Free Web NovelLu Yibei and Jiang Li exchanged a brief glance, then entered Hanye Studio one after another through the main entrance.
Upon entering Hanye Studio, Lu Yibei carefully held the rhomboid tower shield formed by Lingtai Pure Karma in front of her, while gripping Xuan Ying Luofu tightly with her other hand, preparing for any sudden situations that might arise ahead.
Jiang Li followed behind her, back-to-back with her, tacitly activating her Spirit Mark Power to summon a long cyan blade, guarding their rear.
“Bang—!”
The moment the two fully stepped into Hanye Studio, a strong gust of wind suddenly blew, pulling the somewhat old security door shut with a heavy thud, and some pale white dust scattered down from the door frame.
As the door closed, the entire studio immediately fell into an unsettling dead silence. The sounds of wind and rain that had echoed in their ears just a second ago seemed to have fallen into a distant time and space.
“......”
In the silence, both of them simultaneously turned slightly, looking at each other in unison, and read the same thing in each other’s eyes.
Even though they felt the wind blowing, and there were no Spiritual Energy fluctuations, they inexplicably felt that the studio door had been maliciously closed by “someone.”
That feeling was like entering a restroom at night without turning on the lights, and suddenly a few drops of icy water dripped onto the back of your neck, then slid down your spine—you knew those water drops wouldn't cause any harm, but it still made you uneasy.
Walking inwards from the foyer, along the dark red drag marks, Lu Yibei and Jiang Li soon discovered that the dark red marks on the ground branched off. One path extended towards the main hall, while several others wound their way towards what was originally the bedroom area of the house.
Seeing this, Lu Yibei stopped and turned to give Jiang Li a look.
“Let’s check the main hall first? The informant who gave me the intel said that the painter’s three-part series of paintings were in the work area ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) she showed me.”
After understanding Lu Yibei’s look, Jiang Li nodded, agreeing to her suggestion.
After all, they had come specifically for those three-part series of paintings depicting the urban legend the painter had seen, so it made sense to look for them first.
After walking a few steps, Lu Yibei quickly found the switch for the work area’s overhead light.
With a click of the switch, the work area, previously hidden in darkness, was finally fully revealed in their sight.
Perhaps due to the aging electrical circuits in the old district, or the heavy rain making the power unstable, the overhead lights flickered on and off.
Under such lighting, the furnishings inside the room inexplicably gave a feeling of having been abandoned for a long time.
Yet, less than a week ago, the Master of this place had brought a urban legend girl home and enthusiastically introduced her to his great works... Lu Yibei thought, looking ahead, and slightly frowned.
The work area was much larger than she had imagined. The broken vase, the fallen easel, and the damaged sofa she had seen in the foyer earlier were just the tip of the iceberg.
The work area, created by knocking down walls between the living rooms of two residential units and an adjacent secondary bedroom, occupied more than half of the total area of the two units, providing ample space.
From its display, this area served as both the painter’s usual work area and an exhibition space for his proudest works.
Under the flickering lights, it was visible that many paintings hung on the surrounding walls, varying in size. The only commonality was that all the paintings were covered with a white cloth, as if deliberately hiding something.
Within the vast work area, everything was stark white, giving one the feeling of having accidentally stumbled into a mourning hall.
The entire room was draped in white.
Lu Yibei, “...” Why is it so gloomy? Is that painter running a painting studio or a private funeral parlor?
Just as she was grumbling inwardly, Jiang Li, who was behind her, gently patted her shoulder. When Lu Yibei looked back, Jiang Li conveyed a message to her with her eyes.
“Did you feel it?”
“Feel what?” Lu Yibei responded with her eyes.
“It seems like we’re being watched by something...”
Lu Yibei was stunned for a moment, then looked around, narrowing her eyes slightly.
Prompted by Jiang Li, she carefully sensed it. Indeed, there was a faint feeling of being watched by a sinister gaze while in this work area.
That wasn't an illusion born from subconscious self-suggestion in a suppressive environment...
Even ordinary people, under specific circumstances, can feel the prying eyes of others, and this kind of sixth sense, as Psychic and urban legend possessing spiritual perception, would only be stronger than that of ordinary people.
What made Lu Yibei even more uncomfortable was that she felt the secretly prying gaze seemed to come from one of the paintings hanging on the surrounding walls.
This reminded her of her childhood, when she would walk alone through the school hallway past portraits of famous people, always feeling that one of the paintings would suddenly “live through” and observe her.
The difference was that, in the vast painting studio at this moment, nearly a hundred paintings, surrounding the walls, were all covered by white cloth.
She didn’t know what those paintings depicted; perhaps a portrait of someone, perhaps an animal, or perhaps some non-human urban legend—in short, some kind of existence with eyes.
And within those countless eyes in painting after painting, there was one, or perhaps just one, that was “Lived,” secretly peeking through the white cloth...
Just thinking about her and Jiang Li’s current situation made Lu Yibei’s skin crawl.
Admittedly, as the King of Weird Tales, her acceptance of various grotesque urban legend was now many times higher than before, but facing this situation, she still felt uncomfortable.
This was probably a human’s instinctive resistance to eerie things.
“Whoosh—!”
Slowly exhaling a breath of stale air, Lu Yibei, who could no longer tolerate this oppressive atmosphere, took a step towards the painting closest to her.
However, as soon as her front foot landed, she quickly retreated a small step.
Looking down, she realized that beneath the paintings, against the wall, there was a dark carpet about one meter wide, seemingly meant to remind people to keep their distance from the artworks.
The carpet was filthy, God knows how long it hadn’t been cleaned, and it was damp. The feeling of stepping on it was extremely strange, the sensation was like stepping on matted hair clotted with blood.
Shaking off the discomfort caused by the carpet, Lu Yibei held the rhomboid tower shield in front of her, extended her hand from behind the shield, and with lightning speed, “Whoosh!” she pulled off the white cloth.
As the white cloth drifted down, her eye twitched when she saw the content of the painting.
The painting before her inexplicably gave her the feeling of looking at a cartoon mural outside a kindergarten.
“......”
Damn it, that’s insane!
Was a C-level urban legend scared into not contacting this painter by this kind of ghostly thing?
“How is this different from being hit by a toy car once and then never daring to cross the street again?” Lu Yibei thought.
Jiang Li, seeing this, pondered for a moment, nodded slightly, and silently retreated behind Lu Yibei, gripping her long blade with both hands, expanding her spiritual perception to its maximum to help Lu Yibei keep watch.
Noticing Jiang Li’s actions out of the corner of her eye, Lu Yibei thought to herself, isn’t this a bit like two thieves breaking into a house, one responsible for ransacking and the other for keeping watch?
Rogue couple?
This feeling is quite nice!
“Whoosh—!”
As the white cloth floated down, another “cartoon” style painting appeared before her.
Then came the fourth, fifth, sixth...
As more and more white cloths were unveiled, exposing more paintings to their sight, Jiang Li and Lu Yibei’s eyes also unconsciously grew strange.
Because those paintings felt very odd...
Although at first glance they looked like cartoon murals, if one’s gaze lingered on them for even a moment longer, a sense of suppression, depression, and low spirits would uncontrollably arise from deep within.
Perhaps it was because the limbs of those “cartoon characters” were abnormal, either disabled or growing extra limbs... freēwēbnovel.com
Perhaps it was because despite the childlike art style, the expressions of the characters depicted in the paintings were exceptionally adult-like...
Or perhaps it was because the coloring in those paintings always used unusual colors in certain places: a pale night sky, a blue sun, crimson leaves...
If normal “cartoon murals” were fairy tales for children, then these paintings were probably enlightenment picture books for a certain evil god’s offspring.
Evil god’s offspring... Could it be...
As if discovering a new continent, Lu Yibei and Jiang Li looked at each other almost simultaneously. The moment their gazes met, they read almost identical information in each other’s eyes.
“x god?!”
“That’s somewhat unexpected! I originally thought that painter saw something strange and went crazy, which led him to create those three-part series of paintings. I never thought he was actually engaged in the work of compiling ‘enlightenment materials’ for the x god?” Lu Yibei conveyed with her eyes to Jiang Li.
Jiang Li tilted her head in thought, then responded to Lu Yibei with her eyes, “Not necessarily for the x god. According to the records in the si ye book, the x god and its offspring are likely to be in an antagonistic relationship, and that painter might be a follower of the x god’s offspring.”
“That makes sense. We should know the exact situation once we find those three-part series of paintings.”
Jiang Li nodded.
“Okay, shall we continue? 【heart emoji】”
So, it took a few minutes for Lu Yibei to unveil almost all the white cloths covering the paintings, and then she briefly paused in front of the last painting, which was about seventy-five inches.
“This is the last one. Those three-part series of paintings don’t seem to be here...”
“Let’s just look first, shall we?”
“Mm.”
After exchanging glances with Jiang Li, Lu Yibei took a deep breath and unveiled the white cloth in front of her, revealing the last painting.
As soon as she clearly saw the content of the painting, she instinctively took a step back.
The entire painting contained only one eye.
On the pale paper, countless dark red, chaotic lines intertwined, outlining a massive, diseased, yet vividly lifelike eye, as if it had been gouged out of the eye socket of a giant who died of illness, still with dripping bloodstains.
Meeting its gaze inexplicably gave the illusion that one’s soul was about to be drawn into it.
And just as Lu Yibei stared at that eye, lost in thought, a muffled thud came from the deeper parts of the house that they had not yet investigated.
“Bang—bang—bang—!”
The sound was like something hitting a wall, somewhat faint, it rang three times, then stopped abruptly...
