I Will Teach You How to Hunt Gods

The second carving on the metal door depicts a disaster occurring within the tribe.

Pitch-black smoke spreads in the sky, bringing with it cold rain.

Fierce winds and rain batter the thatched huts, but people are too preoccupied to maintain their homes.

Because at this moment, those once strong and proud hunters are all collapsed on beds and the ground, limbs weak and powerless, with faces as dark as paint, appearing as if they have caught a plague.

Those newly infected exhibit symptoms similar to a fever, with a confused mind, and their bodies are also tinged with blue smoke.

Severe patients scratch their bellies and limbs with their hands, unclear if due to itching or some other reason, leaving themselves a bloody mess.

The invisible virus is so potent, effortlessly toppling humans who could even conquer nature, rendering them the weakest and most helpless beings in this world.

The entire tribe has fallen into this disaster.

Except for one person.

The boy who was once bullied by the strong.

Not only was he unaffected by the plague, but he even grew taller. Although still frail and not as robust as the strong ones, he was the only one standing, making his stature taller than anyone of his fallen peers.

However, judging by the anxious expression on the boy's face, his character isn't actually bad; he could even be called "kind".

He didn't take this opportunity to retaliate against others but stayed by their sides, cradling bowls of medicine to take care of his companions.

The main scene of this carving isn't particularly eerie.

What truly makes one's skin crawl is a detail that's easily overlooked.

First comes the boy's home.

There is a pot there, within it a piece of rotten meat crawling with worms, seemingly the same meat the boy fumbled out from the corner in the previous carving.

Though it's bubbling in boiling water, being cooked non-stop, the surface rot suggests it's never been cooked.

The worms on it resemble black parasites cohabiting with the meat, rather than the usual flies found on decaying food.

At the same time, bite marks visible on the rotten meat indicate the boy must have eaten the meat.

A piece of unrotting, uncookable meat—what happens if it's ingested?

No one knows.

However, with sharp eyes, Yun You noticed that the black mist floating in the sky, upon a closer look, isn't simple fog but densely packed... black worms!

At first glance, they indeed bear a striking resemblance to the parasites drilling in and out of the rotten meat.

"Could these worms be the cause of the tribe's plague?"

Yun You slightly furrowed her brows, looking towards the third carving, which resides at the door's edge, the final relief.

The timeline of the third carving seems long, showing enormous changes within the tribe as all thatched huts are replaced by stone buildings and wooden palaces, after unknown years.

Yet, the boy's appearance and physique remain utterly unchanged.

Clad in luxurious silk robes, he sits regally on a throne in the castle, his visage as youthful as in the second carving, but his expression is entirely different.

Gone are the past gentleness and responsibility—now he is cold and cruel, showing no sympathy in his eyes, a casual gesture commanding his guards to hack apart the slave kneeling before him.

Blood stains the floor, in the castle's shadows, there are severed limbs everywhere, and shattered slaves... the scene is as brutal as a purgatory on earth.

But the boy doesn't care, beckoning a servant with his other hand to bring a basin of fresh blood and flesh, who knows whether to eat... or do something even more wicked and profane.

The main image of this carving is already quite disturbing, but Yun You notices even more unsettling details.

Behind the boy, the sculptor has painstakingly outlined a jet-black shadow.

This is the boy's shadow.

Peculiarly, although the boy has a human form and a tall stature, his shadow... resembles a twisted, deformed mass of rotten flesh, extending limbs that might be tentacles or parasitic worms in the darkness.

Its appearance is almost identical to the rotten meat the boy found long, long ago.

The rotten meat seems not to have vanished but has become the boy's shadow.

What could this possibly mean?

"Perhaps it's saying that outwardly, the boy swallowed the meat, gaining extraordinary power and never-changing appearance, but in reality, his body was taken over by the meat, becoming a piece of flesh under human disguise?"

Jack scratched his chin and tentatively said, "And his brutal actions in the third image prove that the meat changed his personality, turning a kind and timid little boy into a bloodthirsty tyrant?"

"That's likely it."

Yun You nodded.

The sequence of events she imagined in her mind was exactly what Jack had described.

"But what does this story really mean?"

Jack furrowed his brows tightly, speaking in a deep voice, "Could this relief actually be depicting 'its' story?"

"The so-called piece of meat, the tyrant boy in human disguise, is its past?"

"It's really quite believable, both possess the ability to manipulate fog, though one makes people sick, and the other causes hallucinations..."

The little girl gently nodded.

"Indeed."

She stood up, supporting herself on her knees, kicking at the large door and murmuring, "But I feel this is the secondary concern."

"What I truly care about is who forged this metal door, why is it in a modern mine, when did it appear... and why does it record such a story."

"Could it be that the miners who worked here before never found it? I think that's impossible because there are electrical wires and mine lamps next to it, proving the workers have definitely been here."

"But if the workers have seen it, why didn't they move it out, leaving it here instead? Even if the workers didn't care about this thing, objectively, it would still have interfered with the mining, right?"

The girl sighed softly, lamenting, "This doesn't make any sense, it just doesn't make any sense..."

"Maybe this paper can solve your puzzle."

Jack tore off a piece of paper from the door and handed it to Yun You.

"Don't lose heart, take a closer look, Chica, there seems to be a lot of content here."

"Hmm..."

Yun You answered and accepted the paper, studying it carefully.

Most of the words on the paper were still some form of ancient Sanskrit, but it's at least much "younger" than hieroglyphs, so the chip could roughly translate its content.

[Praise to my lord, blessings to my lord, welcoming my lord...]

[This is the "Path of Purification", the thing before you is the "Gate of Illusion", set to ward off all filth and evil thoughts]

[If you wish to pass, you must offer your "Unclean Source", that is—personally gouge out your eye, chew it to a pulp in your mouth, then offer it to the fungal carpet at your feet, thus opening the gate and achieving rebirth...]

[A warning to the visitors, do not use false items to offer to my lord, lest you find yourself condemned to Eternal Purgatory, never to be reborn!]

[Remember! Remember!]