The Painting Demon and Huo Qubing
"This humble Daoist is... from Qianyuan Mountain... this humble Daoist... a wicked being..."
Beneath that youthful face, the words uttered were completely unrelated to age.
As the secret formation dissipated, Zhang Xuezhou shook the Huo Qubing he was carrying, and heard Huo Qubing make incoherent sounds.
"Painting Demon?"
Zhang Xuezhou frowned.
When Huo Qubing was born, he destroyed the painting of Sage Kong that he had obtained from the great Confucian scholar Yuan Gu, and then used the decree of Sage Kong to suppress it.
Wei Shao'er almost died during childbirth, but she survived thanks to the medical expertise of Zheng Wukong and others, as well as the Nine-Turn Qi-Harmony Technique and the Ten-Complete Tonic Pill.
The Essence Blood of the Ancestral Dragon in the Imperial Palace is not so easy to obtain. If one could simply swallow it to gain supreme power, then it wouldn't be Wei Shao'er's place to benefit from it.
Wei Shao'er was left with a chronic illness, and Huo Qubing also suffered from lingering problems.
Perhaps due to the illusion created by the formation, Zhang Xuezhou felt that the painting demon within Huo Qubing's body seemed to have awakened, causing Huo Qubing's Divine Sense to become confused.
"You can't even do that?"
Although Huo Qubing was young, he was still one of the subjects Zhang Xuezhou observed.
He wanted to see if Huo Qubing could stabilize his mind and thus ensure his own safety.
The demon was weak, but Huo Qubing was just a newborn at the time. Zhang Xuezhou felt that this comparison was like the comparison of power between him and the Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon.
Moreover, Zhang Xuezhou could see his younger self reflected in Huo Qubing.
He also had a rather arrogant youth; otherwise, Zhang Xuezhou wouldn't have been able to maintain his academic performance for over a decade despite suffering from mental illness.
Huo Qubing was almost as active, intelligent, and energetic as he was in his youth, and even possessed a maturity beyond his years.
All these signs piqued Zhang Xuezhou's interest in Huo Qubing's growth, but he never expected that everything would come to an end in just over five years.
Between the painting of demons and Huo Qubing, a conclusion may be reached at this moment.
Huo Qubing's body turned bright red, and small amounts of blood kept oozing from his ears, nostrils, eyes, and mouth. His body began to twist and struggle.
Zhang Xuezhou raised his hand several times, but had to put it down again.
Regardless of what techniques or methods he used, he was facing a unified whole. The owner of this body was Huo Qubing with a newly formed consciousness, and it was also very likely a demon in a painting. Zhang Xuezhou could not make an effective distinction, let alone deal with it.
Time flies!
Zhang Xuezhou believed that the Upāsaka Precepts Sutra was of some help to Huo Qubing.
But he never considered teaching a five-year-old child the Upāsaka Precepts Sutra. Not to mention that the child was too young to understand Sanskrit, Huo Qubing hadn't even Realm Entry yet, so how could he possibly activate the Upāsaka Precepts Sutra's power to exorcise evil?
For Huo Qubing at that moment, his opponent seemed to have no trump cards at all.
The other person's expression was blank, like a piece of paper, just as Zhang Xuezhou was before he turned eighteen.
Zhang Xuezhou did not have a high opinion of Huo Qubing.
He frowned as he watched Huo Qubing bleed continuously, and could only repeatedly warn the painting demon that even if it possessed Huo Qubing's body, Zhang Xuezhou did not believe the painting demon could survive.
Zhang Xuezhou's intervention did not cross any lines. If he were to encounter a similar situation one day, it might be Ren Yisheng, Ren Anran, or Zhang Manqian. Regardless of who was by his side in reality, their behavior would be no different.
As for himself in this world, perhaps Rong Tianding, who is close to him, can help him a little, or perhaps Zhang Xuezhou will have to face it alone.
In another world, he was almost at the forefront, while in this world he was unknown and had no strong foundation.
However, the strength of his body far exceeds that of his real self. After years of development, he has ended up in his current situation. Zhang Xuezhou can only lament that different times create different outcomes, and even if he is the same person, he is no exception.
"True Person is dead. You are not True Person; you are merely a painting of True Person. Perhaps you absorbed a trace of his True Person spirit, or perhaps you came into contact with True Person corpse. In any case, you are not the real True Person. You are certainly not True Person second incarnation..."
Although it was unknown whether the painting demon could hear him, or whether Huo Qubing could hear the voice, Zhang Xuezhou still tried his best to persuade him.
If the one who ultimately wins and awakens is the Painting Demon, Zhang Xuezhou can only suppress it and then hand the body over to Wei Shao'er and the others. He will not participate in any subsequent decisions.
"Master Dongfang, did you know about my illness a long time ago?"
Zhang Xuezhou didn't wait too long; nearly half an hour passed before Huo Qubing, writhing and struggling on the ground, let out a low groan.
Congratulations on the rebirth of True Person!
Upon hearing Huo Qubing's voice, Zhang Xuezhou did not respond. Instead, he resorted to the flattery that the painting demon loved most, trying to distinguish between the painting demon and Huo Qubing.
"I am not the Taiyi you are talking about," Huo Qubing corrected.
"Oh?"
"He asked me to do one thing: go to the Slanting Moon Three Stars Cave on Lingtai Fangcun Mountain, and retrieve the soul of the painting treasure belonging to the master of that secret place. Then it can come back to life and completely leave my body!"
"Is that so? He expects you to save himself?"
He gave me something and said I was sure I could finish it!
Huo Qubing stared wide-eyed, bloodshot eyes. What was a normal world to Zhang Xuezhou was a completely different sight to him.
The sky and the earth seemed to have become a scroll painting, and all people and things were in this scroll painting.
"Can you use one of your best Technique Method?" Huo Qubing asked, his eyes wide.
"Oh?"
Zhang Xuezhou stared intently at Huo Qubing, whose words and demands were peculiar.
He muttered something to himself and pointed at Huo Qubing. The remaining bleeding in Huo Qubing's body quickly stopped, and he no longer vomited blood as before.
"What did you gain, and what did you see?" Zhang Xuezhou asked.
"I have a scroll of paintings, and I see the magic you unleash constantly appearing before my eyes!"
Huo Qubing muttered to himself and gestured repeatedly with his hands.
If one ignores the internal workings of the Technique Method within the body, Huo Qubing's posture is no different from Zhang Xuezhou's.
This left Zhang Xuezhou speechless, unsure how to describe the benefits Huo Qubing had received from the painting demon.
The imitation of Huo Qubing, who had never actually Realm Entry, was clearly merely a superficial imitation. The incantations and gestures used in this spellcasting were guided by Zhang Xuezhou according to his own characteristics. Almost every great cultivator has their own unique way of casting spells, so this kind of imitation is meaningless.
Even if you replay Zhang Xuezhou's spell a hundred times, it's impossible to become a master of casting the Supreme Purity True Technique after observing and learning from it.
After all, there are too many such cases in reality. Downloading ten thousand books of information from the internet or watching demonstration videos hundreds of times will not make one a learned person, let alone Sequence Holder.
The weak alliance between Hua Yao and Huo Qubing resulted in a situation that left Zhang Xuezhou speechless.
But when reflecting on himself, Zhang Xuezhou lost the urge to laugh.
Putting aside other things, Huo Qubing at least established a peaceful way of coexisting with the Painting Demon, and the Painting Demon even made obvious concessions, while Zhang Xuezhou simply couldn't establish a stable agreement with the Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon.
"If he's really dead, it seems you don't need to fulfill his requests!"
After some thought, Zhang Xuezhou concluded that the demon painter was probably stupid enough to die, for he actually made such an agreement with Huo Qubing.
"I can't fail to meet the requirements," Huo Qubing said seriously, looking up. "If he can't completely detach from my body, he will completely merge into it, ultimately turning me into a monster that is half human and half painting!"
"Um?"
Zhang Xuezhou was taken aback, realizing that Huo Qubing was no different from himself; after gaining some advantages, Huo Qubing was destined for a life of hardship and toil.