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

Chapter 440 The Adventures of the Young Masters of Noble Families on Flower Fruit Mountain
"And then?" Wu Xian asked curiously, "Are you going to cause trouble?"

“Not quite,” Xue Zhengying chuckled. “It’s just that the younger generation in the Divine Beast Dojo are using Flower Fruit Mountain for training and research, or you could understand it as a kind of testing standard.”

"Huh?" Wu Xian was stunned and didn't expect it could be done like this.

This is treating [Huaguo Mountain] as a testing tool and research subject for the younger generation of the Divine Beast Gym.

Xue Zhengying continued, "Judging from what they're saying, it seems they're considering using [Huaguo Mountain] as the standard for graduation assessment. Under certain conditions, only those who can defeat a powerful demon from Huaguo Mountain can graduate smoothly."

"..." Wu Xian was speechless for a moment. "If that's really the case, wouldn't the top students at the Divine Beast Gym hate me to death?"

"What's so hateful about someone who has no ability?" Xue Zhengying asked, puzzled.

"No, no, no, second brother, you don't understand. The hatred I'm talking about is a special kind of hatred," Wu Xian explained. "It's like having an extremely strict teacher in school who always assigns a lot of difficult homework. How would students view this teacher?"

Upon hearing this, Xue Zhengying seemed to understand something. "I know it's for my own good, but I still feel really frustrated."

“Yes, yes, yes, that’s exactly the kind of resentment and hatred I feel.” Wu Xian nodded and smiled. “Just like those people on the internet who call me ‘Wu Dog’ these days.”

"Alright," Xue Zhengying chuckled, "Looks like you'll have to be a little more careful when you encounter young scroll artists at the Mythical Beast Gym in the future. Who knows, someone might be throwing bricks at you behind your back at any time."

"..." Wu Xian felt helpless.

After ending his call with Xue Zhengying, Wu Xian couldn't help but start to re-evaluate the group of monsters from Flower Fruit Mountain.

Or perhaps it's a monster found in Chinese culture.

After all, compared to monsters and monsters in other cultures, the Chinese monsters and fairies do have a unique style and power system.

At least in China, monsters, like humans, can attain immortality through cultivation.

This is something that coincides with the otherworldly demons in the world of the scroll painting.

The current level of public attention to the monsters of Flower Fruit Mountain is likely partly due to this.

"A scroll depicting the demon race?" Wu Xian asked thoughtfully.

Previously, we were still working on the idea of ​​including mythical beasts and ferocious monsters from the mountains and seas, but now it seems better to develop them together.

In any case, the concept of "demonic beasts" is all-encompassing, and in China, they can all be summarized by the term "demon race".

Fortunately, Huaguo Mountain recently produced a batch of high-quality dungeon materials, so we can try making a few monster scrolls first.

Let's see how it goes in the market first, and then we'll consider whether to open a separate "Demon Race Card Pool".

In just one night, he conceived and condensed the general idea of ​​the fifth of the Seven Great Sages.

As for why only five were formed, the reason is quite simple: the Great Sage Equaling Heaven and the Great Sage of Heaven are far stronger than the other five great demons, and they are the kind that need to be carefully crafted individually.

……

Mythical Beast Gym, Gym University.

It is the highest institution of learning in the world of beast scroll painting system, and also the breeding ground for the next generation of divine beast dojos.

Every day, numerous outstanding students of animal-themed scroll painting graduate from here, scattering to all corners of the world to become scroll painting talents who lead the development of human society.

This place brings together outstanding young people from all over the world.

Each one was a rare talent in the local area when it came to painting scrolls.

The arrogance inherent in being labeled a young person and a genius makes the competition among the top students of the Divine Beast Academy extremely fierce.

In the past few days, the appearance of a new instance has thrown the Divine Beast Academy into chaos.

Initially, it was only a group of students who accidentally discovered the treasure dungeon "Huaguo Mountain," and they were so frustrated by the difficulty that they exchanged complaints and vented to each other.

The powerful monsters of Flower Fruit Mountain also provided a lot of inspiration to these young people.

As a result, the popularity of the Huaguo Mountain instance grew higher and higher within the academy, and gradually, even some scions of noble families were drawn to it.

At first, these privileged young men from noble families didn't take [Huaguo Mountain] seriously.

It wasn't until I experienced it myself that I realized why everyone was talking about the Flower Fruit Mountain dungeon. The monsters inside, in terms of both appearance and power design, are completely different from the beast-themed scrolls of today.

The key is that every monster is exceptionally powerful, including those insignificant little demons.

The design of each monster's appearance and power perfectly matches their animal characteristics, making it a textbook example of animal scroll design.

However, this powerful group of beasts in the scroll conception turned out to be just a bunch of creatures and background embellishments in a domain scroll.

In the eyes of the Pokémon Gym illustrators, it was somewhat of a waste of talent.

At this moment, several young masters from the Divine Beast Gym are teaming up to conquer the third-tier difficulty of [Flower Fruit Mountain].

Although the strategy was a bit difficult, we eventually succeeded.

This can be considered as preserving the dignity and face of these scions of aristocratic families.

"The difficulty is indeed high, and those monsters are indeed designed quite well, and can be used as a separate picture scroll concept."

"The key point is that these monsters weren't specifically conceived or designed, but rather shaped by the grand backdrop of this domain scroll. That's the most outrageous part." The young masters from noble families couldn't hide their amazement.

"This is absolutely a masterpiece!"

"I wonder when we will be able to create such an excellent scroll depicting the realm?"

"No rush, we can take it slow after graduation and debut."

“Our family’s legacy is no less impressive than that of Flower Fruit Mountain.”

"Those great demons may be powerful, but they are ultimately insignificant in front of our divine beast scrolls."

The scions of several prominent families encouraged each other, maintaining the sense of superiority that comes with being from a wealthy and powerful family.

However, they all knew in their hearts that this was only a level 3 difficulty dungeon, and they each had at least one gold scroll, and it was a divine beast gold scroll of about six stars.

With such a luxurious array of scrolls, conquering a level 3 difficulty dungeon proved far more challenging than they had anticipated.

Previously, the star rating was as high as 3.5, but now in the Huaguo Mountain dungeon, it has been reduced to below 3, or even lower.

This also shows just how ridiculously difficult the Flower Fruit Mountain dungeon is.

Especially the most powerful one, a young demon whose true form was a giant white bull, almost caused them to lose their lives.

"How about we try out the fourth-tier difficulty?"

The young man from the leading aristocratic family was in high spirits, a hint of defiant arrogance flickering in his eyes.

“Okay,” the other young masters agreed. “Just be wary of that big white bull. It’s obviously the main character in this scroll of the realm.”

"But speaking of which, what breed is that big white bull? What is its lineage? Why is it so powerful?"

A person next to him clicked his tongue and analyzed, "It probably has some kind of incredible divine beast bloodline flowing through it. It's a pity it's just a trial instance, otherwise it should be able to drop materials containing high-quality bloodline structures."

"Looking at the information on Hero Tower, the original location of this domain seems to be in Tianfeng Province, which is quite far away."

"Let's put that aside for now, let's get to the fourth level difficulty!"

"My Frostfang Wolf is already thirsting for blood."

"The Great White Bull at Tier 4 difficulty level is likely to have reached a combat power level of around a level 30 lord. It's best to be careful when dealing with it."

As they spoke, the group formed a team and started the fourth-tier difficulty [Huaguo Mountain].

Upon entering the instance, they were immediately intimidated by the overwhelming demonic aura before them, their brows furrowing in fear. Even the divine beast scrolls beside them appeared wary and apprehensive.

"The difficulty level seems to have increased quite a bit!"

"Has anyone tried the fourth difficulty level yet? Are there any guides or anything?" "No, at least no one in our school has reached the fourth difficulty level yet. Everyone is stuck at the third difficulty level."

"Tsk~ In the end, we still have to rely on the chosen ones from our aristocratic families!"

"Let's just get started. If things don't work out, we can always start over."

The group stormed into Flower Fruit Mountain and began fighting against various monsters.

Judging from the strength of some of the lesser demons, the difficulty has indeed increased more than they expected, but it is still within their acceptable range.

After encountering the Roc Demon King, they joined forces and managed to achieve a difficult victory.

Although the victory was hard-won, it brought a great sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

"Tch~ Fourth-tier difficulty is nothing special, let's continue!"

"Don't get too excited yet, after all, the big white bull is the main point."

The group smiled knowingly and continued on their way.

Soon after, he successfully defeated the Lion Camel King, which made him feel increasingly accomplished and caused his ego to swell.

"Heh, so what if the numbers are high? I still got frozen, didn't I? In this world, you have to be extremely strong!" The young man from the noble family who carried the Frost Demon Fang Wolf was secretly pleased with himself.

Although the freezing effect has been greatly reduced, as long as they can still be frozen, they still have a chance to fight.

However, before they could even celebrate for a few seconds, they were thrown into disarray by a sudden afterimage.

A lively monkey suddenly appeared out of nowhere, moving incredibly fast.

The handsome monkey, seemingly mischievous and playful, grabbed the Frost Fang Wolf's large tail and began to "play" with it. The Frost Fang Wolf had no time to react and was dragged around by its tail, howling and screaming.

Hey!
As the Frost Fang Wolf struggled, it seized an opportunity to turn around and spit out a mouthful of chilling frost.

The freezing talent that could previously freeze the Lion Camel King was now only used to form a layer of frost on the monkey, completely useless.

"What the hell?"

"Those two monkey-shaped demons in the third-tier difficulty? They don't seem quite right."

"Grown up? Evolved?"

"No, no, these don't seem to be the two monkeys from the third-tier difficulty, but another monkey?"

"What does this mean? Another powerful demon has appeared at the fourth-tier difficulty level?"

"There are already two monkey-shaped demons, and now another one? Is Flower Fruit Mountain just a place to raise monkeys?"

"Damn it, hurry up and lend a hand! My Frostfang Wolf is about to be beaten to a pulp!"

Several teammates used their respective gold scrolls to surround and support the attack.

As the saying goes, many hands make light work, and the combined strength of several scions of powerful families demonstrated formidable combat power.

Unfortunately, the monkey that suddenly appeared was too fast and had too high defense. Even after a large group of people launched a fierce attack for a long time, the opponent only lost a little bit of health.

Even more outrageous, one of the semi-mechanical divine beasts, a tiger forged by the mechanical god, bit down on it, and its steel teeth almost broke.

"What the heck? Is this monkey's body made of iron?" The group of people were dumbfounded.

Fortunately, another member of a prestigious family's scion's poison-type divine beast, the Azure Serpent, managed to achieve some effect.

The dark green toxin attack caused some trouble for Monkey King, making him sneeze several times.

"Low poison resistance, low poison resistance!" The young leader was overjoyed, thinking he had discovered Monkey King's weakness. "Quick, quick, adjust the strategy!"

Little did they know, the snake venom attack had already angered Monkey King.

Just as they were preparing to change their strategy and take it down in one fell swoop, they saw the handsome monkey in front of them casually throw the Frost Fang Wolf far away, and as he opened his mouth to inhale, his entire body began to expand rapidly and he rose into the air.

The young men from noble families felt the sky suddenly darken, and then a giant monkey's foot came crashing down on them mercilessly.

boom!
The group that had been teleported out of the instance space were still unable to recover from the shock.

"What...what just happened? That monkey was huge!"

"Whose monkey is that big? It's even bigger than my grandfather's Heavenly Demon Ape true form."

Little did they know, what they saw was only the Monkey King's ordinary skill, the ability to increase his size at the level of the Seventy-Two Transformations.

They haven't used their ultimate move that truly enlarges their size yet, or rather, they're not qualified for Monkey King to use that move.

"Tier 4 difficulty?"

The young man leading the group had a stiff expression and was secretly questioning his life.

I thought the white bull's strength was outrageous enough, but I didn't expect there to be something even more outrageous in the fourth-tier difficulty.

The key point is that in the first three levels of difficulty, I didn't even notice the monkey.

But the more this happened, the more he wanted to go back in and find out what was going on, to see things clearly.

Suddenly, a commotion broke out in the main hall of the academy, with students chattering about something.

Hearing the students' discussions, several of them took out their phones to check, and then saw a school announcement that made them question their existence.

Starting today, the [Huaguo Mountain] dungeon challenge will be used as the graduation assessment.

Students who pass the third level of difficulty will graduate smoothly, while elite students who pass the fourth level of difficulty will receive a gold-standard graduation certificate.

Several scions of prominent families exchanged glances, their lips twitching wildly.

Dear Principal, would you please take a look at what you are saying?
Tier 4 difficulty? Have you even tried Tier 4 difficulty? Is that even a normal human being could beat?
"It's over! Graduation is just around the corner, and the gold medal is gone!" one of the scions of a prominent family cursed on the spot.

The so-called Gold Standard Graduation Certificate is actually a certification issued by the academy to elite students. After graduation, they can enjoy various debut resources and benefits.

In the past, for these scions of prominent families, winning the gold medal was practically a sure thing.

But nowadays, it doesn't seem so easy to get it.

"Is the headmaster out of his mind?" a young master from a prominent family complained. "I suspect he never even went into the fourth-level difficulty; he only gave him a brief assessment at the first or second level."

The others nearby strongly agreed and prepared to go to the principal to reason with him.

At least in their view, the requirement to complete the third level of difficulty to graduate is already outrageous.

This year's graduation rate is likely to be halved, drastically reduced.

The difficulty of the Gold Standard graduation assessment is even more astounding.

……

Yaoyang City, Underworld Club.

Wu Xian was showing and testing the scroll depicting the Seven Great Sages of Flower Fruit Mountain with a group of club members.

Since they are intended for sale, they are only available in two versions: copper and silver switches.

Based on the current test results, these Great Demon Scrolls are quite useful.

"So? Is it a good idea?" Wu Xian asked for everyone's opinion.

“Aside from being a bit ugly, it has no flaws,” Huang Lili analyzed. “It’s absolutely dominating the low-to-mid-range beast-themed picture scroll market.”

(End of this chapter)