The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#423 - Painting

Looking at the familiar scene before him, Lu Jing had some guesses in his mind, but he didn't rush to a conclusion. Instead, he raised his foot and continued to walk forward.

He passed through this battlefield filled with shouts and the sound of war drums.

From time to time, stray arrows landed on Lu Jing's body. The sharp arrowheads easily pierced through the clothes on his body, but were then bounced off.

Once the fourth layer of Fire Scale Armor was fully activated, it was enough to offset the damage caused by ordinary weapons.

Along the way, Lu Jing also encountered several teams of soldiers who had gone mad with bloodlust. Because they saw that his clothes and attire did not look like their own, they also brandished their blades and attacked him.

Lu Jing was too lazy to argue with the people in the painting, so he just snatched their weapons, threw them and their masters aside, and continued on his way.

He walked for about six or seven miles, and the sound of fighting gradually subsided. The next moment, the scene before him changed again, and he arrived in a peach forest.

A gentle breeze blew, raising a flurry of falling petals.

However, no one would have thought that this paradise-like place actually harbored murderous intent.

Before Lu Jing could see the surrounding environment clearly, a gust of wind from a fist struck the back of his head!

Before Lu Jing could turn around, he struck out with a palm, also aiming for the attacker's chest. However, the latter's lightness skill was obviously quite outstanding. With a slight movement, he nimbly avoided the palm, but his fist still went straight for Lu Jing!

Lu Ping also recognized Lu Jing when his fist hit. After he had dissolved all the true energy that had invaded his body, he said with a wry smile, "Brother Lu, why did you come to this damn place too? If I had known it was you, I would never have asked for trouble."

"Not at all, Brother Lu's Carefree Art is also very remarkable, using weakness to defeat strength and still being able to retreat completely."

Seeing that Lu Ping still wanted to say something, Lu Jing hurriedly interrupted him, "Alright, let's stop with the mutual flattery. Lord Cheng and the others are in trouble and are still waiting for us to save them. Brother Lu, you entered the painting before me, you should have discovered a lot of things, right?"

Lu Ping nodded and immediately went straight to the point without further ado.

"There are a total of seven paintings here. The characters and scenery in the paintings are different. Besides that, there is also a blank scroll. It's a vast expanse of white, with nothing at all. I should have been sucked in by that painting before. By the way, after walking through two more paintings from here, you can see the Calligrapher and Painter.

"However, that guy is not the same as the Calligrapher and Painter outside. He said his name was Song Boyan, and he seemed to know nothing. I tried to kill him twice, but nothing happened. He soon came back to life. Well, to be precise, all the people in these paintings are like this. It's hard to destroy even a blade of grass or a tree here."

As Lu Ping spoke, he also demonstrated it for Lu Jing, tearing off a peach branch, and before long, the peach branch disappeared from his hand and returned to the tree.

Lu Ping's expression also looked a little troubled.

In this damn place, no matter how high your martial arts are, it's useless. You can't find a way out at all, and later Lu Jing also noticed another thing.

He found that Lu Ping's skin seemed to be darker than before, especially in the veins on his wrist, where the blood flowing was beginning to turn the color of ink.

"What's wrong?" Lu Ping asked.

"Your hand…"

"Oh, these paintings have been affecting us all the time. I came early, so the impact is more obvious. I guess when my blood turns into ink, I probably won't be able to leave this place anymore," Lu Ping said as usual.

This next-generation master of Carefree Manor, although young, has already begun to show the aura of a hero. He can still remain calm when talking about life and death.

Only after saying this sentence, a trace of unwillingness still appeared in his eyes.

He was not afraid of death, but he was a little aggrieved to die so unclearly, without even figuring out what the other party's methods were.

However, just when he was at a loss, he heard Lu Jing say, "I actually have an idea."

"What idea?" Lu Ping's spirits lifted.

"We've been looking for the wrong person from the beginning. The thing we have to deal with this time is not the Calligrapher and Painter. I only realized this after entering the second painting, and the changes that are happening to you now also indirectly confirm my guess."

As Lu Jing spoke, he reorganized his thoughts again, paused, and then continued, "The Calligrapher and Painter, like the other things here, are people in the painting."

Lu Ping frowned, "But he was clearly in the main hall before…"

"If I guessed correctly, he in the hall should be a strange… no, more like a wondrous object." Lu Jing blurted out with a thought, "That thing can suck people and objects into the painting, but the people and objects that are released from the painting are no longer the same. Well, if I have to say it, it's more like his puppet.

"Because only in this way can it be explained why the Calligrapher and Painter here are completely different from the Calligrapher and Painter outside, and why the thing called the Grudge Infant was so cooperative, and the Calligrapher and Painter lured the official family into the urn with one word and one sentence, because both the Calligrapher and Painter and that Grudge Infant are controlled by him.

"In addition, this can also explain why the Calligrapher and Painter outside can't be killed at all, because he was originally a person in the painting," Lu Jing said, "True Man Dongxuan has been misleading us from the beginning, deliberately pulling out seven disciples, also to make us focus our attention on the Calligrapher and Painter, so as to ignore the culprit of all this."

"Wondrous object?" Lu Ping heard this word for the first time, and couldn't help but be stunned, but he knew that now was not the time to dwell on this matter, so he asked Lu Jing again, "What is that wondrous object?"

"Didn't you say that there are a total of seven paintings, and one is blank? That thing is most likely the blank one."