Winds and Clouds Rise

The fastest update to Seeking the Dao in the Mortal World!

Ju Yunxiu glared at Qin Yi.

Qin Yi looked at her, puzzled. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

"That crane speaks without thinking, you're not allowed to have any wild ideas."

"... I didn't think anything of it until you told me, and now I'm starting to misunderstand."

Ju Yunxiu retorted angrily, "So you're getting the wrong idea now! What are you thinking?"

Qin Yi looked utterly bewildered. "So this is a sting operation?"

Ju Yunxiu glared at Qin Yi, and Qin Yi glared back. The two stared at each other for a while, Ju Yunxiu waved her sleeve and said, "I'm going to sleep now. Come back tomorrow."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Qin Yi called out to her, "What's the Grain Rain Dao Discussion Assembly? Is it some kind of internal martial arts competition?"

"It's about friendly exchange. As a comprehensive sect possessing all paths, it's only natural to compare whose path is stronger. It's not just a simple martial arts competition; there are different competition formats. You can consider it a contest if you want," Ju Yunxiu said nonchalantly. "Actually, this tournament has been canceled for several years now..."

"Huh?" Qin Yi, who was preoccupied with winning prizes in the arena, was completely baffled. "This can actually fall through?"

"Because most people in the Ten Thousand Dao Immortal Palace have absolutely no interest in participating in this kind of ridiculous competition. If you're stronger than me, so be it. I'd rather go to sleep, and he'd rather go drink. Nobody's really interested in the competition."

"Puff..."

"Later, the Palace Master offered several treasures as rewards, which barely managed to get some people to participate. Even so, several sessions still failed. For example, my sect never participates, which means we're missing a large part of the system. The Palace Master's attempts to force participation are useless because my sect has no one to help. How could they possibly bully Qing Cha?"

Qin Yi was both amused and exasperated. He was used to seeing other sects' martial arts competitions in full swing, but he had never imagined that this bizarre Ten Thousand Dao Immortal Palace would be like this.

"So you shouldn't participate either, it's pointless." Ju Yunxiu yawned. "You've offended someone, you'll get sabotaged if you participate. You're a refined person, there's no need for you to get involved in these things."

After saying that, he went inside to sleep.

Qin Yi watched her beautiful figure disappear, and found it amusing.

The Senior Sister initially "recruited" him, probably with the intention of enabling him to participate in such competitions. She had previously said something like, "If you're competing with others, you can't just rely on brute force," so the meaning should be quite clear.

But once they got to know each other better, they didn't want him to participate, lest he disrupt their elegant harmony of playing the zither and flute, and enjoying calligraphy and painting together.

"A refined scholar"... Qin Yi didn't really consider himself a refined scholar, but he wasn't really interested in competing either. Liusu wasn't around, and he felt very weak all by himself, so he might as well go to sleep.

For the next period of time Qin Yi continued to come every day to learn various special effects music, and he learned all kinds of music with effects such as bewitching and mind control.

In addition to learning music, I also began to learn the practical application of Calligraphy and Painting Dao.

"If you want to use the sword in the painting to emit Sword Qi, that's a good idea, but you can't paint it like that." Ju Yunxiu sat down beside him and reached out to support his arm. "The brushstrokes here should conceal the sharpness. Otherwise, if the sharpness is fully exposed, not only will the painting be damaged, but the Sword Qi will also dissipate."

Soft and fragrant, sitting close to you, hand in hand guiding the painting... The fragrance lingers around your nose, the colors are right before your eyes, and with a touch of your elbow, you can feel the softness.

The image of a beautiful tutor guiding him step-by-step had become a reality in Qin Yi's mind. He himself didn't know when things had turned out this way... it seemed like it was just a matter of him asking how to display his sharpness, and it naturally turned into this...

After actually realizing this scene, he wasn't as distracted as he had imagined. Ju Yunxiu clearly had no ulterior motives, and he himself was quite natural; it was just about learning to paint, why think too much about it?

Qing Cha sat to one side with her knees drawn up, her chin resting on her knees as she watched.

You even said that all men are big pig trotters, but aren't you happy to be next to a pig trotter?

"Besides, expressing Sword Intent through painting doesn't mean much to you. The meaning of painting is connected to oneself, and neither of us are swordsmen, so we can't truly express the essence of Sword Intent; it would only make us a laughingstock." Ju Yunxiu pondered for a moment and said, "You'd be more suited to painting Wolf Tooth Club... but I'm also puzzled; that fierce and heroic spirit doesn't really suit someone as ethereal and otherworldly as you..."

Qin Yi was a little embarrassed. The painting contained a hidden sword, and when unfolded, it filled the room with cold light and Sword Qi Soaring to the Sky. It was incredibly impressive... The painting also contained Wolf Tooth Club, and the scene was quite something...

Besides, this Senior Sister seems to have some misunderstanding about herself. Her most comfortable state is to wield a Wolf Tooth Club and strike with it. The feeling of impact and the exhilaration are incomparable to anything else! Can elegance put food on the table?

However, thinking about it this way, I feel that painting this kind of Painting Souls is not very meaningful. It's just like making a few more consumable Law Artifact to carry around, or making a few talismans. It's a bit of a waste to use the Way of Painting for this kind of thing. Its most important use is to create worlds within paintings, but unfortunately, with my current level of cultivation, I simply can't do that.

As I was pondering how to best utilize my Painting Dao, a fluttering sound came from the horizon—the cranes had returned.

"Um..." Seeing the two sitting close together, drawing hand in hand, the crane's eyes widened for a moment. "Did I come to the wrong place again...?"

Ju Yunxiu stood up naturally, dusting off her skirt. "What are you doing here again?"

"I've come to announce the prizes for this year's Daoist Forum," the crane said. "The Palace Master says there is a Heavenly Crafting Hammer, a Mountain-Flipping Dice, a piece of Black Tortoise Shell, and a painting. The winner can choose one."

Upon seeing the painting, Ju Yunxiu became interested. "What painting?"

"They say it was painted by your master, and that the painting contains immense power, making it a Law Treasure..."

Upon hearing that it was her master's heirloom, Ju Yunxiu lost her initial interest, frowned, and waved her hand, saying, "I know."

The crane seemed surprised that Ju Yunxiu still reacted this way, and looked at Qin Yi with a hint of anticipation.

Qin Yi shrugged, indicating he wasn't very interested.

The crane sighed helplessly, "The Palace Master said that even if you don't participate, the newcomers must participate. Otherwise, other families will eventually complain, which will affect relations within the palace."

Ju Yunxiu said calmly, "That's really strange. I haven't accepted anyone in all these years, nor have I ever complained to them. Why are they making such a fuss just because they didn't accept anyone this year?"

The crane chuckled, "If all people were the same, where would the martial world come from? The message has been delivered, I'll be going now."

Watching the crane fly away, Qin Yi's previous disinterested expression vanished. He stroked his chin and asked Ju Yunxiu, "Is this painting, offered as a reward by the Palace Master, one of those paintings?"

Ju Yunxiu sighed, "Yes. In his later years, besides the portrait of the woman from the Penglai Sword Pavilion that you brought from the ancient tomb, my master only painted four other paintings. One was given to the Palace Master, one was lost in a bet to the Zheng family of the Strategist Clan, one was given to a friend in the Great Qian Dynasty in the mortal realm, and one was buried with him. The one given to the mortal realm shouldn't be anything special, but the others might all have a connected secret, and were deliberately scattered."

Qin Yi remained silent for a moment, then sighed, "Then I want to participate in this debate."

Ju Yunxiu frowned and said, "I've said it before, this secret is not something you should be investigating, and you're not the kind of person who covets any treasures."

"I know." Qin Yi unconsciously sensed the Wolf Tooth Club lying in the ring; Liusu was still unconscious.

He stared at it silently for a long time before whispering, "I have a very important friend... Although it's stubborn and won't say it, I know it desperately needs this secret."