Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“What is happening?”
Jiang Yi was puzzled. He had drawn it accordingly to his memories, but why wasn’t there any dao presence on the drawing? Feng Luan, who was at his side, had blanked for a moment before answering after she came into a realization, “Young Master, I remembered you were drawing the previous painting with your eyes closed.”
“With my eyes closed? Oh, right. Previously, I had entered into the Union of Heaven and Man state.”
Jiang Yi smacked his head and threw this painting aside. Qing Yu quickly put on another piece of paper while Jiang Yi entered the Union of Heaven and Man state. This time, his drawing speed had become slower as he concentrated all of his attention in remembering the dao presence from the thunder mountains while he drew it carefully.
This time, the painting was somewhat better than his previous one. At least, it was barely enough to be recognized as a landscape painting. There were endless sea areas with long and wide islands. There were also uninterrupted undulating thunder ridges and ten thunder mountains. Lightning struck down from the sky while the Thunder Fires revolved around the thunder mountains.
Of course, Jiang Yi’s drawing skill was still as underwhelming as before. His mountains weren’t like mountains, water wasn’t like water, and the lightning was like chicken claw print.
“Big Sister, how is it?”
Qing Yu inquired in a nervous and soft voice after Jiang Yi had finished the last stroke. Feng Luan knitted her eyebrows tightly while her eyes were filled with perplexity. She shook her head and replied, “Still not good. There’s no dao presence within this drawing. It is unable to cause a person to get into a selfless state or touch their spirits. This isn’t a Heaven Painting.”
Jiang Yi eyes were filled with disappointment when he opened his eyes up. Originally, he thought that he possessed a skill that could earn a lot of money. However, it seemed like that piece of painting was just a random occurrence. When he tried to draw it meticulously, he was unable to draw out any quintessence and imprint any dao presence within.
Currently, they were lacking 200 to 300 million of celestial stones. They would be able to easily eliminate small mountain bandit groups by relying on the Thunder Fire if they chose to kill mountain bandits. However, what if they come across a huge mountain bandit legion? What if some of them managed to escape when they were in battle? What if coincidentally, there were experts nearby? Wouldn’t they be exposed immediately? When the time comes, they would be in danger as Lu Lin was definitely plotting in the dark.
“Continue painting!”
He gritted his teeth and shut his eyes while ignoring everything and engrossed himself in painting. He no longer cared if the painting was going to be a Heaven Painting or not. He would pull another piece of white paper over once he had finished painting one. His brush didn’t stop. Only after painting for four hours did he came to a stop with several finished paintings.
He widened his eyes and looked towards Feng Luan, only to see a pair of sad eyes. He threw the brush away and spoke in fury, “Not painting anymore.”
Feng Luan signaled Qing Yu to tidy the place up as she brewed a cup of tea for Jiang Yi, “Young Master, don’t be discouraged. You will be able to create another Heaven Painting if an opportunity arises since you had drawn one before. How about this… from today onward, I will teach Young Master how to paint for half a day. As for the remaining time, Young Master will cultivate. Let’s try it out for a month. We will only give up if it doesn’t work. How about that?”
“Alright!”
Jiang Yi remembered that his dao pattern fusion had also been stuck at a bottleneck, and it would be useless for him to force it. It would be better for him to change his train of thought and cultivate his essence force while comprehending sorcery arts. Perhaps, he might be gaining a moment of enlightenment by learning how to paint every day.
Only five months had passed by, and it might still unsafe for them to head out at this moment. Very likely, Lu Lin was still sending people out to investigate their whereabouts secretly. Jiang Yi got Qian Wanguan to continue comprehending the soul spirit dao pattern shards. After he drank a cup of tea, he stood up, “Alright, Feng’er. You shall teach me how to paint.”
“Alright!”
Feng Luan nodded her head in agreement. She didn’t stand up. Rather, she sat upright and spoke, “Young Master have to understand some basic knowledge if you wished to learn how to paint. First are the types of painting. Our Phoenix Cry Continent had divided painting as ink painting, which was the kind of painting Young Master had just drawn using the writing brush. There is also the pastel painting, which is a paint smearing with pastels, which would produce a multi-colored painting. In addition, there is also mud painting, sketch painting, embroidery painting, engravement painting, and many others. Young Master… there is no need for you to learn any of those complicated ones. It will suffice as long as you concentrate on learning the ink painting.
“Secondly, there are different types of paintings. There’re landscape painting, portrait painting, animalistic painting, boundary painting, hazy painting, and many others. It is recommended for those new artists to start from landscape painting as they are relatively easy to learn.
“Thirdly is painting skills. Painting skills consist of the splashing of ink, meticulous brush technique, sketches, freehand brushwork, landscaping, line drawing, boneless painting, finger painting, and many others. Later on, Young Master shall have a look at how I paint while I will explain it to you in detail. I can give you an introduction to the foundations but a master can only help you to learn, and the practice will be up to individuals. As for what level Young Master’s painting skill can reach, it will have to depend on your own comprehension and hard work…”
Feng Luan could barely be counted as an expert in painting and calligraphy. There were too many things for Jiang Yi to grasp, causing him to have a big headache. Fortunately, Feng Luan was a pretty decent teacher. She had simply summarized some basic knowledge before standing up to paint. She taught while painting and explained things in a simple and easy to understand manner. This way, it would be a lot easier for Jiang Yi to learn.
Jiang Yi didn’t touch his brush for the whole day. Rather, he looked at Feng Luan paint unhurriedly as she explained bit by bit. The sky had already turned dark, and he had finally understood a rough idea of basic knowledge.
He attempted a few paintings, and sure enough, his level was growing slowly. The thunder mountains no longer trembled. The thunder ridges had also slowly had its form and the thunderbolts from the sky no longer resembled a chicken’s claw.
“Young Master had comprehended pretty well. Perseverance is a must in the world of painting and calligraphy. It is imminent before you become an Art Emperor.”
Feng Luan praised while nodding her head slightly. Jiang Yi laughed and put his brush away as he stretched. “Alright. We shall stop here for today. Should I cultivate or should… we continue to study our new move?”
“Not joining. I’m not joining.”
Qing Yu’s delicate body trembled as she fled immediately after Jiang Yi swept his gaze over. Feng Luan’s complexion had also changed and placed one of her hands on her well-developed buttock. She rolled her eyes and yelled, “Young Master, you are so naughty. It’s better for you to just cultivate. It still hurts there…”
“Hahaha!”
Jiang Yi laughed while facing upwards before returning to his room to cultivate. This time, he did not fuse any dao pattern. Rather, he cultivated his essence force and comprehended sorcery arts in order to change his train of thoughts. Otherwise, it would be troublesome if he was to be stray from the proper path and unable to get out.
After cultivating for a night, Jiang Yi only came out of seclusion in the afternoon. He continued to learn painting from Feng Luan again. He intended to spend a month time to see if he was able to create another Heaven Painting. He would no longer need to risk killing the mountain bandits once he was able to produce a large number of Heaven Painting.
Half a month later, Jiang Yi’s painting level had improved a lot, and Feng Luan said that it had reached an Artist’s standard. It could even be said that his progression was amazingly rapid. However, he was still not able to produce another Heaven Painting.
Jiang Yi was somewhat disappointed. On the contrary, Feng Luan and Qing Yu continued to encourage and cheered for Jiang Yi. Feng Luan did not hesitate to seduce Jiang Yi. She promised Jiang Yi that if he was able to paint another Heaven Painting, she would satisfy him any position or move he wanted. Feng Luan wasn’t as untrammeled as Qing Yu as she had been extremely conservative all along. Jiang Yi was filled with drive like he had been injected with chicken blood when she made that promise.
Along with the elapsing of time, the outside world became increasingly peaceful. It was as if Lu Lin had forgotten about the matter. Those mountain bandit legions also no longer paid any more attention in hunting Jiang Yi. The Hong and Li Clans also seemed to have given up. As for the remaining great clans’ young masters, they paid no attention to this at all.
A month later…!
Jiang Yi threw away the brush on his hand angrily as he spoke in spitting anger, “Not drawing anymore. So what if I became an Art Ancestor or Art King? A painting could only be sold for a few dozen thousands of celestial stones. Waste of time!”
Feng Luan remained silent while Qing Yu went to tidy up silently. Jiang Yi’s painting skills had improved very quickly for the past one month. However, there was still disparity from Feng Luan’s standard. This kind of stuff couldn’t be accomplished instantly. Most importantly… he had at least drawn several tens of thousands of paintings. However, not even one of them was a Heaven Painting. It seemed as if the Heaven Painting from that day was really just a stroke of luck.
