Chapter 63: Mountains and Rivers Brush (Part 3)

In the end, Fu Mi still left the inn alone to find a place to stay outside.

Yun Xueqing followed the number on the room card, unlocked the door, and entered.

Although they were in a bizarre world, this place was just like an ordinary inn, an ordinary bedroom.

Yun Xueqing closed the door and casually hung a plastic cup from the washstand on the door handle. This way, if anyone came in, the cup would fall, and he would immediately notice.

After doing this, he began to survey the room.

The entire room was relatively clean. Apart from a picture frame hanging above the bed, there were no other extraneous items.

Since it was something hanging above the bed, Yun Xueqing subconsciously took a couple more glances at it.

The photo in the frame showed the back of a figure in white clothes—tall and slender, with long hair reaching the waist. It should have been a woman. But she was facing away from him, so her face was not visible.

It was a very ordinary photo, a very ordinary back view. In this world where beauty and ugliness were inverted, it stood out exceptionally.

Why had the innkeeper hung this photo of a woman considered “ugly” by worldly standards above his bed?

Yun Xueqing stared at the frame, and the woman’s back gradually seeped in, as if it wanted to imprint itself completely into his mind through his eyes.

He merely gazed at it faintly, only to see the woman in white clothes, ethereal like a fairy—fair-skinned with black hair, her neck so white it gleamed—slowly turn her head. What was revealed, however, was a bloody face!

Her facial skin had been completely peeled off, leaving wriggling flesh on her face. Her eyeballs had also been gouged out, leaving only a pair of black holes.

The woman seemed to notice the new guest and hooked up a smile on her face. The muscles on her cheeks twitched upward as she opened her mouth wide.

Her teeth had even been cruelly broken off, exposing shrunken gums.

Her mouth writhed as if she were saying something.

Separated by the frame, Yun Xueqing could not hear her voice, but he could read her lip movements.

She was saying:

[The next one… will be you.]

It seemed like a warning, or perhaps a threat.

Yun Xueqing nodded at the frame, then lay down on the soft bed and closed his eyes to rest.

The woman in the frame: “…”

Yun Xueqing was not actually resting; he was organizing the clues he had so far.

But he did not know much yet. As he pondered, his thoughts drifted.

He had been brought into this Weird Domain by San Zhi. This was his first time venturing separately from Fu Wuxuan.

It was not that he was reluctant to separate; it was just that they had always cooperated as a pair, and suddenly being alone felt a bit unaccustomed.

It was like a lonely person who had finally found a kindred spirit. After spending some time together, they were forced apart, plunging back into solitude.

This feeling was not unbearable, but it was not pleasant either.

Here, no one would help him anymore. He had to be even more cautious.

But Yun Xueqing would not overdo the tension. He simply allocated a bit more attention, constantly monitoring the sounds outside the door.

As he thought this, he heard a knock at the door. The next moment, the cup on the door handle fell to the ground, and the room door swung open.

The visitor was not the innkeeper he had imagined, but San Zhi, who had already become a perfect cube.

With no one else around, San Zhi was unaccustomed to this body that panted after three steps. He mobilized his Weird Power, and his body gradually elongated and slimmed down, restoring his formerly handsome features.

With an outsider entering, Yun Xueqing remained unperturbed. “How did you get in?”

San Zhi sneered disdainfully and pointed at the door handle. “This ordinary door—could it stop me?”

Yun Xueqing ignored him and asked instead, “What do you want with me?”

“The night is deep. I wanted to have a heart-to-heart with you.”

San Zhi’s words were flippant, but his gaze was exceptionally cold. “Along the way, it suddenly dawned on me—you seem mild-mannered, but if there’s something you don’t want to do, no one can force you. Even if they try force, you’ll fight to the death. So why did you so readily follow us into this dangerous A-rank Weird Domain?”

Without waiting for Yun Xueqing’s response, he continued on his own. “Unless you deliberately followed us in, scheming for something.”

He was not waiting for an answer at all. He was convinced the other had his own agenda, and the answer was obvious.

San Zhi nailed it down. “You want to snatch the Mountains and Rivers Brush from us.”

He had followed them into such a dangerous Weird Domain—what else could he be after but the Mountains and Rivers Brush?

Fu Mi had once said Yun Xueqing could help them find the legendary brush that turned fakes into reality, implying he might have some special encounter.

Faced with a divine artifact like the Mountains and Rivers Brush, and his own innate advantages, it was hard not to covet it for himself.

Hearing the other’s logical speculation, Yun Xueqing glanced at him and said flatly, “Not everyone is like you.”

Back at the Blue Castle, he had already noticed something unusual about Fu Mi—there was the aura of the Tianquan Sword on him.

He had once sensed the Tianquan Sword’s aura on San Zhi as well, though later encounters showed it waxing and waning.

This meant the Tianquan Sword was not actually with San Zhi, but he had been in contact with whoever had taken his Natal Sword. Now sensing the same aura on Fu Mi, Yun Xueqing guessed the two were connected.

But they had disguised it too well—no traces of interaction at the Blue Castle. Only back at the Degeneration Abstinence Institute did hints emerge.

Confirming both belonged to Strategy God Heavens, he suspected the Tianquan Sword was with someone in that organization. Thus, he went along with the flow and followed them back to the group.

He had not expected them to change destinations.

He truly had no interest in the Mountains and Rivers Brush, but San Zhi took his silence as hesitation and persuaded, “How about we cooperate?”

“When you get the Mountains and Rivers Brush, just paint one thing for me, and I can help you escape Strategy God Heavens’ pursuit.”

Yun Xueqing’s eyes flickered slightly. He did not explain his own goal but asked, “You want to betray your organization?”

“Betray?” San Zhi narrowed his eyes meaningfully. “I don’t serve Strategy God Heavens.”

“We Weird serve only our master,” he said flatly. “Strategy God Heavens is merely a tool to help me achieve my goals. It hardly counts as betrayal.”

Yun Xueqing took note. “Master?”

He could not help recalling what the hollowed-out Li Yulin had said to him at the Blue Castle.

But San Zhi did not elaborate further. Instead, he said, “Cooperate with me, and you’ll gain immense benefits. But if you go against me… heh.”

Yun Xueqing feared threats the least. “If I refuse, will you take us both down?”

San Zhi smiled on the surface. “Whether I burn or not is uncertain, but you will definitely die.”

Weird like them had plenty of ways to torment people.

Yun Xueqing eyed him for a moment and said calmly, “I will help you search for the Mountains and Rivers Brush.”

An eerie smile appeared on San Zhi’s face. “If you agree, that’s perfect.”

After San Zhi left, Yun Xueqing rested in the room for the night. It passed peacefully—no trouble from the frame overhead—and he slept soundly until dawn.

As a righteous sect disciple, Yun Xueqing had agreed to help San Zhi find the Mountains and Rivers Brush, but the other was ultimately a member of the evil cult Strategy God Heavens, inherently wicked by nature.

Yun Xueqing always worried he might turn on him, so he prepared a contingency and did not go with him. Instead, he headed out alone to seek clues.

With his changed appearance, Yun Xueqing was no longer as conspicuous as the day before and blended into the crowd.

He had no solid leads and was just wandering the streets at random. But perhaps he really had a jinxed constitution—merely glancing around, he reached a street corner in the town and saw a crowd surrounding something, hurling loud curses.

“This little adulterer actually dared to sneak into Sister Ni’s room at night—what audacity!”

“So ugly, and he still wants to commit adultery?”

“What adultery? Don’t spout nonsense. Clearly, this little adulterer covets Sister Ni’s beauty and wanted to molest her!”

“I say, for someone so ugly to even have a wife is a huge blessing already. And he still can’t keep it in his pants, lusting after Sister Ni.”

“You know, this adulterer’s ugly, and his wife is ugly too. No wonder he wants to cheat.”

Yun Xueqing walked over and pieced together what they were cursing about, roughly understanding the situation.

He pushed into the crowd and saw the “culprit” at the center, surrounded by everyone.

Sure enough, the “adulterer” they cursed as ugly had a handsome face.

He was locked in a cage, letting the crowd point and curse at him without lifting his head. His face was expressionless, as if it had nothing to do with him.

The crowd had been cursing but now began discussing how to deal with the adulterer.

“Someone so ugly daring to molest our Sister Ni—outrageous! I say we sink him in a pig cage!”

“Right! Anyone who wants to defile Sister Ni must suffer. Pig cage, drown him in the river!”

“For someone so vile, why not just bury him alive? Teach him a lesson—maybe he’ll be born less ugly next life!”

Everyone present brimmed with malice, yet the man in the cage remained expressionless, his eyes dull, as if his heart had turned to ash.

This town had no police to maintain order; the townsfolk decided for themselves.

When more than ten people resolved to kill him, someone would carry it out.

Four burly men with ferocious faces lifted the cage and headed toward the outskirts, followed by two with shovels. It looked like they really meant to bury him alive.

Yun Xueqing vaguely sensed this man might hold some clue and had to be saved.

He was just about to act when he remembered he could not reveal himself.

He casually went to a vendor, bought a mask resembling a freshly slaughtered pig’s bristles, and put it on.

The townsfolk, though grotesquely shaped, were not mutated. Yun Xueqing dealt with them easily, knocking down a swath in a few moves.

The fallen brutes glared furiously and shouted to the surrounding townsfolk, “Grab him! Execute this accomplice too!”

The bystanders were enraged and wanted to catch him, but their obese bodies wiggled like worms. After a few futile attempts, they were drenched in sweat and could not touch the nimble Yun Xueqing.

Yun Xueqing pried open the iron cage, grabbed the man kneeling inside, and said in a low voice, “Come with me!”

He dragged the man and bolted, vanishing in moments and leaving the beaten townsfolk to glare helplessly.

One of them muttered, “Runs so fast?”

The one beside him itched with hatred. “He can’t run forever. In our town, skinny rascals like him aren’t common. We’ll check one by one and find him.”

The other hesitated. “Do we really need to go to such lengths for them?”

The man gave a strange smile. “Didn’t you notice? They’re outsiders. Heretics must be purged.”

The other fell silent for a moment, then nodded his barely visible chin, buried in fat. “Heretics must be purged!”

*

Yun Xueqing ran far with him until his lungs ached slightly. Then he heard the man beside him say softly, “Let me go… You escape on your own.”

Yun Xueqing looked back and saw no pursuers, so he slowed down. “Conceal your aura. Walk a few more steps.”

They had just undergone intense exertion, their clothes disheveled in hasty flight.

Yun Xueqing acted as if nothing had happened, straightened his clothes, and pulled the man along.

The man still said, “Don’t bring me with you. They know my face. If you’re seen with me again, they’ll identify you, and you’ll lose your life too.”

Yun Xueqing said calmly, “Don’t worry about me for now. Just tell me what you know.”

The man hesitated. “Thank you for saving me… But to be safe, I want to ask you something.”

“What?”

The man swallowed. “Are you an Oracle?”

Yun Xueqing paused, surprised by his identity. This man before him was not a town resident but an Oracle who had intruded into this domain?

But he asked this to confirm if he was a fellow intruder.

Yun Xueqing himself could not use Oracle powers, but he replied steadily, “I am.”

This was also to gain the other’s trust.

The man seemed exceptionally naive. Hearing this, especially after being saved, he relaxed. “That’s great then. I thought I was the only one who stumbled in here. This place is too weird. Alone, I’d probably die here all by my lonesome.”

Yun Xueqing calmly changed the subject without batting an eye. “What was that about Sister Ni they mentioned earlier?”

The man’s expression twisted for a moment, looking somewhat peculiar. He hurriedly explained, “You mustn’t misunderstand—I don’t have any weird thoughts about that Sister Ni! I’m a perfectly normal guy when it comes to aesthetics!”

If he truly was an Oracle, then Yun Xueqing naturally knew he wasn’t involved with Sister Ni in the way the townsfolk had claimed.

But this explanation of his only made it seem more like protesting too much, as if there were three hundred taels of silver buried right here.

Yun Xueqing didn’t tease him about it. Instead, he asked seriously, “Then why did you go to see that Sister Ni?”

And in the middle of the night, no less.

The man sighed. “It’s a long story.”

He slowly recounted his tale. He introduced himself as Lin Zhi, a D-Rank Oracle who had stumbled into this Weird Domain by sheer accident.

Due to his appearance, he was often targeted by the people in this town. Later, for a series of bizarre reasons, he inexplicably got married and became one of the townsfolk.

He had been stuck here for half a month without any clues on how to escape. That was, until one time, by a stroke of coincidence, he and his nominal wife encountered Sister Ni.

Sister Ni was quite extraordinary. She wasn’t ugly—in fact, she was very beautiful, a striking woman with fiery red lipstick and big, wavy hair.

Logically speaking, someone who looked like that should have been maliciously treated by the townsfolk. But the exact opposite was true: not only did they not dislike her, they held her in special esteem and treated her with great respect.

Lin Zhi sensed there was something fishy about it. After inquiring around discreetly, he learned that the reason Sister Ni was so popular was because she had a certain brush in her possession.

Once this brush was dipped in paint and applied to someone’s face, it could alter their facial features to whatever they desired. It was an incredible beauty tool, far superior to any cosmetic surgery clinic—and it didn’t even hurt.

Moreover, Sister Ni didn’t profit from it. Every day, she offered free face alterations to three townsfolk.

This act was no different from charity. Though the townsfolk had their complaints about Sister Ni’s own face, since she helped them change theirs for free, they practically worshipped her.

After hearing Lin Zhi’s story, Yun Xueqing’s mind surged with waves of realization.

They had entered this Weird Domain precisely to search for the Mountains and Rivers Brush.

The brush in Sister Ni’s hands could freely alter a person’s appearance. Though it differed from the rumored ability to “turn fakes into reality,” could there be some connection between them?

As he pondered this, Yun Xueqing asked indifferently, “If she can alter faces at will, why doesn’t she change her own?”

“You’re not the only one who’s puzzled—the townsfolk find it strange too.”

Lin Zhi continued, “But Sister Ni just says the brush can’t be used on her herself. Once she said that, the others didn’t press the issue. They just pity her for being able to change everyone else’s faces while having to stick with such an ugly one of her own in private.”

Yun Xueqing didn’t buy that excuse for a second, and clearly, neither did Lin Zhi. Only those adoring townsfolk would swallow it.

Yun Xueqing said, “Sister Ni has a sense of aesthetics different from this world. She definitely isn’t a local.”

Lin Zhi scratched his head. “From what the townsfolk say, Sister Ni really isn’t from around here. She just showed up in town one day out of nowhere—no one knows where she came from.”

Yun Xueqing nodded thoughtfully. “She’s no simple character.”

He needed to find an opportunity to make contact.

He asked, “Where does this Sister Ni usually appear?”

No sooner had he spoken than he realized the implication, and his tone grew a bit subtle. “So you snuck into Sister Ni’s room in the middle of the night to…”

Lin Zhi looked a little embarrassed and scratched his cheek. “Yeah… to steal that brush that’s rumored to change anyone’s appearance at will.”