bullyxtreme Chapter 1150 Each on Their Own Path Forward
Chapter 1150 Each on Their Own Path Forward
For the past month, Wang Ai ate porridge and vegetables every day. He sat in a quiet room, reciting the "Qingjing Jing" (Classic of Purity and Tranquility) to calm his restless heart.
When his mind was at peace, he continued to study the art of binding spirits and commanding generals.
During his training, he gained a deeper understanding of this extraordinary skill and came up with a new way to use it.
The Wang family's divine paint can create a world of art, and within that world, it can condense artistic intent and conjure corresponding puppets.
The puppets drawn in this way will possess some of the power of the subject. For example, if you draw a puppet of Sun Wukong, it will have some of Sun Wukong's abilities.
The stronger one's own strength, the stronger the artistic conception; the stronger the artistic puppet, the closer it is to the original being depicted.
The key to artistic conception is spirit. One must first comprehend the spirit of the subject being painted, use that spirit to guide the artistic conception, and then translate it onto the paper—that is artistic conception.
The more essence one comprehends, the stronger the artistic conception, and the stronger the puppet one paints. This is somewhat similar to a divine mask, but without the need for acting.
Over the years, Tian Jinzhong and Zhang Huaiyi have both practiced the Divine Mask, wanting to play themselves and reach the third level of the Divine Mask like their senior brother Zhang, but neither of them succeeded.
To put it bluntly, it's because they don't have a thorough understanding of themselves, they don't have a deep understanding of their own subjectivity, and they don't recognize their own nature. How can they then portray their most authentic selves?
Wang Ai also tried it, but gave up after one attempt.
The reason he gave up was not because he lacked perseverance, but because he felt that the divine mask was very similar to his own painted puppet. Rather than risking his life to play the role, he might as well just paint it directly, which would have no drawbacks.
So, over the years, while serving as archbishop, he has also been honing his artistic skills.
At first, he wanted to draw his senior brother Zhang himself, but after drawing it many times, he still couldn't grasp the divine meaning, so he gave up and instead drew the statues of the Tiantong Church.
The statues of the Tiantong Church include Tian Jinzhong's Golden Light Protector, Zhang Huaiyi's Big-Eared Divine General, Zhang Zhiwei's Tiantong Church Master, and his own Tiantong Messenger, etc.
Of all these deities, the one he painted best was the Messenger of the Heavenly Telegraph.
Besides that, the character he painted best was the Vice Cult Leader, since he often asked the Vice Cult Leader to possess him and knew the most about him.
Wang Ai muttered to herself, "Could we consider the painted puppets as spirits?"
"The vice-leader said that you should use your spirit to subdue the spirit, so that no matter what form the spirit takes, you can control it."
"But if we consider the painted puppets as spirits, wouldn't that be combining the ability to control spirits with our own divine art?"
He carefully considered the feasibility of this plan.
"If possible, use the Art of Drawing Puppets to perform the Spirit-Binding and Spirit-Controlling Technique. After the spirit is absorbed, delusions will still accumulate, and these delusions will turn the Art of Drawing Puppets into puppets corrupted by desires."
"It sounds a bit awkward, but my artistic puppets are puppets after all!"
"The god in it was painted by me. You could say that as long as I am not corrupted, the god in it will not be corrupted."
"If I use it to perform the art of controlling spirits, and it can also strengthen it, wouldn't that preserve both the god and the power?"
Thinking of this, Wang Ai became excited. If he could really make the puppets in the painting world stronger, he wouldn't need to look for those guys anymore when he wanted to perform miracles or show off his divine power. He could just summon the puppets in the painting world directly.
“In this way, the Tiantong Church can recruit more believers. I’m a genius. So, which pictorial puppet should we start with?” Wang Ai muttered to himself.
After a moment's thought, he decided to start with the vice-leader.
I can't possibly use my own artistic puppets as experiments.
The deputy leader was his second best skill, and most importantly, the deputy leader had often used spirit possession in the past, making his artistic puppet the most suitable tool for experimentation.
Wang Ai immediately began the experiment. He stood up, looked at the picture of the church hanging behind the office, picked up a pen, drew a door on it, and with a light touch, he stepped into the doorway.
This church painting is one of his masterpieces; the church inside is a painted world just like the cathedral outside.
Wang Ai followed the path into the interior of the church depicted in the painting. Inside the cathedral was a row of statues, arranged exactly like the one outside.
He walked up to the statue of the deputy leader, who resembled Sun Wukong, and with a thought, released all the traitors' souls that he had previously captured in the mass grave.
The souls of traitors drifted through the art world, beginning to wail. Wang Ai looked at these souls and formed a hand seal.
He was using pictorial puppets to perform the art of summoning spirits.
And then, it worked!
The mouth of the deputy leader's statue opened, and a suction force surged out.
The souls of those traitors were drawn by the suction force, flying one after another into the mouth of the statue, and finally disappearing into the statue's body.
After devouring those souls one by one, the vice-leader's pictorial puppet was surrounded by wisps of black energy.
The black energy wandered across the surface of the statue, sometimes condensing into distorted human faces, and the delusions it devoured began to erode the divine intent within the pictorial puppet.
The statue's originally solemn face began to turn ferocious, and its eyes glowed red; this was the work of delusional thoughts.
It doesn't matter; these divine wills were bestowed upon us by Him.
Wang Ai looked at the changed statue without panicking. He picked up a pen, dipped it in ink, and made a few strokes on the statue.
As the pen tip touched the paper, streaks of clear light flashed by.
The pure light merged into the statue, suppressing the dark energy.
The statue's face regained its solemnity, and the red light faded.
He re-imbued it with divine will, although this divine will could still be eroded, but it could be re-imbued when needed, without affecting control.
After absorbing the spirit, he could sense that the vice sect leader's pictorial puppet had indeed become much stronger.
With this thought in mind, Wang Ai exited the world within the painting. Then, he took out his brush, drew a door, and summoned the painted puppets inside.
A monkey with an ancient, almost mythical appearance, as if it had stepped out of a landscape painting, appeared in the office. "Outside of the painting world, the puppet's strength is greatly reduced, but after absorbing its spirit, this enhanced strength will also be brought into the outside world. My idea was indeed correct, but..."
Wang Ai stared at the vice-leader's pictorial puppet. He hadn't felt anything amiss in the world of the painting, but now that it had appeared in the outside world, he felt a bit awkward. It was as if a cartoon character had stepped into the real world, completely out of place with everything around him.
"Should I go and learn some Western oil painting?" Wang Ai pondered for a moment, then shook his head: "It's better not to waste energy on these superficial things. The key to painting is the spirit, not the form. As long as the spirit is there, it can be abstract no matter how abstract it is. We can't sacrifice the spirit for the sake of form."
With this thought in mind, Wang Ai put the painted puppet back into the world of the painting. Then, he began to collect spiritual energy from the world on a large scale. He didn't want just any spiritual energy; it had to be powerful ones. Ordinary spiritual energy was pointless to consume.
His method of finding spirits was very simple. He didn't need to mobilize his subordinate spirit mediums to search for them. He only needed to issue a message in his capacity as the archbishop of the Tiantong Church, saying that the Tiantong Church was offering free exorcism services. Wherever there was a haunting, people could come to the Tiantong Church and have professionals come to clean it up.
Sure enough, just a few days after the order was issued, the threshold of the Tiantong Church was overwhelmed with visitors. Wang Ai sent out immortals and a team of protectors to deal with the situation, capture the spirits, and then use the Spirit Binding Technique to collect all the evil spirits into the painting world.
Once the evil spirits are cast into the art world, they become nourishment for the vice cult leader's artistic puppets.
The more evil spirits the pictorial puppet devours, the denser the black aura around it becomes, and the stronger the oppressive aura it exudes.
While Wang Ai was collecting evil spirits, Lu Jin took Zheng Zibu to report to Northwest Shanxi.
Zheng Zibu was wrapped in bandages all over his body, with only his eyes showing. His steps were unsteady, but his gaze was calm.
Here, Zheng Zibu met Duanmu Ying and Lü Ci, who had also come from the same place.
Duanmu Ying's eyes reddened as she looked at Zheng Zibu.
She offered to help Zheng Zibu with his medical treatment.
But Zheng Zibu refused.
Duanmu Ying was somewhat puzzled.
“My physical body is just a shell to me. This appearance allows me to remember some things,” Zheng Zibu said.
Duanmu Ying could only respect Zheng Zibu's choice.
Lu Jin and Lü Ci also met there.
After not seeing each other for a while, the two met again and started arguing after only exchanging a few words. They decided to fight to see who was better.
When saving Zheng Zibu, Lu Jin's Reverse Life Technique reached the second level limit, but the second level is still just the second level, not the third level, just one qualitative change away.
As for Lü Ci, all these years of practicing hoeing skills every day, tempering his life force day after day, were not in vain.
In particular, when he was practicing the hoeing technique, he was very efficient at tempering his life force. Over such a long period of time, his life force cultivation level was much higher than Lu Jin's.
A life above the line is an immeasurable height.
Although his Ruyi Jin technique was slightly inferior to the Reverse Life Triple, when combined with Lü Ci's Ruyi Zhen Jin, he still managed to overwhelm Lu Jin.
But that's all; it's not enough to truly defeat Lu Jin.
Lu Jin has reached the second level of the Reverse Life Limit, and can reconstruct the three cores, with no weaknesses.
Even though Lü Ci used Ruyi Jin to tear apart Lu Jin's reversal state, Lu Jin was able to quickly rebuild it.
Therefore, even if Lü Ci kept pressing Lu Jin, it would be difficult for him to truly defeat Lu Jin.
The two fought for half an hour before stopping.
Lu Jin was panting heavily, and the white light around him gradually dimmed.
Lu Ci was also covered in sweat and was trying to calm his breathing.
"I'm not fighting anymore, you're like an indestructible punching bag, I can't really hit you hard. Anyway, I won this match," Lu Ci said.
"Bullshit! You only have a slight advantage at best. You're still a long way from truly defeating me!" Lu Jin retorted, "Hedgehog, don't be so smug. I'm very close to the third level of Reverse Life. Once I reach the third level, our roles will be reversed. I hope you can take a beating like me then."
Lu Ci snorted coldly: "Let's talk about it when you reach the third level of Reverse Life."
The two parted on bad terms this time.
After the competition with Lü Ci, Lu Jin remembered something.
He remembered his master saying that the Reverse Rebirth Triple Level was similar to the Horizontal Body Training, and that one could become stronger through constant tearing and recovery.
Back then, when he challenged Senior Brother Zhang to a duel, he wanted Senior Brother Zhang to break through to the third level of Reverse Life through repeated tearing.
However, after being persuaded by his senior brother Zhang, he gave up and chose to break through through sudden enlightenment.
But he also said at the time that it was possible to break through with force.
Lu Jin felt that he had no clue how to break through the third level, nor did he have any opportunity for a breakthrough.
So he wanted to try to break through using brute force, just like his master had said.
“Master said that using brute force to break through danger is dangerous because the opponent's attack must be able to tear through the Reverse Life state. After tearing it, the body will be defenseless. If the opponent still has residual strength to strike the body that cannot transform Qi after tearing through the Reverse Life state, it will cause consequences, even endangering life. Therefore, Master did not allow Uncle Si Chong and Senior Brother to do this, but…”
Lu Jin thought of Duanmu Ying and Lü Ci.
Lu Ci's Ruyi Jin could tear apart his reversal state.
Duanmu Ying possesses dual-wielding abilities, enabling her to heal from any injury.
Adding the two together, it means that this is a risk-free endeavor.
With this thought in mind, Lu Jin stood up and walked towards Lü Ci.
"Hedgehog, I need your help in my cultivation." (End of Chapter)