Four of the Seven Devils · Devour

Ye Xinglan looked at Tang Wulin and the others, "I encountered Sloth, Sloth this hurdle... it's clearly designed to prevent people from slacking off; it's incredibly tiring."

"Extremely tired, extremely tired."

Ye Xinglan brushed off the fine quartz sand stuck to the outside of her work pants pockets, flicked it a few times with her fingertips, and her voice carried a weariness that seemed to seep from the very marrow of her bones.

"The test of Sloth isn't about whether you can resist Sloth temptation—it's about forcing you to resist being lazy. If you stop, you'll sink in; if you take a break, you'll sink deeper. If you think 'I'll just take a break' for even a second, that illusion will magnify that one second infinitely, dragging you into a bed so soft you can't climb out."

Yun Jingheng stood next to her, and glanced at her as she finished speaking.

Ye Xinglan's complexion was indeed not good; the dry skin on her lips was even more noticeable than before, and the two bluish shadows under her eyes were particularly clear under the leaden light.

Her voice also had a hoarse quality, as if her vocal cords had been thinned by something during those three hours.

"Desire is giving you everything you want most."

Yun Jingheng withdrew his gaze, his eyes landing on the smooth rocky surface in the center of the round platform. His voice was not loud, but the spacing between each word was perfectly even, without the slightest deviation, "Everything you want, once you walk in, is paradise; once you sit down, it's the most comfortable chair; once you take a bite, it's the perfect flavor."

"But it won't push you—it's just there waiting for you to see it. Whether you want to stay after you see it is your own business."

"And Greed?" Xie Xie asked.

He squatted on the ground, tracing circles on the rocky surface with his fingers, the fingertips grinding against the quartz sand particles, producing a soft, rustling sound.

Greed is one layer deeper than Desire.

Yun Jingheng raised his gaze, looking at the milky white halo that was brightening where the sea and sky met in the distance. "Desire is like the moon in the sky; you can look at it if you want, or leave if you don't."

Greed is like having a pile of things in front of you. You take the first one, and the second one flashes by. You take the second one, and the third one slides into your hands. It keeps giving you things, and you keep taking them until you realize you're holding a whole bunch, and then you find you can't let go of them at all.

Gu Yue raised her eyes, her gaze falling on his face. "So you overcame Desire first, then Greed, and finally Sloth?"

"Order."

Yun Jingheng said, "Desire comes first, then Greed, and finally Sloth."

"It's like a pre-prepared chain of supply chains. The Sloth barrier is simply that it doesn't want me to go out—there's nothing new, it just keeps telling me: You're tired, go to sleep, your mom's here, we'll talk about tomorrow tomorrow."

"That voice was soft and warm, like a blanket just brought in from the sun wrapped around you; you could close your eyes and forget everything."

"Did you close it?" Xu Xiaoyan asked.

"It was closed," Yun Jingheng said. "I almost didn't open it."

The wind on the round platform fell silent for a moment after he said that.

The silence among the group wasn't awkward; it was a silence weighed down by something, a silence where each person was processing something in their own way.

Yuanen Yehui straightened his back from the rock pillar, took two steps forward, and stood in the center of the round platform.

Her gaze swept back and forth between Yun Jingheng and Ye Xinglan before landing on Gu Yue's notebook.

"Nightmare is when you're dragged back to the moment you were most afraid of, and then made to relive it all over again."

Her voice still had that dull, scratchy quality, but it carried a deeper weight. "You know it's fake, but the injuries, the pain, the blood you shed inside are real. Fear washes over you like water from your feet. Every time you wake up, you think you've gotten out, but you've only gone to the next level."

Xu Xiaoyan squatted down at her feet, hugging her knees with both hands, resting her chin in the crook of her arms, and gazing at the gray sea in the distance.

"Yes... it's very uncomfortable, very scary."

Xie Xie stood up from the ground.

He wiped the quartz sand powder off his hands on his trouser leg, took half a step toward Xu Xiaoyan, but didn't touch her. He just stood next to her, with about a hand's width between the tips of his shoes and hers.

"I share the same Abomination as Gu Yue."

He spoke more slowly than usual, as if he were searching through his memories while he spoke, "The hurdle of Abomination will bring out that thing that's been weighing on your heart and put it in front of you."

"You might have forgotten that you've resented this person, hated that thing, or held a grudge about something."

"It dumps all these things onto the table like garbage, each item paired with the scene, smell, and sound of the time, allowing you to relive the feeling twice as much."

Gu Yue summarized, "Abomination incites resentment, Nightmare amplify fear, Desire tempts you to linger, Greed makes you take too much and can't let go, Sloth makes you sink into comfort. We've already encountered five of the seven major challenges on this island."

Tang Wulin said, "So we've now passed all five trials, and the seven of us have shared our experiences. The trials will get easier from here on out—"

"But did you bring enough food?"

That sentence came out of nowhere, without any warning.

The voice was old, hoarse, and had a rough quality, like sandpaper that had been dried for a long time scraping across the surface of wood, with a long trailing tone.

All seven people turned their heads at the same time.

A person had appeared beside a low reef on the eastern edge of the circular platform at some point.

He was a Hunchbacked Elder, his stooped back pressing his body down, his sparse gray hair hanging down on his head, with only a few strands clinging to his skull.

He wore a dark gray long robe, the original color of which was indistinguishable, the hem of which trailed on the rocky surface, covered with a layer of damp, dark water stains.

His right hand rested on a black wooden cane, the tip of which was carved with an open mouth, the patterns inside spiraling in circles, like the shell of some deep-sea creature.

He was smiling.

The smile stretched from the corner of his mouth all the way down to below his ears, the curve of his mouth unnaturally wide. His eye sockets were deep-set, his eyelids were half-drooping, and the pupils peeking out from under his eyelids were gray, murky gray, like two pools of stagnant water with a thin layer of grime on the surface.

"Did you bring enough food?" he asked again.

This time, the pauses between each word were more even than the first time, like a dull knife chiseling grooves on a stone surface, one stroke at a time, neither too fast nor too slow.

The seven people looked at each other in bewilderment.

Yun Jingheng and Tang Wulin exchanged a glance.

"Not enough," Tang Wulin said.

The answer was two words, spoken softly but without hesitation.

The Hunchbacked Elder's smile widened.

The smile was so wide that the corners of his mouth almost closed behind his ears, revealing a mouthful of uneven teeth that were somewhere between dark brown and yellowish-brown.

He raised his right hand from his cane, and his withered fingers slowly circled in mid-air, like a gesture drawing an invisible circle.

Something moved along the coastline to the east of the circular platform.

Yun Jingheng turned his head to look eastward.

The dark carpet that stretched from the tide line into the island was still undulating, but now he could see the details of those things. The most recent group had climbed to the low reef area less than a hundred steps from the round platform, filling the depressions between the reefs completely.

They were shelled creatures with translucent shells. The soft flesh inside the shells was grayish-green or dark brown, and the surface was covered with a viscous, oily secretion that shone in the light.

The secretions dripped down from the edge of the shell, and when they dripped onto the rock surface, they produced very fine white smoke, like acid corroding the stone.

A little further away, something larger was moving: a creature more than half a person's height was climbing the rock face with eight slender, segmented limbs, each end of which had barbs. Each barb struck the rock surface with a wet, "tap" sound.

There was also a flat, crushed Sea Star -like creature that clung to the rocky edge of the tide pool and moved slowly. Its body was a color that changed from dark red to grayish-purple, and it had a ring of fine tentacles around its edge. The tips of the tentacles curled and unfolded slightly in the air.

When the wind blew in from the east, the smell followed and surged onto the round platform.

Xu Xiaoyan's stomach visibly spasmed.

Yun Jingheng saw her Adam's apple bob once, her jawline tighten and then relax, and she bent over slightly, supporting herself on her knees, but didn't vomit.

Xie Xie's face had turned mostly white, the color draining from his cheeks towards his brow, and his lips turning a near-grayish pink.

"This is the only food on the island."

The Hunchbacked Elder switched his cane from his right hand to his left, then stretched out his right hand, palm open, fingers spread, palm facing upwards, as if displaying some precious collectible.

His voice still had that rough, sandpaper-scraped-wood quality, but every word was clear and unquestionable.

"There's nothing else to fill our stomachs except these."

He withdrew his hand, and slowly rubbed his fingertips on the front of his dark gray robe, removing a layer of dark secretions that had somehow gotten on him.

The movement was extremely slow, so slow that Yun Jingheng could clearly see the trace left by his thumb and forefinger rubbing together—a semi-circular scratch that left fine, shimmering powder on the fabric.

Tang Wulin turned around and looked at Yun Jingheng.

The two were less than two steps apart. Tang Wulin's face was paler than before under the leaden light. His jawline was taut, and the muscles on the side of his temples bulged slightly after he clenched his teeth.

"The food on our bodies..."

Tang Wulin's voice was extremely low, so low that only Yun Jingheng could hear every word. "I'm afraid it won't be enough to cope with the days to come."

He paused, shifting his gaze from Yun Jingheng's face to the other five people.

"Before you arrived, Gu Yue made a rough estimate, and it seemed that all the food on the island wouldn't last more than three days—if that's really all there is to eat on this island—"

His chin tilted slightly to the east. "Then we really have no other choice."

Yun Jingheng looked at him.

The dry skin at the corners of Tang Wulin's mouth was even more cracked than before, with extremely fine blood lines seeping from deep within the lip lines. He licked his lower lip to wipe away the blood lines, then strode towards the east.

Xie Xie reached out to stop him, raising his hand to Tang Wulin level and stopping without touching him, simply blocking his way.

"You want--"

"I'm quite an expert when it comes to food, so I'll try it for you first."

Tang Wulin bypassed his hand and continued walking forward.

His pace was slow, each step steady, the sound of his boots grinding against the quartz sand on the rocks spreading evenly to both sides.

He walked to the edge of the eastern side of the pedestal and squatted down.

The dark-colored creatures had crawled to within ten steps of him. The closest one was only half the size of a palm, with a clump of grayish-green soft flesh wrapped inside its translucent shell. The shell surface was covered with fine, dark patterns that resembled blood vessels.

The soft flesh extended a short distance from the shell opening, its tip trembling slightly, the oily surface reflecting a faint greenish sheen in the light.

Tang Wulin reached out and picked it up from the ground.

When his fingers pinched the sides of the shell, the creature's soft flesh twitched violently, and the amount of secretions increased sharply. Thick liquid seeped out from between his fingers and dripped down the edge of his palm.

The smell rushed into his nostrils at such close range, making Yun Jingheng feel nauseous.

It must be said, sir, that you are truly a man of great righteousness and integrity.

Tang Wulin held the creature up to his eyes, his gaze lingering on the shell for two seconds before sweeping over the fine dark patterns and then moving to the soft flesh still wriggling at the shell's opening. Then he looked away.

His gaze didn't fall on any one person, but was fixed on a point in the air, as if he were finding an anchor point for his attention, so that he could shift his focus away from what he was holding while maintaining his balance.

Then he aligned the opening of the shell with his mouth.

When he poured the soft flesh from the shell into his mouth, Yun Jingheng saw his entire upper limb tense up, from his shoulder blade to his elbow to his wrist; the curvature of each joint was stiffer than usual.

Close your lips.

A very faint "click" sound is made the moment the upper and lower teeth come into contact.

He swallowed.

Then he stood up, and as he turned around, he wiped his mouth, removing a small piece of crumb from the edge of his lower lip.

His eyes were slightly red, and the capillaries on the surface of his eyeballs were particularly clear in the light.

"It's hard to imagine that we'll be eating such awful food in the future," he said.

The voice was a pitch deeper than usual, as if the vocal cords were covered with a layer of mucus.

"Sour, astringent, and bitter, with a slightly fishy-sweet finish."

"Absolutely disgusting."