Angor did see some oil paintings in the Stairs of Hanging Prison in the Nightmare Realm. However, all of them were gathered at the top floor of the Stairs of Hanging Prison, where the warden lived.
The warden seemed to be someone who loved oil paintings very much. Every corridor in the warden's residence was filled with paintings. All of them were masterpieces by famous artists.
Before leaving the Stairs of Hanging Prison, Angor even picked two paintings from the warden's gallery and brought them back to the real world.
The two paintings were still inside his bracelet.
Of course, the painting on the wall wasn't one of the two. But Angor did see something similar in the warden's gallery.
In other words, this painting probably came from the warden's gallery, which was located at the top of the Stairs of Hanging Prison.
But how did it get here from the warden's gallery? Was it because of the void storm that scattered the paintings and made them fall here? Or could it be that the entire wall here was actually part of the warden's gallery?
Angor thought about it and approached the painting.
Before he reached it, he was sure that the wall did not come from the warden's gallery. Instead, it came from the prison on the second floor. The warden's gallery was made of the same material as the painting frame, which was expensive lacquered wood. The only difference was that the wall was covered with dark purple frosted paper.
However, the wall on the wall was made of a mixture of stone and wood, which was a relatively cheap material. It was even cheaper than the Deep Sea Wood. The only advantage of this material was that it was more conductive and could carry the energy channels of magic arrays.
The wall was not from the top floor of the gallery, but the painting did belong to the warden's collection.
It was an oil painting of a leisurely countryside. In the distance, there was a golden harvest of wheat, and a large number of peasant women were working hard. There was also a farmer woman nearby, but she wasn't working. Instead, she leaned against a tree and rested. Judging from the sweat on her temples and the farming gloves beside her, she should be in the middle of working or just having a moment of leisure after working. Her golden curly hair fell from one side of her headscarf. She had a youthful and energetic beautiful side profile. Her beautiful green eyes were looking at the distant mountains. There was a trace of affection in her eyes, as if there was a lover in the distant mountains that she loved deeply.
The background was the warm colors of the early autumn harvest, and the afternoon light was hazy. The whole picture didn't use too much color, but it showed a rich sense of layering.
He remembered the painting because it was one of the few interesting paintings in the warden's collection.
The other paintings were either profound, abstract, realistic, or portrait paintings.
There were very few interesting paintings.
Because of this, he chose one of the two oil paintings he brought with him — Milking Shepherd.
"Afternoon Garden" was one of his choices, so he remembered it well.
"Is there a problem with this painting?" At this moment, the Black Earl flew over.
Dark Earl sounded doubtful because Angor should have heard the conversation between him and the Wise Ruler. The Wise Ruler said that the wood spirit wasn't here. So why was Angor still looking at the painting?
The others also looked at Angor curiously. Angor rarely did unnecessary things. Did he find something else in front of the painting?
"I'm just curious. Why is this painting here?"
Angor was speaking to Dark Earl, but he was actually looking at the Wise Ruler.
The Wise Ruler raised an eyebrow. "Why can't it be here?"
"I think art like this should be hung in a beautiful gallery, not in a ruin like this. Someone must have put it up here, right? "
The Wise Ruler smiled but didn't answer.
He thought Angor had really found something, but it turned out Angor was just curious about the painting.
It made sense. How could a young man recognize an unknown painting from ten thousand years ago?
"Did the Lord of Wisdom put this up here?" Angor looked at the Lord of Wisdom.
"No." The Wise Ruler shook his head.
After pausing for a moment, the Sovereign of Wisdom continued, "If you wish to know more details, why don't you exchange answers with me?"
The Wise Sovereign's initiative to propose an exchange of answers left the Black Earl slightly surprised. This meant that the Wise Ruler believed Angor's question was worth it.
In other words, the person who put up the painting must be someone important.
Angor understood what the Wise Ruler was implying, but he still shook his head. "Forget it. I'm here to find the wood spirit. Let's put everything else aside for now."
The Wise Ruler didn't mind Angor's decision. He smiled and stepped away.
However, just as the Wise Sovereign was about to return to the Void Path, he suddenly saw Wa Yi's eyes widen in shock as he looked behind him.
"What's that? A wood spirit?" Dorcas exclaimed.
Upon hearing these words, the Sovereign of Wisdom's body stiffened, and he immediately turned his head to look.
Angor's hand had reached into the painting without anyone noticing. Angor slowly pulled out a round piece of dark-brown wood from the painting.
Angor removed the wood bit by bit, and the painting turned into the surface of a lake. Ripples appeared on the surface of the lake.
Everyone stared at him in shock. Even the Wise Overseer couldn't believe what he was seeing.
How … did he know that?
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Angor pulled the two-meter-long, ten-centimeter-thick piece of wood out of the painting.
As the piece of wood left the painting, the tree behind the woman in the painting seemed to have died. All the leaves on the tree withered away, leaving only a withered trunk.
This was shocking enough, but it wasn't over yet.
The peasant woman in the painting had originally revealed the side of her face. She was looking at the distant mountains with tenderness. However, at that moment, the peasant woman turned her head and revealed her face. The other side of her face was pitch-black, and the longing in her eyes was now replaced by hatred.
The woman gave Angor a vicious glare before disappearing into a thin layer of black smoke.
At this moment, the oil painting changed again.
The withered tree regained its leaves, and the woman reappeared. But this time, she was no longer a beautiful blonde woman. Instead, she was now a brown-haired girl with a ponytail and freckles.
This scene appeared for a moment, and then the scene began to change again.
It was becoming old at a speed visible to the naked eye.
It started as bright as new, then slowly became yellow and mottled. In the end, the paper cracked and turned into fine dust. In the end, the painting disappeared completely, leaving only an empty frame.
"What's going on? Why did the painting change? Why did the woman with a black hole turn into a freckled girl? What's this piece of wood? Why did the painting turn into dust? "
Dorcas' questions came one after another.
Under normal circumstances, Dorcas' series of questions would definitely attract the ridicule of the Black Earl. But this time, Count Dark didn't stop Dorcas. He wanted to know the answer to these questions as well.
Angor ignored Dorcas' questions. He carefully inspected the rather heavy piece of wood in his hand.
After waiting for a long time without receiving any response, Count Dark couldn't help but ask, "Is this a wood spirit?"
Such a well-hidden piece of wood was the first thing that came to everyone's mind. However, Count Dark was confused. If this was a wood spirit, why did the Wise Lord lie to him and say that there was a trap here? The spirit couldn't be here.
If the Wise Lord wanted them to find a wood spirit, there was no reason for him to lie.
Besides, Count Dark didn't find anything wrong with the painting. How did Angor find it?
"It's not a wood spirit. But it must have something to do with it."
Angor looked at the Wise Lord.
This time, the Wise Sovereign didn't remain silent. Instead, he said in a low voice, "This is the first time I saw the wood spirit here. In order to avoid me, it put on a show of shedding its shell. It must have created this, or it's a derivative of its original form. "
"How did you find it?" The Wise Lord went straight to the point.
"Are we trading now?" Angor asked casually.
The Wise Lord didn't say anything. He simply stared at Angor with his three eyes, as if trying to see through him. However, this was only an illusion. Angor used an illusion to create the illusion. It didn't intimidate the Wise Lord at all.
Still, Angor didn't try to provoke the Wise Lord. He avoided the Wise Lord's gaze and spoke in a plain voice, "I've seen this painting before."
"You've seen it before?" The Wise Lord was confused. "Impossible. How did you see it?"
"Scroob," Angor said.
The Sovereign of Wisdom was puzzled. "He is …"
"Don't you know, Lord Wise Lord? Scroob Wright is the creator of this painting."
The sage really didn't know who the artist of this painting was. Although as an alchemist, he had a certain understanding of aesthetics. But after all, he majored in pharmaceutics. What he needed to know was the direction of painting and aesthetics.
Besides, the painting was good, but it was still a work of a mortal. Even the Wise Lord would find it a waste to hang it in a supernatural frame, let alone study it.
Franklin, the warden of the Stairs of Hanging Prison and one of the core leaders of Nether City, was the only one who was interested in the painting.
Now that Angor mentioned the artist's name, the Wise Lord couldn't tell whether he was telling the truth or not.
"I've never seen an original painting before, but I was lucky enough to see a collection of this artist's works. Um … collected by an alchemist who loved paintings. There are many imitations of this artist in the collection. I think they were arranged by someone later." Angor made up his story after making sure that the Wise Lord didn't know the artist's name.
"Apart from this' Afternoon Garden ', there are other paintings, such as' Milking Shepherd ',' Fisherman Returning at Night ',' Sunset Glow '…"
While speaking, Angor used illusions to create several oil paintings.
In other people's eyes, these paintings were indeed similar in style to the previous one.
But to the Wise Lord, there were several paintings that looked familiar. It seemed that Franklin had collected the original works before.
Was he telling the truth? Did he really know what an original painting looked like?
The Wise Lord didn't believe that Angor had seen the painting before. It was the work of a mortal artist who had lived for ten thousand years.
Even if the artist was a famous artist back then, ten thousand years should have been enough for people to forget about him.
But now, someone claimed to have seen the artist's work? The Wise Lord couldn't believe it.
Still, Angor's example did sound familiar to the Wise Lord, so he couldn't find anything to refute it.
Besides, the Wise Lord did think that it was possible.
Mortals couldn't keep an artist's work for ten thousand years, but wizards could. If Franklin liked this artist's work, why couldn't other wizards like this artist's work?
Angor also mentioned something important. The "alchemist" collected the artist's works.
Most alchemists preferred art that could help them develop their sense of beauty because they needed to create blueprints. This was why there were quite a few alchemists who collected mortal paintings.
Once properly maintained, a wizard's collection could easily last for ten thousand years. Moreover, many Sorcerer organizations and Sorcerer families would make copies of ancient books from time to time in order to avoid the problem of lost copies.
If Angor really saw an alchemist's art collection, it was not impossible for him to do so.
Still, the Wise Lord felt something was off. Was there really such a coincidence? Angor just happened to see the artist's work, and he just happened to come here?
The Wise Lord could accept it if it was the first time. But Angor was always shrouded in a mysterious aura.
The Wise Lord couldn't help but suspect that Angor came prepared. Or maybe he was the descendant of a wizard related to Nether City?
By related, there were wizards who weren't just friends of Nether City, but also enemies of the city.
The Wise Lord was getting more and more curious about Angor's identity.
Angor continued, "By the way, the original painting of Afternoon Garden is like this."
Angor waved his hand again, and an illusion appeared in front of everyone.
The original painting was the same one they saw at the end of the painting. Instead of a blonde woman, it was a freckled girl with a ponytail.
"It was also because the original drawing was different from this one that I realized something was wrong, so I tried to solve the puzzle on the drawing."
"This is what you see in the end."
"The life energy in this piece of wood is what keeps the painting intact, and this piece of wood is hidden in a space inside the painting. To be precise, it's not inside the painting. It's inside a reflective film on the surface of the painting."
"It's like a mirror." Angor pointed out something. "That thing looks a little like a mirror."
Mirror?
Everyone frowned when they heard this. They suddenly thought of a demon they didn't think existed — the Mirror Demon.
Later, they also found an imprint of the Mirror Demon. Half of the imprint was the face of a long-haired woman, while the other half was the face of a man wearing a hat.
The side profile of the "peasant woman" in the painting that they had seen before seemed to be vaguely similar to the long-haired woman in the imprint.
Could this painting be related to the Mirror Demon?
As Count Black thought of this, he glanced at the Wise Sovereign from the corner of his eyes. Earlier, the Wise Ruler told Angor that the owner of the painting was someone who deserved to be asked a question.
So the Mirror Demon was related to the Wise Lord?
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