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.
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
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.
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)
spital. Good news: I've bound a system. Bad news: I'm still a baby. "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, do not bully the middle-aged for being poor — Divorce Comeback System." "Your marriage may have failed, but your luck in love has never run dry. Your childhood sweetheart, out of contact for twenty years, reappears. Her beauty remains, yet her eyes are brimming with tears." [Listen to the childhood sweetheart's sorrowful story.] Chen Zhi looked down at the diaper he was wearing, then at the little childhood sweetheart crying her heart out beside him, and fell into deep thought. Can anyone relate? I'm having a midlife crisis at an age where even rolling over is a struggle.
