novelzi Chapter 372 - 334: Deceitful Painting Fragments (Part 1)
Chapter 372 - 334: Deceitful Painting Fragments (Part 1)
DING DONG.
Hu Qi reached out and pressed the elevator button.
The elevator door beside him opened immediately, a soft light spilling out.
He stepped inside. The elevator’s interior was unremarkable, save for a slightly faded real estate ad taped to one wall. The ad featured a young woman with a strange smile on her lips.
However, upon noticing Hu Qi’s gaze,
her unnaturally wide smile tightened into a normal one.
Hu Qi paid it no mind.
He raised his hand and pressed the button for the highest floor—the 53rd.
The elevator ascended smoothly. Everything was normal during the ride.
With another crisp DING DONG, the elevator doors opened, and Hu Qi stepped out.
Just as the doors were about to close, the young woman in the real estate ad, who had been holding her smile, finally blinked. Her body trembled slightly as she watched Hu Qi’s retreating figure in terror.
Of course, Hu Qi was aware of what was happening behind him.
However, since these things couldn’t provide him with Modification Points, he couldn’t be bothered to act as long as they didn’t provoke him.
Leaving the hallway, Hu Qi stepped into a spacious area that appeared to be an art exhibition.
The surrounding walls were hung with paintings of every kind: abstract, realist, impressionist, gongbi, and xieyi. It was a dazzling and comprehensive collection.
The only thing they had in common was that they all depicted various dark, bizarre, and bloody scenes.
As Hu Qi walked past, he could clearly feel gazes emanating from the paintings, observing him with a mix of stealth and terror.
As for these things,
Hu Qi paid them no heed.
He walked straight to a realist painting and stopped before it.
It was a square painting, about a meter on each side.
The scene it depicted was extremely simple.
Amidst a thick fog, a small island glowed faintly.
However, it was completely different from an ordinary painting; it was as if it had a life of its own.
Standing in front of the painting, Hu Qi could clearly hear the sound of waves crashing against rocks and even feel the damp mist on his face.
Curiously, he reached out to touch the image. His hand passed through the frame without any resistance, as if the painting didn’t exist in this space at all.
When he pulled his hand back, the painting was still hanging on the wall.
The only difference was that a thin sheet of what looked like animal hide had mysteriously appeared in his hand.
He unfurled it and saw that it was a corner of the very painting before him.
It was about a tenth of the whole, he estimated.
At this, a look of surprise appeared on Hu Qi’s face.
"Interesting..."
’If my guess is correct, the source of all the Dream Eyes in this world is this painting—or to be more precise, from the island within it.’
"If I’m not mistaken, this should be the Deceitful Painting... Does this mean I have to collect all the Deceitful Painting Fragments to get inside?" Hu Qi wondered aloud.
Looking at the object in his hand,
he could clearly sense the incredibly dense Power of Nightmare emanating from it.
It was far more concentrated than that of any other Dream Eye.
Memories of records he had read about it surfaced in his mind.
The Deceitful Painting, one of the nine original Dream Eyes.
Compared to the other original Dream Eyes, it was far more mysterious.
It had appeared extremely early on.
Even Hu San and the Blood Word Script had very few records about it.
They only confirmed its existence.
As for what this Dream Eye looked like, or what Abilities it possessed, no one knew.
All that was known was that for tens of millions of years, the most powerful Dream Master of every generation had sought traces of the Deceitful Painting.
Among them was the Dream Master who called himself ’Tian’.
’I used to think they were all just coveting the power of an original Dream Eye.’
’But based on what I’ve just seen, it seems that’s not the case. There must be another reason.’
’As for that ’Tian’ figure, it’s highly likely he didn’t die. He must have entered the Deceitful Painting.’
"This is all getting more and more interesting."
A glint appeared in Hu Qi’s eyes.
’Anyone who becomes the strongest Dream Master of their era must, at the very least, possess immense destiny.’
’They might even be the Celestial Fate Person of their generation.’
’All of them searched for the Deceitful Painting. Could it be that they, like me, were all searching for the origin of the Dream Eyes?’
’If it were only one or two of them, that would be understandable.’
’But all of them?’
’That possibility seems close to zero.’
’They must have had other objectives.’
Finding traces of the Deceitful Painting was clearly no simple matter.
But that wasn’t enough to trouble Hu Qi.
’Because there was no need for me to search for it myself.’
’This kind of task could be left entirely to Wei Fan.’
’As the Celestial Fate Person of this era,’
’he will, if all goes as expected, eventually search for clues about the Deceitful Painting.’
’And all I have to do is snatch the prize.’
At that thought,
he took a step forward and vanished on the spot.
...
Deep inside a mountain,
a massive, hollowed-out space existed.
It was gloomy and dimly lit.
The ceiling was an extremely high dome that arched outward, like a disc of black jade set into the earth.
Intricate carvings of coiling, twisting pythons covered its surface.
It was dotted with countless tiny holes, each embedded with a white pearl that gave off a faint glow.
In this dark space, they looked like stars in a shrouded night sky.
Below,
stood majestic halls with double eaves and soaring cornices, as if great rocs were about to take flight into the highest heavens.
BOOM!
Suddenly,
a large hole was blasted through the wall of one of the halls, sending dust and debris flying.