Yes, I did all of this!

Cangyi looked around and nodded: "So it was it."

"Is this the sealed area?"

Lingyin frowned: "It looks like the whole world is printed."

"Yes, but no."

Cangyi turned around and said, "Ancient magical girls wouldn't be so kind as to build a living space for monsters. This place is more like an illusion made of spirit, the interior of a monster's spirit."

"...What?" Yuhi paused, a look of disgust on her face. "You mean we're inside a weirdo's body?"

“No wonder there’s this strange aura all around…” Wind Chime nodded in agreement.

"They no longer have bodies."

Cangyi said bluntly, "I've named this weirdo 'The Painter.' Don't expect the weirdos here to attack you with punches and kicks like they do outside. They're just twisted souls who will use bizarre methods to kill you."

"The artist..."

"We are now in the artist's work, or rather, the work that he imagined while feeling the negative emotions of the outside world within the seal."

"No wonder... Even though it's been sealed for so long, these styles still look like they're from hundreds of years ago." Feng Ling scanned her surroundings, her eyes darting over data as she assessed the results.

Ignoring the wind chimes' analysis, Xi Ri asked directly, "Is this what marks the existence of those negative emotions? How do we deal with it?"

"There is only one painting in this space, and its true form is inside. Destroy it, and it will attack you using paintings within paintings."

"A painting within a painting? What does that mean?" Huang Yi asked, puzzled.

"You are under the protection of Cangyuan and will not be in any danger. So I'll stop here. The rest is up to you to figure out." Cangyi shook his head, not telling them what to do: "Only in this way can you grow better. Goodbye."

After saying that, she disappeared from the spot, leaving only a group of magical girls standing there.

"...What do you mean? Cangyi, can't you just say it clearly in one go?" Xi Ri was a little annoyed by her attitude, but she still took a deep breath and looked around warily.

"Anyway, all we need to do is find that painting and destroy it," Wind Chime said. "The most efficient way to find the painting is for us to split up and search separately. What are your plans?"

"So, if we split up, it'll be easier for the monsters to pick us off one by one?" Yuhi glanced at Fengling speechlessly: "Don't forget, this is the monsters' territory."

Although he appeared agitated, Yuhi wasn't actually that reckless.

"...That's true, that's how it's portrayed in horror movies."

Wind Chime nodded solemnly, and half of the floating sword wings behind her dispersed:

"Then I'll use them to search first, let's search together."

"Ah."

The magical girls nodded and gathered together to explore.

"It's a pity, I was looking forward to greeting them one by one after they dispersed."

—On the cylinder, Duanmu Mo sat on the edge, crossed his legs, and laughed.

"Then don't overthink it. Although they are still very inexperienced, they are all qualified soldiers."

Behind him, Cangyi suddenly appeared and spoke.

"Oh? How did you find me? The strange auras around me completely masked my presence." Duanmu Mo turned his head, surprised but not astonished.

“You used your power to modify my drive, so naturally I can also find your presence in return.”

Walking up to Duanmu Mo's side, Cangyi snorted coldly: "Seeing that there were no signs of damage around, I knew you must be hiding somewhere observing us."

"Then you're wrong."

Duanmu Mo smiled and gazed at the magical girls in the distance.

"I'm not just observing you, but also other people."

"Then observe them carefully, and confirm their growth and awareness." Cangyi turned his head, his gaze seemingly piercing through the mask as he looked at him:

"I just don't know what role you play in their lives."

Chapter 283: A Painting Within a Painting

. . . . . .

"On another note..."

In the fields of oil paintings, the setting sun looked at the crowd searching everywhere and said:

"We don't really need to look for paintings, do we?"

"What do you mean...wait a minute?"

Lingyin turned her head, about to ask a question, when she suddenly realized something and opened her mouth.

After attracting everyone's attention, Xi Ri said, "Cang Yi said we just need to destroy the paintings, so why not skip the step of finding the paintings and just destroy them directly?"

Under their gaze, the sun rose and flames ignited in her hand.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Wind Chime frowned and plucked a blade of grass from the ground.

The grass melted in her hand, turning back into paint and falling from her hand.

“These landscapes don’t seem to be flammable materials. Besides, you used up a lot of energy fighting that orca just now. You can’t burn this whole place down, can you?”

"Shall we try combining our strength?" Lingyin said. "I think we can give it a try."

"Let's begin!"

Xi Ri was eager to try, so Ling Yin used the wind to lift her and Huang Yi up, and the four of them flew to the sky above the portrait.

"—Looks like this place is going to get disturbed soon."

In the distance, Duanmu Mo spoke calmly, and with a flick of his hand, a black vortex engulfed him and Cangyi.

When they reappeared, the two were already in the shadow of the sketch, where the black substance formed something like a black mist, obscuring their figures.

"Upon closer inspection, the borders here are also made of paper or something similar." Looking at the texture of the paper on the walls of the painted world in the distance, Yuhi smiled and released a fireball, throwing it towards the ground.

The fireball moved very slowly, but the power it contained was still astonishing.

Lingyin also raised her hand, and the emerald tornado engulfed the fireball, dispersing its power and causing it to burn fiercely on the ground.

Seeing this, Duanmu Mo clapped his hands from a distance and said cheerfully, "Haha, I'm used to this direct style."

Cangyi shook his head: "Don't be careless. The artist won't be defeated so easily. Judging by the time, it should be finished soon."

What does "finished drawing" mean?

Duanmu Mo turned his head and looked at Cangyi, who had suddenly fallen silent again, and sighed helplessly: "Don't always be such a riddle person, okay? I won't just reveal it to anyone."

"...When people enter this space, it begins to draw their postures, and when it finishes drawing, that's when it retaliates."

Sizzle—

As soon as Cangyi finished speaking, Duanmu Mo saw the setting sun in the distance suddenly seem to sense something and raise its hands to block in front of it.

A sound tore through the wind shield, leaving a deep, inky mark on her arm and ripping through her arm armor.

"Forehead--"

"Yūnihime-senpai?!"

The others cried out in alarm, staring at the sudden wounds on Xi Ri's face...

—This scene appeared on the paper, and the surprise on Xi Ri's face and the gasps of others were frozen on the paper in the form of an oil painting.

"hey-hey......"

A figure, completely black and with a twisted body, sat in front of the easel, looking at his work and letting out a sinister laugh.

It picked up a sharp paintbrush, dipped it in blood-red paint, and made a forceful slash on the paper—

Sizzle!

Sharp, blood-red scratches swept past the magical girls, slicing through their bodies.

"Oh no!"

Sharp cuts pierced their defenses; except for Wind Chime, the bodies of the other magical girls looked as if they had been slashed by a knife, with blood oozing from their bodies.

"What happened! What exactly happened just now?"

Xi Ri opened her eyes wide and cried out in pain, clutching her bleeding abdomen.

"I didn't notice it either; the wind around me tells me... this attack seemed to have appeared suddenly!"

"Sisters! Are you alright?!"

Inside the shield, Wind Chime was unharmed, but she still didn't realize what had happened. She only saw a thin red line remaining outside her shield.

"..."

Listening to the three people's words, Huang Yi covered his arm. If he hadn't resisted, it wouldn't have been his arm that was cut open, but his neck.

Still shaken, she began to ponder.

—In the previous training, in addition to the daily tedious morning runs, there was also the control of magical girl powers.

Cangyi said that no matter how things change, the principle remains the same: as long as one's understanding of one's own power improves, everything will progress.

Now, she had a vague feeling that she had become alert the moment before the attack came.

...But this feeling was still too vague, so much so that for a moment she couldn't be sure.

Huang Yi hesitated, the crowd was wary and uneasy, and the painter's several arms were stiff but neatly drawing on the canvas, and soon they came to life in the painting.

"here we go again!"

As Huangyi unleashed his full power to amplify his senses with lightning, that faint but undeniable feeling reappeared. Huangyi abruptly sheathed his sword and swiftly unleashed a burst of sword energy.

boom!

The sword energy collided with the suddenly appearing ink, but even so, some ink still splashed onto the wind chime's shield.

"This is... paint?" Wind Chime looked puzzled as she looked at the marks on the shield.

The scene from just now flashed through Fengling's eyes. The direction of that attack was very strange; the four magical girls were in different positions, but the attack seemed to have occurred on a flat surface.

"Cangyi said that guy will use paintings within paintings to attack us... Does that mean we're currently inside his painting?"

Most people might not react so quickly, but Fengling was different. With the Zero System, she instantly built a diagram in her mind.

With a mind faster than anyone else's, Fengling's eyes revealed a look of understanding.