"Oil painting has indeed yet to gain recognition from the Painting Path."
Lin Ke smiled. "That's because I haven't painted it yet."
The moment he finished speaking, the drunken scholar in the audience burst out laughing. "Art thou the Painting Saint?"
He laughed uproariously, his laughter seemingly carrying some strange magic that drew many of those around him into laughing along.
Yet Lin Ke gave a soft chuckle, his voice likewise carrying a faint power:
"Not at present."
Not at present?
Everyone was stunned by those words.
Still smiling, Lin Ke continued, "Naturally, I shall..."
"Arrogant! You..." The drunken scholar narrowed his eyes and interrupted Lin Ke.
But before he could say anything more, a cold snort interrupted him in turn.
Interrupted ×2!
"Hmph!" Dean Wu turned toward the drunken scholar, white light blazing from his eyes. "A mere yellow-beaked fledgling dares interrupt my disciple? Would you engage me in Tongue-and-Sword Combat?"
Tongue-and-Sword Combat was an offensive technique available only to those in the Third Realm or above.
The drunken scholar showed no weakness, however. Narrowing his eyes, he sneered, "I am a student of Minister Lin. Sir, do not use your seniority to bully a junior."
"You don't dare fight me, but my disciple dares fight you. Believe it or not?" Dean Wu raised an eyebrow.
Lin Ke: ?
Brother, I don't dare!
He's in the Third Realm, the Bookman Realm, and I'm only in the damn First Realm!
Still, Lin Ke knew that with the Imperially Sanctioned Staff, the Chopping Wood Method, the Reformer School, the comic "Pokémon," and so forth, his strength could not be measured by the usual realm standards.
"Lin Ke?" the drunken scholar said disdainfully. "Without the Imperially Sanctioned Staff, I could destroy him with a single word."
"Without the Imperially Sanctioned Staff?" Dean