Under Batcheer's guidance, they re-entered the teaching area, traversing layer upon layer of spiraling stairs, surrounded by ink-black voids. Gradually, dim yellow light illuminated their path, the rotating stairs disappearing behind them, replaced by an ancient, stone corridor.

This initial corridor seemed to give birth to everything in the teaching area. Lime congealed on the stone walls, displaying the marks of time. Candlelight reflected off the stone walls, emitting a faint halo. The air was mixed with the scent of ancient stone and a slight dampness.

Each corridor had its own unique sign, whether it was a carving, a worn spot, or even a special metal floor tile.

These subtle differences were Batcheer's important basis for recognizing each corridor.

Lan Qi and Hyperion followed Batcheer's footsteps, passing through corridor after corridor, slowly delving into the depths.

Finally, Batcheer stopped in front of an exquisite and small wooden door.

And on the door, there were three demon marks imprinted.

"This is rumored to be a painting classroom, and also one of the few art-related courses with a difficulty of 3," Batcheer explained to the two.

Hearing this, Hyperion instinctively took half a step back. She seemed to have some psychological trauma.

Now, demonic art seemed somewhat frightening to her.

She still couldn't forget the music classroom with a difficulty of 2.

But no matter what, musical magic happened to match Lan Qi's strongest point, because his natal magic card, *The Great Poet*, was a musical magic-type summon.

And now, they encountered a painting classroom with a higher difficulty.

"Lan Qi... how are you at painting?" Hyperion asked him.

"I know a thing or two," Lan Qi smiled calmly.

"Mm." This reassured Hyperion.

Although she didn't know how confident Lan Qi was, she believed in him.

Next, Lan Qi walked ahead and opened the door. Hyperion followed him into this small classroom that seemed very refreshing.

The classroom's space was circular. The walls were made of gray-white stone slabs and murals. There was no traditional front or back. Instead, all the seats were arranged around a central round table, forming a complete circular view.

This design allowed the teacher to interact more easily with each student, and also made it easier for the students to have discussions.

It was also the most normal classroom Lan Qi had seen so far.

[Seminar: Appreciation of Demonic Art]

[Location: F17 Corridor, Art Library & Seminar Study Room]

Clear words were written on the gray-white stone slabs on the wall.

It seemed that every wall in this classroom could be used as a whiteboard for lectures.

And the basic rules of this classroom were also very clear.

[No attacking other students]

[Content of this seminar: Appreciate whether the paintings are created by the academy's professors]

[Senior Professor Mogut will randomly select works from the art library—]

[It may be paintings created by several art professors in the academy, or it may be works by former graduates. There will be differences in the level of painting.]

[Students need to identify]

When Lan Qi and Hyperion walked in and took their seats, there were only five students in total.

An elderly demon professor was standing at one end of the classroom, looking at the pocket watch in his hand, feeling that the class time was approaching.

The demon professor silently opened the door behind him, went to the art library, and pushed out a small cart loaded with paintings. Then, he took out four of them and hung them on the wall, so that the five students could see them clearly.

"I am the senior professor of the art department of this academy. I will first show you a few examples. For example, these two are works by professors of the academy's art department, and the other two are works by students," the demon professor Mogut said, pointing to the paintings on the wall, unhurriedly.

The students in the classroom immediately looked at the paintings, observing them intently.

Since the forms of the paintings were different, with oil paintings, watercolors, and charcoal drawings among the four, the contrast was not strong in Hyperion's opinion. She couldn't even tell the quality of the four paintings at all.

And Lan Qi, who was next to her, looked at the four paintings slightly, holding his chin, and then nodded slightly.

"The rules for later are: 1 point will be added for a correct answer, and 1 point will be deducted for a wrong answer. 1 point will be automatically deducted for not answering the question every five minutes. The professor will execute those with negative points."

"If no one takes the initiative to answer in the first round, then I will randomly select one person, and then complete a round of answering in a clockwise direction. From the second round, you can enter the free-for-all answering mode."

"At the end of this class, you will pass if you are not deducted into negative points, and the higher the score, the better the reward you will get. Currently, the highest record is 21 points," Professor Mogut said, looking around at the five students, explaining to them.

The recent students didn't seem to be anything special, and there wasn't much hope of breaking the record.

…

In the Demon Engineering Institute laboratory, bright yellow lights illuminated the messy workbench and the dazzling array of tools. Although it was late at night, several students could still be seen sitting in front of a large screen, playing a shocking, real-world-like *Demonic World Shadow* live broadcast.

The faces of these students looked tired but excited, their eyes fixed on the screen, as if watching a game.

The *Demonic World Shadow* program effect was really explosive.

Although they had all been forced to wear masks of pain by Lan Qi in the music classroom before, they had gradually discovered that Lan Qi was actually a prankster. They had never seen such a prankster in *Shadow World*.

"Will the difficulty 3 classroom be more terrifying than the previous difficulty 2 music classroom?" Some demon artisans couldn't help but have the same worries as Hyperion.

"Definitely, but even if I'm tortured, I want to see *The Great Poet*. She's so beautiful, I really want to..."

"Ahem! People cannot, and should not, fall in love with magic cards! You must read Professor Bolaao's *Ethical Norms for Card Makers* again!"

"By the way, if you don't understand painting appreciation, how can you tell the difference?" The demon artisans in front of the screen discussed after hearing the rules.

However, beside another workbench, a young man sitting on a sofa pointed his finger and said:

"Actually, in addition to the difference in level, the brushstrokes on the painting should leave some magic traces. If you have extremely precise magic recognition ability, you can detect the painter's magic characteristics. Answer a few more questions, and according to the previous answers, you can gradually remember the magic characteristics of several professors in the academy, and subsequent identification will become easier and easier."

"The real difficulty of this classroom lies in the first few questions at the beginning. It is undoubtedly the riskiest, because there is no information to build on, and you can only rely on pure analysis of painting skills or try your luck."

The young man's words made the sophomores in the front row realize.

"As expected of His Highness Einol!" The sophomores turned their heads and gave the young man a thumbs up.

And the young man on the sofa, who was the second prince of Hutton Kingdom, Einol, grinned.

He didn't look like a nobleman at all, just like an ordinary senior.

"Didn't Her Highness Vivian say that this guy named Lan Qi is very good at appreciating paintings? Wouldn't he be like a fish in water in this classroom?" The silver-level card maker girl was still accompanying him, and asked Einol.

"No, no, the difficulty is very high. The artistic style of the lost era of the demon world is very unfamiliar to us humans. And the four paintings used as examples, even if I were to appreciate them, I couldn't be 100% sure," Einol frowned slightly and pondered.

"Then if you were to appreciate the next painting, how high is the success rate of answering correctly?" The girl looked at Einol's handsome face like a worldly expert and asked.

"A full 50%," Einol answered with certainty.

"?" The girl was stunned for a moment.

She wondered if all true or false questions have at least a 50% chance of guessing correctly?

Then, she gritted her teeth and endured her anger, clenching her fists tightly.