SFS Chapter 408 Upside-down Sutra Copying
Chapter 408 Upside-down Sutra Copying
The grayish-white light shone again, swallowing up all the efforts.
The paper returned to its blank state, clean and tidy, as if it had never been written on.
The atmosphere inside the scripture copying hall had reached its lowest point.
It wasn't anger, it wasn't sadness, it was... despair.
It's that utter despair of realizing that no matter how hard you try, you can't change the outcome.
Toby, the chosen one of the Kangaroo Kingdom, suddenly crumpled the plain paper into a ball and stood up abruptly from the futon.
His face was flushed red, his lips were trembling, and there was a kind of madness in his eyes, as if he had been driven to the brink of despair.
"Guide, my lord!"
Xia Ning slowly turned her head to look at him.
"You might as well just kill me!" Toby practically screamed, his voice trembling with tears. "Why torture me like this!"
"To copy scriptures neatly in ten minutes—that's impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
"You know it's impossible, you just want to torture us! Just kill me! Kill me!"
His voice echoed through the scripture copying hall, striking the walls and creating a buzzing sound.
Everyone held their breath, staring in horror at the man, then at Xia Ning.
Xia Ning's expression remained unchanged.
She picked up her teacup, took a small sip, then put it down, looking at the man with a slight smile on her lips.
"OK."
"Since you have made a request, it would be impolite of us not to grant it."
As she spoke, she gave a wink to the two black-clad deacons behind her.
The left steward immediately stepped out from behind Xia Ning.
Toby finally realized what he had done. His face turned deathly pale, his legs went weak, and he tried to back away, but his body wouldn't obey him.
"No...that's not what I meant...I..."
The left deacon ignored his explanation.
She walked up to the man, reached out and picked up the calligraphy brush on the table—the brush Toby had used to copy scriptures, its tip still stained with dried blood.
Then, she wrote a word on the man's forehead.
【End】
Each stroke was meticulously executed, extremely slow, carrying a chilling sense of solemnity.
The moment I lifted the pen, the ink burst into flames.
It wasn't a typical orange-red, nor a warm yellow, but a dark red flame, like blood, burning, spreading, and engulfing on the man's forehead.
"ah--!"
Toby let out a pig-like scream, frantically slapping his forehead with both hands, trying to extinguish the flames.
But as soon as his palm touched the flame, the flame seemed to come alive, spreading from his fingers to his arms, his shoulders, and his torso.
In just a few seconds, he was engulfed by blood-red flames.
People around scattered in terror, chairs overturned, inkstones were knocked over, and plain paper fluttered to the ground.
No one dared to approach.
The flames burned extremely fast, like some kind of supernatural chemical reaction.
Toby's body rapidly shrank, collapsed, and disintegrated in the flames.
A moment later, the blood fire died down, leaving only a wisp of gray smoke that lingered in place.
The smoke hovered for a moment, then seemed to be drawn by an invisible force, slowly drifting towards the inkstone on the table, where it was completely absorbed.
The scripture copying hall was completely silent.
Everyone froze in place, as if they had been frozen in place, unable to move.
Xia Ning picked up her teacup, took another sip of tea, and then slowly scanned everyone present with her gaze.
Her expression remained calm and serene, as if nothing had happened.
"Who else wants to end their suffering prematurely?"
No one answered.
No one dared to answer.
Some people lowered their heads, some covered their mouths, some were trembling violently, and some stared intently at the ground as if trying to see through it.
Everyone was trying to minimize their presence, wishing they could shrink into a dot and disappear into thin air.
Lin Feng frowned slightly.
He wasn't afraid; he was thinking.
The left deacon killed the man with a brush, not a rope.
If the rope was a torture device, then in the situation just now, the Left Deacon could have simply used the rope to execute him.
That would be more intimidating and more in line with the concept of "torture instruments".
But she didn't.
She used a calligraphy brush, and the man's own blood, completely bypassing the rope.
What does this mean?
This means that there is no necessary connection between the rope and the execution.
In other words, the rope was not a torture device.
The rope then serves only one purpose—as a prop!
Based on my previous reasoning, the rope should be the key prop that can change the flow of time.
But how do you use it?
Should the rope be tied to your body? To your hand? To your pen?
Are you going to tie knots with the rope? How many knots? Where? In what order?
Should I hang myself with a rope? Upside down? Upright?
Countless possibilities surged in like a tide, only to recede like the tide receding.
Just as the tide was rising and falling, Lin Feng's eyes suddenly narrowed, and a sharp light flashed deep in his pupils.
Lin Feng's gaze slowly moved, shifting from the crowd still immersed in fear to the aphorism on the wall of the scripture copying hall—
Reversal is the movement of the Tao.
"反" means "on the contrary".
That is, upside down.
Hanging upside down!
The end of the rope hangs about 20 centimeters above the table, at that height...
If the person writing is hanging upside down.
Head down, feet up.
In that case, the distance between the upside-down person and the paper would be just right for writing.
This is not a coincidence; it is a design.
It was designed from the very beginning.
Lin Feng's heartbeat did not accelerate; instead, it gradually calmed down.
He gently closed his eyes, and the infinite deduction quietly began.
Inside the simulation space, he raised his hand and grabbed the hanging hemp rope, wrapped his legs around the rope to secure them, and then hung upside down with his head facing the plain paper.
Then, he picked up an awl, pricked his fingertip, dipped it in blood, and began to write.
Writing upside down is far more difficult than usual, but with his superhuman physical strength and control, he still manages to do it with ease.
Each stroke of the brush unfolds with ease and grace, while time flows slowly by.
It felt like it took me almost thirty minutes to copy the entire passage.
But looking up, he saw that the others in the hall had only just begun writing.
The flow of time has truly changed.
What is a moment outside is several times longer here.
Immediately afterwards, Xia Ning's voice, tinged with joy, rang out in the deduction space:
"Congratulations to Lin Feng for being the first to finish copying!"
Lin Feng breathed a sigh of relief. Success!
He immediately opened his eyes, and the deduction came to an abrupt end.
Just then, Xia Ning raised her hand and turned the hourglass, her clear, cold voice filling the scripture copying hall:
"The fourth round of copying begins."
After the command was given, most people in the hall had lost the will to try again and slumped down on their prayer mats.
Since all efforts are futile, it's better to sit still like Lin Feng and the other two. At least that way, you can save some energy and avoid the pain of pricking your fingertips.
However, this time, Lin Feng did something unusual and slowly stood up.
He turned his head to look at Wasim and Evelyn beside him:
"You can complete the task by copying text while hanging upside down from a rope overhead!"