Everyone stared up in a daze.
It was as if they had been placed under a binding spell, unable to move a single muscle.
Shen Ying's pupils suddenly contracted.
For the murals all around them had begun to move once more.
A Bodhisattva holding a konghou lowered her eyes and lightly brushed the strings with her fingertips. Though there was no actual sound, an ethereal melody seemed to echo in Shen Ying's ears, striking straight to her soul.
“W-What is this place...?” Fang Shuo reached out to catch a falling lotus petal. His fingertips passed right through the phantom image, yet he felt the very real sensation of a petal brushing against his skin.
Suddenly, as if realizing something, he yanked his hand back. “Could we... Could we have been sent to the immortal realm by the Divine Lady?”
As he spoke, he even tidied his disheveled clothes and hat, lest he offend the eyes of the immortals and deities.
【Shen Ying Shock Value +100】
【Fan Miaozhen Shock Value +100】
【Fang Shuo Shock Value +100】
【...】
【Current Shock Value: 70,060,000】
Yun Shu was currently lying on the sofa in her temple. Seeing that Shen Yu and the others, who had been pulled into the mural world, had contributed another wave of Shock Value, the corners of her lips curled up by exactly three pixels.
“Host, Fang Shuo sure has a wild imagination,” the little fox said as it hopped into Yun Shu's arms. Its eyes rolled as it came up with a mischievous idea. “I didn't feel much watching Fang Shuo lead such a smooth and successful life before, but thinking about it now, it's actually making me a bit annoyed. How about we make him suffer a little?”
“Xiao Lan only has the intelligence of a three-year-old. If you look at Fang Shuo with the same standards you use for Xiao Lan, you'll feel much better.”
Yun Shu patted the little fox's head.
After that, she looked at the monitor of the mural, pondering how long she should let Shen Yu and the others stay inside.
Meanwhile, inside the mural.
“We are but mere mortals. How could the Divine Lady possibly bring us to the immortal realm?” Shen Yu carefully observed the moving murals around them and said softly, “When I had free time in my youth, I loved studying the art of painting. If I am not mistaken, these murals should be in the style of Dunhuang.”
Shen Ying turned her head and looked at him in surprise.
“Second Brother, are you saying that all of us have been sent into a mural by the Divine Lady?”
At this point, a trace of confusion flickered in her eyes. “But that doesn't make sense either. Didn't the Divine Lady mean she was sending us to Wuling Prefecture just now?”
The more she thought about it, the more muddled her mind became. She could not comprehend the Divine Lady's intentions at all.
Sigh, as expected, I was born to be a general. I didn't inherit a single ounce of my mother's cleverness.
No, it's also possible that when Mother was pregnant with Second Brother, she gave all her intelligence to him, leaving me with only Father's talent for martial arts. I was truly born at the wrong time!
Shen Yu pondered for a long time before slowly speaking, “The will of the deities has always been unpredictable. I cannot fathom the Divine Lady's intentions either. Let us take things one step at a time.”
Hearing Shen Yu say this, Shen Ying immediately felt much better. If even her brilliant second brother did not know, then it was only natural that she could not figure it out. It was not because she was stupid.
Fan Miaozhen walked to the ship's railing and looked down.
Below them was a bottomless abyss, and their ships were currently floating entirely in mid-air.
She frowned slightly.
“Ships travel on water by relying on oars and rudders. But we are currently in mid-air with nothing to push against. We can't exactly paddle hard against the air, can we? That clearly won't work.”
Hearing this, Fang Shuo poked his head out to look as well. His face immediately fell into deep worry, and he let out a long sigh.
“Yeah, our ships are just ordinary vessels. They aren't like the Divine Lady's skyship that can fly in the sky.” He said with a miserable expression, “If only there were a river below us. That way, we could row ahead to take a look...”
Before he could even finish his sentence, a slight tremor suddenly vibrated from the bottom of the ship.
Everyone rushed to the ship's railing.
Even Shen Yu, whose face had gone pale from his fear of heights, leaned over with a bloodless expression to look down.
The first to notice the anomaly was the daring Shen Ying. She leaned over the railing, half her body hanging out, her eyes fixed unblinkingly on the rolling mist below.
At first, the mist was a grayish-white.
But gradually, faint streaks of golden light began to filter through the fog, as thin as gossamer, flickering on and off.
“Look over there, quick!” she pointed.
Everyone looked in the direction she pointed, and they witnessed with their own eyes the mist parting to reveal that the once-empty, bottomless abyss had actually transformed into a river.
Most astonishing of all, the water of this river was golden, crystal clear, and transparent enough that one could see all the way to the bottom.
The riverbed was lined with fine golden sand, each grain glowing and giving rise to countless shimmering specks of light.
“It's a river!” Shen Ying exclaimed in shock. “Fang Shuo, has your mouth been blessed? You said you wanted water, and water actually appeared?”
Fang Shuo's mouth also fell wide open, unable to close for a long time.
“I... I was just speaking casually...”
Shen Yu knew that Fang Shuo was the son of Immortal Lord Tiande. He was currently wondering if it was because of this identity that Fang Shuo could summon a river into this painted world with just a casual remark.
Fan Miaozhen did not know of Fang Shuo's origins and was not even familiar with him. Instantly, she felt a desire to test it out.
“If only we had a sea chart, we could leave this painted world and smoothly reach Wuling Prefecture.”
These words entered Yun Shu's ears without missing a single syllable.
She lowered her gaze to look at Fan Miaozhen inside the mural. I have already mostly compiled the sea chart of the South Sea. Perhaps I can take this opportunity to give it to Fan Miaozhen. In any case, she only said she wanted a sea chart, not which specific one.
Having made up her mind, she directly threw the sea chart she had compiled earlier into the world within the painting.
Fan Miaozhen watched in a daze as a scroll appeared out of thin air above the cavern, slowly drifting down toward her.
She instinctively reached out and caught it.
The scroll was a warm ivory-white, and its wooden rollers were carved with intricate Sanskrit patterns that glowed with a golden light.
Shen Ying, driven by intense curiosity, immediately crowded closer.
“Sister Fan, could this be the sea chart that can lead us out? Open it and take a look, quick!”
Fan Miaozhen was equally curious and excited. She carefully untied the silk ribbon on the scroll.
The scroll slowly unfurled in her hands.
Upon seeing what was drawn on the scroll, her eyes widened in a mixture of astonishment and delight. “The region drawn on this sea chart isn't this place, but the South Sea!”
Clutching the scroll, she said with great excitement, “I have never seen such an exquisite sea chart. If we can bring this back, our future voyages to sea will yield twice the results with half the effort!”
Shen Yu glanced at Fang Shuo, then his gaze fell back onto the scroll in Fan Miaozhen's hands. He said nothing, but silently wished for paper and a brush in his mind.
In the very next second, just as he had wished, a piece of paper and a brush appeared out of thin air in his hands.
“I understand now. This world within the painting must be a blessing bestowed upon us by the Divine Lady,” he said. “As long as we focus our thoughts entirely on an object without any distractions, we can obtain it.”
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