Day and night tour

Chapter 199 The Painter's Game
Lin Xia took Zhou Xuan's bone tooth and felt its weight as soon as she held it in her hand.

"It's heavier and denser. Let me feel it and see."

Lin Xia's perception penetrated into the bones and teeth, and suddenly, a dense response was absorbed near the perception.

She felt that the bone tooth had come alive, and inside the tooth shell, there seemed to be the consciousness of a living person, and it could clearly understand any call from it.

The inscriptions on the bones and teeth even seem to be breathing.

Not only is the bone tooth very responsive, it seems to have emotions. Although this tooth originally belonged to Lin Xia, it was raised by Zhou Xuan and found its master again.

When it sensed that it was not held by its owner, it began to shake slightly... as if it was somewhat disgusted with Lin Xia.

"Such a strong resonance, such a deep spirituality..." Lin Xia was surprised.

Even though the fangs had grown out when she was very young and had been nurtured in her body for many years, they did not have such a strong spiritual resonance as Zhou Xuan's bone fangs.

"You fang ghosts, the fangs are in front and the ghosts are in the back. The fangs are the primary fighting force. You can't become stronger by controlling paper figures."

Zhou Xuan was the type who "learned and applied what he had learned". These were all the mystical knowledge that Yun Ziliang had once taught him, which he absorbed and appropriated.

As a member of a Liaogui family, how could Lin Xia not understand this truth? However, the Liaogui method of maintaining teeth has been lost for many years. In recent years, her elder brother has been looking for the method everywhere but has not found any result.

Now, Zhou Xuan can provide her with tooth care methods, which gives her an unexpected surprise.

It’s good news, but what can I exchange for the dental care method?

Lin Xia felt embarrassed to let Zhou Xuan suffer again.

Her eyes revealed her desire for the tooth-nurturing method, but she still raised her face and refused, "My benefactor, we have few members in the Liaogui Hall and are weak. Apart from the money we have made in Pingshui Prefecture over the years, we really don't have any bargaining chips. Your tooth-nurturing method is too precious... I can only sigh in despair..."

"You have bargaining chips." Zhou Xuan said, "The style of the Liaogui Hall is very tough. I admire your toughness. I will give you the method of tooth care. You just need to offer your loyalty to me."

The meaning of the words is very clear.
The method of maintaining teeth is exchanged for the power to dispatch the Liaogui Hall.

At present, the 獠鬼 is very weak, but after mastering the method of tooth care, its strength will improve greatly within half a year. At that time, the 獠鬼 will not be so weak anymore.

At the same time, Zhou Xuan walked along the incense road of the nine halls. There was a hazy fog ahead, and sometimes he needed to ask for directions by throwing stones.

"The Liaogui Hall is willing to serve you like a dog or a horse."

Lin Xia understood too well the significance of the tooth care method to the fang ghost, and also knew Zhou Xuan's character.
He is a benefactor who helps others without expecting anything in return. He has a wide network of contacts and chats and laughs with Youshensi and Dagu Lao. The fang ghosts are under his command. It is not that he betrayed the gang, but rather that he found a strong supporter for the gang.

How did the kidnappers grow from a small gang to a big gang today? Wasn't it because they were affiliated with the City God and the Bone Elders Association when they started?
She immediately knelt on one knee and clasped her fists towards Zhou Xuan.

"It's fine if you want to. Wait for me."

Zhou Xuan went to the bedroom on the second floor and entered the Blood Well Secret Realm.

"Jingzi, I asked you last time that the method of maintaining teeth requires a sacrifice of four incense sticks, right?"

The eyes on the wall of the Blood Well Secret Realm blinked slowly in recognition.

"Then come, give me the divination of how to take care of my teeth."

Zhou Xuan now has many sacrifices.

He has already mastered some rules for exchanging offerings: seven five-stick incense sticks can be exchanged for one six-stick incense offering.

Then by analogy, seven four-stick incense sticks can be exchanged for one five-stick incense stick?
He had stored a six-stick incense offering at the blood well, so deducting four sticks made little difference to not deducting anything.

With Zhou Xuan's approval,
It started snowing in the blood well, and the word "three" was written on the ground.

Combining the lazy look in the eyes on the wall, Zhou Xuan understood that this was a request for him to come back in three days.

Xue Jing had just finished divination the night before and needed some time to recover.

Zhou Xuan cut off the connection with the blood well, went downstairs, and said to Lin Xia: "Come to my shop in three days and I will teach you how to take care of your teeth."

After getting the specific promise, Lin Xia happily took her husband Feng Xigui out of the store.

"My benefactor, although you are not short of money, my husband and I will still bring four boxes of gold bars over in three days. You must accept them."

Don't worry, I will keep all the money I get.

……

Li Chengfeng arrived just as Feng Xigui and Lin Xia left.

Li Chengfeng walked in a rather unsteady manner today, with the wind blowing his clothes, making a whistling sound.

"Hey, isn't this our great celestial scholar?"

Zhou Xuan laughed and insulted Li Chengfeng.

Li Chengfeng immediately backed off and said with a smile: "I am a scholar of the gods, and that is all thanks to the high priest."

He closed the door of Jingyi Shop and wanted to talk about private topics with Zhou Xuan.

Suddenly, a loud shout was heard in the store.

"Damn it, who closed the door? I'm here to read the newspaper."

Yun Ziliang walked out from the inner hall. Seeing that it was Li Chengfeng, he calmed down and greeted him: "Hey, Old Li, you just got promoted, why don't you go to a celebration banquet or something? At least you should go hug a singer and have a drink or something."

"Don't embarrass me. I walked out of the Bone Temple with cramps in my calves. I was really scared."

Li Chengfeng was not as broad-minded as Zhou Xuan. He was nervous from the beginning to the end of the rally, fearing that his scam would be exposed.

"High Priest, the script you wrote yesterday was really ingenious and well thought out. But why didn't you let me know in advance?"

"What's the matter?"

"It's a miracle. The beating of the god's heart caused the land of Mingjiang Prefecture to beat together. And the god's fire was like the real thing..."

When Li Chengfeng said this, Yun Ziliang and Zhou Xuan laughed out loud.

"What are you laughing at? It's really like the truth. During the meeting, I kept thinking about it and racked my brains. I still can't figure out how the miracle was accomplished. It's very confusing."

Li Chengfeng is still puzzled.

Zhou Xuan stopped laughing, leaned against the counter, and said, "Old Li, do you think there is a possibility that... the gods are real?"

“……”Li Chengfeng.

"At first I just wanted to forge a fake one, but who knew that by some strange coincidence, I would awaken the real god. No one can fake the fire in the sky."

Zhou Xuan walked to the table, took an orange, peeled it, and put two slices into his mouth when he heard a "wow" sound. His hands shook and he almost choked.

"Old Li, are you calling your mother's soul back?" Zhou Xuan coughed twice.

"High Priest, how did you awaken this god? In the past two thousand years, so many people and so many plans have never awakened the god... How come you woke him up?"

"You ask me, who should I ask?"

Zhou Xuan ate the orange and said, "This awakening was indeed accidental, but it can also bring us some inspiration."

Yun Ziliang, who was standing by, had already started counting on his fingers: "I have summarized it. Let's not talk about the timing of awakening. There are six elements: the totem of the god, the tattoo method, the three pictures of the god, the devout belief of the Bone Elders in the god, the gathering of the Bone Elders, and the blood of the god.

If these six elements are gathered together, perhaps other gods who have not yet fallen can be awakened and more fires can be ignited."

"Lao Yun, you forgot one thing."

Zhou Xuan reminded.

"Everything is there." Lao Yun counted again to make sure no elements were missing.

"Kill the clone of the god." Zhou Xuan said, "Awakening the god is after killing the clone of the heavenly official."

As the director of the fake drama of the gods, Zhou Xuan was in the middle of the game and had a deep understanding of the overall details.

"Hiss, if this is considered a factor, then it's no wonder that the fire of the gods has not been ignited in the past two thousand years."

Yun Ziliang was prompted by Zhou Xuan, and suddenly had a bad idea in his mind. He said, "The gods are playing tricks on this."

Li Chengfeng originally wanted to say that it was impossible for the gods to cause trouble - the celestial official of the Gu Lao Society had been supporting Gu Lao in awakening the god of pain and disaster for many years.

But when he thought about it carefully, it was possible that the Tianguan said one thing in public and another behind the scenes.

"It seems that I didn't scold the Heavenly Official wrongly. He really led Gu Lao on a path that is getting further and further away from the Heavenly God." Yun Ziliang analyzed: "After the Heavenly God wakes up, the God will no longer be the highest belief, and the number of people who believe in the God will decrease, and the incense will naturally continue to fade.

As the incense faded, the gods would become weaker and weaker, and they would not sit idly by and watch themselves grow weaker and weaker. Therefore, their best solution was to prevent the gods from waking up forever.

Perhaps, both plans of the Bone Elders are effective. Whether it is the Prayer Party or the Pain Party, they can condense enough willpower and faith hooks to awaken the gods. However, the Heavenly Officials used means to form a barrier to separate the willpower and the hooks.

However, the power of will and the anchor hook will not disappear out of thin air, but will still accumulate in Mingjiang Mansion. When the barrier is broken, the power of will and the anchor hook will no longer be hindered and will all flow into the body of the god.
Then the gods were awakened. "

When Li Chengfeng heard this, he gnashed his teeth in hatred and said, "The incarnation of the Heavenly Official in the human world is the barrier. Now that the Heavenly Official is under pressure from the gods, he can no longer stir up trouble."

"Maybe not." Zhou Xuan offered a possibility from his perspective: "The gods have just awakened, and the fire is very weak. Do you think it is possible for the gods to put out the fire?"

"It's impossible to put out the fire." Li Chengfeng said, "It's difficult for the real bodies of gods to descend from the sky to the human world. They can only send their clones down. The level of their clones is not high. If they dare to put out the fire, they are courting death."

"It is difficult for the gods to descend, so those who follow the Tao are their servants." Zhou Xuan recited the words in the talisman scripture.

The gods may not be able to come down, and their clones are too weak, but what about the Taoists?

Can Gu Lao stop the Taoist who burns seven or eight incense sticks?

"Oh, I just remembered there is a Taoist. This is a big deal. I have to go back and write an article, detailing the causes and consequences of the Taoist possibly extinguishing the Heavenly God's Fire, and try to attract the attention of the Bone Elders Association."

Li Chengfeng was about to leave after he finished speaking. Just as he was about to open the door, he said to Zhou Xuan, "By the way, High Priest, the matter of hunger has been confirmed. I will pick a few people from the City God to go with you to investigate the case. The reward is two blood wells and human brains."

"Two?"

This time it was Zhou Xuan's turn to be surprised that Lao Li, a scholar, would actually be so "mercenary" as to negotiate the price with Mr. Gu.

“There’s always progress to be made.”

Li Chengfeng opened the shop and drove home to write an article.

Yun Ziliang went to clean the record player, and as he did so he pondered, "Is the Taoist really going to descend?"

"Who cares? If they like coming to the human world, then they shouldn't leave."

The fire of the gods could teach Zhou Xuan the laws after it became strong. Before he learned the laws, could the fire be extinguished at will?
……

Lei Garden Building, Gu Lao Library, District 9.

The painter placed a book in each of the four corners of the ninth area. He took out his pocket watch, checked the time, and wrote it on the title pages of the four books.

There are four realms of time: past, present, future, and disorder.

What the painter is doing now is to set the anchor point to "now" and the location to "Zone 9". With the anchor point of "now", he goes to the future through the law of time. Even if he gets lost, he will not stay in the future.
Once he was lost, he only had to chant a spell and an anchor point would appear. He only had to grab the anchor point to return to the "present" that had been set in advance.

After finishing these, the painter began to chant the spell and entered the "future" realm of time.

Thousands of white silk threads appeared in front of him. He uncovered the threads and entered the "future".

The terrain of the ninth district is extremely small. After the painter enters the ninth district of the "future", his energy consumption is relatively slow, and the pictures he sees are not discontinuous.

He has truly entered the Ninth District of the future.

Time in the "future" realm flows at a speed dozens of times faster than in reality.

After the painter wandered around the ninth area for a few minutes, he saw Zhou Xuan and Gu Ling enter the ninth area.

The painter hid behind the bookshelf, restrained his breath, and secretly watched what book Zhou Xuan wanted to borrow.

Through the gap in the bookshelf, he saw Zhou Xuan holding a book called "Symbols of Curse" in his hand.

In mystical doctrines, there is a rather crude but widely accepted statement, which is that whether it is Taoist spells, witch spells, or Buddhist spells, they are nothing more than a combination of symbols and marks.

The book in Zhou Xuan's hand is a classic that discusses the "Theory of Talisman Forms".

"Reiko, I've finished reading."

"It's not easy to get into District 9 once, why don't you take a closer look?"

"Shh, wait a minute, there is something in the ninth area." Zhou Xuan put his finger on his lips and walked towards the painter step by step.

The time domain is not the same as the space-time gap of Zhou Xuan's cleansing talisman.

The so-called return to the past through the gap in time and space is nothing more than hiding in the gap and seeing the images of the past.

But the "past" and "future" in the field of time and space are the real past and the real future.

The painter can see the "future" Zhou Xuan, and at the same time, the "future" Zhou Xuan can also see the painter.

But the painter didn't want to be seen by Zhou Xuan, so he chanted a spell, making the time anchor point appear in front of him, then he pressed his hand on the anchor point and returned to the "present" anchor point that had been set in advance.

Just before he disappeared, he heard the "future" Zhou Xuan speaking in his ear.

"Hey, where are those people?" A white light flashed before the painter's eyes, and the title pages of the books in the four corners of the ninth area turned black.

"Why is Zhou Xuan's perception so strong?"

There are only two people in District 9, Gu Ling and Zhou Xuan.
The painter knew Gu Ling. Her perception was not that good, so she would definitely not be able to detect him when he restrained his breath.

There is only one possibility, that Zhou Xuan discovered him.

"It takes less than three incense sticks to show that his perception is so strong. Even the Blood Well Psychic can't do it. Zhou Xuan is really a genius."

The painter walked straight to the twelfth row of bookshelves, took down "The Symbolic Mark of the Curse", and then took down the book borrowing record book in front of the gate of the ninth district. He wrote down the "book name", "borrowing time", and also filled in the address - Baiyu Teahouse on Yongxiang Avenue.

He hung the borrowing record back on the gate, held the book between his legs, and left District 9.

……

"Young sir, congratulations on successfully obtaining the qualification to enter the ninth area of ​​the library."

On the phone, Gu Ling's voice was as sweet as a gold medal telephone customer service representative.

"I'll be right away."

Zhou Xuan hung up the phone and drove out.

In the ninth area, there is the last part of the "Blood Well Enlightenment Sutra", which is about finding out the grand plan of the ancient tattoo clan.

After the car stopped at Liyuan Building, Zhou Xuan got on the building's elevator. Gu Ling was still waiting at the elevator entrance like last time.

When she met Zhou Xuan this time, Gu Ling pulled Zhou Xuan to a corner mysteriously and asked, "Did you make a great effort to awaken the gods this time?"

"What god?"

"Still pretending." Gu Ling analyzed seriously: "Li Chengfeng has been researching the plan to awaken the gods for so many years, but it has never worked. There has been no news recently. If he can awaken the gods alone, it's too ridiculous."

"I'm just a disciple of two incense sticks. Is it not ridiculous for me to awaken the gods?"

"You are different. Your tattoo can even help me transcend the shackles of the divine path. I can still understand some miracles that happened to you."

Gu Ling commented seriously.

"The gods have already woken up, so there is no point in asking who woke them up."

Zhou Xuan didn't want to go into depth on this topic, otherwise how could he put it - I originally wanted to deceive you old guys, but I didn't expect to wake up your ancestor.

"So you admit that you are the one who awakened the god?"

"It's not important." Zhou Xuan walked into the library.

"Young sir, if it is really you who awakened the god, then you must have terrifying power and knowledge. Can you help me..."

Gu Ling's true colors are revealed.

"help you with what?"

"Light seven incense sticks for me."

“……”Zhou Xuan.

Gu Ling, buddy is really not a god.

Zhou Xuan poked his nose and said with a wry smile: "If I had that ability, I would use it on myself first, become the president of your Bone Elders Association, and then exploit you Bone Elders. Each of you must give me 51% of your family property first, and the one who makes the quilt at home must be a Bone Elder scholar."

Gu Ling: “…”

……

As soon as he entered the library, Zhou Xuan felt the breath of knowledge again, an intoxicating smell.

Zhou Xuan had searched the first four areas and started from the fifth area.

In the fifth and sixth areas, Zhou Xuan found three sections of talismans respectively.

By the seventh and eighth areas, the number of talismans was quite pitiful, with only one section found in each area.

When I entered the ninth area, there was not even a section.

"Can't you?"

Zhou Xuan penetrated his perception into the Cleansing Wrongs Talisman and wandered back and forth among a dozen rows of bookshelves, but he really couldn't find even a single section of the talisman scripture.

However, the ninth area is the area pointed out by Xuejing. Although there are no talismans in other aspects, the last part of the Xuejing Enlightenment Sutra must be there.

After walking around twice more, Zhou Xuan thought of a possibility - the book containing the talisman scripture had been borrowed by someone.

"What a coincidence?"

The flow of people in the library is very small, especially after the fifth area, there is no one to be seen.
With such a small flow of people, they borrowed books containing the Blood Well Enlightenment Sutra from among tens of thousands of books.
How small is the probability of this happening? Is it really possible?

Zhou Xuan asked Gu Ling: "Lingzi, help me check if anyone has borrowed books recently?"

"Let me see."

Gu Ling went to the gate of the ninth district, took down the borrowing record book, turned to the last page and looked at it, then said to Zhou Xuan: "Someone borrowed a book. The book is called "Symbols of Curse", and it was borrowed for less than two hours."

"Do you know who borrowed it?"

"Baiyu Teahouse on Yongxiang Avenue, the person who borrowed the book is a painter."

Gu Ling said firmly.

Baiyu Teahouse is owned by the painter. It is not difficult to guess that not many people can enter the Ninth District.

"Painter is the first priest of your Bone Elders' Society?"

"Yes." Gu Ling nodded.

Zhou Xuan felt puzzled. Why did the number one priest lend me the book?
He didn't know that the painter was the avant-garde old man he had troubled last night.

When the Bone Elders gathered, the four great priests all wore bronze masks.

Zhou Xuan’s first reaction was: Is the painter trying to cause trouble for me?

But he soon felt something was wrong.
The Gu Lao Society has absolute power in Mingjiang Prefecture. If they really want to cause trouble for Zhou Xuan, they don't need to use such covert means. They can just go to Zhou Ji's Jingyi Shop and find him openly.

Even if Yun Ziliang, Zhou Xuan and Lu Mingkun from Jingyi Shop were tied together, they would still be no match for the painter.

"I guess there are other intentions, but it's probably not malicious."

Zhou Xuan thought of this and said to Gu Ling, "The book I'm looking for has been borrowed by the painter. Would you like to accompany me to find him?"

"can."

Gu Ling readily agreed. It was still early for dark and there was still some time before the night patrol gods would light up the lanterns.

……

Zhou Xuan's Macan stopped at the door of Baiyu Teahouse. Zhou Xuan and Gu Ling got out of the car and entered the teahouse.

The painter knew that Zhou Xuan was coming to see him, so he cleared the place in advance. The huge teahouse seemed extremely deserted, with only a tea table at the innermost part emitting steam.

The tea is divided into three cups.

The painter sat upright, waiting for Zhou Xuan and Gu Ling.

"Hua Sichen, did you know we were coming?"

Gu Ling greeted the painter.

"Ah, so you old man are a painter?"

When Zhou Xuan spoke, Gu Ling was frightened. She had heard the painter talk about it and knew that the painter and Zhou Xuan had met once.

But it was just a one-time meeting. As the first priest of the Bone Elders' Society, you are not required to be servile, but at least your attitude cannot be so provocative.

Unexpectedly, the painter grinned, pointed at the futon on the ground, and said, "I am called a painter, and you have seen my paintings. Is my identity so difficult to guess?"

"Give me back my book."

After Zhou Xuan sat down, he stretched out his hand to the painter and asked for the book.

"How can that be your book? That's our Bone Elders' Society's book."

The painter had a wicked smile on his face.

When Zhou Xuan saw his expression, he had reason to suspect that the old painter must have used some evil method to calculate which book he was going to borrow and intercepted it in advance.

"Then give me your Bone Elders' Society's books."

Zhou Xuan asked for it again.

"As for the book, I will definitely give it to you. I waited for you to come over because I wanted to talk to you about painting."

The painter said with a smile.

"Since you want to talk about painting, I really have to increase the intensity for you." Zhou Xuan added: "But before increasing the intensity, we have to discuss the price."

"When talking about paintings, why do we end up talking about prices? How vulgar." The painter showed the attitude of an artist who doesn't talk about money.

"It's a bit vulgar, but I'm just a vulgar person. If you don't talk about the price, I won't talk about paintings."

Zhou Xuan never liked to suffer a loss. He felt that since the painter was willing to use "evil methods" to intercept, it was for no other reason than to ask him to discuss painting.

That means the painter should have benefited from the "modern painting school" ideas that I casually pointed out to him last night, and the benefit was not small.

If an idea can bring benefits to the First Clergyman of the Bone Elders, wouldn't it be reasonable to give a price?

"What price do you want?"

The painter asked Zhou Xuan.

"Three shots."

Zhou Xuan already knew that after he burned three incense sticks, the Tattoo Ancient Clan would do everything in their power to nail him to death.

So before three incense sticks, Zhou Xuan planned to try his best to find someone with a very high level of incense to protect him.

The painter is the first priest of the Bone Elders Association, and his popularity should be very high, at least higher than that of Lao Li and Gu Ling.

With such a ruthless person taking action, the Tattoo Ancient Clan's chances of winning increased by one point.

"There should be some limits on my attacks, otherwise if you ask me to kill someone, I will kill that person, and I will become your bloody blade, right?"

"Someone wants to kill me for no reason. Can you help?"

"can!"

"Then this is the limit of the shot."

Zhou Xuan said.

The painter thought for a while and said, "Okay."

After having the price of "selling",
Zhou Xuan then asked the painter: "Which aspect of painting do you want to talk about?"

“On the spatial aspects of painting.”

"Then give me a piece of paper."

The painter handed Zhou Xuan a piece of rice paper.

Zhou Xuan placed the rice paper on the tea table, smoothed it gently, and then guided the bone tooth to draw a line on the rice paper.

A one-foot-long knife mark appeared on the white paper.

Zhou Xuan pointed at the rice paper and said, "The painting is finished."

“Is this considered a painting?”

The painter was dumbfounded. You just gave me one cut, and I got three chances to attack? Isn't that too perfunctory?
Perfunctory?

A piece of white paper and a knife mark. This painting, which couldn't be simpler, was sold for nearly 30 million US dollars in the previous life.

“This painting has the space you want.”

Zhou Xuan pointed at the knife marks on the rice paper and asked the painter to look at them carefully. When the marks appeared on the paper, the paper was no longer a simple flat space. The marks brought about gap-like spaces that were not originally on the paper.

The painter looked quietly at the knife marks on the paper and began to ponder...

ps: Thanks to my good brothers "Wild Reader", "steam0826" and "Wuma Mozhu" for the rewards. Good brothers, I have updated a big chapter, muah.

(End of this chapter)