"The painting is... quite good?"
Shang Wu blinked and patted Li Mo's shoulder.
She didn't know much about art, but at a glance, it did look impressive.
"Not bad."
Ying Bing nodded slightly, a hint of surprise in her eyes.
Even without facial features, she could recognize herself in the painting.
This meant the artist had mastered the essence and atmosphere so deeply that the work carried an almost lifelike spirit.
"Just a trivial skill, hardly worth mentioning."
Li Mo curled his lips.
He wasn’t being modest—he just knew his limits.
This level of skill had taken him sixty years of relentless dedication!
But.
Seeing Ying Bing’s gaze linger on the painting, her expression momentarily dazed,
Young Li suddenly felt the pain in his heart ease a little.
"Why didn’t you draw the face?"
Shang Wu pointed at the blank visage of the girl in the painting.
Li Mo sighed.
"It’s my first time painting a portrait. I wanted to capture a smiling expression."
"Besides, the composition is set in the brilliance of midsummer. If the subject isn’t smiling, it would ruin the entire mood."
"Isn’t smiling just..."
Shang Wu trailed off as she realized—
She couldn’t recall ever seeing Ying Bing smile.
Li Mo struggled to remember too.
In his memory, Ying Bing’s smiles were as rare as the sun rising in the west.
Not only had he never seen her laugh,
He couldn’t even imagine what the "ice block" would look like if she did.
"Little Bing, why don’t you... try smiling?"
Shang Wu coaxed.
Ying Bing’s delicate brows furrowed slightly. After a moment of hesitation, she relented.
After all, she owed Li Mo another favor.
Since she’d agreed to be his model until the painting was complete,
She had no choice but to...
Ying Bing parted her jade-like lips, slightly narrowing her eyes, forcing her usually frosty expression into something resembling a smile.
"Heh..."
Beautiful?
Yes.
But...
"Yikes—"
Li Mo and Shang Wu both recoiled, a chill shooting up their spines.
This was a smile, but it was undeniably a cold one!
Ethereal and merciless, like the moon gazing down on mortals, silently uttering two words:
"Insects."
If he painted that, the artwork would instantly be rated R.
Any minor who saw it would be traumatized for life.
"What to do..."
Li Mo pondered, then suddenly crossed his eyes (imagine the classic goofy face) and stuck out his tongue.
"Pfft— HAHAHA, are you stupid?!"
Shang Wu clutched her stomach, laughing uncontrollably.
"?"
Ying Bing’s frown deepened, utterly baffled by this bizarre behavior.
Li Mo reset his face to normal and said solemnly,
"Looks like it’s time for the Joke King to make his grand entrance!"
"Today, I will make you laugh!"
The Qiushui Pavilion Comedy Challenge begins!
First up: Contestant Shang Wu, the beautiful master!
Full of determination, she vowed to crack the ice block’s stoicism!
She began with a deadpan expression.
"A little butterfly was flying along when suddenly, she got so hungry she couldn’t fly anymore... HAHAHA... and then... and then—"
Before she could finish the joke,
She was already wheezing with laughter.
"And then... she fell into the mud and drowned in it, HAHAHA—"
Shang Wu doubled over, gasping for air.
"?"
Li Mo and Ying Bing exchanged glances.
Was this funny?
Where was the punchline?
"Master, what’s the joke supposed to be?" Li Mo asked.
"Hungry mud butterfly."
Shang Wu wiped her tears.
Li Mo: "..."
What a garbage pun.
Due to Contestant Shang Wu’s use of a cringe-worthy pun, Judges Li Mo and Ice Block unanimously disqualified her.
Well.
Mainly because the master’s sense of humor was so rotten that she’d laugh herself to death before finishing any joke longer than three words.
Next up: Contestant Li Mo!
He decided to deploy his ultimate secret weapon:
"A man’s farts were incredibly loud. Guess why?"
"Why?" Shang Wu shook her head.
Li Mo: "Because he was wearing bell-bottoms."
"HAHAHAHA—"
"?"
Ying Bing tilted her head, watching Shang Wu collapse in hysterics, utterly lost.
Was this... supposed to be amusing?
"Still not laughing?"
Li Mo’s competitive spirit ignited.
He refused to accept defeat!
......
Half an hour later.
Li Mo sat in stunned silence.
The beautiful master was clutching her abs, begging him to stop.
Meanwhile, Ice Block’s head was just collecting more and more question marks.
Li Mo, parched and defeated, slumped.
He was starting to suspect Ying Bing simply lacked a funny bone.
"I’m such a fool."
"Give up. Little Bing might just be born without the ability to laugh. Your jokes were great, dear disciple," Shang Wu consoled, finally catching her breath.
"How can we make her smile?"
Li Mo racked his brain, absentmindedly poking his cheek with a brush.
So absorbed was he that he didn’t notice—
He’d grabbed the brush backwards.
The inked tip left streaks of black across his handsome face.
"Pfft—"
"Master, stop laughing at me."
Li Mo wiped his mouth irritably, smearing the ink further until he resembled a certain cartoon cat.
"Huh?"
Shang Wu turned to him.
One glance at his new look, and her barely-contained laughter erupted again.
"Honk honk honk—"
Clearly, this laughter was different from before.
"Hm?"
Li Mo turned.
The last stubborn rays of sunset clung to the horizon,
Casting a warm glow on Ying Bing, her ice-mirror eyes shimmering between light and shadow.
The evening breeze tousled her hair, softening her features—
But the fledgling artist reflected in her eyes was crystal clear.
For a moment, Li Mo felt time freeze.
A masterpiece stood before him.
"Quit staring and paint," Shang Wu nudged him.
"Ah! Right!"
Li Mo snapped back to reality.
Focusing intently, he lifted his brush and finally filled in the blank face on the canvas—
With a smile both delicate and radiant.
Strangely,
As those strokes settled, a wave of exhaustion washed over him.
"Done? Let me see!" Shang Wu leaned in.
"Is this... me?"
Ying Bing stared at the painting, transfixed.
The girl in the artwork felt both foreign and familiar.
Even she couldn’t remember her own smile.
Yet,
With just a few strokes, Li Mo had captured it—
A perfect blend of cool elegance and vivid warmth.
That smile seemed eternal, so lifelike it was as if another version of her stood there, gazing back.
Under the moonlight, an indescribable emotion stirred in her chest.
Rustle—
The night wind whispered through the leaves.
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
shall grant"] ["Inscribing the glory of our race upon tombstones"] ["All that is threatened, I shall protect"] How his younger sister sees her brother: A brother who only makes eye contact once a day, mostly fading into the background as he tinkers with who-knows-what in his room all day. Their life paths should have remained largely separate. Until one day. Su Qi created an equipment card for his never-met "online girlfriend." His sister fell into silent contemplation upon receiving the "white stockings." [Card can be upgraded] [Upgrade by fulfilling any of the following conditions] [Condition ①: Consume one hundred higher-tier cards] [Condition ②: Complete one 'Heart-Pounding Adventure'] What constitutes a Heart-Pounding Adventure? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Beginner Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to admire it.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Easy Level): Equip the card, invite 'Su Qi' to touch it, and analyze the equipment's texture.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Entry Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to...] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Challenge Level): Freely combine the words 'Brother' 'Out' 'Brother' 'Me' 'Please' into a complete sentence...] "Please help me analyze both teams' mistakes in this match, brother..." His sister exhaled in relief—surely... surely there couldn't be anything more difficult? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Suicide Mission Level): Sneak a peek at the names of the galgames in 'Su Qi's' hidden E-drive folder]
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
iaobai: "Councilor Dad, front me some funds. I want to hire ten thousand professional miners for a project!" [Five-Star Mission Issued: Capture the leader of the Blood Heaven Pirate Gang, who is on the run in the Radiant Star Sector. It is said the gang has over a hundred members. Proceed with caution.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, lend me the family's hundred-thousand-strong Lu Army!" [Seven-Star Mission Issued: Subdue a juvenile Void Dragon Beast.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, I'm taking your tamed Void Dragon Beast King out for a family reunion!" I said, System, don't you have any slightly more challenging missions? You're just not up to par! [Nine-Star Mission Issued: Become the Human Councilor.] Lu Xiaobai: "Dad, there's a small matter I'd like to discuss with you..."
