Translator: Noodletown Translated Editor: Noodletown Translated
Hao Ren looked back and saw Zhen Congming and Wu Luoxue walking over, shoulder to shoulder.
A strong demonic aura drew near.
Wu Luoxue looked cool while Zhen Congming walked along with her, talking and gesturing ingratiatingly.
“Hehe, it is Little Xue and Congming.” Xie Yujia smiled when she saw them.
Obviously, Xie Yujia didn’t feel anything unusual.
Seeing Hao Ren didn’t respond, she touched him in bafflement and asked, “What’s it?”
“Nothing! Nothing!” Hao Ren shook his head.
Without any nature essence, he couldn’t feel the presence of any dragon cultivators, and he wondered why he could sense Zhen Congming’s demonic aura.
When he was at Gen-level, he couldn’t feel anything except for the vague sense which told him that Zhen Congming’s low realm was between Kan-level and Li-level.
This demonic aura didn’t give him any discomfort, but Hao Ren could clearly tell that it was different from his own cultivation method.
“Hey!” Zhen Congming walked to Hao Ren with Wu Luoxue and greeted.
Wu Luoxue curled her pink lips and looked up at Hao Ren with her big bright eyes. Both wearing school uniforms, Zhen Congming looked a little handsome while Wu Luoxue looked cute.
“Hello.” Hao Ren waved at them after half a second of hesitation.
“Little Xue, ignore him. Let’s go in.” Zhen Congming took the opportunity to hold Wu Luoxue’s soft hand while they walked toward the Arts Building.
Zhen Congming had been going to Wu Luoxue’s class whenever he had the chance despite Wu Luoxue’s indifferent attitude toward him. However, Zhen Congming’s persistence paid off since he had become her best companion when she wanted to go somewhere.
Different from Zhen Congming, Wu Luoxue didn’t like to roam around. But due to her interest in piano, chess, calligraphy, and painting, she wanted to see the small art exhibition in East Ocean University.
Looking after them, Hao Ren frowned slightly.
“Gongzi, did you feel anything?” Lu Linlin asked Hao Ren.
“I don’t know how to describe it. I guess I sensed a demonic aura, right?” Hao Ren asked.
“Hehe, it’s demonic essence,” Lu Linlin corrected him. “Gongzi, your body is turned into the Immortal Body, which is why you are sensitive to demon cultivators.”
“The demon beasts also cultivate and draw essence from nature, but they transfer it into demonic essence through their internal cores instead of the nature essence. Despite his weak nature essence, Zhen Congming has powerful demonic essence, but it is locked up,” Lu Linlin continued.
“Ok…” Hao Ren was still a bit confused.
When he helped Little White cultivate the Transformation Scroll, he had felt that the demonic essence inside Little White was different from his nature essence. He could transfer nature essence to Su Han freely, but he must use the Transformation Scroll to transfer energy to Little White.
To some degree, dragon cores were one type of internal cores, but the cultivation method of the dragon cultivators was in general closer to human cultivators.
Usually, only the highest-leveled cultivators such as Yue Zilong could sense demonic essence.
However, Hao Ren’s Immortal Body had a higher level of sensitivity to essences. Although he couldn’t sense nature essence temporarily, he could feel the different demonic essence.
“It’s strange that when Zhen Congming is with Wu Luoxue, his demonic essence becomes stronger,” Lu Lili said.
“Wu Luoxue…” Hao Ren thought that maybe her physique was different, and that was why Zhen Congming was attracted to her.
Watching them enter the Arts Building, Hao Ren suddenly remembered that he needed Zhen Congming to build an array formation on Fifth Heaven, and he dashed after them.
Demon essence and nature essence were both cultivation strengths, and Hao Ren soon got used to it just as how he got used to the nature essence fluctuations of dragon cultivators.
Seeing Hao Ren going back into the art exhibition, Xie Yujia had no choice but to follow him.
The students filed back into the art exhibition, but most of them came here to kill time during lunch break.
Wu Luoxue put a finger on her small mouth while she looked up at the oil paintings on the wall in earnest. Hao Ren leaned toward her purposefully to feel Wu Luoxue’s presence but didn’t feel any demonic essence or nature essence.
From any perspective, she was an ordinary elementary student.
“Hehehe… Little girl, do you like to paint too?” A gentle old man walked to Wu Luoxue’s side and asked her.
Wu Luoxue glanced at him and didn’t answer. Nodding slightly, she moved to see another painting.
“How come there are elementary school students here?” Jiang Yuan, who was in a bad mood, was frustrated when she saw Zhen Congming and Wu Luoxue.
Although her paintings were not as great as those of masters, they were quite famous, and some of them had received national awards. After all, even the university students who didn’t study fine arts wouldn’t understand her paintings, not to mention elementary school students.
The university students walked out after casting a passing glance at the exhibition while this elementary school student looked at the paintings carefully one by one, making Jiang Yuan wonder if her paintings were for the enjoyment of elementary school students.
However, with her oil painting teacher with her, Jiang Yuan didn’t dare to lose her temper, but her face turned dark.
Wu Luoxue raised her head and moved slowly while she studied the paintings with her big eyes.
“What do you think of these paintings?” The old man bent down and asked Wu Luoxue again when he saw her serious expression.
“They are ok,” Wu Luoxue answered.
This answer infuriated Jiang Yuan.
“What does she mean by that? The paintings hanging at the entrance are my best works!” she thought, “An elementary school student doesn’t understand them! And the university students are too ignorant to appreciate them!”
With a dark face, Jiang Yuan lightly pushed Wu Luoxue and said, “Little girl, only university students can come here. Elementary school students are better at drawing with crayons.”
With her small size and light weight, Wu Luoxue who was looking at the third painting on the wall almost lost her balance at the sudden push as if Jiang Yuan meant to drive her out of the hall.
“You… evil woman!” Seeing Wu Luoxue stumbling at the push, Zhen Congming immediately rushed over and kicked Jiang Yuan.
Wearing leather shoes, he kicked Jiang Yuan’s shin, and the latter screamed with pain.
With everything going against her wish today, Jiang Yuan was very frustrated, but she had been suppressing her temper. However, the kick triggered her emotions, and she reached out to pull Zhen Congming’s ear.
Since the senior painters and the officials of the school had gone to visit the classrooms of the Arts Program, she guessed it didn’t matter that her teacher was the only one to see her giving this unruly kid a lesson.
Clap!
Her arm was suddenly caught before it reached Zhen Congming.
Jiang Yuan was about to struggle off with fury when she saw it was Hao Ren who caught her arm.
Hao Ren looked at her coldly and said, “He’s just a kid. Don’t mind him.”
“I…” Jiang Yuan was still angry, but she couldn’t shake off his hand, and she felt subdued suddenly.
If it were before, she would have pushed Hao Ren, angry that a guy like Hao Ren dared to touch her.
However, she was still dazed by the astonishment Hao Ren gave her and thus didn’t dare to move when Hao Ren caught her arm.
Having no interest in her, Hao Ren dropped Jiang Yuan’s hand without caring that he would offend her, a so-called talented female artist pursued by many guys.
Xie Yujia’s wrist was one hundred times smoother than hers.
“Jiang Yuan, stop it. Why can’t kids appreciate oil paintings?” The old man looked at dark-faced Jiang Yuan with a stern expression.
Gritting her teeth, Jiang Yan stood beside the old man and remained silent.
Wu Luoxue wasn’t angry, and she walked back to continue seeing the oil paintings on the wall. Like a protector, Zhen Congming stayed beside her and gave Jiang Yuan a dirty look.
Jian Yuan clenched her teeth, furious that she, a future star artist, had been bullied by an elementary school student!
Wu Luoxue walked around the exhibition room and saw all the oil paintings with an earnest face.
Having not seen the art exhibition, Lu Linlin and Lu Lili came in and walked around the room. However, they preferred Chinese paintings and had little interest in oil paintings.
Hao Ren took the opportunity to walk to Zhen Congming’s side and asked, “Hey, when can you build an array formation for Ethereal Summit?”
“Don’t be impatient! If I do it, I’ll make it perfect!” Zhen Congming glanced at Hao Ren and replied, “I can build the most powerful array formation, but I’m afraid you don’t have enough people!”
“This kid is not likable,” Hao Ren thought and suppressed his displeasure before asking him, “How many do you want?”
“15 Nascent Soul Realm cultivators, 150 Core Formation Realm cultivators, and 1500 Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators!” Zhen Congming reached out his hand and said with pursed lips.
He had a blueprint of an ultimate array formation which had power no less than the ancient grand array formations, but it needed lots of cultivators, and he didn’t believe Hao Ren could provide such a team.
Ethereal Summit was after all only a small valley, and even the big sects above Fifth Heaven couldn’t summon so many cultivators to build the array formation.
It had taken him quite a lot of energy to build the Big Dipper Constellation Array for Ethereal Summit. However, it was destroyed by the many powerful enemies of Hao Ren, and he held some grudge against Hao Ren.
“Humph! Why should I help Hao Ren whole-heartedly? He is not my girlfriend!” he thought.
With such a big array, if Hao Ren couldn’t provide enough cultivators, it wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t help Hao Ren!
After tossing out his conditions, Zhen Congming trotted after Wu Luoxue.
After seeing the paintings, Wu Luoxue was ready to go. In her view, these oil paintings were very ordinary, much inferior to the works she had seen in the Louvre in Paris, the British Museum in London, the Hermitage Museum in Russia, and the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
“Little girl, what’s your name? Have you learned how to paint oil paintings?” Jiang Yuan’s oil painting teacher asked Wu Luoxue with a smile when he saw her return to the entrance.
“I can only paint apples,” Wu Luoxue answered. Her tone was quiet but sounded very soft and cute.
“Jiang Yuan, go fetch a canvas board and some brushes.” the old man looked at Jiang Yuan and said.
Jiang Yuan was reluctant, but she couldn’t disobey her teacher. In the painting room on the second floor of the Arts Building, Jiang Yuan had her own storage locker for her painting materials.
She returned to the exhibition room on the first floor with some simple brushes and paints.
The old man set up the board and looked at Wu Luoxue with a smile before saying, “Would you try it?”
“Class is about to begin…” Wu Luoxue said in a low voice.
“Give it a try.” The old man put the brush into her hand and prepared the paints for her personally with great enthusiasm.
After seeing these paintings, Wu Luoxue wanted to paint something. She had learned oil painting from her mom for three months, but she had dropped it in the past half a year in which she studied piano.
She sat on the chair. When the old man had finished preparing the paint, she dipped the brush into it and brushed it onto the canvas.
“Senior Wang, have you found another talented girl?” One senior painter had returned to the exhibition after touring the Arts Building with the officials of the Arts Program, and he asked with a smile when he saw Jiang Yuan’s teacher, Wang Shitong, mixing paints for a little girl.
Wang Shitong chuckled but didn’t answer.
With the paintbrush in her hand, Wu Luoxue quickly drew the frame of an apple on the canvas.
Seeing Wu Luoxue’s grip on the brush, Jiang Xue was surprised to find that this elementary school student was not new to oil painting.
Currently, the afternoon classes were about to begin, so not many students were in the art exhibition. With no classes in the afternoon, Hao Ren, Xie Yujia, and the Lu sisters stayed to watch Wu Luoxue paint.
Seeing the artists standing around an elementary school student, some students of the Arts Program came over to watch.
Wu Luoxue moved her brush slowly.
“Humph…” Jiang Yuan was unhappy that an elementary school student stole her thunder at her own art exhibition.
It should have been her demonstrating painting skills at her own art exhibition. However, due to the cute look of this little girl, all the masters turned their attention to this elementary school student.
Standing on one side, Zhen Congming watched attentively. Although he had never seen Wu Luoxue paint, he liked Wu Luoxue’s quiet and earnest expression while she painted.
“Ok. It’s done.” Wu Luoxue put down the brush.
On the canvas was a simple apple.
“It’s indeed the work of an elementary school student, but it’s a good painting,” Jiang Yuan said.
She had an urgent need to prove her value.
However, the artists ignored her words and leaned over to look at the apple carefully.
The apple hovered on the blank canvas quietly as if it would fall any moment, not because of the vividness but due to a mysterious force.
“Oh!” One of the old men yelled.
With his yell, the others had all understood suddenly.
The apple that was painted was the apple in the center of the world-famous painting Apples and Oranges by French painter Cezanne who enjoyed the same reputation as Van Gogh!
They were exactly the same!
They were not mistaken since they had copied this world-famous work countless times!
Wu Luoxue’s talent in oil painting was one thousand or even ten thousand times higher than that of Jiang Yuan’s!
“Little girl, what’s your name? Will you study oil painting from me?” One of the old men pushed to in front of Wu Luoxue and yelled.
“From me! From me!” Another old man yelled hurriedly.
These masters of the art circle lost their dignities and wished they could take Wu Luoxue as their student.
“I’ll head back to my class.” Wu Luoxue looked at the crazy old men and said, “I won’t learn oil painting from you. I will learn it from my mom.”
When she walked out of the exhibition hall, Zhen Congming immediately strode over to walk beside her. In fact, Wu Luoxue hadn’t painted for months and wasn’t satisfied with the apple that she painted!
