Chapter 2677: Afternoon in the Countryside

Angel had indeed seen oil paintings in the Hanging Prison Stairs in Nightmare Realm. But all these oil paintings were gathered on the top floor, which was the warden's residence.

The warden of the Hanging Prison Stairs seemed to be a person who loved oil paintings very much. There were a large number of paintings in every corridor where he lived. All of these paintings were masterpieces by famous artists.

When Angel left the Hanging Prison Stairs, he even picked two paintings from the warden's gallery and brought them back to reality.

To this day, those two paintings are still lying in Angel's bracelet.

The oil painting on the wall of the ruins was naturally not one of the two that Angel brought out, but he had seen similar paintings in the warden's gallery.

In other words, this painting is very likely to have come from the warden's gallery at the top of the Hanging Prison Stairs.

But how did it get here from the warden's gallery? Was it because of the void storm that caused the oil paintings inside to scatter and ended up falling here? Or was the entire wall here actually part of the warden's gallery at the time?

Angel thought for a moment and approached the location of the painting.

Before he even reached the painting, Angel was sure that this wall was not from the warden's gallery, but from the cell on the second floor. Because the warden's gallery, the wall material and the frame material are the same, both are precious lacquer wood, the only difference is that the wall is covered with dark purple frosted paper.

But the wall on this ruin is a mixture of stone and wood, which is a relatively cheap material, even cheaper than the previous deep sea wood. The only advantage is that it has strong energy conductivity and can carry the energy channel of the magic array.

Although the wall is not the wall of the gallery on the highest floor, the painting is indeed the warden's collection.

This is an oil painting of pastoral leisure. In the distance is the harvest of golden grain and wheat, and there are a large number of peasant women bending over to work. There is also a peasant woman nearby, but she is not working, but resting against a tree. From the sweat on her temples and the farming gloves placed aside, it can be seen that she should be in the middle of or after work. Golden curly hair leaked from one side of the headscarf, a young and energetic beautiful profile, beautiful green eyes looking at the distant mountains, with a hint of tenderness in the eyes, as if there was her beloved lover in the distant mountains.

The background is the warm color of the early autumn harvest, the aperture in the afternoon is hazy, the whole picture does not use too many colors, but it shows a rich sense of layering.

Ingres was impressed by this oil painting because it was a rare leisure painting in the warden's collection.

Other paintings are either full of profound meaning, or abstract, or very realistic, or portraits.

There are very few leisure paintings.

It is precisely because there are few leisure paintings that Ingres chose a leisure painting "Shepherd Milking" from the two oil paintings he brought out.

This "Afternoon Pastoral" was also in Ingres's selection at the time, so it is very memorable.

"Is there a problem with this painting?" At this time, the Black Count also flew over.

The Black Count's voice was full of obvious doubts, because Angel should have heard his previous conversation with the Wise Lord. The Wise Lord clearly said that the wood spirit was not here, so why did Angel still linger in front of this painting?

Others also looked at Angel curiously. Angel rarely did unnecessary things. Did he stop in front of this painting to discover something else?

Angel: "I'm just curious, why is this painting hanging here?"

Although Angel was answering the Black Count, his eyes were looking at the Wise Lord.

The Wise Lord raised his eyebrows: "Why can't it be hung here?"

Angel: "I think this kind of art should be hung in a beautiful gallery, not in this kind of ruins. This should be hung here by someone, right?"

The Wise Lord smiled but did not answer.

He thought Angel really discovered something, but it turned out that he was just curious about the painting appearing here.

Come to think of it, it's right. How could a younger generation recognize an unknown painting from ten thousand years ago?

Angel turned his head and looked at the wise master: "Did the wise master hang this painting here?"

The wise master shook his head: "No."

After a pause, the wise master said: "If you want to know a more detailed answer, you might as well exchange answers with me."

The wise master took the initiative to mention exchanging answers, which surprised the black earl. Because it means that the wise master thinks this question is worth exchanging with Angel.

That is to say, the person who hung this painting should not be simple.

Angel also heard the hidden meaning of the wise master, but Angel shook his head: "Forget it, this time I came to find Mu Ling, let's put other things aside."

The wise master didn't care about Angel's choice, smiled and stepped aside.

But just as the wise master was about to return to the void road, he suddenly saw that Wai, who was facing him, suddenly widened his eyes and looked at his back with a look of astonishment.

At the same time, Dox also exclaimed: "What is this, a wood spirit?"

When the wise master heard this, his body paused and he immediately turned his head to look.

But he saw that Ingres's hand had reached into the painting at some point. From the painting, he slowly pulled out a dark brown log.

The log was pulled out by Ingres little by little, and the picture of the oil painting seemed to have turned into a lake with ripples.

Everyone stared at Ingres's actions in amazement, and even the wise master showed surprise.

How did he... know?

Under the gaze of the crowd, Ingres pulled the dark brown log, about two meters long and ten centimeters thick, out of the painting.

As the log completely left the painting, the tree that the peasant woman leaned against in the painting seemed to be dead, with all its leaves falling and only a withered trunk left.

Such a change was already amazing, but the change was not over yet.

The peasant woman in the painting originally showed her side face, looking at the distant mountains with affection, but at this time, the peasant woman turned her head and showed her front face. The other side of her face was dark and empty, and the tenderness in the peasant woman's eyes turned into resentment at this time.

The peasant woman glared at Ingres fiercely, and then turned into a thin layer of black smoke and disappeared.

At this time, the picture of the oil painting changed again.

The withered tree grew leaves again, and the disappeared peasant woman reappeared, but at this time, the peasant woman was no longer a young and beautiful blonde woman, but a brown-haired ponytail freckled girl.

The picture appeared for a moment, and then it began to change again.

The picture became old at a speed visible to the naked eye.

It started out as bright and clean as new, then slowly became dim and mottled, and finally the paper cracked and turned into fine dust. Finally, the painting completely disappeared, leaving only an empty frame.

"What is going on? Why did the painting change? The woman with half a black hole on her face turned into a freckled girl? What is this wood? Why did the painting turn into ashes in the end?"

Dox's questions popped up one by one.

Normally, Dox's series of questions would definitely attract the ridicule of the Black Earl. But this time, the Black Earl did not stop Dox, because these questions were also what he wanted to know.

Angel ignored Dox, but carefully looked at the heavy log in his hand.

After a long while without getting a response, the Black Earl couldn't help but ask, "Is this a wood spirit?"

For a wood that was hidden so secretly, everyone thought of the wood spirit first. However, the Black Count was somewhat puzzled. If this was a wood spirit, why did the Wise Lord lie to him before, saying that there was a trap here and that the wood spirit must not be here?

Since the Wise Lord asked them to find the wood spirit, there was no need to deliberately lie to him.

Moreover, the Black Count had also explored this painting before and found nothing unusual. How did Angel find it?

Angel: "It's not a wood spirit, but it should be related to it."

Angel said this and looked at the Wise Lord.

This time, the Wise Lord did not remain silent, but whispered: "This is the first time I saw a wood spirit here. It performed a shelling drama to avoid me. This should be made by it, or a derivative of its body."

After the Wise Lord finished speaking, he asked directly: "How did you find it?"

"Is it an exchange of answers now?" Angel replied casually.

The Wise Man did not speak, but stared at Angel quietly with three eyes, as if he wanted to see through him. However, this was just an illusion. The direct gaze of the wise man was only an illusion created by Ingres, without any deterrent power.

However, Ingres did not try to provoke the wise man at this time. He avoided his gaze and said lightly: "I happened to have seen this painting."

"Have you seen this painting?" The wise man asked in confusion: "Impossible, how could you have seen it?"

Ingres: "Scarob."

The wise master asked in confusion: "He is..."

Ingres: "Don't you know, wise master, that Scarob. Wright is the author of this painting."

The wise man really didn't know who the author of this painting was. Although as an alchemist, he had a certain understanding of aesthetics, after all, he majored in pharmacy, and the direction of painting and aesthetics was more in the direction of epigraphy.

Moreover, although this painting was well painted, it was just an ordinary painting after all. The wise man felt it was a waste to frame it in a frame made of extraordinary materials, let alone appreciate and study it.

The one who was really interested in the painting was Franklin, the warden of the Hanging Prison Ladder and one of the core rulers of Naraku City.

Now that he heard Ingres mention the name of a painter, the wise ruler really couldn't tell whether what he said was true or false.

"Although I haven't seen the original painting, I have the honor of seeing some of the painter's works in the collection. Well... it was collected by an alchemist who loves painting. There are imitations of this painter in the collection, which seem to be compiled by later generations." After confirming that the wise man didn't know the painter's name, Ingres began to make up stories.

"In addition to this "Afternoon Pastoral", there are some other paintings, such as "Shepherd Milking", "Fisherman Returning at Night", "Towards the Sunset"..."

As Ingres spoke, he used illusion to simulate oil paintings one by one.

In the eyes of others, in terms of style, it is indeed very similar to the previous painting.

But in the eyes of the wise ruler, there are several pictures that he has an impression of, as if Franklin has collected his original works.

Could it be that what he said was true, and he really knew what the original painting looked like?

The wise man had never believed that Ingres had seen this oil painting, because it was the work of a mortal painter, and this mortal painter had lived ten thousand years.

Even if the other party was a very famous painter at the time, ten thousand years would be enough for everyone to forget him.

But now someone actually said that he had seen the other party's painting, and the wise man really found it hard to believe.

But the wise man still had an impression of the examples that Ingres gave, so he couldn't find any words to refute.

Moreover, the wise man thought carefully and it seemed that there was indeed a little possibility.

Mortals could not make the works of painters circulate for ten thousand years, but wizards could. Franklin liked the works of this painter, so could other wizards not be allowed to like the works of this painter?

Ingres also mentioned a key point. It was the 'alchemist' who collected the other party's collection of works.

Most alchemists, because they have to create drawings, prefer art that can cultivate aesthetics. Therefore, there are no fewer alchemists who collect mortal paintings.

Once the wizard's collection is well maintained, it is not a problem to keep it for ten thousand years. Moreover, many wizard organizations and wizard families will remake copies of some ancient books from time to time to prevent the problem of lone copies from being lost.

If Ingres really saw the collection of painters collected by a certain alchemist, it seems that this is not impossible.

However, the wise master still felt strange. Is it really such a coincidence that Ingres just happened to have seen this author's collection of paintings, and he just happened to come here?

If this is the first coincidence, the wise man can accept it. But there is always a mist around Ingres.

This makes the wise man have to doubt that Ingres came prepared. Or, he is actually a descendant of a wizard related to Naraku City?

The related here refers not only to wizards who are friendly with Naraku City, but also to wizards who are hostile to Naraku City.

Therefore, the wise man is now more and more curious about Ingres's identity.

While the wise man was observing Ingres, Ingres continued: "By the way, the original picture of "Afternoon Pastoral Picture" is like this."

Ingres waved again, and an illusion appeared in front of everyone.

The so-called original picture of "Afternoon Pastoral Picture" is the last picture that appeared before. The peasant woman in the picture is not a blonde woman, but a freckled girl with a ponytail.

"It was precisely because the original picture was different from this one that I discovered something was wrong, so I tried to solve the puzzle in the painting."

"The final result is what you see."

"What keeps the painting fresh is the life energy in this piece of wood, and this piece of wood is hidden in the space in the painting... To be precise, it is not in the painting, but in a layer of reflective film on the surface of the painting."

When Ingres said this, he said meaningfully: "This film is a bit like a mirror."

Mirror?

When everyone heard this word, they all frowned, because they thought of a demon that seemed to be non-existent: the mirror demon.

Later, they also found a mark that was suspected to be the "mirror demon", half of which was the side face of a long-haired woman, and the other half was the side face of a man wearing a hat.

And the side face of the "peasant woman" in the painting they saw before seemed to be vaguely similar to the long-haired woman in the mark.

Could it be that this painting is also related to the mirror demon?

Thinking of this, the Black Earl glanced at the wise master with his "peripheral eyes". Previously, the Wise Lord hinted that the person who hung this painting here was worthy of Ingres's exchange of questions.

So, is there a connection between the Mirror Demon and the Wise Lord?