Ark Simulator, don't I have no physical form?

"Isn't this just asking for trouble?" Su Rui muttered in Xi's mind.

What is Xi drawing in Volume 9, Chapter 538?

In the world depicted in the painting, Su Rui suddenly froze as if she were stuck, then shook her head violently: "No, no! Witch Nian! You allowed Mo Liang to poison the people..."

Klose and the witch Nian were both stunned.

"...Did he just correct himself?" Klose asked softly.

Witch Nian scratched her head: "Is this how young people act these days?"

Outside the world of the painting, Xi sighed, rubbing her forehead, "It's over, we've been exposed."

At this awkward moment, Saga and Enryo suddenly appeared from the alleyway. "The storyteller isn't in the teahouse," Enryo shouted, "but we've found this!"

She held up a note that read: "To find the truth, look to the Ink Pond—left by Mr. Mo."

Saga added with a smile, "I've also discovered something interesting—everyone in the town is repeating the same conversation, except for a few of us who seem to have some independent thought." She glanced meaningfully at the sky, "The writer isn't in good shape today~"

Xi, standing before the water mirror, gritted her teeth in anger: "That meddlesome monk and nun..."

Suri's conscious mind weakly asked, "What do we do now?"

Xi took a deep breath, then suddenly revealed a sly smile: "Since she wants the 'truth'..." She slammed her pen heavily on the water mirror, "then give her a big one!"

The world within the painting suddenly shook violently, and all the buildings began to twist and deform. The witch Nian laughed and vanished in a wisp of red smoke, while the townspeople disappeared like faded ink. The entire town of Poshan is being rebuilt!

"What's going on?!" Yan Rong opened the protective shield.

Saga clapped his hands excitedly: "Wonderful! The writer is about to have a new scene!"

Klose gripped Suri's arm tightly: "Young Master Suri, what is this...?"

Suri, however, revealed a mysterious smile: "Welcome to...the real stage."

The earth split open, and everyone plunged into an endless vortex of ink-like water. At the last moment, Saga's voice rang out clearly:

"On behalf of this humble monk, I extend my greetings to the writer—I thoroughly enjoyed this performance!"

As Suri's ink avatar vanished like paint washed away by water, Klose cried out and tried to catch the scattered specks of light.

But it was too late—Suri transformed completely into countless black butterflies that fluttered in the sky, and then evaporated into thin air without a trace.

"Young Master Su Rui?!" Klose waved her arms in vain, only to grasp nothing.

Meanwhile, outside the world depicted in the painting.

Su Rui's consciousness, like a pencil mark erased by an eraser, "whoosh"ed back into Xi's mind.

He rolled around in the corner of Xi's mind, feeling dizzy, like a cat that had just been wrung out.

"Ouch!" Su Rui's consciousness wailed in Xi's mind, "This feels like falling from a waterfall into a puddle!"

Xi rubbed her temples, nearly dropping her paintbrush: "Shut up...you're giving me a headache."

The enormous water mirror before her displayed the chaotic scene of the world in the painting—the town of Poshan was falling apart like a set of building blocks pushed over by a child, with buildings, streets, and the sky twisting and rearranging, and an inky vortex swallowing everything.

"Are they alright?" Suri asked worriedly, her consciousness drifting through Xi's mind. "Especially Klose, she looks terrified..."

Xi snorted coldly, lightly tapping the edge of the water mirror with her finger: "I won't die. I adjusted my falling speed." She narrowed her eyes, "But that meddlesome monk and nun..."

The water mirror focused on Saga—this seemingly carefree wandering monk now appeared solemn and dignified, his naginata standing firmly in the air as if it were solid ground.

With one hand she held onto the falling Flame Fusion, and with the other she formed a mudra, chanting incantations. Golden scriptures flew from her lips, forming a protective shield that enveloped the two of them.

"This monk... is no ordinary monk." Xi frowned. "This is not something an ordinary cultivator could do."

"She seems to have noticed we're watching her!" Su Rui exclaimed. Indeed, Saga in the water mirror suddenly looked up and blinked at the non-existent sky.

Xi quickly switched the scene, the water mirror zoomed out to show the full picture of the reconstructed world in the painting.

The original Po Shan town is expanding its boundaries, adding countryside, mountains, and a winding river. But on the westernmost side of the town, one area remains unchanged—an old-looking pawnshop with a faded sign that reads "Li Family Pawnshop" hanging at the entrance.

"That is..." Suri asked curiously.

"A pawnshop is a rather special place." Xi's voice carried a rare hint of mystery.

The world depicted in the painting, the outskirts of Poshan Town after its reconstruction.

Klose crawled out from a pile of soft Xuan paper, shaking off imaginary dust. She found herself standing on an unfamiliar country road, the outline of the new version of Poshan Town in the distance, and closer still—

"Aaaaaah!" she screamed and jumped away. Dozens of ink sprites of various shapes crawled out of the roadside ditch, some like multi-legged centipedes, others like winged hounds, all made of thick ink, and were menacingly approaching her.

Just as the first ink-like creature was about to pounce, a golden light shot out like an arrow, piercing its head precisely. The ink-like creature let out a miserable "squeak" and turned into a puddle of ordinary ink.

"Is the young benefactor alright?" Saga's voice came from afar. She and Yan Rong came running from the other side of the path, their monk robes fluttering, showing no trace of the disheveled state they had just fallen into.

"Master Monk! Flame Melt!" Klose exclaimed as if seeing a savior, "Young Master Su Rui, he..."

"They've returned to their origins~" Saga said lightly, as if discussing the weather. She twirled her staff, and several more golden beams shot out, obliterating the approaching black spirits. "These little guys are a bit more lively than before."

Flame Lava was already in battle mode, orange-red flames blazing at the tip of his staff: "Not lively... more organized. Look over there!"

On a distant hillside, a massive black goblin was emitting a silent roar. Following its "command," a swarm of smaller black goblins attacked from three directions, completely unlike their previous chaotic state.

"Interesting." Saga removed his straw hat and tossed it casually. The hat spun and flew out, its edges becoming as sharp as knives, instantly slicing off the heads of five or six black demons. "This humble monk hasn't stretched his muscles in a long time."

Flame Fusion was not to be outdone; with a wave of his staff, fireballs rained down on the horde of Ink Spirits like meteors. Each strike hit its mark precisely, vaporizing the Ink Spirits into mist.

"Give me the left side!" she shouted.

"Then the right side belongs to this humble monk~" Saga chuckled, his naginata constantly waving and performing many difficult moves, reaping the black spirits.

Outside the painted world, Su Rui stared in disbelief: "This...this is something a human could do?"

Xi's expression grew increasingly grim: "She's not an ordinary human... She carries the aura of 'that place'." She didn't offer much explanation, but quickly spread out a new sheet of Xuan paper on the drawing table and began to sketch.

"What are you drawing?" Suri asked curiously.

"Reinforcements," Xi replied briefly. Her pen tip made a few ink dots on the paper, and those ink dots immediately came to life, turning into several agile ink tigers leaping into the water mirror.

In the world depicted in the painting, a fierce battle rages on.

Just as Yanrong and Saga were clearing out the Mo Liang back to back, three Mo Tigers leaped out of the void and joined the battle. They tore and pounced, their efficiency astonishing.

Volume 9, page 539: Changes in the World of Painting

"Ha! The scribe has sent reinforcements~" Saga joked casually while fighting, "But this humble monk doesn't need them..."

She suddenly changed her tactics, slamming her staff into the ground. A ring of golden ripples spread out from the tip of the staff. All the black spirits touched by the ripples froze as if they had been frozen in place.

"Benefactor Yanrong!" Saga called out.

"Understood!" Yan Rong leaped up in perfect unison, raising her staff high above her head, whereupon a massive fireball formed. "Blazing Inferno!"

The fireball slammed into the horde of Ink Spirits, triggering a chain reaction of explosions. When the smoke cleared, only a few scattered remnants remained on the battlefield, fleeing in panic toward the Ink Spirit King.

Saga clapped her hands: "That's a wrap!" She turned to the black tigers, "Please thank your master for me?"

The ink tigers let out a low growl, then turned into ink and seeped into the ground, disappearing from sight.

Klose then emerged from behind the tree where she was hiding: "You guys are amazing! Especially the monk, what kind of skill was that golden hand just now?"

"Just a little trick~" Saga waved his hand modestly, then suddenly his nose twitched. "Hmm? Can you smell... tea?"

Yan Rong noticed it too: "Over there..." She pointed to the end of the path, where a lone pawnshop stood in the wilderness, completely out of place with its surroundings. The four characters "Li's Pawnshop" on the lintel had faded, but a blue lamp at the door was as bright as new.

The strangest thing was that, despite the fact that a great battle had just taken place nearby, the area around the pawnshop was clean and tidy, without even a trace of Mo Liang.

"Interesting." A glint of light flashed in Saga's eyes. "This humble monk loves exploring these 'unusual' places."

The three approached the pawnshop cautiously. As they pushed open the door, the brass bell on the door rang crisply. The shop was dimly lit, and the shelves were filled with all sorts of strange items—a broken compass, a pair of glasses with only one eye remaining, a glass bottle containing an unknown liquid...

Behind the counter, a woman in a dark green cheongsam was intently wiping a porcelain cup. When she looked up, the candlelight illuminated a face that was both young and weathered, and most striking was the monocle she wore over her left eye, with fine markings engraved on the lens.

"Welcome to Li's Pawnshop." The woman—Li—speaks with a voice as mellow as fine aged wine. "Are you here to pawn or redeem something?"

Saga stepped forward, clasped his hands in a gesture of respect, and said, "Shopkeeper, this is a world within a painting; how can you speak of pawning here?"

Li smiled slightly, a glint of light flashing in her monocle: "Master Monk, you are mistaken. The more illusory the place, the more it needs pawnshops—memories, emotions, secrets...aren't they all things that can be pawned?"

Flame Lava gripped his staff warily: "Who are you? Why are you here?"

"My surname is Li, and I've been running this shop for quite some time now." Li calmly set down her porcelain cup. "As for why I'm here..." She suddenly looked at a point in the void, as if she could see the sunset beyond the painted world through the rooftop, "That's a question for the master painter."

These words slid like ice down the spines of the three. Klose gasped, "You know Miss Xi?"

Li smiled but remained silent. Instead, she took a brocade box from under the counter and pushed it forward, saying, "I have a gift for you three gentlemen on your honored occasion."

Saga opened the box without any hesitation, and inside lay a copper key.

"This is...?" Yan Rong frowned.

"The key to the truth," Li said mysteriously, "will become clear when you find that door."

Just then, Mo Liang Wang's furious roar suddenly echoed from outside the shop, causing the entire pawnshop to tremble slightly. Li sighed, "It seems that 'lord' is getting impatient." She gestured for the customer to leave.

"Please make yourselves at home. Remember—the most obvious clues are often hidden in the most inconspicuous places."

"That Li...you know her, don't you?"

Su Rui's question was like a drop of ink falling into still water, creating ripples in Xi's mind. Outside the world of the painting, Xi's hand holding the brush paused slightly, and the images of the three people rushing towards the teahouse in the water mirror blurred for a moment.

"Why do you ask that?" Xi's voice sounded eight octaves higher than usual.

Su Rui's consciousness circled in the corner of Xi's mind, like a cat smelling fish: "The way she looked at you...like an old friend reunited. And the tone of her voice when she said 'Ask the painter—'"

"Enough." Xi interrupted him, but her tone lacked its usual sharpness. She put down her paintbrush and looked at the pawnshop's location, now vanished in the water mirror. "That was a long time ago..."

The water mirror reflected her changing moods, revealing a scene from many years ago—a region in the Yan Kingdom suffered a rare famine, leaving the land barren and littered with corpses of the starved. Xiao Xi (much more naive than she is now) walked among the disaster victims, expressionlessly collecting materials for her artwork.

"I met her while I was out collecting inspiration," Xi said softly. The camera focused on a little girl huddled in a corner of a dilapidated temple, so thin she was practically skin and bones, clutching a worn-out sketchbook tightly to her chest. "She was copying the murals in the temple... using charcoal and scrap paper."

Su Rui saw Xiao Xi stop in front of the little girl, and the two looked at each other for a long time. Finally, Xiao Xi made an inviting gesture.

"You brought her into the world of the painting?" Suri asked.

Xi nodded, and the water mirror switched to the original Poshan Town—much simpler than it is now, but the basic layout was the same. The little girl Li stood in the center of the town, looking around in surprise, still holding the picture book in her arms.

"She's just an ordinary human being, with no special abilities," Xi emphasized, as if trying to convince herself, "She just happens to have a bit of talent for drawing."

Su Rui astutely caught the contradiction in Xi's words: "Then why did you give her the freedom to move around? In the entire Poshan Town, only she and the storyteller can break free from the limitations of their roles."

Xi's ears turned slightly red: "...She helped me organize my art supplies."

"Oh~" Suri drawled, "So the cold-blooded painter took in a little girl who was starving, gave her a safe home forever, and even allowed her to retain her self-awareness... purely because she 'knew how to organize her art supplies'?"

Xi whirled around, her long hair tracing a sharp arc in the air: "Shut up! I was just... just..."

"Is it just that you can't bear to see a child who loves to draw starve to death?" Su Rui replied softly.

Xi opened her mouth, but ultimately said nothing.

She turned back to the water mirror, pretending to intently observe the movements of Klose and the other two. But Suri could sense—because she allowed him to sense—that beneath the embarrassment of having her thoughts exposed lay a barely perceptible tenderness.

"You know what," Suri whispered, "this is more 'twilight' than any other legend I've ever heard about you."

Xi did not respond, but a strange ripple suddenly appeared in the sky of the world in the painting, and the speed of the alternation of day and night began to become regular. Poshan Town, which was always lingering at dusk, was now slowly entering the real night.

"Huh?" Suri noticed the change. "You adjusted the flow of time?"

Xi frowned: "No." She quickly checked the parameters of the scroll world, "This wasn't done by me..."

Volume 9, Chapter 540: A Shameful Evening

Just then, the image in the water mirror suddenly shook violently. At the teahouse entrance, Klose had just inserted the brass key into the lock when the ground began to tremble. In the distance came a chorus of howls—it was the Ink Demon, but louder and more ferocious than ever before.

"What's going on?" Xi stood up, her paintbrush quickly sketching monitoring runes in the air. "The Ink Beast should be dormant during the day..."

Suri gasped, "They're not afraid of the sunlight anymore!"

Indeed, the water mirror showed swarms of black goblins pouring into the teahouse from all directions. Even more terrifying, they were no longer restricted by light—in the moonlight, they moved more nimbly and their forms became more varied than during the day. Some grew extra arms, others split into smaller individuals, all shimmering with an ominous dark red light.

"The rules have been rewritten." Xi's voice carried a rare hint of tension. "I just accidentally touched the core laws of the world within the painting..."

At the entrance of the teahouse, Saga pulled Kross back just as she was about to open the door: "Wait!" She slammed her staff into the ground, and a temporary barrier of white light formed. The next second, three black goblins crashed into the barrier, emitting piercing screechs.

"Why are these guys more active during the day?" Yan Rong quickly formed hand seals, and a fireball took shape in his palm. "Didn't they disappear as soon as the sun rose before?"

Saga glanced thoughtfully at the sky—there, the moon was moving at a visible speed, like a film being fast-forwarded. "The alternation of day and night has returned to normal..." she murmured, "It seems 'Master Artist's' state of mind has changed~"

"This isn't the time for riddles!" A fireball roared out, blasting an oncoming Ink Sprite to shreds. "There are just too many of them!"