The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#426 - Basement level

In truth, Lu Jing still harbored many doubts. For instance, what was the relationship between the Painting-Calligraphy trio and the Eastern Xuan Zhenren? Since they were all strange objects, their supernatural powers obviously couldn't have been taught by the Eastern Xuan Zhenren, thus debunking the master-disciple theory.

And why were they targeting Zhu Jie, seeking neither wealth nor power, but single-mindedly trying to disrupt the grand scheme of the world? Furthermore, what role was the Cold Mountain Guest in the Mirror Lake Valley of the academy playing in this matter…

However, Lu Jing ultimately didn't voice these questions. Firstly, the time left for them was indeed limited. If they didn't resolve the Painting-Calligraphy issue soon, Lü Ping might not be able to hold on. Secondly, even if he asked, Painting-Calligraphy might not answer.

In fact, after uttering that last sentence, Painting-Calligraphy seemed to lose interest in conversing with them further. He grabbed the painting from the ground, turned, and ran.

His intentions were clear: he planned to stall until both Lü Ping and Lu Jing were turned into painting puppets, thus achieving victory without a fight.

However, as an ordinary person, how could he possibly outrun Lu Jing and Lü Ping? He had barely turned around when Lu Jing and Lü Ping started moving almost simultaneously, arriving at his side. Just like when they encountered him in the first painting, they reached out, preparing to sandwich him between them.

But this time, their hands grasped at empty air, because at the last moment, Painting-Calligraphy suddenly lowered his body, narrowly avoiding them.

This lowering wasn't because he suddenly fell or bent down, but because the ground beneath his feet disappeared. It was as if he had run to the edge of a cliff, and his entire person fell off the cliff wall.

Fortunately, this invisible cliff wasn't too high, not even three meters. Soon, Painting-Calligraphy's feet were back on solid ground.

However, when Lu Jing and Lü Ping followed him and jumped down, they didn't feel the existence of that invisible cliff at all, landing and still remaining at their original height.

Painting-Calligraphy was not far away, looking up at them with a cold smile.

Neither Lü Ping nor Lu Jing had imagined that in this blank world, besides the four cardinal directions, there was actually a hidden lower level.

Painting-Calligraphy was clearly not far from them, yet Lu Jing and Lü Ping couldn't find a way to approach him.

Lu Jing then tried to muster ten layers of his power, lifting his foot to stomp down.

The instant he landed, Lu Jing felt as if he had stepped on something, but also as if he hadn't stepped on anything. However, his foot indeed couldn't go down any further.

The accumulated internal force spread rapidly from his right foot as the center, causing this blank world to shake along with it. Although it was only for a brief moment, it made Painting-Calligraphy's expression change.

After that, Painting-Calligraphy didn't stand still to watch the show. Instead, he jumped down again, this time descending "a dozen or so levels" in one go before stopping.

After Lu Jing acted, Lü Ping also tried, but he couldn't break the barrier beneath his feet, not even managing to make the world shake.

However, he wasn't completely without results. After trying to throw a copper coin, he found that the coin wasn't blocked, flying towards Painting-Calligraphy.

It was just that the distance between them was too great, and Lü Ping's hidden weapon skills were very ordinary. Painting-Calligraphy didn't expend much effort to dodge the copper coin.

After that, Lü Ping realized that he was out of options.

During this trip to the palace for the banquet, even though the guards at the entrance didn't conduct body searches, most people weren't carrying any weapons.

Besides, even if he had swords, sabers, or even spears in hand, Lü Ping would still be helpless against Painting-Calligraphy, who was several dozen feet away.

After experiencing the previous scare, Painting-Calligraphy gradually relaxed. Seeing that Lu Jing and Lü Ping's several attempts had failed, his expression became increasingly smug, and he couldn't help but mock them.

"In my territory, what can you use to fight me? Just obediently become my painting puppets!"

However, as soon as he finished speaking, he saw Lu Jing suddenly raise his right hand and start gesturing at him.

Not only Painting-Calligraphy, but even Lü Ping on the side didn't understand what Lu Jing's somewhat inexplicable action meant. He recalled all the hand gestures for spells and hidden weapon techniques he knew, but he had never seen a similar movement.

What puzzled them even more was what happened next. After gesturing for a long time, Lu Jing's arm finally stopped moving in the air. After that, Lu Jing simply closed his eyes.

By the time he came back to his senses, the thing had already flown in front of him!

Painting-Calligraphy couldn't help but feel terrified. He hurriedly stepped aside to dodge, and actually managed to avoid it.

The thing failed to hit him and flew a distance further before falling to the ground.

It was a small sword.

Painting-Calligraphy hadn't seen a flying sword before, but he had read many novels when he was alive, especially liking stories about sword immortals. He just hadn't expected to encounter one himself this time.

Fortunately, he wasn't seriously injured.

While thinking this, Painting-Calligraphy lowered his head, subconsciously looking at the painting in his hand, and his pupils suddenly contracted.

He saw that there was a gash about two feet long on the painting. Judging from the looks of it, it had clearly been cut by the flying sword earlier.

This gash wasn't too big, but the expression on Painting-Calligraphy's face became very terrified after seeing it.

Even more terrified than being stabbed by the flying sword.

Lu Jing, who was not far away, was the opposite of him. At first, his expression was a little awkward, because Lu Jing had done everything he could.

Although his Sword Control Technique had been progressing rapidly, he had only cultivated it to the Agile stage after all, and his control over the flying sword could only be said to have a lot of room for improvement.

He had stood there aiming for a long time, and even used his arm to form a launching track, just to make the flying sword's trajectory as accurate as possible.

Only Lu Jing, who had cultivated the Fire Scale Armor, could come up with this kind of crazy operation, because ordinary people could accidentally cut off their own arm.

But Lu Jing didn't expect that in the end, the flying sword still deviated slightly, not being able to directly stab Painting-Calligraphy in the chest as he had expected, but accidentally hitting the painting in Painting-Calligraphy's hand.

So the embarrassment on Lu Jing's face turned into surprise. If he had to choose between Painting-Calligraphy and the painting, he would of course rather destroy the painting, because everything that had happened before had proven that the painting was Painting-Calligraphy's true body. But the problem was that the painting was too small compared to Painting-Calligraphy.

And Lu Jing also knew his own limitations when it came to the Sword Control Technique. He was completely gambling with the flying sword. If this sword didn't hit, then unless he went to pick it up himself, the sword would most likely not come back.

So Lu Jing could only choose the larger target, Painting-Calligraphy, but he didn't expect to accidentally hit the main target.