Ordinary observers in fast time travel

That's right, this is the first prey Shi Jia has encountered in the past two days! Ignoring everything else, he quickly absorbed the energy from the crystal.

"Phew~" Her pale complexion recovered somewhat, and the energy consumed by the paintbrush was also replenished a little.

He slumped onto the goat, panting heavily. "Weren't they saying there were lots of murky beasts in the Black Zone? How come I can't see a single one?"

"Gulp~" A wave of hunger washed over him, and Shi Jia's face scrunched up. He quickly pulled out the pie he had drawn beforehand and the water he had bought from his mustard seed bag and began to eat.

He has discovered in the past two days that, apart from pies and saplings, everything else depicted in the paintings will disappear after a period of time.

The exact time it disappears depends on the size of the item and whether it has any life force.

He had some guesses about this, wondering if it was related to the painting master's illusion. After all, he had drawn the pie and the sapling in the illusion.

Oh, you said Shi Jia drew a big banyan tree in the illusion, but don't forget that the sapling and the big banyan tree are actually different forms of the same object.

But as far as he knew, other artists could also materialize other objects. How did they do it?

Shi Jia swallowed the last bite of the pie, drank a bottle of water, and clapped his hands, clearing his mind of the random thoughts. He looked at the not-so-small goat, thought for a moment, and then put it away.

Goat skin, horns, and bones can all be used to make weapons, and goat meat can be consumed after purification. And the sapling happens to have the ability to purify.

He looked around and chose a direction based on his intuition.

The vegetation here grew wildly, clearly untouched by human hands. Shi Jia, holding the long sword he had just drawn, repeatedly pushed aside the obstructing vegetation and thorns, suddenly falling into deep thought. Should he head towards the more populated areas?
Is this sparsely populated place because there are no wild animals around, which is why it is sparsely populated?
Shi Jia froze on the spot; it seemed he had discovered the truth?
He stared blankly at his surroundings, his face turning red and white in turns, feeling like a fool.

Shi Jia pounded his chest in frustration, looked ahead and then behind, only to find the same desolation! "Forget it, let's just keep going."

After walking for so long, it will probably take a whole day to get back to inhabited areas. We might as well keep going; maybe we can hunt one or two more wild beasts.

Take a deep breath and keep going.

Unbeknownst to him, as he ventured deeper, the stale air grew increasingly dense, the trees deepened in color, and black lines began to appear on many leaves. At first, it was just a single black line, but gradually the veins turned black, and many trees even underwent mutations.

But thanks to the sapling nestled on his head, he wasn't attacked by the mutated plants along the way. Therefore, he didn't notice the plants' mutation.

So, Shi Jia, who was focused on getting on his way, finally heard some noise after changing his sword three times.

"Sigh~"

"Hooho~"

It was the sound of beasts fighting.

Shi Jia immediately held his breath and looked in the direction from which the sound came. Through the gaps in the leaves, he saw a tiger three or four meters long and a snake as thick as a water bucket fighting.

This wasn't what surprised Shi Jia the most; what terrified him was that the crystals embedded in the foreheads of the two turbid beasts were cyan!

Two blue-tier turbid beasts!

His pupils constricted, and countless thoughts flashed through his mind. So he had trespassed into the territory of a Azure-Rank Turbid Beast! No wonder there wasn't a single Turbid Beast on the road!

Shi Jia cautiously looked back, held his breath, and decided to walk back. But as soon as he took a step back, two powerful auras enveloped him.

It was discovered!

Shi Jia panicked and stood rooted to the spot, too afraid to move.

The battle between the two turbid beasts quickly came to a conclusion, with the giant serpent emerging victorious. Seeing the serpent swimming towards him, Shi Jia's survival instinct kicked in; the sapling above his head emitted a green light, repelling the powerful aura. The moment Shi Jia regained his mobility, he took off running.

The slithering sound of the giant snake grew louder and louder, and Shi Jia could even smell the stench in the air.

He could only run desperately, and luckily he had made a path on the way there, so his running was not greatly hindered.

As he ran, the noise behind him grew fainter and fainter. He couldn't help but look back, but he didn't see the giant snake.

Huh?
Shi Jia immediately stopped. "Why didn't they chase after us?" His mind suddenly became active. "Should we go back and check?"

The moment the thought crossed his mind, he had already started to turn back.

After advancing more than a hundred meters, they could see the large snake "hanging" in the thorn bushes in the distance. "This... is it blocked by the thorns?" Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration?

The Azure-Rank Turbid Beast, which had just easily killed an Azure-Rank Tiger, was killed by these ordinary vines.

A question mark appeared on Shi Jia's face.

Are Azure-Rank Turbid Beasts really that weak?
He was very suspicious, so he cautiously approached the giant snake. Suddenly his eyes lit up—it was indeed dead! He looked at the blue crystal on the snake's forehead, his mouth watering.

Since that's the case, then—

Five minutes later, Shi Jia, panting heavily, sat atop the giant snake's head and began to doubt. He couldn't dig anything out; his materialized knife hadn't even broken the snake's skin, let alone dug out any crystals.

The longsword's time was up, and it vanished in a wisp of green smoke. Shi Jia took out his paintbrush to draw another sword, then he froze.

He slapped his forehead, "Stupid! I must have been scared by the giant snake!"

Shi Jia exhaled and touched the giant snake's crystal with his paintbrush. Instantly, it shone brightly, and the snake's skin, which he had been unable to tear before, cracked open, allowing the azure crystal to fall naturally from the snake's head. He quickly put the crystal into his storage pouch.

He breathed a sigh of relief, but then struggled with the enormous snake's body again, "It's so big, even my mustard seed bag can't hold it!"

"If only we could peel off the snake's skin." After all, the paintbrush could remove the crystal with ease. Thinking this, Shi Jia looked at the paintbrush and then gestured towards the snake's body, "Why don't we try it first?"

He immediately raised his paintbrush and drew a stroke on the snake's body, but unfortunately nothing happened.

He disappointedly put down his paintbrush. "That's true. If a spirit painter can even do things like skinning and dismembering with a paintbrush, then there's no point in having a spirit martial artist."

He jumped off the snake and headed towards the big tiger. There was still a piece of blue crystal waiting for him there!

However, looking at the dense thorns, he frowned, sighed, took out a drawing board from his bag, and began to draw a long sword.

Over the past two days, he had drawn many long swords, and now he was drawing with great skill. In no time, a long sword, even sharper and straighter than before, appeared on the paper. He expressionlessly touched the line with the tip of his pen, and colorful light bloomed.

Unbeknownst to him, vines, like serpents, were approaching him from behind, stretching out their bodies, soft and harmless.

Unaware of this, Shi Jia gripped the long sword that extended from the back of the materialized object, put the drawing board back into her storage pouch, and nodded in satisfaction. Fortunately, the materialized object could change according to the artist's wishes; otherwise, creating a one-to-one replica would have been incredibly troublesome.

With his new tools in hand, Shi Jia wielded the thorns with clean, swift, and powerful movements. Before long, Shi Jia emerged from the thicket and stood before the large tiger.

A fierce battle had just taken place here, and the stench of blood was overwhelming. Shi Jia frowned and immediately took out her paintbrush to collect the crystals.

With the crystal safely in his pocket, Shi Jia breathed a sigh of relief and began to observe the surrounding mountains and forests.

Both the giant tiger and the giant snake were Azure-rank Turbid Beasts, and reaching this stage of cultivation was certainly not easy. Therefore, the reason for their fight was naturally extraordinary. (End of Chapter)