"You saw it too?" Lou Fan said, "What did you see?"
Although Qin Tan didn't know why Lou Fan reacted so much, he still shared what he saw. It was the mural he saw on the domed roof at the last level. The portrait of the angel turned into a picture of a river of blood, and there is also a bundle of light in the high place.
Rivers of blood. Lou Fan pursed his lips and his expression turned ugly. From the sound of that, it didn't sound like a good omen.
"Then, have you seen it?" Lou Fan asked the other 4 members, and they shook their heads and said no.
Tong Fei watched Lou Fan’s expression change several times and asked, "Lou Fan, you saw that too?"
Lou Fan nodded and told them the painting he saw, but he didn't say what he saw in his dream. His expression is a little terrible, and he frowned as he said, "I have a bad feeling that these paintings should be very important to us. It would be nice if we could get more information like this."
Hearing that, Tong Fei stood up and straightened her clothes. Then she said, "Let's go then."
"En?" Lou Fan hasn't come to his senses, "Where are you going?"
Tong Fei answered as she walked, "Going to a nice place, where there should be the information we need."
Everyone in Qin Tan’s team looked at each other. They immediately got up and followed Tong Fei. Following behind Tong Fei, they went to the North Square and went all the way to the 1st ring of the north-side residence. At the circle of residences closest to North Square, they stopped in front of a house. The railings in the garden were removed, and 2 people are guarding the door. After Tong Fei took out her spirit weapon and showed the guards, she asked everyone in Qin Tan’s team to take out their spirit weapon. After the guards had seen it, they let them in.
The arrangement of the house is all the same in Lazuli. Once inside, they can see that it is quite empty. There are only a few sitting cushions on the ground. Also, there are many whiteboards hung on the surrounding walls. Several people are talking together in front of the whiteboards.
Seeing the group of people coming in, several people turned to look at them. One of the tall men came over to say hello to Tong Fei, "You're here, who are these? I don't think I've seen them before."
Tong Fei looked indifferent, but what she said is like dropping a bomb,"These are the 2 friends I told you about before, Qin Tan and Lou Fan. The other 4 people got upgraded in their latest mission, and they are all in the same team."
"4 people upgrading together?" The tall man is very surprised. "How difficult is the task? All 6 of you actually have intermediate spirit weapons."
When other people in the room heard the man’s exclamation, they immediately gathered around, wanting to see what kind of monstrous this team is.
"Team leader Qin, right? My name is Gao Yi. Can you tell what level of your team members and what mission you were doing?" Gao Yi's eyes swept around among them, and his attitude became warm.
Qin Tan shook hands with Gao Yi and answered indifferently, "We have 3 Level 6 members and 3 Level 5 members in our team. The latest mission was a transitional mission."
"Transitional mission!"
"It got to be a lie, right? 4 people upgrading their spirit weapon in a transitional mission world? You thought we had never done the task before?"
"It’s impossible."
Immediately, there are sounds of discussions in the crowd, all of them disbelieving. Gao Yi calmed the crowd and said with a frown, "It’s not like you haven't heard of the recent increase of difficulties in the mission world. It is normal for the difficulty of transitional tasks to increase as well."
When Gao Yi said this, everyone felt that it is reasonable. But it is one thing to know it’s reasonable, and another thing to believe it. There are many doubts in their eyes as they looked at the 6 people.
Tong Fei said to Gao Yi, "I brought them here so I’ll leave it to you to explain the rest. I'll go shopping first and come back later."
Lou Fan and the rest are at a loss, but they knew that Tong Fei wouldn't do anything unreliable, so they let Gao Yi lead them to the sitting cushions on the side.
The crowd scattered to do their thing. Gao Yi didn't hesitate, and went straight to the topic, "Don't be nervous. This place is called 'Intermediate club', which means literally, only those with intermediate spirit weapons can enter. We welcome passengers with intermediate spirit weapons from any organization. Also, there are many materials to share here, and seniors' notes to borrow."
Qin Tan asked, "Are you the organizer?"
Gao Yi smiled and shook his head, "We don't have an organizer here. These materials are also left by the previous seniors, and this place is managed by intermediate passengers in turn."
"In here, there is information about going out from Lazuli?" Qin Tan asked again.
This question is a real question that everyone is concerned about so everyone immediately stared at Gao Yi.
Of course, Gao Yi understands their feelings very well, but he can only shake his head with a wry smile, "Unfortunately, there is no exact information about leaving Lazuli, only some notes left by seniors. There may be clues somewhere, but I haven't come to a conclusion yet. After all, the only person who is said to manage to leave is no longer in Lazuli."
That name listed on the electronic screen in the South Plaza. No one knows how long it has been up there, and no one knows the person at all.
Wen Lang asked persistently, "But with so many high-level passengers in Lazuli, it's impossible that none of them manage to leave, right? Everyone gets a mission every half a month, plus the time needed to do the mission… It’s like once a month, 12 times a year, 24 times for 2 years. Is there really no one managed to leave?"
Wen Lang felt choked, he could hardly say the last sentence. He didn't know what answer he wanted to hear.
Gao Yi said with a bitter face, "I believe you all know Lazuli's most basic rules for grading. As far as I know, at their Level 15 mission, those who entered the quest have never appeared again. We don't know whether they went back to the real world or disappeared."
Lou Fan felt that something is wrong, "Wait, at Level 15, only a team enters the mission world? If not, there will be people who will survive in the other team that goes with them."
"No." Gao Yi shook his head, "Actually after Level 10, the mortality rate is very high, and there are very few people who can reach Level 15. Moreover, many advanced team missions will involve 2 senior teams entering together. Such difficulty is very high."
Two senior teams doing missions together?!
"How many passengers have reached Level 15 so far?" Qin Tan asked again.
Gao Yi stretched out 3 fingers.
Lou Fan thinks it's unbelievable. If that's the case, wouldn’t it means Lazuli didn’t plan to let the passengers live? Then, what is the purpose of them coming to this strange world? Just to die?
This was originally a heavy topic, and Gao Yi felt that he has finished his explanation so he let them move freely.
"Just take a look around. There are also some materials upstairs, as well as the notes of the seniors."
"Excuse me." Lou Fan stopped Gao Yi, "Is there any record of passengers seeing pictures in the mission world? There is also a bundle of white light at the corner." Lou Fan looked at Gao Yi nervously, not missing the surprised expression on his face.
Gao Yi: "Did you see it too?"
Lou Fan nodded, "Sister Tong Fei also saw it. We want to collect some information about this, it gave me a feeling that it’s important."
Of course it’s important! Gao Yi looked at the group thoughtfully. He pondered for a while before leading them up to the 2nd floor. The 2nd floor is full of bookshelves, with some folders and notebooks on them. But Gao Yi's destination is not this. He walked to the door and pressed the fingerprint lock. Next, the door opened with a click. This is a room that is like a studio. There are several easels in it. When they saw the pictures on the easels, their eyes widened. Lou Fan ran to a picture and looked carefully.
There are 7 paintings in the room. 3 of them are very blurry, and the other 4 paintings are actually very similar in content. Beneath a white light, a group of people is kneeling. They bowed their heads as if the light is God, the ruler. Only one of the paintings is slightly different. It is still showing the same white light, but there is only a vague figure of a person below, and there is a door opposite the person. But the man is drenched blood red, which made it uncomfortable to look at. In the lower right corner of the painting, there is a flowy signature, which Lou Fan couldn’t recognize after trying to read the name for a long time.
"This painting is..." Lou Fan asked, pointing to the signature.
Gao Yi glanced at it, "It is said that it was drawn by the only person who left Lazuli, that name on the electronic screen."
Lou Fan looked at the painting again, wishing to engrave it in his heart. But the signature is fundamentally different name from the one listed on the electronic screen.
Chen Shuyang turned around and said to Lou Fan, "Brother Lou, let's go and look at other materials."
Wen Lang echoed, "Yes, maybe there will be other clues."
Nie Feng remained silent. Jiang Dong stood at the side and said nothing, just waiting for their decision.
"You guys go first." Lou Fan turned to ask Gao Yi, "Can I look at these paintings for a while?"
Gao Yi nodded, "Of course, the information here is shared among the members. You can take your time and I'll take the rest to find more information."
After a long time, when Lou Fan turned his head, he saw Qin Tan standing behind him. Tong Fei is also there but he didn't hear any movement earlier.
"Sister Tong Fei, why didn't you call me when you came?"
Tong Fei said casually, "Seeing as you are focused, I’m not going to disturb you. How is it? Did you see anything?"
Lou Fan rubbed his eyebrows and shook his head, "Nothing special, but these paintings should be very important. The most important thing should be this light, what do you think it is?" He had an answer in his heart, but he didn't know what it meant.
"Lazuli." Qin Tan and Tong Fei said in unison.
Lazuli, to them, is the Lord, a god-like being.
Lou Fan nodded in agreement and stretched out his fingers, "So, down here should be ‘us’, the people in Lazuli. Look at this painting, the man is covered in blood with a door in front of him. Does it indicate that he really left Lazuli?"
Tong Fei shook her head, "If the person can predict that he will be able to go out before the next mission, it is unlikely."
Qin Tan: "It's possible that one of them went out."
Lou Fan nodded, "Yes, this signature is not the same name that is listed on the electronic screen. It may have been left by someone else. The only clear thing is that this painting should be drawn a long time ago."
Qin Tan stayed silent for a moment, then said, "Let’s go and ask Gao Yi again."
Lou Fan nodded and said yes. The 3 of them left the studio together and found Gao Yi at a bookshelf. Jiang Dong is talking to him, and Chen Shuyang is looking at the information at the side.
"Gao Yi, I want to know, how old are those paintings in the studio?" Qin Tan asked.