Don't provoke mentally ill people in the infinite flow genre!

Everyone agreed to meet at Hongde Hall before dawn, but since it was still some time before daybreak, they all returned one after another.

Yi Zanglan and his two companions were the first to return, and soon after they saw the Jiang siblings. Jiang Ling even had a half-meter-long dead rat stuck on the tip of her knife.

But the rat's body had already decomposed inside, leaving only a sticky skin from which sticky blood was dripping.

"Holy crap!" Tang Yunxi exclaimed in horror, nearly leaping onto Yi Canglan's back. "What on earth did you dare bring back?!"

"‘Big rat, big rat, do not eat my millet,’ this is a big rat, symbolizing corrupt officials who deceive the emperor and harm the people." Jiang Ling introduced in a serious tone, "There are rats like this everywhere in the imperial treasury. This one wearing an official hat is their leader. I brought it back for Your Majesty as a witness."

Yi Zanglan stretched out two fingers and, quite graciously, picked up the rat skin, examining it carefully for a while.

She praised, "Jiang Qing's righteousness greatly pleases me."

Yan Zhao couldn't help but retort, "You say we love to act? Who loves to act more than you?"

"Such a shocking statement from a corrupt official! Doesn't it move you, Yan Qing? Or are you also among this ranks of corrupt officials, intending to harm my state?"

"I don't have that kind of patience. I'll just usurp your throne tomorrow."

Tang Yunxi and Jiang Ling waved their hands repeatedly: "Prime Minister, please be careful with your words!!!"

Jiang Yao stood aside, patiently waiting for everyone to have had their fill of acting before discussing serious matters with Yi Zanglan.

"We killed the leader rat, and then it became quiet at the vault. I think we've completed our mission," he said. "But I don't know if the corresponding demon map has been completed. We'll have to wait for Mingyue to come back and confirm."

"We encountered a ghost general in the imperial prison. After managing to remove its mask, the rioting prisoners disappeared," Yi Zanglan recounted simply. "Let's check on Lao Shen and the others later."

As soon as he finished speaking, he looked up and saw Shen Yubai, Qin Shaoyu, and Du Songzi rushing into the palace gate.

All three of them had their faces covered in ink, their hair disheveled, looking as if their life force had been drained, and they looked like they were about to die.

Tang Yunxi was shocked: "What's going on?!"

Yi Zanglan stepped forward, frowned, and checked them all over. She made sure that apart from some minor bumps and scrapes, there were no serious wounds before asking about the situation.

"Is the mission at Wenyuan Pavilion very difficult?"

"It's not that it's very difficult, but it's quite troublesome." Shen Yubai sighed, wiping his face with his sleeve helplessly. "There's an elderly old man in a blue robe inside. He must have been an official who was in charge of collating the collection of books and classics a long time ago. He speaks in classical Chinese and says that we need to sort and arrange the messed-up collection of books for him. There's also a damaged old book that we need to transcribe the fragments based on his recitation."

Qin Shaoyu complained with a long face: "Your Majesty, you have no idea how many books there are. We are so busy that our backs are about to break. If we are even a little slow, that old man will poke us all over with his ink-dipped brush. Also, luckily Songzi is good at calligraphy, otherwise it would be a problem how to copy those few pages."

Du Songzi stood aside, feeling wronged, his hand red from being whipped with a pen handle by that old devil.

"Oh, you've worked hard." Yi Zanglan took a few handkerchiefs from the table and handed them out, then turned to Yan Zhao and sighed, "This is exactly why I don't like studying."

Yan Zhao nodded: "Fortunately, the three of us went to the Imperial Prison."

"Well, since we've discussed the basic situation, you can go back to your respective places to rest and come back during the day," Yi Zanglan said. "I'll stay here and wait for Xiaoying and Lingye's groups."

"OK."

……

Yi Zanglan changed into a loose and comfortable set of clothes and took a short nap on the couch in the back room of Hongde Hall.

She didn't know exactly how long she had slept, until she vaguely heard a faint conversation outside. She opened her eyes alertly, got up, and went outside.

"They're all back?"

The five people who had been peeking around immediately stood at attention. Wu Ying explained, "We didn't dare disturb you because you were resting. Why are you alone here?"

"They got all dirty, so I sent them back to change and catch up on sleep," Yi Zanglan said. "How are you guys doing? Did you notice anything?"

"Yes!" Upon hearing this, Wang Mingyue quickly took the scroll from behind her and laid it back on the ground. "I felt the scroll was getting hot, but I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. Let's take a look together!"

The group gathered around the scroll and observed it closely. They saw that the three paintings, which were initially incomplete, were now slowly taking shape at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if someone was painting them invisibly, filling them in completely.

The first painting depicts a large rat wearing an official's hat, holding a string of beads in its mouth, standing on a three-legged jade tripod with its limbs outstretched and its eyes gleaming with evil light in front of the gate of the imperial treasury.

The second painting depicts a prisoner in the dark torture chamber of the imperial prison, with his head raised, covered in blood, looking ahead with resentment.

The third painting depicts the roof of the Wenyuan Pavilion, where a hunched old man in a blue robe and white hair sits in front of the beast-head eaves, holding a pen in his left hand and a tattered old book in his right, deep in thought with his eyes closed.

What do these three drastically different paintings represent?

Yi Zanglan's gaze fell on the painting. She pondered for a long time, as if she had just understood something.

Greed, anger, and ignorance.

Perhaps, each painting corresponds to an intractable inner demon.

"It seems that's really the case, Your Majesty is wise!" Wang Mingyue's spirits lifted, and she subconsciously reached out to touch the fourth painting. "Now that the first three paintings are complete, shouldn't there be a prompt for the fourth one?"

But as of now, the drawing paper remains empty and shows no reaction.

"Your task for now is to keep a close eye on this scroll and notify us immediately if there are any new clues," Yi Zanglan instructed her. "Your role is that of an artist, and giving you such an important prop at the start of the game must be meaningful."

"clear!"

Yi Zanglan then turned to Ling Ye: "What new clues do you and Siqi have?"

"We familiarized ourselves with the terrain, and then found four talismans in the Qin'an Hall," Ling Ye added. "Siqi found them."

Li Siqi chuckled sheepishly, "Because the map showed that Qin'an Hall was a royal temple for daily prayers and exorcisms, I thought there must be some good stuff there, so I asked Ye Wang to go there with me to search carefully."

After saying that, he took out four yellow talismans drawn with cinnabar from his pocket and handed them to Yi Zanglan.

Yi Zanglan took it and examined it closely. She raised an eyebrow lightly and said, "If I'm not mistaken, this is most likely a Bagua protective charm."

Ling Ye pondered for a moment: "Is this some kind of item that can withstand fatal damage in a critical situation?"

"That's roughly it, but it might not necessarily be a good thing."

"Um."

He responded softly, deeply agreeing.

The fact that four such powerful talismans were given out at once probably means...

The later dungeons will present players with some challenges.