Not long after the rooster crowed, Shao Zhen stood outside Yi Shuyuan's room, holding a scroll in one hand and knocking incessantly on the door with the other.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
"Mr. Yi, Mr. Yi, get up! Open the door! I've finished the painting!"
With the Hundred Ghosts Picture complete, Shao Zhen naturally wanted Yi Shuyuan to be the first to see it. He had slept well the night before, but once the rooster crowed, he could no longer stay in bed. He had barely endured the wait until the first gray light of dawn before coming to knock.
With a creak, the door opened, revealing a rather bleary-eyed Yi Shuyuan.
"Haaah..."
Yi Shuyuan yawned, then smiled and shook his head at Shao Zhen, who still had his hand raised to knock.
"Really, Mr. Shao. When I got up during the night, your lamp was still burning, and now you're already awake before dawn has properly broken."
"The painting is finished! I was too eager to share my joy with you!"
As he spoke, Shao Zhen unfurled the scroll, displaying the Hundred Ghosts Picture in its entirety before Yi Shuyuan.
Though he had already seen it at midnight, it was still breathtaking now. Even though the essence of Formless had become one of Yi Shuyuan's own transformations, the scroll retained a sense of wholeness, as though it had shed its old bones and been reborn.
That feeling came not merely from Shao Zhen's satisfaction at having finished painting Formless, but even more from the hundred ghosts within the picture.
The spirits of the hundred ghosts seemed more "human," as though the way they looked toward the mountaintop had become utterly different.
The mist might obscure the view, but one look at the hundred ghosts made it clear