Chapter 7: Chicken King And Divine Tiger
“You mean that unfamiliar Painted Spirit took down a Tier 2 otherworldly Abyssal Monster in just two moves?” Liang Ping grew more shocked as he listened, “What’s that person’s spiritual energy level?”
“Tier ”
“Lightning system, humanoid, riding a black tiger Painted Spirit,” Liang Ping pondered inwardly, “Are you sure it’s from another training team?”
“Uh, not too clear on that. That guy seemed pretty aloof.” The male classmate replied.
Liang Ping nodded thoughtfully, saying no more.
At such a young age, wielding an unfamiliar Painted Spirit with strong combat power, and so composed and calm, clearly not an ordinary Spirit Tamer.
More like a Scroll Painter student from an art studio, “Could it be a freshman from Dengfeng Art Studio this year?”
At that moment, a howling Yin Wind sound alerted the three of them.
Looking over, they saw a redwood coffin hovering in mid-air, with a eerie and evil young woman standing on it, curiously sizing them up.
“I am the team leader from Xuantian Academy, Liang Ping. What business does Your Excellency have?”
Xue Lingling was slightly surprised, “I sensed something unusual here just now and came to check out of curiosity. Didn’t expect it to be people from Xuantian Academy. Tsk tsk~ Four-star Dragon Clan Scroll Painting on a golden axis, nice stuff.”
“Your Excellency is…【Death Mountain Town】 outpost leader?” Liang Ping didn’t quite understand what Xue Lingling was saying.
Xue Lingling neither confirmed nor denied, “Brother Liang has come from afar. If you have any trouble, feel free to come to me. I’m happy to help with Xuantian Academy’s matters.”
“Then thank you,” Liang Ping responded politely, “If the outpost has any difficulties, Liang Mou would also be glad to lend a hand.”
The training would last over a month, and they’d inevitably have to deal with the outpost leader later.
Just not clear on this young lady’s background yet.
…
Meanwhile, Wu Xian had returned to the North Street District of San Zai Gang.
After some price comparisons, he sold off the highly redundant ordinary materials, netting 10857 Spirit Yuan.
“Isn’t this way better than scavenging?”
Earning ten thousand a day, a month without rest would be three hundred thousand in income. Just thinking about it was exciting.
He turned and entered the Scroll Supplies Store.
“Hello, how much for drawing paper and pigments?”
“What brand are you looking for? Our store cooperates with popular brands of different tiers.” The shop assistant greeted enthusiastically.
“Uh,” Wu Xian smiled awkwardly yet politely, “Something with good value for money is fine.”
The shop assistant understood and led Wu Xian to the counter, “I recommend our local Yaoyang City product. It’s the top choice for value seekers. The manufacturer has partnered with us for years, quality guaranteed.”
In the end, under the shop assistant’s recommendation, he splurged on ten sheets of practice drawing paper（85 per sheet）, and one sheet of good quality drawing paper（536 per sheet）.
Plus two boxes of comprehensive pigments, covering a full range of colors while emphasizing versatility, with all common spiritual features available—undoubtedly the top choice for Scroll Painter trainees’ daily practice.
Of course, such comprehensive functionality came at a hefty price.
Each box cost 6180 Spirit Yuan, totaling 13746 Spirit Yuan spent, which made Wu Xian’s heart ache.
But as the saying goes, no investment, no return?
Back at his shantytown home, seeing his grandfather still sorting scrap, he felt inwardly helpless.
After dinner together, he locked himself in his little nook to study.
The comprehensive pigment box had a wide variety of spiritual features, but was jack of all trades, master of none. The internal spiritual substances were also low quality and tier, unsuitable for anything too advanced.
“Prestige can’t be too high, but it has to be practical and suitable for replication to sell. This is really stumping me.”
With so many awesome mythological legends from his previous life, finding something low-end yet practical wasn’t easy.
It was like having a good hand in cards but pondering how to play singles.
“Yaoyang City backs onto the mechanical, Insectoid Race, and abyssal dimensional gates. I can screen from these three directions.”
As the saying goes, give the people what they need.
For the mechanical system, the creation method was quite special, so set aside for now.
That left only the Insectoid Race system and abyssal system, these two major “disasters.”
For insects, naturally 【Sun Wukong】, the insect nemesis, but Wu Xian wanted to keep this big shot for his own use and didn’t need to bring out this powerhouse yet.
The big rooster posted at the door during Qingming Festival in his previous life was enough, commonly known as the 【Chicken King Town Protection Diagram】.
Additionally, Qingming Festival had not only roosters but also tigers posted; the former repelled snakes, insects, rats, and ants, the latter warded off evil and avoided calamity.
Good grief, wasn’t this exactly what he needed now?
“Not to mention~ Yaoyang City seems to have quite the destiny with Qingming Festival from my previous life.”
The only awkward part was, in his previous life, he’d never actually drawn these things. He just remembered that every Qingming Festival, his elders would post a pair of roosters and tigers at the front door, then seal the doorway line with stove ash.
He had a deep impression of the Chicken King Town Protection and Guardian Tiger images.
Their images were actually very simple, even crude, basically following the composition and art style of paper-cutting art.
With his skill level, replicating them was no difficulty.
No time like the present, time to start trying.
He took out a sheet of practice drawing paper, infused spiritual energy into the brush, dipped spiritual pigments, and began drawing. His mind simultaneously recalled and constructed the Chicken King Town Protection image and concept.
Unlike drawing the God of Wealth before, this was true Scroll Painting Creation, requiring not only spiritual energy to wield the brush but also mental power to condense the Scroll Painting Concept, achieving a special “communication” state with the world laws.
The practice drawing paper’s material properties were average, clearly limiting the brush strokes.
In his mind, the Chicken King Town Protection image and the pattern on the paper seemed to undergo some energy docking, emitting unstable spiritual fluctuations.
Soon, the drawing paper was locked and enveloped by the world laws, emitting a soft glow.
Unfortunately, the next second, the entire sheet of drawing paper burst apart, turning into scattered fragments.
“…”
Wu Xian’s mouth twitched slightly, feeling the pain.
As mentioned before, the Scroll Painting Concept was equivalent to the scroll’s “soul.”
From the drawing process just now, the scroll body seemed barely able to bear the soul.
One reason was the limited capacity of the practice drawing paper, the other was poor spiritual compatibility of the pigments.
The more powerful the concept, the stricter the spiritual requirements for the pigments.
“Looks like I’ll have to spend a good amount of money.”
Take it slow, no rush.
He then used ordinary paper and ordinary pigments to conceptualize and finalize the images of Chicken King Town Protection and Guardian Tiger.
Early next morning, he prepared to go to the materials store to scout suitable supplementary materials, like key materials from poultry or tiger otherworldly monsters.
But he received another call from Tang Tiaotiao, “Hey~ Little Xianzi, which part of the shantytown is your house in?”
“Classmate Tang is here?” Wu Xian was stunned.
“Yeah, brought my dad and brother to compensate you.”
Wu Xian’s eyes lit up, and he immediately gave the detailed address while remotely guiding the route.
Soon, Tang Tiaotiao’s family arrived at the doorstep.
“No worries, you’ll soon be able to move to a big house,” Tang Tiaotiao looked around Wu Xian’s living conditions, feeling great sympathy for her little brother, “Later I’ll have my brother find you a nice house.”
Tang Zhenghong and Tang Beng’s attention was fully on Wu Xian.
Last night, upon learning that their daughter（little sister）’s scroll actually came from a high school classmate, the father and son were shocked.
Especially Tang Beng, who couldn’t imagine that little sister’s scroll creativity and concept came from that “Aquarius” poor kid.
“Hello, Wu Xian classmate. I am Tang Zhenghong, and beside me is my son Tang Beng.”
Tang Zhenghong formally shook hands with Wu Xian.
“Hello, please come in.”
Wu Xian hurriedly ushered the three inside.
Grandfather Wu Changming heard the commotion and came out to check. Seeing Tang Zhenghong’s attire and demeanor, he knew he was a big shot and hurriedly prepared tea to receive them.
“Old Master, no need to be nervous. My daughter and Wu Xian are high school classmates. We’ve come specifically to thank little brother Wu Xian.” Tang Zhenghong smiled, gesturing for Wu Changming to relax.
Only then did Grandfather Wu Changming relax and happily stand by as background.
After some pleasantries, Tang Zhenghong got to the point.
“We only learned last night about my daughter plagiarizing your Scroll Painting Concept,” Tang Zhenghong glanced reproachfully at Tang Tiaotiao, “By the rules, we should provide reasonable compensation to little brother.”
“You’re too polite. It was originally sold as graduation design to Classmate Tang, doesn’t count as plagiarism,” Wu Xian shook his head with a smile, “Just didn’t expect that graduation design set to have the potential to become a full scroll.”
“Exactly~” Tang Tiaotiao chimed in: “What plagiarism? I paid for it, okay.”
“Enough, say less.” Tang Beng said grumpily from the side, “Little brother, rest assured, the Tang Family won’t take your Scroll Painting Concept for nothing. You’ll get the compensation you deserve.”
Such situations weren’t uncommon in the Scroll Painting World.
Everyone has ideas, and ordinary bottom-level people could produce Scroll Painting ideas too, though few truly became scrolls.
Many Scroll Painters’ Scroll Painting Concepts partly came from ordinary bottom-level people.
The difference was, other ordinary people only provided viable thoughts and ideas, which Scroll Painters then reasonably perfected and completed.
What Wu Xian provided to Tang Tiaotiao was already more than just “idea.”
In such cases, Scroll Painters would usually give some reward and compensation to the idea provider, though “forced plagiarism” without a dime wasn’t unheard of.
After all, ordinary people had no power against Scroll Painters; what’s taken is taken.
The Tang Family proactively coming to compensate showed they were at least conscientious and decent.
“Don’t be scared~ Ask boldly, with Sister Tiao here to back you up.” Tang Tiaotiao’s outward-leaning stance left Tang Zhenghong and his son utterly speechless.
Wu Xian hesitated, wanting to speak but stopping.
Tang Zhenghong couldn’t help but ask doubtfully, “Young friend, do you have some concerns?”
“I heard from Classmate Tang that your Tang Family has a mechanical system inheritance background,” Wu Xian took a deep breath, “If possible, this junior would like to make contact.”
At these words, the three from the Tang Family were stunned in shock.
“You want to contact mechanical system Scroll Painting inheritance?” Tang Beng raised his voice, looking odd.
“No no no, no need to involve your Tang Family’s mechanical Scroll Painting inheritance. Just contact the production principles of mechanical system Scroll Paintings, learn some experience and insights on mechanical system Scroll Painting creation.”
Hearing this, the father and son’s expressions softened a bit.
If it was just accessing such information, it wasn’t a big deal—stuff learnable in any normal art studio.
“Little brother still not giving up, wanting to fumble your way into becoming a Scroll Painter?” Tang Beng’s eyes showed surprise.
“Something like that.”
“Don’t mind me speaking bluntly, but becoming a Scroll Painter isn’t that easy,” Tang Beng said meaningfully: “Take Jump Jump’s 【Moon Rabbit Pounding Medicine】 for example. At least fifty million in costs went into producing it.”
Wu Xian smiled calmly, indicating he understood, “If not, studying pigment mixing would work too.”
Seeing Wu Xian so stubborn, the Tang father and son said no more.
