Chapter 19: Withered Congenital Bay Laurel Tree
So the question is, why did the fragmented image of the Laurel Tree appear in this world?
And why did it appear in the form of an information network within this rare seed?
Perhaps, the Scroll Painting World has some connection to the world of his previous life?
While pondering, the mountain bike had already returned to the outpost.
Tang Tiaotiao, having found inspiration, hurriedly pulled Wu Xian to evacuate the instance.
After obtaining a portion of the “Big Nut,” Tang Tiaotiao prepared to take her leave. “This young lady will definitely amaze everyone this time! Little Xianzi, just wait for my good news.”
However, Wu Xian’s brows were furrowed, his gaze fixed intently on the distance.
“What’s wrong?”
Tang Tiaotiao looked over in doubt, only then noticing that the atmosphere at the Dimensional Port was off.
At the high-level instance entrance, the military was layered three deep outside three layers, with wounded being continuously transported out at that moment.
“Something happened at the high-level instance?” Wu Xian asked curiously, with a hint of worry.
“Probably some powerful monster appeared,” Tang Tiaotiao nodded thoughtfully. “I’ll have my dad inquire about it later.”
The two bid farewell and parted, without paying too much attention.
Taking a janky car back to the shantytown, seeing that the old master hadn’t returned yet, he hurriedly called him.
Just as he pulled out his phone, a broken car clattered to a stop at the door, and the old master got out unhurriedly.
Wu Xian quickly went up to greet him. “Where did you get this car from?”
“Rides are too much hassle, so I simply bought a broken car from the scrap yard for five thousand bucks.” The old master seemed to think the five thousand was well spent. “Oh right, on the way, I also took down a Dimensional Monster.”
With that, he hauled a Tier 2 Insectoid Race corpse from the trunk, leaving Wu Xian stunned.
“Where’d it come from?”
“Outskirts of the Old City District, saved a young couple while I was at it.” The old master didn’t think much of it. “Don’t say, that axis scroll painting you gave Grandfather is pretty useful.”
“As long as you’re okay,” Wu Xian breathed a sigh of relief. “Try not to meddle in the future.”
The old master nodded with a smile.
“Where all did you go today? Remember anything?” Wu Xian asked curiously.
“Wandered around aimlessly, lots of places aren’t like in my memories,” the old master sighed wistfully. “Haven’t recalled anything useful yet. Take it slow.”
Wu Xian didn’t ask more, and after eating with the old master, he dove into his own research.
…
Dengfeng Art Studio.
Tang Tiaotiao had prepared all the needed materials and, on her way back to the dorm, ran into their class’s homeroom teacher for new students this term, Teacher Zhang Heling.
“Teacher Zhang, I was just looking for you.”
“What’s up, Classmate Tang? Having some difficulty with your studies?” Zhang Heling asked with concern.
“Not at all,” Tang Tiaotiao got straight to the point. “Here’s the thing—I have a high school classmate from a poor family who missed the art studio’s assessment, but he really has talent. He figured it out on his own and made two scroll paintings.”
“Really?” Zhang Heling was slightly surprised but didn’t take it seriously.
A scroll painting drawn casually—how proper could it be?
“It’s true, I saw it with my own eyes.”
Zhang Heling pondered for a moment and smiled. “You mean, you want him to come study at our art studio?”
“Yeah, can he?”
“Teacher can’t make that call,” Zhang Heling looked troubled. “Besides, the art studio has no precedent for this, and you said the child is from a poor family. Even if he came to the art studio, what would be the point?”
Hearing this, Tang Tiaotiao felt inexplicably annoyed. “But he really is excellent~!”
“Classmate Little Tang, you need to understand—this world never lacks excellent people,” Zhang Heling shook his head with a smile. “But opportunities and resources are limited. Your friend might have some cleverness, but he may not be suited for this line of work.”
“…”
“Alright, focus on your studies.” Zhang Heling encouraged her with a light smile. “That scroll painting of yours has potential—don’t waste it.”
With that, he strolled away, not dwelling on the matter.
Every year, some so-called “hidden gems” come knocking, thinking that casually drawing one or two trash scroll paintings makes them buried scroll painter geniuses.
In the end, they often can’t even pass the most basic 【Apprentice Scroll Painter】 certification.
Not to mention those “hidden gems”—even the kids in the art studio, with both family background and talent, how many ultimately become 【Apprentice Scroll Painter】?
And Apprentice Scroll Painter is just the beginning; even fewer can advance further to become official scroll painters.
He himself was once hailed as a genius by people, yet now over forty, he had barely advanced to 【Official Scroll Painter】, scraping by as a teacher at the art studio.
“What the heck, not even giving him a chance,” Tang Tiaotiao fumed inexplicably. “What a crappy place!”
With that, she directly called her father. “Hey~ Dad, let me tell you something…”
…
San Zai Gang, shantytown.
Wu Xian was trying to draw out the 【Laurel】 using this rare material, the “Big Nut.”
But he got stuck at the very first step.
As mentioned before, the spiritual substance structure inside rare materials is extremely complex, with every part interlinked—move one and the whole moves.
Just separating each type of spiritual substance is no easy task.
Carefully feeling each type of spiritual substance, he quickly identified a few that might be compatible with the Laurel Tree’s characteristics.
He cautiously extracted those few types of spiritual substances; the rest could collapse for all he cared—the key was getting the ones he needed.
At the same time, faint fluctuations came from the God of Wealth Scroll.
“What does this mean? Is there spiritual substance suitable for the God of Wealth inside?”
Trying to bring the God of Wealth Scroll closer, sure enough, a wisp of spiritual light qi was absorbed by the God of Wealth.
Strangely, this wisp of spiritual light qi didn’t enhance the God of Wealth’s spirituality; instead, it deepened some patterns in the blood-colored Life Scroll.
He didn’t understand, but it wasn’t anything bad anyway.
He then extracted the needed spiritual substances, merged and mixed them together, but the color and texture were still off.
So he extracted some plant-related spiritual substances from his existing pigments and materials for fine color adjustment.
Finally, a dark yet pristine pigment was mixed successfully, perfectly matching Wu Xian’s conception and design for the Laurel Tree.
He took out a sheet of good quality drawing paper and began drawing.
His mind started recalling legends of the Laurel Tree, but he couldn’t form a clear image of the Laurel Tree in his head.
As a result, when he was only halfway done, the drawing paper shattered.
“Is it because the prestige is too high?”
He clearly had a complete concept and compatible spiritual pigments, yet there was always a feeling of “not quite reaching it,” even unable to clearly conceive it in his mind.
In short, the success rate would be low, but not zero.
He had plenty of materials left anyway—just try a few more times.
Thus, the second time, third time… consecutive failures.
It wasn’t until the fourth attempt that world laws finally converged, forming the scroll.
【Fragmented·Innate Laurel Tree】
Version: Original（Gold Embroidery Border）
Rank: Copper Scroll
Painted Spirit: ★
Spirituality: 31
Talent Trait: Taiyin Spiritual Root
“Fragmented version?” Wu Xian’s expression was odd. “Can it even work like that?”
Even the scroll painting imprint in his mind was a blurry image.
But on second thought, it seemed fine—after all, it was a prestige-packed innate spiritual root. With his current ability and conditions, being able to draw a
“Fragmented” version of the Laurel Tree was already impressive.
He tried activating the Laurel Tree Scroll Painting to summon it.
In an instant, divine light filled the room, and a tree of ghostly light divine tree materialized in the air, its halo like a bright moon, casting a clear, sacred tone over the room.
“Gathering and absorbing spiritual energy?”
The surrounding spiritual energy was continuously converging toward the Laurel Tree and being transformed by it into a special spiritual qi.
Trying to absorb the spiritual qi for cultivation, the effect was far better than directly absorbing spiritual energy.
“Good stuff!”
Isn’t this a proper cultivation accelerator?
