Chapter 269.2

At this moment, Lin Beifan stepped forward with a smile: “Congratulations, Master Painter, on accepting a good disciple! Have you considered going to Great Xia?”

Master Painter shook his head: “Why go to Great Xia? I’m living well here, I’m not going anywhere!”

“How will you teach your disciple if you don’t go? You should know that the disciple you’ve just taken, Li Shihua, is a court painter from our Great Xia! Her family is all in Great Xia!”

“Is that so?” Master Painter turned and asked.

“Yes, Master!”

Li Shihua replied honestly. “Just a few days ago, His Majesty was very satisfied with the painting I made, so he appointed me as a court painter!”

Master Painter’s gaze became strange.

This was too coincidental.

It felt like it was all set up on purpose.

Could it be that he had already recognized Li Shihua’s talent and deliberately intercepted her?

Impossible, absolutely impossible!

“I can teach here just the same!” Master Painter said.

“Of course, you can! But, Master Painter, you have to think about your young disciple!”

Lin Beifan spoke earnestly: “Your disciple is still young, but you are not getting any younger, and you don’t have many years left! As people age, their strength decline. What if your enemies come after you? It doesn’t matter if you die, but what if my court painter gets implicated? What then?”

Master Painter’s face darkened on the spot!

This cheeky fellow’s words are too infuriating!

What did he mean by not having many years left, enemies coming after him, and it not mattering if he died…

Can’t he utter a single auspicious word?

Was he wishing for my death or what?

But on second thought, he realized there was some truth to what was said.

Who in the rivers and lakes didn’t have a few enemies?

Although most of them had been outlasted by him, there were still some alive.

And their descendants were alive too.

What if they couldn’t deal with him and went after his young disciple instead?

His disciple had no real power to resist before entering the path!

Lin Beifan continued to persuade: “You know how difficult it is to attain enlightenment through painting. It requires a very stable environment for growth. You’re not capable of providing that. Only we, Great Xia, can protect her! I’m not being arrogant, but no one can harm a single hair on her head in Great Xia unless a Great Grandmaster were to intervene!”

This point, Master Painter did believe.

Such a combination of three Grandmasters was enough to handle most situations.

However, Master Painter was still reluctant, feeling as if he had been completely outmaneuvered.

Seeing the other party succeed made him uncomfortable.

So, he vaguely replied: “Let’s talk about this in a few days!”

……

After taking on a talented apprentice, Master Painter held a grand ceremony to welcome the new disciple.

He also prepared a lavish banquet to entertain the guests from the rivers and lakes who had come.

Everyone drank late into the night before heading home.

At this time, the butler was leading the servants to clean up the tables and chairs on the beach.

“Master, these are the paintings from representatives of various regions. Should we destroy them?”

Master Painter waved his hand dismissively: “No need to destroy them! Those who came to compete are contemporary painters, and their works have artistic value. Let’s keep them as treasures!”

“Yes, Master! But what about this painting?”

The butler pulled out one of the paintings, which had crooked and twisted lines, circling around like a pile of sh*t.

Without saying much, it was clear that this was Lin Beifan’s ‘masterpiece’.

Master Painter felt the same discomfort and disdain upon seeing the painting again.

He had painted his whole life and had never seen such an ugly painting.

Even a child’s doodle was better than this.

“Keep this one too! After all, it’s part of the Great Xia Emperor’s embarrassing history. It must be cherished and preserved to be remembered for generations so that everyone can laugh at it together, haha!”

Master Painter said to himself, amused: “Leave these paintings here for now, we’ll tidy up tomorrow!”

“Yes, Master!”

The butler set aside everyone’s paintings and closed the door as he left.

Master Painter picked up the paintings again, slowly admiring them.

Unintentionally, his gaze fell on Lin Beifan’s painting.

In a trance, the lines on the painting seemed to come to life, transforming into a sea snake and a turtle, entwined and attacking each other…

“Wait, what is this? Am I seeing things?” Master Painter shook his head.

He thought he had drunk too much, which was why he was seeing such a bizarre scene.

However, when he took a serious look again, the scene of the snake and turtle fighting came to life once more.

The snake was ferocious, trying to devour the giant turtle, but the turtle remained immovable!

“Impossible! This can’t be real!” Master Painter exclaimed in shock.

Because the scene depicted in the painting was exactly the answer to the third test he had set, down to the last detail.

Having been tricked by Lin Beifan into losing many valuable items in the past few days, his mood was quite gloomy.

After drinking Lin Beifan’s wine, he went to the seaside and witnessed the scene of a turtle and a snake fighting. Finding it very interesting, he recorded it and turned it into a test question.

“Could it be… that Great Xia Emperor discerned my martial intent? But that’s impossible, I set this question in the third test, and he painted it in the second. How can this timing be explained?”

Master Painter’s gaze was filled with doubt and astonishment.

He felt that he might have been seeing things because he had drunk too much.

So, he exercised his internal energy to dissipate the alcohol in his body and looked at the painting again with a clear mind.

After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Master Painter lay on the armchair as if drained of all energy, muttering bitterly, “He really did see through it…”

“How did he do that?”

***

TLN: A generous tip of 50$ from BarlosTheBobo is coming in!

276/444 –> 276/479

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