Now that the deity had offered guidance, Shao Zhen no longer held back. How many people ever met a true god? If he had questions, this was his chance to ask.
"I know there seems to be something unusual about my paintings these days, but if I don't paint the scenes in my mind, it pains me even more. Some distant relatives visited before, and something nearly went wrong then, too. My fury at the time was half real and half feigned."
Shao Zhen rambled on at length, mostly about the Hundred Ghosts Picture. When his relative's child had torn a corner of the scroll, his heartache and anger had certainly been genuine, but his outward reaction had clearly been exaggerated. Admittedly, worry had been tangled up in those feelings as well.
"Your painting didn't nearly cause trouble. It already did. But through a convergence of fate and circumstance, it still ended up crossing my path."
Hearing the Manifest Holiness True Lord's words, Shao Zhen's heart jolted.
"What happened? Was it my relative's child?"
Shao Zhen grew uneasy. A painting was only a painting, after all, but if someone had been harmed, that was another matter.
"Their child was afflicted by an evil presence. Fortunately, the Temple Keeper at the local Land God Temple helped, and peace was restored."
Yi Shuyuan looked toward the house within the dream. As his words fell, the Hundred Ghosts Picture seemed to float out of it. Shao Zhen looked at the scroll, and beneath his gaze, all the ghosts and monsters upon it seemed to come alive.
This was one of the things Shao Zhen often dreamed of, as though the ghosts in his painting were about to emerge. Such dreams always filled him with terror.
Today, however, was different. The Manifest Holiness True