Chapter 965: Chapter 58: The Painter’s Scheme
Ning Zheng remembered that in storybooks there were often cases like this—right after the protagonist left the Marketplace, they’d get tailed by a Tribulation Cultivator.
He hadn’t expected that someone who rarely went out like himself would get to experience a wave of classic plot.
What does the Blood Separation Flower family do? This kind of Tribulation Cultivator gig is exactly their thing.
Every now and then, the Demon Charm Saint Sect would also guest-star as Tribulation Cultivators; they’d already waylaid Ning Zheng once before when he was passing by.
So it could be seen that even some small and mid-sized Sects in the Immortal Realm had this kind of "tradition."
—Put on robes and be a righteous orthodox Sect; take them off and earn some side cash.
In essence, this was also the contradiction between natives and outsiders accumulating over time and growing ever more intense.
I, a native, pretend to be a Tribulation Cultivator and kill you outsiders.
I, an outsider, act as a Tribulation Cultivator and kill you natives.
"But I’m also a Cultivator from another world."
Ning Zheng turned his head and looked at a corner of the grass, "We’re all poor outsiders here—why not rob those filthy-rich natives instead?"
Behind him, a few figures, seeing they could no longer conceal themselves, simply stepped out.
Three Human Immortals led several Self-Transformation Realm cultivators, and even took the chance to instruct the juniors behind them:
"Sir, you seem quite wealthy, traveling all over... not in any particular hurry. People whose pockets aren’t full generally don’t act like this."
"Kid, running into us is just your bad Luck!"
"Child, this person hasn’t become an Immortal yet, he’s still at the Tribulation Crossing Realm. Go try your hand at him; I’ll hold the line for you!"
"In the Immortal Realm you mustn’t offend Great Powers; they have mysterious Divination Techniques. Stirring up some small Sects, however, is no problem at all."
...
Ning Zheng fell silent.
The Tribulation Crossing Realm should, horizontally speaking, correspond to the Self-Transformation Realm in the Nine-State.
Same idea—pass through the Three Calamities and Seven Tribulations to become an Immortal.
But why did he keep running into "old Tribulation Cultivators bringing newbies"?
Because I haven’t become an Immortal yet but still wander around outside, I look like some small fry suitable for teaching disciples real-combat practice?
He raised his hand, and strip after strip of Shadow Crocodiles shot out from behind him.
In no time, several Human Immortals showed expressions of terror; one after another, bubbles dropped off them, and their bubble little-men appeared.
Besieged by their own "Human Immortal Soul Bubble Avatars," they died with miserable screams.
His Shadow Crocodiles were originally a soul-attack virus, ignoring Realm and forcing you to shed little Soul Bubbles.
Back in the day, he could already fight above his Realm; how much more so now?
Of course, at the root of it, the other side were mere Human Immortals of the second-first Tribulation, far too weak—killing them took no effort.
Ning Zheng picked up the corpses and examined them; their system didn’t have anything special.
On the contrary, there were some Cultivation Secret Manuals in their Storage Bags, all kinds of materials, and even some corpses of Zhongluan Cultivators they had plundered.
There were also more than seven thousand Middle Grade Immortal Stones—one could say they were dripping with wealth.
"What’s this, a Wealth-bringing Boy?"
"Has my Luck gotten this good? These Immortal Stones are a sudden windfall, and I can take a few Zhongluan Cultivator corpses back for the blacksmiths to study."
"This time, the reward for them helping persuade Jiucai Rong to surrender is pretty much in the bag."
Ning Zheng thought for a moment and suddenly felt his 20.3 billion Destiny quiver slightly, as if some bad change was brewing.
He checked the Storage Bags again and quickly found, in what looked like a piece of stolen Magical Treasure, some kind of special Location Tracking Spell.
He wiped away the tracking method the other side had left, and at once felt his whole body relax.
"Should be fine now. As expected, anyone who goes out to be a Tribulation Cultivator isn’t any good sort; they even leave hidden tricks."
The outside world had too many schemes; Ning Zheng felt it was still safer to go back to Sword Casting Manor.
Splash.
He flipped his body and leapt, leaving the Immortal Realm.
...
...
The Immortal Realm.
Elsewhere, Sword Casting Manor.
Bai Xingling looked at several shattered scrolls and frowned slightly. "The frames broke without being touched; the people in the paintings are probably dead."
He thought for a bit, then went to report to his own master,
"Master, those few Cultivators you sent to Zhongluan Domain to collect skins for paintings just dropped dead."
The Zhongluan Domain was the Paperman Civilization, the Talismanic Stacker; naturally, it was the best source of materials for scrolls.
So they drew a few miners, turned them into Tribulation Cultivators, and sent them out to ambush some Zhongluan Cultivators and incidentally earn some resources.
The painter, hearing this, smiled and said, "I was the one who sent them."
"Oh?" Bai Xingling was puzzled.
The painter said, "I used the name of Xirong Manor as bait, to fish out the other side’s people."
"Now that that Golden Core is carrying the Xirong name, the real Xirong Manor will almost certainly come looking."
Bai Xingling was startled and couldn’t help saying, "Master, you mean those people died miserable deaths because they found the real one? You deliberately had them lean close to that Jiucai Rong?"
"Not just that. The tracking method I left on those Cultivators has also been cleared. I’m confident even a True Immortal might not detect it, yet the other side spotted it easily. That shows they really are a super expert in Fate-cultivation."
The painter smiled and said, "That Jiucai Rong has probably had some issues as well."
Bai Xingling’s expression shifted several times. "Then what should we do?"
The painter said, "We’re Immortals who ascended from the Nine-State, while that Xirong Manor mysteriously appeared in our Nine-State out of nowhere, with a strange origin... they should be a remarkable great power."
"They’re probably a commerce-oriented group."
"Right now I’m impersonating them as a probe, to see if there’s any possibility of cooperation."
The painter had already sensed that some mysterious force was making money in his old base—the Nine-State.
Even after being exiled and tossed into the Celestial Destiny World, they had set up shop there as well... continuing to make money.
It looked like a Business Alliance power.
Since they were merchants, it wasn’t impossible to cooperate.
This time he was just giving it a try; if it worked, he’d be skinning the tiger together, establishing a tacit understanding... both sides using this "Jiucai Rong" as the hub.
No need for everyone to communicate.
Each side would contribute some resources and technology, help build things up, then profit and see how far this "Taoism Golden Core" could go.
Whether it could tug at the economic lifelines of the Immortal Realm, even jangle the nerves of the Immortal Venerates.
This was a probe.
The "Taoism Golden Core" was a piece on the board they could abandon at any time.
After all, "Jiucai Rong" was originally their man... and also one of his own Painters; he was just right to serve as a bond.
As for if the other side fell out with them? Disagreed with using this "Jiucai Rong" as the hub in their tacit arrangement?
He wasn’t afraid either.
At worst, they’d just continue being enemies.
The painter smiled at Bai Xingling. "It’s fine. We make money if we can; if we can’t, we let it go. It’s just a little money-making sideline, not our main line of work."
"Go find Jiucai Rong’s frame and rewind his experiences from the past few days."
Bai Xingling nodded.
His master was a super Great Power in the history of the Nine-State, who had taken him along in ascent and shown him a vaster world.
Naturally, he was utterly convinced.
He immediately went to inspect Jiucai Rong’s frame.
It was a clean white scroll; the Painter on it seemed to have already left...
This frame was equivalent to the Painter’s lifeline—when the painting was destroyed, the Painter died.
As he activated it—
A phantom actually surfaced on the scroll, showing Jiucai Rong’s experiences over the past few days, his deeds in running the shop.
"Master, I can’t find any trace of the other side ever coming," Bai Xingling said.
"They must have erased the memories."
The painter smiled gently. "That’s perfectly normal. Our Xirong Manor Master really is a big shot from some mysterious power."
"He should have Dharma Methods similar to mine—recruiting a group of subordinates he can monitor from a distance and observe."
"This Jiucai Rong probably also has some method he left behind, to observe... I might even be able to use it to backtrack and see what’s under their hood."
The painter showed a pensive expression, looking at Jiucai Rong as he ran the shop.
Next.
He planned to observe these fellows for a while.
After all, he only had a few vague scraps of information about Xirong.
All he knew was that they called themselves blacksmiths, loved eating Earth, loved jumping into Forging Furnaces, were twitchy and lewdly lively...
"Just right to probe their background!"
He picked up a sketchbook and wrote a few big characters on it: "Blacksmith Observation Album."
But then he thought about it and felt this series name for the sketchbooks didn’t sound nice.
Each of these blacksmiths had some strange potential... they might end up famed across stretches of history, turning into another set of Chronicles of Time.
For example, the Night Emperor was one of them.
So he erased the name and wrote, in bold flying strokes, a few big characters: "Sword Casting Manor Annals."
"Let me paint you an eternal myth..."
He looked at the blacksmiths in the manor who were snorting and digging up Earth and said lightly, "May I forever preserve your lively, joyful faces."
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