Dream of the Crimson Tower

Now Li Yunxin knew why this "jade slip" was called the "Tongming Jade Slip."

Because at this moment, it truly shone bright all over.

Since arriving in this world, many things had shocked him deeply—paper turning into salt, demons and monsters, flying swords, and people believing that one could truly cultivate into an immortal.

But added together, none of those could compare to this moment—to the instant he saw those words.

Excitement and chaos flooded his chest in an instant. Even with the experience of two lifetimes, he could not help widening his eyes, staring blankly at the jade slip for quite a while.

This thing... had opened.

After the first wave of shock and astonishment, another question came to mind.

Ever since obtaining this jade slip from where his parents had hidden it, he had tried countless methods to open it, hoping this treasure might grant him some miraculous power and free him from his earlier predicament. But it had been like a lifeless pane of glass, utterly unresponsive no matter what he did—even when he poured into it the small amount of spiritual power he had cultivated through "Watercloud Force," it vanished like a mud ox entering the sea.

But tonight, in the dead of night, this thing had "opened."

Li Yunxin held it in his hands, spending two minutes in stunned disbelief and another three considering every possible reason he could think of.

In the end, he concluded that the likeliest explanation was... those two demons.

He had tried many methods before: soaking it in water, burning it with fire, exposing it to sunlight, pouring spiritual power into it. As for what had been different these past few days...

He had encountered great demons.

First Ninth Young Master, then Bai Yunxin and her little maid.

Perhaps... the demonic power of great demons had affected this thing.

But why would the Tongming Jade Slip, left behind by the Painting Sage two thousand years ago, be opened with demonic power?!

And who exactly had that Painting Sage been?!

An unfamiliar yet familiar feeling flowed through Li Yunxin's chest, accompanied by a familiar warmth he had thought he would never experience again.

It turned out that in this world...

He was not alone.

At least, he had not always been alone.

He drew a deep breath, ignored the noisy little cat demon nearby, and with slightly trembling fingers tapped nine times on the line beneath the characters.

But the jade slip showed no response.

After a brief thought, he tapped eighteen times instead.

This time, soft immortal music, as wondrous as heavenly melody, began to play. The two lines of writing on the treasure's surface vanished, light flowing across the entire jade slip. Then Li Yunxin saw dense lines of text covering its surface.

Li Yunxin did not first concern himself with what the words meant. Instead, he examined the writing itself—its phrasing, tone, and grammar. Then he closed his eyes and let out a long breath. Looking at the upper right corner of the jade slip, he tried tapping its surface three or four times.

And so this supreme treasure of the painting path became a transparent "glazed crystal" once more.

He felt that he roughly understood how to open it.

Though he had read only a small portion of the text inside, he already understood why it was called a "supreme treasure of the painting path."

Cultivators crossing tribulations always had to undergo trials. They needed to comprehend Heaven and Earth and all things, to understand every kind of emotion. But a person might spend an entire life destitute, or live forever with every wish fulfilled. Those who rose from poverty to soar high and prosper could be said to have lived brilliantly. If someone had profoundly tasted three or four among bitterness, sweetness, sourness, spice, sorrow, and joy, that would already count as "a legendary life."

Life was short, and cultivators fought for every second. They had no time to savor the hundred flavors of mortal life, so they needed external aid. In this respect, painters' works had the same wondrous effect by different paths as alchemical elixirs. Yet painters were still human, with equally limited experience. Moreover, painters of ancient times were Danqing Daoists, also disciples of the Mystic Sect, one of the three great schools beneath Heaven.

Their lives were even more privileged—where would they find so many experiences of hardship and despair?

Yet the inner demons and karmic obstacles of life often arose from greed, obsession, anger, and wrath. And most greed, obsession, anger, and wrath sprang from hardship and despair.

Thus, masterpieces of this kind were exceedingly rare.

The most famous painting handed down through the ages was Dream of the Crimson Tower, painted in ancient times by Xueqin True Person.

Xueqin True Person had been born into a cultivating Aristocratic Clan of Grotto Heaven. Her parents had both been eminent masters of their age. In her youth, she had been honored beyond compare and enjoyed all the glory and splendor of the mortal world. But in her adulthood, she happened upon the decline of the painting path and came to know the bleakness of worldly affairs and the warmth and coldness of human hearts. Thus, after retiring into seclusion, she spent ten years painting Dream of the Crimson Tower. This True Realm master poured all her life's cultivation and every joy and sorrow she had experienced into the painting, ultimately leaving behind this treasured work for the ages before dying of exhaustion.

Though seven feet of the painting's final scroll had later been destroyed in war, it remained a treasured work of the painting path enshrined by the Grotto Heaven School—second only to the Eight Treasures Ancient Scroll left behind by the Painting Sage.

It was said that cultivators who contemplated the painting with all their hearts could experience boundless desolation and misery, tempering their Dao hearts. If mortals saw it, ordinary common folk might be spared, but anyone possessing a Dao Bone without having cultivated, once they grasped the painting's true essence, would die of heartache.

And now, within this Tongming Jade Slip...

There were things even more precious than those.

Li Yunxin realized that once he found a way to continuously supply the jade slip with demonic power, then slowly studied and digested what lay within... he might become someone like the Painting Sage of legend from two thousand years ago—

He could perceive all seven emotions and six desires, gather and release the sorrows and joys of Heaven and Earth as he pleased. In the finest details, he could paint roses and tigers; with his brush sweeping freely, he could paint ten thousand miles of rivers and mountains!

But first, he had to solve the problem before him.

That demon Bai Yunxin wanted to cling to him. Naturally, he could not obediently take the sword she had given him to Weicheng—the sword was surely a token, something the demon could use to find him.

So he had to go somewhere else.

And he had to bring this little cat demon with him. It was still a demon in the end, and it still possessed demonic power.

He also needed to sort out why his parents had lived in seclusion and why he had been hunted.

All three school Daoists were already dead, but all had died at the hands of demons. Let those coveting the Tongming Jade Slip investigate and go looking for trouble with demons!

He needed to find a place where he could properly study the thing in his hands, uncover the Painting Sage's secrets, and then...

Then he would make plans.

So he let out a long breath to calm himself, tucked the jade slip back into his clothes, and said, "Come. If you like this body, then possess it properly and come with me. Once I find you a better place to possess, let this girl rest in peace beneath the earth."

The cat demon was delighted. Even if she could only use this body "temporarily" for now. Seeing Li Yunxin turn and leave, she hurried after him, wrapping her tattered clothes around her belly with one hand as she staggered along.

Li Yunxin and the cat demon moved cautiously through the forest. After a quarter of an hour, they finally saw the meadow beyond the woods—the direction from which they had been escorted into the forest.

He stopped behind a tree and cautiously peered outside.

But the cat demon suddenly gave a soft little cry. Then, excited and happy, she crouched slightly and stretched out both hands. While secretly glancing at Li Yunxin, she pursed her lips, as though she dearly wanted to do something but feared being scolded.

In the end, instinct overcame the tiny worries in her mind. Squinting her eyes, she swiftly patted the thing sticking out from Li Yunxin's waist and giggled. "Oh? Mm, ha, it's back. Mm... hahaha, fun, oh?"

Li Yunxin frowned. "What are you do—"

But after only one glance at his waist, he froze.

The sword Bai Yunxin had given him, the one he had driven deep into the earth, had somehow hung itself back at his waist.