Chapter 224: Did You Find the Anchor Point?

"How is this already the end? How boring."

Yun Mu kicked Siman's backside hard; the latter was still in his Red Ghost state, only covered in wounds, his body lying limply on the ground.

Because she needed to extract some information from him, Yun Mu did not kill him, but instead continuously drained his stamina and finally used the Fixed Shadow Instrument Blade to lock his shadow.

"I wonder where Dunn ran off to."

Sitting squarely on Siman's body, Yun Mu leisurely crossed her right leg over her left.

She had just fought Siman for about seven or eight minutes; because she was afraid of accidentally killing him, she hadn't used any spells.

She simply held the Fixed Shadow Instrument Blade and relied entirely on her Swordsmanship skills to defeat him.

This was the reason Siman was covered in blade wounds; as for Dunn, he had likely discovered some other news and gone to handle it.

That guy really was at ease with her.

Even though the enemy was an Expert-level Transcendental, and there were even two Elite-level subordinates, he had actually just left her here like this.

"I'm only a Second-tier Elite-level Transcendental, you know~"

A mischievous smile appeared on Yun Mu's face, and she deliberately pinched her voice to disgust Siman, who was being sat upon by her.

"Bitch!"

Although his body was controlled by the Fixed Shadow Instrument Blade, Siman was still able to speak; the veins on his forehead were bulging, and his expression was terrifyingly angry.

However, no matter how much he continued to Struggle, having lost too much blood and exhausted too much stamina, he no longer had any possibility of turning the tables.

As a noble who prided himself on being superior to others, he was now being humiliated by Yun Mu, used as a seat cushion: "Your strength isn't much, but your mouth is quite tough."

Hearing Siman's insults, Yun Mu felt no anger at all; she took the Blazing Sun from her bosom and pressed the old Flintlock Pistol against his forehead.

Facts proved that the equipment piece, the Mask of the Apostle of Joy, did not have any bugs to speak of.

Even if she wasn't wearing that piece of equipment on her face when 12:00 AM arrived, the items collected the previous day would still be returned.

It just wouldn't take away another one of her items.

【After equipping the 【Mask of the Apostle of Joy】, at 12:00 AM every day, the Mask will automatically collect a portion of the items possessed by the wearer and randomly generate an active skill.】

【When 12:00 AM of the next day arrives, the items collected the previous day will be returned.】

In this description of the equipment skill, the effect of the latter part was separated from the previous clause.

After Yun Mu learned this, her mood was actually quite subtle.

"Are you afraid of death, Noble Siman?"

Yun Mu's palm exerted slight force, pressing the muzzle of the Blazing Sun firmly against the top of Siman's head, and asked.

"I, I..."

Feeling the intense killing intent and aura suddenly erupting from Yun Mu, Siman's original intention to spout harsh words was instantly extinguished, turning instead to wanting to say some words of begging.

However, under the pressure of that aura, he couldn't even manage to say a complete sentence.

One had to know, Yun Mu hadn't even used the skill Evil Mark yet!

"Forget it." Seeing him in this state, Yun Mu suddenly lost the desire to continue playing with him.

She turned her head to look at the female Bloodline who had been blown away by the shockwave of the Titan Fall from the very beginning and was still lying on the ground.

"You've been awake for a while, haven't you?"

"..."

Seeing that the other party didn't speak, Yun Mu silently raised the muzzle and, aiming at the ground beside the female Bloodline, pulled the trigger with a "Bang."

The bullet hit the mud with a dull sound; thanks to Tuobuleina, she had finally managed to get some round lead bullets that looked like antiques.

However, the lethality of this kind of bullet was ultimately inferior to modern bullets, and it was also very troublesome to resupply.

She hoped that in the future, if there was a chance in a Dungeon, it would be great to recast it or upgrade it into a weapon that used modern firearm ammunition.

The female Bloodline's body trembled in a very inconspicuous way; clearly, her sudden act of pulling the trigger had scared the other party.

But perhaps out of a fluke mentality, she still had no intention of getting up.

"Still not getting up?"

Yun Mu smiled playfully and gracefully reloaded the Blazing Sun pistol.

"Next time, I won't miss."

"I surrender."

While she was halfway through reloading, the female Bloodline clearly knew she couldn't continue pretending to be unconscious, so she could only get up quickly and raise her hands to Yun Mu without hesitation.

"Ruixi, you piece of trash, hurry up and save me!"

Seeing the female Bloodline get up, Siman hurriedly shouted an order.

"..." Helplessly glancing at her boss, the female Bloodline named Ruixi made no move.

"What kind of look is that!?" Although Ruixi hadn't done anything, Siman, who noticed her gaze, still broke down.

He began to curse loudly: "You useless piece of trash, bitch, deserter..."

"Do you think you would have won if I hadn't pretended to be unconscious?" Ruixi interrupted Siman's words: "Wake up, boss; from the moment she made her move, I knew we had no chance of winning."

Ignoring Siman's insults, Ruixi looked at Yun Mu.

"You must have something you want to ask; I can cooperate with you."

"I do have questions I want to ask, but..." Yun Mu looked at Ruixi, the corners of her mouth curling into a slight arc: "But I only need one person."

"I can help you verify whether he is lying." Hearing her answer, Ruixi was not flustered at all and said with a calm expression.

"How do I know if you won't collude with him to deceive me?" Yun Mu asked back.

"..." Ruixi glanced at Siman, who was still cursing while the two were talking, and shook her head: "I don't have a mental Disease that makes me like being scolded; how could I possibly collude with him?"

"Are you very annoyed?" Jumping off Siman's body, Yun Mu walked in front of Ruixi.

"... Yeah."

"Then make him shut up." Having received an affirmative answer, Yun Mu smiled at Ruixi.

"Shut up?"

A thoughtful light flashed in her eyes as Ruixi tentatively stood up.

Seeing that Yun Mu had no reaction, she suddenly became much bolder in her heart.

She walked up to Siman, raised her hand, and— "Slap!"

A crisp sound rang out on Siman's face; he tilted his head blankly, his eyes filled with disbelief.

"You actually dare to hit me!"

Although he didn't feel much pain due to his Third-tier Expert physique, who was it that hit him?

It was his former subordinate!

What a humiliation! "You—"

"Slap!"

"I—"

"Slap!"

"Slap, slap, slap!"

"Finally quiet." About five minutes later, Yun Mu took out the deck of cards containing her painting tools and infused them with Spirituality.

She was not skilled at interrogation, so she had no intention of interrogating Siman right now.

She planned to finish her practice for the day here first, and wait for Dunn to return after he finished his business before handing the two of them over to him.

As for the siblings Kamaier and Lixia, she had locked them in the Painted World of the Cold Crow for now; she would let them out when it was confirmed to be safe.

"Hmm."

"Could you trouble yourself to sit on him just like I did earlier?" Yun Mu held her Paintbrush, pondered for a moment, and asked Ruixi.

"Is it like this?" Hearing her words, Ruixi recalled it for a moment, then sat where Yun Mu had previously sat, and imitating her movements, crossed her two slender legs together.

"That's right, exactly like that!"

Yun Mu's eyes lit up, and she held her Paintbrush, ready to paint the scene she saw.

Working behind closed doors really doesn't work; one must still find more inspiration in reality.

Otherwise, every day, she would have to think for a long time just to decide what to paint. "Damn it."

Siman had wanted to say something, but after being slapped so many times in a row, he finally realized his current situation.

Continuing to run his mouth would only be asking for humiliation, so he could only suppress the anger in his heart. All of this was actually seen by Yun Mu; she had no intention of doing anything else, simply using her painting skills to capture everything she saw onto the Painting Paper in front of her.

【You have created a Spiritual Painting, Path of Oil Painting points +1.】 【Painting: Betrayal and Fury (Green)】

【Oil Painting/Scarlet/Ghost/Fury/Betrayal】

【Skill: Chain Slaps】

【Ranged/All Units/Spell Strength】

【Range 8】

【Base Precision 150/Damage Modifier +25%/Chain Slaps 45%】

【Chain Slaps: Randomly deals a total of 4 hits to targets on the field, each hit has a 45% chance to trigger the 【Chain】 effect.】

【Chain: Skill damage count +1】

【Passive Skill: Subordinate Overthrow】

【Damage dealt to enemies of a higher level or higher status than you +25%, Critical Hit +4%.】

【Usage Count 1/1】

【Validity: 7 hours 59 minutes 48 seconds】

【A Spiritual Painting created by the Civilization Spreader, Painter, Yun Mu. It can inflict continuous slapping attacks on the enemy's face; although the damage is not high, the insult is extremely strong.

Super effective against superiors, dear~】

Failed to create a Supernatural Painting again? Yun Mu looked at the painting in front of her, and although she didn't feel the slightest surprise, she still sighed to herself.

In fact, as a Second-rank Painter, she could only bind up to five Supernatural Paintings, and she didn't have a need to create new ones for the time being.

It's just, how should she put it... she hoped to be able to create a few more different Supernatural Paintings.

It wasn't about accelerating the upgrade speed of the Path of Oil Painting or anything; after all, even for a Supernatural Painting, completing one only added 3 Destiny Points.

Unless she could add three points every day, it really didn't have much meaning and wouldn't be that fast.

What she wanted were more flexible and varied choices and abilities in battle.

It is true that the number of paintings a Painter-series Transcendental can bind is limited, but she could unbind some of her original paintings!

Although it was still quite difficult for her to unbind them now, once she reached the Third-rank Painter profession, the difficulty of unbinding would drop significantly, requiring only a certain amount of Spirituality to sever the connection with a painting.

It's just that unbinded paintings have a certain rejection period, and one must wait for the rejection period to pass before they can be bound again.

And depending on the painting, the rejection period varies in length... As for wanting to bind a new painting after unbinding one, it's just a matter of a thought, which is actually quite convenient.

There is just one point to note: binding a painting you created yourself is indeed very fast, but if you want to bind a Supernatural Painting created by someone else, that will take some time.

This mainly depends on the compatibility between the painter and the painting; perhaps the compatibility is high, and you can bind it at a single glance.

It is also possible that even after spending decades, the two sides still cannot be bound together.

Therefore, generally speaking, binding the paintings you create yourself is the optimal solution.

"So slow, hasn't Dunn returned yet?"

Yun Mu suddenly sensed something and looked around.

Although this was a street about to be demolished and abandoned, there were still traces of human life here.

The commotion from her battle earlier should have attracted the attention of some wanderer.

Through her Blood Perception, Yun Mu discovered that many ordinary people were rushing toward her direction. "Could it be people from the Guard Hall? No..."

Narrowing her eyes, she looked in the direction from which the crowd was surging.

"Well, now, I've really run into a gang."

A large group of gang members wearing black shirts and dark jackets flooded into the street, holding various firearms, and surrounded Yun Mu, while Siman, standing to the side, immediately wore an expression of excitement upon seeing this.

"Hahaha, so what if you're a Transcendental? Surrounded by so many guns, can you still be so arrogant?"

To be fair, if it were the kind of old-fashioned flintlock in Yun Mu's hand, she wouldn't have any problems even if she were surrounded like this.

But times have changed.

Compared to old-fashioned flintlocks, modern firearms are not only capable of rapid fire, but have also seen a massive increase in accuracy and power.

For low-level Transcendental, firearm weapons are still quite threatening.

Even for Yun Mu, if she were surrounded by a group of well-trained ordinary people, she would likely have little chance of surviving.

But... Yun Mu looked at the gang members surrounding her with a strange expression; those guys really had every kind of firearm in their hands.

And they didn't look like they were well-trained either.

Did these guys really think they could beat her?

Wasn't this thinking of her as a bit too weak? "The number is about fifty people."

【Black Fog!】

The phantom of the Falling painting flashed behind Yun Mu, and accompanied by a massive eruption of Black Fog, her figure vanished from the eyes of the gang members.

And as the Black Fog spread, these gang members, who were all ordinary people, finally understood the meaning of a Transcendental at this moment.

【Perception Shielding!】

They couldn't hear any sound, their eyes saw only the impenetrable Black Fog, and even their companions standing right next to them had disappeared.

There was only calm.

"Hm?"

"What happened here?"

When Dunn returned, he only saw fifty-four gang members, all of whom had been knocked to the ground by Yun Mu, and in his hand, he held a stone sculpture exuding intense malice.

"What is this?" Yun Mu asked, looking at the statue in Dunn's hand with some curiosity.

"Hmm." Hearing Yun Mu's question, Dunn pondered for a moment, then said with some uncertainty:

"I think, it's probably an Anchor Point?"

(End of chapter)