The "Immortal Realm" Painting Studio

Lin Ke's brow twitched. He thought he had misheard.

Hadn't the system said this Li Chungang was a Confucian big shot?

What was this Blood-Handed Butcher business?

"Forget it, forget it. I can't be bothered with you. If you want to shed your registered status, work for it yourself!" Minister Qi waved a hand, then vanished on the spot.

He really did come and go like the wind, swift as thunder... Lin Ke shook his head helplessly.

Then he stood there thinking for a while before turning and striding toward the street.

Choice One had not yet been marked as concluded. This was only his second system task, so he did not know what indicated failure.

Since that was the case, he would finish things as the system instructed.

Choice One required him to hold on for three seconds, then speak to the grandfather and granddaughter at Li Chungang's Tofu Shop and explain what he wanted to do. He had only completed half of it.

Although Minister Qi had interrupted him, Lin Ke had held on for three seconds.

So next came the second half.

Hold on for three seconds, then go talk to them and ask to become an apprentice!

Li Chungang's Tofu Shop.

As soon as Lin Ke reached the entrance and looked inside, he saw two bloody masses on a table.

There were two plates of tofu on that table!

But the tofu was not white. It was red-pure red.

"Blood..." Even standing in the doorway, Lin Ke could smell the faint scent of blood inside.

Blood tofu?

This looked less like a tofu shop and more like a crime scene!

Smack!

Lin Ke felt a slap on his shoulder. His entire body stiffened, and he did not turn around.

"Go on in."

A strong, resonant voice rang out. Then, from the corner of his eye, Lin Ke saw someone standing beside him.

It was Li Chungang!

This was Li Chungang's tofu shop.

Lin Ke exhaled. "Old sir, weren't you fetching water just now? What are you doing here?"

He pretended not to know that this shop belonged to Li Chungang-or rather, that this old man was Li Chungang.

After all, he only knew who Li Chungang was because the system had instructed him to hold the reins for three seconds at "Great Confucian Li Chungang's" place.

Li Chungang gave a hearty laugh. "Hahaha! You're standing outside my shop. What do you think I'm doing here?"

Before Lin Ke could answer, a woman slowly walked out of the tofu shop.

She had ordinary features, wore plain clothes, and even had a little baby fat, though she was tall.

Her voice, however, was piercing and shrill, like a dolphin's high-pitched cry.

When she spoke, it sounded as though her voice would pierce straight through Lin Ke's eardrums. "I know you came with Qi Dayan. Where is he?"

Qi Dayan?

Lin Ke cupped his fist. "Sorry, I don't know where Mr. Qi is."

Then he saluted Li Chungang beside him. "Old sir, I came to ask whether your shop needs someone for odd jobs. I can help out and do any kind of work. All I need is one meal a day."

The woman, whose name he did not know, looked at Lin Ke, then at Li Chungang, her eyes full of questions.

Li Chungang seemed to know what she wanted to ask and spoke before she could open her mouth.

"Hahaha! Starting tomorrow, come here every day during the si hour and help my granddaughter make blood tofu. You can eat here during the wu hour."

The si hour was nine to eleven in the morning, and the wu hour was eleven to one.

Start at nine, work two hours until eleven, then eat when the work was done.

That easy... Lin Ke was puzzled. Had Minister Qi arranged this for him?

Still, he smiled faintly and bowed with clasped hands. "Thank you, Old Master Li."

"No need, no need. This old man loves talented young fellows like you!" Old Master Li Chungang looked at Lin Ke with a cheerful smile that made his skin crawl.

Wasn't this Great Confucian known as the Blood-Handed Butcher?

"Well... old sir, I'll be going, then." Under the gazes of the kindly Old Master Li Chungang and his granddaughter, Lin Ke hurried out of the shop.

"Remember to come see me tomorrow, young fellow!"

Lin Ke had barely stepped out when Old Master Li Chungang's warm, kindly voice floated after him.

"Of course, of course!"

He agreed aloud, but something still felt strange, and he immediately quickened his pace.

After Lin Ke left, Old Master Li Chungang slowly sighed. "A treasured sword gains its edge through grinding... How wonderful..."

His granddaughter stood beside him with a cold expression and sharp eyes. Instead of responding to her grandfather, she spoke ominously to herself. "Anyone who opposes my dear Brother Qi..."

"Must die!"

After saying goodbye to the grandfather and granddaughter, Li Chungang and Li Feiyu, he headed toward the next shop.

Although the pair had looked at him strangely, Lin Ke still felt a little relieved.

At least he had more or less found himself half a master.

It might be blood tofu, but surely it could not be made with human blood?

He was a Great Confucian, after all!

With that thought, he looked toward another shop.

Its name was the Immortal Realm Painting Studio.

Two paintings stood outside the shop, one on either side.

The painting on the left seemed to depict green mountains? Lin Ke could not make out what it was supposed to be at all.

The one on the right depicted a great river surging along.

It was just... these two paintings were a little ordinary.

This was a master painter?

Why did they seem worse than the paintings I copied back in middle school?

Did I even need to apprentice here?

While Lin Ke questioned this inwardly, a soft, delicate voice drifted out of the Painting Studio.

It belonged to a young woman who sounded very frail, her voice soft and gentle. "Young master, are my paintings beautiful?"

A woman stood at the Painting Studio entrance in a pale green dress. Her features resembled Yifei's, and her voice floated like a cloud, as though she were a celestial maiden untouched by the mortal world.

She continued introducing herself softly. "Dear customer, I am Wang Lin, the foremost talented woman of Great Wei. These are my paintings..."

Wang Lin!

The foremost talented woman of Great Wei?!

Those were the only two key points Lin Ke caught. After that, Wang Lin's voice dwindled to a mosquito's hum.

He was a little too far away to hear her clearly, so he simply stopped listening.

When he saw her lips stop moving, he assumed she had finished and immediately raised his hands in greeting.

"Miss Wang, my name is Lin Ke. An acquaintance recommended that I come specifically to pay homage to your paintings. Your works are truly an immortal realm captured in paint. You certainly deserve your title as Great Wei's foremost talented woman. Your paintings..."

Lin Ke immediately put Choice Two into action with Wang Lin, lavishing her with praise.

Wang Lin's reaction, however, was anything but ordinary.

"You think these paintings of mine are good?" Wang Lin froze, then waved a hand to cut off Lin Ke's flattery. "Are you sick in the head?"

That single wave swept away her entire aura.

Gone. Her celestial maiden's aura was gone.

If she had been an immortal descended from heaven a moment ago, that immortal was now doing a plaza dance to "The Hottest Ethnic Style," with heavy rouge smeared across her cheeks.

Wang Lin looked at Lin Ke as though he were an idiot, but a moment later, her eyes lit up.

"Oh, oh, oh! So that's it! I get it!"

Then, like a thief, she poked her head out of the shop and quickly glanced left and right. After making sure no one was there, she grabbed Lin Ke's wrist and pulled him straight into the Painting Studio.

"Wait..." Lin Ke had not figured out what was going on. He was utterly bewildered.

Hold on, was a heavenly fairy dragging me inside, or some auntie from down the street?

Once inside the studio, Wang Lin spoke as she walked.

"Lin Ke? Why didn't you just tell me an acquaintance sent you? Was it Butcher Zhang or Old Man Li? Why didn't those old lechers come with you? I've got new paintings! Copies of Bingbing."

This woman's way of talking?

Old lechers?

Butcher Zhang? Old Man Li?

What did she mean?

Listening to Wang Lin and taking in the shop's interior, Lin Ke felt his brain struggle to keep up.

The walls were covered in paintings, and without exception, they were much like the two displayed outside.

Only a scant few were recognizable at all.

Flowers, perhaps? But he could not tell what kind.

By comparison, the two outside were actually the most presentable.

This was the fucking foremost talented woman under heaven?

While Lin Ke surveyed the place, Wang Lin had already dragged him to a stop before a wooden door.

The room seemed to be part of a suite, rather like a private dining room in a restaurant.

Standing before it, Wang Lin turned back and gave Lin Ke a mysterious smile. "Hehe. Hang on."

Then, under Lin Ke's incredulous gaze, she reached straight between her two papayas and pulled out a bronze key.

She used the key to unlock the door, pushed it open and slipped inside with astonishing speed, then reached back out, grabbed Lin Ke by the collar, and dragged him into the room.

"No, don't..." Lin Ke was startled. What was she trying to do?

After being dragged inside, Lin Ke looked up. The room was pitch-black, without a single ray of light. He could not see anything.

Bang!

Wang Lin quickly shut the wooden door.

"Wait a bit longer. You didn't make an appointment, so I haven't prepared anything." Then he saw Wang Lin carrying a lit candle toward the darkness at the back of the room.

There were candles in the other corners, too. By the time Wang Lin finished, the entire room was illuminated.

Wang Lin walked over, narrowed her eyes, and gave him a sleazy grin. "Come take a look. What do you think of these paintings of mine?"

Compared with before, Wang Lin's expression and manner were worlds apart. She had fully demonstrated to Lin Ke what it meant to change faces faster than turning pages.

When Lin Ke first arrived, Wang Lin had seemed like a white lotus hidden amid the mud-delicate, pure, and noble.

But after he came inside, Wang Lin was utterly like an old chrysanthemum growing in a muddy field, every crease of her expression brimming with sleaziness.

Her true form had been laid bare!

At her words, Lin Ke began shifting his gaze.

Then his pupils instantly widened, his mouth fell slightly open, and he felt blood rush toward his nose.

Holy shit?

This sort of stuff?