Chapter 5: The Three Essentials Of Painting Scrolls
Mechanical Scroll Paintings can be said to be the most accessible and down-to-earth Scroll Paintings.
They are aimed at the general public and permeate all aspects of people’s lives.
The only drawback is that their upper limit is relatively low, and Mechanical System Scroll Paintings are generally weak in high-end combat power.
“Are you planning to arrange a mount and Mecha Armor for the Jade Rabbit? How exactly do you intend to achieve that?” Wu Xian was full of curiosity about this.
“Naturally, by conceiving a wonderful encounter between the Jade Rabbit and the great God of Mechanics.”
Tang Tiaotiao’s eyes sparkled with hearts, as if she was already immersed in her own melodramatic concept.
“Is that all it takes?” Wu Xian was deeply skeptical.
Tang Tiaotiao chuckled lightly, “This is just the preliminary background setting. Whether it ultimately succeeds or not will still depend on pigment mixing and drawing skill.”
“Pigment mixing?” Wu Xian was startled. “You know how to make pigments too?”
“Of course,” Tang Tiaotiao replied without hesitation. “The core of Mechanical System Scroll Paintings is pigment mixing. It can even be said to be an independent field of study. Unfortunately, I never thought about becoming a Scroll Painter before, so I didn’t study it much. Lately, I’ve been cramming.”
“Speaking of which, how exactly are spiritual pigments mixed?”
“It’s actually quite simple. You use spiritual energy to infiltrate and extract various spiritual substances from the materials, then mix them to create various spiritual characteristics. However, for Mechanical System pigments, the formulation also involves spiritual constructions at the level of mechanical principles, so it’s more troublesome.”
“Thank you, Classmate Tang, for the guidance.”
Wu Xian took a deep breath to express his gratitude.
“Sister Tiao! Sister Tiao! Sister Tiao!”
“Got it, Sister Tiao.”
After ending the video call, Wu Xian’s mood couldn’t calm down for a long time.
Tang Tiaotiao’s seemingly simple explanation and guidance had directly awakened him.
The core of Mechanical Scroll Paintings lies in pigment mixing and spiritual constructions at the level of mechanical principles. Isn’t it the same for other types of Scroll Paintings?
To put it bluntly, for【Extraordinary Scroll Paintings】, Scroll Painting concepts and pigment mixing are equally important.
Pigments are used to build the body, while Scroll Painting concepts imbue the soul.
The drawing process is like the installation and fusion process of body and soul.
Scroll Painting concepts, pigment mixing, and drawing skill complement each other and are indispensable.
Due to their special nature, Mechanical Scroll Paintings emphasize the “body” aspect more, though Wu Xian reserved judgment on this view.
In his opinion, although machines are cold, the “soul” is equally crucial.
“No wonder Mechanical System Scroll Paintings have always been at a disadvantage in high-end combat power.”
The Mechanical Scroll Painters in this world have clearly gone astray.
Of course, the current focus is not Mechanical System Scroll Paintings, but pigment mixing.
This is the only thing he currently lacks.
These “trash” from the North Street District in front of him are just right for research and exploration.
“Using spiritual energy to infiltrate and extract spiritual substances from materials?”
He picked up a piece of scrap material, like the edge of an Insectoid Race shell, and channeled spiritual energy to infiltrate it. The complex material structure was chaotic yet orderly, and he could clearly sense spiritual fluctuations—this was spiritual substance.
Because it was scrap material, the spiritual fluctuations emitted by these spiritual substances were quite mixed.
Further sensing with mental power, he could feel: Insectoid Race, keratin, toxicity, proliferation, toughness… and a series of other complex spiritual element information.
He tried using spiritual energy to extract and separate several spiritual substances.
Strands of mottled light qi escaped from the material and gathered into a clump of mottled energy substance under the envelopment of spiritual energy.
The entire Insectoid Race shell then collapsed into a puddle of residue.
“I see.”
While pondering, Wu Xian roughly understood the principle of making spiritual pigments.
Spiritual substances of different properties have different colors, lusters, and textures. To mix suitable pigments, other spiritual substances must be added for color adjustment.
Next, he tried incorporating this clump of mottled energy substance into that bottle of light blue custom pigment.
From the spiritual fluctuations, this light blue pigment was mainly water attribute, energy, and plant characteristics, mixed with some “impurity” characteristics.
The moment the mottled energy substance was incorporated, the color, texture, and luster changed at a visible speed.
Then, accompanied by a “cracking”-like spiritual energy fluctuation, it completely lost its spirituality.
“As expected, it’s not that simple.”
Clearly, mixing spiritual pigments is not just about color adjustment; it also requires balancing the overall spiritual stability.
As for how to balance color adjustment and spiritual stability, the residual pigments he had were undoubtedly a good reference.
He continued extracting various spiritual substances from the scrap materials, sensing the characteristics and subtleties of different spiritual substances.
“Hm?!”
While extracting spiritual substances from a bone fragment, the【Xuantan True Lord – Zhao Gongming】 Scroll Painting beside him suddenly glowed faintly, as if sensing something.
He picked up the Scroll Painting and hesitantly brought it close to the bone fragment.
The next second, among the mottled light qi emitted from the bone fragment, several strands of spiritual substances were absorbed into the blood-colored Life Scroll of the Scroll Painting.
Mainly【lightning】 spiritual substances, along with some faint, unrecognizable chaotic spiritual substances.
“Could it be…?!”
He quickly unfurled the Scroll Painting to check, and some lines and colors on the God of Wealth’s body had undergone subtle changes.
Most importantly, the original spirituality of 13 points had increased to 14 points.
Ancient Scroll Paintings seem able to directly absorb spiritual substances for improvement and growth, while modern Scroll Paintings clearly lack this ability.
As far as he knew, modern Scroll Paintings could only be improved in spirituality and rank through【redrawing】 or【retouching】.
Redrawing essentially means replacing with better drawing paper and pigments while retaining the Painted Spirit level, and redrawing it from scratch.
Retouching involves replacing pigments, modifying, adding color, and so on, based on the original painting.
While【Ancient Scroll Paintings】 seem to skip these troubles and can improve just by absorbing suitable spiritual substances.
“It really is a growth-type Scroll Painting?”
This discovery excited Wu Xian immensely.
Unfortunately, he didn’t encounter any more spiritual substances suitable for the God of Wealth afterward.
By the end of the night, he had cleanly processed all the “trash” in his hands.
Although there was no significant progress, he was still eager for more and had vaguely grasped some insights.
“It seems necessary to visit the North Street District more often.”
After telling his grandfather Wu Changming, he set off directly for the North Street District.
The North Street District had a complex mix of people coming and going.
He originally wanted to buy some otherworld materials to practice with, but after visiting several material shops, he was deterred by the exorbitant prices of various materials. His 20,000 in cash was far from enough.
Even the cheapest Insectoid Race materials made Wu Xian hesitate.
It must be known that Insectoid Race materials are renowned for their high production volume, with generally lower prices. They are the raw material used most by pigment manufacturers and the best practice materials for pigment mixing.
“Forget it. It’s more practical to personally go to an other dimension instance.”
He turned to an appliance store and spent 12,800 Spirit Yuan to acquire a cost-effective【Spatial Bracelet】.
An essential storage device for Spirit Tamers, it is also a Mechanical Scroll Painting product.
Opening the exquisite packaging, a copper Life Scroll with white edges came into view.
【Spatial Bracelet】
Version: Rubbing（White Edge）
Rank: Copper Scroll
Appliance Level: ★★
Characteristics: Subspace storage
At this price, getting a two-star Copper Scroll level bracelet was already quite good.
A big-brand bracelet would start at least at 20,
If it were an upgradable【instance】 bracelet, it would cost ten times more.
He left a mental mark with his intent and activated it with spiritual energy. The Scroll Painting slowly unfurled in soft light, transforming into a sleek silver-black bracelet full of sci-fi vibes.
Probing inside with mental power, he could see a storage space the size of a house.
“I’ll make do with this for now. Once I have money later, I’ll get a whole Qiankun Bag.”
As long as the pigment materials are in place, all sorts of awesome divine artifacts and magic treasures await him.
In a word: the future looks promising!
And today was also a day full of hope.
Coming out of the appliance store, he was full of vigor, heading straight for the trash cans in the street corner.
Under the influence of the God of Wealth’s【Aura of Wealth】 characteristic, Wu Xian could sense the value differences of different trash at a glance. Picking up trash even generated a tiny bit of aura of wealth—small amounts, but they add up.
After picking up trash from a few spots, he encountered a brawl between two groups of trash pickers.
One side was the group led by the Scarred Man from yesterday. Poor Scarred Man, old wounds not healed, now with new ones; his group was beaten black and blue and retreated in disarray.
“The competition is this intense~!” Wu Xian exclaimed with a tsk.
Although that pile of trash had a strong “wealth” flavor, he didn’t step forward to join the fight.
Picking trash didn’t warrant shouting and fighting.
He quietly walked away, picking up trash along the way, contributing a bit to the city’s hygiene and civilization, and arrived near the Dimensional Gate.
The vast Dimensional Plaza was crowded with people.
Stall vendors selling goods, material resellers, teams forming for instances, and rows of food and drink sellers nearby—it was like a bustling market.
There were also some young Spirit Tamer figures among them, full of anticipation for other dimension training, completely unaware of the dangers of other dimensions.
Just like this university student team chattering past Wu Xian.
Over a dozen young men and women, all youthful and vibrant, dressed sharply—those who didn’t know would think they were on a field trip.
The leading male teacher, around thirty, had a stern face. “Be serious, you all. You’re here for training camp, not a picnic!”
Hearing this, the students quieted down, but from their carefree looks, it was clear they weren’t taking it seriously.
Full of confidence in the Scroll Paintings their parents had spent a fortune to equip them with.
“A training team?”
Wu Xian couldn’t help but look a few more times.
Calculating the time, the university freshmen training camp was indeed about to start this year. Those who could participate were basically from well-off families.
Freshmen training, also known as Spirit Tamer training camp, required at least possessing one combat Scroll Painting.
“I advise you to get your attitudes straight. Don’t think you’re something just because you have a few Scroll Paintings. You’re still far from becoming excellent Spirit Tamers!”
The team leader scolded coldly, but he knew preaching was futile.
Only personal experience could make them realize the terror of other dimension monsters and the significance of Spirit Tamers.
This was also the main reason he chose to lead the team to the【Abyssal Realm】.
The biggest feature of the Abyssal Realm was its eerie terror, undoubtedly the best choice for baptizing the freshmen and completing their transformation.
Looking at the students still unconcerned before him, the team leader smirked inwardly.
Laugh all you want. Hopefully, you can still laugh after entering the Abyssal Realm.
At the foot of the grand Dimensional Gate, large and small other dimension nodes were distributed, each corresponding to different areas of the【Abyssal Realm】. Each dimension node was marked with different danger coefficients.
For Wu Xian’s first “instance run,” to be safe, he naturally chose the lowest difficulty dimension node.
“Entry fee Special certificates get 20% off.”
The entrance staff pointed lazily at the sign nearby, their voice tinged with numbness and boredom.
Wu Xian paid silently. Though it hurt a bit, he could understand.
After all, the Dimensional Gate, as an other dimension seal, required regular maintenance and inspection.
A hundred bucks wasn’t expensive. Just getting some valuable materials inside would guarantee a profit.
