Chapter 51: Peculiar Tattoo Pigment
“You want to become a Scroll Painter?” Wu Xian’s expression was peculiar.
Tattoo Brother Lin Yang nodded devoutly.
“But aren’t you doing Human Scroll Painting Art?”
“It’s precisely because I couldn’t become a Scroll Painter that I came up with this on my own.” Tattoo Brother’s eyes were clear, “Who would mess around with this stuff if they could actually learn to paint Scrolls?”
Wu Xian grew more and more confused the more he listened, “You’re saying you created Human Scroll Painting Art because you couldn’t learn to paint Scrolls?”
“Yeah,” Lin Yang replied without hesitation, “The mixing, combining, and application of Spirituality—that’s exactly what Scroll Painters study, isn’t it? Back then, I didn’t have money to buy Spiritual Drawing Paper, so I picked up some scrap material to mess around with pigments, then tested it on myself.”
As he spoke, he pulled out a bunch of Scroll Painter tools and sketches from his Spatial Bracelet.
“Little brother, take a look. I’ve never given up on my dream all these years—these are Scroll Painting Sketches I conceived in my spare time,” Lin Yang kept showing them to Wu Xian, “Unfortunately, they all fail the moment I use Spiritual Drawing Paper; they just can’t form a Scroll.”
Wu Xian flipped through Lin Yang’s concept sketches; purely in terms of drawing skill, they were quite good, even carrying a unique artistic sense.
But the art style of those paintings looked strange no matter how he examined them, always feeling like something was off.
“Where did you learn to draw?” Wu Xian asked in doubt.
“From my dad.”
“Is your father a painter?” Wu Xian was surprised.
“My dad is also a Tattoo Artist, a family craft passed down for generations; he studied painting for a few years,” Lin Yang said proudly, “The tattoos on those thugs in Rat Alley Street were all done by my dad and me—our reputation is absolutely impeccable.”
“…” Wu Xian was at a loss whether to laugh or cry.
No wonder this guy’s paintings looked more and more off the more he looked at them.
“Please guide me, little brother—what exactly is wrong with my work?” Lin Yang looked at Wu Xian eagerly.
“No need to call it guidance; let’s learn from each other.” Wu Xian waved his hand with a smile, “I’ll teach you drawing, and you teach me how to apply Spiritual Pigments on the body, how about that?”
“Sure, sure.”
Lin Yang agreed without the slightest hesitation, afraid Wu Xian might change his mind.
Over all these years, he hadn’t been without attempts to apprentice under Scroll Painters and learn, but those Scroll Painters would look at him like trash the moment they heard he was a tattoo artist, shooing him far away.
Now someone was finally willing to guide him, and it thrilled him to no end.
“So many concept sketches, and not a single one can form a Scroll?”
Wu Xian continued flipping through Lin Yang’s achievements over the years, secretly puzzled.
Lin Yang shook his head awkwardly.
“Not a single one?” Wu Xian confirmed again.
Logically speaking, it shouldn’t be possible for none to succeed at all; after all, even Trash Scroll Paintings are still Scroll Paintings—it’s just a difference in quality.
“Draw one on practice drawing paper and let me see.”
“You’re too kind.”
Lin Yang took out a bunch of bottles and jars of his homemade pigments and began demonstrating on the spot.
Wu Xian immediately noticed something off, “The spiritual fluctuation of your pigments is so strange.”
He picked up a bottle of pigment and examined it closely; its spiritual structure was completely different from common pigments.
“Don’t tell me this is the pigment you use for tattooing?” Wu Xian asked strangely.
“What else?” Lin Yang replied without thinking.
“…”
Good grief, nothing about this was normal; no wonder it couldn’t succeed.
Perhaps it was precisely because of these unconventional aspects that he came up with that clever move of human spiritual tattoos?
He then discussed pigment mixing with Lin Yang, once again shattering Wu Xian’s cognition.
Tattoo Brother’s pigment mixing method shocked him greatly; it could even be described as utterly unorthodox.
And so, Wu Xian guided him on the thought process for normal Spiritual Pigment mixing while learning Tattoo Brother’s mixing ideas.
They both learned eagerly, each feeling like they got the better deal.
After a while, Zhang Mazi waiting outside thought something had happened and came in to check.
Tattoo Brother grew more and more excited as he learned, “No wonder whenever I paint on Spiritual Drawing Paper, the pigments always tend to soak and scatter—it turns out the pigment mixing method was wrong.”
“Also, you need to adjust your art style a bit.”
While giving pointers, Wu Xian curiously picked up Lin Yang’s pigment to try it; sure enough, when painted on Spiritual Drawing Paper, it soaked and scattered.
It severely affected the drawing.
Next, he tried smearing the pigment on the back of his hand and could clearly feel the spiritual substance in the pigment penetrating the skin, bringing a fiery burning sensation.
He hurriedly wiped the pigment off the back of his hand, thinking to himself that this guy was truly a genius.
“Have you never thought to try common market pigments?” Wu Xian asked puzzled.
“I tried a few times without success and stopped buying them—they’re too expensive.”
Wu Xian was actually speechless.
Perhaps this was the so-called poor man’s mindset.
At that moment, a commotion came from outside the room, and the two hurried out to check.
“Brother Lin, quick, save him…”
A street thug rushed into the clinic holding another unconscious little thug, his expression anxious.
“Don’t panic!”
Lin Yang immediately began checking the patient’s condition, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper.
Wu Xian quickly saw the little thug’s condition too—a very common ailment in the shantytown, but this little thug’s case was a bit severe, with many parts of his body already starting to shrivel and harden.
A typical case of “Twisted Pollution.”
However, Tattoo Brother Lin Yang’s next move left him dumbfounded.
He pulled out bottles and jars of tattoo pigment and began tattooing directly on the little thug.
“This…?!”
Lin Yang gave a honest smile and explained, “My dad discovered back then that tattooing certain Spiritual Pigments into the body could help many people curb the worsening of their conditions; now my pigments have even better effects.”
“？!”
Wu Xian stared in disbelief, eyes wide.
In an instant, the image of the bald Tattoo Brother before him suddenly became towering, his shiny bald head starting to gleam with radiance.
Looking at Zhang Mazi and the other little thugs’ gazes toward Tattoo Brother—that was true respect.
Soon after, the unconscious little thug gradually regained vital signs, though his body now had some simple tattoo patterns in various places.
“You guys have tattoos too, right? Why can’t I see them?” Wu Xian asked Zhang Mazi in doubt.
Zhang Mazi calmly said, “Our tattoos are quite special; they require multiple tattooing sessions to absorb, invisible normally, and only manifest when spiritual power is activated.”
As he spoke, he circulated his spiritual power, revealing the faint tattoo lines on his arm.
“The tattoo on my right arm has been deepened three times and is starting to show traces; we call them spiritual tattoos.”
Wu Xian understood.
Just as Scrolls require better materials to reconstruct and improve, Tattoo Brother’s “Human Scroll Painting Art” naturally needed higher-quality spiritual substances to repeatedly deepen and strengthen.
“What about your brothers—why haven’t they started evolving?” Wu Xian asked curiously.
“Their physical quality isn’t up to standard yet.”
“Physical quality?” Wu Xian was stunned.
Only after Zhang Mazi’s explanation did he learn that this method had very high requirements for physical quality and will.
The more tattooing sessions, the higher the requirements; otherwise, the body simply couldn’t withstand the power of “evolution.”
“Once I break through to Tier 4 Spiritual Power, I can withstand more tattooing,” Zhang Mazi said.
Wu Xian fell silent, involuntarily thinking of the Old Master’s heaven-defying physical quality and that set of suspected “cultivation technique” spiritual power usage skills.
It was simply a perfect match!
After some chit-chat and discussion with Tattoo Brother afterward, they exchanged contact information and bid farewell.
Walking through the chaotic Rat Alley District, looking at the colorful people reveling in the mud pit, his mood was complex.
In the eighteen years since crossing over, it was the first time he had a deeper cognition of the shantytown where he lived.
The reason he hadn’t fallen to this point was partly due to the Old Master’s hardships, and partly because he was born with a mature mind.
But what about those children who truly grew up in the shantytown?
Looking again at the hideous, terrifying dimensional rift in the sky overhead.
He didn’t understand—why was this world like this?
“Ah—there’s a monster—!”
Screams pulled Wu Xian back from his thoughts; in the narrow street not far away, the crowd was fleeing in panic.
He could vaguely see three Insectoid Monsters rampaging through the crowd.
