Chapter 4: Ancient Painting Scroll
“Really? It’s actually real… Scroll Painting?”
“It’s a Character Scroll Painting!”
“What’s the background of this kid?”
“A rich young master coming to experience life?”
The group of henchmen led by Blondie trembled in fear.
The Scarred Man only felt his scalp go numb, especially when meeting Xuantan True Lord’s majestic gaze, which instilled a deep-seated fear from within.
Just from the aura fluctuations, it seemed ordinary, but his intuition told him that this humanoid Painted Spirit Scroll Painting was incredibly powerful.
The hand tightly gripping Demon Slaying Saber trembled slightly.
“You… you… what exactly are you?” The Scarred Man’s voice trembled slightly.
What if he provoked some powerful second-generation ancestor? That would be bad.
Wu Xian didn’t waste words with him. With a slight movement of his mind, the God of Wealth pointed his Steel Whip, and lightning surged.
It was the Talent Trait Summoning Lightning and Controlling Electricity ability.
Boom!
Thunder burst forth.
The Scarred Man instinctively swung the Demon Slaying Saber to block, but he couldn’t resist the overwhelming thunderous assault at all. His entire body was instantly engulfed in electric light.
The henchmen scattered in panic, as if they had seen a ghost.
As the electric light faded, the Scarred Man was charred all over, grimacing in pain as he knelt on the ground, his body swaying unsteadily, the light of the Demon Slaying Saber in his hand dimmed.
One-shotted?
Copper Scroll Rubbing, Two-Star weapon Painted Spirit, this weak?
It seemed that the God of Wealth was at least at the “Copper Scroll” level now, or even higher.
While pondering, the Black Tiger under the God of Wealth seemed to sense something. Its cold gaze swept toward the distance, letting out a muffled low roar.
Wu Xian couldn’t help but look in the direction of the Black Tiger’s gaze, but saw nothing unusual, and he inwardly felt a bit puzzled.
He then ignored the Scarred Man and signaled Grandfather Wu Changming and the others to leave the North Street District.
Meanwhile, at a corner of the North Street District.
A handsome young man with curly hair was frowning intently at the scene before him.
Beside him, a humanoid creature pieced together from Broken Sword fragments, with sword blade fragments orbiting its body.
A long sword full of cracks in its hand swung, suppressing a terrifying Ghost engulfed in eerie green Ghost Fire.
Clearly, just a second ago it had been trading blows evenly with Broken Sword True Spirit, but suddenly, this ferocious Abyssal Monster seemed utterly terrified, getting pinned to the ground and rubbed by the Broken Sword True Spirit.
As a new Defense Team Member of the San Zai Gang, Du Yifan had seen all sorts of things.
The situation today was clearly off.
“Could it be that some senior passed by and incidentally intimidated this Abyssal Monster?”
After thinking it over, that seemed to be the only explanation.
“As expected, the instructor was right. San Zai Gang is truly full of hidden talents,” Du Yifan nodded deeply in agreement. After swiftly taking down the Abyssal Monster before him, he couldn’t help but feel curious, “Just wondering which senior it was?”
Merely passing by could scare a Third Order Abyssal Monster witless.
At least a Level Six or higher elite Spirit Tamer, right?
Perhaps some Master Scroll Painter.
After all, the North Street District was the underground trading market for Scroll Painters. To get assigned here, his family had pulled quite a few strings.
……
On the cluttered shantytown side.
Grandfather Wu Mingchang was beaming with pride, basking in the flattery and envy from his old pals. Even his back, hunched for half a lifetime, straightened a bit.
After sending off the old pals, Wu Mingchang eagerly started inquiring.
Wu Xian was half-concealing, vague in his responses.
The old master didn’t quite understand, but he was delighted anyway.
Looking at Wu Xian, his eyes were filled with relief and satisfaction, as if he had no regrets in life. “To think our Old Wu family could produce a Scroll Painter. This is truly…”
“Alright, Grandfather, just enjoy your peaceful life. Everything will be on me from now on.”
Unfortunately, the little old man clearly didn’t listen. He proudly pulled out a pile of junk like he was presenting treasure. “Right, these are all picked up from the North Street District. See if any can be repurposed from scrap?”
Wu Xian was just about to say “Let’s not do this anymore,” but the next second, he was utterly captivated by the “scrap” before him.
Pigment Boxes and Pigment Bottles from various brands and packaging, inevitably with some remnants and leftovers.
In addition, there were quite a few Other Dimension material scraps.
No wonder the Scarred Man and his gang wouldn’t let outsiders touch them. The North Street District trash recycling was indeed lucrative.
At this moment, that so-called “dignity” in his heart didn’t seem so important anymore.
What was that saying again?
Talk about dignity when you’re rich.
For dinner, he laid out the bought alcohol, meat, and food on the table, splurging big time with Grandfather.
He had planned to use Tang Tiaotiao’s twenty thousand to rent a better house and move out of the shantytown, but Grandfather strongly refused.
On one hand, he couldn’t bear to leave his old pals and neighbors; on the other, he wanted to save money for his grandson.
Though this amount was a drop in the bucket for a Scroll Painter, the older generation was like that—wanting to stretch every dollar into two.
Night had deepened.
Wu Xian returned to his little nook and sorted the North Street District scrap Grandfather had picked up—“garbage classification.”
Though it was just the “leftovers” from big-shot Scroll Painters, to a bottom-rung poor person, they were all expensive goodies.
Especially those brand pigments. Same brand, same model pigments had uniform Spiritual Formulas, which could be collected bit by bit.
Even the off-brand pigments could be gathered together for Spiritual Recycling.
“These two bottles seem like Custom Pigments.”
The two bottles of pigment before him had no labels, standard Pigment Bottle shape, but the remnants inside emitted intense and unique spiritual fluctuations.
Unlike the standardized, mass-produced pigments from major manufacturers.
Custom Pigments were far more expensive to make, with stricter materials and formulas, and each bottle had unique spiritual fluctuations.
Thus, they only had Spiritual Recycling value, not much use to Wu Xian.
Right now, to make money, there were basically two paths.
Either rely on Scroll Paintings, or have the God of Wealth go to Other Dimensions to farm materials to sell, and level up along the way.
For Scroll Paintings, naturally drawing God of Wealth instances, rubbings, and such, but Wu Xian couldn’t bear to share the Luck in Wealth, and it could invite trouble.
As for directly making Blood-Colored Life Scroll Scroll Paintings to sell, that was even more impossible.
For one, he didn’t yet know what Blood-Colored Life Scroll meant; for another, Blood-Colored Life Scroll Paintings seemed soul-bound to the drawer. Even if he wanted to sell, others might not be able to use them.
Therefore, Wu Xian’s current thought process was to first stockpile some Spiritual Pigments, then based on what he had, whip up a Scroll Painting suitable for promotion and selling.
“Speaking of, what exactly does this Blood-Colored Life Scroll mean?”
He pulled out his phone to search online, got a bunch of advertisements, basically no useful info.
But after carefully digging through the search results, he actually found some useful information.
“Ancient Scroll Painting?”
He then searched Ancient Scroll Painting, and this time, way more info came up.
Among them, a few posts mentioned that Ancient Scroll Painting scrolls were blood-colored.
These posts were basically discussing the restoration and creation of Ancient Scroll Paintings, pure technical posts, but unfortunately didn’t mention the differences between Ancient Scroll Paintings and modern ones.
Ding ling ling…
Phone video call.
“This late at night!”
Speechless, he pulled out his phone. Sure enough, it was Classmate Tang Tiaotiao harassing him. “What’s up? We already agreed—no responsibility if it doesn’t form a scroll on my end.”
But in the video, Tang Tiaotiao looked dazed yet elated. “What are you thinking? Miss here is calling to share good news.”
“Good news?”
“Ta-da! My Jade Rabbit Pounding Medicine succeeded—no, our Jade Rabbit Pounding Medicine!” Tang Tiaotiao displayed a Scroll Painting in front of the camera.
“Suc… succeeded?!”
Silver Scroll + Gold Embroidery Border, a proper Silver Scroll original Scroll Painting, leaving Wu Xian stunned.
Wait… this…
A fan-made remix could form a scroll?
Is this reasonable?
Maybe he “skimped” too much?
“Hee hee, failed a few times, but succeeded in the end,” Tang Tiaotiao was still immersed in joy. “And I feel your concept isn’t fully perfected yet. I’ll slowly refine it from here, Miss will handle the rest.”
“……”
Wu Xian was still immersed in existential doubt.
Meaning as long as the “general” framework is right, it can succeed?
What a blunder.
That was the Jade Rabbit! Though in previous life mythological legends just a harmless little character, not some ordinary Scroll Painting big shot to impersonate.
Back then, customizing the Graduation Design for thirty thousand, plus twenty thousand later, total only fifty thousand.
If he’d known, at least add two zeros.
After all, that was Jade Rabbit Pounding Medicine + original Copyright!
“Can I get it back now?” Wu Xian said wistfully.
“What do you think~!” Tang Tiaotiao had that smug look of having gotten a bargain and still playing innocent. “But don’t worry, Sister Tiao never shortchanges her own brothers. I’ll talk to Dad later, give you some compensation.
Also, see if I can draw an Original Copy to make it up to you.”
Hearing this, Wu Xian felt a bit better.
But he still couldn’t figure out how Tang Tiaotiao succeeded.
“Can you show me the Jade Rabbit’s scroll formation data?”
“Of course.”
With a light laugh, Tang Tiaotiao sent over the Jade Rabbit Pounding Medicine Scroll Painting info.
Moonlight Messenger – Jade Rabbit
Version: Original Gold Embroidery Border
Rank: Silver Scroll
Painted Spirit: half star
Spirituality: 49
Talent Traits: Jade Rabbit Pounding Medicine, Moonlight Guardian
Wu Xian looked at the Jade Rabbit’s Scroll Painting info, thoughtful.
Silver Scroll, 49 Spirituality, initial Painted Spirit Level only half a star, all stats seriously low.
The Scroll Painting name was also odd, called Moonlight Messenger.
Considering Tang Tiaotiao’s family background, the Drawing Paper and pigments were definitely top-tier. Even if Tang Tiaotiao’s Artistic Skill held it back, the stats shouldn’t be this low.
Clearly, this Jade Rabbit Painted Spirit had some issues, or rather, wasn’t fully perfected.
“Little Jade Rabbit is so cute. I think we should arrange a car for it, or put it in Mecha Armor for protection,” Tang Tiaotiao’s inspiration burst forth, letting her imagination run wild. “Little Xianzi, what do you think of this idea?”
“……”
Wu Xian was amused inwardly. Jade Rabbit driving—a moon buggy?
“Why Mecha Armor? Wouldn’t a pretty little dress be better?” Wu Xian couldn’t understand this woman’s thought process.
Tang Tiaotiao explained: “My family’s background has ties to the Mechanical System Dojo. We have some materials and Inheritance in that area. My brother is currently focusing on Mechanical Scroll Paintings.”
Wu Xian suddenly understood, a glint flickering in his eyes.
Materials and Inheritance for Mechanical Scroll Paintings? Interesting.
“Is Classmate Tang’s family in the mechanical business?”
“How many times do I have to say, call me Sister Tiao!” Tang Tiaotiao pretended to be angry. “Yeah, we’re in that business. You really didn’t know?”
“What specifically?”
“Cars, agricultural and industrial machinery, etc. Now aiming to expand into mechanical combat gear, depending on whether my brother steps up.” Tang Tiaotiao didn’t hide it.
“No wonder you’re so rich.”
Wu Xian smiled knowingly, thoughtful in his heart.
