"Your sister doesn't seem very friendly, Miss Nian."
Closure squinted, patting Nian on the shoulder as she asked.
The others all turned their gazes towards Nian, which made her feel a bit awkward.
The originally static space within the painting suddenly began to flow again.
The bustling crowd, as if alive, stopped and looked quizzically at the suddenly-appeared strangers in the middle of the road, dressed in strange clothes.
"Tsk tsk..."
Closure was getting excited. Although she knew it was a Painting World, the scene before her was just too realistic, including the moving people. This was a million times more vivid than any NPC in a video game; they were just like real people.
At this moment.
A little Perro girl dressed in the deep blue robes of a monk walked through the crowd. Like the others, she curiously sized up Lucas and his group.
Her attire stood out starkly against the ordinary townspeople.
It was as if a splash of peculiar, alien color had suddenly appeared in a monochrome ink painting.
Closure looked around excitedly.
She couldn't believe that these residents, who looked no different from living people, were actually fake, drawn into existence. As expected of a god's power, it was too amazing.
Closure's gaze locked onto the Perro girl in the monk's robes. A mischievous look crossed her face, and she walked over curiously, suddenly giving the Perro monk's cheek a light pinch.
"Hiss!! This texture!!"
"It's just like a real person."
Closure nodded in satisfaction.
However, the Perro girl just looked at Closure, who was pinching her, with a puzzled expression.
Nian scratched her head awkwardly. After a moment's thought, she finally said slowly.
"Um, Miss Closure, have you ever considered the possibility..."
"...that besides us, there might be other living people in this Painting World?"
"Huh?"
Closure froze, suddenly realizing something.
In a town of black and white residents, the sudden appearance of someone in a monk's robe was already strange. But at first, Closure had subconsciously assumed everything was fake, all fake people. She never thought there would be other real people!!
Closure jumped in fright, quickly letting go of the Perro girl's cheek and hiding behind everyone else.
The little Perro girl finally reacted, smiling slightly and making a hand gesture specific to monks' greetings.
"Are you all from the outside world as well?"
"Damn!!"
Closure said, shocked.
"You're actually real!!"
The little Perro girl smiled faintly and said in a gentle voice, "This humble monk is indeed real. However, I have been trapped in this Painting World for many years and have yet to comprehend its rules to leave."
Nian nodded.
As a Divine Fragment, she knew all too well the power of her sister's Painting World.
For an ordinary person inside, let alone escaping, just maintaining consciousness and not being assimilated by the Painting World was already remarkable. This seemingly ordinary little monk had managed to stay for years without being assimilated, which was truly impressive.
"So, were you all trapped by accident too? This humble monk is Saga, from Higashi."
Saga's expression was slightly regretful.
She had been in this Painting World for too long and knew all too well that wanting to leave was practically a fantasy. Now that new people had arrived, Saga felt a bit sorry for them, hoping they wouldn't go mad from being trapped.
"Uh... Miss Saga, you seem to have misunderstood something?"
Lucas scratched his head awkwardly.
Since the space-time of the Painting World was frozen during Nian and Dusk's conversation, even though Saga was an outsider, she was still affected and naturally didn't know about Nian and Dusk's relationship.
"We came in here to find someone on purpose."
"On purpose??"
Several question marks popped up over Saga's little doggy head.
"Don't worry, Miss Saga. We'll take you out with us after we find who we're looking for."
Nian said with a grin, patting Saga's shoulder.
"Dusk~ Dusk~ My baby Dusk, my dear little sister~ Your big sis is here."
Nian shouted as she walked, and the painted NPCs around them looked at her as if she were a moron.
Saga scratched her head in confusion and asked.
"Benefactors, may I ask who Dusk is? I don't recall there being anyone named Dusk in this Painting World."
However.
Saga's attention was currently all on the Nine-Colored Deer.
As a monk, she felt that the Nine-Colored Deer faintly radiated a special kind of brilliance.
Lucas didn't answer, but followed behind Nian, crossing a stone bridge and spotting a group of townspeople listening to a middle-aged storyteller under an old scholar tree.
"Yoho, baby Dusk! Found you."
"Snap~"
A cross-shaped vein suddenly appeared on the middle-aged storyteller's previously calm forehead. With a forceful wave of his hand, the folding fan in his hand fell to the ground, shattering into countless pieces. The entire ink-wash painting-like world once again came to a standstill. Perhaps because Saga was among a group of gods, she was no longer affected by this power.
She looked at the storyteller in shock again.
"Why are you here again!!!"
A flash of anger crossed the storyteller's eyes.
"And you brought so many people in with you!!!"
The storyteller's body gradually became ethereal, and then, a stunningly beautiful woman with features somewhat similar to Nian's appeared, a pair of green dragon horns on her forehead, like a peerless classical beauty stepping out of an ink-wash painting.
Dusk wore a short one-piece dress, primarily white with small, emerald-green flowers at the edge of the narrow hem, revealing her perfect, snow-white legs that looked like they were carved from jade. Her green dragon tail whipped back and forth behind her in anger.
As expected of a shut-in.
Dusk gave off a completely different vibe from Nian.
Nian was lively and cheerful, as if everything in the world was just for her amusement—a typical energetic girl. Dusk, on the other hand, was a quiet shut-in, with no interest in anything in the world, only wanting to live in her own spiritual world.
Dusk's fair face twitched uncontrollably as she looked at the grinning Nian, filled with rage.
It was like.
A socially awkward shut-in who loves staying in her room.
Having a lively older sister who bothers her all the time is bad enough, but one day, she even brings a group of friends into her room.
The fact that Dusk didn't immediately attack was already giving her face.
Dusk glanced over the crowd, consciously skipping over Closure since she was the only ordinary person.
However.
When she saw the Nine-Colored Deer at the end, she was a little surprised.
"Nine-Colored Deer? What are you doing here?"
The Nine-Colored Deer stepped out from the crowd and smiled serenely.
"It has been a long time, Dusk. I happened to meet Miss Nian and everyone else on my travels. I thought I hadn't seen you in a while, so I wanted to come and visit."
"Oh~"
Dusk's anger subsided quite a bit.
Oh...
My friend is here. Never mind then.
"Come, let's have some tea together."
Dusk waved her hand again.
The frozen time around them began to flow once more. However, the storyteller had vanished, and Dusk, having returned to her original form, appeared with everyone in the largest tea house in town. Staring at the steaming hot tea, Closure fell into deep thought.
"This tea... can I drink it? It's not ink, is it?"
Although Dusk gave Nian the cold shoulder, she was very friendly to the others.
"It's normal tea."
The Nine-Colored Deer took a small sip first and explained.
"Dusk's rule is 'painting.' Within her painting, you could say it's another world. Everything is tangible."
"Oh, oh~"
Closure nodded.
"What did you come here for?"
Dusk glanced at her sister and said coldly.
"Hey, hey, hey, of course it's to introduce my friends to you."
Nian said with a grin.
"Besides, you should get out more. Being such a shut-in is no solution. Do you really think you can hide from it by staying cooped up in here?"
Nian's words seemed to anger Dusk, and she slammed her hand on the table.
"It's none of your business!!"
Hide?
Lucas caught some details in Nian's words.
As expected.
Nian didn't come looking for Dusk purely to reminisce or to see her long-lost sister. There was definitely another purpose.
"You want to resist, but what can you do? Are you going to go and take care of that old thing yourself?"
"When that old thing wakes up, I don't care, and I don't want to care. Life and death are but impermanence, heaven and earth are constant, and so is my artistic will. What am I worried about? What am I afraid of? This is the path I have chosen. There's not much we siblings can do."
"Do you have a solution?! No! Does big sister Ling have a solution? No! Even big brother doesn't have a solution. What are you, number nine, thinking?"
It had to be said.
Dusk seemed quiet, like the girl next door, but her conversation with Nian was very sharp.
Nian, however, didn't care in the slightest. She had long been familiar with her sister's personality and had been scolded who knows how many times.
"So you're just going to sit and wait for death?"
Dusk snorted. "I'm different from you. My paintings are me. Even if I'm gone, my paintings will remain, my will shall remain. I will not disappear. This is my path..."
"Tsk tsk... Excuses. Do you really think your big sister is a fool like our second brother, so easy to trick?"
Nian changed the subject.
"I ran into Second Brother on the way here."
"Tsk..."
Dusk's relationship with Second Brother didn't seem to be very good; even hearing his name made a look of annoyance cross her face.
"Second Brother is as idle as ever, cutting his soul into over a hundred pieces. We met one of his soul fragments, and then, that idiot second brother even tried to trap us using your rules. Do you want to see it, Dusk? Second Brother's painting is so ugly! That tree, it was twisted into an S-shape."
"I feel like, if your painting is realism, then Second Brother's is abstract."
"I don't want to see it. Don't show me. I can already imagine it. And don't insult the abstract school..."
Dusk flatly refused.
She could still recall seeing her second brother's painting decades ago. Just one glance nearly gave her high blood pressure from anger.
"Is there anything else? If not, please leave."
Dusk looked at Nian with cold eyes.
"One more thing, and this is a super big deal. My new movie has been in theaters for a few months now, and in a month, I've been invited to the Columbia Film Festival~ I'll probably win an award. No, I'll definitely win an award. So, as my dearest little sister, won't you consider coming to see it live?"
Nian squinted her eyes, extending the invitation.
Dusk was stunned for a few seconds. Suddenly.
Her eyes widened, she propped her hands on the table, her green dragon tail whipping back and forth behind her. A look of contempt and disbelief crossed her eyes. She raised the corner of her mouth and said with disdain.
"You?"
"On your own?"
"You can win an award?"
"Are you trying to insult the Oscar awards?"
"Spit it out. How much money did you spend to buy this worthless prize?"
"..."
Indeed.
As expected of blood sisters...
Lucas was speechless at this moment.
How did she guess so accurately?
She saw through the fact that her sister's award was bought so easily.
It seemed everyone around her knew Nian's true level of skill; only Nian herself had no self-awareness.
"Tch! You look down on your big sister, don't you?!! Your sister has been making movies for a hundred years. At the very least, I'm at a godfather level. All these years of learning have to lead to some progress. Didn't that idiot Second Brother go from a terrible Go player to a Go sage after more than a hundred years of study? Why can't I? Don't look at me with your old eyes. I'm different now, my foolish little sister."
Nian stood up, the corners of her mouth turned up in a supremely confident smile.
"If you don't believe me, you can ask my closest friend."
Nian pointed at Lucas, and Dusk's gaze shifted to him. She could naturally and easily see that Lucas, like her, was a Divine Fragment, and his level of being was not inferior to that old thing's...
Who was this old thing?
"Yes..."
Lucas forced himself to praise her against his conscience.
"Miss Nian's skill has indeed improved by leaps and bounds. Winning the little golden statue is a testament to her ability."
"..."
Dusk's face scrunched up.
One look and she knew it was fake...
Dusk sighed. "I do like watching movies. To me, some classic old films are incredibly outstanding, superb in both form and spirit. However, I know my sister all too well. Her skill is like my second brother's painting—stinks and is rotten."
Nian grabbed Dusk's hand.
"Come on, Dusk! Go, Dusk!! I finally won an award, you have to come see it in person!! Besides, a lot of big shots from the film festival will be there this time, including the young directors of those few old movies you love so much."
Dusk's face twitched uncontrollably.
Finally.
She sighed.
With a wave of her hand.
Instantly, the surrounding Painting World disintegrated.
"Stop shouting! I'll trust you this one time. I hope you're not lying to me!"
Nian shouted happily, "Yay!!"
She had agreed.
On one hand, she really did want to see what Nian's movie was like. After all, if it could win an award, in theory, it shouldn't be too bad... On the other hand, she knew Nian hadn't come to find her just to talk about a movie.
She didn't know before.
But after noticing the 'old thing' with a very high level of being next to Nian, she instantly understood something. If they were going to confront that old thing, they would definitely need to find an 'old thing' of a comparable level, one whose rank was not much different.
And...
He seemed different from her.
She was a fragment, a fragment with its own consciousness.
But...
He seemed to be the main body's consciousness. Although his soul was incomplete, his consciousness was definitely that of the main body.