Chapter 624: Drawing Apples Only~

h my will. Can this also be considered a life-bound treasureZeng Yitao’s cultivation technique allows him to have three life-bound treasures, which is two more than most cultivators, giving him an obv...Chapter 624: Only Knows How to Draw Apples

Hao Ren turned around and saw Zhen Cōngming and Wu Luoxue walking side by side towards him.

A demonic aura that could be sensed was also approaching.

Wu Luoxue had a calm expression, while Zhen Cōngming was fawningly walking beside her, gesturing with his hands.

"Hehe, it's Xiaoxue and Congming," Xie Yujia saw them and smiled.

Clearly, Xie Yujia didn't sense anything unusual.

Seeing that Hao Ren had no reaction, she curiously poked Hao Ren, "What's wrong"

"Nothing, nothing!" Hao Ren shook his head.

He was devoid of spirit energy and couldn't feel any aura of dragon cultivators. But how could he not sense Zhen Cōngming's demonic aura

Even when he was at the Gèn rank, he hadn't sensed anything unusual about Zhen Cōngming; he could only vaguely feel that Zhen Cōngming had a weak境界between the Kǎn and Lí ranks.

This demonic aura didn't cause any discomfort, but Hao Ren could clearly sense it was different from his cultivation method.

"Hey!" Zhen Cōngming walked up to Hao Ren with Wu Luoxue, waving a greeting.

Wu Luoxue pursed her lips and slightly tilted her head, looking at Hao Ren with bright eyes. They were both in school uniforms; Zhen Cōngming looked somewhat handsome, while Wu Luoxue appeared very cute.

"Alright," Hao Ren hesitated for half a second before waving his hand back.

"Xiaoxue, you don't have to bother with him. Let's go inside," Zhen Cōngming took the opportunity to grab Wu Luoxue's tender hand and headed towards the art building.

Nowadays, he would frequently enter Wu Luoxue's class, but she still ignored him for the most part. However, his relentless pursuit wasn't entirely ineffective; at least when Wu Luoxue went somewhere, Zhen Cōngming became her best accompaniment choice.

Wu Luoxue was different from Zhen Cōngming—she didn't like to wander around aimlessly. But she had an interest in the small art exhibition at East Sea University because she had studied calligraphy, chess, music, and painting almost equally well.

Hao Ren watched their backs as they left and frowned slightly.

"Did you sense something, Young Master" Lù Līlín asked Hao Ren.

"I'm not sure how to describe it. It should be a demonic aura, right" Hao Ren asked.

"Hehe, it's demon energy," corrected Lù Līlín. "Since Young Master has turned into a celestial spirit body, he is very sensitive to demonic cultivators."

"Demonic cultivation also involves obtaining the essence of heaven and earth, but what they transform isn't spiritual energy; it's demon energy from their妖丹. Like Zhen Cōngming—his spiritual energy is weak, but his demon energy is strong—it just has been sealed off," Lù Līlín continued.

"Hmm…" Hao Ren understood vaguely.

However, he had helped Little White cultivate the Transformation Formula and could indeed sense that Little White's demon energy was different from the spiritual energy in his body. He could share spiritual energy with Su Hán, but to work with Little White, he needed to use the Transformation Formula.

A dragon丹was also a type of妖丹in some respects, but overall, the cultivation method of dragon cultivators was closer to human cultivators.

Generally, only high-ranking cultivators like Yu Zilong could sense demonic aura. But Hao Ren's celestial spirit body enhanced his sensitivity towards heaven and earth, enabling him to sense demon energy even though he couldn't feel spiritual energy anymore.

"Actually, it's quite strange that when Zhen Cōngming is with Wu Luoxue, his demonic aura becomes stronger," Lù Lìlì said.

Wu Luoxue… Hao Ren thought for a moment. Perhaps her constitution was different and thus attracted Zhen Cōngming

Seeing that they had already entered the art building, Hao Ren suddenly remembered that the barrier on the fifth floor still needed to be set up by Zhen Cōngming, so he hurriedly went after them.

Demon power and spirit power are actually both forms of cultivated strength. Hao Ren just hasn't adapted yet; it's like the initial feeling of other dragon cultivators' spirit power fluctuations, which become normal once you get used to them.

Xie Yujia saw Hao Ren enter the art exhibition again, finding it helpless and following him inside. She and Hao Ren's textbooks were still in the classroom and generally wouldn't be taken away by others, but she was still a bit worried.

Students started returning to the exhibition one after another; most of them just came for leisurely strolls to kill some time during lunch.

Wu Luoxue put her fingers on her small mouth, looking up and seriously observing each oil painting hung on the walls. Hao Ren specially approached her, sensing Wu Luoxue's aura but not detecting any demon power or spirit power.

No matter how she looked at it, she was just an elementary school student.

"Hahaha... Little one, do you like painting too" A kind-looking old man walked to Wu Luoxue’s side, slightly bending down and asking her.

Wu Luoxue glanced at him without answering, simply nodding slightly before moving on to look at other pictures.

"Why are there elementary school students in here" Jiang Yuan, currently feeling rather displeased, suddenly felt uncomfortable upon seeing Zhen Cunming and Wu Luoxue.

Her artworks, although not comparable to masters yet, were still quite famous. Several of them had won national awards; she herself felt they were at a high level that even college students not majoring in fine arts might struggle to understand. Could these elementary school kids just be here for fun

The other college students merely glanced around casually and left quickly after some casual discussions, yet this little girl was meticulously examining each piece of artwork one by one. This made Jiang Yuan wonder: Am I painting for children then

But with her oil painting teacher present, Jiang Yuan didn't want to make a scene, only turning pale in her face.

Eyes wide and head tilted slightly back, Wu Luoxue slowly moved on to the next piece of artwork.

"What do you think about these paintings" Seeing how seriously Wu Luoxue was looking at them, the old man bent down again and asked her.

"They're okay," Wu Luoxue replied.

Such an answer made Jiang Yuan's blood boil. What did "okay" mean These pieces of art were all prominently displayed right upon entering the exhibition hall; they were her prides!

This little girl obviously didn't understand anything! And those college students had such poor taste too!

Jiang Yuan’s face alternated between red and pale as she gently pushed Wu Luoxue away. "Little kid, this is only for college students to enter; you should be drawing with wax crayons."

Wu Luoxue was carefully observing the third painting on the wall when Jiang Yuan suddenly pushed her, nearly causing her to lose balance. Being so small and light-weighted, Jiang Yuan practically forced her out.

"You... you nasty woman!" Seeing Wu Luoxue stagger back from being pushed, Zhen Cunming immediately rushed forward and kicked Jiang Yuan in the leg.

He was wearing a pair of leather shoes that directly hit Jiang Yuan's calf front-on, causing her to cry out in pain.

Jiang Yuan had an extremely bad day with everything going wrong; she was very irritable but suppressing it. Now, upon seeing this, all restraint broke and she reached out to grab Zhen Cunming’s ear.

However, at that moment, those art world seniors and leaders were just visiting the Fine Arts Department classrooms for inspection; if her teacher saw her disciplining this boy now, it should be fine.

Crack!

The arm she was about to extend towards Zhen Cunming's face suddenly got caught.

Furious Jiang Yuan tried to break free, only to discover that the one holding her wasn't anyone else but Hao Ren.

Hao Ren looked at her indifferently. "It's just a kid; why are you being so nit-picky"

"I..." Jiang Yuan was still furious inside but couldn’t break free from Hao Ren’s grip, thus instantly deflating in spirit.

Back then, she would have easily pushed Hao Ren back with just one palm if he dared to touch her. But now, she had yet to recover from the shock Hao Ren brought her and seeing him holding her made her stop moving altogether.

Hao Ren didn’t plan to take advantage of her and tossed her wrist away. She was a talented female artist in the art world, with many male admirers fawning over her, but Hao Ren truly had no feelings towards her and wasn’t afraid of offending her.

If it came to the delicacy of wrists, Xie Yujia’s wrists were 100 times more delicate than hers.

"Jiang Yuanyuan, stop being naughty. Why can't children look at oil paintings" The old man looked at Jiang Yuanyuan with a slightly stern expression as her face turned pale.

Jiang Yuanyuan gritted her teeth and stood next to the old man without saying another word.

Wu Luoxue wasn’t angry either; she slowly walked back and continued looking at the oil paintings on the wall. Zhen Ciming accompanied Wu Luoxue like a guardian of flowers, glaring fiercely at Jiang Yuanyuan.

Jiang Yuanyuan clenched her teeth in anger, her nose almost crooked. She was the rising star in the art world, yet she had been bullied by an elementary school student!

Wu Luoxue walked around the exhibition hall and carefully studied all of the oil paintings.

Lulina and Luli didn’t come to exhibitions often; they also strolled around for a bit. Compared to them, they preferred traditional Chinese painting more and weren’t very interested in these oil paintings.

Hao Ren took this opportunity to walk up to Zhen Ciming’s side, "Hey, when are you going to set up the array formation at Mysterious Peak"

"Why rush it! If I’m doing something, I’ll certainly do my best!" Zhen Ciming gave Hao Ren a glance and said, “I can make the strongest array formations, but I doubt you have enough manpower!”

The guy really wasn’t very likable.

Hao Ren stifled his displeasure and asked again, "How many"

"15 Core Formation cultivators, 150 Nascent Soul cultivators, and 1,500 Foundation Establishment cultivators!" Zhen Ciming held up his hand and pouted.

He had the blueprint for an ultimate array formation, with power comparable to those ancient great arrays. However, it required a large number of cultivators as well, and he didn’t believe Hao Ren could gather such an assembly.

Mysterious Peak was ultimately just a small valley, and even major sects above Fifth Layer Heaven couldn't mobilize so many cultivators to collectively set up an array formation.

The North Star Constellation Array Formation he laid out for Mysterious Peak also required some effort. But since Hao Ren had attracted numerous powerful enemies who forcibly destroyed it, Zhen Ciming was somewhat resentful towards him too.

Humph, why should I go all-out to help you Am I your girlfriend

If Hao Ren couldn’t gather a sufficient number of cultivators for such a grand array formation, then don’t blame me for not helping!

Having set the conditions, Zhen Ciming tapped his feet and ran up to follow Wu Luoxue.

Wu Luoxue had finished viewing the exhibition and was about to leave through the door. To her, these oil paintings were just average; they were far inferior to those she saw in museums like the Louvre in Paris, the British Museum in London, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and the Hermitage Museum in Russia.

"Little girl, what’s your name Have you learned oil painting" Jiang Yuanyuan's oil painting teacher smiled at Wu Luoxue as she returned to the entrance.

"I can only paint apples." Wu Luoxue answered calmly. However, her voice was somewhat cute and delicate when she spoke.

"Jiang Yuanyuan, go get your canvas and brushes," the old man said to Jiang Yuanyuan after looking at her.

Jiang Yuanyuan wasn’t very willing but couldn't defy her teacher’s order. The second floor of the art building was where their painting room was located; Jiang Yuanyuan had an independent storage compartment with her own set of painting tools.

She took some basic brushes and paints, and returned to the first-floor exhibition hall.

The benevolent old man set up a canvas stand for Wu Luoxue and smiled at her, "Why don’t you give it a try"

"It’s time for class…" Wu Luoxue said softly.

“Give it a try,” the old man placed a brush in Wu Luoxue's hand and personally prepared some supplies for her, showing great enthusiasm.

Having seen these oil paintings, Wu Luoxue also wanted to give it a try. She had studied oil painting with her mother for three months before, but she had been focusing on piano practice over the past half year, so she hadn’t touched oil paint in quite some time.

She sat down on the chair and saw that Old Man Wang had already set out all the paints. She gently dipped her brush in them and carefully began to paint on the stretched canvas.

"Old Wang, what’s up Another promising student" An artist of some repute at the Academy followed the college leaders around the Art Building before returning to an exhibition room where he saw Master Wang Shitong mixing paints for a young girl. He smiled and asked.

The old man, Wang Shitong, chuckled but did not answer.

Wu Luoxue wielded her brush deftly and in no time had drawn an apple on the canvas.

Jiang Yuan was a little surprised by how Wu Luoxue held her brush; this elementary school student must have practiced painting before.

It was about time for afternoon classes to start, so there were not many students left at the exhibition. Hao Ren, Xie Yujia and the Lu sisters did not have any classes, so they stayed behind to watch Wu Luoxue paint.

A few Academy students who saw these renowned painters gathered around a young girl also came over to take a look.

Wu Luoxue slowly drew her brush across the canvas, her eyes wide open.

"Pfft…" Jiang Yuan was unhappy. This exhibition was hers but now she was being upstaged by this little schoolgirl.

If she wanted to showcase her painting skills, it should have been done in her own exhibition instead of a little girl stealing the spotlight just because she happened to be more beautiful.

Zhen Cunming stood beside her and watched closely. He had never seen Wu Luoxue paint before but he admired her quiet and focused expression the most.

"Mm, that’s good enough," Wu Luoxue put down her brush.

On the canvas was a simple apple.

"Indeed, it’s still at elementary school level. But this is already very impressive." Jiang Yuan said aloud to prove herself.

The art masters ignored Jiang Yuan and gathered around Wu Luoxue's painting closely.

This apple floated quietly on the blank canvas as if ready to fall off at any moment. It was not because of its realism but an inexplicable force.

"Oh!" One old man could not help exclaiming.

The others were awakened by his cry.

It was the apple from Paul Cézanne’s famous painting, Apples and Oranges! This elementary school student's apple was the one in the very center of that world-renowned artwork!

Every single detail matched perfectly!

The masters had not seen this piece less than a hundred times in their lifetimes; they would never have mistaken it.

This talent for painting was ten thousand times better than Jiang Yuan's!

"Little girl, what’s your name Come study oil paints with me!" One old man stepped forward and said anxiously.

"Study with me! Study with me!" another also called out urgently.

These art masters, who were the giants of their field, all ignored their dignity as they scrambled to claim Wu Luoxue for themselves.

"I need to go back to my class," Wu Luoxue looked at these crazy old men. "I don’t want to study oil paints with you; I learn painting from my mom."

She left the exhibition, and Zhen Cunming hurriedly followed her. In truth, Wu Luoxue had not painted in oils for several months, so she was not entirely satisfied with this apple either!re still logged on!"After a long few minutes, his phone lit up; Zhao Yanzǐ had replied: You’re the same too!"How am I the same I’m sleeping in my dorm room." Hao Ren couldn’t admit that he was also di...