Chapter 132 – Grandmaster-Level Painting: Trait—Dragon-Finishing Touch

Yes, the skill Mu Lin advanced in was Painting.

Before his seclusion, his Painting was already nearing perfection.

Although during his seclusion, Mu Lin devoted all his heart and soul to Mana cultivation, which delayed him for a time, because he was already on the brink of the limit, with just a little effort, he advanced.

As for why writing the Talisman Array – Adamantine Force ultimately led to the advancement of Painting, it was naturally because talisman arrays are a form of painting.

“Hum…”

Like his other skills, the moment he advanced, Mu Lin fell into enlightenment.

Unlike with other skills, this time, Mu Lin’s enlightenment lasted exceptionally long.

The first stage of enlightenment was browsing.

As enlightenment began, the numerous paintings he had learned about in his previous life from television, movies, books, paintings, and art exhibitions continuously surfaced in his mind.

Moreover, the paintings Mu Lin retrieved from the depths of his Sea of Consciousness were not limited to Eastern ink wash paintings; there were also Western oil paintings. At the same time, the painting knowledge in his mind included Impressionism, Fauvism, Surrealism, Abstractism…

Countless classic paintings flowed like sand, flashing through Mu Lin’s mind one after another.

In a normal state, Mu Lin’s mind would have been in complete chaos at this point.

But now, he only felt inspiration bursting forth.

After browsing came mastery—the countless paintings, knowledge, and schools were swiftly summarized by Mu Lin for their strengths. Then, these strengths and beauties merged, allowing Mu Lin to form his own school.

In his previous life, after establishing his own school, Mu Lin would have become a Grandmaster of Painting, and his enlightenment would have ended there.

But this was not his previous life. In this world, intangible things like the mind and Divine Soul possessed power.

And when painting reached its peak, what it pursued was the expression of spirit and the resonance of the soul.

The combination of these two overlapping aspects meant Mu Lin’s enlightenment entered the third stage.

“Boom!”

This enlightenment brought Mu Lin not only insights into painting but also an infusion of spirit and a resonance of will.

The vast enlightenment converged in his heart, gradually making Mu Lin understand something.

Subconsciously, Mu Lin pulled out a sheet of paper and began drawing on it with his Talisman Brush.

It was a depiction of a Jiao Dragon churning rivers and seas. With just a few strokes, Mu Lin captured the ferocity, dominance, and tyranny of the Jiao Dragon.

The lifelike Jiao Dragon made even ordinary people feel a ferocious pressure just by looking at it.

But at this moment, although the Jiao Dragon in the painting was fierce and majestic, it remained lifeless, so Mu Lin was not satisfied.

“Something is still missing…”

After pondering for a while, Mu Lin realized something else. In a moment of inspiration, he cut his wrist, dipped the Talisman Brush in his blood, and then pointed the brush toward the eyes of the Jiao Dragon.

“Roar…”

As the blood touched the Jiao Dragon’s eyes, instantly, a resounding Dragon Roar erupted from Mu Lin’s brush.

The sound of the Jiao Dragon carried an overbearing and majestic air that looked down upon the world. This sound also startled Dongfang Ya, who had come to Mu Lin’s door intending to deliver something to him.

“The presence is impressive, but it’s a bit odd for such a small body to emit such a majestic sound.”

Such a Dragon Roar naturally could not intimidate Dongfang Ya, even though Mu Lin had consumed adult Jiao Dragon Essence Blood and, during the evolution of his Cultivation Method, had encountered that Evil Jiao, enabling him to mimic its might and presence.

However, Dongfang Ya thought the sound had come from Mu Lin.

Considering Mu Lin’s shrunken stature and hearing such an imposing, domineering voice, she couldn’t help but feel a bit amused.

Yet, Dongfang Ya’s urge to laugh vanished completely the moment she pushed open the gate to Mu Lin’s courtyard.

She saw that the source of that impassioned roar was not Mu Lin, but a sheet of paper in front of him.

She also saw Mu Lin standing before the paper, holding a Talisman Brush.

‘That’s a True Intent Diagram… Mu Lin has become a True Intent Diagram Master!’

The scene before her left Dongfang Ya somewhat stunned.

Advancing to Gushing Spring, forcefully breaking through the fifth floor of the Tower of Illusory Heavens, touching upon a domain only accessible to Spell Masters while still at Gushing Spring, mastering Arrays in a single day and reaching the 3rd realm of Expert… All the things Mu Lin had accomplished these past days had already shown Dongfang Ya his exceptional talent.

But she never imagined that even those feats did not represent the full extent of his abilities.

“A monster…”

…

Mu Lin was unaware of Dongfang Ya’s astonishment.

At this moment, all his attention was focused on the True Intent Diagram.

After the impassioned Dragon Roar sounded, the Jiao Dragon in the painting felt entirely different; it was no longer a lifeless object but seemed to have truly come alive.

This wasn’t merely a figure of speech—the Jiao Dragon on the paper was actually swimming within the drawing.

The Dragon-Finishing Touch—this was what Mu Lin had just accomplished, and it was also the trait he gained after his Painting advanced to the Grandmaster level.

[Painting, 5th realm Grandmaster (1/810000), Traits: Grandmaster’s Work, Vivid and Lifelike, Spiritual Resonance, Dragon-Finishing Touch]

[Dragon-Finishing Touch: You have an eye for discovering beauty. Through observation, you can discern the essence and wondrous aspects of a thing. By applying the ‘finishing touch,’ you can infuse an Artwork with immense spiritual power, activating or temporarily bestowing it with sentience.]

The Dragon-Finishing Touch is the most significant distinction between an ordinary painter and a True Intent painter.

Of course, only a ‘dragon’ can receive the finishing touch.

This ‘dragon’ does not mean Mu Lin can only paint dragons; rather, it symbolizes perfection. That is, only when an Artwork reaches the level of a Grandmaster’s Work, brimming with rich spirituality, can Mu Lin, through observation, find the threads of its sentience, activate its unique qualities, and temporarily ‘bring the picture to life.’

Simultaneously, each application of the finishing touch consumes a tremendous amount of Mu Lin’s mental energy and spiritual power.

As with this instance, Mu Lin’s vast spiritual power was largely depleted.

Under normal circumstances, Mu Lin would undoubtedly need to rest now.

However, he was not in a normal state. Being in a state of sudden enlightenment, his mental energy and spirituality quickly recovered.

Once clear-headed again, Mu Lin could resume his work. But this time, he did not seize the opportunity to draw more True Intent Diagrams. Instead—he began researching the combination of the Talisman Array – Adamantine Force and the Dragon-Finishing Touch.

“Adamantine Force is a talisman, an array, and also a drawing. Since it is a drawing, can I depict Adamantine Force using the methods of Painting?”

After some experimentation, Mu Lin found that this was indeed possible.

What pleased Mu Lin even more was something he had previously deduced: the Talisman Array – Adamantine Force is related to the Painting skill, yet the two are not identical. Consequently, the Painting skill can influence the Talisman Array – Adamantine Force, but not completely.

Specifically, a 4th realm Master Grade in Painting allowed Mu Lin to rapidly elevate the Talisman Array – Adamantine Force to the 3rd realm of Expert.

And now, Painting has reached the 5th realm of Grandmaster…

After a few brief attempts, Mu Lin was pleasantly surprised to discover that he could now stack the Talisman Array – Adamantine Force up to nine layers, which was precisely the Master Realm.

“Hahaha, I’ve succeeded!”

With his Painting skill elevated to Grandmaster level and the Talisman Array – Adamantine Force advancing to Master due to his ability to draw inferences from other cases, Mu Lin had already gained immensely from this breakthrough.

However, at this point, Mu Lin’s moment of enlightenment had not yet ended.

Taking advantage of the lingering afterglow of his enlightenment, Mu Lin once again delved into deriving the principles of the Talisman Array – Adamantine Force.

This time, he was not aiming to derive the method for stacking it to twenty-seven layers.

Instead, the continuously bursting inspiration led him to fuse together the phantom image of the Jiao Dragon he had once visualized, his Calligraphy techniques, and the Dragon-Finishing Touch…

“A talisman is a character, and a character is essentially also a painting…”

Some Calligraphy masters were said to have characters that “drift like floating clouds and dart like startled dragons,” or were praised as “resembling the fierce battle of dragons and snakes, the gentle embrace of mist and clouds, swirling like thunder, executed as if by divine hands.”

In the hands of those masters and grandmasters, every stroke carried an inexplicable beauty.

And now, with his Grandmaster-level Painting as the foundation and the phantom image of the Jiao Dragon he sensed during his breakthrough as the essence, Mu Lin began to inscribe the Talisman Array – Adamantine Force.

He truly treated the characters of the talisman array as if he were painting.

“Swish, swish, swish…”

Under his Talisman Brush, the Talisman Array – Adamantine Force seemed to be formed by a coiled Jiao Dragon.

“Swish…”

As the final stroke was completed, Mu Lin once again slit his wrist, allowing his blood to drip onto the core of the Talisman Array – Adamantine Force, adding the finishing touch to its eyes.

“Boom!”

The dripping blood combined with the perfect Jiao Dragon caused Mu Lin’s Talisman Array – Adamantine Force… to come to life.

This was no mere metaphor. Upon closer inspection, Mu Lin noticed that the Talisman Array – Adamantine Force on the paper sometimes appeared as characters and sometimes as a Jiao Dragon illustration.

If he focused his mind to perceive it, Mu Lin could even resonate with it, as if a Jiao Dragon were roaring within his Divine Soul, stirring up the seas and rivers.

“It’s complete…”

As soon as these words were spoken, Mu Lin collapsed onto the table.

His moment of enlightenment had vanished, and the two illustrations he had just created had not only consumed an immense amount of his mental energy but also several drops of his vital blood.

Having expended so much of his essence at once, Mu Lin felt somewhat drained.

However, at this moment, Mu Lin paid no attention to this. He was more eager to know the grade and power level of the Talisman Array – Adamantine Force he had created in his final stroke of inspiration.

“It shouldn’t be low, after all, I infused it with the Jiao Dragon’s might and presence, its essence and spirit…”

“Brother Mu Lin!”

Before Mu Lin could examine the state of the Talisman Array – Adamantine Force, a worried cry sounded from behind him.

Turning his head, Mu Lin saw that Dongfang Ya, Yan Yunyu, Chu Lingluo, and Ji Xue had all arrived in his courtyard.

‘Were they drawn here by the roar of the Jiao Dragon?’

Just as Mu Lin was speculating, seeing him weakened and collapsed, a distressed Chu Lingluo rushed over. At the same time, she continuously cast Mystical Arts imbued with life force onto Mu Lin.

“Hum…”

The rich life force replenished some of Mu Lin’s expended energy.

Just as he caught his breath, Yan Yunyu and Dongfang Ya also approached. While expressing their concern for Mu Lin, they glanced at the talisman array he had inscribed.

That single glance made it impossible for them to look away.

“Nine layers stacked, this is a Master Grade Adamantine Force talisman… no, it’s not that simple…”

“At first glance it’s a talisman, but upon closer inspection it’s a Jiao Dragon coiled up, and this Jiao Dragon has been imbued with spirit… Mu Lin, did you really draw this?”

PS: One more chapter coming, please subscribe…

(End of Chapter)