Yu Yanluo looked at him quietly, and only when she saw that he did not behave rudely did she reply: "You are indeed exactly the same as Jian Yanyou in appearance and even voice, but you only have the form, not the spirit."

Zu An frowned: "What do you mean?"

Yu Yanluo replied, "To put it this way, if you use your appearance to deceive others, they would probably have a hard time spotting the flaws, but to me, the flaws are quite obvious."

"I have a little knowledge of painting techniques. Outsiders think that the more realistic a painter's work is, the more skilled they are. But that's not true. It's not difficult for any trained painter to paint a subject exactly like it. In the art of painting, such a painter can only be considered a beginner."

Zuan's face flushed. Some time ago, in order to cultivate the ability to make a thousand people look the same, he had been studying painting. When he could paint exactly the same person, he thought he was a genius and had become a master of painting so quickly.

Little did they know that in other people's eyes, they were just beginners.

Yu Yanluo continued, "Some other painters with aspirations value meaning over reality, so some ordinary people think that their paintings don't resemble the subject at all, and that their painting skills are not as good as some street vendors. But this is a big misconception. It's because these people incorporate their own understanding and insights into the subject when they paint, and their paintings have their own unique meaning that is difficult for others to imitate."

"But this is not the most skillful painter. The most skillful painters often return to simplicity and authenticity, emphasizing both realism and expression. When ordinary people see their paintings, they feel that they are very similar to the target, and thus they can appreciate the beauty in them; those who know can see the meaning in the painting, which is not only a 100% reproduction of the spirit of the target, but also the painter's own insights."

After saying this, Yu Yanluo's gaze fell on Zu An's face: "Your disguise as Jian Yanyou can be said to have only the form, but not the spirit. Ordinary people can't see through it, but in my eyes, it is naturally full of loopholes."

Zuan was speechless for a moment. It seemed that in her eyes, he was just a street vendor painting at a low level.

"Alright, I've answered your question. Now, can you tell me who you are?" After Yu Yanluo finished speaking, her eyes gazed at him quietly, like bright stars in the night sky, beautiful and enchanting.

Zu An seemed to be deep in thought: "No wonder you used a painting to trap me just now. It seems you have already entered the Dao through painting. Back then, in terms of painting, where would you rank?"

Seeing that he had once again avoided her question, Yu Yanluo was initially a little unhappy, but when she heard him talk about painting, she couldn't help but blink, seemingly becoming interested.

She thought about it carefully for a while before answering, "I think I can rank second."

"The world is so big, it's already amazing that you're ranked second," Zu'an sighed, then comforted her before asking, "So who's ranked first?"

"I don't know." Yu Yanluo's voice was soft and charming, as if she was unaware that she was in danger.

"You don't know?" Zuan asked, puzzled. "Then how do you know you're ranked second?"

"So far, among the people I know, there is no one whose painting skills surpass mine. However, there are always people more skilled than me. Perhaps there are people in the world who are better than me, but there are definitely not many. After thinking it over, ranking me second should be a fairly objective assessment." Yu Yanluo spoke solemnly, as if she were making an extremely rigorous argument.

Zuan: "???"

I was caught completely off guard and got totally humiliated.

This woman has this innocent, white-flower-like expression, and when she starts to act cool, it's impossible to guard against her.

Suddenly, a thought struck him. He looked into the other person's eyes and said, "As far as I know, the Chancellor of the National Academy, Chen, has taken on several personal disciples. Each disciple is skilled in one of the arts, such as music, chess, calligraphy, or painting. Among them, there is a disciple codenamed 'Painting,' who is very mysterious. No one knows his name, or even whether he is male or female. If I'm not mistaken, it should be you, right?"

Yu Yanluo hesitated slightly for a moment, but finally nodded and said, "That's right, that's me. The reason I concealed my identity is because it's too special. Neither my teacher nor I wanted to cause any unnecessary trouble, so we didn't announce it to the public."

Zuan was stunned. He never expected that Yu Yanluo was actually the disciple of the Libationer.

Based on his previous interactions with the disciples of the High Priest in the back mountain of the academy, they were basically people with pure hearts, and had an inexplicable obsession and fanaticism for the path they loved.

"Since you are a disciple personally taught by the Grand Master, and you are a beautiful woman, why did you become a thief?" Zu An couldn't help but sigh.

Yu Yanlu snorted: "Someone sneaked into my bedroom in the middle of the night and pretended to be my husband. Who is the thief?"

Zu An's face flushed: "Don't beat around the bush, I'm referring to the matter of Jian Yanyou being murdered."

Yu Yanluo asked with a sorrowful tone, "Is he really dead?"

"Don't tell me you don't know." There was an unmistakable hint of sarcasm in Zu An's tone.

“I only know that he most likely had an accident, but I’m not really sure if he’s dead,” Yu Yanluo paused and asked, “Judging from what you just said, it seems that Jian Tai ordered it?”

Zuan frowned. Was this woman truly innocent or was she pretending? If she was pretending, it was far too terrifying.

Just then, a snow-white arm suddenly emerged from under the covers.

Zuan was shocked and instinctively reached out to block, but a strange light suddenly flashed in the other person's eyes.

He suddenly felt his body become unusually heavy, causing him to move a little slower than usual.

In that brief moment, her snow-white arm broke through his defenses and struck a major acupoint on his chest.

Zuan was jolted, then sat there stiffly, unable to move: "Why can you move?"

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