"Thank you!" I cupped my fist in the other's direction and stepped out of the carpenter's shop.

Mo Caiwei followed closely behind me: "Li Po, I... I didn't know they would stop you. This kind of thing never happened in the village before."

I smiled faintly: "It's nothing, these people are quite interesting! By the way, how many shops on this street do I have to enter?"

Mo Caiwei said, "Four... no, it's three."

Mo Caiwei pointed to a shop diagonally opposite: "That tailor shop should have been entered once, but I've never seen anyone inside, so there's no need to go in."

I looked up at the sign of the tailor shop that had been untended for years: "Just now, that He carpenter said he was a human bone carpenter. This tailor wouldn't be making clothes out of human skin, would he?"

"Yes! If there's someone inside, this shop belongs to the human skin tailor." Mo Caiwei said, "The owner of the butcher shop at the end of the street is called the human meat chef."

"It is said that their ancestors passed down a craft that can make eighteen great dishes from a Xiantian (pre-celestial) expert. Eating such a human meat feast can at least improve the cultivation of experts of the same level by 20%, or even more."

"However, I have never seen the human meat chef cook. He himself said that no one has ever asked him to order a human meat feast."

I asked curiously, "Doesn't he eat it himself?"

Mo Caiwei shook her head: "The human meat chef has three rules for cooking."

"First, the ingredients must be willing to be eaten. Only when it is stated in advance, and the person has signed a contract selling their life, can he start."

"Second, the chef only cooks, doesn't eat. Not even a taste."

"Third, the chef only prepares one feast every twenty years. If he misses one, he will never make a second one after twenty years."

Mo Caiwei looked at me and said, "Do you believe that the human meat chef hasn't made a single dish so far?"

I turned my head and glanced at the butcher shop again: "Interesting!"

As I spoke, I walked towards the last shop at the end of the street, which had a few paintings hanging outside. It seemed to be a shop dealing in calligraphy and paintings. However, the ink paintings in front of the door were not made of black ink, but of human blood.

I could smell the bloody scent mixed with the fragrance of ink from the paintings, even from a few steps away.

Mo Caiwei said, "The owner of this shop is called the human blood painter. She has a strange temper, so don't offend her. She is the granddaughter of the village chief, and can be regarded as the acting village chief!"

I had just raised my head to look at the shop's signboard when I heard someone in the room say, "Think carefully before entering the shop. If you enter my shop, you either buy a painting or make a painting. If you can't do either, go back the way you came!"

The person speaking had a somewhat hoarse voice, and it was her smoky voice that added a bit of murderous intent to the already dim shop.

I raised my leg to go inside, but Mo Caiwei pulled me back: "Li Po, why don't we go back first! I'll go find my master and have him bring you into the village."

I asked back, "Have you told your master that I'm coming?"

"I have!" Mo Caiwei finally realized: "Are you saying that they are testing your strength?"

It is not offensive for an employer to test the strength of a sorcerer.

To put it bluntly, the relationship between an employer and a sorcerer is also a business transaction. It is reasonable to look at the goods and identify the quality before the transaction. What's more, the business on the path of sorcery is still entrusting one's life.

It's just that employers who have never been in contact with the path of sorcery don't understand the rules, and are afraid of offending the sorcerer, so they dare not look at the quality of the person.

Now that it is a business between sorcerers, and the other party wants to see who is stronger, can I still back down?

I stepped into the shop, and the first thing I saw was a young woman wearing a snow-white palace dress, painting with her back to the door. Her back made people think she was an ethereal fairy, but the brush in her hand, dipped in blood, made people think she was a succubus crawling out of hell.

I never thought that the words "pure and refined" and "eerie and strange" could be used on the same person at the same time, and could be so perfectly integrated, and so amazing.

Mo Caiwei went up to speak, but I gently stopped her: "Wait for her to finish painting."

The blood-red ink painting she was creating depicted the street we had just walked down. The shops on the street were clearly visible, but there was no one in them. The whole street had a blood-stained silence.

The woman said with her back to us, "What do you think should be added to this street?"

Mo Caiwei waved her hand at me. I understood what she meant. She was telling me not to interrupt casually.

I replied calmly, "Indeed, something should be added. Otherwise, it would be too deserted here."

The woman picked up her brush and said, "What should be added? You say it, and I'll paint it."

I smiled: "The thing I want to add, you can't paint it. Why don't I do it myself!"

As soon as I said that, Mo Caiwei panicked: "Sister Jiu, Li Po didn't mean that... he meant... he meant..."

Mo Caiwei didn't know how to smooth things over for a moment. The woman said in a deep voice, "Do you know what the consequences are for touching my painting?"