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"If you can't see the God of Painting, is your death worthwhile?"

"..." The Nergos man, who had been restrained, quieted down. It was indeed not worth it, but he was too eager to challenge the Painter.

Feel the killing information field unique to the Painters of Gods, as described by the rulers of the race.

Even if the God of Painting doesn't accept his challenge, but instead gives him a series of demanding requirements, he will not hesitate to carry them out and complete them, in exchange for the God of Painting's opportunity to take action.

However, all of this is predicated on being able to meet the Painter and being asked to do so by the Painter.

Can't see him?

The enemy warships might think they'd just crushed a tiny bug.

"Do you have a way to meet the God of Painting?"

"No," Bai Yang said simply. He couldn't very well go directly to see the ancestor, could he?

Putting aside whether that's overestimating one's abilities, even if one could ask for help, it's impossible to use it for this matter.

"You can exchange the Holy Grail for one chance."

“I have no Holy Grail,” the Nergos man said bluntly.

For a conventional adventure fleet, it would take years or even longer to deal with an Ancient One; at least so far, there haven't been many adventure fleets that have been able to defeat an Ancient One in a short time.

There are powerful individuals who can defeat the ancients in a short time, but there are too few of those powerful individuals distributed in the Great Vortex.

Let alone encountering it once every ten or eight years, it might not even happen once every one hundred and eighty years.

The whirlpool was just too big.

Their accumulated achievements over the years include defeating two Ancient Ones.

You can use the rewards from defeating the Ancients to exchange for the Holy Grail in the God System, but the Holy Grail is a guaranteed reward.

If you don't need the Holy Grail for your wish, you can keep the reward points and quest ratings and fulfill your wish through normal God exchanges.

Want immortality? At the God's Exchange, you can exchange for the enhancement of immortality without needing the rewards from killing the Ancients, and it's no less effective than using the Holy Grail to make a wish.

The same applies to other aspects. Directly exchanging for the Holy Grail is a guaranteed way to achieve your goal, but not needing that guarantee allows for more flexible ways to reach your objective.

Therefore, the two ancient beings killed by their fleet did not exchange them for the Holy Grail, but used them for other purposes, which gave them no less than the Holy Grail itself.

"Then we'll wait until we have one to replace it. You don't think you can outlive the Painter, do you?"

"..." The Nergos man, having calmed down, nodded; there was nothing wrong with that.

As for Bai Yang's statement, in his opinion, it was not just empty talk. If he thought about it seriously, if he couldn't even deal with an ancient being, then facing a God of Painting directly would only be a momentary pleasure, even if the God of Painting made a move.

But if he becomes even stronger, then he might actually surpass the Overlord.

"Phew, that was awful." The Nergos man, having calmed down, let out a sigh, touched a small box he was carrying, and then left.

He needed to go to the training room to calm down. The small box contained several fragments of the Immortal Execution Sword, which he had exchanged from the Main God Terminal.

Without dealing with the two ancient beings' larvae with his team, he would never have had the chance to exchange for such a high-value item.

Only through the killing information field possessed by the fragments of the Immortal Execution Sword could he grow faster in subsequent battles... But even so, he still couldn't kill the Ancient One single-handedly.

When dealing with the Elders, we must use traditional methods: clear out the aberrant monsters on the planet, weaken the Elders' influence, and then eliminate them.

Because those planets have the continued influence of the Ancients, the mutated monsters on those planets are even stronger.

On planets inhabited by the Ancients, it would take them several years just to clear out the mutated monsters.

"In that fleet, there were reactions of hostility and admiration towards you. What did you do?" Inside the Red Mist Battleship, Ryoko Asakura patted Zheng Yichen on the shoulder from behind and asked curiously.

"What?" Zheng Yichen asked, puzzled. He had spent most of his time on the Red Mist Warship over the years.

I feel uneasy if I don't kill two ancient beings every day, just like clocking in for work.

Even so, he still hasn't solved a single ring in the 100,000 rings of the Great Vortex.

Although he mainly cleaned the outer ring area, which is larger and larger towards the outer ring, the cleaning speed would increase as he cleaned a portion of the outer ring area.

But this still requires a lot of time to process.

"Who is that fleet... Never mind, I'm not curious anymore." Zheng Yichen pressed down on Asakura Ryoko. He knew that if he really became curious, Asakura Ryoko would expose everything about that fleet.

"Actually, I already know. This is the secretary's job."

"Then you can keep the information."

"Are you really not afraid of trouble?" Seeing that Zheng Yichen could suppress his curiosity, Asakura Ryoko was a little disappointed.

"There's nothing to be afraid of anymore!"

"Watch your head." Ryoko Asakura was able to pick up on Zheng Yichen's joke.

"Let's go home first." Zheng Yichen clicked his tongue, and the red mist warship approached the immune planet. The slowly rotating star ring system opened a special passage.

"Welcome home, Your Excellency the Painter." The intelligent voice announced over the loudspeaker.

As it approached the immune planet, a living planet seemed to drift past in its orbit unintentionally.

Zheng Yi waved to the living planet through the window of the warship.

A girl in a black dress on the planet looked unhappy. The girl from Elue had fought alongside Zheng Yichen, but she returned twenty years ago.

The reason is that the enhanced information field carried by her painting has reached its limit, and she needs to return to synchronize with the star, otherwise the accumulated enhanced information field will be wasted.

She's been waiting ever since she came back.

The Red Mist warship disappeared without a trace, landing discreetly on the immune planet, and few people knew about it.

Zheng Yichen didn't want his return to cause the planet to stir up trouble again.

He knew his significance to the immune civilization. Even if he wanted to keep a low profile, the local civilization would have to do something, so he might as well hide his tracks.

He's back this time to 'spread the business'; the fleet's members have already improved their individual information fields to a point where it's difficult to further enhance their quality due to the upgraded features.

Most of the crew members later formed fleets or operated alone in small groups to deal with the Elders in different rings of the Great Maelstrom. They would keep in touch and meet up often, but they would no longer fight together frequently.

Some people noticed some changes in the Star Ring, but they didn't have the authority to find out the reason for the changes... After reporting it up the chain of command, nothing happened.

People further up the hierarchy don't have the authority to access the information, so what's the point of investigating? Just pretend nothing happened.

After arriving at Red Mist's house, Black Zero felt as if she were back home. She casually kicked her shoes aside, went to the refrigerator, and took out her favorite drink.

This place is exactly the same as it was decades ago; it seems as if time has never left its mark.

"Go away, don't bother me." Black Zero, sitting on the sofa, shooed away the murderous rabbit girl who had come closer.

I felt relaxed and at ease.

She looked at the red mist that had appeared in the room: "We're back. Don't you have any thoughts?"

"No," Hongwu said truthfully, and sat down next to Lingling.

Zheng Yichen saw the three 'Zero Zeros' sitting together, picked up his drawing board, and then, as if remembering something, took out his phone and contacted Florianliru, who had probably just returned home: "Have your mother come over."

"?" A strange audio message came from Florianlu's side, but it only contained a question mark.

"I mean the girl from Elue..."

“She’s my sister now,” Florianlou corrected.

After sharing planetary revitalizing materials with her on Planet Eluye, their relationship changed: "Just say what's on your mind, I'm very busy right now."

She rarely returns, and now she's going to conduct a star ritual on the planet Eluye.

This is a tradition among the inhabitants of Elune, because she is now Elune's 'sister,' and the ceremony is held on the day of her return, even if it is not the day of the festival.

Although this time it was directed at her.

Florianlou had no intention of disrupting the traditions of the Elue natives; she herself had once been an ordinary resident of this planet.

"I'm planning to draw a picture, I'll take a screenshot for you." Zheng Yichen took a screenshot for Florianlilu.

“…Eluye will be right there.” Flannery said, looking at the girl Eluye who had suddenly appeared.

The next instant, the girl from Elue disappeared from the planet itself, and Frenliru shook her head.

It's fortunate that this Star Ritual was for her; if it had been for the Ellie girl... it seems like nothing would have happened, since the two living planets are too close together.

As for what Zheng Yichen was going to do, Florian Lilu wasn't very curious. She already knew Zheng Yichen very well. Over the years, she had finally found an opportunity to exchange 'star patterns' with Zheng Yichen, and they would have more time to spend together in the future.

The Elue girl is different; she has always been most concerned about the immune planet.

"Why did you send her here? Aren't you afraid she'll provoke you?" Hei Ling asked Zheng Yichen immediately after learning that Zheng Yichen had summoned the girl, Ailuye.

“She’s been a sailor for me for decades. I called her over to paint a picture with all the ‘zeros’.”

Zheng Yichen opened the door as he spoke, and the girl from Elue quickly walked in, sitting down next to Hongwu with a slightly nervous expression, and asked in a low voice, "Am I... okay like this?"

“Okay.” Red Mist looked at Zheng Yichen. She had no interest in the girl from Elue and even wanted Zheng Yichen to take her away again.

This living planet stares at her every day, and even the red mist herself doesn't know what's so interesting about her own form.

Zheng Yichen smiled at the red mist, and stopped twirling his paintbrush: "They all look beautiful. I'll start painting now."

He draws very quickly, but he is drawing this picture very slowly and with great focus.

During the process, some people on the immune planet sensed something unusual. They felt that everything around them, including themselves, seemed to freeze in time, but when they tried to perceive it carefully, they couldn't find anything.

This anomaly put the civilization on the immune planet on high alert, but those on alert were quickly informed that there was no need to worry about the anomaly.

The authority to issue the notification was extremely high, leaving those who had come to the immune planet in recent decades and were unaware of certain matters astonished.

They had never seen someone with such high authority issue orders directly, or rather, they had never used such authority since they arrived.

"Alright." Zheng Yichen looked at the completed painting. The red painting quickly showed other colors, and it was no longer a painting made of blood.

Hongwu looked at the painting, reached out and tore open a crack that resembled a gap, and took out two well-preserved paintings from inside.

One painting is unique to Lingling, another is of Lingling and Hei Ling, and then there's a painting of the four of them together.

"Am I a bit superfluous?" The girl from Eluye asked in a somewhat gloomy voice.

Looking at these paintings, she immediately felt superfluous.

With her addition, the three paintings should have maintained a continuity.

"I asked you to come, how could there be so many?" Zheng Yichen examined the two paintings that Hongwu had taken out.

Looking at the paintings from over a hundred years ago, he himself felt a strong sense of nostalgia.

Although the earlier these paintings are more ordinary, for Zheng Yichen, these paintings contain a wealth of information, and the emotions and impressions associated with the paintings are still vivid in his mind.

Looking at Zero Zero and Black Zero, he felt as if he had returned to those days.

"That's great!"

"What's so good about it? No matter how well you draw, you're not in it." Hei Ling glanced at Zheng Yichen's paintings, and a smile involuntarily crept onto her lips.

More than a hundred years ago, she could say that she had just been 'born' and could be willful in any way. Now, she hasn't changed, but she has also changed.

After all, being over a hundred years old sounds 'old' far too realistically.

Kaguya, who often played games with her, told her that such troubles were only temporary, and that after hundreds or thousands of years, they would be 'seventeen years old' in every way.

The age at that time was too unrealistic. On the contrary, if you say you are seventeen, people will feel that the age of seventeen is consistent with your appearance.

Black Zero thought Kaguya was right.

"How about I draw it for you?" Lingling suggested.

"Okay." Zheng Yichen put away his paintbrush.

The paintbrushes he uses are no longer something that others can use casually; even if he were to grant them to others voluntarily, there would still be risks involved.

“And me too! Sometimes you even make me call you Dad, I’m sure I can draw better than her!” Hei Ling retorted, not wanting to be outdone, but seeing the indifferent Hong Wu, she asked, “Aren’t you coming along?”

"I... I'll wait until later." Hongwu looked at the three paintings and gently shook her head.

Hei Ling frowned, a black paintbrush appearing in her hand: "Later? How long do you want to wait?"

……

At the end of the five paintings, Hongwu placed a portrait in that spot, turned to look at Hei Ling who was yawning and looking somewhat listless, and said, "This is my painting."

"...Your 'later' has kept people waiting for too long!" Hei Ling regained some of her energy. She repeatedly examined Hong Wu's painting, then looked at Zheng Yichen, who was not far away with Ling Ling and seemed unchanged.

Her gaze shifted from Zheng Yichen, who was drawing a group photo out of thin air, and Hei Ling commented on Hong Wu's painting: "It's too ordinary. He looks like an ordinary person, but you drew it very well!"

Lingling's portrait of Zheng Yichen is like a fixed musical score. She painted the portrait in the form of composing the original score, which is hidden in the painting, like an archive of Zheng Yichen.

Hei Ling's depiction of Zheng Yichen carries her fantasies, regardless of how much she denied it back then.