Samsara Paradise: Shadow King

Chapter 99 Interpretation

The entire team began to enter the cave entrance one after another. The route inside the cave was very complicated, with many twists and turns, and in the dark environment, only a few torches provided light, which greatly increased the difficulty of Zhao Zijin's writing down this path. Route difficulty.

All humans were led to a slightly flat open space. Only seven or eight ghost warriors stayed here to guard them. The other ghost warriors followed Kamado Yadouzi to deeper parts of the cave.

After a while, several more ghost warriors brought meals and distributed them to everyone. Three fried sea fish with shredded seaweed underneath; a bowl of tofu miso soup with carrots, zucchini, potatoes, The mushrooms and surimi look very rich; the bowl of white rice is steaming hot.

The "flesh and blood donors" happily received their meals, knelt down and sat together in twos and threes, tasting the last meal of their lives with happy faces.

"Brother, why don't you eat?"

A man with gray hair and a wrinkled face, his cheeks bulging, looked at Zhao Zijin and Du Jing curiously.

"It's all meat! I almost forgot the last time I ate meat! It's this fried fish. It's a pity that it's not as good as my wife! Hahaha!"

The two hunters observed the remaining ghost warriors with the corner of their eyes without leaving a trace, waiting for the opportunity for them to relax so that they could slip out. Du Jing followed his words and asked:

"Where's your wife?"

"Three years ago we gave birth to a child, but there was no food at home. People in the village collected two bags of food for us in exchange for my wife who was expropriated as a 'blood and flesh donation.' The child also died later. It was because I failed to take care of him. He, I told the villagers that I would go with the samurai adults this time, and then...then I came here to eat meat, hahahaha!"

The man's expression was a little dull, and he told his story incoherently. At the end, he seemed to look away and laughed.

Those unfocused eyes made the two hunters feel a little heavy. Zhao Zijin took a few deep breaths, pushed his food in front of the man, and said:

"If you don't mind, please help me get rid of my share! I have no appetite!"

"Oh, that's great! Thank you, little brother, you are a good person!"

Du Jing followed suit and pushed his share of the meal over.

It was said that they were waiting for the ghost warriors to relax, but these ghost warriors did not take the guarding work seriously at all. After all, these humans were as obedient as they wanted to be. There was not even a rope tied, and no one was seen running away. .

The two hunters didn't take much time to bypass their patrol and re-enter the tunnels that extended in all directions.

Relying on his memory, Zhao Zijin took Du Jing back to the fork in the road where they had separated from Zamen Midouzi, and entered another road.

"Wait, there's something here!"

Soon, Zhao Zijin made a discovery, a Ukiyo-e style mural.

It was a tall man. His whole body radiated light, resisting all incoming attacks. The weapons used for the attack included bows, arrows, long knives, and sharp axes. The surrounding objects also bowed to the man under the light, except, The touch of green in the corner.

"What does this green symbolize?"

Zhao Zijin was still analyzing the picture, and Du Jing, who walked a little further forward, discovered another mural.

A large area of ​​the second mural was damaged, and only a person with funny makeup could be vaguely recognized, whispering in the ear of a similarly tall man, and seemed to be passing something in his hand.

Going forward, as expected, there is a third mural. This time the picture is divided into two, with the left and right sides clearly distinct. The large area on the left uses darker colors to show a dark environment; the large area on the right Brighter colors are used to express a bright environment.

There was a tall man standing on each side. The man on the left had his eyes painted with white, making a throwing motion. A green spear passed through the junction and flew to the panicked man on the right. Upturned man.

Zhao Zijin had a guess in his mind and immediately moved to the fourth mural. Taking up most of the area of ​​the fourth mural is a huge half-human, half-ghost woman. Half of her face and body look like normal human flesh and blood, while the other half of her face and body look like a rotting and blackened corpse.

She opened her hands in a hug, and in the black aura of death, there was a bright yellow mass surrounding a falling man.

"Is this the mother goddess Izanami in the mythology of the island country? If I remember correctly, she died while giving birth to the God of Fire and entered the land of hell. After eating the food there, she became half human. Her ghostly appearance even frightened her husband Izanagi.”

Du Jing pointed to the huge woman in the picture and said to Zhao Zijin.

Zhao Zijin shook his head and denied:

"No! It's not the island's mythology. Although the murals are in the style of Ukiyo-e, they depict Nordic mythology!"

Facing Du Jing's confused gaze, Zhao Zijin explained:

"Baldr is the god of light, spring and joy in Norse mythology. One day he had a nightmare about 'death', which was a prophecy that his life was about to disappear. His When her mother, the Queen Frigga, learned about it, she was horrified and set out in person to go to the Nine Realms, asking all things to make an oath not to harm her son, but the weak mistletoe was ignored by her.

Under the protection of the oath of all things, even the most powerful weapon in the Nine Realms, Mjolnir held by Thor, the God of Thunder, could not harm him at all, which corresponds to the content of the first mural. "

"Out of jealousy, Loki, the god of lies and deceit, took the mistletoe out of Frigga's mouth and refused to swear an oath, and then he bewitched him to be dissatisfied with the fact that his brother was getting too much attention and he was not being noticed. The dark and blind god Hodr (Hr, h in modern Old Norse, meaning to fight or kill).

The bewitched Hodr threw the mistletoe at his brother, and the sharp branch penetrated Baldr's chest like a spear. The God of Light fell. Since he did not die in a fighting way, Baldr's soul could not go to his father. Instead of the god Odin's Hall of Valor, he fell into the underworld of Helheim, the goddess of death. "

As he spoke, he walked towards the fifth mural.

"After the death of the God of Light, the world also fell into darkness. Frigga was devastated by the loss of her beloved son. She let her other child, the messenger of the gods, Hermór (English for Hermod), go with the sea. Ra discussed whether he could return Baldr's soul so that he could be resurrected. Odin also acquiesced to the matter and gave him his mount, the eight-legged god Masleibnir.

After arriving in Helheim, the goddess of death Hela made her own conditions to the traveler: Balder can be resurrected only if all living and inanimate creatures cry for Baldur.

Badr is handsome, innocent, and cheerful. He loves all things, and all things love him. After hearing Hela's conditions, all things cried for it, hoping to exchange for Badr's rebirth.

There is only one female giant, Thokk (meaning coal), who lives underground. She does not need light, so she refuses to cry for Baldur, and Baldur can only continue to stay in the Kingdom of Death. Another theory claims that this female giant was actually transformed by Loki in order to prevent Baldur's resurrection, and has received support from many people. "

In the fifth mural, the ukiyo-e style Hela holds the still radiant Balder in her right hand, facing the messenger of the gods riding an eight-legged horse, and is telling her conditions.

"Hey! In reality, you are not engaged in researching myths, right? That makes perfect sense!"

Du Jing clicked his tongue.

"I just like to read books when I have nothing to do. I read a lot of miscellaneous books. It's nothing special."

Zhao Zijin smiled and didn't care.

Du Jing glanced at the fifth mural, stroking his chin and said:

"No one among the ghost warriors in the shogunate understands Norse mythology as well as you do. In this era, the island country is more affected by Christian mythology. Eighty percent of the people who created these murals are the violators. They just don't know what the use of these murals is. !”

(End of this chapter)