"Nannan, save him quickly!" Fang Ming shouted anxiously.
He couldn't let Young Master Liu die at the painter's hands, and he felt something was off about this painter.
Upon hearing Fang Ming's command, Nannan flew into the air. The hair behind her head pierced the void and reappeared, encircling the painter. Several strands of hair were aimed directly at the painter's arm.
Sensing the danger, the painter's expression turned cold. He dropped Young Master Liu and quickly dodged to the side. Nannan was not weaker than him, and he dared not directly confront her attacks.
"Swish, swish, swish..." Nannan's attack missed. Her gaze turned cold, and she rapidly flew to the same height as the painter.
The two women, one large and one small, faced each other in the air, their gazes filled with ice.
Fang Ming quickly ran over to catch the falling Young Master Liu and then took him to hide to the side. The fight between Nannan and the painter was not something the two of them could participate in.
One was a half-ghastly, the other a fierce ghastly. In the aftermath of a battle between two half-nether ghastlies, they could easily perish.
So, the further they could hide, the safer they would be. Caution was paramount.
"I didn't expect someone like you to break into this world," the painter said, staring at Nannan with a cold sneer.
"Much stronger than a fraud like you," Nannan said, immediately seeing through the painter's true state. She sneered back.
This painter was not the real one. Her strength was only that of a half-nether ghastly, and there was no way to conceal it. However, in reality, the minimum requirement to sustain this world was a nether ghastly!
"You!" The painter was shocked and angry. She naturally knew her true identity, but dealing with this little brat in front of her was more than enough!
"Die!" The painter waved her right hand, the ground shaking. A large amount of soil surged up, forming a colossal fist hundreds of meters in diameter and smashing towards Nannan.
Nannan, not to be outdone, condensed a water blade in her hand in an instant and slashed towards the giant fist.
"Boom!"
The giant fist shattered, debris and mud flying everywhere. Nannan passed through the shattered fist, her blade aimed directly at the painter opposite her.
Below, Fang Ming, with Young Master Liu, kept fleeing, putting distance between them and the battlefield. Given the intensity of their fight, hiding thousands of meters away might only be safe.
"Wind Wall!" Seeing Nannan charging at her, the painter showed no fear. She placed her hands on her hips, and a fierce wind raged in the air, gradually condensing in front of her to form a wall of surging wind.
Nannan's water blade pierced the wind wall and was instantly torn apart by the strong winds. Nannan had no choice but to retreat, and she condensed another water blade in her hand.
Seeing this, the painter mocked, "You're just so-so."
Who knew Nannan would curve her lips into a cold smile.
"Kill!"
Countless hair strands suddenly emerged from behind the painter, like a dense dark cloud, except the cloud was filled with a dim, cold light.
The painter was startled and realized it was too late to dodge Nannan's attack. She frantically manipulated the wind wall to change direction and block.
But the hair strands were not intangible like water blades. And the hardness of Nannan's hair was enough to slice through the bodies of some top-tier fierce ghastlies as easily as cutting tofu. Such an intangible wind wall couldn't stop them!
Indeed, with a series of scraping sounds, countless hair strands pierced the wind wall, broke through the barrier of wind, and fiercely penetrated the painter's body.
The painter felt a sharp pain, followed by her inner resentment gushing out like a flood, flowing into these hair strands. "Damn it! Summon thunder and fire!" the painter gritted her teeth, slicing her fingertip. Blood flowed out, and she touched her forehead!
A powerful aura surged from the painter. Her long hair, unbound by any wind, stood on end, and strands of electricity flickered around her, crackling.
Nannan felt danger and quickly retreated. She tried to pull out her hair strands but it was too late!
"Rumble—!" In the sky, a lightning pillar as thick as a house suddenly descended. Crimson flames billowed around the pillar, like fire dragons coiling and soaring, striking directly at the painter's location!
"Boom!"
The lightning pillar hit the ground. The entire sky fell silent for an instant. The blinding white light even surpassed the sun, leaving only a vast emptiness.
In the distance, the Patriarch of the Liu family, who was rushing over, was shocked. This was the painter's ultimate technique, the one she had been defeated by in the past! Who had forced her to use it again? Could it be that Fang Ming?
The Patriarch of the Liu family, impatient, left the Liu family members behind him and vanished in an instant. Although he didn't know Fang Ming's location, this lightning pillar was the best indicator.
Fang Ming and Young Master Liu stood at a distance, watching the battlefield nervously. This was infuriating. They just wanted to find the painter and leave, why had it escalated to this?
He hoped Nannan was alright. Otherwise, he would fight to his death to make the painter miserable!
"Why has the painter... why has she become like this?" Young Master Liu said, disheartened. This was completely different from the painter he remembered. The painter he remembered was a carefree hermit who cherished landscapes and traveled the world.
Although the painter was born from resentment, she was not inherently evil. Her greatest hobby in life was painting all the world's scenery and composing countless verses. Harming others had never occurred with the painter.
In fact, the painter had done countless good deeds during her travels. When she finally retired to the White Mist World, she even specially constructed the current world to house the beings and scenery she had painted throughout her life.
"From what you're saying, you don't seem to know what the painter looks like?" Fang Ming asked, frowning. If he had known that the painter looked the same as Xiao Nannan, he might have been better prepared.
Xiao Nannan definitely had an inseparable connection with the painter, but he didn't know what kind of connection. Young Master Liu shook his head dejectedly. "The painter's appearance always changes because she believes she needs to adapt to different environments to blend in perfectly and paint the scenery that best aligns with her thoughts. But we, the replications, have an inseparable connection with the painter, or rather, we are a part of the painter's resentment. So, whenever the painter appears, we can confirm her presence based on this."
Young Master Liu explained why they, the replications, could identify the painter. Fang Ming suddenly understood why Young Master Liu had been so certain that the figure in the sky was the painter and why he had risked his life to get closer.
As Fang Ming and the other were chatting about the painter, the lightning pillar that had descended from the sky finally exhausted its power and slowly dissipated. Looking up at the sky, three figures stood in a tense standoff, their auras powerful.
The calmly faced Patriarch of the Liu family, Nannan in her second stage of transformation, and the painter, whose aura was slightly weakened.
"It's you?" The Patriarch of the Liu family looked at the painter's appearance with a hint of surprise in his voice. His gaze then shifted to the Liu family team in the distance.
"Who exactly are you?" The painter stared cautiously at the Patriarch of the Liu family, then at the cold-faced Nannan.
The two people in front of her were both nether ghastlies!
She was absolutely no match for them!
She never expected such a major loophole to appear in this world, allowing two nether ghastlies to enter. Without the painter's main body present, this world would surely collapse!
That's right, she was not the painter. She was a replication created by the painter, using herself as a model, with only fifty percent of the main body's strength.
The Patriarch of the Liu family, as the painter's greatest opponent in the past, could guess the whole story with a little thought. This replication painter before him was merely a guardian the painter had left in this world.
Indeed, without Nannan and the Patriarch of the Liu family appearing, this replication would undoubtedly be the strongest being in the entire world, capable of maintaining its operation.
But there were no "what ifs" in the world. All of this was beyond the painter's expectations.
"You, a replication, are not qualified to know my identity," the Patriarch of the Liu family said indifferently. "Since you've appeared, I know where the painter is."
With that, he reached into the void and pulled out a woman, grasping her neck with one hand.
Xiao Nannan, looking confused, had her neck grabbed by a hand that suddenly appeared beside her. Then, with a blackout, she found herself in this place.
"Cough, cough, let go... let me go." Xiao Nannan choked, feeling the lack of air as she struggled desperately.
"Let her go!" The replication painter panicked and lunged forward to save Xiao Nannan.
"Scram!" The Patriarch of the Liu family let out a cold roar, and a colossal mouth, large enough to obscure the sky, appeared above the replication painter's head.
"Rumble~" The giant mouth closed, and the replication painter was instantly swallowed, her movements ceasing. In the sky, a monster resembling a divine dragon, thousands of meters long, coiled in the firmament, its every movement disturbing the entire sky.
This monster was the Patriarch of the Liu family's Nether Ghastly Beast!
Nannan looked at the Patriarch of the Liu family and the suffocating Xiao Nannan in his hand with a grave expression. This nether ghastly was definitely not someone she could face alone!
She dared not act rashly.
"Painter, aren't you going to come out yet?" the Patriarch of the Liu family said with a cold laugh, looking at Xiao Nannan's pained expression. But Xiao Nannan only struggled weakly, not understanding what the Patriarch of the Liu family was saying.
"If you don't come out, I will destroy this world!"
The Patriarch of the Liu family moved his mind, and the giant dragon coiled above let out a low growl. Its massive body stirred, and it spat out dragon's breath, striking the city.
"Boom—!" Where the dragon's breath landed, buildings and living beings within a thousand-meter radius turned to ash.
Cracks began to appear in the sky. Clearly, this world was struggling to withstand the attacks of the nether ghastly.