Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2286: Chapter 2287: The World Within the Painting

Accompanied by a low, uncomfortable groan due to the weightlessness, Angel slowly opened his eyes.

After staring blankly for a few seconds, Angel swiftly sat up from the dry ground. He first sensed his whole body to ensure nothing was missing, then moved his Magical Core to ensure energy was fine, before letting out a sigh of relief and surveying his surroundings.

In the pitch-black world, there was essentially nothing visible to the naked eye. Only a vague sense of the vast emptiness around.

Looking up at the sky, a solitary crescent moon hung in the deep black sky.

Angel struggled to his feet, looking around with the aid of the soft moonlight.

—— A vast endless wilderness, an edge of black night.

"This wilderness... seems a bit familiar." The image from "Stars and Trees" floated in Angel’s mind. After a brief comparison, he sighed deeply.

Except for the lack of a brilliant starry sky overhead, the surroundings were exactly like the oil painting in the treasure chest.

Even the lone, solitary big tree in the empty expanse matched perfectly with the oil painting.

"It seems, I really entered the painting." Angel whispered to himself.

He stood there contemplating for a while, attempting to find a way out of the world within the painting through perception. Unfortunately, as of now, he couldn’t find any flaws.

However, Angel was not too worried. This ability to connect the planar world within a painting with the three-dimensional real world, as he knew, was something only Feng could achieve.

Since it was Feng’s painting, and he actively pulled him into it, there must be some significance. It couldn’t be that after overcoming countless hardships to find him, it was only to trap him in the painting, right?

Therefore, by finding the significance of Feng pulling him into the painting and understanding his intentions, Angel believed there was surely a chance to leave. Even if after doing everything he still couldn’t find a way out, Angel wasn’t worried, because there’s Wang Wang...

Wang Wang’s void traversal ability should be able to take him out.

Calming down a bit, Angel decided to first explore the world within this painting to see what Feng intended to do.

Angel didn’t go out of his way to scrutinize the surrounding environment but focused directly on the distant big tree.

Since the tree is the main subject of the oil painting. And in the entire boundless wilderness, there’s only this one tree, it looks strange no matter how you look at it. Angel believed if there was a place of special significance in this world within a painting, it would certainly be hidden near the big tree.

Therefore, Angel temporarily didn’t think about exploring other places, but walked directly towards the tree.

As he walked, Angel was also sensing the surrounding environment.

In his perception, he still could not find any traces of living beings, or even traces of life. This was clearly a world of deathly stillness.

There was primordial magic in the air, though the concentration was slightly below average. If a battle really ensued, it wouldn’t have much impact. It’s just that during meditation, it might take a bit longer than usual.

It’s worth mentioning that there was no sense of oppression here. The strand of Tidal World’s World Will from the outside couldn’t penetrate into this world within the painting. So here, Angel felt a rare sense of relaxation.

Angel wasn’t far from the big tree, and soon, he arrived near it.

Previously on the stone platform outside, Angel had seen the perspective in the oil painting shift, revealing a silhouette leaning behind the big tree. Therefore, he was a bit cautious when he arrived nearby.

Angel didn’t immediately approach the big tree but circled it from a distance.

He originally thought there would be a "person" here, but after walking around, he didn’t see any silhouette.

That is, he had now discovered two differences from the original painting.

The brilliant starry sky in the painting had disappeared, replaced by a starless night. The silhouette under the tree in the painting had also vanished, leaving only this lonely tree.

Since the silhouette was gone, Angel didn’t continue circling around the perimeter, but approached the big tree.

Upon getting closer, Angel found his earlier judgment had a small error.

Previously, he thought the only bit of vitality in this world within the painting might reside on this solitary big tree. But that wasn’t the case. From a distance, it seemed lush and leafy, but up close, Angel still felt no trace of life.

Just like the wild grass on the ground, it seemed merely a part of the scenery in the painting, without any sense of life.

After carefully observing the big tree for a moment, Angel didn’t discover anything amiss. It seemed it was simply part of the landscape in the painting.

Angel pondered for a moment. By his judgment, this was clearly not right.

The tree, being the focal point of the painting, couldn’t be meaningless.

After thinking for a while, Angel attempted to use his spiritual power to investigate the tree’s true form. First, he examined from the outside, including the bark, branches, and the soulless leaves, even the roots underground, yet found no abnormalities.

Next, Angel decided to probe deeper into the tree to see its interior.

As Angel infused his spiritual power into the tree trunk, his expression suddenly turned a bit strange.

It seemed the interior of the tree was configured with some form of encryption, unable to be directly probed by spiritual power. However, when the spiritual power was infused into the tree’s interior, Angel saw a complex and peculiar pattern.

"This is... the Mother Pattern of the Augja Pattern!" Angel couldn’t help but exclaim softly.

He had been searching for the lock corresponding to the Augja Pattern Key, essentially its Mother Pattern, but had never found it. Angel had even speculated it might be inside the light sphere above the stone platform.

At the time, Angel had secretly cursed Feng’s insolence.

Unexpectedly, after searching high and low, the answer was actually this tree!

This tree held the ultimate solution to the Augja Pattern Key!

To confirm his judgment wasn’t wrong, Angel once more used his spiritual power to investigate the intricate pattern.

The so-called Augur Complex Pattern is a type of encryption tool used by a Wizard, it can be understood as a lineal-type parent-and-child lock key that can be autonomously compiled. The item that is locked has a "parent pattern". To unlock this, a corresponding "child pattern" is required. Both the parent and child patterns can be set personally as long as the core is an Augur Complex Pattern, effectively avoiding repetition.

Thus, each Augur Complex Pattern is unique, with one parent pattern corresponding to one child pattern.

The Augur Complex Key in Angel’s hand is a child pattern, allowing him to deduce the parent pattern’s lines from this child pattern.

Soon, Angel deduced the answer.

The Augur Complex parent pattern within the tree indeed corresponds with the Augur Complex Key he holds. His judgment was correct: the treasure Feng supposedly left should be within this big tree.

Since the treasure is here, Angel believes the way to leave the world within the painting is also likely hidden within the tree.

Pondering briefly, Angel set up a Defense Spell around him, instructed Earl Mi to stay alert, and then retrieved the true Augur Complex Key from the bracelet space.

As the key was placed in his hand, it, which had always appeared dull, began to emit a faint red glow.

The glowing is the child pattern.

The parent pattern corresponding to the child pattern, which is the big tree, also awakened from deathly stillness at this moment, starting to shimmer with faint light corresponding to the child pattern, seemingly calling for the child pattern’s return.

Angel did not hesitate, directly pressing the long key in his hand onto the trunk of the big tree.

In an instant, the red light blazed strongly.

Under the flickering red light, the tree seemed to be chopped down from the top, splitting right from the center. As the crack appeared, stronger light burst out from within.

This light seemed to possess certain rule traits, Angel couldn’t see through it, and the more he observed, the more tired his eyes felt. He could only slightly turn his head to avoid directly looking at the light.

Because Angel turned his head, he witnessed an unbelievable scene.

The red light emerging from within the tree shot directly into the sky. In the previously solitary moonlit night sky, miraculous changes appeared. Twinkling starlit stars transitioned from dim to bright, covering the sky in an instant.

It’s as if an invisible brush dipped in starlight paint and gracefully swung, instantly scattering a glorious galaxy on the nightfall canvas.

This starlit sky is identical to the one Angel saw in the painting on the stone platform.

Seeing the star-filled sky, Angel suddenly thought of another matter: "Since the starlit sky has appeared, might the figure in the painting also appear?"

Just as Angel raised this thought, he suddenly felt a gaze seemed to fall upon him.

Due to previous continual observation by the Void Traveler, Angel is very sensitive to gazes. The moment the gaze fell on him, a black-red glow flickered beneath his feet, instantly retreating tens of meters, the glow of the Defense Spell shimmering around him, while Earl Mi slowly poked his head out from the shadow beneath his feet.

Angel fixed his gaze tightly in the direction of the tree.

The red glow there still flashed, making it impossible to see clearly, but Angel was certain the gaze resting on him was within that red glow, and... even now, that gaze had not left.

The red glow persisted for about a dozen seconds.

When the red glow gradually subsided, Angel finally saw the scene within the red glow.

The tree, which had split from the middle, had completely healed, once again forming a complete tree. The ground did not have the "treasure" Angel imagined; the only difference from before was the addition of a person in front of the tree.

It was a tall man draped in a starry cloak. Though the cloak obscured the upper half of his face, from just the lower half, one could determine he’s a young man, at least outwardly young in appearance.

"Who are you?" Angel stared intently at the man.

The cloaked man curved a smile at the corner of his mouth, not immediately replying to Angel but instead speaking to himself: "You followed his footsteps to come here? I didn’t expect, you would be so young... hmm, even somewhat juvenile. I suddenly doubt the judgment of the Book of Kael."

Angel: "The ’he’ you speak of, are you referring to Miraphiel. Feng?"

The cloaked man still didn’t respond; instead, he moved his gaze from Angel to Earl Mi: "Oh, it’s a Demon People from the Panic Realm? Awakened Demon People are notoriously brutal and bloodthirsty, not retreating even when facing formidable enemies. Such war machines could absolutely never obey humans."

"How did you make him obey your commands? Is it that thing on his chest? Let me see what it is." After speaking, the cloaked man shifted his sight to Earl Mi’s chest, after a while: "Tsk tsk, it’s truly marvelous. There appears to be a force inside that makes me feel fear, even submission. What is it? Can you tell me?"

The cloaked man directed his gaze back at Angel, as he could tell that the Awakened Demon People was protecting Angel, so Angel, who controls the Awakened Demon People, should know what that bizarre tendril is.

After a moment of silence, Angel slowly replied: "The Seed of Distortion, a proud creation of a gentleman. What’s inside, I don’t really know, just a token of friendship from that gentleman."

The cloaked man did not mind whether Angel hid anything, nodded, and said: "I see. If my old buddy Rekton knew of such a thing, he’d probably go crazy... you see, he once spent decades researching Awakened Demon People and rushed to the Panic Realm, unfortunately, he stayed for less than two years and fled, driven away."

Angel didn’t know who the Rekton the cloaked man spoke of was, and just listened silently.

"Even if not Rekton, my true body would likely be interested in this thing too, after all, there are things within it that even make me feel fear." The cloaked man sighed softly: "Unfortunately, my true body isn’t here, and I can’t share the information with it, sigh..."

"True body?" Angel suspiciously looked at the cloaked man: "Who exactly are you?"

This time, the cloaked man didn’t avoid the topic and instead spoke rather flippantly: "Don’t young people nowadays understand manners? When asking someone else’s name, don’t they know to start by introducing themselves?"

Without waiting for Angel to reply, the cloaked man changed his tone: "But, since you followed his footsteps to come here, you deserve my respect. So, this time I can introduce myself first."

As he finished speaking, the cloaked man extended white and slender fingers to remove his cloak’s hood, revealing his true face.

Underneath the short dark curls, was a fair and handsome face. Just from looks, he is the type favored by noblewomen: thin, young, and still quite handsome.

Additionally, in the backlight of the starlit sky, he exuded a bit more of a mysterious aura.

Those hungry noblewomen, probably would go crazy for him.

As Angel silently criticized in his mind, the cloaked man made a one-handed chest salute, elegantly saying: "Although it’s our first meeting, it’s an honor to see you coming here. Let me introduce myself, I am... Miraphiel. Feng."