WTNL Chapter 241

(3/4)

Changsheng Building
Chapter 241: The special third painting

The third painting.

In the courtyard, it was pitch black, and the air was thick with the smell of blood. In the corner of this courtyard, however, a faint candlelight flickered, barely dispelling a corner of the darkness.

Wen Jianyan sat on the ground with his back against the door, his face pale, and his forehead covered in cold sweat as he panted heavily.

His hand tightly gripped a brass candlestick, on top of which was a white candle. The candle’s wick was burning silently, emitting a faint yellow light, just enough to slightly envelop him.

“Damn…”

He raised his hand and wiped his face forcefully.

After extreme fear and tension, Wen Jianyan seemed to have lost all strength, collapsing on the ground and finally relaxing.

Luckily, before the ambush by the Oracle squad, he had taken some matches from Qi Qian’s matchbox, buying himself a bit of time to think.

Wen Jianyan lowered his head, looking at the candle in his hand, still shaken.

Just moments ago, at the critical moment, the incident of the portrait attack flashed through his mind like lightning across the sky, giving Wen Jianyan inspiration.

It was clear that in the “Changsheng Building” instance, the hidden items were not just collectibles; they also possessed power, like that portrait.

Although Wen Jianyan had it in his hands, the curse originating from the portrait hadn’t disappeared, making it still dangerous and capable of attacking those who touched it like any other cursed object.

Since that was the case, the hidden items in this instance should be the same.

At that moment, Wen Jianyan remembered the first hidden item he obtained from the third painting: the candlestick with a white candle.

In the mourning hall, there were two colors of candles, one red and one white.

One was a wedding candle, and the other was a funeral candle.

This easily reminded him of the oil lamp exchanged from the box.

When the match in his hand was about to burn his fingers, Wen Jianyan quickly used the last flame to light the white candle on the candlestick.

The familiar dim yellow light illuminated, slightly dispelling the surrounding darkness.

Accompanied by a faint hissing sound, a sweet, putrid smell spread out.

… It really was corpse oil.

Great.

It really was the same thing.

Drenched in cold sweat, Wen Jianyan collapsed against the door panel, sliding down slowly as he sighed in relief, hitting the back of his head on the door with a “thud.”

Scared to death.

Really scared to death!!

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[!!! Oh, oh, oh, oh!]

[Damn, damn, damn! The candle in the third painting is actually the same thing as the oil lamp from the Changsheng Building!]

[Yeah, and didn’t a big shot in the comments mention before that this painting never appeared in this instance before? It’s because there’s a red-clothed corpse on the second floor among the customers this time that it showed up…]

[Oh my god, this painting must be extraordinary!]

[It looks like the anchor is pretty lucky, accidentally using the child’s corpse from the second painting to ward off a curse from the third painting. Otherwise, considering the special and terrifying nature of this painting, even the best team would have been wiped out!]

Wen Jianyan, holding the candlestick in one hand, leaned against the wall, breathing deeply to calm his nerves. He wasn’t in a hurry to leave this ominous place immediately, but…

He was feeling a bit weak in the legs and couldn’t stand up.

The series of terrifying events, each bringing him to the brink of life and death, had been too exhausting. Even Wen Jianyan was struggling to cope.

He wiped his face with his hand, took a deep breath, and looked down at the candlestick in his hand.

He had to admit that, compared to the oil lamp, the candle’s light was far too weak.

If the oil lamp had a brightness of one hundred percent, the candle had at most thirty percent. The oil lamp could illuminate a large area, and standing in the light of the oil lamp almost completely shielded one from the threats of the darkness.

But the candle was different; its light was too weak to provide the same level of safety as the oil lamp.

The faint candlelight barely enveloped him, preventing him from dying due to the darkness, but the cold sensation still lingered around him, as if it could invade his body at any moment.

The eerie, whispered mutterings of the darkness had become quieter, but if one listened carefully, they could still hear them lingering around.

Still, not dying was already pretty good.

“Sigh…”

Wen Jianyan let out a breath, stretched his numb legs, and used his sweaty palm to support himself on the nearby wooden door, standing up once more.

After resting for a while, he found that he could finally continue moving.

He looked up at the darkness in front of him.

Under the faint candlelight, the hall combining the mourning and wedding halls appeared even more sinister and eerie, filled with an intense sense of foreboding that made one want to leave as soon as possible.

“……”

A look of hesitation flashed in Wen Jianyan’s eyes as he stood in the darkness. After a few seconds, he seemed to make up his mind and turned to walk inside.

His intuition told him that the world inside this painting was definitely not ordinary.

Whether it was the nearly all-red furniture in the western room, the overly realistic and detailed scene compared to the other paintings, or the vague and elusive connection with the second-floor corpse, all made this painting particularly special.

And now, the candlestick in his hand has confirmed this suspicion.

In the “Changsheng Building,” oil lamps were extremely important items.

Whether red or white oil, to obtain them, one had to gain extra coins to exchange from the red box.

But in this painting, just by entering and surviving, one could directly obtain the candle. Although its lighting effect was far inferior to that of the oil lamp, based on the texture and smell, it could be determined that both were made from corpse oil…

This was highly unusual.

In other words, this third painting was very likely closely related to the core of the Changsheng Building.

Wen Jianyan had vaguely sensed this before, but due to being cursed by the second painting, he didn’t know when his invincible state would end. Even if he wanted to stay longer to gather more information, time wouldn’t allow it.

But now, it was different.

Although the disappearance of the child’s corpse almost put him in danger again, after calming down, Wen Jianyan realized that this was a great opportunity.

A chance to stay longer in the third painting and find the truth.

Moreover, the Orange Candy squad and Mu Sen must think he was dead by now. After all, they couldn’t possibly know that there was a candlestick in the third painting with an effect similar to the oil lamp, which conveniently allowed Wen Jianyan to leave the squad. His brief encounter with Mu Sen had given him enough information. If he continued to stay, his lies would have to continue, and it would be too difficult to safely extract himself from the Orange Candy squad, which was not easy to deal with.

The current development of the situation could be said to be something Wen Jianyan was very pleased to see.

Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and stepped towards the northern room.

He had just experienced a terrifying moment here, so he was already very familiar with the mourning table in the hall and the scarlet coffin in front of it.

Although the source of the curse here had been cut off, that cold and ominous aura still lingered.

Wen Jianyan carefully avoided the coffin, keeping a distance from the nameless corpse inside, and step by step approached the mourning table.

On the mourning table, besides the rotting fruit and the burned-out incense burner, there was another brass candlestick with a white candle.

This candlestick, although it looked no different from the one in Wen Jianyan’s hand, was not a hidden item but just an ordinary brass piece.

Wen Jianyan took the white candle from the top of it and calmly made it his own.

Since he saw it, it was his.

In this instance, the more life-saving items, the better.

After pocketing the candle, Wen Jianyan began to carefully search for clues.

Due to his low level of understanding of the core of this instance, he could only firmly remember every detail he saw, just in case.

The fruit plate and the rotting fruit on it were nothing special, but the incense burner next to it caught Wen Jianyan’s attention.

… It was made of brass.

In the “Changsheng Building” instance, clues were often very hidden. There were no NPCs to communicate with, no recognizable bosses, only cold rules and shapeless curses. Finding the core of the instance in such a desolate place was extremely difficult.

However, although all the information was hidden, there were still traces to follow.

For example…

All the wooden furniture painted scarlet was a medium connecting to another world, and in that connected world, there was often a powerful curse.

Similarly, in this instance, “brass” should also have significance.

Whether it was the oil lamp or the key, all critical items were made of brass.

Wen Jianyan turned the incense burner over and over, not finding anything unusual, so he simply took it and put it away.

It wasn’t big, so he might as well take it with him.

After doing all this, Wen Jianyan walked a few steps towards the scarlet coffin. He didn’t dare get too close, but he mustered up the courage to peek inside.

The next second, he was stunned.

The place where the red-clothed corpse had been lying was now empty. The inside of the coffin had returned to its empty state, dark and gaping like a hole leading to an unknown world.

Wen Jianyan felt a chill on his scalp and instinctively took a step back, slowly moving away in the opposite direction.

His intuition told him that, no matter what, it was better to stay away.

After confirming there was nothing new in the northern room, Wen Jianyan went out into the courtyard.

In the empty courtyard, red and white lanterns hung at the four corners, swaying and shaking despite the absence of wind.

He didn’t go directly into the western room but instead headed towards the eastern room and tried to push the door.

It didn’t budge.

The door to the eastern room was tightly locked, with no keyhole and no gaps to pry open. It was clearly impassable.

Wen Jianyan wasn’t discouraged and turned to head south.

There were no houses on the southern side of the courtyard, only a dilapidated wooden gate.

He tried to push it with his hand.

Something unexpected happened.

With a creaking sound, the gate slowly opened to both sides, revealing a pitch-black world where one couldn’t see their hand in front of their face.

A crooked path appeared outside the gate, extending into the darkness.

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[?!]

[You can actually leave the courtyard in the third painting?!]

[Damn, I didn’t see this coming!]

[So, what’s out there?]

[No idea!! I’ve never seen an anchor reach this point before!!]

“…!”

Seeing this, Wen Jianyan felt a chill on his scalp.

Although he did try to push it, he really didn’t expect it to open!!!

What’s out there…

More importantly… should he go?

Wen Jianyan stood at the courtyard gate, staring at the unknown darkness in the distance, feeling waves of cold running down his back.

Compared to the unknown path ahead, the courtyard behind him seemed especially safe and familiar.

At least he knew there would be no more curses inside, and he knew how to leave and reach his teammates.

… No matter what hidden agendas those teammates might have against him.

At least they were human!

Wen Jianyan frowned, falling into painful indecision.

There was no option to go back down in the Changsheng Building. Once he entered the fourth floor, he could never return to the third floor. So, if he wanted to uncover the deep secrets of this instance, this might be his only chance.

“……”

Wen Jianyan stood in place, taking several deep breaths before finally making up his mind.

He steeled himself, gritting his teeth.

Go for it.

Go!

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