact, and Xiong Lacquer said, "Did anything happen?"

Lin Qiushi shook his head, "No."

Although everyone didn't say anything, the expressions on their faces were strange, and some hesitated.

"Why don't we just go in together two by two?" Bearpaint said, "Since everyone up front is fine..."

"Are you sure they're okay?" One regiment member, however, was wary of Ruan Baijie and Lin Qiushi, "Just now she also said that what goes in is human, but what comes out is not necessarily so, how can you be sure that the two of them are still human?"

Lin Qiushi, who was suspected of his identity, was about to explain, but Ruan Baijie waved her hand to stop him from speaking, and she said in a nonchalant manner, "We won't persuade you, feel free."

"Brother Xiong, I'm also afraid." Ko said, "Let's go in together too, shall we?"

The bear paint looked hesitant.

Some of its timid members began to look for partners, while others stubbornly still refused to go against the old carpenter's words.

"Then let's do what we want." Finally, Bearpaint made his decision, "Curt, we'll go in together."

Curt nodded in surprise.

In the order they had decided, the second group to enter the temple was a single man. He went in alone and also came out alone, and the entire time was equally uneventful. Only there was some confusion in his expression when he came out, as if he wanted to say something.

But before he could say anything, the third group had already gone in.

"What did you see in the temple?" The man who had entered the body alone whispered a question to Lin Qiushi.

"I didn't see anything." Lin Qiushi said, "Just a statue of a god and a futon."

"Don't you think that idol is a bit strange..." the man said, "I've never seen an idol like that before."

Lin Qiushi was stunned at the words, not understanding what the man meant.

The man whispered, "Have you ever seen it? That idol looks so strange too..."

Lin Qiushi shook his head, not quite understanding what the man meant, but as he thought about it, a thought that sent chills down his back appeared in his head, "What did you... see of the idol?"

"It's a woman." The smile on Lin Qiushi's face was gone as soon as this was said, the man was still complaining in a low voice, noticing that something was wrong with the expression on Lin Qiushi's face, "Saying that she was a Bodhisattva and didn't want to be a Bodhisattva, she looked at me with a smile, and the thing she was holding in her hand wasn't like the magic tool in the statue's hand, it was more like.... "

"Like what?" Lin Qiushi asked dryly.

"It's more like, an axe for cutting down trees." The man said this and took a glance towards the temple, "And after I finished worshipping, she seemed to have moved..." he said here and finally noticed that Lin Qiushi's appearance was off, "What about you guys? Did you guys see that too?"

"No." Although it was cruel, Lin Qiushi told the man the truth, "The Buddha statue we saw was different from you."

"How is it different?" The man's face changed instantly when he heard this, "What kind of idol did you see?"

"A Buddha..." said Lin Qiushi, "A man."

The man's face was as white as paper, and his eyes towards the temple were filled with fear and despair, he shivered all over, and his mouth began to say, "No, no, it won't be like this, how could it be, it must be you guys who have a problem, it must be you guys..." he said these words and looked around vigilantly, as if he was afraid that what he was saying would be overheard by others.

The third group was Bear Paint and Curtis, who came out with similarly calm expressions, as if nothing strange had happened.

Next was the fourth group...the fifth group...these groupings had men and women, one person and two people, but Lin Qiushi soon found a pattern, as long as one went in, none of them came out with a good expression.

When the last person came out, the crowd finally identified a certain pattern - when one person went in and two people went in together, they saw completely different statues of gods.

Lin Qiushi and the others saw a Buddha statue, while the one who went in all saw a woman, a woman with a strange smile and holding an axe.

"It must be their mistake, we followed the carpenter's hint..." someone began to gradually break down emotionally after discovering this, unable to stop mumbling, "Nothing can go wrong, we can't go wrong, the idol must be It's that woman... Yes, it's the woman."

Lin Qiushi could only comfort them, "It's true that it's not certain yet, so don't be too nervous."

In fact, everyone knew in their hearts that that woman could never be a temple statue, which temple, would worship such a thing?

"Yeah, it's not certain." Ruan Baijie laughed, she stretched out her hand and flicked her hair, softly speaking, "Besides, so many people went into the temple together, even if they're going to die, it's not necessarily that they're the ones to die."

"Will you stop laughing." Curt said very rudely beside her.

"Why don't you laugh?" Ruan Baijie coldly retorted, "It's better to die laughing than crying."

After she said this, someone called out, "You guys, look at the pillar!!!"

Lin Qiushi raised his eyes at the words and actually noticed that the reliefs on the pillars were beginning to slowly squirm.