Chapter 19 The Source of Nightmares

这天晚上，肖如韵睡得很不好，起先，她梦见了一张灰白色的台子，上面满满的都是血迹——她自己的血——在“兵解”仪式上流下的血，这有些奇怪，因为那些人并未用什么台子，他们直接就动了刀，又或许，那只是她的恐惧造成的盲目，毕竟既然他们的言语中说到了用桶盛装取出来的肠子，那有个台子放在她看不见的地方盛她的血也很自然，那时候她太过恐惧，以至于没有注意到那时候还有个台子？那些没有面目只有声音的人围着那张台子，一起冲她抬起头，念道：“时候到了。”
Of course, this is her own choice, made by her own agreement with them. She wants to argue whether the time is ripe or not, at least she should try to clarify from them the few doubts that she has seen in Butinge. However, what she utters is incoherent, hoarse words that even she herself cannot understand.
She was extremely frightened.
Those people continued chanting, "The time has come."
Then she realized that she was flying above a thin layer of clouds, which is usually a pleasant experience. The gentle breeze brushed against her face and several birds flew by from time to time. In the distance, through the gaps in the clouds, she could see the lush green mountains and fields below. However, this time was different. She noticed that the clouds below were a sinister greyish-white, resembling smoke from burning something. But the smoke caused by the ignorant mortals of Shuanghe Town offering sacrifices to some unknown evil god was never as thick and sticky as this. She looked towards the distance, where beautiful clouds usually appeared, resembling palaces or cats, but this time the distant clouds seemed to exude an indescribable malevolence. They seemed to know that she was observing them, so they formed into the shape of several knives – the same knives that had gruesomely dismembered her. She suddenly lifted her head to look around and only then did she notice that the sun directly above her was dim and lifeless, even the eerie and malevolent clouds were hiding far away. She stared at the lonely, gloomy sun in the sky and suddenly understood: it was the corpse of the sun, or perhaps the dying sun, or perhaps, it was lingering on the boundary between life and death.
There are no birds around me, not even one.
This world is nearing its end, and she is the only, oblivious mourner.
"!" Xiao Ruyun wonders where this sentence came from. She is certain that it did not come from her trembling lips, nor did it reach her sensitive ears. So, where did this sentence transmit to her heart from? She looked all around her, front, back, left, right, but there was no one else, not even...
A monotonous song came from below the clouds, and Xiao Ruyun changed direction, flying towards the deeper part of the clouds.
She didn't want to pass through the ominous cloud layer, where the clouds were obviously not gentle breezes. It was possible that all sorts of monsters lurked within them, including the Mirage Pearls? This word made her pause for a moment. What important matter was related to these pearls? She shook her head. Although Mirage Pearls could create all kinds of illusions, they were ultimately just illusions and not really powerful. She formed a spell in her hand and cautiously approached the cloud layer, hoping to find the hiding place of the Mirage Pearl's owner and force it to appear using the thunder magic that the aquatic clan feared the most and the Xiao family excelled at, breaking through this cloud formation that filled her with fear. Only reply to the translated content.
The clouds were stacked like a fortress, and she carefully observed, trying to find a way out from the tall walls. She was quite skilled in formation techniques, but the merfolk who used the Mirage Beads might not have learned formations. So, she couldn't view it like the typical celestial formations. Those formations were probably randomly piled up by the owner of the Mirage Beads according to the underwater reefs' shapes, and the shape of the door might not even be the kind that humans were accustomed to, for example—found it! She could hardly believe her luck and took another look around before diving in cautiously. The sun grew dimmer, but everything else remained the same as before. Then, she carefully descended.
That is a winding and narrow crevice in the midst of the clouds. Xiao Ruyun must be completely focused to avoid the sticky gray clouds and the tentacles that occasionally reach out from within the clouds. As she desperately dodges, she tries her best to ignore the dried-up bodies of cultivators impaled on the tentacles, which seem to have been hanging there for what feels like an eternity, longer than her entire lifetime.
Underneath the clouds is a vast expanse of barren land. Looking around, not a hint of greenery can be seen. Instead, there are rugged mountains, withered trees, and scattered bones everywhere. Xiao Ruyun originally thought the area around Shuanghe could be considered one of the most desolate and desolate borderlands in the world. Little did she know that compared to this place, it was actually a prosperous and flourishing paradise. What kind of place is this, where not even the vegetation has any vitality?
No! In that case, where did the song she heard earlier come from? Could it be that she hasn't escaped the illusion created by the mirage yet? Could it be that the song she just heard was also an illusion created by the mirage?
She steadied her mind and looked carefully towards where the previous singing came from. Finally, in a desolate backdrop, she saw a line of people slowly moving. They were arranged loosely, following the path indicated by the skeletons of rocks, plants, and creatures towards their ultimate destination. Fathers and sons did not meet each other's gaze, and mothers and daughters did not look back. Along the way, those who fell gradually became one of the skeletal milestones of this road, just like the countless others who, like them, received commands. They sang not a folk song, but the orders they received, singing to remember and not forget. The content of this song was— I've translated the provided text into English while keeping the format the same.
Follow the blood trail of the headless bird, blind people, follow the dying starlight, remember it has never breathed, follow the bones of the monk, they have never lived so how can they experience death?
This procession gradually entered a small stone house on the wasteland. It was a shabby shack made of roughly assembled stones. Even a makeshift stove picked up in the wilderness would be more refined than it. If it were a quarter of an hour ago, Xiao Ruyun would have thought it was a livestock shed or a burial circle for the ancestors of the barbarians. Now she knew that the stone house was actually a terrifying holy place! Those people abandoned their families and gave up everything to come to this wasteland, just to leave behind what little they had inside!
她向石屋里望去，那给几名仆役住都嫌低矮的石屋竟然进去了一个又一个人，长长的行列只进不出。
她又靠得近了些，能看见一点屋里的情形，果然，屋里有个坑洞，洞里是数不尽的台阶一直往深处去……不知这台阶通往何处？
She moved closer again, wanting to see more.
All those pilgrims, the husbands, wives, parents, children, who had previously fallen behind without turning back, suddenly turned their heads towards her and sang, "The time has come."
Xiao Ruyun woke up in the middle of the night and finally understood what Hualin had told her a long time ago, which was what her strange third eye had seen - the wilderness, the stone house, marching forward in the line that never looks back, following the blood drops from headless birds, and that this world is on the edge of the abyss? No, the edge of death.