sinovels Chapter 57 Coffin
Chapter 57 Coffin
It was a cold and damp room, and the floor was an extremely regular circle.A rectangular wooden coffin was placed in the center of the ground, with a huge inverted cross running across the coffin, with a raised "卍" symbol on the upward end.With the coffin as the center, the weird and complicated black and red patterns spread to the surroundings, like the unrepeatable masterpiece left by a fanatic painter possessed by the devil.
The patterns surrounding the coffin seem to grow from inside it, with rough edges, and at first glance it looks like a maze with three raised edges, with a black hexagonal sharp gear in the middle, and the coffin stands in the middle of the gear.For some reason, Cheng Mo felt like he had seen this pattern before.
"The Wheel of Hecate [Note 1]." Qin Chuhe said.
I remembered.Hecate is the Titan goddess who symbolizes the "Yin Moon" in Greek mythology, and is always associated with the underworld, black magic and witchcraft.Legend has it that Hecate was the guardian of the crossroads before she became a goddess, and she was also in charge of the three-way road that ghosts must pass after her death, so her symbol looks like a round wheel with three fork roads at first glance.
Xu Qing gave a "tsk" and pointed to the "卍" character in the center of the coffin:
"This symbol is contrary to the metaphor of Hecate's wheel. If I remember correctly, the left-handed 'swastika' is a symbol of auspiciousness in Buddhism[Note 2], and Hecate is the guide of Hades."
"Because this is not the 'swastika' in Buddhism. Have you seen the inverted cross?" Qin Chuhe tapped the eye-catching pattern in the center of the coffin, "The inverted cross is the symbol of anti-Christ. The 'swastika' character here should be used in Christianity. To explain the interpretation. Christianity uses the right-handed '卍', and here the left-handed '卍', like the inverted cross, is also a pagan symbol of anti-Christ."
The red carp frowned and said, "The appearance of the Hecate's wheel here means that the owner of the coffin must be related to black magic or witchcraft. No matter what, before we figure out what's going on, don't touch this pattern rashly."
Before she finished speaking, Luo Ziwen suddenly uttered a small exclamation:
"You... are you all right?"
Chen Li'ang staggered for some reason, but luckily Luo Ziwen helped him in time.He clenched his chest so hard that his fingertips turned white, and it took him a while to recover.Seeing Luo Ziwen looking at him timidly, Chen Li'ang moved his hands away from his chest indiscriminately, and pulled out a forced smile, as if he wanted to touch Luo Ziwen's head, but his eyes were fixed on her feet.
Suddenly there was a soft "click" sound from the coffin, and a few seconds later, the floor of the room suddenly sank, and the iron door was shut tightly!
That's too late.Luo Ziwen looked down at her toes in horror—half of her foot happened to be on the edge of Hecate's wheel.
The lid of the coffin was lifted slowly, and moved smoothly to one side as if in slow motion.A thin, mutilated limb appeared.
It was supposed to be the body of a woman, missing the legs, leaving only the torso from the head to the pelvis.The skin was deep red from severe burns, the surface was bumpy, and yellow-brown thick water dripped.Her whole body is bound with wicker, and rivets and ropes fasten her firmly to a cross made of wooden branches - the crucifixion position of Jesus.
The corpse's head was bowed, and her scarred cheeks were covered by the miraculously remaining charred hair, looking lifeless.
"Missing ribs, broken wrists, misaligned pelvis... This corpse looks as if it had been abused a lot during its lifetime." Lou Lan whispered.
"The door is locked." Xu Qing, who had checked the exit, had already turned back, but the expression on his face was a little confused, "This thing didn't do anything, it just locked us here, why?"
"It seems that we need to accomplish something to trigger the condition." Red Carp said.
"In this ring, there is a line of small characters." Luo Ziwen said timidly, pointing to the Wheel of Hecate on the ground.
"Where?" Xu Qing raised his eyebrows, looking inside the pattern wrapped by the outermost ring, "There are no characters in this pattern."
"She's not talking about the ring enclosing the central area, but the 'inside' of the ring itself." Cheng Mo patted Xu Qing on the shoulder and pointed to the outer ring of the Hecate paper wheel.The outer ring seems to be painted with a large-diameter brush. The inner and outer lines are half a palm wide apart. The letters Luo Ziwen said are hidden in this ring.
The red carp has also noticed the strangeness in the circle. Those characters are slightly darker than the black and red lines, and it is really difficult to identify if you don't look carefully.She knelt down and read out the line of italicized letters inside the circle:
"tiahiusdssnp."
"What do you mean?" Lou Lan was very confused, "Why is there a line of garbled characters?"
"It's read backwards." Qin Chuhe pointed to the "卍" in the center of the coffin, "The characters are left-handed, and the letters should be arranged counterclockwise."
"pnssdsuihait?" Lou Lan still looked puzzled, while Xu Qing slightly opened his eyes wide with an expression of enlightenment.
Fence password.Cheng Mo thought.
Divide pnssdsuihait into two from the middle, and it becomes——
pnssds.
uihait.
Connect the characters of these two groups of corresponding positions in turn, and you will get——
【Punish sadist.】
Punish the abuser.
At the same time Qin Chuhe solved the secret key, the mutilated female corpse trembled as if being hit by an electric current, and then slowly raised her head.The black scabs fell off her face piece by piece, so from the depths of the exposed crimson flesh, a transparent liquid suddenly flowed out.
She slowly opened her eyes, staring straight at Cheng Mo and his party from the bottomless sockets.Hoarse singing came from the depths of her throat, like a death scythe across the rough brick floor.
【My dear, we don't need to hide anymore】
[Rivets pierced into wicker bundles]
【Flesh disappears in the sea of flames】
【But the fire made me stronger】
[Pull out the bastard's eyes]
【Let him struggle with the burn of his soul】
【I dedicate all my love to you】
【Iamawitch.】
【Burnitdown.】
The Hecate's Wheel on the ground suddenly spun crazily, rumbling tremors spread all the way from the soles of the feet, and the iron lock outside the door made a loud "jingle clang".The whole room seemed to come back to life with the witch's singing, and the frantic lines made Cheng Mo dizzy for a while.
In an instant, he suddenly felt a blackness before his eyes, and an irresistible force dragged them straight into the center of Hecate's Wheel, and the opened coffin swallowed them all like a bottomless entrance to the underground world.
The witch stopped singing, and the lid of the coffin was closed again.Everything returned to its place, and the death-like silence after the thunderstorm came quietly, and the room was empty, as if no one had come in for a hundred years.
<<
There was a clear and pleasant bird call in his ears, and a hand caressed Cheng Mo's forehead.
Cheng Mo opened his eyes, and the oppressive and cramped room and the coffin were gone. When he looked up, he saw a sky as blue as glass, and a group of pigeons "cuckooed" flying over it.Qin Chuhe was sitting beside him, staring at him unblinkingly with dark eyes for an unknown how long.
There were many things Cheng Mo couldn't understand in that gaze.He didn't know what to say, so he coughed and sat up.
He was at the edge of a vast forest at the moment.The cool dew wets his back and trouser legs, and the fragrance of green grass lingers in his nose.A cool summer morning.
He recalled the bottomless black hole in the coffin a moment ago, and realized that they should have been sucked into the coffin.Except for Qin Chuhe, there was no sign of anyone else, presumably they were separated the moment they entered the coffin.
He was about to say something, but Qin Chuhe's expression turned serious, he made a silent gesture, and pulled him into the grass next to him.The grass here is so tall that it just hides them firmly inside.
A young woman with blond hair came from a distance, and the peasant woman's rough long skirt could not hide her beauty.She hurriedly walked through the grassland where Cheng Mo and Qin Chuhe were hiding, and walked straight into the forest where there was no end in sight.
"Follow." Qin Chuhe said softly, grabbed Cheng Mo's wrist and followed closely.
Probably would not have thought that someone would follow her all the way into this deserted dense forest. After entering the forest, the woman obviously relaxed her vigilance, and Cheng Mo and Qin Chuhe were able to follow her all the way.She walked in a hurry, her blue eyes filled with panic and fear, she didn't stop until she reached an ancient tree surrounded by ten people in the middle of the dense forest.
"Honey, are you there?" She rubbed the rough skin of the old tree, lowered her head, and stared silently at the colorful little mushrooms growing at the roots of the tree.
Cheng Mo keenly noticed that there was an imperceptible bruise on the back of her snow-white neck.
"Honey, I'm here to say goodbye to you." The woman smiled, lowered her eyebrows and looked resigned, "They accused me of having an affair with evil spirits, and I may never be able to come here to accompany you again. "
The ancient tree trembled suddenly.
A shallow whisper came from the top of the canopy, the lush branches and leaves rustled, the small mushrooms retracted into the ancient tree, and a bloody moonlight that could not exist in the daytime suddenly appeared on the crown of the tree.The bright sky suddenly darkened slowly, as if the hand of God had turned the knob of a lamp, and the world suddenly became quiet at this moment.The whispering of the grass, the low chirping of the bugs, and the fluttering of the dove's wings, all these sounds were erased, leaving only the chant from the top down, like a demon singing Satan's scriptures.
A voluptuous shadow descended from the top of the canopy, and where the footsteps reached, green mandrakes bloomed one after another.She was holding a pure black torch, her flawless cold face like a sculpture glowed with a bright light like the moon, a poisonous snake poked its head out from behind her snow-white shoulders, and spat out maliciously. A circular gear symbol flashes past.
Cheng Mo thought, he knew who it was.
The Queen of Ghosts, Holder of the Keys of Hell, Mistress of Black Magic... She always appears only on starry moonlit nights, and she is a symbol of rest, end and death.
— Hecate.
The author has something to say: [Note 1] The Wheel of Hecate.The symbol of the goddess Hecate in Greek mythology, shaped like a maze.Hecate is often associated with black magic. Its important symbol is the torch, and its sacred plants include yew, willow, and mandrake.It is said that Hecate is the daughter of Zeus and Hera.
【Note 2】The character "卍" is mostly left-handed in Buddhism.Occasionally appearing in Christianity, it is the right-handed "Swastika" below.