Two Saints and Little Mouse

Two Saints and Little Mouse—once the thought came, he did it.

Li Hao had Uncle Zhao prepare painting pigments, as well as brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. Every day, after he finished fishing with the old man, he applied to the old man to return to his Mountains and Rivers Courtyard to rest.

Li Muxiu did not say much about it. His guiding principle in raising Li Hao was to let him run wild.

Although Li Hao had displayed an extremely high talent for body refining, Li Muxiu did not force him to train bitterly every day because of it. If Li Hao was willing to come ask him for guidance, he would instruct him seriously. If Li Hao was unwilling, he would take the little child out every day to roam mountains and rivers and fish wherever they pleased.

In the Mountains and Rivers Courtyard, within the vast courtyard.

Li Hao had someone bring over two small stools, one tall and one short. Imitating the look of an art student, he began drawing on the propped-up board.

Uncle Zhao advised him with earnest, painstaking words, but Li Hao turned a deaf ear. Toward this young master who loved to lose himself in playthings until his ambition was sapped, Uncle Zhao was completely at his wits' end and could only hand him over to Li Fu.

Li Hao had long since come up with a way to deal with Li Fu. In front of him, he displayed the second layer of the Dragon Body.

Li Fu stared until his eyes went wide and his mouth hung open, suspecting he had seen wrong. He had Li Hao demonstrate it again, and once he had thoroughly seen it clearly the second time, the man's eyes instantly grew red and wet with excitement.

He only assumed it was Second Uncle's cultivation and instruction of Li Hao that had allowed Li Hao, in less than a month, to master the second layer of this body-refining ultimate art. While feeling grateful to Second Uncle, he was also pleasantly surprised and excited by Li Hao's talent in body refining.

This kind of talent was far more impressive than cultivating Wild Bull Strength to great completion in three months. He was absolutely a first-rate body-refining genius.

Seeing his almost frenzied excitement, Li Hao secretly rejoiced that he had not directly demonstrated the third layer, the Hundred Dragons Body, in front of him. After all, not everyone had the old man's breadth of vision and capacity to withstand shocks.

As an exchange, Li Hao promised Li Fu that he would properly train with Second Master, but the prerequisite was that when he was doing other things, Li Fu was not allowed to interfere anymore.

This left Li Fu pleasantly surprised, but also somewhat gloomy and worried. Li Hao's body-refining talent was so high that he now wished Li Hao would spend every moment of the day cultivating, aside from eating and sleeping. Only then could he catch up to those proud geniuses with Ninth Grade Battle Bodies. Yet Li Hao's temperament was just so very lax, leaving him deeply helpless.

After repeated tugging back and forth, Li Fu finally could not out-stubborn Li Hao and agreed.

And so Li Hao openly began painting in the courtyard.

As he lifted the brush and set it to the painting, words soon appeared before his eyes.

Painting Dao: 0th stage (1/100)

It worked, as expected.

Li Hao smiled knowingly, then began to splash ink with free, unrestrained strokes.

With his experience in Chess Dao and Fishing Dao, Li Hao guessed that the better he painted, the more experience he should gain.

Therefore, he did not act too casually, but instead drew with relative seriousness.

It was just that in his previous life, he had been a businessman, immersed in the way of commerce for decades. What did he know about painting? As for girls who knew how to paint, he did understand a little...

For his first drawing, Li Hao chose a figure sketch, so he picked the prettiest maidservant in the courtyard and had her stand in front of the drawing board.

Then he confidently lifted his brush. A person, right? First draw a circle, then a vertical line, then a left-falling stroke and a right-falling stroke, followed by another left-falling stroke and right-falling stroke.

Mm, still missing some hair.

Complete!

Painting Dao experience +1

Hiss... sure enough, painting was so hard.

Li Hao smiled bitterly to himself.

Beside him, Uncle Zhao secretly glanced at the drawing board and asked in puzzlement, "Young Master, what is it that you've drawn?"

"Can't you tell? A person!" Li Hao said, ashamed and angry.

"How is this..." Uncle Zhao was a little dazed.

Li Hao snorted angrily and said, "You're saying the exterior doesn't resemble one, right? That's because you haven't understood the inner meaning I painted. Look at this circle. You think this is the head? No. What this represents is smoothness. Look at this vertical line. You think it's the body? No. What this expresses is that if a person wants to stand up, then he has to be a little smooth. Uncle Zhao, you still have to learn. Don't be too blunt and quick-tongued!"

"Uh, then that clump on top of the circle isn't hair?"

"Not so. It is, and it is not. That is both hair and aspiration!"

"Aspiration?"

Li Hao said indifferently, "Aspiration grows on the head. That's very reasonable, right? This luxuriant hair is the aspiration of many people. Also very reasonable, right?"

"??" Uncle Zhao was at a loss.

After Li Hao finished spouting nonsense, he continued drawing.

What made Uncle Zhao and Li Fu look at each other in dismay was that after he drew several dozen in a row, they were all more or less the same. Then they looked at the pretty little maidservant standing before the drawing board... what meaning was there in having her stand there as a background?

Clearly, this young master had no talent at all in Painting Dao. It could not compare to his chess skill.

Still, they were all amusements that wasted the martial path, so they were too lazy to look into it.

Li Hao painted very quickly, and a pile of wastepaper soon accumulated on the ground. Before long, his experience value had accumulated to one hundred.

Every bit of it had been piled up one point at a time.

Li Hao felt rather weary at heart.

Painting Dao has risen to 1st stage

Art Skill Point +1

As the words prompted him, a surge of Painting Dao comprehension welled into his mind. Li Hao closed his eyes for a moment and gradually digested it all. In an instant, he knew just how much of an outsider he had been before.

He lifted his brush and set it to the painting again. His strokes seemed to carry a divine charm, and very soon, a graceful, charming figure appeared on the paper, brought to life by a wondrous brush.

Li Fu and Uncle Zhao, who had been boredly looking around, caught sight of it by accident and were instantly stunned, their eyes widening in astonishment.

Before long, Li Hao used the brush to lightly dot vermilion lips, then dipped it in pigments to add color. In an instant, a lifelike, graceful figure stood slim and elegant on the board.

Painting Dao experience +13

Li Hao could not help but be pleasantly surprised. Sure enough, the more careful and exquisite the painting, the more Painting Dao experience increased.

And he, at long last, could be considered someone who knew how to paint.

"Young Master, this..." Uncle Zhao stared blankly at the drawing board. Earlier, he had still been drawing those crude-line little figures, and now he had directly reached this level? Could it be that the young master was a prodigy who had learned in a short moment?

Or had he been pretending earlier? Or perhaps... those little figures really were, as the young master had said, paintings of "inner meaning"?

He felt that his past understanding had suffered a violent impact.

"Basic operation. No need to spam sixes," Li Hao said calmly.

Uncle Zhao did not understand, but that did not stop him from being deeply shaken.

Li Hao painted a few more pictures. Once he felt increasingly practiced, he had Li Fu and Uncle Zhao stand before the scene as well and painted one picture for each of them. In the paintings, their eyes were lively—one weathered and benevolent, the other revealing a few traces of unnaturalness beneath his sternness as he looked elsewhere. They were lifelike.

Seeing the finished paintings in their hands, the two men's gazes were different, their feelings complicated.

The young master's talent was rarely seen in the world. If he had been born into a family of civil officials, he would certainly have been treated as a treasure.

Unfortunately, this was the Divine General Residence, a Military Family born to defend Great Yu.

Once the pigments and ink on the paintings dried, both men unconsciously rolled them up slowly and put them away, appearing rather solemn.

They would remember that when the young master was seven years old, he had painted a picture for them.

This was the first time in their lives that they had received a portrait of themselves.

Time flew by. Half a year later.

On one shore of the calm and tranquil Blackwater Demon Lake, three figures sat fishing in places more than ten meters apart: two old, one young.

The young one was naturally Li Hao. As for the old ones, besides Li Muxiu, there was another man: Li Muxiu's fishing friend. Li Hao had heard the old man introduce him. This person was the Thief Saint, with a very interesting name, Feng Boping.

According to the Thief Saint, he had changed the name himself. Its meaning was not that he only acted when the wind was calm and the waves were still, but that after he acted, the wind and waves remained calm and still.

While they fished, Li Muxiu also smilingly introduced the Thief Saint's experiences to Li Hao, and Li Hao found that he was indeed worthy of this name.

Many forces whose treasures had been stolen by the Thief Saint only discovered that their treasures were gone several months, or even many years, later.

Often, they failed to notice at the first moment, so there was no way to search for who had stolen it, when it had been stolen, or even whether it had been an inside thief...

Hiding his achievements and name deep away while treasures searched the mortal world—this was the Thief Saint, Feng Boping.

On the shore, Li Hao skillfully set up a large pot. As he washed the fish demon he had just caught and dissected and butchered it, he glanced at his float from time to time.

The other end of the fishing rod was fixed to the shore, tied through a hole in a rope to a large rock. If there really was movement, he would still have time to act.

At this moment, Li Hao used a sword to process the fish demon's innards, his technique practiced.

Li Muxiu and the Thief Saint had long since stopped finding this strange. Although he was only processing fish meat, the two had already seen that Li Hao possessed extremely high talent in the sword path. When Li Muxiu first saw Li Hao swing a sword, he had even mocked that Sword Wudao had eyes but no pupils and had lost a true treasure.

The Thief Saint, Feng Boping, also liked this clever little fellow very much, who loved fishing and showed no odd reaction toward his sensitive identity. He had once said seriously that he would search everywhere for Li Hao and find Precious Medicine to open his meridians.

Very soon, snow-white fish meat went into the pot.

Li Hao also kneaded some coriander and Chili Pepper and tossed them inside. A fragrant, hot, spicy scent instantly spread out, making the two old men on the shore repeatedly cast glances over.

Their lines had been cast extremely far into the depths of the lake. Both used themselves as the rod, their lines hidden and invisible, without even a float. Through the line, they could sense any movement.

"You two, it'll be ready to eat in three minutes," Li Hao said with a smile.

After being in contact for a long time, Li Hao's way of addressing Li Muxiu had also changed to Second Master, while Feng Boping was Old Feng. As for the two old men, they had given Li Hao a name they considered vivid and lifelike:

Little Mouse.