Painting the Fenghuang's Tail

Ma Feifei's appearance in front of the Four Spirit Pillars instantly attracted the attention of all the customers in the Bookstore. Originally, everyone was wondering why Luan Feng left a tail unpainted after finishing the painting of the Fenghuang, but as soon as Ma Feifei appeared, everyone put aside their doubts and stared intently at Ma Feifei.

The reason is simple: whenever something amazing happens at the Mysterious Bookstore, the owner of the Mysterious Bookstore is always there, and all the so-called doubts are answered by the owner—this is a consensus.

Actually, not only the customers in the Bookstore, but even Ma Feifei himself was a little nervous at this moment, staring intently at the Fenghuang on the Four Spirit Pillars.

To be precise, he should be focusing on the Fenghuang's tail. Ma Feifei needs to fill in the blank space below the Four Spirit Pillars to complete the Fenghuang's tail.

This is what is known as 'painting the phoenix's tail'.

"Phew~"

Ma Feifei let out a soft breath, calmed himself, and slowly extended his right hand, which was surrounded by a faint white fluorescent light.

Luan Feng needs to use the Origin Power to paint the Fenghuang, Ma Feifei also needs the Origin Power to complete the Fenghuang's tail. However, the Origin Power consumed by a tail is definitely less than that of a whole Fenghuang.

As for drawing a tail, Ma Feifei was quite confident. After all, he possessed master-level drawing skills, and in fact, his drawing technique was even better than Luan Feng's.

Although Ma Feifei was not familiar with what Fenghuang looked like, the Luan Feng had transformed into Fenghuang once before, so it was much easier to draw it by referring to the real thing.

"Is the shopkeeper trying to fill in the blank space below?" a cultivator asked quietly upon seeing this.

"Definitely, but I wonder how good the shop owner's drawing skills are." A cultivator next to him stared expectantly at Ma Feifei's back.

As he spoke, Ma Feifei began to use his Origin Power to trace tails on the Four Spirit Pillars.

'Swish swish swish~'

"Swish swish swish~"

"Swish swish swish~"

Unlike the slow and hesitant Luan Feng, Ma Feifei drew a Fenghuang tail so fast it was like flying. The whole process was graceful and swift, and a long tail with several branches appeared on the Four Spirit Pillars.

"Buzz~"

As soon as Ma Feifei finished drawing the phoenix tail, the entire crystal-clear Four Spirit Pillars began to tremble slightly. Then, the Fenghuang on the pillar seemed to come alive and began to dance gracefully on the Four Spirit Pillars.

Wherever the Fenghuang passed, the originally clear and bright pillars seemed to be dyed with color, and the entire Four Spirit Pillars turned fiery red.

Finally, the Fenghuang seemed exhausted and returned to its original position, motionless. If it weren't for the entire pillar changing color, everyone would have thought that everything they had just seen was an illusion.

"Ring ring~~~"

At this moment, gold began to flash continuously at the top of the pillar, and small golden characters appeared on the top of the pillar from top to bottom.

One cultivator, seeing the small golden characters appear, subconsciously opened his mouth and read aloud, "Book of Rites • Four Divine Creatures, Phoenix God Pillar".

"What are the Four Divine Creatures of the Book of Rites?" a cultivator asked curiously. Everyone understood the Phoenix God Pillar; the Fenghuang is Divine Beast, also known as the Fenghuang God, and the pillar is the literal meaning. However, everyone was completely baffled by the Four Divine Creatures of the Book of Rites, because they had never heard of these so-called 'Four Divine Creatures of the Book of Rites' before.

"Perhaps it's the full name of this pillar," one cultivator suggested. However, this suggestion was not accepted by the others, as it was completely untenable.

Standing in front of the Four Spirit Pillars, Ma Feifei naturally heard their conversation, but Ma Feifei didn't have the mind to explain these things. Ma Feifei was very puzzled by what happened after the Fenghuang painting was finished.

Because apart from the pillar turning flame red and the appearance of these words, nothing else changed, the Bookstore did not notice any change due to the appearance of the 'Phoenix God Pillar,' and the Luan Feng that painted it did not gain any benefit from the Phoenix God Pillar.

In other words, drawing this pillar will not bring any benefit whatsoever.

It feels like it's just for aesthetic purposes, like a decoration.

The problem is, the entire Bookstore is a bright, translucent white; does suddenly adding a fiery red pillar really look good?

Hmm... I must say, it is actually quite good-looking.

Of course, that's not the main point. The main point is that the Fenghuang he painstakingly painted over five days didn't bring the Bookstore a single penny of profit, which really annoyed Ma Feifei.

Although he didn't draw the Fenghuang himself, it was drawn by one of his Bookstore employees! What's the difference between that and one he drew himself? After five days of drawing, he got nothing in return; it's impossible not to be upset.

Therefore, Ma Feifei found the system.

"All Four Spirit Pillars must be drawn to produce the complete and magical effect," the system explained.

"Heh... done it all?" Ma Feifei sneered and walked straight to the cashier, his eyes full of disdain.

Stop joking. Putting aside the fact that we haven't found that tortoise yet, just look at Yun Qingyang's painting skills. Who knows how many years it would take to paint a dragon? Ma Feifei thinks there's no hope for the Four Spirit Pillars, so he might as well just let fate decide. Copying books in his spare time is quite nice.

Back at the cashier's counter, Ma Feifei continued copying "Investiture of the Gods." The customers in the Bookstore watched for a while but didn't notice anything unusual about the Phoenix God Pillar. Ma Feifei refused to explain, so they could only look away and continue reading.

But no one noticed that the Fenghuang on the Phoenix God Pillar suddenly blinked, and a faint crimson aura slowly spread throughout the Bookstore.

"Boom!"

A tremendous roar resounded, and the entire Mysterious Bookstore was engulfed in a massive fire.

"Ah! Help! Fire!"

"Wow! What's going on here?!"

"Damn it, why can't we put out this fire?"

The Bookstore was in complete chaos. All the cultivators were trapped in the flames, and each of them instinctively tried to use their Spiritual Power to protect their bodies, but before they could activate it, they were suppressed by the Bookstore's defense system and could only jump around in frustration.

"Holy crap! What's going on?!" Ma Feifei, who had just picked up her pen, was so startled that she dropped it and ran to the backyard with her head covered.

"Buzz~"

A slight ripple sounded, and Ma Feifei felt his body slip out of his control. Then everything went black, and when he regained consciousness, he found himself standing in a desolate wilderness. Around Ma Feifei were the customers of the Mysterious Bookstore, as well as Luan Feng and Zhang Yunji. Clearly, everyone in the Bookstore had been wiped out.

Where is this?

"I don't know!"

"I'm not familiar with this place; I've never seen it before."

The cultivators around looked around blankly, but there was no fear on their faces. Although this was the first time they had encountered such a situation, the Mysterious Bookstore did have the ability to transport people into the world of books. In their eyes, this was simply because they had entered the world of a book.

"Hey! Look at that!" Suddenly, a cultivator pointed ahead. There was a high platform there, and on the platform was a stone Fenghuang with its head raised and wings spread. It seemed to be holding something in its Fenghuang.

"Fenghuang?"

What book is this?

The group looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Bite!"

A loud noise in the sky instantly silenced the scattered crowd.

"The Phoenix God Welfare Event is about to begin. Please prepare accordingly."

"Phoenix God Welfare Event?" Not only were the other cultivators confused, but even Ma Feifei was a bit bewildered. The system hadn't mentioned such an event!

But before Ma Feifei could think further, another sound came from the sky.

Countdown: Five, four, three, two, one.

"The Phoenix God Welfare Event is now underway!"