Chapter 3: The Manifestation of the Green Painting

Song Zhiyou held the thin sheet of paper with both hands, her eyes blazing with intensity.

At this moment.

A patch of green appeared on the previously blank page.

A pine green.

After that green appeared, there was no further movement, as if a brushstroke of green pigment had merely been left there.

Song Zhiyou raised a hand and brushed it across the paper.

The ink had already dried, leaving no trace on her fingers.

She thought back. The green seemed to have come from the Nourishing Yuan herb paste that had fallen on the corner of the table.

Song Zhiyou’s eyes gleamed. She swiftly looked at the mortar and pestle on the table.

Dipping into the remaining medicinal juice in the mortar, she drew a large question mark on the paper.

The liquid smoothly left a mark, just as she had guessed.

Perhaps only spirit plants… or special ‘pigments’ imbued with spiritual energy, could be used to paint on this paper.

However, Song Zhiyou looked left and right, touched it up and down, and still couldn’t figure out what the purpose of this colorable paper was.

Could it be that she was supposed to return to her old trade in this cultivation world and continue painting?

But what was the point?

Putting great effort into using spiritual techniques to create paper, using spirit plants as paint, only to end up with an extra painting?

But a painting… how would that help her survive in the cultivation world?

Give a painting to everyone she met, begging them not to kill her?

Or hold the painting and go around hitting people?

When that murderous brother eventually killed his sister to prove his dao, would she just lie down and wait for death?

Thinking of that scene, Song Zhiyou shuddered violently.

No, no.

Absolutely not!

Her mind was full of question marks, and there was also a question mark on the paper. Song Zhiyou’s headache worsened.

She grabbed her hair, already a messy bird’s nest, and slapped the paper with the question mark against her forehead.

‘Think, damn brain, think! How the hell does this thing actually work!’

After who knows how many slaps, Song Zhiyou suddenly felt her hand become empty.

The paper that had been perfectly covering her palm vanished abruptly.

Song Zhiyou looked up. A question mark glowing with an eerie green light, surrounded by green mist, floated in midair.

The question mark swelled and then—

With a smack, it flew straight toward her forehead!

A smack, and it was imprinted on her brow.

Song Zhiyou felt something sticky and wet trickling down her forehead.

She wiped her forehead.

It was green and oily.

Bringing it close to her nose, there was also the strange smell of Nourishing Yuan herb.

Song Zhiyou fell into serious contemplation.

…

…

After a sleepless night.

Song Zhiyou, with huge dark circles under her eyes, reorganized and summarized the rules she had experimented with throughout the night.

First, anything with spiritual power can be used as a ‘pigment’ on the blank paper, leaving a mark and becoming a ‘painting’.

Second, when a painting shatters, its content manifests in reality, with some peculiar effects.

For example, that question mark.

When it smacked into her forehead, her mind was filled with question marks.

It wasn’t purely a mental question mark, but more of a mental-physical hybrid — her mind was literally full of question marks.

It’s hard to describe precisely. To put it simply, Song Zhiyou later experimented again.

Even with mental preparation, when the question mark hit her forehead, her mind was still filled with question marks.

They were densely packed, green, and dizzying.

Song Zhiyou tasted the green liquid; it also induced question marks.

At the same time, the liquid retained the effect of the Nourishing Yuan herb.

However, compared to the crushed herb paste, it was like a purified essence of Nourishing Yuan herb, with stronger medicinal effects.

Still, it was far inferior to a pill.

But if she had more pigments, she could eventually draw pills.

As for their effectiveness, Song Zhiyou didn’t know, but she was itching to try.

People live, and eventually die.

Thus, people should constantly seek death. Song Zhiyou firmly believed this.

Third, the more spiritual energy her incantation required, the larger the blank paper.

Hmm, but it still only turned into paper.

At such a young age, she had lost all offensive means.

In short, in this life, she would perhaps, maybe, probably, possibly continue down this path of painting.

That being so, the most urgent thing now was to find more ‘pigments’.

She had none of red, yellow, blue, black, or white.

She only had one pine green.

Song Zhiyou prepared carefully for a while, rested for another night, and early the next morning she set out with a bamboo basket on her back, gnawing on the flatbread left by the original body.

The original body’s Song family was in Heyang City, located in the southeast corner of Qingzhou.

And Heyang City was backed by Qixia Mountain, which was at the outer edge of the Cangcui Mountain Range.

Other than that single Nourishing Yuan herb, the original body could obtain almost no cultivation resources.

She had to go to the edge of Qixia Mountain to gather herbs and hunt.

This was both to make a living and to practice and temper herself.

Sometimes, if she was lucky, she would encounter low-level spirit plants and demonic beasts.

Song Zhiyou planned to try her luck as well.

After leaving the city, the number of pedestrians gradually decreased. Song Zhiyou walked for about half an hour, and the distant mountain outline became clearer.

Up to this point, the trees were mostly ordinary firs, but deeper in, the branches and trunks grew thicker and more gnarled.

Song Zhiyou knew that from here, she had truly entered the outer reaches of Qixia Mountain.

She searched carefully and cautiously in the outer area. After a long time, she finally found a Calm Heart Orchid beside a clump of dense ferns.

The Calm Heart Orchid was about half a foot tall, with glossy green leaves and lake-blue flowers.

It was a spirit plant!

In fact, the color spectrum of spirit plants was far richer than the single color Song Zhiyou could name.

But perhaps due to her special ability, she could now tell at a glance the final color of a spirit plant after being processed into pigment.

Suddenly having two more colors, Song Zhiyou was excited.

She carefully moved closer, dug up the plant by the roots, and placed it into her basket with great care.

She searched the surrounding area for a while but found no other spirit plants, let alone demonic beasts. Song Zhiyou wasn’t disappointed.

The edge of Qixia Mountain was already sparse in spiritual energy; finding a spirit plant on her first trip was already very lucky.

Of course, heaven above, if she could encounter a better spirit plant, she would willingly sacrifice ten years of her brother’s life.

Song Zhiyou clasped her hands together and made this sincere wish.

Just then, a sound of something cutting through the air came sharply from the bushes on her left rear.

Before she could fully turn around, a yellow-black shadow was already pouncing straight at her back.

Song Zhiyou gritted her teeth and rolled sideways. Claws grazed her shoulder, leaving three gashes that burned fiercely.

It was…

A Gale Leopard?!

This was a first-tier high-grade demonic beast, usually appearing only in the middle section of Qixia Mountain. Why had it suddenly appeared at the edge?

In this world, a first-tier beast corresponded to a Qi Refining cultivator.

First-tier low-grade corresponded to early Qi Refining, mid-grade to mid Qi Refining, and so on.

Song Zhiyou was only at the fourth layer of Qi Refining, just barely in mid Qi Refining.

She was well aware that her strength only allowed her to wander at the edge.

Yet such a rare event—a first-tier high-grade demonic beast appearing at the edge of Qixia Mountain—had happened to her.

It must be because she cursed that dog Song Lingtian. The plot is advancing!

Song Zhiyou cursed her brother in her heart, but her movements didn’t stop.

The meager spiritual energy in her dantian spun wildly, all of it pouring into her legs.

She didn’t retreat. Instead, the moment the leopard pounced through the air, she used all her strength to slap the palm-sized painting hard onto the Gale Leopard’s forehead!

In a sudden encounter, she couldn’t face it head-on. Delaying would only make her disadvantage worse. She had to act decisively…

And win by surprise!

The painting instantly shattered and dissipated, and a mysterious green pattern emerged in midair.

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