Chapter 388.1: Do I... Look Like a Supreme Treasure?

The Strange Painter drew a helpless expression on her face. "The reason the Wine Master was certain you wouldn't dare kill him was that you'd need his introduction if you wanted to meet the Jade Maiden."

Qi Yuan stared at her with fascination. It’d be nice if Little Bride mastered this skill. That way, I can read her moods so much more easily!

The Strange Painter drew despair on her face. "The Great Calamity is inevitable. The Jade Maiden once said that there are three thousand worlds similar to Canglan. Some of them are ten or a hundred times more powerful than Canglan World and even a hundred times larger. And yet, not a single one has prevailed.

"The greatest hope Canglan ever had was that one Yang Spirit. Meanwhile, in one of those other worlds, three Yang Spirits gathered together and still could not defeat the Great Calamity."

She painted the expression of despair again. "So, whenever I hear someone talk about challenging the Great Calamity, I only feel sadness. Your fate will not be any better than that Yang Spirit's."

Qi Yuan couldn’t help but ask, "What does a painter know about the Great Calamity? Nobody understands the Great Calamity better than me. I've already devised a thorough and airtight plan called Qi Yuan Eliminates the Great Calamity. I will destroy it in less than half a year!"

At the Nascent Soul realm, he had lacked full certainty when it came to the Great Calamity. Now, having stepped into the Violet Palace realm, he was ninety percent confident.

His only concern was the cursed mark. If he destroyed the Great Calamity, the one in Taihuang Palace would kill every cultivator in Canglan with a single thought. Even his junior sister would perish. Qi Yuan could not protect them from that.

This time, the Strange Painter didn't paint. "You may not know this, but every cultivator in Canglan bears a mark planted within them. With a single thought from the one behind the Great Calamity, all living creatures will perish. That includes your junior sister, your family, and your friends. Sometimes, living in a daze and never looking up at the heavens has its own kind of peace."

"You know about the mark? Did the Jade Maiden tell you?"

Without reaching the Yang Spirit realm, it was impossible to detect the mark's existence. There was no way the Strange Painter had discovered it on her own. That meant the Jade Maiden had told her.

The Strange Painter said, "The Jade Maiden is mysterious. Apparently, she came from the upper world."

His interest was piqued. "Does she know a lot about the mark?"

Every day, he studied the marks on cultivators throughout the world, looking for a way to break them. So far, no orthodox solution had presented itself, only a few rather unconventional ones.

The Strange Painter trembled slightly. "It has something to do with a supreme treasure. The Jade Maiden once said that even upper world Yang Spirits covet supreme treasures. Apparently, if a Yang Spirit in the Lower Three Heavens obtains a supreme treasure, they could bring their entire sect and ascend directly into the Middle Three Heavens."

Though she tried her best to remain calm, her voice was filled with longing and desire. "If Canglan World possessed a supreme treasure, we might truly be able to break free of the Great Calamity."

In the many years she had spent drifting and giving up, this was the only solution she had ever found.

Qi Yuan frowned before staring seriously at her. "Do I look like a supreme treasure to you?"

The painter stared at him. Technically speaking, she had no face, yet she was remarkably easy to read.

"Your expression is really testing my composure. You're not about to paint yourself a watermelon head, film a video, and say something like 'Fellow Daoists, today I encountered the most baffling thing...' are you?"

"I don't fully follow what you mean, but powerful people having peculiar quirks is nothing unusual."

"If the mark is connected to a supreme treasure, does that mean if I had another supreme treasure, I could resolve the mark?"

The Strange Painter shook her head. "I don't know the details. Yang Spirits kill each other over supreme treasures all the time. A small fry like me wouldn't be privy to such secrets. But supreme treasures possess unimaginable power. Perhaps one truly could dispel the mark. Of course, that's far from a supreme treasure's greatest use..."

She had heard the Jade Maiden mention them, revealing that the fate of Canglan World and all three thousand worlds traced back to a single supreme treasure.

"Alright, now that I've got the game's setting down, it's time to do the story mission... Sorry, I've been playing too many games. It's getting to my head. This isn't a game and none of what you said is storyline. I came to ask you a favor. I want you to paint something for me."

The Strange Painter gave him a look. "I rarely paint for others. And I have some requirements: I only paint what is genuinely difficult to paint."

Qi Yuan smiled with delight. "Perfect. What I want painted is quite difficult. Don't worry, I won't shortchange you."

He even added with great sincerity, "If you do it well, I'll leave you a whole... Hmm... One square meter of land in the painting!"

The Strange Painter ignored the second half of his sentence entirely. "What do you need me to paint?"

"An underworld palace!"

She seemed taken aback. "The underworld? That's nothing but legend. There's nothing to paint."

Even in Canglan, tales of the underworld and rumors of reincarnation exist. Most cultivators simply didn't take any of it seriously. After all, when a cultivator killed someone, they destroyed even the soul. Why would there even be a need for an underworld? And what would there be to reincarnate?

"Well, my underworld is different from what you're imagining. I'll also provide you with a brush to paint. Use it for my commission."

"I usually only paint with my own brushes. Any brush in the world, including yours, is going to be too common—"

She froze. Then, something like twin laser beams flashed from beneath her eyes, piercing clean through the blank canvas covering her face.

She stared, transfixed, at the Brush of Mountains and Rivers in Qi Yuan's hand as her breathing grew ragged. "T-that brush! How can something like this exist in the world?! What is it? A weapon? No... A treasure? That's not right either!"

The moment the brush appeared, her entire focus was drawn toward it. There was nothing else in her eyes.

Qi Yuan asked, "My brush is too what, exactly?"

The Strange Painter blinked, her face warming slightly, very much wishing she could take back her words. She searched for a while before landing on something that could be construed as a compliment. "T-too commendably rare?"