Mang Shusheng's Ink Painting Practice

Chapter 148 A Good Painting

Now Zhao Yifu's mood towards his new 'online friend' has completely changed. At first he felt it was a trouble, but now he feels that this is a spy planted next to the big bosses of his sect!
Did those big guys say bad things about him behind his back?
Humph, he can just ask the person involved directly.

[You must not tell anyone about your discovery of the "Thousand Miles of Smoke and Clouds Painting." I originally thought someone was trying to use this secret treasure of my sect to influence your will.]

He said it in advance, so if the emperor is influenced by him again, it won't be his fault.

Ying Cong: [How do you say that?]

Zhao Yifu then briefly introduced what had happened here before, basically telling the emperor that there was a dark force called "Lunzang Temple" that was constantly misleading people and trying to stir up trouble.

His "Thousand Miles of Smoke and Clouds Painting" was a trophy he obtained from the leader of the Lunzang Temple. He speculated that these evil monks might be planning to use this thing to remotely deceive the emperor or something...

In short, let's throw out some random guesses first.

However, Ying Cong scoffed at this: [Humph, I am the true dragon emperor, how could I be bewitched by such evil demons?]

Seeing him pick it up, Zhao Yifu said perfunctorily, "Yes, yes, that's right."

It's not like he hasn't seen a real dragon before. His unlucky brother is still suffering from the double torture of the teachers and his mother in the mountains.

Because his perfunctory attitude was so obvious that Ying Cong saw through it, he said: [You don’t believe it?]

Zhao Yifu thought to himself, why is this person so childish?

I quickly replied: [I believe it, of course I don’t believe it… I don’t want to chat with you anymore, I have something important to do.]

He changed the subject because he knew that if he continued talking about this topic, it would never end.

Ying Cong said: [What are you doing? Let me see.]

Zhao Yifu had no choice but to splash ink with his hand.

The next moment, a horrifying picture appeared on the scroll in front of Ying Cong.

This is a quiet pool of water, hidden in the mountains and bottomless.

However, the shores of the pool were filled with various bones, making it look eerie and scary.

This is not a good painting. It has an eerie atmosphere that makes people feel uncomfortable.

Ying Cong quickly asked, "Little Taoist priest, where have you been?"

Zhao Yifu replied: [It's still in Prison Cell Mountain. Judging from the terrain, this should be the eye of the underground water vein in the mountain.]

[Originally, this place should have had the effect of purifying water by generating positive energy through the interaction of negative energy, but now it has been polluted by humans and has instead become the source of pollution for the water veins within Prison Mountain.]

No wonder Fenglin County's per-acre yields have been declining year after year; it turns out the water source is being tampered with.

Ying Cong asked curiously: [Why is this so? What benefits will this bring to those evil people?]

Zhao Yifu replied: [Water pollution has caused a reduction in land production, which in turn has left the people with insufficient food and the burden of taxation from the imperial court.]

Think about it: the people already don't have enough food to eat, yet local officials continue to tax them to ensure revenue, and even want to collect more taxes than in previous years for their own political achievements or selfish desires...

What will the people think?

Ying Cong suddenly understood and said, "You're right, this is a big problem."

If the people had enough food and lived comfortably, why would anyone rebel?

[The Jingshan Rebellion...]

Zhao Yifu said, "The land in the south is very fertile. Unless there are man-made factors like Fenglin County, how could the people in the south be so destitute given the current imperial court policies? It would never develop to the point of rebellion."

Ying Cong immediately said with great empathy: "That's absolutely right. This must be because many people have become corrupted and constantly misinterpreted the imperial will, which is why the people of the world are living in misery."

Anyway, he is not wrong, right?

Zhao Yi Fu chuckled in his heart and didn't care. He opened his mouth and spit out a breath of pure Yang fire, burning all the remnants left after the evil ritual in front of him.

Then he began to think about breaking the deadlock.

The previous chat with the emperor netizen gave him some ideas.

In fact, he didn't need to transform the Water Vein Yin Eye back to its original appearance. He didn't have the ability to do so.

Doesn't he just need to destroy the terrain so that it no longer injects dirty air into the water veins?

All water veins in the world have the ability to purify themselves.

Destroying this Yin Eye only destroys the spirit in the water, but... if this spirit is an evil spirit, then it is really better not to have it.

So he looked around and saw a hill on the east side.

"Xiong San, go level that hill for me!"

Xiong San, who was dozing on the ground, looked up blankly. He pointed at himself and then at the hill in astonishment, and a look of fear appeared on his furry bear face.

If it refined the transverse bone, it would definitely complain: Master, are you kidding?
However, at this moment, Wu Zhong gave the bear a vicious kick and said, "Young Master told you to go, so go. If you continue to be in a daze, I'll deduct a meal from your meal!"

Xiong San understood and quickly got on all fours and headed towards the hilltop.

Sure enough, eating is the driving force behind this hot commodity.

It is willing to do anything as long as it can get a full meal without thinking.

Zhao Yifu smiled and said, "It's really hard for a bear to do this alone. Let's go together and cut off at least ten feet of that mountain."

So when Zhao Yifu took his family to cut the mountain, he also took the opportunity to draw a picture of the busy scene on the mountain and sent it to the "netizen".

Ying Cong felt a toothache when he saw the huge and strong cats standing up in the picture.

He said: [Is this a monster?]

Zhao Yifu said: [These are all cats I raised... Oh, and this bear was found in the woods.]

[Don't be fooled by their current behavior; they are usually small, well-behaved and very cute.]

Ying Cong: ...

He was already beginning to have some doubts about the word 'cute'.

Looking at the fat cat I raised at home, I always felt like something was wrong.

He is also a cat lover, but if his cat has muscles enough to stand up and move bricks... he thinks his love for it will be discounted.

Fortunately, Zhao Yifu used a freehand painting style this time, otherwise Ying Cong might have developed a stress disorder towards cats.

[A geomancer had come to the palace before, but he didn't seem to be able to manipulate feng shui like you do?]

Ying Cong asked.

In fact, he already had an expectation in his heart that the answer Zhao Yifu gave him would be disparaging to the geomancer.

After all, the ministers around him who practiced both Confucianism and Taoism all did the same in front of him.

However, Zhao Yifu gave him a completely different answer.

[Well... because I'm not very good at things like formations and feng shui, I can only understand some basic numerology problems, so I can only use this stupid method to try to break the deadlock.]

In short, it means "Because I'm too bad at it and my skills are not good enough, I can only cut down the mountain..."

Ying Cong was in a state of confusion. Was Zhao Yifu being modest? Or was he just trying to show off?

However, the following situation allowed Ying Cong to see Zhao Yifu's execution ability.

In his opinion, it was impossible to flatten a mountain, but he saw the whole process in Zhao Yifu's painting.

Over a month, he watched with his naked eyes as the mountain in the painting visibly shrank.

He watched as the monsters gradually slashed away the top of the mountain by a full twenty feet!
That’s right, Zhao Yifu increased his bet.

After twenty battles had been cleared, even in winter, the warm sunlight at the turn of the lunar calendar could still shine through, falling right on the water vein's yin eye. At this moment, a magical scene occurred.

When the morning sun shone on the pool, the cold air condensed on the surface of the pool was dispelled at once.

The originally cold water began to feel faintly warm as the reflection of a full sun appeared in it.

The sun's shadow falls, just as one day in heaven equals another day on earth.

The Yin Eye, which was originally contaminated by the evil aura, immediately underwent a drastic change.

As the saying goes, old yin gives birth to young yang. This place was originally a place of old yin, but now it has become a place of young yang that symbolizes vitality!

Zhao Yifu did not change anything near the pond, but he directly reversed the feng shui of the place.

Zhao Yifu himself was stunned.

Because his deduction was that the original Yin Eye was formed because this was the place where the Yin energy in the earth veins was released, and the surrounding terrain had the tendency to gather Yin, causing the Yin energy to be released but not released.

The reason for cutting off this mountain top was simply to target a larger flow of Yin Qi. By cutting off the mountain top that blocked the flow, it was hoped that the Yin Qi gathered in this place could be released.

However, he did not expect that his change would be so significant. He changed the original yin terrain into a place where heaven and earth meet and yin and yang converge... This place suddenly became a Feng Shui treasure land.

Zhao Yifu was moved by what he saw. He thought that burying his father here when he died would definitely bless the family with long-lasting blessings.

He decided what his father would do after his death in just a few moments of thought. This is truly filial piety.

Feeling happy, he passed this picture to his netizens.

He rarely depicts everything here in a detailed and realistic way.

But the meticulous painting style manages to create a sense of freehand brushwork, because the scenery here is inherently full of freehand brushwork.

It can be said that this is an excellent painting that combines meticulousness and freehand brushwork, and it also made Ying Cong mesmerized when he saw this picture.

He was even reluctant to write a reply, for fear of destroying everything in the painting.

Zhao Yifu probably also sensed the other party's thoughts, because at this moment he actually felt faintly that there was yang and spiritual energy coming from the scroll.

It seemed that Ying Cong really loved his painting, so much so that his love came to him through the scroll.

He was quite surprised by this, because he had not carefully tried to make this painting the best he could, and many parts of it were completed with a make-do attitude.

Thinking of this, he simply sat down on the spot and set up the table and chairs and prepared everything he needed, including pens, ink, paper, and inkstone.

Yiyi jumped onto the table and used her paws to hold the ink block and grind the ink hard, while Zhao Yifu chose a piece of spiritual paper, dipped it in some spiritual ink, and with some inspiration, he repainted the previous picture stroke by stroke.

Moreover, this time he deliberately unleashed the Shouren method and continuously performed magic tricks during the painting process.

As a result, the painting he created was shrouded in clouds and mist, as if he had really painted a real world.

The spiritual paper and spiritual ink carry this unique painting.

Standing in front of the painting, one feels as if experiencing the entire process of the sun rising in the sky and then "falling" into the puddle on the ground.

The whole picture is very freehand, yet so real, as if you are there.

Even Zhao Yifu was so absorbed in painting that he forgot the passage of time for a moment.

It was not until the sun set and the bright moon lit up the sky that he finally put down his brush and completed the painting.

The true Qi in his body was vast, warm and comfortable. It was obvious that the state of full devotion just now had stimulated the true Yang in his body, making the purity of his true Qi reach a higher level.

He couldn't help but sigh that if he could paint like this every time, he would be able to achieve Yang Shen directly like Teacher Zhou Su.

Putting the brush into the brush washer, he took a look at "A Thousand Miles of Smoke and Clouds Painting" and saw that the painting he had originally drawn was gone. Instead, it was a picture of an emperor who was too idle "swiping the screen".

[Hey, little Taoist priest, why are you suddenly silent? ]

Little Taoist priest, what are you doing?

【Okay, I order you to answer now! 】

【Hey, hey, hey, are you in trouble? 】

Zhao Yifu rubbed his temple helplessly, and could only reach out to dip some ink and throw it over.

A line of words instantly appeared: [Seeing you liked it just now, I drew that scene again. I'll have someone send it to you next time I have the chance.]

As he spoke, he stamped the painting with a 'letter seal'.

This is considered his favorite work. It not only takes his painting skills to a higher level, but also incorporates all his understanding and application of illusion.

He actually wanted to keep it for himself to play with.

But after he carefully looked at the scroll twice, he shook his head helplessly.

Because he discovered the shortcomings of his painting skills, and also realized that his illusion skills were not so perfect, and there was still room for improvement...

In this way, the desire to keep it will fade.

Looking at "A Thousand Miles of Smoke and Clouds Painting" again, the touching words have already appeared on it: [I didn't expect you to have such a heart, but I don't know when I can see your painting again.]

Zhao Yifu thought for a moment and said, "My work here is finished. I'll be leaving the mountain and returning to Fenglin County soon. I can then use the post station to send this painting back to you."

But Ying Cong rejected the idea, saying, "No, the Jingshan rebellion has already threatened the post road system in the southwest to a certain extent. I'm afraid you'll lose it if you use the post station."

Zhao Yifu thought for a moment and replied, "Okay then. I'll send it directly to you."

[By the way, do you have a secret pickup location in Beijing? I can just have someone I trust pick up the goods there.]

Ying Cong hesitated for a moment. After thinking about it carefully, he found that there was not even a single person around him whom he could trust!

This is a bit sad.

Zhao Yifu said helplessly: "At least there should be a guard who can be trusted, or a eunuch will do."

Ying Cong asked in surprise: [Eunuchs are also possible? But there are so many precedents from previous dynasties...]

Zhao Yifu replied immediately: [You believe what the civil servants say? ]

Ying Cong had to remind him: [You are also a civil servant.]

Zhao Yifu said: [Oh, that’s right.]

However, I would like to point out that, due to their unique nature, the eunuchs' power was solely dependent on the emperor's favor. Therefore, when many emperors felt the balance of power in the court was about to be disrupted, they would release eunuchs to muddy the waters or create another balance.

[Of course, the quality of the eunuchs themselves is also a problem, but didn't our Great Xu have several eunuchs who were good at fighting before the Southern Expedition?]

【It actually depends on the person.】

[But there is no doubt that for the emperor, eunuchs are a group that is much easier to control than the scholar-official group.]

[Most importantly, if something goes wrong, the eunuchs can be pushed out to take the blame.]

The more Ying Cong listened, the more he felt it made sense. He immediately decided to go back and brush up on his historical knowledge of the previous dynasty, mainly to learn about how emperors of all dynasties used eunuchs.

He found that there was definitely a lot of knowledge involved.

However, Zhao Yifu, a scholar who advised him to employ the eunuch party, had been elevated to a level of complete trust in his mind.

Because Ying Cong felt that anyone with some selfish motives would not be able to make such suggestions to the emperor.

He didn't seem to realize that Zhao Yifu had gradually changed his mind...

And Zhao Yifu didn't realize that he seemed to be becoming the "leader of the eunuch party".

If his head, Qiu Yuzi, knew about this, he would probably be furious... His family had finally built a court that was completely controlled by his own people, and this kid actually wanted to throw sand in the wind!

(End of this chapter)