Mythical Scroll Artist: Starting with the God of Wealth, Zhao Gongming

Chapter 4 Ancient Painting Scroll
"Really? It's actually real... a scroll?"

"It's still a figure painting scroll!"

"What's this kid's background?"

"A rich young master here to experience life?"

The group of henchmen, led by Huang Mao, were terrified.

The scarred man felt a chill run down his spine, especially when he met the majestic gaze of the True Lord of the Mysterious Altar, which instilled in him a deep-seated fear.

Judging from the fluctuations in his aura, he seemed unremarkable, but his intuition told him that the humanoid scroll spirit before him was incredibly powerful.

His hand, gripping the Demon-Slaying Blade, trembled slightly.

"Who...who exactly are you?" The scarred man's voice trembled slightly.

It wouldn't be good if we offended some powerful spoiled brat.

Wu Xian didn't waste any words with him. With a slight thought, the God of Wealth pointed his steel whip, and lightning surged.

It is precisely the innate ability of [controlling lightning].

boom!
Thunder roared forth.

The scarred man instinctively swung his demon-slaying sword to defend himself, but he was completely unable to stop the thunderous attack, and his entire body was instantly engulfed by lightning.

The underlings scattered in panic, as if they had seen a ghost.

As the lightning subsided, the scarred man, his body charred black, collapsed to his knees, grimacing, his body swaying precariously, the Demon-Slaying Blade in his hand dimming.

Seconds?

A copper axis rubbing, a two-star weapon spirit painting, is it really that weak?
Based on this, the God of Wealth is at least at the "bronze shaft" level, or even higher.

As he pondered, the black tiger beneath the God of Wealth seemed to sense something, its cold gaze sweeping into the distance, and it let out a deep growl.

Wu Xian followed the black tiger's gaze but saw nothing unusual, which made him secretly puzzled.

He then ignored the scarred man and gestured for his grandfather, Wu Changming, and the others to leave the North District.

Meanwhile, on the other side, in a corner of the North Street area.

A handsome young man with curly hair was staring at the scene before him with a furrowed brow.

Beside him stood a humanoid creature pieced together from shattered swords, surrounded by fragments of blades.

He brandished his cracked longsword, suppressing a terrifying ghost that was engulfed in eerie green flames.

Just a moment ago, it was fighting on equal terms with the [Shattered Sword True Spirit], but suddenly, the ferocious and eerie abyss monster in front of it seemed to have been scared out of its wits, and was being rubbed into the ground by the Shattered Sword True Spirit.

As a newly recruited member of the Sanchaogang Defense Force, Du Yifan has seen all sorts of things.

Something's definitely not right today.

"Could it be that a senior figure happened to pass by and inadvertently intimidated this monster?"

After thinking it over, it seems that this is the only explanation.

"It seems the instructor was right, Sanzaigang is indeed a place where hidden talents reside," Du Yifan agreed wholeheartedly. After swiftly defeating the monster before him, he couldn't help but wonder, "I wonder which senior it is?"

Just passing by was enough to terrify a third-tier monster.

It must be at least a high-level spirit master of level six or above, right?

Perhaps it was a master painter.

After all, the North District is an underground trading market for scroll painters, and his family used a lot of connections to get him a job there.

……

This is a messy shantytown.

Grandpa Wu Mingchang was beaming with pride, enjoying the praise and envy of his old friends. Even his back, which had been hunched over for half his life, straightened up a bit.

After seeing his old buddies off, Wu Mingchang couldn't wait to start asking questions.

Wu Xian spoke ambiguously, half-concealing his meaning.

Although the old man didn't understand much, he enjoyed it immensely.

Looking at Wu Xian with a satisfied and contented gaze, he seemed to have died without regrets. "Our Wu family actually produced a scroll painter, this is truly..."

"Alright, Grandpa, you can now enjoy your retirement in peace. I'll take care of everything from now on."

Unfortunately, the old man clearly didn't listen and instead presented a pile of junk like a treasure, "By the way, these were all picked up from the North District. Do you see any that can be reused?"

Wu Xian was about to say, "Let's not do this anymore," but the next second he was completely captivated by the "scrap" in front of him.

Paint boxes and bottles from various brands and with different packaging inevitably contain residues and leftovers.

In addition, there are also a lot of scraps of materials from other elements.

No wonder Scarface and his gang wouldn't allow outsiders to get involved; garbage recycling in the North District is indeed very lucrative.

At that moment, the so-called "dignity" in my heart didn't seem so important anymore.

How do you say that?

Let's talk about dignity when we have money.

For dinner, we put the wine, meat, and food we bought on the table and splurged a little with Grandpa.

Tang Tiaotiao had planned to use the 20,000 yuan to rent a better house and move away from the shantytown, but her grandfather strongly refused.

On the one hand, he was reluctant to part with his old friends and neighbors, and on the other hand, he wanted to save money for his grandson.

Although this amount of money is a drop in the bucket for a scroll painter, that's how the older generation is; they'd rather split a dollar in half to spend it.

The night is deep.

Wu Xian returned to his small apartment and began "garbage sorting" the recyclables his grandfather had collected from the North Street area.

Although they were just "leftovers" from master scroll painters, they were expensive and valuable items for the poor at the bottom of society.

Especially branded pigments; pigments of the same brand and model have the same formula, so you can collect them and accumulate them little by little.

Even those off-brand paints can be collected together for spiritual recycling.

"These two bottles look like custom-made paints."

The two bottles of paint in front of me had no labels, and the bottles were standard paint containers, but the paint remaining inside emitted a strong and unique spiritual energy.

Unlike the general-purpose, standard pigments produced industrially by major manufacturers.

Custom-made pigments are more expensive to produce, require more stringent materials and formulas, and each bottle of custom-made pigment exhibits a unique spiritual fluctuation.

Therefore, its spiritual value is only of little use to Wu Xian. Right now, there are only two ways to make money.

Either rely on scrolls, or rely on the God of Wealth to go to another dimension to farm materials and sell them for money, while also letting the God of Wealth level up.

As for the scroll painting, it would naturally involve drawing copies or rubbings of the God of Wealth, but Wu Xian was reluctant to share his fortune, as it could easily attract trouble.

As for directly creating the "Crimson Fate Axis" scroll to sell for money, that's even more impossible.

On the one hand, it is still unclear what the Crimson Fate Scroll means; on the other hand, the Crimson Fate Scroll seems to be bound to the soul of the illustrator, so even if he wants to sell it, others may not be able to use it.

Therefore, Wu Xian's current plan is to first collect some spiritual pigments, and then, based on the pigments he has, create a scroll suitable for promotion and sale.

"So what exactly does this Crimson Axis of Fate mean?"

I took out my phone and searched online, and a bunch of ads came up, but there was basically no useful information.

However, after searching carefully, he actually found some useful information.

"Ancient scroll painting style?"

I immediately searched for the four characters "古法绘卷" (ancient scroll painting), and this time the search results were significantly more abundant.

Several of the posts mentioned that the scrolls of ancient Chinese painting scrolls were blood-red.

These posts mainly discuss the restoration and production of ancient scroll paintings; they are purely technical posts, but unfortunately, they do not mention the differences between ancient scroll paintings and modern scroll paintings.

Jingle Bell……

A video call came in on my phone.

"It's so late at night!"

Speechless, he pulled out his phone, and sure enough, it was Tang Tiaotiao harassing him. "What is it? We already agreed that I would not be responsible if the paper could not be completed."

But in the video, Tang Tiaotiao seemed dazed and excited, saying, "What are you thinking about? I'm here to tell you some good news."

"Announcement?"

"Clang clang clang clang, my Jade Rabbit Pounding Medicine is a success! No, it should be our Jade Rabbit Pounding Medicine!" Tang Tiaotiao displayed a scroll painting on the camera.

"It's...it's done?!"

The silver axis with gold embroidery border perfectly resembled the original scroll painting, leaving Wu Xian completely stunned.

No... this...

Can a poorly adapted and rewritten work be compiled into a volume?
Is this reasonable?

Could it be that I didn't add enough "fake" ingredients?

"Hehe, although I failed a few times, I succeeded in the end," Tang Tiaotiao was still immersed in joy. "And I feel that your concept is not perfect yet. I will slowly improve it later."

"..."

Wu Xian was still immersed in questioning his life.

Does this mean that as long as the "general" framework is correct, it's possible to draw it successfully?

Careless.

That's the Jade Rabbit, you know. Although it was just a harmless little character in the myths and legends of the past, it's not a big shot that an ordinary scroll could mess with.

The initial cost of ordering the graduation project was 30,000 yuan, plus an additional 20,000 yuan for follow-up projects, totaling only 50,000 yuan.

If I had known this would happen, I would have at least added two zeros.

After all, that's the Jade Rabbit pounding medicine, and it's copyrighted!

"Is it too late to come back now?" Wu Xian asked quietly.

"What do you think~!" Tang Tiaotiao had a smug look on her face, "But don't worry, I never mistreat my own brothers. I'll talk to Dad about it and give you some compensation."

Also, I'll see if I can draw an original copy for you.

Hearing this, Wu Xian felt a little better.

But he still couldn't understand how Tang Tiaotiao succeeded.
"Could I see the complete data for the Jade Rabbit rover?"

"of course."

Tang Tiaotiao chuckled and sent over the information about the scroll depicting the Jade Rabbit pounding medicine.

【Moon Messenger - Jade Rabbit】

Version: Original (with gold embroidered border)

Grade: Silver switch

Painting Spirit: ☆
Spirituality: 49
Talent Traits: Jade Rabbit Pounding Medicine, Moonlight Guardian

Wu Xian looked at the information in the Jade Rabbit's scroll, lost in thought.

Silver axis, 49 points of spirituality, initial spirit level is only half a star, all stats are seriously low.

The scroll's name is also rather strange; it's called something like "The Moon Messenger."

Given Tang Tiaotiao's family background, her drawing paper and paints must be high-end products. Even if Tang Tiaotiao's drawing skills were lacking, her scores shouldn't be this low.

Clearly, this jade rabbit painting has some problems, or rather, it's not quite perfect.

"The little jade rabbit is so cute, I think we should give it a car, or put it in a suit of mechanical armor for protection," Tang Tiaotiao's inspiration struck, her imagination running wild. "Xiao Xianzi, what do you think of my idea?"

"..."

Wu Xian was inwardly both amused and exasperated. "The Jade Rabbit is driving a car, a lunar rover, is that it?"
"Why mechanical armor? Wouldn't it be better to wear a pretty dress?" Wu Xian couldn't understand this woman's thought process.

Tang Tiaotiao explained, "My family has some connections with the Mechanical Dojo. We have some related materials and traditions. My brother is currently focusing on Mechanical Scrolls."

Wu Xian suddenly realized, a glint of light flashing in his eyes.

Is there any information or tradition regarding mechanical scrolls? That's interesting.

"Does Tang's family run a machinery-related business?"

"I've told you so many times, call me Sister Tiao!" Tang Tiaotiao emphasized, feigning anger. "My family does indeed run this kind of business. Didn't you know that all this time?"

"What exactly?"

"From cars and agricultural and industrial machinery to the current trend of developing mechanized combat equipment, it all depends on whether my brother can live up to expectations," Tang Tiaotiao said without hiding anything.

"No wonder he's so rich."

Wu Xian smiled knowingly, seemingly lost in thought.

(End of this chapter)