I'm not a fortune teller.

Chapter 18 The road ahead!

It was an unknown how long the long night lasted. Without the protection of the life-saving lamp, the group had to hide quietly in the world full of painting spirits. The painting spirits in the dark had excellent vision. Even if a group of people used ghost blood to hide their smell, they had to be very careful when moving, as they could be discovered at any time. They could not rest in the tense situation and had to hold on for at least three hours before finally visiting all five painting markets. By dawn, Zhang Rui was so tired that he could not open his eyes.

"Sir, it should be much safer during the day, right?" Qin Fang asked in a low voice, looking at Zhang Rui who was almost asleep leaning against Murong Yunji.

"Yes," Zhang Rui nodded. "If you show your ghost image in the daytime, it will be corroded and you can only wear the painted skin. Wearing the painted skin will make you lose your vision at night and your sense of smell. Your mobility and abilities will also be greatly reduced."

"Then can we force out the ghost blood now?" Qin Fang asked hurriedly.

"You can, but I don't recommend it." Zhang Rui opened his tired eyes and said, "When the channel is opened, forcing out the ghost blood will consume a lot of blood and essence, which will greatly affect your physical condition."

Qin Fang fell silent upon hearing this. This made sense. The crisis had not yet been resolved. If he was in a hurry to force out the ghost blood and enter a weak state, he would regret it if something went wrong. Finally, he nodded: "Then I will force out the ghost blood for His Highness."

"I don't need it."

"Your Highness?"

"At a time like this, it's best for everyone to stay in a safe state, right?" Li Yu smiled at Zhang Rui, "You see, even Lord Zhang himself has never thought of forcing out the ghost blood."

Zhang Rui's face twitched slightly when he heard this, and he bowed and said, "Your Highness is quite courageous. So let's take a break during the day. The painting market is short during the day and long at night, so I'm afraid it won't last for many hours."

Everyone nodded when they heard this. After such a long period of high pressure, everyone was very tired. Although they couldn't sleep soundly, it was always good to take a nap.

Everyone found a place to sit down under cover, not too far but not too close either. It was obvious that they had discussed something with each other and did not completely trust each other.

"Mr. Chen, is that Zhang really reliable?"

Not until now did the guards have the chance to ask the questions in their hearts. Although the young county magistrate had led them to avoid the night market massacre, everyone could see that this guy was not telling the whole truth.

"He said half true and half false, and there were many contradictions. He said that this was his first time here, but he was extremely familiar with the information here and could even estimate it. What he meant was that the owner of this world in the painting had less information than him, which was a bit unreasonable."

"But no matter what, we have no other choice. If he can lead us out of the painting market, this mysterious county magistrate may be the only hope to save the prince."

Several guards looked at each other. Although they still felt that something was wrong, it seemed that there was no better choice. Master Tian was already dead, and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had no time to mobilize other support. To be honest, they were just trying all kinds of methods to cure their illness.
"His Royal Highness the Third Prince"

"Don't pay attention to them." Chen Xiao said calmly: "He suffered heavy losses and was also part of the conspiracy. He doesn't know about the Crown Prince for the time being. After leaving this painting market, we can go our separate ways. As long as we can find the murderer who released the plague, even if the Crown Prince's position will be shaken, it will not be shaken by him."

On the other side, the third prince was also discussing the situation with Qin Fang.

"My eldest brother, the prince, must have encountered some serious trouble."

Li Yu was holding a piece of Painted Skin Ghost's blood essence and looking at it. This thing must be very useful, not only to cover up the breath. The man surnamed Zhang always kept it carefully, so it must be of great use.

"Why does Your Highness think so?" Qin Fang asked with a frown, adjusting his breathing.

"This art market has existed for such a long time, why did they choose to break the rules today?" Li Yu sneered: "It must be the time to reap the harvest. Cui Yan is so arrogant, threatening that my Li family will be overthrown. It is impossible that he will be overthrown just because he plotted against me, Da Jin?"

"If the bastard hiding in the capital wants to have a chance, my eldest brother must die. If my eldest brother doesn't die, no one else will have this chance."

"Then do we need to help the prince after we get out?"

"Assist the Crown Prince?" Li Yu looked at him with amusement: "Why should I assist the Crown Prince?"

Qin Fang: “.”

"The prince is dead, so the bastard has a chance, but don't I have a chance too?"

Qin Fang fell silent for a moment. He had known for a long time that the Imperial Concubine's child was not honest and was ambitious, but ambition did not mean strength. He did not really care about the child, he just hoped that the Imperial Concubine would not be implicated.
-
"Are you sure the exit will be here?"

Next to Zhang Rui, Murong Yunji, who had been silent all the time, finally spoke.

“Not very sure.” Zhang Rui was not sure, but he could only give it a try. The owner of the world in the painting had already begun to purge the living. The painting spirits here had been accumulated for who knows how many years, and the number of them was probably terrifying. There was no way to survive if he stayed here. If he couldn’t get out today, he might never get out again.

"In that case, why don't you wait for the ghost blood in your hand?" Murong Yunji looked at him curiously: "You can't use it after you go out."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Rui also looked at the jade box in his hand. Thanks to Murong Yunji's massacre of painting spirits, he obtained a lot of human blood essence and also collected more painting spirit blood essence. Just as the other party said, after leaving this painting world, he would probably never come back. In this case, if he didn't use it now, he probably wouldn't be able to use it in the future.

But the key is, how to use it? Until now, Zhang Rui still doesn't know what path he should take in the future.

In this strange world full of evil spirits, it is not certain that one can protect his family with just a small official position. If one wants to live with a greater sense of security, one must become an extraordinary person and have the ability to at least protect himself.

At first he wanted to follow the path of a warrior. In his unfinished manuscript, the mainstream path of cultivation for the human race was to become a Qi-refining practitioner. But according to Murong, her era was already the Dharma Ending Age, and the spiritual energy was depleted to an alarming degree. Now that a thousand years have passed, there may not be room for Qi-refining practitioners in the world, otherwise there wouldn't be those sorcerers who rely on evil spirits to perform their magical powers.

Zhang Rui agreed with this point, so he wanted to try the path of a warrior.

But it doesn't seem to work. According to Murong, his body has already been formed. Although injecting essence and blood can improve the five internal organs, prolong life, and keep him young, the foundation he has accumulated since childhood cannot be made up for. The golden time for people to grow up is from ten to sixteen years old. This time is also the critical period for a warrior to take shape. If he cannot strengthen his muscles and bones in these few years, he will always be a layman, and no matter how he practices in the later stage, he can only be a master of external skills.

After strengthening the muscles and bones, the body's ability to hold essence and blood will increase significantly. Only when the bones and meridians are strong can one practice internal skills and circulate the essence and blood to achieve the goal of continuously strengthening the body. If the bones and meridians are not strong, it is impossible to achieve the step of training blood. Refining blood and transforming it into qi is the key step for a warrior to go from acquired to innate. Without a foundation, there is no future. As for whether she can still strengthen her muscles and bones at her current age, Murong Yunji gave herself a simple example.

After you men turn sixteen, even if you take the most powerful supplements, that thing down there won't grow anymore, right?

Zhang Rui was speechless and completely gave up the path of becoming a warrior. But if he couldn't be a qigong practitioner or a warrior, could he become a sorcerer?
The thing he knew least about this world was sorcerers, and according to the information revealed by Chen Xiao, sorcerers' magical powers came from evil spirits. Zhang Rui was quite resistant to this kind of profession that used evil spirits to display supernatural powers. The side effects would definitely be very serious. Unless it was absolutely necessary, he really didn't want to choose this path.

Is there no new way?

Finally, after thinking with his eyes closed for nearly half an hour, Zhang Rui took out the jade box containing his essence and blood and gathered the remaining essence and blood together.

The day might not last for two hours, so there was not much time to consider. Considering the current situation, Zhang Rui finally made a rough choice.

"What is this?" Murong Yunji was a little curious.

What Zhang Rui drew seemed to be a large black box. The box looked a bit like a musical instrument, and it seemed a bit too big to be carried on the back.

"Thousand Machine Box" Zhang Rui did not hesitate to hide it and replied directly.

"Thousand Machine Box?" Murong Yunji was stunned, then looked at Zhang Rui meaningfully: "You are indeed from our era."

Zhang Rui did not reply, but concentrated on painting.

Murong Yunji was recalling the information about the Thousand Machine Box that the other party had mentioned. The Thousand Machine Box was the sect treasure of the Thousand Machine Sect, one of the ten major sects before the Dharma Ending Age. It was carefully cast by multiple weapon-refining masters and could be infinitely transformed to create various mechanical devices needed by users. When the catastrophe came, the leader of the Thousand Machine Sect was said to have used the Thousand Machine Box to create a mechanical dragon, which used dragon fire to evaporate thousands of miles of sea water and forcibly blocked millions of evil spirits in the East China Sea, shocking the cultivation world.

She had heard this story from her grandmaster. When she became famous, the Thousand Machine Sect had already been destroyed and the precious Thousand Machine Box had also disappeared. She didn't expect that after so many years, this young boy still knew about such an ancient event. The key point was that he could even draw the Thousand Machine Box?
"This little bit of ink shouldn't be enough to draw a complete Thousand Machine Box, right?" Murong Yunji asked curiously.

“Of course I can’t draw it.” Zhang Rui shook his head. “But as long as we can achieve one percent of its function, it will be of great use.”

Unlike Qigong practitioners, weapon refiners do not have high requirements for spiritual energy. Instead, they need high-quality materials to make mechanisms and equipment, and the best material is evil spirits.

This is a bit like a sorcerer who uses evil power to master magical powers, but one is used for equipment and the other is used on oneself. Relatively speaking, the former seems safer.

Moreover, Zhang Rui felt that the sorcerers in this world might have a lot to do with the weapon refiners of the past, and it might very well be a modified profession. By starting with being a weapon refiner, he might have a chance to understand the origin of the sorcerers.

After an unknown amount of time, Zhang Rui finally drew a rough outline of the secret box. When he was about to name it, he heard Murong Yunji say faintly, "It's getting dark."

Zhang Rui's heart skipped a beat when he heard this. He looked up and found that the sky was indeed beginning to darken.

But there seemed to be no signs of fire at the designated location in the distance.

"As far as I remember, the fire in the Painting Market usually appears half an hour before dark. Did you calculate the wrong place?" Murong Yunji frowned.

Zhang Rui suddenly broke out in sweat when he heard this.

Could it be that the settings in this painting city are all the contents of the scrapped manuscript? The settings that have been formed in my mind but not written in the manuscript do not count?
If that's the case, I'm afraid it will be difficult this time.
Soon, except for Murong Yunji, everyone else noticed that the sky was getting darker, but the bonfire showed no sign of appearing. Although they had never been to the Painting Market, they knew that the bonfire would not appear before dark, otherwise it would not be possible to form a market in time.

Everyone looked over with puzzled eyes, and Zhang Rui, who was at the center of the crowd, was sweating profusely.

no solution anymore
Sighing, Zhang Rui looked at the pen hanging next to him and reached out his hand. Murong Yunji's pupils suddenly shrank.

Having this feeling again, she said, it really wasn’t an illusion!!!
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(End of this chapter)