Chapter 27: Black And White Impermanence
While finalizing the draft, he perfected the scroll painting concept in his mind, ensuring the scroll painting concept echoed the painting draft.
Next came the pigment mixing stage.
Among the materials collected along the way, most were abyssal monster materials, rich in internal spiritual substances: death, lost souls, yin energy, bones, flesh… and so on, a series of complex spiritual substances.
Plus, the required colors for these two were relatively simple, so mixing them was still quite easy.
The only difficulty lay in how to pack even richer spiritual substances into the pigments.
“What’s going on?”
During the process of extracting spiritual substances, he clearly felt strands of power merging into his body, yet he couldn’t sense the existence of these powers at all.
Continuing the attempt, he discovered similar energy contained in every material.
But materials produced in normal instances did not have this special energy.
It was like a special ingredient unique to dimensional mirage monsters.
“Monsters invading through dimensional mirages are indeed different.”
He just wasn’t quite clear yet what these “special ingredients” really were or what effects they had.
Unknowingly, the pigment mixing succeeded.
He took out drawing paper and started drawing directly, with the concepts and settings in his mind building synchronously.
Gradually, one black and one white, the two ghost messengers leaped onto the paper. The white ghost messenger was tall and thin, clad in a white robe, holding a soul summoning banner, with a smiling face and a long tongue protruding, topped by a tall white official hat inscribed with the four large characters “One Glance Brings Wealth.”
The black ghost messenger was wide and fat, clad in a black robe, holding a soul restraining chain, with a fierce black face, topped by a black official hat inscribed with the four characters “Peace Throughout the World.”
The two ghost messengers held the two handheld tablets of Reward Good and Punish Evil, their eerie and terrifying images exuding an inexplicable majesty.
They were precisely Black and White Impermanence, the two underworld officials from the Underworld, respectfully called Second Master Impermanence by the folk, also known as Seventh Master and Eighth Master.
The instant the brush fell and the draft was completed, heaven and earth laws locked on, yin energy gathered, framing it into a scroll.
The figures of the two ghost messengers also deeply imprinted in his mind, certifying copyright.
And those special ingredients from the previous materials also merged into the scroll painting imprints of the two ghost messengers, making the imprints of the two ghost messengers even clearer and more vivid.
“What exactly is that energy?”
In his puzzlement, the freshly baked scroll painting slowly fell into Wu Xian’s hands.
Black and White Impermanence
Version: Original Gold Embroidery Border
Rank: Copper Scroll
Painted Spirit: star
Spirituality: 39
Talent Trait: Summon Souls and Detain Souls, Reward Good and Punish Evil
“Only Copper Scroll One-Star?” Wu Xian wondered inwardly.
He had originally thought materials from the dimensional mirage could produce a higher quality scroll painting; it seemed he had overthought it.
That special energy component in the materials seemed to only affect the scroll painting imprint in his sea of consciousness, and for now, no effects were apparent.
At the same time, the abyssal monsters wandering outside the small courtyard seemed to sense something, fleeing in panic one by one.
When Wu Xian walked out of the room, the old masters were puzzled by this.
“Huh? Why did all those abyssal monsters run away?”
“Seems like they were scared off by Xian boy.”
“Old Wu is so lucky to have such a promising grandson.”
“Xian boy, perfect timing for you to come out,” Grandpa Wang came forward to greet him. “We just took in some nearby neighbors; at this rate, the courtyard might not have room.”
“No problem.”
Wu Xian smiled calmly and immediately painted on the spot.
In one go, using practice drawing paper, he drew ten simple Chicken King and Divine Tiger and distributed them to the old masters, telling them to post them at their own doorways.
After settling the old masters, it was time to take the freshly baked Black and White Impermanence out for leveling.
No sooner had he stepped out the door than he saw a familiar group charging over, led by a fierce tiger painted spirit roaring fiercely, tearing apart several obstructing abyssal monsters.
After recognizing it was Zhao He and Blondie and their group, Wu Xian was both surprised and delighted.
“Old Zhao, weren’t you outside? How did you get in?”
Seeing Wu Xian, Zhao He and the others instantly felt much more secure and hurriedly explained, “According to the young officer outside, the shantytown can only enter now, not exit.”
“Only enter, not exit?” Wu Xian secretly rejoiced.
Though he couldn’t get out temporarily, Grandfather Wu Mingchang could come back.
“What’s the situation outside now?” Wu Xian inquired.
“It was just chaotic at the start, but it’s stabilized now…” Zhao He briefly described the outside situation.
Hearing what Zhao He said, Blondie and the others nearby couldn’t help cursing the authorities’ decisions toward the shantytown and all sorts of discriminatory treatments.
Compared to the chaos in the shantytown, the outer districts were brimming with troops, exceptionally stable.
The army and various spirit tamers took control of the situation right away; only the North Street District was relatively more chaotic.
In contrast, the shantytown was sealed and isolated first thing, and surprisingly, only three young people were sent over for show.
At this moment, Wu Xian finally understood the meaning of Zhang Mazi’s words.
This was downright not treating the shantytown residents as people at all!
“Alright, I’ve got Chicken King and Divine Tiger paintings to ward off evil here; you all stay and guard this place with peace of mind. I’ll go check outside.”
With Zhao He and the others holding down the fort, Wu Xian felt much more secure, since he wasn’t sure of the upper limit of the Chicken King and Divine Tiger warding paintings either.
“Little Boss, you be careful too!” Zhao He said concernedly as he saw him off. “Survival comes first.”
Wu Xian smiled knowingly, full of confidence in his heart.
After moving a distance away, he decisively released Black and White Impermanence, the two ghost messengers.
Several nearby wandering abyssal monsters scattered like frightened birds.
But White Impermanence raised the soul summoning banner, and yin wind blew fiercely.
Several low-rank abyssal monsters were dragged by some force, slowing uncontrollably and pulled toward Wu Xian.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Black Impermanence’s soul restraining chain shot out, skewering several abyssal monsters like candied hawthorns.
The instant they were touched by the soul restraining chain, the abyssal monsters went “offline” like puppets, falling into a dazed, manipulable state.
But from the flickering ghostly light on the chain, the abyssal monsters were clearly resisting in some way, to no avail.
In no time, the several skewered abyssal monsters gradually lost their eerie aura, reduced to empty “dead” shells.
“Tsk tsk, professional work is best left to professionals.”
Though the God of Wealth was strong, one lightning magic blast often scattered the abyssal monsters’ souls to the wind, leaving only scraps.
But Black and White Impermanence could achieve lossless perfect kills, preserving 100% of the abyssal monsters’ value.
And so.
While others were still hiding and dodging, fighting dimensional mirage monsters.
Wu Xian was already chasing abyssal monsters all over the world.
“Over there~ Over there~!”
One black and one white shadowy figures flew ahead, with Wu Xian riding the Chicken King close behind.
It had to be said, dimensional mirage monsters’ “experience points” were indeed plentiful; unknowingly, Black and White Impermanence had leveled up to one-and-a-half stars and were steadily advancing toward two stars.
Along the way, the rescued civilians were full of gratitude, though facing Black and White Impermanence’s terrifying images, they couldn’t help being a bit scared.
“Trash Processing Plant?”
Wu Xian looked thoughtfully at the terrified trash processing plant employees before him.
You know, trash processing plant employees were the “Brahmins” of the shantytown; those who could get in were basically spiritual energy cultivators. Even they were scared like this, so one could imagine how dire the situation was at the trash processing plant.
He had noticed earlier that the abyssal monsters fled in the same direction upon seeing Black and White Impermanence, and chasing them had brought him closer and closer to the trash processing plant.
Clearly, there was a problem at the trash processing plant.
Combined with the authorities’ attitude toward the shantytown, it was easy for him to imagine some conspiracy theory.
