Free Web NovelAfter Nanling Qifeng finished describing the contents of the portrait, the dungeon fell into a deathly silence.
After a long while, Bai Kai tentatively asked, "Master, is it possible, and I mean possible, that you misread it? Or perhaps, it was placed there by a later person? Such a thing is just too... too outrageous."
It was as outrageous as digging up a smartphone in an ancient tomb.
"That's outrageous? I haven't even mentioned the more outrageous part yet!" Nanling Qifeng said.
"There's something even more outrageous?" Lord Huaiyuan asked, surprised.
Unearthing modern notebook pages from an iron box sealed for a thousand years was already outrageous enough, completely beyond her comprehension. She was almost afraid to imagine anything more outrageous.
"Of course!" Nanling Qifeng said, "What I just said was merely about the peculiar paper used for that portrait. The content of the portrait hasn't been mentioned yet, has it?"
"The content of that portrait..." Lord Huaiyuan said weakly.
Nanling Qifeng glanced in Lord Huaiyuan's direction and tried to keep his voice calm as he said, "The portrait is a hard-pen drawing, depicting a woman dressed in Da Chunyang Palace Daoist robes, and that woman's appearance..."
Mid-sentence, Nanling Qifeng looked at Bai Kai, "Bai Kai, you've seen that woman's appearance. You'll probably be more surprised than I was, after all, I've only seen her once, but you've had much more contact with her."
Familiar? Much contact? Lord Huaiyuan, who was listening nearby, was a bit confused. Unable to get an answer, she felt anxious and couldn't help but interject, "Nanling Old Man, who exactly are you talking about? Is it someone Bai Kai knows?"
Can't he just finish what he's saying in one go? Lord Huaiyuan thought.
"It's Wang Meili!" Nanling Qifeng glanced in Lord Huaiyuan's direction, then looked at Bai Kai, saying with certainty, "The woman in that portrait resembles Wang Meili at least seventy to eighty percent!"
"Who is Wang Meili?" Lord Huaiyuan asked, puzzled. "That name sounds familiar."
"She's my Senior Brother's abducted, illegal wife," Bai Kai explained. "So, could it be Senior Brother Lu..."
He subconsciously wanted to say, "Could it be something Senior Brother Lu left behind when he infiltrated Yumen Pass back then?" However, before he could finish, he froze himself.
When Lu Ming infiltrated Divine Kingdom Jade Gate to find a way to break free from the curse, he didn't even know Qinan Bamboo.
Moreover, even if Lu Ming had somehow known what his future wife looked like beforehand, he couldn't have drawn her.
He knew all too well what the Lu family's artistic talent was like.
If it weren't for those two father-and-son's masterpieces, which scared children and almost made the kindergarten teacher call the police, would he have helped Lu Yibei with all her kindergarten handicraft assignments?
Similarly, although that portrait could also depict a urban legend-ified Lu Yibei, it couldn't have been drawn by Lu Yibei.
Nanling Qifeng wouldn't have been able to see a seventy to eighty percent resemblance between the woman in the portrait and Wang Meili if it had been drawn by those two father and son personally.
Strictly speaking, if that portrait were by Lu Yibei or Lu Ming, it would be questionable whether Nanling Qifeng could even tell if it was a person in the drawing!
But if it wasn't Senior Brother Lu and Xiao Bei, then who could it be? Confusion intertwined in Bai Kai's mind, stirring his thoughts into a jumbled mess.
Seeing Bai Kai fall silent, Lord Huaiyuan, equally bewildered, asked, "Tsk, why do you always stop halfway through what you're saying?"
Damn it! Do you Yumen Sand Sea lineage have some tradition of building suspense? Lord Huaiyuan muttered to herself.
Bai Kai snapped back to reality and explained to Lord Huaiyuan with a ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) grave tone, "I did have some guesses just now, but I must have guessed wrong..."
Upon hearing this, Lord Huaiyuan tilted her head, "So, you still don't know the origin of that portrait?"
"Sorry."
Hearing Bai Kai's faint sigh from the darkness, Lord Huaiyuan shrugged indifferently.
Actually, she wasn't very concerned about the origin of that portrait. She never liked analyzing, deducing, or investigating urban legend; those weren't her strengths. Rather than using her brain and mouth, she preferred using her fists and legs. She had only been pressing Bai Kai out of curiosity.
After all.
Who doesn't enjoy a good show?
A portrait of the esteemed Unmyouki's wife appearing in an iron box sealed for a thousand years—this might be the most interesting gossip Lord Huaiyuan had encountered in the past year.
In the brief silence, Bai Kai suddenly thought of a crucial question. He raised his lowered head again and looked at the outline of Nanling Qifeng's figure in the darkness.
"By the way, Master, you just said that besides the portrait, there was a pile of miscellaneous items in that iron box? Did you notice what they all were?"
"They were..." Nanling Qifeng recalled briefly and said, "I vaguely remember a rattle drum, agate earrings, an inkstone... In short, they were all small, worthless trinkets."
"Oh, right! Just like your old treasure box, you'd stuff all sorts of random things in there!"
"Treasure box?" Lord Huaiyuan asked, puzzled.
"Yes!" Nanling Qifeng looked in Lord Huaiyuan's direction and explained, "Back then, this fellow always liked to carefully select and collect trash left by tourists or scientific expedition teams on the Gobi Desert, treating them like treasures. The most memorable time was when he collected someone's chewed gum and would take it out every day..."
"Master!" Seeing his Master about to expose his embarrassing childhood stories, Bai Kai couldn't help but exclaim softly, "That was when I was little and didn't know better. Please don't tell outsiders, okay?"
"Let's talk about something serious, something serious! Where is that portrait now?"
Bai Kai had originally thought he could find some clues from the other items in the iron box, but from Nanling Qifeng's description, the key was still in that portrait.
Just hearing Nanling Qifeng's description of the portrait didn't feel very intuitive. If he could see it with his own eyes, perhaps he could discover some important clues.
"It's in my embrace." Nanling Qifeng couldn't help but laugh triumphantly at this point, "Heh heh, that strange person ambushed me earlier while I was examining the contents of the iron box. He seemed to value the items in the iron box greatly."
"Fortunately, I was quick-witted. The moment before I fainted, I grabbed that portrait and stuffed it into my embrace. Otherwise, if there was a first time, that fellow would surely guard it strictly, and it would probably not be so easy to get my hands on it again."
Bai Kai, "..." Being ambushed and knocked out, what's there to be proud of!
As Bai Kai was muttering to himself, Lord Huaiyuan impatiently said, "Oh? It's with Nanling Old Man? Then quickly take it out..."
Mid-sentence, she suddenly felt three gazes, like those looking at an idiot, drift towards her, and her voice abruptly stopped.
Although it was completely dark around them, she truly felt that the sensation those three gazes gave her was exactly the same as when Nameless Book usually teased her.
But why were there three gazes?
Had that Miss already woken up and was just pretending to be unconscious and eavesdropping?
"Let me see!"
The sudden voice made the three awakened people present freeze in unison. Following the direction of the sound, their gazes simultaneously locked onto Gu Qianqian's chest.
Nanling Qifeng, "..." What was talking?
Lord Huaiyuan, "..." Can that thing talk?
Bai Kai, "..." Holy crap, so big!
Although none of the three had any ill intentions, and their Spiritual Energy circulation was suppressed, the oppressive feeling from their formidable authority did not diminish in the slightest.
Being stared at by two Calamity-level and one pseudo-Calamity-level individuals, the system felt as if it were sitting on pins and needles, wishing it could go back ten seconds and slap itself hard.
Is this the time to speak carelessly?
In fact, normally, the system would never make a sound when three high-level Psychic were communicating.
Listening quietly, getting free intelligence from the big shots, secretly developing, not firing a shot, and not even being detected—was there anything better than that?
However, it simply couldn't hold back just now.
The three big shots had discussed for a long time but still couldn't figure out the origin of that portrait, but their discussion had stirred up turbulent waves in the system's heart.
In its view, the three big shots thought it was highly likely that a later person had placed it there, which was why they were so perplexed. They had unconsciously fallen into a cognitive bias, instinctively believing that the portrait could almost certainly not have been left from a thousand years ago.
But that's because they didn't know that in this world, there exists a unique urban legend like Nightmare, skilled in altering the past.
The system had originally speculated that at this time, Nightmare was devouring energy from the distant past to advance to Calamity level, and descend upon the world in its mature form as a world-destroying factor.
But it wasn't sure whether Nightmare was in Khufu's Pyramid or Yumen Pass, as in its countless experiences, both situations had occurred, and there was even one extremely special instance where Nightmare appeared at Stonehenge.
And the portrait held by Nanling Qifeng made it certain that Nightmare was most likely within Yumen Pass at this moment.
To be precise, it should be within Yumen Pass from a thousand years ago!
This meant that Nightmare had likely begun to devour the past of Yumen Pass from its very root.
For the system, this was even more terrifying than the Shaman King's revival, absorbing the power of the miracle flower, breaking through the suppression of the God Kingdom, and returning to the earth.
How much trouble can an Extinction-Bringer of Old Days cause?
Once Nightmare devours the past of Yumen Pass and successfully advances to Calamity, what will the Shaman King and the First Generation Miracle Saint be but its food?
And even more terrifying than Nightmare devouring the past of Yumen Pass is that it drew a portrait of Disaster!
Was Disaster forcing her to draw it, or did she draw it voluntarily after defeating Disaster?
Either situation is fatal! fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
The system dared not imagine what would happen if the authorities of Disaster and Nightmare merged, or if one became the other's subordinate. And now, this seems to be becoming a reality.
How could it sit still?
Therefore, after a brief moment of authority, driven by the gradually intensifying fear in its heart, the system bravely stepped forward.
Although Nanling Qifeng and Lord Huaiyuan were terrifying, and Bai Kai could pose a significant threat to it, there were even more terrifying Shaman King and First Generation Miracle Saint outside, and even more terrifying Disaster and Nightmare!
Just thinking that way made it fearless! the system thought.
