Shepherd Tantra

Chapter 1015: Mirror without Doors
The Hall of Mirrors has no doors.

Because the door means closure, and closure is a kind of silence; the key means opening, and opening is a wound.

Beauty will die in silence, and wounds will destroy beauty. Therefore, the Hall of Mirrors has no doors, only windows - windows are eyes, the medium for observing beauty.

Therefore, every painting on the exterior wall here is a mirror and a window.

Aiwass led Yassen to the nearest painting.

——It was a religious painting, in dark red tones, inlaid on a red jade wall.

Aiwass had actually seen this painting - it was a painting by an acquaintance of his.

It is a painting by Adolf von Menzel, the former vice-president of the Ziggurat, who used all his life, soul and memory to create "The Pale White Painting".

This painting is called "Iron Rolling Mill" and is an oil painting.

He almost perfectly depicted the workers in the steel factory, working attentively in a harsh environment. In the dark red factory, the hot metal is so bright, like the sun. Just looking at it, you can feel a heat, vitality mixed with the smell of burning and dust. The workers' movements are full of power, as if they are moving... and the sound of clanging and knocking and people's discussions can be heard in my ears.

These are not just exaggerations.

The closer they got to the painting, the more real it became.

The pungent smell in the factory became stronger and stronger, and the ethereal heat burned Yasen so much that he felt his cheeks were burning.

And when they got close enough...

Yasen suddenly realized that he had found himself in the factory without knowing when.

——The painting became the real world!

He was no longer looking at the painting, but walked into the painting dressed in a worker's clothes!
The clanging sounds and the creaking sounds of machines filled the entire space. The workers' discussions, arguments, and curses were endless, which reminded Yasen of the port.

He subconsciously took a half step back, but did not exit the painting again. He just felt that he had lightly bumped into a wall.

Yasen's heart skipped a beat and he looked back, but he saw nothing.

There is a wall behind him.

A wall with no windows or doors.

At that moment, Yasen broke out in a cold sweat.

"—Follow me."

But Aiwass said it with great skill.

He walked in a certain direction without hesitation, as if he had been here before.

I think...I have been here before.

After all, he is the former Pope, so he might be familiar with the Twin Mirror...

Yassen followed him, thinking to himself.

"Inside the Hall of Mirrors..."

——Is the world of paintings like this?
Yasen originally wanted to ask this.

But Aiwass quickly stopped him: "Shh."

Realizing that this was not a convenient place to talk, Yasen immediately shut up.

Aiwass first walked forward to the end, and then chose the left staircase without hesitation. When he got here, the voices of the workers gradually faded away.

But after he followed Aiwass down the stairs, he found himself in front of a sacred pure white church, and a blazing heat came from behind him.

Yassen knew this church; it was called the Chapel of the Holy Candlemas.

This is the most famous church on the Ile de la Cité. Because the relationship between the Iris people and the Theocracy is not good, there are not many churches in Iris. It can even be called the largest church in the entire Iris. Compared with ordinary Ennead Churches, this church is more responsible for worshipping the candlesticks themselves... It is run by three pure-blooded elf bishops and an elf archbishop, and the management has nothing to do with the Iris people.

However, because the Chapel of the Holy Candlemas is one of the few churches with enough people, candlelight has become the only faith of many people in Iris, especially those in the Isle of Cite. Churches in other places basically cannot treat too many people. The Isle of Cite has a small population, the quality of its clergy is the highest, the medical resources are quite sufficient, and it is never haunted. Therefore, many people call the Isle of Cite the "real capital of Iris".

About twenty years ago, a painter, lacking inspiration, took the "Thinking Spirit" which was said to be able to predict the future and reveal the truth. This was a magic potion that was once popular in Iris.

It was sold as an alchemical concoction, and it actually had extraordinary powers... except that it was a witch's potion and therefore completely unsafe.

Once you drink this drug, there is a 30% chance of hallucinations, a 30% chance of predicting the future, and a 40% chance of falling into a coma and having a bizarre dream. However, because it is impossible to specifically distinguish the characteristics of "predicting the future" and "hallucinations", the predictive ability it brings becomes extremely dangerous... Some people may identify hallucinations as the future; some people may identify the future as hallucinations.

This is even worse than not predicting anything!
It gradually brought chaos and was eventually stopped by the four dukes. Before that, many avant-garde artists had already tried this drug.

This painter is one of the representatives.

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He painted a picture called "The Ruined Chapel of the Holy Candlemas".

The Candlemas Chapel in the painting was burning fiercely and shattered into pieces, while countless red bats flew away, reflecting the entire sky red.

Because of the extraordinary status of the Candlemas Chapel, people have been arguing whether this painting is an illusion or the future. Then the "bats" became the second focus of people's attention, and people even began to discuss whether the fire was set by the Son of the Moon.

To take the blame for an event that never happened just for the content of a vague painting is as ridiculous as a couple arguing over "how to spend the money if you win the lottery" and getting divorced.

Of course, the Moon Children could not accept this situation. They were always the ones who made others suffer injustice. When had they ever suffered such a great injustice themselves?

As a result, the painting was later banned by the Moon Children for "failing to pass the art ethics assessment." But in Iris, the more banned things are, the more widely they are circulated...

When Yasen saw the church, he immediately realized that he appeared in another painting!
He suddenly understood the mechanism here.

"No wonder this palace is called the Hall of Mirrors..."

"You finally understand."

Aiwass nodded with relief.

——Here, any mirror, painting, window, staircase, etc., except for the "door", can be a bridge between two paintings. And they can enter another painting through these "bridges" in one painting. This cycle repeats, and eventually they can reach any location by entering from any painting.

"...Is the world here only filled with paintings?" Yasen asked.

"How is that possible? Drama, poetry, sculpture, music... everything is possible. It's just that 'related things' and 'related things' will be closer. For example, these two paintings are both paintings, and both are red and black, so they will be closely connected.

"This area is the ultimate core of 'artificial beauty' in the world - any beauty created with wisdom can appear here."

Aiwass said with a smile: "And the Twin Mirrors, Xi Tianshi, Ge Tianshi, and their apostles may all play the role of someone in a certain space. Maybe there are some people hiding in the steel factory you just passed by, watching the fun."

And he himself - of course he is not afraid of these things.

He had run this dungeon so many times that he was familiar with the grid map and edge-finding logic of the Hall of Mirrors. It was not difficult to run a place that had never appeared before.

The information provided by Arsene was very clear. Sherlock was in a brown building similar to a library, and there were two candles, one black and one white, on the table in front of him. That was to say, the painting should be very quiet and bright, with an overall brown tone, and it should not be easy to enter from other paintings.

——Therefore, just look for similarities!

As long as the spaces on the road become more and more similar, it means they are getting closer and closer to where Sherlock might be!
(End of this chapter)