After all, according to the Painter's analysis, Xi Rong had indeed cooperated with quite a few people.
Jiu Sui and Xin Xichen had both forged weapons for them.
Xinyi Hundred Fans, Cardamom Rainbow, and those other factions had cooperated in business with them many times.
As long as there were profits, suitable goods, and convenience to offer, everything was negotiable.
After all, think about it.
How could a commercial faction possibly have no dealings with factions of every kind?
Anyone could be a lone wolf. A commercial faction was the one thing that could not be.
Now that he had reviewed the entire affair from beginning to end, the Painter could basically confirm that the other party had come to the Nine Provinces specifically for him.
One had to understand.
To prevent outsiders from discovering the anomalies in the Nine Provinces, the Painter had controlled all the surrounding worlds, ensuring that no news could get out.
He had also made the surrounding worlds remain obscure and unknown, deliberately presenting them as mediocre.
That way, he could hide safely among the myriad worlds as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, becoming an "unregistered household."
Even if immortals occasionally came traveling, the surrounding worlds would form a barrier and detect outsiders at the first opportunity.
The immortals under his control would personally attack and encircle them, then "snatch their bodies."
The Nine Provinces were a black zone, a restricted area of Gods and Devils!
The Immortal Realm prohibited passage. After all, once low-level immortals were captured while traveling, high-level immortals would not easily leave their homes.
Yet this Xi Rong had somehow caught wind of him and deliberately descended to the Nine Provinces, opening a Xi Rong Manor.
This Xi Rong Manor was powerful and mysterious, capable of crossing numerous worlds.