Ancestor Mi stared at the scene before her in astonishment, extraordinary colors rippling through her eyes.
"You truly share no shallow affinity with the Immortal Tree."
Watching the thirty-six immortal leaves merge into the Earth Book one after another, Mi Shanglian could not help voicing her admiration.
"Ancestor Mi."
Cheng Xinzhan turned his head in greeting and was about to rise and pay his respects.
"No need for ceremony. Carry on with your painting. Let me watch and learn."
Mi Shanglian spoke.
Hearing this, Cheng Xinzhan dispensed with further formalities and lowered his brush to resume painting.
Thanks to his parents' early instruction in calligraphy and painting, followed by years of practice, refinement, and study after he began cultivating, the Daoist's painting skills could now be said to have outpaced his cultivation, already reaching the transformation realm.
First, he dipped his brush into a little indigo and gamboge, blending a light spring hue, then brightened it with malachite green. Spreading the bristles, he rubbed half-dry, half-wet texture strokes onto the paper formed from banana leaves and earthstone, exquisitely capturing the immortal tree's jade-green branches and trunk, like fine jade, and the smooth texture of its bark, like that of a crape myrtle.
While it was still wet, he dabbed tiny flecks of fresh green onto the trunk, letting them bleed naturally. Once the ink dried, the mottled patches precisely depicted the immortal tree's splitting, peeling bark as it grew vigorously, exposing tender new growth. Its abundant vitality seemed ready to seep through the paper. When he came to paint the leaves, his brushwork grew lighter and freer still. He switched to a long-tipped brush, saturated its belly with green, then dipped it in clear water. As it touched the paper, he pressed with the tip to bring out the sharpness