Everyone stared blankly upward.
It was as if they had been placed under a petrification spell, unable to move a muscle.
Shen Ying’s pupils suddenly contracted.
Because the murals surrounding them had begun to move again.
A bodhisattva holding a konghou lowered her eyes demurely, her fingertips lightly stroking the strings. Though no sound could be heard, an ethereal melody seemed to drift into Shen Ying’s ears, piercing straight into her soul.
“W-What… what is this place?” Fang Shuo reached out to catch a falling lotus petal. His fingers passed through the illusion, yet he could genuinely feel the petal brush against his skin.
Suddenly, as though he had thought of something, he jerked his hand back.
“Could… could it be that the Divine Lady sent us to the immortal realm?”
As he spoke, he even straightened his disheveled robes, lest he offend the eyes of the immortals and gods.
[Shen Ying’s shock value +100]
[Fan Miaozhen’s shock value +100]
[Fang Shuo’s shock value +100]
[…]
[Current shock value: 70,060,000]
Yun Shu was reclining on the sofa in the divine palace. Seeing Shen Yu and the others, who had been pulled into the mural world, contribute another wave of shock value, the corners of her lips rose by three pixels.
“Host, Fang Shuo really knows how to daydream.”
Little Fox leaped into Yun Shu’s arms. Its eyes rolled, and a devious idea formed in its mind.
“I didn’t feel much when I watched Fang Shuo breeze through life before, but now that I think about it, it does bother me a little. How about making him suffer a bit?”
“Little Blue only has the intelligence of a three-year-old. If you look at Fang Shuo by the same standard you use for Little Blue, you’ll feel much better.”
Yun Shu patted Little Fox on the head.
Then she turned her attention to the mural’s surveillance feed and began considering how long Shen Yu and the others should remain inside.
Meanwhile, within the mural—
“We are nothing more than ordinary mortals. How could the Divine Lady possibly have sent us to the immortal realm?” Shen Yu carefully examined the animated murals around them and said in a low voice, “When I was young and had free time, I enjoyed studying the art of painting. If I’m not mistaken, these murals should be from Dunhuang.”
Shen Ying turned around and stared at him in surprise.
“Second Brother, are you saying that all of us have been sent into a mural by the Divine Lady?”
As she said this, a trace of bewilderment crossed her eyes.
“But that doesn’t make sense either. Didn’t the Divine Lady mean to send us to Wuling Prefecture?”
The more she thought about it, the more muddled her mind became. She had absolutely no idea what the Divine Lady was trying to accomplish.
Sigh. As expected, she had been born to become a general. She had inherited none of her mother’s cleverness.
No—perhaps when her mother had been pregnant with Second Brother, she had given all her intelligence to him. That was why Shen Ying had inherited only their father’s martial talent. Truly, she had been born at the wrong time!
Shen Yu pondered for a long while before slowly speaking.
“The intentions of the divine are always difficult to fathom. I can’t figure out what the Divine Lady means either. We’ll just have to take things one step at a time.”
Upon hearing this, Shen Ying immediately felt much more at ease.
Even someone as clever as her second brother couldn’t understand what was happening, so it was perfectly reasonable that she couldn’t figure it out either. It wasn’t because she was stupid.
Fan Miaozhen walked to the side of the boat and looked down.
Far below lay an empty abyss stretching ten thousand zhang, while their boat was currently suspended in midair.
She frowned slightly.
“A boat moves across water by means of oars and sculls, but we’re in midair now, with nothing to push against. We can’t exactly row against the air, can we? Clearly, that won’t work.”
Hearing this, Fang Shuo leaned out to take a look as well. His face immediately fell, and he let out a long sigh.
“That’s right. Our boat is just an ordinary boat. It’s not like the Divine Lady’s flying vessel, which can fly through the sky.” He looked miserable. “If there were a river below, that would be great. Then we could row ahead and take a look…”
Before he could finish speaking, a faint tremor suddenly came from beneath the boat.
Everyone rushed to the side of the boat.
Even Shen Yu, whose face had gone pale from his fear of heights, approached with a pallid expression and looked over the edge.
The boldest of them, Shen Ying, was the first to notice the change. She leaned over the side, half her body sticking out, and stared intently at the churning mist below.
At first, the mist was grayish white.
But gradually, faint golden rays began to shine through it, as fine as threads of silk, flickering in and out.
“Look over there!” she shouted, pointing.
Everyone followed the direction of her finger. Then, before their very eyes, the mist dispersed, and the empty abyss stretching ten thousand zhang below transformed into a river.
What astonished them most was that the river’s water was golden, clear and translucent enough to see straight to the riverbed.
The bottom was covered in fine golden sand, every grain glowing and giving rise to countless glittering points of light.
“It’s a river!” Shen Ying exclaimed in shock. “Fang Shuo, did your words magically come true? You said you wanted water, and water actually appeared!”
Fang Shuo’s mouth hung open, unable to close for quite some time.
“I… I was just saying it…”
Shen Yu knew that Fang Shuo was the son of Celestial Lord Tiande. As he wondered whether Fang Shuo’s casual remark had caused the river to appear in this painted world because of that connection—
Fan Miaozhen, who knew nothing about Fang Shuo’s background and was hardly acquainted with him, suddenly had an idea and decided to imitate him.
“It would be wonderful if we had a nautical chart. Then we could leave this painted world and reach Wuling Prefecture without trouble.”
Every word she said reached Yun Shu’s ears.
Yun Shu lowered her eyes and looked at Fan Miaozhen inside the mural.
“I’ve nearly finished organizing the nautical chart of the South Sea. Perhaps I can use this opportunity to give it to Fan Miaozhen. She asked for a nautical chart, after all—she never specified which one.”
Once she had made up her mind, she directly tossed the nautical chart she had organized earlier into the mural world.
Fan Miaozhen stared blankly as a scroll appeared out of thin air high above the cavern and slowly drifted toward her.
She instinctively reached out and caught it.
The scroll was a warm ivory white throughout. Fine Sanskrit patterns were carved into its ends, which shimmered with a golden radiance.
Shen Ying, driven by curiosity, immediately came over.
“Sister Fan, could this be the nautical chart that will get us out of here? Open it and take a look!”
Fan Miaozhen was just as curious and excited. Carefully, she undid the silk cord around the scroll.
The scroll slowly unfurled in her hands.
When she saw what was drawn on it, her eyes widened involuntarily. Her expression held both astonishment and delight.
“This nautical chart doesn’t depict this place. It depicts the South Sea!”
She held the scroll in both hands, her expression brimming with excitement.
“I’ve never seen such a precise and ingenious nautical chart. If we can bring this chart back, our future voyages will be twice as effective with half the effort!”
Shen Yu glanced at Fang Shuo, then shifted his gaze back to the scroll in Fan Miaozhen’s hands. He said nothing. Instead, he silently wished for paper and a pen.
The next moment, paper and a pen appeared out of thin air in his hands.
“I understand now. This painted world must be an opportunity bestowed upon us by the Divine Lady,” he said. “As long as we focus on wanting something without any distracting thoughts, we can obtain it.”
