Chapter 383

“But…” The brush that looked like a water tank glanced at Xu Ziyan secretly, as if it was embarrassed by the behaviour of its companions, “but…if you can come up with something to catch their attention, they will immediately calm down.”

“To catch their attention…” Xu Ziyan rubbed his chin, wondering what he had in his hand that could attract the attention of these brushes.

He couldn’t think of it for a while, so he simply called Tianle and Xu Zirong over so that they could think about this too.

Even if he didn’t have anything special, perhaps Tianle did. After all, he was also a nascent soul cultivator and there should be something worth using.

In turn, the three of them thought of an issue.

Obviously, in order to know what these brushes needed, they had to first determine what they actually were.

Xu Ziyan was already used to referring them as monsters, but there were no real monsters in the world of cultivation. If a creature is considered a monster if it’s not human, then phantom cultivators could also fall into this category.

“So…what are these brushes exactly?” Tianle said in distress.

He also had some spiritual stones and monsters’ inner core, and he even had some expensive spiritual herbs, but the question is…would it be useful to take out these things without understand their attributes?

It’s fine if these brushes didn’t respond, but if they came up with something that these people hated very much, then they would be like digging a trap for themselves.

“These brushes…could they be artifact spirits?” Xu Zirong looked at those flying brushes and a thought flashed through his mind.

“Artifact spirit?” Xu Ziyan was stunned for a moment and he realized something immediately. Right! These brushes looked like magic tools that had been refined. They could survive in the magic tools for so many years and they even gave birth to something with wisdom. If they aren’t artifact spirits, then what else can they be?

So, if it’s an artifact spirit…

Xu Ziyan’s eyes lit up. He reached out his hand to dig inside Mr. Little Square for a while, took out a white porcelain bottle and opened it gently——

The moment the porcelain bottle cap was opened, all the brushes that were flying stopped, and they all looked in Xu Ziyan’s direction in unison.

Tianle was taken aback by this sudden change. After all, it was really a scary feeling to be stared at by dozens of brushes at the same time…

Hmm…Speaking of which, do brushes have eyes?

Tianle: ==

He shook his head vigorously and gave up this irrelevant conjecture. Regardless of whether the brushes had eyes or not, their attention was already focused on that small porcelain bottle.

“It smells so good…” The bald brush sighed.

Immediately afterwards, the group felt as if some strange switch had been turned on – they all swarmed around Xu Ziyan’s side, carefully ‘looking’ at the porcelain vase.

“Stop squeezing, stop squeezing!”

“Oops, someone stepped on the tip of my pen.”

“Ah! Which bastard took the opportunity to touch my bottom?!”

Xu Ziyan: …Wait a minute, does the brush have a bottom? ==

“Ahem…now it seems that everyone has calmed down.” Xu Ziyan shook the small porcelain bottle, and the pen holders of the writing brushes shook back and forth one by one in the direction of the porcelain bottle.

Xu Ziyan: ==It’s really like fishing…and it’ not even a fish that can be hooked right away…

“Hmm…what is this?” The brush with the thickness of a water tank had been talking to Xu Ziyan before, and since it felt that it had a good relationship with Xu Ziyan, that’s why it asked first.

“Nine Turns of Styx River Water.” Xu Ziyan replied with a smile.

Everyone fell silent in an instant, and after a while, the thick brush asked in a low voice, “what is that?”

Xu Ziyan: …

He was too naive to think that all artifact spirits would know the name of this river. These brushes were just like illiterates who had been locked up all their lives and had never studied!

“Well, no matter what the name is, you should be able to feel its effect, right?” Xu Ziyan couldn’t explain to these brushes what the Nine Turns Styx River Water was, so he simply let them feel it for themselves.

The thick brush asked tentatively, “I think this will be very good for us judging from the scent.”

“Would you like to give it a try?” Xu Ziyan raised his eyebrows and he looked very sincere, but from his tone, it clearly looked like a strange sorghum using a lollipop to lure little loli…

“Then…” The brush with the thickness of the water tank looked around, and the rest of the brushes seemed to be a little hesitant. They looked each other in blank dismay and didn’t speak for a while.

“Then I’ll give it a try…” In the end, the brush with the thickness of the water tank was more courageous and stood up bravely.

Xu Ziyan dropped a drop of black liquid onto the barrel of the brush, and soon, the black liquid quickly melted into its body.

The entire hall fell into absolute silence, except for the brush in the water tank with closed eyes, all the other brushes stared at it without blinking.

After a long while, the brush with the body of a water tank slowly opened its eyes, shook its tip with a little excitement, and said greedily, “I didn’t taste anything with just one drop. Can I have another drop?”

Xu Ziyan: …

Tianle couldn’t hold back for a while – he turned his head suddenly and let out a chuckle.

Xu Zirong stood aside and couldn’t help but twitched the corners of his mouth. The acting skills of this brush were really bad and it came up with such a bad reason…

Before Xu Ziyan could give it another drop, another brush already reacted. There were at most dozens of drops of black liquid in the porcelain bottle, and these brushes could at most have one drop each. This brush with the thickness of a water tank was clearly taking advantage of the situation!

“Ah! You are obviously cheating!”

“That’s right, if Zhuzhu didn’t say it, I wouldn’t be able to react!”

“Hahaha, you are too cunning, you want to eat and occupy more!”

“Well, this must be a good thing! Come on, give each of us a share.”

The brushes surrounded Xu Ziyan were arguing. Although they had no facial features, Xu Ziyan inexplicably saw pairs of pitiful eyes from their tone.

Xu Ziyan: …

He silently supported his forehead and was sure that it’s just illusion!

“Ahem, everyone, don’t worry. Everyone will have a share. But I think you already know that this thing is very good for you, right?” Xu Ziyan said with a smile.

“Yeah, we got it, you’re a good person.” The tiniest writing brush spoke in a soft, soft voice like a child’s, and it sounded very cute.

Xu Ziyan froze suddenly, as he was accidentally nominated as a good person. He really had zero immunity towards this cuteness.

And he suddenly found it a bit difficult to speak about the deal, especially after the child-like artifact spirit reminded him.

Fortunately, Xu Zirong came out of the hall at this time. The guy who could cook, who could play the role of a villain and who could beat the evil guys.

He smiled coldly at the small writing brush, “A good person? If it’s just a good person, who would take out this expensive stuff?”

(Xu Zirong stared coldly at the small writing brush, as if he wanted to kill it. Old crook, you’ve certainly lived for hundreds of years and you still dared to pretend to be cute in front of me? How shameless!)

The small writing brush shivered quietly, looked around suspiciously. Strange, no one told me that even an artifact spirit could feel cold?

“Let’s be honest.” Xu Zirong didn’t bother to pretend anymore, “why don’t you open the door for us in exchange for the Nine-Turn Styx River?”

The jewel-encrusted writing brush couldn’t help but whispered, “this doesn’t sound like a good idea, does it? Back then, my master…oh! Who just hit me? Who?”

The jewel-encrusted writing brush was pushed down by two other writing brushes and dragged into a corner under duress. Xu Zirong knew that the deal would definitely come true.

The brush that was about to go bald coughed twice, “we agreed to this deal, but…” He paused, turned his head to discuss with the other brushes, then glanced at Xu Ziyan quietly, “however, we want five bottles of this river.”

As soon as Xu Ziyan’s eyes lit up, he wanted to agree. Not to mention five bottles, there was a large pool of the river in his Little Square. Of course it wouldn’t be an issue to give five bottles.

But before he answered, Xu Zirong suddenly stood up and said decisively, “no! This thing is very expensive, we don’t have that many at all!”

Xu Ziyan raised his eyebrows and immediately understood the meaning of the other party’s actions. Only rare things are precious. Xu Ziyan’s Nine-Turn Styx River was so expensive that he couldn’t buy it with money, if he could take out five bottles casually, maybe these brushes would assume that it’s cheap .

The more Xu Zirong bargained with them, the more he could prove the value of this thing, so Xu Ziyan took a step back silently, leaving the ‘battlefield’ to Xu Zirong to play.

“Hello.” Tianle came to him at some point, bumped him with his shoulder, and asked with a smile, “how is it going? Do you feel that you have been robbed of the limelight?”

Xu Ziyan looked at him in surprise, “Zirong is my younger brother, why should I feel that he stole my limelight?”

Tianle also showed an equally surprised look, “you can’t let him do it simply because he’s your brother. Didn’t you see brothers fighting with each other for benefits? And although you had a nice relationship with him…”

When he mentioned the relationship, his tone subtly paused, “well, it should be described as ‘excellent’! And isn’t it normal for you guys to fight over things? Besides…” He stared at Xu Zirong, “you shouldn’t be so afraid of him even if it’s another kind of relationship!”

At the end, Tianle looked as if he wanted to train Xu Ziyan even further.

Xu Ziyan almost knelt down to Tianle’s divine logic. It was as if Tianle had taken things too seriously, is it all because of his phantom master?

Besides, what did he exactly mean by being scared? It should be Xu Zirong being scared of him, not the opposite.

Ah!!! It’s driving me nuts! They were obviously two grown men!

He glared at Tianle furiously.

Tianle looked back at him innocently.

The two looked at each other silently, and it took a long while before they turned away at the same time.

Xu Ziyan & Tianle: (╯‵ ′)╯︵┻━┻! Damn it! We can’t communicate without being on the same channel!