Staring at the unfamiliar yet familiar maiden in the painting, Ying Bing felt a momentary daze.
What had she been doing in her past life at this time?
Enduring the torment of extreme cold day after day, wandering through the dark Qingyuan Mountain Range, searching for the elusive Xia Po that called to her in the depths of her soul.
Scheming individuals and starving beasts alike had all fallen beneath her blade.
Those memories were steeped in darkness, frigidity, and desolation.
But tonight, the moonlight was truly beautiful.
Gazing at her own faint smile captured in the painting, bathed in the silvery glow of the moon’s radiance...
A seed, unknowingly planted within the frozen ice, seemed to quietly take root and sprout.
"Tsk, I’m amazing."
Li Mo couldn’t help but puff out his chest, a smug grin tugging at his lips—he was just short of striking a triumphant pose.
Who said artists had to die before their work became famous?
Hang this painting on Ruyi Peak, and it’d instantly be hailed as a masterpiece for the ages!
He’d even thought of a name—Mona Bing Sha!
"Huh?"
Shang Wu scrutinized the painting for a moment before blinking in surprise, her almond-shaped eyes widening.
"This painting... it almost has the essence of a Divine Contemplation Art?"
"Really?"
Li Mo took a closer look and realized there was indeed a peculiar charm to it.
Though faint.
Perhaps he’d inadvertently poured his spirit into those final strokes?
No wonder he’d felt so drained afterward...
"It’s not quite a Divine Contemplation Art—that’s pushing it. At most, it shares some similarities in technique."
Shang Wu clicked her tongue, sounding slightly disappointed.
She could tell the painting barely qualified as even a rudimentary "Lower Form."
"Can portraits be used for Divine Contemplation too?" Li Mo asked curiously.
Shang Wu snorted.
"Of course. What do you think the Great Yu Imperial Family contemplates?"
"The sun..."
Li Mo recalled that two of the suns in the sky were once emperors of Great Yu.
"There are two types of Divine Contemplation that use human essence as the subject," Shang Wu explained.
"One involves venerating sages who embody the 'Dao.' The other is the demon-summoning heresy of the Demon Calling Sect. This painting fits neither—it’s completely unusable for contemplation."
Her understanding of Divine Contemplation Arts ran deep.
Perhaps it had something to do with all those statues she’d smashed in the past.
"What a shame."
Li Mo took the painting down with a sigh.
"This was just a stroke of inspiration. Who knows when I’ll have the right timing, setting, and conditions again?"
"You will."
"Huh?"
Li Mo blinked in surprise.
But Ying Bing had already turned away, ascending the stairs and leaving only her retreating figure behind.
......
Night deepened.
After soaking in the hot springs, Li Mo returned to his room.
His daily cultivation routine couldn’t be skipped.
Now that the "Crimson Lotus Karmic Flame Art" had condensed an Mystic Core, he still needed to accumulate spiritual energy—and he had no plans to stop at just one core.
"The ice block’s room doesn’t feel as chilly anymore."
Passing by the neighboring door, Li Mo sensed something unusual.
At this hour, Ying Bing should have been contemplating the Lunar Divine.
Perhaps this change meant she had truly embarked on the path of Divine Contemplation?
Shaking his head, Li Mo stepped inside.
He casually placed the painting by his side and retrieved the "Golden Crow Solar Ascension Divine Contemplation Art" from his system storage.
Staring at it for a long while yielded no reaction.
"My immortal physique can’t use ordinary internal martial arts... does that extend to Divine Contemplation Arts too?"
"Wait—"
He unfurled the "Mona Bing Sha" again.
This time, that peculiar sensation of his spirit being drawn in resurfaced.
A painting of the ice block, barely qualifying as a Lower Form, could resonate with his soul.
Yet the "Golden Crow Solar Ascension Art," a pinnacle "Extreme Form," couldn’t?
Young Master Li fell into thought.
So it wasn’t about the grade of the Divine Contemplation Art?
What a pity.
This painting couldn’t be used for contemplation...
"Hold on!"
"I have the Creation Seal!"
"This was painted with Divine Contemplation techniques. If I stamp the Creation Seal on it... what would happen?"
A stroke of genius struck him.
Swish—
Two ancient bronze seals, exquisitely crafted and radiating an archaic aura, appeared on the table.
He still had two Creation Seals left.
Even if this failed, he had room for trial and error!
"Shall I try?"
His mind was still deliberating.
But his hand seemed to have a mind of its own—smack! The seal was stamped onto the painting before he knew it.
Hum—
Mystical inscriptions flowed into the canvas.
In an instant, a radiant glow enveloped the painting, swirling across its surface.
"It’s working!"
Li Mo stared unblinkingly, his heart in his throat.
Please don’t let anything go wrong...
Fortunately, his worries were unfounded.
The light gradually faded.
One painting had become two.
The original remained, but beside it now lay a new one.
Li Mo focused his gaze.
The figure in the new painting was still the ice block, still ethereally beautiful—but subtly different.
No longer a girl of sixteen, she appeared slightly older, her youthful innocence replaced by maturity.
Her attire had changed too, shifting from a snow-white gown to dark mist-like gauze.
Time had refined her figure into something even more alluring, her eyes deeper and more enigmatic, like a phantom drifting through the night.
Yet unchanged was that faint, upward curl of her lips.
Had Ying Bing seen this painting, she would have recognized it.
This was her appearance when she roamed the martial world—back then, she had already claimed the top spot on the Hidden Dragon Ranking within the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths' Storm Rankings, earning the title "Cold Yama."
"Is this... what the ice block will look like in the future?"
Li Mo was momentarily stunned.
It somehow felt like playing a dress-up and raising sim game...
Moreover.
This painting seemed to have been refined into a mid-tier form?
To test his theory, Li Mo steadied his mind.
Suddenly.
Everything before him rippled like water, losing its solidity.
The cold moon, the dim alley, the young woman turning back with her sword in her arms.
For a moment, Li Mo felt as though he stood before her, becoming her opponent.
It was similar to when he had once crossed blades with the lingering will within the Scarlet Sky Sword in the Divine Peak Cavern.
The difference was.
The ice block in the painting was countless times stronger.
Clang—
Frostblade unsheathed beneath the cold moonlight.
The sword gleam was breathtakingly beautiful, so dazzling it seemed to freeze everything around it.
Including thought itself.
A long time passed.
Or perhaps it was just an instant.
Li Mo's spirit withdrew from the artistic conception of the painting, his chest rising and falling slightly.
"Judging by the ice block's age, this must be her in the near future?"
Young Li was exhilarated.
He could keenly sense the sword's solitary intent, the moon's radiance overwhelming the senses...
It wasn't just because the ice block in the painting was powerful.
There was more!
After he studied it, the painting remained intact!
"The Ancient Bronze Creation Seal can refine a Divine Insight Painting up to the high-tier form at most."
"If I stamp it again, will this painting reach high-tier?"
Li Mo pondered for a moment.
He hadn't yet experienced the divine resonance.
Might as well test it with this ice block first.
Young Li began attempting his first-ever Divine Insight observation.
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
