Chapter 788: Black Screen Black Screen

The Wang Zuo-level "Zhuan Hua" effect completely exceeded expectations.

Xu Xiaoshou was overjoyed.

But when he glanced at his information bar,

"Passive values: 599,462."

The appearance of this skill had directly consumed about one-third of his passive values...

"Damn it."

"Zhuan Hua is powerful, no doubt, but it's way too expensive!"

Xu Xiaoshou calmed down and, ignoring Xu Xiaojian, who was limping over, turned and headed back to his experimental base.

He had to properly set up the space barrier, or else spectacles like digging his own grave would be on full display for others.

"Should I draw again?"

Honestly, Xu Xiaoshou was a bit hesitant now.

He still wanted to awaken.

But with awakening stones costing 30,000 passive values each, a ten-draw awakening would set him back 300,000... what a rip-off!

And generally, the effects of awakening were greater than extending passive skills.

So Xu Xiaoshou decided to save the main event for awakening.

"That's right, and I have those six free keys..."

Xu Xiaoshou's eyes suddenly lit up, and he exchanged for four more keys, putting together a ten-draw set.

Even though the free keys gave off a vibe of being hard to get anything good from, using them mixed in should catch the system off guard, confusing its senses.

"Don't give me anything good, or if you do, that's fine, don't give me anything, or if you do, that's fine..." Xu Xiaoshou muttered like he was possessed, quickly inserting the ten keys into the turntable's keyhole.

"Another one!"

"Another one!"

Xu Xiaoshou paused.

He angrily punched the ground, causing it to explode as if a massive meteorite crater had formed, startling even himself.

"Damn it, I clearly have the Wang Zuo body now, and after drawing the divine skill 'Zhuan Hua', I've used up all my luck."

"I can't draw anymore!"

Xu Xiaoshou suppressed the second wave of impulse rising in him. He felt that if he kept going, he'd just end up regretting it.

His passive values were burning through too fast.

If he got tempted again and drew more, even if he got something good, being left with just ten or twenty thousand would be as good as nothing.

"Still got two left..."

Staring at the last two free keys, Xu Xiaoshou wanted to cry but had no tears.

Free ones were always the worst!

Only the paid ones were the best!

Overall, this time he gained something, but also didn't really gain much.

But he still had those two...

"Oh god, save this poor soul, I'm so miserable!"

He inserted another one.

Xu Xiaoshou's face instantly turned as dark as ink, his expression gloomy as water.

If the dog system had a physical form, he'd tear it apart!

For the last one...

"Can I get a big hit, please?"

Xu Xiaoshou covered his eyes with his hands, manually blacking out his vision, then used his spiritual sense to stab the key fiercely into the turntable's hateful hole.

"Buzz!"

A strange sound echoed in his mind.

It came so abruptly that Xu Xiaoshou reacted immediately.

This kind of noise never happened normally...

He opened his eyes in shock, but everything was still pitch black.

When he uncovered his hands, it was still black!

In that instant,

Excitement!

Madness!

Xu Xiaoshou clutched his head, his lips curling up so wide they could almost kiss his ears.

"It's blacked out! Black screen! Holy crap!!!"

His heart screamed.

Soon, the world before him shifted, and the familiar illusion appeared.

It was a blank world, like a canvas untouched by ink, where even concepts like earth, sky, or chaos seemed yet to be born.

"What kind of passive skill will this be?"

Xu Xiaoshou held back his excitement, knowing the illusion world had its own rules.

He didn't need to move; the illusion would move on its own.

Sure enough, as soon as the thought crossed his mind, spiritual energy gathered in the nine heavens, forming a brush.

The brush touched the world's base, and vast expanses of earth appeared; it stroked the world's peak, and white clouds and blue skies emerged.

Xu Xiaoshou watched in awe.

From nothing to something?

What type of passive skill would this be—mastery type, state type?

Or something entirely new?

Though the world now had initial colors with earth and sky, it remained lifeless.

Just as Xu Xiaoshou thought it needed some vitality, the brush in the nine heavens spun, spraying spiritual ink that scattered across the land. Nine times nine...

In an instant,

Mountains, basins, and grasslands emerged.

Rivers, lakes, and oceans flowed.

The world was first tinged with green, and life began to stir.

Xu Xiaoshou felt as if he were seeing the evolution of his Yuan Fu space, mirroring the scene before him.

Though the methods differed, both were slowly growing.

Having experienced the dao principles of "Cooking Mastery" and "Textile Mastery," Xu Xiaoshou realized this was the passive skill illusion presenting a new perspective to him.

Using a single brush to outline an entire world.

But it wasn't over yet!

After the terrain and waters formed, the world stayed silent, without even the concept of sound.

Then, Xu Xiaoshou watched as the brush in the nine heavens trembled.

"Booming—"

Gales howled, oceans roared.

Summer rains pattered, winter snows whistled.

Sound had arrived!

And the brush's speed grew faster.

With one stroke,

Enormous ancient beasts with lion heads and dragon bodies appeared on the land, roaring through the skies, dominating the four directions and devouring the eight wastelands.

Another shake of the void tore open a blue-feathered, flame-tailed bird resembling a phoenix, its cry shattering the miles.

Winds rose over the sea.

Amid surging waves, a massive shadow stretching thousands of miles emerged from below, breaking the surface.

"That's a fish!"

Then, its scales turned to feathers, its fins to wings, and a colossal golden bird soared into the nine heavens, swallowing the blue bird like a toothpick in one shocking gulp.

It was too huge...

Only then did Xu Xiaoshou realize.

"Kun! Peng!"

He felt apologetic for calling it just a "fish"—that completely undermined the majesty of the Kun Peng.

The brush in the nine heavens kept stroking.

Endless ancient creatures appeared one after another.

Xu Xiaoshou felt like he was witnessing the evolution of a primordial world, until the spiritual brush lightly dotted, and humans emerged.

The law of the jungle vanished.

Or rather, it evolved to a new extreme.

Humans began to multiply, from frail and helpless beginnings, to the invention of tools, to the development of cultivation systems, to the discovery of dao principles.

They became god-like in power, waging war against the primordial beasts.

Ancient giants were devoured, continental layouts changed...

Plates shifted, sea levels rose...

Species went extinct, new civilizations rose and fell, only to be overthrown...

Xu Xiaoshou watched with his scalp tingling.

Finally, he noticed that at the world's edges, there was still that initial blank canvas's single white mark, and he realized he was an outsider to the painting.

At the same time,

"Whoosh!"

The primordial world history transformed into a stream of light, injecting into the head of this eternal observer.

Xu Xiaoshou opened his eyes again, back in the Yuan Fu world.

"That was incredible..."

He took a while to recover from the grand ancient world, etching the illusion's scenes into his memory before finally checking the information bar.

"Obtained mastery passive skill: Painting Mastery!"

"Yes!" Xu Xiaoshou excitedly punched the air.

Anticipation and reality were worlds apart.

A mastery-type passive skill...

In all his life, he'd only gotten three of these.

And each one had changed his way of fighting, opening new doors for him.

This "Painting Mastery" might just elevate him to the heights of the divine brush wielder.

"But where's the brush?"

Xu Xiaoshou searched around for a long time but couldn't find that nine heavens brush.

His face darkened.

Without a brush or ink, how was he supposed to paint anything?

But then he thought, if he had to use a physical brush to evolve a world, that would be way too crude.

So Xu Xiaoshou pondered briefly and used spiritual energy as a brush to draw a misshapen creature on the ground.

"What the hell!"

He was repulsed by his own drawing skills.

Yet, vaguely, he felt the "misshapen creature" on the ground had a lifelike quality.

"An illusion?"

Xu Xiaoshou doubted himself.

The feeling was so odd—his drawing was unrecognizable, even to him, but it seemed vividly real, like a living thing.

Suddenly remembering that "Painting Mastery" hadn't been upgraded yet, Xu Xiaoshou realized.

This mastery-type passive definitely needed to be maxed out.

No doubt about it.

He poured in 10,000, then 50,000, then 100,000 passive values.

After spending several hours absorbing the massive influx of experience, Xu Xiaoshou came to.

"Painting Mastery (Acquired lv1)."

"Painting Mastery (Wang Zuo lv1)."

The boost from his cultivation cap was this evident.

With his reserves, Xu Xiaoshou directly maxed out "Painting Mastery."

Now, using spiritual energy as a brush...

"Hold on!"

Xu Xiaoshou suddenly hesitated, gaining insight.

The brush in the illusion was formless and intangible, perceivable only through intent.

That was far superior to his brush.

Spiritual energy might be formless, but it existed and had limits.

If someone interfered, a brush made of spiritual energy would be hard to manifest.

Xu Xiaoshou thought for a moment and considered using spiritual sense as a brush.

But spiritual sense also had restrictions...

"Intent!"

His eyes lit up. If he used pure intent as a brush, that meant thinking it into existence!

That was terrifying.

It transcended "painting" entirely.

This was the realm of gods!

But...

For every previous mastery-type passive skill, Xu Xiaoshou hadn't strictly followed the rules. Why not now?

"Let's try."

With "Painting Mastery" at Wang Zuo level and drawing from vast heavenly insights, Xu Xiaoshou manipulated dao principles with his intent, forming an invisible brush.

An intent brush!

He controlled this brush, unseen by others and even himself, feeling like a daydreamer.

"I believe, so it exists."

With a mix of amusement and experimentation, Xu Xiaoshou looked at the ground.

He thought, what if he were in the air? How could he paint based on the ground?

There needed to be a canvas.

But the void—wasn't it pure and blank like paper?

So Xu Xiaoshou skipped the "physical painting" step, which might be required for innate or master levels of "Painting Mastery," and gazed at the sky.

To outsiders, he was just standing there, casually glancing at the empty void.

But in his intent, he used the intent brush with the sky as paper, swiftly painting what was in his mind.

The sky changed!

Void spiritual energy gathered, lines appeared, quickly outlining a creature's form.

Then...

A chicken appeared!

"Cluck cluck cluck..."

It could even cluck!

The chicken squawked in alarm because as soon as it appeared, it plummeted to the ground and died on impact!

It shattered into a pile of spiritual energy.

Xu Xiaoshou watched this, his eyebrows twitching wildly, deep in thought.

This test drawing had used up a bit of his mental energy, but his spiritual energy and vital blood quickly filled the gap, restoring him to peak.

"This is insane."

Xu Xiaoshou finally voiced his shock, murmuring with a stunned face,

"This isn't just painting—to outsiders, it's straight-up 'manifestation' ability!"

"The key is, drawing that chicken didn't use much mental energy at all—I could recover it in an instant."

Xu Xiaoshou thought of the Kun Peng from the illusion, his eyes widening and lips curling up.

Then,

He tilted his head.

Gazing elsewhere,

"Sizzle sizzle sizzle"

Spiritual energy gathered rapidly in the void, mental energy drained quickly, and even spiritual energy started to deplete.

Beads of sweat formed, and Xu Xiaoshou realized that just drawing the head of a great Peng bird had nearly drained his strength.

And without finishing it, the thing wouldn't manifest.

"Of course, you can't have half a bird—only a whole one..."

He fell into thought.

Then, he parted the space barrier and called out to the other side, "Xu Xiaojian!"

Xu Xiaojian, who was still counting, tensed up immediately, then stiffly turned around.

He saw the confident figure of Xu Damo Wang striding toward him.

And then...

"Cluck cluck cluck!"

From beside Xu Damo Wang, a chicken rushed out—?

Xu Xiaojian was baffled.

He stared blankly at the black-and-white chicken, feeling it didn't belong in this world at all...

"Wait, 'feeling'? This is totally out of place!"

"What world did this chicken come from? A new ghost beast?"

"Xu Damo Wang, what are you up to now?"

Xu Xiaojian's mind was in chaos. The other stuff didn't matter, but this chicken was just ugly!

The black-and-white ugly hen had already charged to his feet, its feathers fluffed up, head held high.

"Peck him!" Xu Xiaoshou commanded excitedly.

Xu Xiaojian???

He stood there dumbfounded, not even bothering to retreat, watching as the sharp beak pecked down.

"Cluck!"

His toe hurt.

But it was just a sting. Xu Xiaojian stared dumbly at the ugly hen with its bent beak, then twitched his mouth and glanced up at Xu Damo Wang.

He raised an eyebrow, slowly forming three question marks, a black line sliding down his face.

Xu Xiaoshou...

So weak!

He casually added a few strokes to the chicken and poured in most of his energy, not stopping until he felt a bit weak and pale.

The beak hardened again.

"Cluck cluck cluck! (I'm back in action!)"

The black-and-white chicken's feathers fluffed up again, and it reared its head once more.

"Peck him." Xu Xiaoshou issued the second command, his voice weak yet excited.

"Cluck!"

This time, the beak struck with an afterimage.

Xu Xiaojian nearly wet himself in fright. He reacted quickly and pulled his foot back.

"Boom!"

The void was pecked open with a small black hole.

This pinpoint burst power reminded Xu Xiaoshou of Gu Qing San's "Dian Dao."

"Holy crap, that's terrifying?"

He never expected concentrating his power into this chicken could produce such an absurdly funny yet frightening effect.

Xu Xiaoshou felt his combat style was veering off track again.

It was clearly powerful!

But so ridiculously unserious?

He could already picture the future: him as the Chicken King, leading a flock of colorful chickens into battle, clucking chaotically.

Wait!

Why chickens?

Xu Xiaoshou even felt like strangling himself—this was too comical.

He was a dual Wang Zuo expert, a figure with real presence. How could he fight with a bunch of chickens?

A Kun Peng would be more fitting...

But!

"Hehehe..."

Xu Xiaoshou thought of enemies being defeated by a Kun Peng, then compared it to being beaten by chickens—the humiliation factor was way higher with chickens.

He started chuckling wickedly, "But this is gonna be so much fun!"