Hearing Qin Mu's question, Grandpa Deaf gave a proud smile.
He clasped his hands behind his back, raised his chin slightly, and assumed the air of an unfathomable Painting Dao grandmaster.
"You little brat, you dare question my Painting Dao?"
"My paintings attained divinity long ago and bestow creation itself."
"Go ahead and activate one of those rings. See whether they're all show and no substance."
At those words, Qin Mu immediately grew interested.
He lifted one small foot and stomped hard on the ground.
Buzz!
The bright red ring at the very front beneath his feet instantly flared with dazzling light.
Immediately afterward, the White Tiger phantom circling behind him suddenly opened its eyes!
Roar!
A deafening tiger roar rang out.
The White Tiger raised one enormous paw and struck at a barren mountain outside Crippled Old Village from afar.
Whoosh!
A blinding white streak instantly erupted from its paw.
It was a killing light condensed from pure Geng Metal energy.
The white light moved so quickly that it even produced a piercing sonic boom as it tore through the air.
Rumble!
The next moment, an earthshaking boom came from outside the village.
Following the Sky Screen's view, everyone on Douluo Continent gasped in fright.
That colossal barren mountain, thousands of zhang tall, had been cleaved in half by the White Tiger's single swipe!
The cut was smooth as a mirror. Shattered rocks and dust shot into the sky, instantly blotting out half the heavens.
The power of that attack was simply absurd.
At the sight of such world-destroying devastation,
the entirety of Douluo Continent fell silent once more.
On Shrek Academy's training grounds, Tang San stood with his mouth hanging open, the glow in his Purple Demon Eye fading at once.
An empty shell?
A useless dead object meant only for display?
It split a mountain thousands of zhang tall in half with one claw, and that was supposed to be a decoration that could only be looked at?!
Not even a Titled Douluo's ninth soul skill could possibly reach that level!
Yu Xiaogang's eyes rolled back as Blood Vitality surged through his chest, and he nearly coughed up a mouthful of blood on the spot.
How was this painting? This was clearly creating miracles out of thin air!
Not only could it perfectly replicate everything in their Douluo system, its power was outrageously greater as well.
Meanwhile, Qin Mu within the Sky Screen was also startled by the might of that blow.
"Wow! Grandpa Deaf, this big tiger is amazing!"
Qin Mu danced with excitement, his big eyes sparkling with little stars.
"Of course it is."
Grandpa Deaf stroked his beard and smiled with great satisfaction.
Meanwhile, outside the Sky Screen.
Shrek Academy.
Ma Hongjun's mouth hung wide open. Drool ran down the corner of his lips, yet he did not even think to wipe it away. His tiny eyes were rounded wide, and his eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets.
Oscar was even worse off. He grabbed at his own hair and collapsed onto the ground, muttering incoherently.
Yu Xiaogang, standing at the front, trembled all over and could not say a word.
The destructive power of that claw strike had simply been too terrifying.
What empty shell? What paper tiger? It cleaved a mountain thousands of zhang tall in half with one claw, and that was supposed to be an ornament only good for looking at???
"It can be painted... and actually used..."
"And it's this powerful..."
"My heavens, is this a creator god? What kind of principle is this?"
Yu Xiaogang tore his eyes away from the Sky Screen, swallowed instinctively, and wore an expression of utter disbelief.
Then he suddenly turned around, seized Tang San by the shoulders, and gripped so hard that Tang San could not help frowning.
"Little San!"
"This is a true miracle!"
"Who cares about talent? Who cares about Innate Full Soul Power!"
"The brush in that old senior's hand from that world isn't an ordinary brush at all. It's clearly a divine artifact that commands creation!"
"My Luo Sanpao is a malignant mutated Martial Soul. I've been trapped at rank twenty-nine my entire life, and everyone on Douluo Continent mocks me as trash..."
"But as long as I can enter this Great Ruins and beg that old senior to add a few strokes to me!"
"I, too, can possess an unparalleled Four-Life Divine Beast Martial Soul!"
"I can have countless hundred-thousand-year, even million-year Soul Rings!"
"Then who in this world would dare look down on me, Yu Xiaogang?"
"Who would dare say that this Grandmaster can never break through rank thirty?"
By the end, he was practically roaring himself hoarse across the training grounds.
After all, this was something he had been suppressing for decades, and today he had finally vented it.
Tang San looked at his teacher, who had fallen into a frenzied state, and did not know what to say for a while.
Yet when he looked at the cowherd boy in the Sky Screen, dancing with excitement, a sour jealousy rose within him.
If he could learn the craft of painting Martial Souls and Soul Rings,
why would the Tang Sect need fear being unable to dominate all the heavens and worlds?
Meanwhile, within the main hall of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.
Ning Fengzhi, the sect master of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, wore a stunned expression, as though he could scarcely believe his eyes.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Martial Soul was famous across the land, but the greatest pain of every sect master throughout the generations was the Martial Soul's flaw. They could only ever attach seven Soul Rings and could never break through to the realm of Titled Douluo.
It was a curse that had hung over the entire sect for tens of thousands of years.
Yet now, that deaf old man in the Sky Screen, dressed in tattered cotton, could casually swipe his brush through the air a few times and create nine world-destroying Soul Rings from nothing!
"If Soul Rings can be painted, does that mean..."
"Could an eighth and ninth ring be forcibly added to my Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda as well?"
At this point, Ning Fengzhi instinctively turned his head toward the two guardian Douluo behind him.
"Could my Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda even be redrawn directly into a Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda?"
Hearing that, even Chen Xin, the level ninety-six Sword Douluo beside him, could not help drawing in a cold breath.
He looked at the Seven Kill Sword in his hand, renowned throughout the continent, then recalled the pure Geng Metal energy that had split a mountain thousands of zhang tall with the White Tiger's claw. He felt that his own swordsmanship was little more than children playing house before it.
"Sect Master, if the Sky Screen chooses this old man next time, then even if I must exhaust every means at my disposal, I will beg that old senior for one of his paintings!"
Chen Xin spoke word by word, his eyes burning with desire.
Far away, within Pope Palace in Spirit City.
Bibi Dong gripped her gem-studded papal scepter, and she could no longer remain seated.
As a genius with Twin Martial Souls, she naturally understood better than ordinary people what a Four-Life Divine Beast Martial Soul represented.
"A brush of creation, remaking Martial Souls..."
Bibi Dong murmured, her ample chest rising and falling without pause.
This mere glimpse shown by the Sky Screen had already turned all the powerhouses of Douluo Continent into gamblers with bloodshot eyes.
Who cared about danger? Who cared about monsters that devoured people in the darkness?
As long as they could survive, find Crippled Old Village, and have that deaf old man paint a few strokes upon them, it would be an unrivaled stroke of fortune—ascending in one step to the heavens and becoming a god where they stood!
For a time, the thoughts of every faction in every corner of Douluo Continent began to stir.
Yet compared to the madness engulfing all of Douluo Continent outside,
the atmosphere within that quiet little farmhouse courtyard in the Great Ruins remained as peaceful as ever.
Qin Mu circled the alternating red-and-gold rings beneath his feet, his face filled with excitement.
Just as he lifted his other foot, intending to activate those sparkling golden rings too and see how many mountains they could smash apart,
Smack!
A crisp knock rang out.
Grandpa Deaf, lying on a bamboo recliner, casually tapped Qin Mu's head with the butt of his brush.
"You little brat, stop fooling around here."
Grandpa Deaf rolled his eyes and looked somewhat pained at the pigments in the jade bowls on the stone table.
"This old man's spirit-infused ink is all precious treasure. I'm usually reluctant to use much of it even myself, but today it all went to you, brat."
"If you keep messing around like this, I'll have to go gather medicinal herbs and ores deep in the Great Ruins next month. Hurry up and put away those damn rings."
Hearing Grandpa Deaf's scolding, Qin Mu scratched the back of his head awkwardly and gave a foolish chuckle.
"Got it, Grandpa Deaf."
Then Qin Mu willed it, and with a buzz, the nine enormous alternating red-and-gold rings instantly transformed into streams of light and drilled directly into his body through the soles of his feet.
The four majestic Primordial Divine Beast phantoms behind him also turned back into faint wisps of ink-like energy and gradually dispersed into the air.
The small courtyard returned to its former tranquility.
Qin Mu took the rope of his family's large Azure Ox in hand and patted its rear.
"Niu Niu, let's go. We'll bask in the sun by the village entrance and see what Grandpa Pharmacist is making for dinner tonight."
At those words, the Azure Ox looked humiliated and furious.
Yet in the end, it glanced warily at Painter, flicked its tail, and followed Qin Mu slowly out of the fenced courtyard.
On the village's dirt road, the afterglow of the setting sun stretched long across the ground.
Several old hens pecked lazily for insects in the grass by the roadside, while the air carried a faint scent of cooking smoke.
Qin Mu ran along the dirt road and soon arrived at the entrance of Crippled Old Village.
At that moment, the Great Ruins had reached its most delicate hour.
Only the last sliver of the western sun remained above the mountaintop, while the clouds at the horizon had been dyed a blood-red shade.
The surfaces of the four somewhat weathered stone statues at the village entrance, covered in moss, began to glow with an extremely faint firefly-like light.
This meant that the terrifying night of the Great Ruins was about to descend.
Qin Mu skillfully sat down atop a large bluestone, his little legs swinging back and forth in the air.
The Azure Ox lay beside the bluestone and rubbed its large head against Qin Mu's trouser leg.
The whole of Crippled Old Village quietly enjoyed the peace of dusk.
But just then, a flurry of hurried footsteps suddenly came from the endless wilderness forest ahead.
"Rustle, rustle, rustle..."
Soon, the sounds of branches being violently smashed aside rang out one after another nearby.
The grass ahead rustled, and then an extraordinarily beautiful young woman in a silver combat outfit with gold trim, specially made by Spirit Hall, stumbled out of the forest.
She had neat short golden hair. Though she was covered in mud and her fair skin bore many bloody scratches from branches, making her look utterly bedraggled,
her exquisite, seductive face and fiery, curvaceous figure could not be concealed.
It was Hu Liena, the Spirit Hall Saintess who had been transported to the Great Ruins alongside Dugu Bo!
But at this moment, where was even a trace of the pride and holiness of a Spirit Hall Saintess?
Her once-luxurious silver combat outfit had long been torn to shreds by the thorny vines of the Great Ruins, exposing large patches of fair skin marked with bloody cuts.
Her distinctive short golden hair was also a complete mess, clinging to her forehead with sweat and dirt.
Hu Liena panted heavily, her chest heaving violently.
The Soul Power within her had already been completely exhausted during her frantic flight.
What kept her running now was nothing but the instinct to survive.
Yet just as she rushed out of the forest and saw the scene before her clearly, she froze for a moment.
Not far ahead stood a shabby little village that appeared rather backward.
And atop a large bluestone at the village entrance sat a handsome boy of around ten years old, dressed in patched clothing, swinging his little legs back and forth.
At the boy's feet lay an unusually large Azure Ox.
Beneath the blood-red afterglow of the setting sun, the scene seemed exceptionally tranquil.
Upon seeing people, a flash of wild joy instantly surged onto Hu Liena's pale face.
But before she could cry for help, a muffled and savage roar suddenly came from the dark forest behind her.
Roar!
A foul wind rushed toward her.
Three monstrous beasts, each as large as a small truck and covered from head to toe in hard black scales, burst from the thickets with bloodshot eyes.
The beasts had razor-sharp boar-like tusks, and saliva dripped from between their teeth, sizzling as it struck the grass.
At the sight, all of Douluo Continent outside the Sky Screen instantly tensed.
Spirit City, Pope Palace.
Bibi Dong, who had already risen to her feet, could not help taking two steps forward. Her beautiful hands clenched the scepter tightly, her palms drenched in sweat.
"Nana..."
Bibi Dong screamed frantically in her heart.
She had never imagined that her beloved disciple would encounter such a terrifying exotic beast—one that could not even be sensed through Soul Power—the moment she was transported to this world.
Over at Shrek Academy, the students could not help letting out startled cries as well.
"It's over, it's over. Spirit Hall's Holy Maiden is probably done for," Ma Hongjun said, shrinking his neck back in fright.
Tang San stared intently at the Sky Screen, his brows twisted tightly together.
With his eyesight, he could naturally tell that the speed and strength of those three Black-Scaled Monsters were absolutely no weaker than ten-thousand-year soul beasts from the Douluo Continent.
At this point, Hu Liena had nowhere left to retreat.
Looking at the little boy sitting on the rock ahead of her, she gritted her teeth and used the last of her strength to shout at the top of her lungs.
"Little brother! Run!"
"There are monsters behind you! Hurry and take your family into hiding!"
At the critical moment between life and death, Spirit Hall's Holy Maiden did not choose to draw disaster toward an innocent child. Instead, she instinctively warned him.
After shouting those words, Hu Liena's legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the ground. In despair, she closed her eyes.
After hearing Hu Liena's shout, Qin Mu, sitting atop the large bluestone, blinked his clear, bright eyes in surprise.
Tilting his head, he looked at the pretty big sister on the ground, who was clearly about to lose her life yet was still telling him to run.
"This big sister is actually really nice."
Before you continue