Internal Devils - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: The Painter

The carts moved onwards. Qiao JiaXin was sitting up straight in her cart. After a while, the burning sunlight made her a bit uncomfortable, so she stretched, and glanced at the young man.

She thought he was funny, so their journey wouldn’t be so boring like before.

On the other side of the cart, the old priest was talking with the young man.

At first he didn’t care much about the young man, but after a short chat out of courtesy, he found it was really nice to talk with him.

Liu was a painter, a relatively successful one. In Wei City, He ran a small temple which worshiped the dragon lord of Wei River. It was not a popular temple for people to go to, but the income was just enough for him to live on. Sometimes people came to him for his paintings. When he was lucky, his painting would be sold for a price of a few pieces of silver, and that would make his life even better.

Silver pieces. When silver sycees were too much for the goods, they would be broken into pieces before being spent .

Years ago, he had a master. His so-called master had learned some methods of meditation from a disciple of the office of Mysterious Insight School in Liu City – here we are talking about the real Mysterious Insight School from the 72 schools – Thus his master called himself a disciple of Mysterious Insight School, too.

This kind of thing happened frequently in the secular world, there were innumerable organizations using the names of the real Taoist schools, but the cultivators were too busy to take care of it – they spent all of their time to achieve the ultimate Realm of Emotionlessness.

Therefore, nobody stopped him when the old priest Liu called himself the leader of Mysterious Insight School. People in that area all knew that his “school” was just a tiny temple, so nobody cared about his “respected identity”, but when being far away from the cities, he could sometimes manage to get some surprised reactions by showing his title.

People of HongFu Escort Team came from Wei City, so they knew who Priest Liu really was. Nobody had shown any respect to him on their way, some even teased him for fun.

However, now the young man had joined them, and had become the only one who really cared for Liu’s words.

The old priest Liu was satisfied with his attitude, and acted like a mysterious master before him.

“…Sounds like you, my little friend, also know something about painting.”

“I know only a little bit, unlike you. You are the real master of it.”

“Heh heh…This poor priest is not as talented as what you have said. I started learning from my master 36 years ago, and now I am already experienced in cultivation. The number of Sensation Realm painters in Wei City is less than the number of fingers on one hand, and I, the poor priest, is one of them.”

“Ah…that sounds awesome, but what is ‘Sensation Realm’?”

“Heh-heh…mortals paint, painters also paint, but where is the difference? Painters cultivate in the proper Taoist way. After collecting enough spiritual energy, when one reaches the point where he could, by his will, control the spirits, then he has become different from ordinary humans, and is said to be in the Sensation Realm”

Li YunXin knew all of this. His parents didn’t tell him too much, but they did have told him about the five cultivation Realms of Sensation, Illusion, Materialization, Immortal and Mystery. They taught him the methods to strengthen his body and soul, but didn’t tell him much about the cultivation world. Maybe they were afraid that once their son got enough power, he would no longer accept staying in that village, just like a man who learned to fight would become more inclined to solve his problems using violence than before.

No matter what progress they had made in their cultivation, they shouldn’t be willing to see their progress get buried.

They were not sure how much should they tell their son, but now they had no chance to tell him anything.

Like what Priest Liu had said, Sensation Realm meant that the cultivator could sense and control the spirits, which sounded great. However, Li YunXin knew that just being in Sensation Realm was useless for a painter.

A painter of Sensation Realm could put spirits into his paintings – those paintings which could affect people’s emotions or protect dwellings from evil spirits all contained spirits. Their effects may have been weak, but it was better than nothing. Perhaps a stronger sensation realm painter could have done better, but…judging by his appearance, Liu the old priest was definitely not a strong one.

A painter of Illusion Realm, like the name of the realm suggests, could create illusions, such as the illusion of Lord Nine, which was created by Li YunXin to scare Officer Xing.

When a painter has reached the Realm of Materialization, he could summon real things or creatures from his paintings. However, the summoned things would decay into nothingness over time.

Li YunXin asked the old priest a lot about the painters, because he noticed that the painters nowadays were different from how his parents had told him.

They were…weaker.

Much weaker.

Li YunXin didn’t think there were any reasons for his parents to lie to him, so he must find out what the real situation of the painters was now.

After listening to Liu’s long-winded explanation of the five realms, which was full of “I’ve heard that…”, “Maybe…”, and many mistakes, Li YunXin realized that what ChiSongZi said was true.

The painting sect was in decline.

Wei City was a big city, but including Liu, there were only 5 painters who had reached Sensation Realm in the city.

Liu the old priest said that Illusion Realm painters could only be seen in the capital city, and only high-class citizens would have a chance to meet them.

When he got to explaining the Materialization Realm, Liu said: “Nobody knows if there is a painter in the  Materialization Realm in the world. Maybe someday someone would manage to reach that realm…”

Something must have happened to the painting sect, or it wouldn’t be as weak as this. It looked like someone had erased the history of this sect from people’s minds.

Liu thought that Li YunXin was a person who respected the Dao. When seeing Li YunXin listen to him patiently, Liu liked him even more, and wanted to help this talented young man in his cultivation.

Therefore he started to ask him about his situation: “Are you from Wei City, my little friend? Is your home there?”

Li YunXin sighed, and said: “It’s hard to say…Misfortune happened to my family. I’m alone now.”

Qiao JiaXin was listening to him carefully on the other side. Hearing this, she felt sad, but relieved.

Liu the old priest was happy to hear this, but he didn’t show that on his face. “So…What’s your plan now? Why are you going to Wei City?”he asked.

Li YunXin shook his head, and answered: “I don’ know, but I’ll think about it on the way.”

“Well, the temple of my Mysterious Insight School is a really tranquil place for cultivation.” Liu the old priest said while touching his beard.

“Sure. The temple of such an advanced priest like you must be a good place.”

Qiao JiaXin was worried about him. She was afraid that the handsome young man would be convinced to join Liu’s “temple of Mysterious Insight School”.

Actually, her home had enough space…and her father said that they could always use more people in their escort team.

Liu the old priest was worried, too. The young man looked so clever when he talked, and he had an enthusiasm in Taoist cultivation – then why wasn’t he understanding his words?

Qiao JiaXin wanted to reveal Liu’s true identity, but he was being alert of her all the time. He didn’t want to be disturbed when talking with the young man.

Seeing Qiao JiaXin about to say something, Liu shouted out loud immediately: “You fool! Don’t you understand? It’s a chance for you to seek Dao!”

His shout startled Qiao JiaXin and Qiao SiFu[1] the driver. Liu was satisfied with his words – the sentence he came up with in a second sounded so professional!

Li YunXin was also stunned, but soon he showed surprise on his face: “Really? Can I?”

Then he raised his hands and bowed very low. “Master, please accept the respect of your disciple!”

Qiao JiaXin and Qiao SiFu were frozen, while the old priest felt very proud of himself. After acting for a while, he grabbed Li YunXin’s hands at once – he was afraid that his disciple would change his mind.

This young man admires me, respects me and his words sounded so pleasant. The point is, he is good-looking! If I take him out with me, I can earn 3 more silver pieces each time!

Translator's notes:
[1]Qiao SiFu乔四福: A driver of the escort team.
Si=Four
Fu=Happiness
Five forms of happiness=Longevity, wealth, health, kindness and a natural death.